How much does KILL/DEATH (KD) mean for planetside players

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Commandoo, Jul 19, 2019.

  1. Commandoo

    So I got a message from a guy in game suggesting I get my kill to death up. I don't usually care about it and never have. With that in mind how much does kill to death ratio mean to others?

    Also how do I even check mine or stats in game? From the old call of duty days I had goodish kill to death but didn't care for it much

    Do a lot of clans on pc want good kill to death? And does kill to death determine a good player? I mean all I did for the whole day as a engineer was repair and give ammo and maybe get the odd kill and got first place on the score board.

    Since all I play is engineer I don't see engineer as the type of class To go around racking up kills what do you guys think?
  2. #MakePS2GreatAgain

    I think a clan might care, but in the end, I never think about someones K/D let alone my own haha!

    Cheer mate!
  3. Efraim

    means nothing. I know some great medics with low KD but godlike score per hour and some with high KD that add nothing to the game
    • Up x 1
  4. TRspy007

    KDR doesn't mean much, the point of the game is really to have fun, help your team conquer bases to capture the continent.

    I know pathetic players with above 12 KDR, that do so simply sniping terminals from far away, redeploying once search parties go after him.

    I know other people who focus more on helping their team then their KDR, and I appreciate those people more.

    Of course ideally you should be able to maintain a KDR around 3 while helping your allies with advances if you want to be considered a "good" player, but remember this is a game so as long as you're fine with your KDR, who cares.

    To check your stats its tab for the current session stats, if you want your overall ranking statistics and all, go to the my profile section (first one after pressing M) and you can see "my stats", click that, there they are. Alternatively, google planetside 2 character stats, and there's plenty platforms to track them.

    You can download recursion if you want for some in game tracking
    https://recursiontracker.com/

    Keep in mind your overall KDR might not give you an accurate measure of where you are, since over the years, your skills probably improved, so the average KDR you find when pressing tab in game is closer to how you are doing now.
  5. OgreMarkX

    One of the worst (and laziest) adds to PVP games is the KDR stat (another worst is the head shot multiplier).

    It increases cheating and it draws to the game the worst types of players.

    One of the worst (and laziest) adds to MMO's in general is the concept of "levels".

    It does the same as KDR.

    Here are just a few things High KDR focused players don't see or understand, yet very much depend on:

    1. The medic
    2. The engineer
    3. The sundy/beacon/router deployer
    4. The guy who guards the rear, flank or the deployment tools---gets very little action but saves the day, when no one is watching.
    5. The guy who runs in first and takes the fire and the death, letting Mr. SUPA Kill3R get the kills after
    • Up x 2
  6. Skraggz

    Most of your stats matter when compared in conjunction. One stat independently doesn't matter. Had a guy rage whisper me after I killed him telling me that i'm terrible because his KDR is higher than mine. His accuracy, infantry kdr, ivi score, HSR rating, Score per minute all way worse than mine. Gotta looking at his kills, all fed by the banshee. A cheese weapon that he abused to inflate KDR. Hence why that stat ALONE doesn't matter.
    • Up x 1
  7. Badman76

    More then it should do, i won't log off if I get more deaths then kills
    Im usually that guy who storms a room first and hopes for the best!
  8. Demigan

    KD by itself means virtually nothing, but it is considered by many the most important stat. Yet its greatly dependent on playstyle.

    A tank user is likely to have a higher KD than infantry players. But a tank user hunting other tanks (IE more difficult and dangerous targets) is going to have a lower KD. But you cant see that tank hunting reflected in the stats.

    The same counts for many other things. A support class like Medic or Engi gets less KD than a Heavy, and Heavies who actively push points and take on dangerous tasks get lower KD's than Heavies who safely farm somewhere with little impact on the overall base.
    This causes problems as players are encouraged to play it safe and ruin someone's playsession by farming them with a tank instead of dying for a cause over and over again. This highly devalues the worth of KD as people look for ways to get the most kills with the least effort, like camping a spawn.

    It is one of the reasons why certain players have asked for better statistic representation in a way that encourages you to play the game. Death should be a small inconvenience, not a large impactor on your stats. Players should be willing to launch themselves into combat with full enthousiasm to breach any point at any time, and not hang back until its safer and less risky to get up there and score some kills.
    Things like how many points you've taken/defended that actually lead to a (near) capture. Damage dealt and received. Vehicle/MAX/aircraft kills. The calculation of a support value based on actions like saving someone, healing, repairing, placing beacons in good spots etc. Calculation of an attack value based on damage dealt, received, assists, kills, the amount of times the area you died in/are still alive in becomes exclusively your faction quickly after your actions or death etc.
    • Up x 1
  9. Badman76

    Your K/D is 0.59, but for an Engineer main, i would forget about K/D, like you say they are not meant to get loads of kill but do other things that support the squad

    Mines rubbish, as a Heavy main its only 1.22 lol

    Your SPM is lower then most of us in the outfit, are sure your throwing out your ammo packs!
  10. Commandoo

    I just finished the ammo directive yesterday! So if that isn't throwing out ammo packs then I don't know what is! Took me forever and a day on this dead server and upon starting it I asked some random Australian guy who had moved over from pc and he said he had it done in a week! 3 weeks later and I'm still messing around getting it done. Same for repair directive. I can go hours without needing to do a repair then somebody needs it because server.

