after evaluation.the new kill award system sucks

[VodkaAce]

I think everyone agrees that plink kills suck(getting plinked by someone then crashing into a tree or flopping out 5 min later and having that person get a kill on you)

But What we have now is worse IMO.

-I've already seen multiple ea face plant themselves into the dirt after I've slightly damaged them to escape a certain death.

-killing bombers on factory defense is even harder now and makes it less fun, as if it could honestly be any less fun. I shot the hell out of a bomber last night. damaged him so bad that he flopped into the ground but I get no kill. I also had another one over frankfurt where I shot to hell but the AI blew him up shortly after and I get no kill. Maybe it's my fault for not getting a critical damage but....

It just seems as if a lot of our work now will not be rewarded at all.

This new system is only egging on the lame pilots who only care about stats and gives them a way out.

Sorry but I think CRS tried to fix one problem by doing something too extreme again and only created a whole host of other problems.

I'd take the plink kills any day instead of what we have now.

Edited December 12, 2011 by VodkaAce

[Raus]

Maybe they should add more clouds.

[VodkaAce]

Maybe they should add more clouds.

clouds or horizontal brick walls?

Edited December 12, 2011 by VodkaAce

[rebel357]

Being sarcastic usually gets things sorted quickly around here, your doing great!

[Raus]

clouds of horizontal brick walls?

Well, it would help you forget about the craptastic kill-scoring system...

[VodkaAce]

Being sarcastic usually gets things sorted quickly around here' date=' your doing great![/quote']

there was only frustration, concern and a slight tone of anger in my wording. Honestly No sarcastic vibe at all.

[thief]

It's not intended. It's a bug. Timers are broke.

Or that's what Gophur said.

[rebel357]

was referring to teh raus comment

[VodkaAce]

It's not intended. It's a bug. Timers are broke.

Or that's what Gophur said.

First I heard of this. If that's the case then it would make sense.

[thief]

From 1 month ago:

Confirm plink kills broken, ticketed.

Test 1

• p1 german plane
  
• p2 allied inf
  
• p2 shoot p1
  
• p1 crashes
  
• p1 kia
  
• p2 does not get the kill
  

Expected functionality is that if you shoot a plane and they crash then you get awarded the kill if it happens within X seconds.

X seconds is broken, known issue, other bug.

[DOC]

I moved this because it addresses an issue based around the fact that "plink" kills have been broken since v1.34 went public. Given they were a recent development in terms of features, which some claimed to dislike since we added them, it's curious that now since the v1.34 code changes removed plink kills (not on purpose but due to a bug) ... now suddenly they are missed.

Well good news, they will be fixed again in the next patch update (we are working on this now) and in case anyone doesn't remember how they work, here's a reminder:

1. If you plane takes damage and you fail to RTB or manage a "RESCUE" ditch (so you are MIA or KIA) then your killer will be awarded a kill for the loss of your aircraft. Bailing out automatically disallows avoiding the "kill" of your aircraft. You have to either land at a friendly airfield (RTB) or ditch within RESCUE range of one _AND_ survive 60 seconds of no further hits (RESCUED) or even pull off a ditch outside rescue range (MIA) _AND_ still survive 60 seconds or more without further hits being inflicted, to not award a plink kill.

2. You yourself don't have to be dead or injured as the pilot and you might despawn with a basically intact aircraft (it has to be damaged for a plink kill to occur) ... but if it didn't make base it is lost.

3. There is a requirement that the ditch/crash/loss of the aircraft occur within 1 minute (60 seconds) of the damage being inflicted, after that you are safe from awarding the kill. We did this so that you had the opportunity to "get away" and calculated that if your pursuer couldn't finish the job inside a full 60 seconds of pursuit/combat then he didn't really deserve a kill for the damage he inflicted. Even if not further damaged, a falling aircraft has to be at a very high altitiude to crash outside of 60 seconds after the damage inflicted. One could argue a lot of different things around this but simply stated the code isn't going to be able to make complex decisions or analysis of what is derserved or not, like you with a human brain might wish to do. It's either on or off, this timer just allows it to be a little forgiving and force the killer to either make sure of the kill, or to let the loser off if he is free enough to still have that much control over the situation.

Not sure when the next patch will hit the server (autoupdate) but as soon as we can get the other stuff in it all squared away, you will have it. As far as we know this minute, this will not have to wait until v1.35 or anything like that, it will be a point release based on the v1.34 code.

PS: a simple "plink kills aren't working anymore" would have been sufficient.

[VodkaAce]

Thanks Doc for the words and update! much appreciated!

A lot of people in chat were talking about this in game as if it was a planned chance in the kill system. I guess I believed the scuttlebutt.

good to know it's being fixed!

[DOC]

Smart person rule number 1

... never ever believe the skuttlebutt unless you can actually prove it for yourself via direct experience.

9 times out of 10, it's a myth, a rumour, or somebody who prefers being miserable to being content.

