“Time played” has nothing to do with my suggestion.
You said that a player who has a good score in minimal sorties is "gaming" the ranks. Even though it does take skill in these sorties to get those #s. You implied that there should be a limit so that players who played more should score higher. In that case, I'm not really sure what you are suggesting.
Is this the reason why half (*) of the people are sitting in tower instead of flying? So basically score makes people fly less. And score also prevents people from contributing to the war to a certain extend (waaah I'm bingo, can't stay for the next five minutes until the capture and land here. Or up where there is a risk in general, even if the risk is that there' just not enough or the wrong kind of enemies).
(*) slightly exaggerated, but not much.
Well, its just one reason. I don't really like rolling for one bad guy any way, when it only showed a tiny dar. Although now that dots show up, I may roll more now that I can see where they are. I don't like spending 10 minutes for one red guy. It's actually more about the radar and field distance that keeps me from rolling more than the time per sortie, but I was just throwing it out there.
I actually think it does help the war effort. By achieving the metrics on the score, you have to be involved in the game. In fighter mode, keeping a capped base or keeping cons from killing your M3s/c47s or keeping from getting your teamates bombers ect ect, actually do help. Flying defense also helps your kills per time. If your base is getting vulched, roll from a back field, this will help you get alt and get some advantage over the vulchers. Then you can kill them and that helps your score.
... as far as many are concerned I think.
It cant possible be representative as it is easily gamed to adjust the numbers/ranking.
As for it being a "game unto itself" for those in the top 20-40 Id say it is. Out side of that most dont know how it works and while they may be trying to play that game they are not a factor.
Id love to see some tweaks to the score to promote fighting, or atleast getting INTO the action other than avoiding it. The bolded text would be huge! The system is already there for the data (ENY). KillPoints and bonus multipliers could be adjusted for a high ENY plane/pilot defeating a low ENY plane/pilot combo. It would help encourage players to get out of the "easy mode" planes and into the more challenging rides. Fewer LAs and spits!
The misconception is that avoiding planes and fights doesnt benefit your score. This is what Kills / time is for. If you are a very timid flyer, this hurts your K/T and thus hurts your rank. Being more aggressive at the right times is what gives you a good fighter rank.
While there is no score broken down by plane, you can check the stats by plane at the end of the tours to see top K/D per plane.
I do actually think a ratio should be added that measures the average ENY of the planes you fly, then put into rank. So if you fly a 109G2 you get a higher rank ratio than someone who flies only La7s. Don't know how that would be coded though.
Can we find out who the top five players are in total air-to-air kills for a tour?
No but you you can search stats by planes. Start with Judge. He had over 1061 kills in a 109G14 last tour. 1400 total I think. Rud3boi gets a lot of kills.
All in all, what people need to realize about this score model is that it's not about scoring high in just one metric. It's about scoring high in all of the metrics. These means that flying timidly is not good for score. I literally die 50% of the time by getting down and dirty. But I also try to get at least 3-5 kills every sortie. If you die once in a while, it will actually help your K/T.
I think the scoring model is great to measure your success and ability in performing better by working on your metrics in the scoring system.
If it were so easy to "game" the score. More people would do it. But I don't see that very often and those players typically lose that rank because of kills points. Getting a higher top 5 rank in AH actually does take some skill and is deserved for players who can achieve it.