18 replies to this topic

[Aethelred Kell]

I have been playing for about two weeks now. I started reviewing my stats and began wondering a few things.

1.) What % of the time should I be hitting with my weapons? For Example is 70% AC20 accuracy good, bad, mediocre and if so what should I derive from that information? If my PPC is only 50/50 do I need practice or is the distance the issue and its always going to be more likely to miss?

2.) Do SRM's/LRM's count each missile as a hit or miss or is it each volley?

3.) Is there any way to get moving targets in the practice area to test ballistic/missile flight time? I am assuming not since the tutorial was so bare bones to begin with.

Edited by Aethelred Kell, 19 May 2015 - 10:59 AM.

[Gagis]

1) I am a fairly bad shot, and my laser hit%'s hover between 70 and 80 depending on the weapon, and my ballistic accurancies are between 50% and 60% depending on the weapon. PPC's might have been around 50%, but I have barely used them at all so that's really bad data. Ballistics and PPC's get a lot more misses because of the projectile flight time. As long as you beat me, you are doing good.

2) I am fairly certain it counts each missile.

3) Nope.

[Banditman]

1. As high as you can. There is no "good" or "bad", the fact is that the only "good" number is 100%. Anything else means you have room to improve.

2. Each missile. So, if you fire an SRM6 and 4 of them hit, your stats page will show 6 fired, 4 hit.

3. No.

[Jody Von Jedi]

I guess it really depends on you and what weapons you like to use.

1) I'm not very good with PPCs or small ballistics. I don't have the patience to be a good sniper. So I usually lean toward Lasers, standard and pulse. I'm over 80% with most of the laser weapons, except the small lasers, which tells me it's range related.
With PPCs I'm in the 50%-57% range between the 2 types. I know I'm not very good with them, so I'd say you like myself, need practice. Make sure with the PPC, your not shooting past the weapons range. That will lead to bad hit percentage.

2) SRM/LRM hit percentage. I know there's been discussion on this in the past, but I can't find the post. I think it was by Karl Berg. So, I may be wrong, but I think it's per missile.

3) No moving targets in the Training Grounds. Only moving targets are in live matches. Just be aware of your max range. Ballistics are only good out to 2 times their effective range (the range you see on your HUD in the lower right corner) with diminishing returns over the effective range. LRMs are 1000m unless your you're running a range module or your mech has LRM quirks. LRMs unlike ballistics explode when they reach their max range, 1000m standard.

[Anunknownlurker]

IS AC20 should have a pretty high hit % as you would normally be firing at relatively close range and, with limited ammo, be choosing your targets carefully.

Lasers,especially mid-range, will tend to have a lower hit % as you won't be so worried about wasting shots. Long ad short range lasers will probably have a higher hit % - for different reasons - long range because of careful snipes and short range, well, pretty obvious!

ERPPCs/PPCs - you can see them coming and it is possible to dodge them.

Ballistics (other than AC20) you have to lead the target and will also be spamming (AC2s + 5s) so expect a lower hit %

I'd agree with Gagis as far as the numbers are concerned, I consider myself averagely bad and pretty much match his.

[JC Daxion]

weapon stats are totally broken.. I have not seen any ETA on it either.. for example it says i only have 270 drops with MPL's.. I have over 2k drops in those mechs.. LRM15 12 drops.. over 300, basically every single weapon i use is not being counted most of the time. I dunno how others are, but i know mine are totally borked to the point they are totally useless.

another example, large pulse lasers, 21 times.. I have had them on every single drop in my new fang. really the first time i used them besides a couple drops here and there.. my fang on the other hand has 37 drops. so right there it is missing 16 drops from that mech alone. and don't get me started on my SRM4 count...

Edited by JC Daxion, 19 May 2015 - 12:17 PM.

[SnagaDance]

Sometimes you 'll also want to intentionally miss, i.e. surpressing fire. Zapping lasers or low calibre autocannons right past an obstacle/terrain feature behind which you know the enemy is hiding. Meanwhile team mates move into better positions.

The shots may be missed but the tactic can be a complete hit!

