Significance of the scoreboard

[Peu]

The scoreboard is meaningless!

In measuring skill, at least. Ok, mostly meaningless. Not completely useless, and not always, but pretty close. Truly, good players DO often come out atop. But the scoreboard is to assessing skill what a picture is to vision. The illusion of vision may be achieved by many scoreboards like a film, yet even then there is no depth perception:


A kill in soldat -as in any multiplayer game- is the product of many things. One can not and should not assume that it is the product of skill alone.

Suppose player A has just killed player B. The method and details are irrelevant. Why was player B killed? Player A's skill only figures in partially here, his entire team must be considered. The presence of snipers goads B into certain actions, as does spray or the presence of enemies. B's team's disposition, ferocity, unison, must all be considered, they affect every kill. A team is a flowing psyche. Every action augments or impedes the others; it emboldens them or makes them cower.

2v1 isn't simply twice as effective, it is an entire degree of power higher than a 1v1. Not only can 2 people flank a single opponent, but they can kill him twice as fast, which reduces the amount of time he has to do damage. Teamwork is exponential.

A person can only judge the skill of an individual if they first accurately judge their intention. Killing many may not be as useful as killing the right people. An offensive maneuver may be crippled if the right players (say, a leading shotgunner) are killed, they do not all need to die to halt an attack.

And what of the person who removes snipers?
And the one who provides cover fire?
And the one who can wound many yet kill few?
And what about the faithful distractor, the meatshield?

There are many factors...

I have seen players join a game, play for 5 minutes and say "I'm sucking right now, I'm leaving." Maybe. But do they ever stop to consider their entire team dynamic to assess that? It is a complex system full of subtleties and psychological influences.
--
Now, I realize some may say, I kill many people and I AM good! Fantastic and congratulations. But are you useful? And when you count the anonymous numbers of your kills, consider who it was you killed. Was it difficult? Are you good, or are your opponents bad? Consider then if you should be defining your skill in comparative terms against other players, or in absolute terms against what you can conceive that you can accomplish.

The best worm is still a worm. It is impressive for the worm to become the bird.


So I invite you, my friends, to assess carefully why you have won. Gloat even more carefully, should you have assessed wrongly.

May you all be the best, amen.

[Platehead]

Well, I take most of that for truth..
Some kills are definitely easy... an obvious example is if your teammate severly wounds an enemy rusher, and you finish him with one MP5 bullet, then who deserves the kill?  Sure, it's true that your teammate lost the firefight, but your number of kills should not really be the only measure of how good you are.  I agree with you in the part about taking out specific enemies which are important.

Overall, I agree and I hope it changes the view of people who only rate someone's skill based on their number of kills.

[Psycho]

In deathmatch, there is no matter of what team you are on. But then there is what the enemy was doing before you shot him. Was he fighting with someone else so you kind of sandwiched him 2v1, or was he already wounded.
Its not like that every kill, but many of the kills in your scoreboard is inevitably going to be kills you basically just stole from others.

But then again my opinion is that finding the weakest link and killing them fastest, is a big part of soldat skill.

[Pie]

Yeah, I think that a whole team is more important then a single player.
Kills can only get you so far and having a lot of them doesn't make you better at the game then some people. Take a look at the miningun, it's a team based weapon, it's supposed suppress the other team and damage them so that they can finish them off.

So you're not actually getting kills, you're helping your teammates get kills. And ultimately get the flag and win.
Meh.

[Peu]

But then again my opinion is that finding the weakest link and killing them fastest, is a big part of soldat skill.

Truth!

[STM1993]

Soldat Skills include:

1. Movement
A) Can you maneuver around the map?
B) Can you move quickly?
C) Can you evade?

2. Fighting
A) Can you aim?
B) Do you know your gun?
C) Do you know your enemy?
D) Can you fight against your enemy?
E) Can you decide on which target to shoot first?
F) How long can you hold out in battle?
G) Do you know when to escape?

3. Teamwork
A) Can you work with your teammates?
B) Are you able to not block your teammate?
C) Are you able to support your teammate?
D) Are you able to sacrifice yourself to help your team(mates)?

^ Mainly, these are the skills that a Soldat player should have. The scoreboard tells you different things in different gamemodes, but on team-based games, then the scoreboard doesn't tell a lot because there are too many factors involved.

