Logbook data issue

[SoBad]

Last month, I created an Excel worksheet to archive and chart my Logbook data in a way that allows me to create a history & charts to show me my logbook performance over time.

In other words, the Falcon logbook only shows you a data snapshot of where you are right now. By entering and charting my Logbook data, I can see not only where I am right now, but also the historical path I took to get where I am right now. The charts give meaningful context to my logbook performance data.

In the process of doing this, I gained a much better understanding of how the Logbook calculates the data. Most are easy to understand; some others, not so much.

Of all the data, ‘Total Score’ is one of the most enigmatic. It is the score used as a basis of determining when you get promotions, though-- I know that. But in keeping track of this data category, it’s pretty clear that if you do well, it increases; if you do poorly, it decreases.

For the past 34 missions I’ve flown in my current Rolling Fire campaign, every mission has been successful, and I managed not to die even once so far. As expected, my ‘Total Score’ steadily increased with every mission; when I passed 300, I got promoted to Captain. This morning, my current ‘Total Score’ was 425.

This afternoon, I led a 4-ship Air Interdiction against a tank battalion. It went VERY well-- 18 kills, all of us returned safely, landed without incident, parked, chocked, and turned our engines off. The debriefing declared it a SUCCESS. In the logbook, I earned 328 points for that mission.

So surely, my ‘Total Score’ would go up by a few points as usual, right? Nope! Despite my mission being a success by every parameter I’m aware of, my ‘Total Score’ decreased, from 425 to 419!

Like I said, the ‘Total Score’ formula has always been a mysterious algorithm, but there seems to be a problem here in this instance.

On a related matter, my ‘Consecutive Missions’ score, which had made its way up to 3, got cut back to 0 again for no apparent reason I could see. In reviewing past posts, this seems to be a persistent issue over the years.

[SoBad]

@SoBad

Tracking my Logbook data carefully now. Just flew another mission, same day, this evening. Learned some interesting things about what type of mission you choose.

It was a 4-ship CAS to a tank battalion just north of the DMZ. ROK forces are on a Major Offensive Push for the past few hours, and I’m fragging strikes on any armored DPRK units I can find near the DMZ.

When I got to the target area, A/G Radar showed three different lines all crisscrossing. None of them had a big sign up saying, “I’m your target!”, so I chose a line of targets that seemed the biggest.

My flight did great, with a total of 27 ground kills. But the debrief considered it a mission failure because the line I chose turned out NOT to be the ‘assigned target’.

So the logbook showed that I earned 338 mission points, but my campaign rating decreased from 4.432 to 4.427. The good news is that my ‘Total Score’, despite the failed mission, bounced back from 419 to 425.

So now I have a total score that decreased when I did well, and increased when I did poorly. I’m confused. Any insight from the devs would definitely be appreciated!

My ‘lesson learned’ here is that if you have any doubt whatsoever about being able to I.D. your assigned target, do not frag a CAS, because if you find several possible units and chose the wrong one, you’ll get a mission failure. But if you frag the mission as an Air Interdiction, you get good credit for ANYTHING you find when you get to the area!

[CriticalMass]

@SoBad Very interesting.

What happens in you frag a CAS and do the full check-in/9-line? do you get directed to the correct target?

AFK for a few days, so can’t check myself.

[SoBad]

@CriticalMass said in Logbook data issue:

@SoBad Very interesting.

What happens in you frag a CAS and do the full check-in/9-line? do you get directed to the correct target?

AFK for a few days, so can’t check myself.

I did, and Magic directed me to the target. But there was three different units all mixed in together and I could not distinguish the correct target. Like I said, Air Interdiction is much more forgiving.