:} I found this on gamefaqs.com it really cleared up tons of things about splinter cell online and its screwy ranking system. If you play this game online I STRONGLY urge you to read this carefully it will help you extremely
Scoring and Game Modes:
Brought to you by: “Cmdr Spanky” Thanks AGAIN!!!
Scoring:
Splinter Cell, if you haven’t already noticed, is all about balance in the
multiplayer modes and the scoring system follows the same rules. Alot of
people believe playing against level 1 characters when you’re level 3 will make
you lose points. Some believe when they break someone’s neck that they’ll lose
points as well. Lastly, there are those who believe when the moon is full and
aligned at a 45 degree angle with Mars that they’ll lose points on every game.
As obviously wrong the last reason is, all of the above mentioned scoring
theories are myths.
Scoring is based on the following factors:
1: Game mode. There are three game modes. If you play a particular game mode
too much you’ll start getting less and less points, you’ll even start losing
points for no obvious reasons (thus the crazy theories on scoring). Here’s an
example 90% of you out there will have noticed assuming you’ve reached level 3.
When you first started playing ranking games on neutralization, and won, you
got about 10 points. But, once you reached level 2, you noticed you got less
points for your efforts when still playing neutralization. You experienced
endless frustration, when reaching level 3 that all you got for your hard hard
work was a crappy 5-7 points per match, and minus 10-30 for losses.
This example highlights the imbalance of your score. If you play a particular
mode for too long, you’ll start receiving penalties for playing it too much,
making it difficult to increase in ranking. You’ll find that if you switch to
Sabotage, or Extraction, that you’ll start receiving avg. 10 points for every
win, and you’ll stop losing points. Essentially, Game mode plays one of the
biggest roles in how you are scored. Once you’ve played these roles to balance
all the points you’ve received in neutralization, you will start getting points
in neutralization again. I’ll provide more information on the different game
modes below as I’ve been doing my best to keep the three balanced once I
learned this.
2: Lives and timer. That’s right, you will receive a few extra points (or a
few lower points) based on how many lives you have left and the time it took to
win the match. This applies to both the Mercs and the Spies. I ran several
experiments to test this theory. In a match where it took just under 3 minutes
to win as spies, we received about 2-3 extra points. In the same game, same
players, we purposely let the timer drop to 3 seconds. We received 2-3 less
points for doing this. Your lives also play a factor as well. If you finish
the level will all your lives intact, you get the same bonus as above, to a
maximum possible score. IE: If you do the match in 3 minutes, and have all
your lives, you can still only score so many points. So, you can finish a
level with 2 seconds left, and have all your lives, and essentially, the
penalty of time, and bonus points for perfect lives will cancel out each other.
3: No one likes Quitters. And Ubisoft made sure they make quitters feel the
pain. Whenever you quit a ranking game, you will automatically suffer a 20-30
point penalty in your next game. Even if you win, you will still lose 10
points for quitting the previous ranking game. So all you level 3 players and
up who are so concerned with your points, it’s better to take a 5-10 point loss
instead of quitting and ruining the game for everyone else. There is a way to
circumvent this penalty (no, it’s not by turning off your XBOX) but I’m not
going to post it here. I don’t like quitters either and I like to make sure
they continue losing points for it. Once you play with me a few rounds, I find
you to be a nice guy, I’ll tell you how to avoid the penalty. I’ve also now
noted that it has occurred that at higher levels (6+), in some instances, that
if your teammate quits, or the host returns to lobby, that there is a chance you
will suffer the same penalty as if you yourself had quit a ranking game.
Quitting in higher ranked games can cause everyone in the room to suffer
penalty. This is just my personal opinion, but I think Ubisoft has done this in
an attempt to deter higher ranked players from obtaining alot of points from
lower leveled players. Since this discovery, I now try to only play matches
with a minimum level limit of 4. The level gap restrictor in the server set up
doesn’t appear to work though, so generally people are asked to leave my rooms
and then they are booted. My apologies for people trying to join my rooms to
play with me, I’m not a jerk…really, I’m not.
4: Your level. Level 1 players don’t experience the same penalties higher
levels players suffer for things. A level 1 player won’t lose points for
finishing a level with just a few seconds. A level 1 player won’t lose points
for quitting, nor will they lose points for continuing to play neutralization
over and over. However, as soon as a level 1 player goes above level 2, they
will start receiving those penalties. Just because you don’t receive those
penalties, doesn’t give you the right to quit out of ranking games if things
aren’t going well for you. I suggest staying in the game and learning from
your partner who is still alive. You just might learn something from them that
you didn’t know. Lower leveled characters receive a bonus for obtaining
victory over a higher leveled team. This bonus most definitely applies when
both members of the team are higher than the other team. For example, two
level 6 players taking a loss against two level 2 players will generally lose
about 10-15 points, while the opposing team will gain about 10-15 points. On
the flip side, if the level 6 team wins, they’ll get significantly less points,
which is probably due to Ubisoft trying to get players to match up against
players of equal rank. As I find other players willing to experiment with
different combinations (ie: both teams having a low level and high level
player) I’ll update this section. The over all level of the team may play a
factor in the point rewards.
- Team Balance. I’ve now also tested and have confirmed that your play
balance between Mercs and Spies also plays a part. My play time as spy is
notably higher than my time as a merc. This is mainly due to the fact most
people quit as a spy once they run out of lives. Currently, with about a 5
hour difference of play time with spy to merc, I get about 2-5 points for
winning as spy, and 5-9 points for winning as merc. Now, the point difference
may either be :
a: the result of imbalance in the hours I have played
b: you just simply get more points for playing the less favored Merc team as an
incentive to pick them over spy.
Also, as a piece of advice for all you point crazy players, if you want to even
up your Merc time without Spies constantly dropping, I suggest you tell the spy
team that if they DON’T quit, that you will allow them to continue playing as
Spies for as long as they stay in the room. This social engineering tactic has
worked for me so far, assuming I have a team mate who wants to continue playing
Merc with me. Plus, it’s usually easier to win as Mercs, although sometimes it
takes a little longer. Put the map repeat up high (3+ games) and you’ll find
yourself getting alot of points for consecutive wins (assuming you win).
So recap: (all assuming your game mode scores are in balance)
-You will not lose points from playing with/against level 1 players *I say
play with them and help them learn the game
-You will not lose points for breaking a mercs neck or killing them in general
-You will not lose points when you lose
*to check the balance of your score, go to ranking, and view your score in each
game mode.
This section may be updated as I do more experimentation. The map you play on
may also be a factor for your score. For example, if you play Warehouse too
much, you may stop receiving points for that level until you start playing the
other maps. I haven’t had a chance to test this theory out as I usually play
all the maps equally. The above scoring rules have been tested (and verified)
by myself (Cmdr Spanky).
