Skill rating

[juneau]

Does anybody have any clue as to how this works? Or is it just making it up as it goes along?

Played 2 rounds today.
Overall skill rating just before the 2 rounds, 335.
1st Round skill points earned, 0.
2nd Round skill points earned, +22.
Overall skill rating after the 2 rounds, 323.



edit: Now it's dropped to 291 while I was afk

[Rand{CLR}]

It doesn't seem to have any kind of formula that the player community has found yet. It's not based on opponent skill, it's a new algorithm. It seems more or less completely random.

In chats the devs say it's supposed to reflect "play the objective, get the skill" but that doesn't work. We're always after flags and skill is variable. You can go 32-3 and end up with 0 gain or less than 5 gain one day, do the same another and gain 28. You can join a round in the late going, go 6-2, and lose 25.

You can gain or lose skill hours after you stop playing (as much as 36 hours if my observations are any judge) and I can't tell how that works or which rounds "caught up" to give you a different skill.

There does seem to be a link to time played. AFKs doing nothing are going to drop faster than people doing something.

Basically it's the most absolutely useless stat I've ever seen in any online game, and it makes no sense except to maybe 2-5 coders at DICE.

-Rand

[juneau]

It doesn't seem to have any kind of formula that the player community has found yet. It's not based on opponent skill, it's a new algorithm. It seems more or less completely random.

In chats the devs say it's supposed to reflect "play the objective, get the skill" but that doesn't work. We're always after flags and skill is variable. You can go 32-3 and end up with 0 gain or less than 5 gain one day, do the same another and gain 28. You can join a round in the late going, go 6-2, and lose 25.

You can gain or lose skill hours after you stop playing (as much as 36 hours if my observations are any judge) and I can't tell how that works or which rounds "caught up" to give you a different skill.

There does seem to be a link to time played. AFKs doing nothing are going to drop faster than people doing something.

Basically it's the most absolutely useless stat I've ever seen in any online game, and it makes no sense except to maybe 2-5 coders at DICE.

-Rand

As I expected then.

[K PhaNTOM]

What I have been told was that every time you kill someone with more skills than you, you get a higher skill point. If a person is better than you +2, person is like you -0, and if someone is worse than you -1.

It's supposed to add up somehow.

[TheTurboSloth]

Its completely random. Either that or it's horrible. Because believe me; I should have the highest skill level ever.

[Dead...Again]

I've never been able to make heads or tails of it either. Mine seems to go up and down at random...

[Rand{CLR}]

What I have been told was that every time you kill someone with more skills than you, you get a higher skill point. If a person is better than you +2, person is like you -0, and if someone is worse than you -1.

It's supposed to add up somehow.

This is what it apparently used to be up through BF3. They changed the formula for BF4. Nobody outside the DICE coding offices understands the damn thing.

It pulled another random calculation on me last night. I'm over 400 skill now, and when I stopped playing the last time I was around 385. This was 2 days ago.

-Rand

[juneau]

Just read that if you play Domination you should have a skill above 600. Large CQ, and you'll more than likely have a score around 250-350.

[Schultzy]

How does large CQ qualify for less skill?

*confused*

Are we a dumber breed? I had thought Dom was similar to 8 year olds playing soccer (football)....

[Dead...Again]

How does large CQ qualify for less skill?

*confused*

Are we a dumber breed? I had thought Dom was similar to 8 year olds playing soccer (football)....

The only thing Dom is good for is if you want to play on a pistol or shotty server...

[juneau]

I'm not sure why Dom means higher skill. I just read that the equation used to determine your skill is in favour of Dom gameplay.

[Civrock]

There was a thread on Reddit about a month ago that claimed to have solved the formula. It's... interesting.

http://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield_...ulated_solved/

Disclaimer: This post is not about whether Skill is a good stat or a useless stat, so you can save that for someplace else. I just wanted to find out how it works.

I believe I have found the proper formula for calculating the Skill rating you see in Battlelog.
This information was pulled from the game files and posted to Symthic. It served as my starting point.

SkillLevelParameters e6df679ae3633529acb47445de71eab7
$::Asset
$:ataContainer
Name Persistence/SkillLevelParams
SPM::SkillLevelComponent
MaxValue 1000.0
Weight 0.6
KPM::SkillLevelComponent
MaxValue 3.0
Weight 0.3
KDR::SkillLevelComponent
MaxValue 5.0
Weight 0.1
OldValueWeight 0.9
MaxValue 1000.0
MinimumTimeRequired 300.0

As you can see from this data, Skill is made up of three factors, each weighted by a different amount: 60% SPM, 30% KPM, and 10% KDR. The folks over on Symthic forum tried simply added the weighted amounts together, but that makes no sense. SPM is a huge number compared to the others. The values must be normalized before being weighted and added. What to normalize them against was a problem at first before I realized it was right in front of me. They are normalized against the MaxValues for each one.