In a DM, if you get a lot of kills, it means you know who to shoot and how to kill well. But if you have a lot of deaths, it probably means you cannot survive well. In a Rambomatch, if you get a lot of kills, it probably means you've been a Rambo. In a INF game, if you are red and you get a lot of points and the blue team has little deaths and red team has a nice score, it means you are the one who captures the flags. If it is a CTF game, it doesn't tell a lot though.

[Exodus]

I just think there should be a 'Captures' heading instead of 20 points, because people think they're really good just becuse they are runners 

[STM1993]

I just think there should be a 'Captures' heading instead of 20 points, because people think they're really good just becuse they are runners 

That's coming out in 1.5.

[Exodus]

Ooh cool I don't read the news much 

[excruciator]

Soldat Skills include:

1. Movement
A) Can you maneuver around the map?
B) Can you move quickly?
C) Can you evade?

2. Fighting
A) Can you aim?
B) Do you know your gun?
C) Do you know your enemy?
D) Can you fight against your enemy?
E) Can you decide on which target to shoot first?
F) How long can you hold out in battle?
G) Do you know when to escape?

3. Teamwork
A) Can you work if your teammates?
B) Are you able to not block your teammate?
C) Are you able to support your teammate?
D) Are you able to sacrifice yourself to help your team(mates)?

Oo, all I know is aim.

[The Philanthropist]

The only thing that SHOULd matter in a CTF game is the "ALPHA team wins", or the "BRAVO team wins." You can see just by who won who was the better team that map.

The best way to find a good player is by their K/D Ratio. If you see someone with 14 kills and 0 deaths, I would defnitely think they know what they are doing, even if they are near the bottom of the scoreboard. A person with 40 kills but 50 deaths isn't probably as skillful, as they have died much more than they have killed.

A scoreboard is nothing more than a bunch of numbers

[excruciator]

I guess score do reflect skill level to a certain degree. I mean I don't think noobs can get a really good  KD ratio, or finish a DM match 1st.

[decoy.]

Soldat Skills include:

1. Movement
A) Can you maneuver around the map?
B) Can you move quickly?
C) Can you evade?

2. Fighting
A) Can you aim?
B) Do you know your gun?
C) Do you know your enemy?
D) Can you fight against your enemy?
E) Can you decide on which target to shoot first?
F) How long can you hold out in battle?
G) Do you know when to escape?

3. Teamwork
A) Can you work with your teammates?
B) Are you able to not block your teammate?
C) Are you able to support your teammate?
D) Are you able to sacrifice yourself to help your team(mates)?

Yes but not to the best of my ability above all. And in regards to 2F, it depends on what my equipment entails as well as what my objective is. Actually my objective in the moment determines a lot of how well I am able to preform as well as who I am playing against.

For example, on CTF_Run, Lets say I am equipped with an auto that has good range as my primary weapon. If I am running along the top layer of the map and there is someone who passes me, who I fail to kill in the moment, I'll continue heading in my direction. However, I'll turn directly after we cross (providing my opponent is still facing in the direction he's rushing towards) and fire in that direction with either one, two simultaneous of three intentions in mind. The first one is to wound them to soften that opponent up for my team mates to finish off. The second is of course the less likely achievement of killing them. While doing either of the two, the shots are made airborn to make it along my base. Knowing where the shots came from, it should alert someone at the base of an approaching opponent, given that I know where my teammates are. This saves me the trouble of having to type "Inc Up" which also leaves me in play, free to turn back around to where I was heading.

Weather or not I survive thus is not important then. Often it is to aid my team. If surviving means that I am helping them then I will do so to the best of my ability. So what mattered at the moment is that my available team mates got he signal to take care of the intruder.

My main issue is aim. Dependant upon it, I can get good kills but the consistency of my aim fluctuates. Otherwise I'm overall an average player with a habit to multitask in game when I'm sharp.

Date Posted: June 09, 2008, 11:46:21 amNow to regard the initial post, which I disregarded because of its length earlier. While playing either Infiltration or Capture matches, I can assess that my team, both in number and skill, do determine the outcome between opposing forces. Sometimes I am leading my team with effective evasive maneuvers and the displacing splash damage that I use to shake some, boost comerads and give myself a means of escape via M79. Other times, depending upon the design of the map, I am at a handicap since I am more familiar with the range of an M79 than a barret so I switch weapons to change my intent all together.

While involved with my team mates, I often do find communication to be an effective method to opporate. But rarely, as I have witnessed and experienced, when only one team communicates among their comerads, the small chance of failure comes to life. So what I try to operate with, in regards to my team, are several sources of information.

