I thought about it some more, and will agree that while odd at first, the monetary system does work. My first instinct was that something was off, and I imagine some people feel that way. I hadn't really thought about it in depth. Let me do some math craft to try and explain. First are the examples which make the system seem bad. Then (Example 5 on) are examples which make the system look balanced. I do this analysis in the same order I did it because I was first trying to prove myself right, and then found I was wrong. Assists being worth more than kills is actually important to allowing scouts/lights to keep up monetarily with heavier hitters. Just like spotting bonuses.
-If this is too long for you, just skip to the bottom couple paragraphs.
Of note: I'm excluding spotting/component/win/loss/objective income for this comparison.
Example 1:
If you 'touch' all 8 enemy mechs for assists, you get
7.5K*8
= 60K
If you kill all 8 enemy mechs, you get
5K*8
= 40K.
That's only 20K difference. If that's all you look at, though, then you get 50% more money for assisting over killing!
So, let's look at Damage as the factor which most clearly indicates and rewards ability -> aknowledging that head-capping or other clean kills make the round go faster and secure wins/kills even with little damage and are worthwhile. Also noting that good scouting/awareness is invaluable.
Example 2:
I'd like to compare a solid-hitting player who secures, for the sake of example, half of the kills with no assists, to a person who 'touches' the entire enemy team but does little damage.
Someone who 'touches' all 8 enemy mechs, and only does 100 damage total in a round will get
(7.5K*8) + (100 * 25)
= 60K + 2.5K
= 62.5K
Someone who hits well and kills 4 mechs with no assists: Say 100 damage per mech.
(4*100*25) + (4*5K)
= 10K + 20K
= 30K
Ouch, the 'touch' scout got more than double. But - what if the second person also got 4 assists on the other half of the enemy team?
30K (previous) + 4*7.5K
= 30K + 30K
= 60K
That's a big difference! So what is the % difference in getting 4 kills and 4 assists vs 8 kills?
60K from before = 4*5K + 4*7.5K + 10K (in damage)
8 kills * 5K + 10K (in damage)
= 40K + 10K
= 50K.
So 20 % more money than if half of those kills were assists, which is more reasonable.
Still seems like a lot of difference.
Example 3:
So let's consider someone who is most excellent, doing 150 damage to every enemy, and securing all 8 kills.
150*8*25 + 8*5K
= 30K + 40K
= 70K
Now that's some money. But that scout from before made 90% of what was earned by this clearly amazing fighter. That is not to discount the often underated value of a scout (and meat shields for LRM boats).
Example 3A:
Let's consider Example 3, but with assists instead of kills.
150*8*25 + 8*7.5K
= 30K + 60K
= 90K.
That's ~28% more income switching 8 kills for 8 assists. A good bit!
While not a friggin' huge difference, 28% is significant, and this feels 'off'. So I kept Mathing.
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Example 4:
Now let's compare that same scout (62.5K income) to an absurd extreme. One player did 300 damage per target, and killed 8 enemies.
That's 300*8*25 + 8*5K
= 60K + 40K
= 100K
Okay, now that scout made 62.5% of this person's income. This is reasonable - but oh man is that a lot of damage. Some of you might be just so amazing, but I know I will likely explode on the day I deal 2400 damage in one match.
Example 4A: On a Win
What if that person hadn't gotten the kill, and got assists on all 8 people instead?
That's 300*8*25 + 8*7.5K
= 60K + 60K
= 120K
20% more money than if this person had earned 8 kills. What the heck? Ahh... I'm looking at an extreme - the range of possible differences, not of likely differences.
So if you do a ton of damage, it looks like it doesn't matter as much for income. But we're at an upper extreme in damage, and only looking at wins with 8 assists vs 8 kills. Let's do something reasonable.
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Example 5:
Let's take a more realistic look. Suppose only 3 kills were had.
Person A gets 3 kills, and did 200 damage to all 8 enemies. (1600 total)
Person B hit all 8 enemies, but did a total of 100 damage.
Person A gets 3*5K + 200*8*25
= 15K + 40K
= 55K
Person B gets 3*7.5K + 100*25
= 22.5K + 2.5K
= 25K
Okay, there we go! Person A got over double the payout of the 'snag scout' example.
Example 6:
Let's do a very reasonable example:
Person A gets 2 kills and an assists, doing 200 damage to each kill, and doing 110 extra damage to the enemy team. That's a sound 510 damage in the round.
Person B gets 3 assists and does 100 total damage. (as in Example 5) This is common for my scouts, at least.
Person A gets 2*5K + 1*7.5K + (200*2+110)*25
= 10K + 7.5K + 12.75K
= 30.25K
Person B gets 3*7.5K + 100*25
= 22.5K + 2.5K
= 25K
There we go - that looks just right. I could make a graph, but am now sufficiently satisfied with this realization.
On an average and reasonable match, fighting hard and doing damage is worth the most. On a win, the 'touchy' scout gets a bit more - but that person also did a lot to get around the map and see everything - which is very useful. That person also likely was not able to dish out a lot of damage since they had speed or something else enabling their mobility/survivabililty. Plus, it isn't that common to get 8 assists no matter how hard you try - enemy scouts, large battlefields, and getting sniped will end your spree. In a fight where everyone was grouped up, most people will get a full 8 'touches' on the entire team, enabling a max of 8 assists for all 8 players.
Mainly: no one gets an assist for a kill that never happened. The only money recieved in that case is from damage (and component destruction, etc).You can't count on winning every match, so you can't bank on getting 8 assists. So 'touching' enemies is less valueable if you lose, since those surviving enemies never died and time was spent finding all the enemies rather than hammering them.
Edited by DeadEyeDeale, 20 December 2012 - 03:38 PM.
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