Assists

[Torp]

Now we have a scoreboard which includes kills, deaths and then a 'score' - but i think an 'assist' statistic would be a great addition.
Of course it is hard to determine what an 'assist' is in this game - i don't have a complete solution to this, but i suggest the following:
A player should get an assist if
 - A teammate kills the enemy while said enemy is staggered from the players attack
 - A teammate kills the enemy while said enemy is blocking the players attack
 - A teammate kills the enemy while said enemy ig knocked down by the player
 - Other scenarios
I think this would prevent some of the kill-whoring that is gonig on on the servers, and the 'score' should of course reflect assists as well as kills, damage dealt and whatever other parameters currently influencing the score.

 - Kenkyaku

[Gravoth_iii]

I think score shows how much assisting youve done already.

[Torp]

I think score shows how much assisting youve done already.

have to admit i don't know exactly how the score system works, but as a cav i don't experience getting 'rewarded' for bumping people to let my teammates free-kill them for example... it seems to be highly based on damage dealt as far as i see it. I may be wrong, but even if i am, i think it would be nice to have assists as a separate column too.

[Rumblood]

While points are imperfect, I think it does a decent job of showing how well you are assisting your team already.

I believe that there is a technical issue with your suggestion as well. With points, the action is evaluated and awarded right away, so the only data point needing to be saved is your total score. Even with proximity points awarded for being close it woulldn't need to store and query a bunch of data. On kill, it would just award points to the killer, then ask if teammates are in range, if so, give them points too.
With an assist feature, especially where you might use "enemy killed within x second of being hit by a player", you would have a lot more data points needing to be saved and queried as well. With 120 players on the server, instead of simply updating the saved points/kills stat, it would need to also query to find out whether anyone else did any qualifying actions within a timeframe and that happens x 120. It would use up resources for something that the points system is covering nicely I think.

As for "kill whoring", there are a number of ways to interpret what you are trying to prevent.
Strength whoring for 1 hit kills? - Assist numbers is not going to convince someone to take less.
Killing a weaker opponent when given a choice? - When going up against 2 people, it is always a better strategy to take one out first, than to distribute attacks between them both. It is also better to take out one as fast as possible. That will always be the weaker one as even a weak player can disrupt attacks or kill you with a dozen small lashes while you ignore them. Assist numbers isn't going to convince someone that to do different is a better strategy.

A horse isn't considered a weapon and it also isn't you, so aren't getting points for it. Perhaps the dev's could add that in, but then again they may not want to encourage horse bumping in the game anymore than it is already used.

[IR_Kuoin]

Well, archers and crossbowers don't get that many point, even if they do a lot of damage on their target. Like one time I headshotted DaveUKR in the head from across the map, and I only got 2 points. Its not a perfect system but it tend to reward the melee classes more on the score side. Still its a better system than the old K/D.

[Torp]

While points are imperfect, I think it does a decent job of showing how well you are assisting your team already.

I believe that there is a technical issue with your suggestion as well. With points, the action is evaluated and awarded right away, so the only data point needing to be saved is your total score. Even with proximity points awarded for being close it woulldn't need to store and query a bunch of data. On kill, it would just award points to the killer, then ask if teammates are in range, if so, give them points too.
With an assist feature, especially where you might use "enemy killed within x second of being hit by a player", you would have a lot more data points needing to be saved and queried as well. With 120 players on the server, instead of simply updating the saved points/kills stat, it would need to also query to find out whether anyone else did any qualifying actions within a timeframe and that happens x 120. It would use up resources for something that the points system is covering nicely I think.

As for "kill whoring", there are a number of ways to interpret what you are trying to prevent.
Strength whoring for 1 hit kills? - Assist numbers is not going to convince someone to take less.
Killing a weaker opponent when given a choice? - When going up against 2 people, it is always a better strategy to take one out first, than to distribute attacks between them both. It is also better to take out one as fast as possible. That will always be the weaker one as even a weak player can disrupt attacks or kill you with a dozen small lashes while you ignore them. Assist numbers isn't going to convince someone that to do different is a better strategy.

A horse isn't considered a weapon and it also isn't you, so aren't getting points for it. Perhaps the dev's could add that in, but then again they may not want to encourage horse bumping in the game anymore than it is already used.

