Comments http://forum.worldoftanks.com Thu, 17 May 2012 05:51:26 +0000 5 Comments http://forum.worldoftanks.com http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124689-tcr-is-recruiting/ Tired of the same old bull?
Do you want a solid and strong team building atmosphere?

Perhaps you belong under the big top.

We are

THE CARNIVALS REJECTS!


Don't let the name fool you. We are a very serious clan that is looking for new members.
Yes we do Clan Wars and we take tier IX's and X's for that show.

BUT!

We also platoon heavily in pubs.
We believe that real life takes precedence over games, and with that;

We have no time requirement on when you have to play. Log in and be here when YOUR schedule allows.
We all run tiers from I - X and pride ourselves on helping the lower guy rise to the top.

Large player base (60+ members with as many as 20+ members on Teamspeak during our peak time)
Our player base is very knowledgeable and we will help you get where you are going.

Interested?

Stop by our Teamspeak server at

T326.DARKSTARLLC.COM:10017

Or find our recruiters in game!

Dirt_Knapp

Gleaoks

Mntwlkr

Sparkles11

Feel free to contact out command staff as well:

Spankmonkey - Commander

_SPASTIC_ - Deputy Commander

TheOneReaver - Deputy Commander]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 05:51:26 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124689-tcr-is-recruiting/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124688-a-philosophical-look-at-win-rates-actions-influence-ect-ect/ Note: I have never studied Philosophy, but these are just practical thoughts
I have written down. I hope you take them under consideration.

I've been reading this forum for a while and frankly, I'm just tired of what I'm
seeing on here. The current ideas of how win rates and statistics work is
flawed. Now some people can agree on this being the case, but by how
much is not agreeable nor can we accurately define that amount. Thus this
essay on the matter.

When people talk about Win Rates they also talk about Influence. They also
talk about this in the context of a single battle, which is not the big picture.
Win rate does predict the case of winning a single battle, but how likely you are
to win it and a battle has many variables on how it is determined. There are
in incredible amount of variables to be found on the Battlefield down to ever
pixel you see on the screen.

When you consider that one pixel can change the whole course of battle,
you must realize what you are seeing in play. It is the Butterfly Effect. The
Butterfly Effect is originated from weather, but also has many more
applications as well. Not only that, but Butterfly Effect is an expansion on
a the Chaos Theory. This means we are playing a game with Deterministic
Chaos with random elements.

The idea of the Butterfly Effect is that an environment is incredibly sensitive
to initial conditions. However, since we have elements of randomness such
as where a bullet's tractory will hit, we have an environment that will be more
unpredictable. What we can definately control is movement and a better
chance at hitting a target. When we take this under consideration, we must
aknowledge that one pixel can change everything.

Consider this:

We have a game in which we must find the ball in 2 cups and each cup is
definate. It does not move and is stationary. However, the ball in the is
dynamic. It moves between cups through some unexplained phenomenon.
Our goal is to find the ball. However, if we wait one minute, we may find the
ball in the left cup. If we pick it up now, we will find it in the right. If we do
choose to pick it up now and pick the left cup, we will be forced to pick up
the right cup. This is an analogy to camping and just like camping, we can
choose when to take action when we want and we take it.

However, this game does end once we do find the ball. Let's say everytime
we find the ball, another cup is added. Thus during the game, the ball is
moving between all the cups. The decisions on when and what cups to pick
up thus increase. Thus our example in tactics.

We can take this much further though. Let's say at the end of each round,
we add one player and one cup to each player per player. Wait that may
have not come out right so let me write this down in math.

1 + P + 1(P+1) = # of cups where P is the # of players.

Thus we included more choices and people involved to the game. These
players all have the same options as you do and the winner is determined
by who finds the ball. As we gain players, the overall chance of finding
the ball lessens yet increases as each cup is removed. So let's consider
this. Let's say a competitor decided to pick up a cup a moment before you
when you decided it would be the right time to do so. Also, let's consider he
does not find the ball, yet if you had picked it up, you would have. Since
the ball is always moving, let's consider what you would have done if haven't
found it. You may have had a stategy in mind, but now you may have to
change it. However, other players at the table may have had strategy based
on that cup also. That player has changed everyone's set of decisions.
This will continue throughout the whole game. Thus we can conclude the true
nature of the Butterfly Effect. In this game, a person can affect you from the
whole other side of the map in some form or fashion.

