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The statistics will probably be drastically different to what is it now.
(refering to 1.) Each ace will at least have 2 abilities. One from the ace group and another from the pilot/gunnery group. Most veterans will have 1 ability also.
Let's have a look at current stats.
On a total of 589 we have:
2 players with 4 skills ( 0.3%);
6 players with 3 skills ( 1.0%);
8 players with 2 skills ( 1.4%);
60 players with 1 skill (10.2%);
163 players with no skills (27.7%) and
339 novice players (57.6%).
The total of skilled players is 12,9%. That's the flat chance for a newbie or experienced of meeting a veteran on a one-vs-one game.
(BTW, there are only 9 "real" Aces, with 5+ kills. That's important because some of the strongest skills are reserved to them.)
IMO that's not the main problem: the real problem (I didn't think about) is that 57.6% of greenhorns. They are really hopeless, especially because their chance of teaming with at least an experienced players is quite low.
So the idea could simply be to ban novices from "expert" games (i.e. games with experience and skill). Or at least to discourage them by precise (and alarming) warnings.
If we take into account only experienced players (50xp+), the percentages are:
4 skills: 1.2%;
3 skills: 3.7%, 4.9% cumulative;
2 skills: 4.9%, 9.8% cumulative;
1 skills: 36.8%, 46.6& cumulative;
0 skills: 63.2%.
So, a "normal" has around 55% of meeting a skilled pilot.
But the same applies to skilled pilots. 
And remember that the chance of meeting somebody with 2+ skills is only 10%.
All in all, I wouldn't be scared, even being just a "normal". Just avoiding to start 1-1 games (you never know who joins) would be safe enough.
For one thing, in the board game version, a "pilot killed" chit will remove your status and all abilities. [...] In the system you said [...] Kills generate the same benefits and Deaths incurs fewer penalties, so there will be more pilots with abilities.
No, that's wrong. Let's take me for exaple:
gugliandalf
kills: 136
deaths: 45
ratio: 3,02 (3 kills and 76 xp)
games: 350
ratio: 7,78 (8 games played and 97 xp)
total XP: 173 (1 skill)
Now, let's immagine I play a game and score a kill.
In "normal" play I would go:
kills: 4 (100 xp)
games: 10 (125 xp)
total: 225 xp. Here comes my brand new second skill!
In "YouPLay" play, I go:
kills: 137
deaths: 45
ratio: 3,04 (3 kills and 76 xp) <-- note that the xp gain is negligible!
games: 351
ratio: 7,80 (8 games and 98 xp)
total XP: 174 (1 skill)
HEY! WAIT! FOR A KILL A MERE XP! I'VE BEEN CHEATED! 
So,kills DON'T generate same benefits! Q.E.D.
(BTW, I would need around 30 kills and 50 games without being shot down to get my 2nd skill)
So, don't rely on your experience on the table to judje the outcome of the system.
(refering to 2.) Then we will have trouble finding players to play all the 4 types of games: Campaign players to "Professional", real-life vets to "Advanced", those who prefer a less random games to "Standard" and newcomers to "Basic".
Why? With 500+ players around?
When I join a game, I need to know the game type, the map size, the choice of planes, abilities list of each and every pilots, and their plane selections (different abilities have different impact on different planes). I will have no way to prevent aces from creeping up at my back unless I am the last one to join the game.
You're too damn scared of aces. There is an ace every 50 players! And also, an ace is a man: a PK kills him as any green.
It is also possible that a "kill the ace" syndrome will occur, like in soccer games when the "ace" players are harassed by defenders.
(refering to 3.) We have no control of the human mind and we never know if aces will join games against other aces, nor will we know if they can join such games before the quota fills up. People in different time zones login at different times.
They're aces, nod Godzilla!
I believe aces will be those who only play Snipe vs DVA and against newbies.
You'd better say: "those who start Snipe vs D.Va". If you start such a game, and just one of the D.Va's is another ace, you'll have an hard time, I'll tell you from experience.
There is undoubtly people who starts games hoping to lure newbies. But aginst newbies they're already dangerous, skill's won't add anything to that. OTOH, any ace that joins their games will spoil their effort. And that's math.
We may opt to vary the XP rewards on ranks, [...]
That's impossible witht my system. XP are not recorded, only kills, deaths and games played. I did it this way because it doesn't need a database revision, remember?
My golden rule of gaming is: Rules shall not change in the middle of a game, even if the majority believes it should be changed.
Very democratic, indeed! 
But that would mean that rules should never change! 
BTW, of course, changing the XP rules wouldn't affect currently running games, only games that started after the change was made (I got a stalled game with a D.Va that cna do 15L2 and 15R2).
There will also be some troubles mixing statistics in advanced and professional games.
Wich kind of troubles?
Pilots with no or very few abilites may choose to play in advanced games. At the end we may just be playing in 4 types: Basic, Standard, Veteran, and Ace. The XP and kill ratios only determine who are qualified to play in the 4th group, for those who are not qualified will be killed without mercy...
That's the same idea I wrote before (I didn't read this part of your message).
There would be very extra technical difficulties. There are always sleeping players, one way or another. New tables will be created in the database, and their size will be proportional to the number of active games, much like the game list and maneuver history tables.
The only possible modification is on the table of "active planes", i.e. planes playing in games, maybe in the form of a long integer that is a bit mask.
Or it would just mean the adding of a "skill" table, something like this:
SkillID: long integer, unique key
AircraftID: long integer, foreign key to the playing aircrafts
SkillType: whatever, probably integer, to indicate the exact skill.
So, 4 bytes per record in the first case or 12 bytes per record in the second. Not a very large space!
Order-wise there would be no impact.
Sorry, what do you mean? :-o
[Snip on the last part]
The implementation of campaign is totally another matter. I meant to leave it out for now. I'm afraid the topic was misleading, but that was the way I meant.
Have fun
--
Gugliandalf
"It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase." |
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