The AC1.1 score system

[Brahma]

I would like to post here some words about this system.
First of all, these values are experimental, and can change in the next releases.
Also, all this is decided by the server... so, it cannot be (easily) cheated.

The idea behind the new "score" column is to put in just one number frags+deaths+flags+teamplay, with the intention of rip ratio from this game. Ratio was an very artificial number, which rewarded only the nade spammers and "evaders" (those who hide, camp and when take 20 of damage, run for the nearest life pack).

In 1.0.4, those who play to cover his teammates (or to catch or defend the flag) usually have bad ratios. The guy who score the flag, at least gain the flag score... but that guy who covered him or defended the flag in base (which is crucial to flag score) gains nothing.

So, we managed to create this new united score to count all these things.
The way this score is counted is not *much different* from the ideas behind the ladders, but with many enhancements characteristic from AC1.1 (and still experimental).

In AC1.1, you can check these extra source of score using /hudextras 2... so you will see some extra messages, like: "combo", "multicombo x2", "you covered the flag", "teamwork done", between others.

FRAGS

The basic source of score is the "frag", and its value is 10. If you die you lose 4 points. Considering only frags and deaths, and thinking in the old ratio system, you have score > 0 if ratio > 0.4 (what it is not much difficult, right?). Anyway, after some initial complains, if the ratio is less than zero, it is presented zero in the scoreboard (so, the overall teamscore can mismatch the sum of the players scores presented).

Code:

normal frag              10
shotgun gib              12
sniper gib               15
knife gib                20
death                    -4
team kill               -10

FLAGS

One important (and probably controversial) feature of the new score system is that some score sources are dependent of the player number (limited to 12 players, i.e., this specific source of score does not change anymore if there are more than 12 players in the server). These sources are mainly related to the flag games. And the reason is very obvious: it is easier to score a flag when there are less players in a server, so, the reward is in some way proportional to the difficult.

Since some score sources are proportional to the difficult, it is also coherent to make the flag score proportional to the distance between the two flag bases (otherwise people playing ac_sunset would receive the same for flag score as playing ac_depot). In special, the distance between the flags in depot is about 200 cubes.

Many people can argue it is difficult to measure the exact value of this... and it really is, but there is no other way to reward the true skill and difficult level, and using depot as reference (third column below) one can quickly think: "this map has half of the size, so, i will get half of the points when scoring a flag"... in the same way: "this server has half of the players... i will get half of the points in flag related scores".

Code:

ctf return                N                  10
ctf pick                  N                  10
ctf drop                 -N                 -10
ctf lost                  N*D/100            20
htf lost               -2*N                 -20
ctf score              10+N*D/25             90
htf score              10+N*4                50
ktf score              10+N*2                30
frag ctf flagstealer    2*N                  20
frag htf holdingflag      N/2                 5

(N is the number of players, D is the distance between flags, and the third column is the value for ac_depot with 10 player in the server)

SKILL BONUS

The third controversial point is that there are a little small bonus for killing high score enemies. Obviously this is difficult to measure, but this will disrupt players from hunting high score by killing noobs only.

Code:

non-team mode             P/400               1
flag mode                 P/300               2
team non-flag mode        P/200               3

(P is the score of the target, the third column is the expected points to kill a high level enemy: 75 frags and 38 deaths = score 600).

COMBO

The combo is a successive sequence of hits, which worths 5 points. It can be produced by the same weapon (like a PISTOL sequence, or a AR, SMG or AKIMBO burst), or for different weapons: like primary+pistol or primary+nade or primary+knife. The exact number of hits depend of the kind of combo and the timing between the hits.

COVER

Cover happens when the player kills an enemy in a short distance from the flag (both player and enemy must be in this range). The flag can stay in the base, or being carried by a teammate. As the same as the other flag score sources, cover worths proportional to the player number.

Code:

ctf cover flag in base    N                  10
ctf cover flagstealer   2*N                  20
htf cover dropped flag    N                  10
htf cover flagkeeper    3*N                  30

There are other sources of teamwork, but they are WiP, so I will not comment them now.

[Gibstick]

Nice work Brahma!

[Zarj]

Absolutely awesome. I love it.