[Kyynele]

You shouldn't stare into numbers too much. How you play has a huge impact to those.

One of my friends used to only fire Gauss at under 500m ranges, and had very high hit percentage with it.

I, on the other hand, like to waste a lot of ammo taking very unlikely shots at extreme ranges before the fight has even properly started. I also like to try my luck with legging lights further away than makes sense. There was a major difference between our Gauss hit ratios, while the rest of our weapon stats were close to identical.

Statistics don't kill enemy mechs.

(edit: for clarification, this was back when Gauss projectile was much slower. It's pretty easy to hit stuff at extreme ranges now)

Edited by Kyynele, 19 May 2015 - 05:00 PM.

[Rear Admiral Tier 6]

with LRM:s the hitrate is "fixed" 28-40 depending on the launcher

[TheCaptainJZ]

I'd say I'm average or slightly above average due to experience but my projectile stats are 50-60% while lasers are 80-90% and missiles are 30-40%. Note for lasers, if even one "tick" of the beam hits, it counts as a hit even though you barely did any damage.

[Aethelred Kell]

So you are telling me that all the statistic trackers are broken and thus 100% useless to me.

Great!!

[Anunknownlurker]

@Aethelred Kell - do you enjoy playing? If so, screw the stats and pew-pew the hours away frying robots!

[Aethelred Kell]

Yes I enjoy the game, but if it provides me with something like this (Especially early on in learning the game) I prefer to try and make use of all the features to make me better and allow me to pew-pew and fry more robots before they fry me.

[Banditman]

Stats aren't going to help.

They are going to distract you from learning what's really important. Gunnery is really only a small part of the game, and while it seems like an increase in hit rate would be a big factor in success, it's really not that huge at the early stages of learning.

Positioning is far, far more important. Reading the map and flow of battle is far more important. Combat technique is far more important.

In short, reading your stats can be an interesting exercise, but it won't improve your game. Until you're got a great deal of data (1000's of matches) behind the stats, they really won't help you all that much. If you want to get better at the game, spectate successful pilots, watch what they do. Find experienced players to guide you and teach you. Trying to learn this game in a bubble of stats and self is going to be an exercise in frustration.

[Arn0ldSchwarzenegger]

I 2nd that, I for one never look at stats - People who care about stats, care more about hiding behind the team, not sharing armour, looking for the KS. This is not the way to win games. You know if your shots are on target. Dont need a % to tell me if im playing badly in an area.

Accuracy is two part, the stats show if you 'hit' a mech. They however do not show if your damage is actually useful. Better to hit the right component than spread laser all over a mech or just graze it - only you know if your shots are on target. I dont aim to hit the mech, I aim to kill it; whether that is by legging, or hitting a cored component etc.

Edited by Arn0ldSchwarzenegger, 20 May 2015 - 08:11 AM.

[JC Daxion]

Arn0ldSchwarzenegger, on 20 May 2015 - 08:09 AM, said:

I 2nd that, I for one never look at stats - People who care about stats, care more about hiding behind the team, not sharing armour, looking for the KS. This is not the way to win games. You know if your shots are on target. Dont need a % to tell me if im playing badly in an area.

I totally disagree on this.. Stats can most certainly help you improve.. Show you what mechs you average better matches in, things to work on ect. Perhaps if we could even bring it do a whole other level where we can manually reset and track our own stats on different builds would be a huge help outside of the typical end of match score. It can also show you what weapons you excell at, and thus perhaps build mechs more geared for your strengths. I'd also love to see a damage soaked stat. Let you know which mechs you can take a huge pounding in, and what ones you can't. I'd even like to see match bonuses for finishing a match alive having soaked X amount of damage, similar to the acheivements you can gain for finishing matches with a % of your mech destroyed.. Loose 75% of armor and still keep all your weapons for example, that shows you are spread damage very well, or the other person is just a lousy shot. I really wish they would get the stat tracker fixed.

as far as kill stealing goes, that to me is the biggest joke in the game. I shoot at mech a if it is close to death or fresh if i get a shot. If it dies great, if not i shoot again if i can. The amount of times i have done the most damage and missed the kill, and the ones that i did barely nothing and got the kill all evens out in the end.. Unless you are sitting there watching someone Brawl a mech, and sit waiting with dual gauss and then take the final pop just to get a kill? maybe that happens on occasion, but to get all mad about a KDR to me is just funny... I chuckle when someone screams you stole my kill! Like ya said it's a team game, isn't it about winning, and not who gets the kill? that said, People have taken mine so many times i can't even count.. often it has been on a 1v1 brawl and finally help gets their and finished them off.. though often i don't even care then as it means i'm not gonna take another round of fire so more armor for me!

