accurate ranking system will be put in place there needs to be a distinction between pad and keyboard players. The primary way of doing this would be to have a player choose what 'ladder' they are playing in. This presents a problem since certain players can lie about what hardware they use to play SMO. As a secondary solution, admin(s) could look at detailed stats on a questionable player and restrict them to a division after careful deduction which can be pretty obvious most of the time.
There are two methods of measuring scoring, none of which can yield an accurate ranking system (machine scoring is obviously a bad idea):
Absolute total DP/Current EXP system - This is virtually the same concept as FFR grand total score and although it is a useful/interesting statistic to have, I don't think it constitutes actual skill level. This determines more accurately the quantity and not the quality of scores a player gets.
Percentage DP system - This one is great for determining high scores on individual simfiles and should be kept for this reason alone. Keeping in mind especially that in a perfect world, the pad players have their own high score lists separate from keyboard players. The flaw with this for determining overall rank is very simple too and is the major flaw in Gooner's system as foxfire pointed out. The best players could play something like Ageha over and over and have a super high average DP% rendering players who challenge their skills incomparable to players who play easy files over and over. This system gets the axe as well but again should be kept for individual song ranks.
The most accurate way of describing skills is simple in concept but possibly a nightmare for implementation and it too has a great deal of flaws but I think something could be developed to start this off:
Average Rank System - Just like FFR, this takes the sum total of a player's standing on each individual simfile and divides by the number of files in the system. Right away we have a problem because there are thousands of simfiles that some may have found in the deep regions of space and others do not have. We would have to make a standardized group of simfiles that would constitute "ladder simfiles". Pad players would have different ladder files than keyboard players. This list of files can range from 100-1000+ songs, it's really up to the developers of the list which should be a group of experienced people I might add. Distinction between difficulties would be a must here of course.
This seems great and all but there's a ton of problems that stem simply from using StepMania as the gaming interface. The issue with modifiers can be dealt with as long as the .ini file isn't tampered with, since you could easily rename a mod like NO HANDS to Note+ or remove the name entirely so it doesn't show up in the results screen. If there are methods of determining if a player mods something even if they edit the .ini then this isn't a problem, I don't know a whole lot about catching cheaters so that's up to someone else.
Another really easy way to mess with ranks is the editing of step charts. Sure, Death Reveals is fast and all but what if I altered the patterns to be 16th rolls the whole time? There's no way of telling that the simfile Player A played is the same as the edited version that Player B played. This is basically the entire lynch-pin of an automated ranking system and the conversation would drop dead every time.
There are basically two solutions to get Average Ranks to work:
1) Some genius manages to code and release a patch of the game that cannot be altered or edited and would constitute "competitive SMO", this includes the group of ladder simfiles in the package and is compatible with SM3.95 and SM5. You would still be able to play SMO on the normal patches but your scores will not be considered for ranking purposes.
2) The authentication process for scoring is not automated and requires players to have a model standing or respect within the community or appropriate video evidence from players who seem suspicious. Scores would have to be submitted then, just like Thaor's old concept already mentioned.
All-in-all for an open-source game like StepMania, the challenges of having a 100% accurate ranking system are huge. Hopefully I get people thinking about some ideas, I'm no programmer or anything so I have no idea of the limitations but average ranks determined by DP% on a specific group of ladder simfiles where pad lists are separated from keyboard lists is the only accurate method in my opinion.Statistics: Posted by Dynamo — Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:55 am
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