We're not done yet though.

They say the higher your Win Rate, the more you can influence a win. If this
were true, we would see all 0's and 100's in the percentiles or at least drive
near that extremes. Yet that does not happen does it? Why? Because
everyone is in a different tank with different attributes, thus affecting these
rates.

Let's go back to the cup game. Let's say at each round you bought some
ability to inhibit another player. This could be picking up more cups in one
go , delaying when they could pick them up, or simply getting them out of
the game all together. You have affected thier ability to win the game
(hopefully negatively) and if you been tracking wins, also thier win rate.
Your actions and abilities (or tank) may have caused them to win or lose.

We must now consider the Tier 10 factor or your influence on the game.
They say that as a Tier 10 you have great influence on a game. This is true
to an extent and much more so with 2 tanks of the same order, but equipped
differently.

Let's say in the Cup game you have the ability to not select cups for 30
seconds. Let this be our T10 scenerio. You can now pick up as many cups
as you want without anyone affecting you. How you proceed after your 30
seconds is dependent on what you've done and how many other players
there are. If there is 2 players, you can easily win. This is basically a T10
beating a T1 in fell swoop because you can pick up 3 cups in 30 seconds.
However, let's say there are 16 players and you are only able to pick up one
cup per second. That means there are 34 cups to pick in 30 seconds. You
can possibly win, but at this point your influence is less then what gaurentees
a win. This provides a very good chance for someone else to win.

We can further consider influence in this example. Let's say you (T10) have
the same abilities as previously stated, but another player can pick up cups
faster then you 5 at a time. This player is our Tier 5 medium analogue. Again
we are in a 16 player game. This means when your time is up, he can win the
game. Please remember we have not even considered other players strengths
weaknesses and such, but by account of this example we have established
that a Tier 10 is not a definate game winner.

However we have one last basis to use our cup game. That is two tanks of the
calibre yet with different upgrades.

Let's say you and another player both have a variety of abilities. Both of you
can pick up cups and delay movements. This will be a two man game. However,
his abilities are much better then yours. While you can delay for 1 second,
he can do it for 2. He can also pick up 4 cups at a time, while you...

Only 2.

I'm going to change the game slightly here and alter the rules. Instead of using
the formula, we are just going to say there are 14 cups.

So what's most likely going to happen is that with better abilities, he is most
likely going to win. A win is possible for you though if you are tactically minded.

The game starts and immediately he starts grabbing cups after intitiating his
delay. If he fails to find the ball in two seconds and 8 cups in that period, you
have a chance at winning. To win, you wait for him to pick 4 more cups and
then enact your delay. There are 2 cups left. You've won.

Mind you this example is not well constructed, but it gives you an idea of a how
lesser tank can have trouble improving win rate against a more formidable
oppopnent.

-----------

Ok, we're done with that. Now let's talk Stats (Oh boy...)

-----------

Note: Prepare yourself for sports...

When you consider how much control over the game we actually have, we have
to consider what use are statistics? I can comply with the notion they are useful,
but by how much?

I'm going to make a statement here:

As currently,

Not much.

Now statistics are used to evaluate and improve a players skills. but if we were to
go by the idea of Sabermetrics, then our statistical analysis is in the Dark Ages.

Gamers have become excellent researchers in Theroycraft or the research into
how games work. This goes down to gun shooting speed, DPS, and all that nice
stuff which I am not interested in talking about right now because of relevence,.
What surprises me is the lack of interest in the Gaming community in Sabermetrics.
We're geeks and we should be looking for better ways to evaluate players, but this
is not happening sadly.

There is one player on this forum who believes win rate is absolute evalutaion of a
player. It's not.

Noticed I just spent about what will probably half of this writing to establish Chaos
Theory and the Butterfly Effect. His mathematical analysis do not include these
concepts or theorys in his documents. That's a problem because there is a
formula to make these coexhist and maybe even be used for player evaluation.

Since he has failed to accept my challenge to go look for it, I will post it.

http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jps/jpsj/1999/p68b/p68b33/p68b33.pdf

Note: Let's not bring up his name please. I do not wish to take this thread into
a direction of flaming. I want debate.