    It's unfortunate that every other class gets crapped on by heavy assault and all you get are teams of heavy assaults level 120 just going around smashing up sunders and killing you over and over and over when all I'm interested in,is to play engineer. And to kill them you have to use headshots or you die. From day 1 all I've seen is heavy assaults level 100 plus. It's like to stay competitive and have good KDR all you need to do is main heavy assault and scrap everything else. thats what I've took from this game this far. atleast on ceres server
    • Up x 1
  11. Badman76

    You on about IWI?
  12. Commandoo

    The game as a whole really.. I don't think IT matters to much but if you want to stay competitive just main heavy assault from day 1. I on the other hand don't want anything to do with heavy assault really and only use it for the anti air rockets they get. I prefer engineer overall.
  13. DarkStarAnubis

    Unfortunately KDR matters to many people and unfortunately in the wrong way, since a playstyle aimed to maximize KDR is detrimental to many other factors.

    Renz0r explained it rather well here:
    • Up x 1
  14. Scrundle

    Session KD is meaningless, lifetime KD can be a useful general indicator of overall ability. Talking sanctioned IVI here, KD with vehicles/maxes/sniping is meaningless.
    That's it.
    • Up x 1
  15. Gen.Drake61

    k/d ratio doesn't matter much in a game like this, truth be told your "skill" at fps games matter more,for instance:
    1. Weapon accuracy/skill (marksmanship)
    can you land a quick and accurate headshot against an enemy that's equally or better skilled while going head to head and survive by killing them.
    2. timing shots/reaction time:
    A. can you react quickly to any combat situation in less than a few seconds when coming across an enemy that is about to engage you and take them out before they take you out as quickly as possible.
    B. as far as automatic weapons and distance (mid to long), can you burst fire your weapon (2-3 bullets per burst) while accurately leading your shots toward your intended target and hitting them accurately.
    3. Cover,judgement/tactics and being aware of your surroundings:
    A. do you use cover quickly, efficiently and effectively? this can mean the difference between you surviving against an enemy who has just taken the first shot and caught you off guard and with your pants down and your unfortunate death with a T-bag to add insult to injuries.
    B. do you plan your next move quickly while against an enemy(s) that is becoming annoying while essentially suppressing you as he moves in to take the point and end you? (do you retreat and double back around to throw a concussion grenade from behind while he thinks you've ran away like a coward seeing as your the only one on point but became a pain in the *** to the previous attackers and they sent him in, their "elite" to take care of you?)
    C. are you constantly aware of your surroundings while on the move/on point? (checking your surroundings and minimap(quickly and accurately, especially when by yourself and alone/stranded.) this can mean the difference between life and death.

    planetside 2 is a tactical (squad based mainly but you can solo while kicking ***) fps shooter so your skill at the game (and fps multiplayer games (and teamwork) matter more.
    so in my opinion stats don't matter as much as skill does.
  16. ObiVanuKenobi

    K/D can give you a general idea of how good a player is. If you die a lot you're probably doing something wrong, if you get a lot of kills without dying you're probably doing something right. Someone with 0.5 is pretty much guaranteed to lose to a player with 3.0.
    But it's better to look at it together with SPM (score per minute) and other stats because K/D alone can be inflated by playing super passive and taking no risks (*cough*sniping*cough*) which is shown by low SPM, farming infantry with an AI vehicle and never leaving the spawnroom.
    SPM shows how fast a player is getting exp. Depending on your goals it can be more important than K/D because it tells you how fast you're getting certs.
    • Up x 1
  17. iller

    So everyone else with a different preferred playstyle, just Doesn't Matter, huh?

    I bet K/D of all those things WOULD matter if those playstyles were equally as important and incentivized so that a lot more people learned to counter them and were often fighting eachother outside instead of Only fighting inside a cramped walled in Infantry farm
  18. Hegeteus

    It might work in arena shooters, but not in PS2. There's just so many ways to manipulate it, and by doing so you might end up making choices that aren't beneficial to the faction but only yourself. It's not wrong to enjoy a good KD, but all it should be is your silent non-influential shadow.
    • Up x 1
  19. Liewec123

    KDR means nothing to me,
    the folks staying safely at the back of the fight, getting occasional kills from safety are the ones with high KDR,
    and also the least useful to the outcome of the fight.

    the ones on the front lines, pushing for the point are the ones with generally shabby KDR,
    and also the ones contributing the most to base captures.

    my KDR usually sits around 1.
    i'm always at the front, pushing forwards, dying a ton but usually getting 1-2 kills in the process!

    i did have a VS alt at one point who i was playing safer on, KDR was around 7, but its just so boring,
    and I wasn't contributing even slightly as much as when i'm ignoring KDR and pushing the front line.
  20. Scrundle


    Nobody's KD "matters" and my previous statement has nothing to do with playstyle; those tools are force multipliers which will skew KD in a generally upwards direction, therefore making the statistic less and less meaningful the more they are used.
    I didn't come up with the IVI sanctions, take it up with recursion if you dislike it.