I don’t really understand “Useful actions” so I cannot really comment, especially since its not transparent and I cannot fathom what makes up up the total.
Before it was assists, kills, hits and that had a clarity.
Things like capture points, bomber/attacker formations are fine, no problem there. I don’t know if there is any attrition if the Bombers and attackers manage to hit their target, though one still gets the reward for destroying formations after they have completed their task.
There does not seem to be any player attrition in the mix as yet, if it is, its barely noticeable, Destroying fighters and bombers should reduce the enemy resources and should be the main mode in which to win the game.
It seems to me this whole scoring mechanism is an evolution of plugging economic exploits, like bomb and bail, driving bombers around on the ground, F4 rockets . .etc etc
Its as if you play a game of foot ball, score the maximum goals . . .and for some inexplicable reason … .you lose.
I would really like to see SIM stop being exploited for economic reasons with bad game play . . .the exploitation affects everybody, repairs costs, spawn costs, rewards in general and the biggest cost of all . . .the actual game and the way an air combat simulation should play out.
Personally, never had to care about the economy, never been concerned with it, just played what caught my fancy and its has been and continues to be a whole lot of fun, but this problem has stagnated the SIM mode and caused a lot of friction and bad blood, I wont say it was a major cause of the recent crisis, but why on earth would anybody pay if there was an easily exploitable mode that gave one a short cut to all the goodies?
Thats the real problem right?
You see . . .this half reward if you don’t land is not because fighters were bailing out . . .it was a bomber exploit. The F4 Rockets was exploited, like the wyvern and a number of air craft . . .not by guys wanting to play air sim, but by guys looking for an easy ride.
The fix is actually really simple . . .Apply SIM flight rules across everybody. No 3rd person, no globally stabilized horizons, enforce cockpits, proper bomb sights, turrets, landings and take offs
Just that will raise the bar enough that exploiters will no longer be able to exploit, because the increase in difficulty will prevent exploitation.
Is shooting named bots an exploit? Of course not, the AI is pretty handy and will give a new player tremors, an average player a run for his money and sure, an experienced player will have some fun with them.
But why was the reward for Named bot kills reduced to nothing and bots not included in custom games . . .while farming lobbies were all the rage?
To tilt the game away from experienced SIM players and towards the exploiters of SIM . . .and that is why we have “Useful Actions” and not rewards for Kills.
Where that path led, is clear for everyone to see . . .I think we should get back to the fundamental of Rewards, the difficulty of the enemy defeated should be proportional to the rewards, dropping laser targeted bombs on a static target from 3rd person view should be at the bottom of the scale and shooting down a maneuvering target in cockpit view with full controls should be top of the food chain. Just loitering around . .should give a small token for take off and landing.
There will be nothing left to exploit
