8 replies to this topic

[m]

Should there be a Weighted Kill/Death Ratio?

Yes or No

Please Vote.

Edited by m, 30 April 2014 - 11:00 PM.

[SgtKinCaiD]

Not useful : you don't get more kills the heavier the mech.

[Magna Canus]

SgtKinCaiD, on 29 April 2014 - 03:11 AM, said:

Not useful : you don't get more kills the heavier the mech.

I think what he was getting at with "weighted" was that the one with the most damage done towards killing the mech gets the "kill". In other words he is making a suggestion vs. "kill stealing".

I personally have no issue with "kill stealing" since I prefer my enemy dead than him firing at me for any longer than necessary, plus I get enough kills to soothe my ego.

What a weighted kill system may help eliminate is the "vulture tactic" of specific individuals looking to "cultivate" their KDR. I have nothing against KDR either, I use it to help me decide if I am doing better or worse over a certain time frame, BUT some take it over seriously and actively try to "game" this stat by hiding on the sidelines of battle waiting for the right moment to shot and kill a mech. That kind of play usually puts your team at a disadvantage as you are usually not actively damaging the enemy while waiting for the right moment to strike and thus "wasting your team-play potential".

People may try to "game" a weighted kill system though by maximizing the damage they do without killing the mech (aka. stripping) to ensure that they get the kill. Again, this hurts the team as well because your damage could have been applied to a real threat instead.

Either way those that want to game the system to cultivate their stats are still going to be a detriment to their team, but I guess needing to do more damage instead of just a single final shot is the "fairer requirement" of the two.

[Gejaheline]

I've been thinking about ideas for a 'kill factor' metric before I ran across this poll. Note that I'm only considering player statistics and not in-game rewards, since those are a different kettle of fish.

Essentially, replace the current "kills" stat with "deathblows" and award them as-is, because people will want to see it.

Kills would then be weighted as a factor of your damage compared to the total damage inflicted on a target, so if they die and you inflicted half the damage they suffered you get 0.5 kills.

Then, if you half-kill two enemies (and they subsequently die) and die once, your kill/death ratio is 1.
If you inflict 99% of the damage to an enemy and someone plinks them with a machine gun to "steal" the kill, you still get 0.99 kills.
If you "steal" a kill by plinking a critically damaged enemy with a machine gun, you get 0.01 kills.

This would remove the potluck element of kills where multiple people are firing at a single target and all contributing, but only one person is actually awarded a kill for it; effectively, you'd be letting assists contribute to kill stats.

You could also compare your deathblows to your kill factor; if your deathblows are comparatively low you're getting a lot of assists, if your deathblows are high perhaps you should consider contributing more damage overall rather than just finishing people off.

It's not entirely perfect; if someone splashes, say, 150 damage all over an Atlas whilst missing the head and then you kill it with a perfect single headshot, your kill factor is reduced even though the splashed damage didn't actually contribute to the target's final manner of death. This is probably not a huge factor, though, since generally every point of damage makes it easier to kill a target (if you missed his head his torso might have exploded anyway). Arguably it promotes kill stealing by pouring massive amounts of damage into a target, but, uh, shouldn't you be doing that anyway?

EDIT: I've possibly misinterpreted the word "weighted". Oh well.

Edited by Gejaheline, 29 April 2014 - 06:46 AM.

[Tombstoner]

track tonnage separately

[m]

A Weighted Kill/Death Ratio would represent the exact same type of Ratio as the current Kill/Death Ratio, but would be the amount of Kills you perform, versus the amount of Deaths you experience in the game, in relation to how much damage you have placed on a 'Mech before it has officially died either by your final blow or someone elses. This figure would be displayed alongside the current Kill/Death Ratio. This would be a very handy figure to properly determine skill.

[Hobgoblin I]

maybe damage dealt to damage taken would be a better ratio?

[The Massive]

If you cant kill steal it would be very hard for lights to get kills. And I like lights. And I like machine guns.

[Knightshadowsong]

No. Because then it'd turn into Call of Duty where everyone plays like jerks to keep there K/D up. What they NEED to do, increase C-bills to atleast 300K min per match.