The Zombies Ranking System -- Explained and Reviewed

[javano]

The Zombies Ranking System -- Explanation and Review

The Intro:

Okay, so I'm firstly going to explain how I believe the ranking system works and secondly going to state my opinions on it. Now, without further ado, let's begin.

The Rank:

Your zombies rank seems to be comprised of two sections: The picture itself which represents your "skill", and the hash marks which represent your play frequency. Let's go down another level:

The Emblem:

The emblem it self appears to be a visual representation of your average global leaderboard standings and goes up and down as your standings do. It goes through a series of pictures, starting at one bone, progressing to two, then to a skull, then to a skull with a knife and finally to a skull with two shotguns. (I these are the only ones I've seen, I hear that there is a skull + two knives and a skull + one shotgun, but I wont take them as fact until I see them for myself.)

The Hash Marks:

The hash marks are quite easy to understand. They range from zero to five. Every day that you play, you gain one hash mark, every day that you don't, you lose one. One other point of importance is that if you have 5/5 hash marks and a rank of at least 3 (skull), your skull will have glowing blue eyes.

That's about it for the rank, it's not actually that complicated. Now, on to my review.

The Conclusion:

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the system. I feel that assessing your skill based on leaderboards is extremely unreliable, because leaderboards don't demonstrate skill, they demonstrate condensed amount of play. Take this example:

You have two players: Player A who is great, Player B who is not so much. Say player A plays one hour per day. B plays about five. Doing the math, player A would have to be five times more efficient than B to even equate to the same "skill" level as B. Yes, there are Downs and Deaths leaderboards (Which I will get into after), but that's only two leaderboards that are heavily out-weighed by the ~10 other kills/headshots/etc stat-grinding ones and would be almost irrelevant after the average is calculated.

Secondly, the downs/deaths leaderboards. I'm not sure who designed these, but they make less than no sense. The concept of a leaderboard is to see where you rank among all the other players and see how much you need to improve to get a higher rank. With these two leaderboards, since they are inverted (sorted from lowest to highest instead of vice-versa like normal), you literally can only work your way down to a lower rank. There is nothing you can do aside from not playing the game to increase your rank. Also, it doesn't take into account how much time you've played, so the people at the top of the board are people who have only played one match. My solution would be to replace the offending leaderboards with "Downs per minute" and "Deaths per minute" and sort them in ascending order as per standard. However, this doesn't solve the big problem...

I think that the way the skill portion of ones rank shouldn't be based or leaderboards or stats at all for that matter, rather, your skill relative to other players. I'd suggest the model of having players balance themselves out. When you finish a game, the game assesses your performance and increases/decreases your rank accordingly; of course, it would also take into consideration the ranks of you and each of the other players when it calculates that. Something like this:

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs)

Rank adjustment = (Other player's rank - Your rank) * Your skill rating

Now, you'd probably want to throw/tweak some multipliers in there, but you get the point.

Anyways, that's about it. Feel free to leave feedback/suggestions! Also, if anyone has any pictures of the emblems they'd let me use, give me a shout. I don't want to steal any for the purpose of this post. If I think of anything else to add, I will do so.

-Javano

[MegaAfroMan]

I'd have to say that I think this is pretty close to what it actually is. It explains the random drops and rises in rank quite nicely. There are still unresolved questions, but thing is technical issues could be just as much of a reason for that as anything. Nice presentation. I like the formatting.

[Tridalo]

Seems like a really good theory but there is one point I don't agree on.

The hash marks, if this was based on playing daily then one of my friends wouldn't have 5 hash marks. He has played once or twice since the game came out. While he is still the dual bones, he has 5 has marks. So I don't think the hash marks have to do with playing daily.

[LJx19]

OR-and bear with me on this one guys-They could just make it so I can fucking see who in the God damn lobby is good and who fucking sucks by showing the highest round they've made it too so I don't waste my motherfucking time playing with 3 dumbasses with blue eyed skulls and have no fucking idea how to run a God damn train or even make it to round fucking 5 without downing, almost like how black ops 1 made it so you can just leave rooms with shitty motherfuckers.

For everyone who hung in there, Thank You.

[Hours wasted playing tranzit co-op, 50]

[javano]

Seems like a really good theory but there is one point I don't agree on.

The hash marks, if this was based on playing daily then one of my friends wouldn't have 5 hash marks. He has played once or twice since the game came out. While he is still the dual bones, he has 5 has marks. So I don't think the hash marks have to do with playing daily.

Really? Because I've tested it with about half a dozen of my friends and every day that they don't play, they lose one mark and after their first game of the day, they gain one. Not sure what's up with your friend

[javano]

OR-and bear with me on this one guys-They could just make it so I can fucking see who in the God damn lobby is good and who fucking sucks by showing the highest round they've made it too so I don't waste my motherfucking time playing with 3 dumbasses with blue eyed skulls and have no fucking idea how to run a God damn train or even make it to round fucking 5 without downing, almost like how black ops 1 made it so you can just leave rooms with shitty motherfuckers.

For everyone who hung in there, Thank You.

[Hours wasted playing tranzit co-op, 50]

I know that feel bro, the rank system as-is is completely useless. It is the farthest thing from a skill assessment. Every lobby I join is a bunch of people with glowing skulls. After starting the game, I find out that they have no idea what they are doing; usually ending up with someone turning off the power in the middle of the game and getting everyone killed... :x

Also, /)

[xXExpertCoahXx]

A player went from two bones to a skull with two knives by having two horrible games. About 20 something kills and about 50 something downs...Still had his ass ranking up. This ranking system is dumb as shit.