Now it would be nice if we could have a perfect system to analyse players
accurately, but we don't. Not only that, but some results are skewed due to things
we don't know about. With the exception of one piece of data, it looks like
Sabermetrics might be the ticket.

In 1995, Owner of the Oakland A's Walter Haas died and this started the period
known as the Moneyball Years. From 1996 to 2004, the Oakland began a process
that eventually pioneered the concept of Sabermetrics. Sabermetrics had been
around been around with research beginning in 1964. However, until the Oakland
A's, no baseball team became interested or accepted Sabermetrics as a viable
concept.

During the Moneyball Years, the Oakland A's bought players who were
undervalued by conventional statistics of the time. However, they had a gameplan
in mind. and that was to put together excellent team under budget that could
perform. In 2002, those efforts payed off by putting together a team that set an
AL league record of 20 games won in row. No one has beaten that record.

The rest of MLB stopped and took notice of this spectacle. How could a broke
and underfunded team put up such an unexpected performance. Once they
found out the secret, the honeymoon period was over for the Oakland A's. It
isn't known as to when it ended, but some guess either the season of 2k5 or
2k6. That's when baseball changed forever. There isn't a team on the league
that doesn't use Sabermetrics and more sprorts leagues are following suit.

Before I continue on further, I feel I must talk about another sports team. There
is a hockey team right now defeating the odds with Sabermetrics. They are
the Pheonix Cayotes. This is a team without resources and suffered immensly
during the 2008 economic meltdown. In fact, the team is in danger of being
disbanded this year because that's how much financially they are in the hole.
As such, they have no outstanding players and no financial resources to gain
more. In fact, they are running a skeleton crew. Things are tough in that
stadium and this is a Franchise in worse shape then A's during the Moneyball
ERA.

Don Maloney was hired on as GM by the NHL when the franchise came into
financial trouble. Forced to make do with what he has, Maloney is using
Sabermetrics to beat the odds. He's using formulas no one has ever seen
before in the NHL and they are so secret that no one can enter his
workspace without guard approval. Also if I remember right, his results are
and formulas are kept in lock and key. Even the players themselves don't
know what he's going to do until the night before match or even day of.

This is in a league just starting to embrace Sabermetrics, but the stuff he is
using is (supposedly) amazingly way above by leaps of other teams and maybe
even other sports leagues like baseball. This is not a team running at 110%.
This is a team running at 150%.

So what Sabermetrics are useful, how does it work? Well sabermetrics is
like going deeper into the Dream World of Inception. We know what's on
the surface, but what else is there to find. Well for one thing, we can create
stats for our tastes and needs. If we want to find a teams usefullness in
capping, we make a formula for that stat. We could probably make a stat
called defense while capping (although without the data we can't) and
likelyhood of penetration. The A's created thier most prominant stat -
on-base percentage for hitters - and this is what is said to led the A's to
thier 2k2.

However, statistics can be defeated and Sabermetrics is no exception.
There is a point in overdoing it and as such there teams who create
way too many stats or the wrong ones and they have no idea what to
do with them. An example of a team who uses sabermetrics, but doesn't
consider it to be then end all be is the Atlanta Braves. Frank Wren can
be quoted to ESPN Mag as not being a strong proponent, but still use
it. He notes in that some teams go gonzo and otheres use different stats
based on how they approach the game. This is why I'm not a strong
proponent of XVM either. Some players do the same thing, but are not
as smart as Wren to realize that there are times their evalutaions can
be wrong.

Since we now know the dangers of Sabermetrics and statistics what do
we use them for and how do we use them? We use them for everything,
yet do so with a cautious outlook. We can use find out so much from
Sabermetrics.. it's possible to find things we cannot currently account
for, like luck or something maybe a little more common like defense. It
could be an important tool for Clan Leaders especially. They could
possibly put together a team that is undervalued on paper, but full of win
in battle.

Like I said before, we are in a game of deterministic chaos, so things
will never go as planned. There are notes throughout history of even
the best Military Planners blundering a battle or pulling of a surprise win.
In fact, World of Tanks tells us of a surprise win by a Tankette that made
large number of Tank kills in one battle via one of the medals. That
means you should never underestimate your opponent no matter how
crappy or good they are.