[Drakas]

Can this scoring system be disabled? I see no use of it in competitive games (it'll act like ratio to the losers, since they'll boast about how good their ratio is when they've lost).

Oh, and don't forget about the 2 flag gain in HTF. This system is interesting.

[Mael]

My biggest issue with the score system is in games of CTF, a team can win by score and not by flags. Mode-specific scoring should always take priority in my opinion.

Recognizing score as a factor means the outcome of many close matches previously won(Particularly in tournaments) are now up in the air; there will be those who argue for past matches to be reevaluated and any tournament runner worth his salt knows not to skew the outcomes, yet is now forced to consider the scores in future games he knows may have had influence in the past. Either the tournament runners are hypocrites to one, or lack conviction to the other.

What if score was used to determine the position of a player among his teamates but not whether a team won or lost? That way score can be used to encourage "proper" gameplay but won't decide the outcome of a match.

[applecake]

Nice! :)

[Andrez]

Great, simply great. :)

[Zarj]

I don't think there is any question that, for clan matches, the traditional scoring system still holds.
This is more meant to be a way to judge an individual player's performance in a public game.

[Impakt'd]

Then it should be removed in 'match mode', or something. It feels like it'd cause confusion (imo).

[XFA]

there should just be a option to turn it off imo.. its kinda annoying

[ReEsEs]

I agree with Zarj, I think this system is solely based on the individual standings in public games.
I clan matches I would hope it would stay the same simple self.

[Lightning]

I don't like this system. I liked the old score board the most :(

[Huntsman]

yeah the old scoring is better imo but 1.1 is still good

[Brahma]

This score entry is a substitution to "ratio". So (for now) it is just a number related to individual performance, and the overall team work. It does not change the fact that, in not-flag modes, "frags" determines the winner, and in flag modes, "flags" is more important.

About the complains to remove or disable it, one thing we could do is to remove the team score.

Also, remember this system is under development... and it will be part of the medals system.

[V-Man]

The devs put a lot of hard work into this, and it tells a lot more about the game than a simple ratio comparison.

[SercartY]

Yeah this should be Good :)

[Luc@s]

Anyway, even if it's based on many events, it won't be representative in flags mode. In flag modes, only team score means something. Individual scores are "useless" (but it's better to have frags and flags (and deaths ?) imho
EDIT : but it's not bad at all btw

[V-Man]

In (many) a flag-tied game, score should be the tiebreaker.

[yata]

if a frag is 10 , a sniper gib should be 20 really

cool to know how it all works thanks

[Alpha-Jet]

Good system , but i have the same point that yata.

[Alpha-Jet]

2 frags
2 deaths.

2x10 = 20
2x4=8


20 - 8 = 12

So why i have 36 of score ?

[Gibstick]

COMBO, YOU DEFENDED THE FLAG, YOU COVERED THE FLAG, COMBO X2
Sniper pistol combo counts as a combo, grenade + a few shots is a combo, so is burst-firing anything.

[Alpha-Jet]

Score x3 just for flag cover ?

I don't think so.

[#M|A#Wolf]

Alpha there are so many ways to get scores, don't always rely on just adding and subtracting frags and deaths.

[Brahma]

Also, since is the server the one who count the score, do not worry... no one will accuse you of cheating for being just good :P

[Alpha-Jet]

Ok ^^

[LaNterN]

I have a problem that dropping the flag takes away score. It is always a bad idea to drop the flag, however, if you are trying to be kind to a teammate who did a lot of work to get that flag, it shouldn't deduct from your score.

[V-Man]

Yes it should. It is never a good idea to drop the flag if you don't really need to. Points politics is quite a trivial reason to do that, and I've seen many a flag go to waste due to a player taking too long to pick it back up -- and in comes the rebound.

On the other hand, if you strategically drop it on account of not having much health, so that a teammate can pick it up and have a better chance at keeping it, you should earn points.

[Panda]

If the points system is a replacement for ratio, why is there only a points total, not a points per minutes played? In clanmatches (without subs) this doesn't matter, but in pubs, which is where it is aimed at originally, you often come in late to a game and then the total points aren't a good means of comparison.

[Alien]

I like this score system, it really forces people to play a bit cooperative