I think if you looked at the average kills per game that more experienced top tier players get or the amount of time they are spending in alternate tiers that you would see a pretty clear picture.
I think this makes it a little more clear. In the same period of time last year you a good bit more games and those games likely had more activity in them.
vs
If you look at kills per game as a metric of activity then you were averaging around 15 kills per game last year vs 9 kills per game in the first 3 months this year.
It shows that experienced players are changing their preferences due to it. It also supports claim that the average game has a much shorter lifespan than before which will also cause an increase in number of games played.
I also started streaming regularly last year, my performance has noticeabley dropped just from this alone. Having to deal with teams regularly populated with actually competent players who know my playstyle makes my performance worse.
Not to mention ive started playing ground sim withing the past few months. These matches are obviously much quicker and relatively lower kill per game.
Lots of nuance with these statistics, which is why alone I don’t think they really prove anything.
I agree with you the Iron dome is absolutely having an effect. Though I don’t think this necessarily proves it.
But I don’t think this really needs to be proven with statistics. Literally just playing the game is enough. Read the chats, ask the players. Countless people in the 14.0 and bellow brackets talking about how mich better it is without constant MCM. And the opposite in toptier with constant ingame discussion about players either thinking about or actively stopping their participation in top tier sim.
I’m wondering if the devs have any future plans that relate to this thread. Or at the very least is there discussion/consideration going on regarding the future of missile on missile combat mechanics?
Shooting down other player’s missiles clearly seems intentional, but I’m curious if the success rate for this is what they consider to be ideal. Of course munitions being shot down is historical, given the conditions are correct for these things to happen (ie. large enough RCS to be seen, and close enough proxy range to detonate). But are there any plans for future developments like more accurate/detailed RCS values for each munition, or even better modeling of explosion fragmentation?
For example, it would make sense for very large munitions like GBU-64s, AIM-54 Phoenixes, Grom-2s, etc. to have large enough RCSs to reliably appear on a missile seeker’s radar. But smaller missiles like AIM-120s, R-77s, AIM-9s, etc. seem as though they should have considerably less of a chance to get seen by a missile seeker’s radar. There has also been discussion here regarding explosion shapes that might be interesting.
Ultimately, this comes down to gameplay as well. Adding a very reliable way to hard counter incoming munitions (specifically AAMs) generates an environment of Fox-3 spam. This dumbs down gameplay and removes tactical elements for normal engagements.
