It’s always about the interpretation. Because for you “just an assist” can mean something else than for me.
What changed between the two systems is that if one person first severely damage (destroy in the old system) the plane and the other person finishes it:
From the tasks and challenges perspective:
- in the new system it’s easier to get kills (kill-related tasks), as both players will be credited with a kill.
- in the old system it was easier to get assists (assist-related tasks), as one player could get a kill and the other player assist.
From the service records perspective:
- in the new system the person who finishes the target gets +1 kill in their service records, the person who severely damaged (caused most damage to the enemy) gets no kill credit in their service records.
- in the old system the person who destroyed (severely damaged) the target got +1 kill in their service record, the person who finished it got no kill credit in their service record.
From the score perspective:
- in the new system both players can get 80% for severe damage + 40% for finishing, so 120% in total.
- in the old system the first player could get 100% for destruction + 33% for additional critical hit, the second player 67% for assist + 33% for additional critical hit, so 233% in total.
From the nameplate color perspective:
- in the new system severely damaged plane keeps red nameplate, so sometimes it’s impossible to figure out who is severely damaged and who isn’t.
- in the old system destroyed (severely damaged) plane had grey nameplate color, so it was easy to figure out who is severely damaged.
These are pretty much the most important changes between the two systems.
Why the devs changed the system? Because many players stopped shooting severely damaged planes in the old system (they considered planes with grey nameplates as “not dangerous anymore”). And these “dead” planes could still be dangerous. I never considered planes with grey nameplate as “dead” planes, so it wasn’t a problem for me. But I’m not saying the old system was perfect of course. A few times I managed to land and repair, even if I was considered “destroyed” already. It’s pretty much impossible with severe damage mechanics (you only die when you crash, when your pilot is killed or when you lose your tail, so when you have no control over your plane).



