Quitch wrote:
There needs to be an MA and MAN version of the new system, otherwise the overall score of MA players will be terrible since they won't be able to improve on their 1500 Cratorthingy score (and any new maps in the future).
I didn't even know that MA games were taken into account in the current system. Then again, I was never quite clear on the integration between MA and MAN. But yes, I agree that these games shouldn't be reflected in this system.
About calculating the Overall rating, I like Quitch's approach best. Specifically, I think it will help eliminate the problem of new players racking up a huge score by only playing on EMerald using PL option. It would effectively reduce the net effect of these games to a fraction of what they count as now, as playing on only one map and as only one faction is not a truly accurate demonstration of skill.
One question about this system, because there will be relatively few games played per map and per faction, won't the average of all RDs still be very high? I guess we'll see once we crunch the numbers, but this is what I would expect.
There were some good points brought up in this thread about player skills on different maps, and now I actually have some time to address it. Basically, my thinking is that each map has a learning curve, and in general skilled players will do better than less skilled players regardless of experience on a particular map. However, when there are two players of equivilent skill playing on a map where one has much experience and the other has very little experience, the more experienced player will probably win. A lot still depends on the luck of the draw, of course, but on maps like New Paradise, there are a lot of things you just have to learn from experience (or at least I do). I'd say the biggest difference experience makes is in the initial deployment phase, where you're given a set of SAs to work with, and you have to determine what's the best combination of units to use. For example, Wass and Crateus require radically different deployments, and they depend on both your SA spread and your faction. A skilled player will recognize this, but if they've never played on either map, they might not know what the best deployment or strategy will be.