Ranking assist and RP
This post will be an extension to the one made by CocoaTheHyena found here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Changing-the-Ranked-System/m-p/9346210#M56455
source: https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends/news/season-8-ranked
Along with other posts talking about the issue with the Assist system in ranked.
This is looking at things from a strategic point of view,
* means to be addressed as a problem.
TLDR at the bottom.
--------------------
The current 'situation' players have.
The current ranked system values both survivability and kills / assists. Both are stagnant; they don't change as a player moves up in the ranks.
There is currently some sort of timing mechanics used to track when to award a player with an assist point [apparently 10 seconds], and assist points are worth equal to that of kills.
From my understanding in the menu, there is a message that states (Max 6 kills/ Assists): meaning getting any more kills and assists no longer contribute to your score, and killing people after a total of 6 increases your score by increasing your placement, not by the kills themselves. [ I may be mistaken in this manner.]
--------------------
Here's what's wrong with this whole system
Those who like this system are bested described as parasites: They want to remain undetected for as long as possible, killing at the right moment. Once they are 'secure,' they remain dormant. This technique utilizes the current system that the lowest risk and best outcome is having as close to 6 kills as possible but focusing on getting just enough kills to camp out other squads. [as explained by CocoaTheHyena].
The optimum strategy right now for the perfect player is to do as little damage as possible: The best thing one can do is get the last one or two bullets in on someone before they go down, then ensuring that they stay down. Some ways people can go about this
3rd party
the most realistic way to do this, wait for two parties to fight, wait for them both to be hurt and distracted, then clean up the survivors before they heal. With how the current system works,
Example of the perfect scenario.
*Team Alpha person does 148 damage to Team Beta person. Team Zeta does the final 2 damage to Beta Person, downing them. It does not matter if anyone else kills that downed person; Zeta gets the kill, and ALL the RP along with it, Beta is not even rewarded with an assist.
Camping
As explained in CocoaTheHyena's post, there is a strong incentive to camp as the system is right now. The best strategy for this method dealing with RNG and other teams is the roulette strategies, which can be compounded with teammates. Each person goes to a unique unnamed location ( where there is not enough loot for a team, but enough loot for a given induvial). Team members are not focused on revival but recovery if a squadmate goes down. This can be compounded on end-game fighting, meaning spending no time looting, only hiding. After a set ring or squad count, loot down boxes, which generally hold higher tier loot in late game. *If one squadmate dies and can't be recovered, they gain RP simply for not leaving the game.
*Just being a parasite
For those that like the current system, this is probably what you do,
The worse kind of parasite:
They never engage or push another squad until after one of their own teammates or anther players does. Generally, in a standard 1 v 1 where both people are aware of another person, both people take damage. A parasite's optimum situation is where their teammate downs someone and is then downed themselves, wait for the enemy to pick up their downed teammate to attack them both. The parasite banks two kills worth of points, and the teammate who is down and at the mercy of the parasite, walks away with nothing: and on top of that, has no shields and no health [ if they are even alive],
[From a person example, on Palace, I downed two people, a Caustic and a Pathfinder, Caustic's gas downed me, and their third came up. My teammate watched as they picked each other up, wiped the squad, picked up my banner, looted my box, then proceeded to not revive me and camp the rest of the game. I only gained RP because he camped his way to 3rd place, and I could not leave without facing the ranked penalty system. (held hostage), something else people have asked about changing]
____________________________________
How this should be re-worked
I don't want to speak on behalf of the devs; I don't know what they want from the game. But from what I understand, Apex is supposed to be a fast pasted team-ordinated FPS. Here are the changes I think would make those things.
The assist system
If someone did damage to someone, and they get killed, anyone who did damage should get an assist for that damage done, with no time limit. The factor to that assist is current damage to health, meaning If Person A did 50 damage to Person B, and Person B uses a med-kit and heals past that damage, then Person A is no longer entitled to the assist. However, if Person B only heals 35 points but is then downed and kill (by someone [anyone]else), Person A is still entitled to that assist.
Why: This abstract timer that no one seems to know how it works and seems to be inconsistent as seen on the forms ( I'm assuming) provides an incentive to keep pushing people one is actively attacking. This system keeps that, " We/I have to down them before they can heal" ( Which should already be the meta). This system should also work across 3rd parties to help mitigate the 3rd party talking point above and when your teammates are parasites. But this does not include downed people: it makes sense not to have an assist for 'finishing someone off'; the loot and shield recharge are incentives enough.
Re-working points awarded as tier goes up.
As someone who goes up in tiers, they should get fewer points for 'just surviving' (which one could say is entry cost covers that aspect). However, I'm talking about as one moves up in tier, kills should become more valuable, and surviving goes down, but the win is also increased. So the current system is for placement,
0,5,10,20,30,40,60,100.
As one moves up in tiers, those numbers shift,
example 0,3,7,15,25,30,50,135.
This way, camping is more of a gamble than a stable farming method; teams either go for the win, cash out, or camp and barely break even.
Also, if there is a 6 kill/ assist limit, remove this. Even with 3rd party farming, there should not be a cap to kills and assists, period. People dropping 4-5 kills average (meaning they get to 7-8 some games) should be rewarded for this; having a kill cap means that someone at 2-3 kills and 1-2 assists have no reason to go fight and has more incentive to wait out for top placements.
Adding teammate RP bonus
As it stands, there are no incentives to 'help' your teammates; this system should be a good incentive, but not something that can be abused, so something along the lines of getting 3 RP for picking up a teammate for the 1st time, ( who was downed by an enemy) and 5 for bringing them back for the 1st time (who was downed by an enemy [Ring and edge revives don't give RP]. This encourages non-premade teams to stick together, avoiding rouge teammates, and helps balance the risk and reward of reviving a teammate; as it stands, one can make the argument to say, it's too dangerous for me to pick you up / get your banner, and or, using a spawn ship attracts people to attack us, and chose to camp because the game is set up to encourage this behavior.
-------
Final
I'm missing other data points and only have an armature perspective on why things are the way they are. Like how the devs came up with the point system they have, the percentage they are aiming for, extra. However these notes
-------
TLDR summary:
Move away from the parasite META,
Assists should be health-based, not time-based,
Give assists from enemy to enemy contact,
Change the static rank system as players move up in tiers ( from surviving based to kill count )/
Add Team-based RP opportunities through reviving and respawning.
~May edit based on responses.
