Some issues with just using K/D. (Destiny)

by iconicbanana, C2-H5-OH + NAD, Portland, OR, Monday, March 23, 2015, 15:50 (3781 days ago) @ BeardFade

I like the idea of some elemental burns, but perhaps a better one would be that a certain weapon type has a small increase to power (say 5%, and only for one match at a time). I like weapon type over burn because not everyone has attained a primary with each burn (I don't have an Arc primary).

As for level. I was playing last night as a 29 Titan (already got my hunter to 5 so why not) and the only people I struggled to take down were 32s. My shotgun would not one shot kill them like it had before, which meant I lost some of those battles when they, too had a shotgun. Even as a 29, I was consistently playing well, I had an evening with a 2.00 k/d and I think I know why.

TrueSkill is not a terribly accurate measure of skill because it heavily weights winning, which is not a skill/talent that an individual controls. I've played team sports my whole life and know what it's like to play a great game individually and lose horribly. Winning requires all team members to play well (or at least enough to make up for the worst). You can't control this at all. This is why you still get terribly unbalanced matches. A great player who plays with bad teams will still have a lower TrueSkill than is accurate for his or her abilities.

Personally, I think creating an algorithm that does not weight winning so heavily and K/D and KA/D more would be a better one. Positive k/d's almost guarantee you took more points from the other team than they took from you, which essentially is the key to winning. Get enough positive K/Ds and you win. That way, individuals with high K/D's would get ranked higher in TrueSkill and you would face people as adept at killing as you are.

Some quick thoughts about what might be problematic with just using K/D:

-A player who kills 10 people a game and dies 5 times a game is not the same as a player who kills 30 people a game and dies 15 times.

-If this system worked perfectly, everyone would end up with a 1.0 K/D, which doesn't really solve the problem.

-Smurphing (intentionally feeding/afking/playing badly to end up in lower-skilled lobbies) would become a real issue.