Now I end with one last great Sprots Story and the next Chapter
in Sabermetrics. All information from the following is sourced
from ESPN Mag article Saviormetrics of 3/5/2012. Let this be a
lesson to players who wish to get better.

In 2010, Pitcher Brandon McCarthy almost lost his job. Then the A's
saved him, but in 2009 he began a journey to reinvention.

Brandon McCarthy started his MLB Career in May of 2005. Things
were looking good for awhile, but in the following seasons he recieved
injuries and trades. As such his performance began to decline.
McCarthy began to become frusterated with losing, especially to
losses he himself felt he caused or as he said himself, "I didn't want
to suck at baseball anymore." As time continued, the trades and
injuries took thier toll. He hit rock bottom in 2009 when his FIB was
0.73.

McCarthey had always been a fan of Sabermetrics. There are few
players who voice this affiliation of the study also. Even before he
bottomed out, he was heavily reading and researching Sabermetrics
in his spare time. He not only became obsessed with it, but also
about Sabermetrics said about himself. However, the results were
sobering and hit home when he saw picture of where his balls were
throwing. It looked like a shotgun taken to a paper target.

Before we go on I must explain what FIP is. In fact FIP is such an
important stat to mention because the player of World of Tanks
must understand it.

FIP is...

Fielding
Independent
Pitching

Now why is this relevent to us? Because the stat calculates only
what a pitcher can control (homers, walks and strikeouts) and
not what he can't (like luck and defense). Unfortunately, the
players of World of Tanks do not understand the meaning or
concept of control, including some pros (No, you are not innocent
of this either!). Yes, we can control where we are and how
we engage. We can even control who lives and dies to a certain
extent, and that includes teammates. Of course we may
encounter what I call the Sadistic Choice. This is best illustrated
in the Spiderman movie, but we're not superheros are we and we
can't save everyone. The thing we must consider is what we can
control and what we can't. When we figure that out, we can realize
what we can do to make ourselves better players.

Anyways...
on to the story.

So McCarthy was struggling and looking for an answer. Then he
found one in of peers, Roy Halleday who is one of best MLB
pitchers and made a comeback in his career. Halleday was also
known for his grounders that led to him being a CY Young award
winning player. He knew what he wanted. He wanted to be
Halleday. It was time for a change up.

McCarthy had traditionally runned a 4 seamed (or 4 fingers on
top) of the baseballs he was throwing. Howerver in order to get
to the top of the pitching ladder, he had to throw a 2 seemer
like Roy Halleday. Not only that, but he always threw fastballs
which had thier speed declining because of his injuries. He was
going to have to learn to throw differently and that required a
pitch called a cutter.


The Cutter



However, the cutter doesn't usually go with a two seemer,
but he decided to take a shot at using this throw in the
game with Toronto Blue Jays on Sept. 1, 2009. It was
there he found he can actually be a good pitcher.
However, his current team the Texas Rangers, didn't buy it.

Although he put up a good performance against the Jays,
his throw needed refinement. During this process he took
another injury from overexerting the 2 seam cutter.
McCarthy thought he was done. His last season killed
because of an injury and the inability to become a good
pitcher. Then he met Terry Clark. After watching tapes
of McCarthy in action, Clark revealed to him his problem
with his cutter and why he would fall over the mound
sometimes. Too much arm and not enough opposing
leg.

McCarthy could now have a shot at perfecting his unique
pitch and demonstrating to the MLB he could be a great
pitcher. Problem: He needed a way back in. After a shut
out in game in the Winter Minors, the A's snatched him up
for 1 million.

On his debut with the A's on April 5, he got the second
longest start of his career. 89 pitches over 8 innings,
throwing grounders left and right. Since then, he's
continued a path to excellence and pissing hitters off.
(He broke Micheal Young's favorite bat with his unique
pitch). Look him up, he's making news even now and
know he is the first player to use Sabermetrics change
and adapt his game.