You cannot (I don't think) calculate your total skill in a vacuum. Rather, it is built game-by-game by adding or subtracting from your starting skill. In other words, you have to have a starting skill number, then add in data for a game, and you can find out the resulting skill number.

You only need your pre-game Skill and the data from one game to make the calculation. The SPM you must use is derived from the score beside your name on the scoreboard before any awards are added, NOT the giant SPM number from the Battle Report. Take that score and divide by the round time to find your actual SPM. Find KPM by dividing your kills by the round time also. KDR is listed in in the Battle Report. Any values over the max values (1000, 3, and 5 respectively) are reduced to the max values.

It's a three-step calculation:

First, we normalize the values as fractions of the maximum possible.

(SPM/1000) = nSPM
(KPM/3) = nKPM
(KDR/5) = nKDR

Next, we weight the values and add them, then multiply by 1000

((nSPM * .6) + (nKPM * .3) + (nKDR * .1)) * 1000 = GameSkill

GameSkill represents your Skill in that single game.

Finally, we add the GameSkill with our starting skill. You'll notice in the data above "OldValueWeight 0.9". That means we will weight our existing skill by .9 when adding in the single game skill.

(OldSkill * .9) + (GameSkill * .1) = NewSkill

Real World Example:

This is the last game I played two days ago. The other team rage quit. I had a pretty good round and I gained +8 Skill. My skill before the game was 510. Although Battlelog shows my SPM was 1018, that's not the value we want to use here because that counts awards. My actual SPM was 463 (12,905 points / 27.83 minutes), my KPM was 2.12, and my KDR was 4.92. We first plug in these numbers to normalize them against their max values.

(463/1000) = 0.463
(2.12/3) = 0.707
(4.92/5) = 0.984

Now we weight them, add them, and multiply by 1000 to get the single game Skill.

((0.463 * .6) + (0.707 * .3) + (0.984 * .1)) * 1000 = 588.2

Lastly, we add the GameSkill in with our weighted starting skill.

(510 * .9) + (588.2 * .1) = 517.82

That rounds up to a New Skill of 518. My calculation says I should have gained +8 Skill for that game, which is exactly what it shows in Battlelog. Also, 518 is my actual current skill at the time of this writing. I have tested it with about a dozen different games and players. It seems to work except it can occasionally be off by 1 point possibly due to rounding(?) or an error on the Battle Report (most likely).

TL;DR: What This Means

Basically, each game you play is compared to a theoretically "perfect" game. A "perfect" game (as far as Skill is concerned) would be 1000 SPM, 3 KPM, 5 KDR. The closer you are to each of those ideals, the higher your Skill is for that game. Then the skill for that game is factored into your overall skill either raising or lowering it. The higher your skill, the harder it is to advance it more. For example, if my starting skill had been 300, I would've gained +29 Skill for the above game instead of only +8. Also, since Skill is calculated on a running basis from each game, you can have much better overall stats than someone, but still have a lower skill. It is very much a "What have you done for me lately" stat, and has almost nothing to do with your career numbers. You can gain or lose a couple hundred skill in just a few games. Any questions?

[wigz]

It's honestly a fucking useless statistic other than showing that you scored a lot of points, got a good amount of kills, and maintained a good kdr. I tanked mine a few weeks ago when I was leveling up my jets, resulting in little to no points being made or kills.

Only thing that matters in Battlefield really is team work. If people want to run around randomly, go ahead, but I won't be dealing with randoms in my squad who:

1) Don't talk (it's 2014 soon, how are people still not using mic's or voip?)
2) do random shit like run off without dropping a medpack or ammo crate near a team mate or repairing....
3) steal your vehicle... I've had it happen so many times where if I jump seat to stinger/rpg or hop out to repair/stinger/rpg... the other person takes over and it's like... 'Thanks buddy... :P', only to watch them blow up or crash and burn moments later. People are stupid.
4) Are Squad leader but don't assign any orders. I know I don't at times, but it's hard to do while flying or sniping etc.

Anyways, enough ranting.

TLDR: people are stupid.

[Qicmee]

Whenever I'm running around randomly, I make sure I'm not in a squad.

[juneau]

It's honestly a fucking useless statistic other than showing that you scored a lot of points, got a good amount of kills, and maintained a good kdr. I tanked mine a few weeks ago when I was leveling up my jets, resulting in little to no points being made or kills.

Only thing that matters in Battlefield really is team work. If people want to run around randomly, go ahead, but I won't be dealing with randoms in my squad who:

1) Don't talk (it's 2014 soon, how are people still not using mic's or voip?)
2) do random shit like run off without dropping a medpack or ammo crate near a team mate or repairing....
3) steal your vehicle... I've had it happen so many times where if I jump seat to stinger/rpg or hop out to repair/stinger/rpg... the other person takes over and it's like... 'Thanks buddy... :P', only to watch them blow up or crash and burn moments later. People are stupid.
4) Are Squad leader but don't assign any orders. I know I don't at times, but it's hard to do while flying or sniping etc.

Anyways, enough ranting.

TLDR: people are stupid.