There is a fundemental flaw with how kills are currently “assigned” within naval battles and this causes issues.
Currently, the last hit is rewarded the kill. It doesnt necessarily even have to do any meaningful damage, just the last hit gets the kill. This can often cause an issue of “kill-stealing” either by bots or even just secondary guns randomly firing.
So I would propose 2 possible solutions to this issue (and they are not necessarily mutually exclusive)
The First solution:
Have the kill assigned to the person actually caused the death. For example. If player A sets fire to an ammo lift, which then ignites the magazine and results in the target being killed. Then Player A should get the kill for it. Regardless of however much damage has been inflicted by any other player or who the last player to hit the target was.
This would mean that the kill would be assigned to the player that actually “killed” the target. But does have the flaw that the target may have sustained heavy damage from another player and simply gotten a good late hit. It is also difficult to assign the kill fairly from certain deaths, such as flooding.
The second solution:
Apply the severe damage mechanic from Aircraft over to naval. So that multiple players can get “kill” and subsequent reward. Now Id propose this would require someone to inflict a certain amount of damage to be legible for the kill. So that kills arent assigned to anyone and everyone that has hit the target, but this should be fairly simple. Such 20-25% crew damage, scoring a certain number of ciritical hits (like 2 or 3), starting critical fires, etc etc.
This could also work in conjunction to the first solution as well.
These 2 suggestions, either independently, or better yet together, would greatly improve the current state of naval at the moment in this regard.
I am interested in what people think of this suggestion.