I'd like to thank my ESPN Mag subscription for the sports
stories I have shared you. Even though I'm not a big
sports fan with the exception of Soccer, I find that it's a
fantastic read and I've learned more things from this
magazine then I expected to. I hope you did also.]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 05:36:09 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124688-a-philosophical-look-at-win-rates-actions-influence-ect-ect/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124685-tank-wars-trailor/ http://www.gametrailers.com/video/debut-trailer/730177

World of Tanks have a new competitor?....








Nope!

I give them them 24 hours before they get a cease and desist order from Games Workshop for stealing their baneblade tank design.]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 05:14:18 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124685-tank-wars-trailor/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124684-looking-for-a-clan/ My highest tank is a tier 8 and I am usually online Thu, 17 May 2012 05:08:47 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124684-looking-for-a-clan/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124683-windowed-mode/ I know you can have windowed mode for the game, but what i was wondering is if there was an idea for adding a Windowed fullscreen mode, like they have in most blizzard games, its basicly full screen with the option of being able to stream correctly and such without the problems of tabbing out Thu, 17 May 2012 04:55:54 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124683-windowed-mode/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124682-beating-a-dead-horse/
This stupid thing has to stop. If someone cuts infront of me, I shouldn't be penalized w/ a fine, it's bad enough that my tank gets dmg and most likely, dmg/lose tracks. It's their damn fault they don't chk the mini map for tanks near 'em and have no idea where their class is suppose to be going. It's one thing raming someone on purpose and an other when they cut ya off. ...and after all that, I get fined w/ credits and xp.

/rant off


Now, happy hunting,

Scav out..]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 04:55:40 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124682-beating-a-dead-horse/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124681-suggestion-more-creditsxp-for-damaging-higher-tiers/


....on the subject of matchmaking, however I have a suggestion on another way to improve things for those trying to grind mid-tier stuff.

My suggestion is, significantly increase the XP/credit bonus you get for damaging and killing enemies that are of a higher tier than you. Currently the bonus is there, but it's barely noticeable. I would suggest an additional 30-50% of a vehicle's base xp/credit multiplier for each tier higher the target is than you.

In other words, using the 30% bonus and a tier 6 as an example:

Tier 6 damaging/killing tier 7: 130% credit/ex earnings.
6 damaging/killing 8: 160% credit/ex earnings.
6 damaging/killing 9: 190% earnings, etc.

^This would apply for all tiers, not just tier 6.

This would make the tiers that usually end up at the bottom of the pile more fun to play, and also make make the mid-tiers into better credit grinders once the grind is over.]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 04:55:03 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124681-suggestion-more-creditsxp-for-damaging-higher-tiers/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124680-this-game-makes-me-sick-sometimes/ horrible team mates.
I know people say one person can make the difference but really when you have a whole bunch of players that just rush out and do whatever they please it makes me want to shoot them myself.

I've gone through 10 matches today and so far have 8 loses and 2 wins, so for every 4 loses I get a 1 win, jee that makes this game super fun, I'm doing my part and infact I'm generally the one with the most kills on my team with around 2-4 kills per match, if that even means anything considering how things are going. It's just annoying to get constantly matched up with fail team after fail team.

Also yes I pub, I'm considering jumping into a clan or getting friends that I can platoon with that know what they are doing cause I like this game but it gets on my nerves sometimes.

OK ... end rant.]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 04:40:16 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124680-this-game-makes-me-sick-sometimes/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124678-750th-warkings/ We are looking for people interested in Tournaments and Clan Wars.
Players should be mature individuals, who have a mic and are willing to log onto our Ventrilo server.

750th War Kings has a 50 man Ventrilo and a website. Feel free to check us out at...............................
http://750thwarkings.us

**Ventrilo is a must for 750th War Kings**
(Ventrilo isn't required for everyday playing but we need to know you have it and are willing to be on it)

***All Arty positions are currently filled***

Our World of Tanks clan page is http://worldoftanks....t_order_by=date

750th WarKings is a USA based clan!

We are actively in ClanWars, currently 2 to 3 battles a week......]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 04:38:29 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124678-750th-warkings/ http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124677-w-w-world-of-wallet-warriors-recruiting/
http://worldoftanks.com/community/clans/1000004359--W-W-

Regards,
-$$$-]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 04:35:51 +0000 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/124677-w-w-world-of-wallet-warriors-recruiting/