I agree that the points are nice, but of course they also have flaws - assists is simply a sugegstion to make this very good game just a tiny bit better.
I admit i have no idea whether or not it is possible at all, and i dont expect it to record who has damaged the enemy within x seconds, i would just like it added if the enemy was defenseless because of a teammate - i.e. staggered, knocked down or blocking another incoming attack (dont know if the last one is even close to possible)

By kill whoring i mean doing whatever you can to hit that guy on the ground before your 10 teammates standing around just to get another kill. or chasing some random peasant instead of helping your team (i know assists wouldnt solve this) or hitting the guy you think you may be able to kill instead of the key player your teammate can kill if you mess up his block.

As for the horse: in my opinion, it is as much a part of my fictional character as my sword is, yet i get 'rewarded' whenb my sword hits an enemy, not when my horse does. And bumping is, in my opinion the best way to help a teammate as a cav now that the lance turn range has been reduced - it gives your teammate a free kill.

[Commodore_Axephante]

I'm cool with score as-is, but as far as I know, your score is not listed in the after-reports of strat battles, only your k:d. This is something I would love to see changed, if anything score-related was in question.

Personally, this matters to me because I typically end up getting far more assists than kills, and I want people to see that. Why? Because my K:D alone is not good enough to keep people from kicking me off rosters for future strat battles, and like most people playing this game, I want to have fun. Viewable score = strat roster acceptance = more fun.

So, either make score viewable in the after-report or, somehow, as the OP suggested, make assists visible, so once again, everyone can see how mediocre I am (as opposed to just plain bad).

[Rumblood]

Well, archers and crossbowers don't get that many point, even if they do a lot of damage on their target. Like one time I headshotted DaveUKR in the head from across the map, and I only got 2 points. Its not a perfect system but it tend to reward the melee classes more on the score side. Still its a better system than the old K/D.

Well I'll have to disagree. While my archer alt doesn't get as many points as some of the elite guys, even at level 24 he is in the top 5 or more on occasion that he isn't hunted down like a dog by cavalry or shielders at the beginning of every map. Given proper placement and protection, an archer has a much easier time racking up points than a melee because you can avoid being whittled down in close combat. Try shooting at cavalry (which really should be every archers #1 target). With a light bow and 150-170 wpf and experience shooting moving targets at distance, you can put 3 of 4 arrows shot into a pony at most ranges if there aren't too many obstacles in the way. Do that to 3 or 4 horse per round plus a few into other targets and you can easily get 40-70 points during a map, which isn't a bad contribution for the team. Sure, you might go 0-4 in k/d, but taking out 3-4 horses and a damaging 3-4 melee per round ain't doing nothing and what the point system is there to represent.
When you get a hit on someone who is later killed by someone else, you get points as a representation of your "assist" anyhow, and it takes into account your damage against horses as well.

A developer would need to weigh in on just how great of a resource drain it would take and whether it would cause them to need to lower max population on the servers to accommodate it or not, but I tend to think it would be enough to be a source of problems without that great of a reward or need with the current points system.

[Torp]

A developer would need to weigh in on just how great of a resource drain it would take and whether it would cause them to need to lower max population on the servers to accommodate it or not, but I tend to think it would be enough to be a source of problems without that great of a reward or need with the current points system.

Most definitely, i have no idea if its realistic or even possible at all, i've just been thinking about it a few times and figured i might as well throw it out there - if it results in a lower server performance or noticeable resource drain, it would of course probably not be the smartest idea.

[Adalwulf]

Archers can top score boards in servers depending on situation and I've done it a few times. Current point system doesn't help ranged much but as an archer I know if I got 100 points and 2 points per shot then I shot 50 people that round. That for me is enough to know I helped my team. The assist idea has been suggested before but i believe it would just make archers mostly get all the assists points. Based on fire rate.

[Torp]

Archers can top score boards in servers depending on situation and I've done it a few times. Current point system doesn't help ranged much but as an archer I know if I got 100 points and 2 points per shot then I shot 50 people that round. That for me is enough to know I helped my team. The assist idea has been suggested before but i believe it would just make archers mostly get all the assists points. Based on fire rate.

i dont know about that, i would not grant assists simply because of having dealt damage to the enemy before - and i don't think people are killed recovering form an arrow more than they are killed recovering from a stab.

[CrazyCracka420]

I hear what the guy is saying with no "physical" reward for bumping a guy and having a teammate kill him, but you get the respect of that infantry guy on your team, and you get a good feeling inside.  Pat yourself on the back, you are doing a great job to your team.  Your "physical" reward is when your team wins and your multiplier goes up 1, or stays at x5. 

For as often as I try to bump an enemy, I end up running over my own guys too.  It's the nature of the beast, it's the same attitude of "always take the shot" or always take the swing.  I want teammates to help me, even if that means they are going to run me over once in a while (or shoot me, or stab me).  I'd rather have them try to help, than not.