One last part about aim/location, maybe your shot didn't add damage to the same part you wanted, but maybe someone else hits it in the same spot you did and takes it down. LIke LRM's ripping armor, sure it may spread damage, but what if i am at a spot that i can only hit a left torso, and the person has direct fire is hitting the right. We are not helping each other kill, but are taking off armor which can help in the kill. But had that person been bombing with LRM's it would of been helping on the side i am working on. Not to mention the people that don't have the best aim, some times using a weapon that will hit, is better than using something that misses 60% of the time.

stats are not the be all and end all, but they can help improve your game play, Or show how you have improved.

Edited by JC Daxion, 20 May 2015 - 10:09 AM.

[SnagaDance]

Also note that damage drops off outside of optimal range. So you could have the same hit percentage for shooting with a weapon within optimal range versus using that weapon well outside of optimal range.

The latter would mean far worse damage, but this wouldn't be reflected in the stats, even though you would have been 'doing it wrong'.

Remember: There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

[InspectorG]

Aethelred Kell, on 19 May 2015 - 10:58 AM, said:

I have been playing for about two weeks now. I started reviewing my stats and began wondering a few things.

1.) What % of the time should I be hitting with my weapons? For Example is 70% AC20 accuracy good, bad, mediocre and if so what should I derive from that information? If my PPC is only 50/50 do I need practice or is the distance the issue and its always going to be more likely to miss?

Doesnt matter.

Your aim is 'good' when you can pick off open components and get most/all your damage applied only to said component.

Reduce your mouse sensitivity in game to just above zero and experiment from there.

This took me a year to learn, btw, but im dumb and slow.

[Khereg]

I look at stats a little differently than most. I use it them to determine which builds will be more effective for me, specifically.

If I have a low hit % with a weapon and a much better one with an alternative, I'll lean towards using more of the second weapon in my builds. Unless, of course, I feel like I need to get better with the weapon with a poor hit %. Then I'll go work on using that specific weapon more effectively. Gauss rifles are a prime example - that ammo is too valuable to be wasted with a low hit % and, as a weapon, the gauss rifle is one of the best in the game. Everyone should learn to be good with it. I think I'm around 80% with a gauss.

Even then, you have to take the data with a grain of salt. Lasers are a prime example. If you connect for any damage at all, you'll get credit for a hit. So, if you fire a laser, initially miss, but correct to the target before the beam expires, you'll get credit for a hit. You may have only done 1/10th the possible damage with that shot, but you still got credit for a hit. Since the stats show shots fired and damage done, you can see if you're falling victim to this. If you hit with a ML and average 2 dmg/hit, you're only doing 40% of the damage you could with that weapon - work on getting the beam on target for the full burn.

On the other extreme are LRM's. I don't want to enter the great LRM debate, but I've concluded for me personally I don't like them. My hit % when using them rarely goes above 33% due to a number of factors. But what that means is that if I fire 1,000 LRM's in a match and only connect for 333 points of damage, I'm wasting my tonnage with that ammo. I've concluded I'm better off with direct fire weapons, period, and I don't take LRM's except in very rare circumstances.

As for the data quality on the stats page, my impression is the data is incomplete, but accurate. CW matches aren't captured in the data and the system may miss other situations as well - I haven't looked into it. But, where the data is captured, I have no reason to believe it's incorrect. Just think of it as a random sample of your performance. Still useful for evaluating your play, but not inclusive of every shot fired.

Edited by Khereg, 20 May 2015 - 01:37 PM.