[beazil]

Hey Doc, would you indulge me by explaining bailing to me?

Previously when it came out, it was my (probably wrong) understanding that bailing would allow your "killer" to recieve a "kill" against you, but you wouldn't recieve a "kill" against.

Admitting full well, in public, that I am clearly wrong about this should make your job easier

However, I guess I just don't understand the incentive to bailing. For some reason my brain thinks that at one time there was/is.

Help a brother out who lacks a Ratbrain!

Ty!

[akmarine]

Plink ills can be annoying, but are they fixing not being rewarded by completely blowing a plane up? :/

[beazil]

Plink ills can be annoying' date=' but are they fixing not being rewarded by completely blowing a plane up? :/[/quote']

Yes.

[sabot8]

Its a bit amazing how my Kills have diminished. I have 30 missions and maybe 20 kills. You must have to be completely KIA before the plane crashes in order to get a kill because I have followed many a plane down to the ground firing all weapons and ended up with no kill. Not that I care that much about RTBs anymore but I have found that I have rammed a lot more ass ends of planes trying to take off a wing or something for confirmed kill. Forget trying to kill a pilot. I need to see a wing come off or the plane on flames before I stop shooting.

[DOC]

@beazil

yes that is the intention of bailing from a score perspective. However, there are a couple of scoring bugs in v1.34, partly due to the fact that how scoring is managed changed totally with v1.34 in order for us to move ahead in the future to LIVE scoring routines (as in instant recording and subsequent abilities to use that scoring) wheras with previous versions scoring was canned to some degreee, as a result of the way the multiple severs and hosts communicate and which handles what part of your online presence. There were a lot of handoffs depending where in the UI you were and that meant where in the system of servers and hosts you were.

We changed tons of that and this is why v1.34 is much much more than it appears to be. You only see the game through the UI, in fact you are playing an entirely new architecture (unseen by you) on which this "alternate reality" exists. Almost nothing "behind the scenes" works like it used to, the v1.34 patch took so long because of how MUCH it changed stuff. It doesn't look like much on the surface because graphically, it isn't very different at all. The cosmos it runs inside however, changed a ton.

Anyway, there are a couple of bugs we are fixing (or have already fixed and waiting to patch) with the new scoring routines. Add into that we had to install a brand new OS on the live server (today) because some of our problems with v1.34 turned out to be a bad OS. It's amazing how much there is to go wrong and how apparently unconected it can appear. Murphies law!

There will be at least 2 stages to the "plink and bailing" routines to get back where they are supposed to be, as aircraft scoring is a complete exception in some ways to how everything else is scored.

1. We fixed the damage a plane and get the kill when it crashes or fails to RTB problem

2. We fixed the get a kill when the pilot bails problem

3. We fixed the "if the victim survives 60 seconds of escape without further damage and no crits" he doesn't award a kill problem

HOWEVER

There is one interim bug that will take longer to fix. If you bail out or ditch (without critical damage) and you are INSIDE the 60 second window, you will not only award a kill to the shooter who last damaged you, but you will have a death recorded against you. Yes this is not correct functionality that's what "There is one interim bug that will take longer to fix" means.

If you manage to survive 60+ seconds after the last hit made on your aircraft, bailing and ditching awards no kill or death.

So, in summary:- (after next patch)

1. Critical kill = shooter gets kill (engine, pilot, catastrophic airframe destruction are crits to aircraft) and victim pilot gets what his RTB code suggests (rescued/MIA) if pilot killed obviously KIA

2. Plink kill = shooter gets kill (no crit done otherwise see 1 above) if pilot ditches, bails or crashes inside the 60 second window, pilot will have death recorded until we can fix this last remaining bug (if you cannot survive 60 seconds before bailing or despawning from a ditch then I guess you didn't really escape losing the fight or your life, combat piloting is dangerous)

3. RTB means shooter never gets a kill no matter what happens to the victims plane, and no death can ever be awarded since pilot survived to land his plane at his airfield

[beazil]

Its a bit amazing how my Kills have diminished. I have 30 missions and maybe 20 kills. You must have to be completely KIA before the plane crashes in order to get a kill because I have followed many a plane down to the ground firing all weapons and ended up with no kill. Not that I care that much about RTBs anymore but I have found that I have rammed a lot more ass ends of planes trying to take off a wing or something for confirmed kill. Forget trying to kill a pilot. I need to see a wing come off or the plane on flames before I stop shooting.

While I'm sporting a Gutted/Chief/Thief -esque KD ratio ATM, it is only due to some bugs being present - IE: I'v plowed into the ground at Mach Stupid and got an RTB, and assrammed many a plane to receive an RTB - Lets test this later Sabot and others. I see we are slated for a test phase before the server renews - hopefully I can help test a bit after work.

@Doc - thanks for the response and the information. That will give us some definate help during testing, and I very much appreciate the explaination for my own ADD brain. S!