The positioning of my team mates: This tells me
* Who has been killed where (on cue with the flag being taken)
* Where to travel with caution (providing one has died)

Team Chat: This gives me:
* A clearer idea of what needs to be done
* A chance to relay information to my team so they may act accordingly.

And other factors which I fail to recollect at the time. However, words among team members does not always get through to the best of the intent's ability so if I'm capable, I try to make other use of my team by switching whoever is accompanying me from my primary position as the decoy to the support who uses information from his partner (now the decoy in terms of switching roles) to advance.

I would continue but due to my lack of focus, I did regrettably forget where I was going with this. But what I'll say is that I try and make use of my team as I do my weapon. In an attempt to either maintain or disrupt momentum in the beginning of the game, as teams who often travel to the base in one group, I may deviate from their flight path to take another, given that the attention is within that cluster. For a team who breaks apart from the beginning, I'm either the first to the front line to die (expected) since I am swift about a map, if not anything, first to capture the flag after all of the damage about players has allowed a calm before the storm of opponents, or I am seeking a position of which to advance with the aid of individual players but not particularly in the presence of that individual.

[theSTATWHORE]

flags are great to run and gun with and improve the over all game during the match

[CrashMan]

Soldat Skills include:

1. Movement
A) Can you maneuver around the map?
B) Can you move quickly?
C) Can you evade?

2. Fighting
A) Can you aim?
B) Do you know your gun?
C) Do you know your enemy?
D) Can you fight against your enemy?
E) Can you decide on which target to shoot first?
F) How long can you hold out in battle?
G) Do you know when to escape?

3. Teamwork
A) Can you work with your teammates?
B) Are you able to not block your teammate?
C) Are you able to support your teammate?
D) Are you able to sacrifice yourself to help your team(mates)?

^ Mainly, these are the skills that a Soldat player should have.

Quoted for truth.

There was one other comment I wanted to address, though...

... if your teammate severly wounds an enemy rusher, and you finish him with one MP5 bullet, then who deserves the kill?

That's an interesting subject. Who DOES deserve points for the kill? There's really no telling since there are different ways this situation could be interpreted.

I'll give you an example where the MP5 guy should earn the kill, just to prove my point.

If you treat the battle with the first guy as a duel, then he lost didn't he? At which point it was entirely the rusher's fault to continue rushing and fighting against the MP5 guy who only needed one shot to kill him. In this way, the MP5 guy earns the kill fairly because the rusher was stupid enough to face him in the first place with so little HP left.

A far-fetched possibility, yes. But still possible, no?

[Peu]

deserves the kill, yes, but he should adjust his pride correctly for the situation. here's two situations for comparison.

2v1, the 2 are both shooting at the one, but of the 2, the guy that did the least damage gets the kill. Fair? (or appeasing)
what if the guy that did the least damage kills the 1 and so prevents his partner's death. deserving?

[CrashMan]

deserves the kill, yes, but he should adjust his pride correctly for the situation. here's two situations for comparison.

Well, we haven't made any assumptions about what the killer feels about the situation. Just generally where we beleive the points should go.

[STM1993]

The kill, I believe, would go to the one who finished the person off.

A kill only occurs when the person is finished off. Reducing someone to a very low hp is simply reducing hp. It is considered the fault of a player if he fails to finish off a person and that person runs off. If it is a Deathmatch, then the player who has failed to kill has failed to kill fast enough to prevent his kill from getting easily stolen (which is one of the elements of Deathmatch ; stealing kills). However, if it is a team game, credits should go to BOTH the one who reduces the HP, and the one who finishes the person.

Without reducing the HP, the finisher may not be likely to have eliminated the enemy. Without the finisher, the person would have been loose and not be dead, which can be a very serious threat in future. That same person could steal your flag and run off or take out one of your important teammates even with that little bit of health.

So, the reducer has no right to condemn the finisher, neither has the finisher have the right to boast, for both have played the important role, whether this is a team game or a Deathmatch.

[LtKillroy]

The scoreboard gives you, at a glance, a basic overview of how you are doing. Not exact, but little is. As what STM is saying, on a game I play there is an "assist" system that shows all players that have hurt the dead player in the last 30 seconds I think it is. Makes people feel better.

[Ziem]

No, there is NO NEED for any assists/teamwork points. Who cares about his own score in CTF?
F11.