[Edward Richtofen]

A player went from two bones to a skull with two knives by having two horrible games. About 20 something kills and about 50 something downs...Still had his ass ranking up. This ranking system is dumb as shit.

I agree, it makes absolutely no sense and is an affront to the whole notion of ranks. The whole point of ranks is to get a judge of skill level.

With this system you see a rank and have no idea at all of the skill level of the player. Might as well just trash the whole system and try again.

[Tridalo]

Really? Because I've tested it with about half a dozen of my friends and every day that they don't play, they lose one mark and after their first game of the day, they gain one. Not sure what's up with your friend

Yeah he hasn't played in quite awhile and he has 5 hash marks. Where as I only have 3 or 4 and I play every day. It may only be one game a day but I do play zombies everyday.

[way2g00d]

Good job on the formula however I want to say it is incorrect but it is pretty close and needs more tweaking. This is why I spent some time to put the numbers down like I do for every other theory. I think revives/downs multiplier is probably either doubled or tripled and there needs to be a more numbers added like Miles and Round average.

Here are my stats to disprove your formula..

-------------------------

Registered stats

Till date 12/5/2012

-------------------------

gt: way2g00

Kills:65,000

Downs: 1078 (I played lot sof custom challenges with friends with no Jugg, that explains lots of downs

Headshots: 11,838

Revives: 755

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [65000 + (11838/2) ]* (755/1078) = 49669.615

Emblem: Skull

-----------------------

Tranzit: 45 (solo) 37 (2p)

Farm: 32 (solo) 35 (2p)

Town: 22 (solo) 37 (2p)

Bus Depot: 17 (solo) 36 (2p)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 40 (2p)

Grief Farm 14W 18L

Grief Town 4W 2L

-----------------------

gt: xxWarxDaddyxx

-------------------------

Kills:28300

Downs: 427

Headshots: 5666

Revives: 321

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [28300 + (5666/2) ]* (321/427) = 23404.43

Emblem: Skull w/ Dagger.

----------------------------------

Tranzit: 41 (solo) 33 (3p)

Farm: 32 (solo)

Town: 22 (solo)

Bus Depot: 17 (solo) 36 (2p)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 33 (4p)

Grief Farm

Grief Town

-------------------------

gt: NyBlazed4

-------------------------

Kills:21618

Downs: 322

Headshots: 7171

Revives: 412

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [21618 + (7171/2) ]* (412/322) = 32247.95

Emblem: Skull with Dagger

----------------------------------

Tranizit: 22 (solo) 42 (2p)

Farm: 24 (solo)

Town: 10 (solo)

Bus Depot: 9 (solo)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 24 (2p)

Grief Farm 1W 0L

Grief Town

-----------------------------------

So according to your theory, I should have a Higher Rank because my Skill rating is above my friends who already have Daggers which is higher Ranked than Skull.

Screenshots:

[javano]

Good job on the formula however I want to say it is incorrect but it is pretty close and needs more tweaking. This is why I spent some time to put the numbers down like I do for every other theory. I think revives/downs multiplier is probably either doubled or tripled and there needs to be a more numbers added like Miles and Round average.

Here are my stats to disprove your formula..

-------------------------

Registered stats

Till date 12/5/2012

-------------------------

gt: way2g00

Kills:65,000

Downs: 1078 (I played lot sof custom challenges with friends with no Jugg, that explains lots of downs

Headshots: 11,838

Revives: 755

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [65000 + (11838/2) ]* (755/1078) = 49669.615

Emblem: Skull

-----------------------

Tranzit: 45 (solo) 37 (2p)

Farm: 32 (solo) 35 (2p)

Town: 22 (solo) 37 (2p)

Bus Depot: 17 (solo) 36 (2p)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 40 (2p)

Grief Farm 14W 18L

Grief Town 4W 2L

-----------------------

gt: xxWarxDaddyxx

-------------------------

Kills:28300

Downs: 427

Headshots: 5666

Revives: 321

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [28300 + (5666/2) ]* (321/427) = 23404.43

Emblem: Skull w/ Dagger.

----------------------------------

Tranzit: 41 (solo) 33 (3p)

Farm: 32 (solo)

Town: 22 (solo)

Bus Depot: 17 (solo) 36 (2p)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 33 (4p)

Grief Farm

Grief Town

-------------------------

gt: NyBlazed4

-------------------------

Kills:21618

Downs: 322

Headshots: 7171

Revives: 412

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [21618 + (7171/2) ]* (412/322) = 32247.95

Emblem: Skull with Dagger

----------------------------------

Tranizit: 22 (solo) 42 (2p)

Farm: 24 (solo)

Town: 10 (solo)

Bus Depot: 9 (solo)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 24 (2p)

Grief Farm 1W 0L

Grief Town

-----------------------------------

So according to your theory, I should have a Higher Rank because my Skill rating is above my friends who already have Daggers which is higher Ranked than Skull.

Screenshots:

I feel bad that you put so much time into misreading my sentence XD

I said that's the formula I would suggest that it use, not what it actually is, since it doesn't use that system.

[Tom852]

In some interview, Jimmy said:

"Rank goes up if skill increases, rank goes down if skill decreases."

So what can we say about that?

If your skill decreases, you'll still keep your Round 50 records. But obiously according to JZ, your rank would decrease. That means, that round records would not take part in the ranking.

The important question is now, what is Skill?

Is more kills/hits/... more skill? I just need to play a lot, and I get more kills. Is more downs a lack of skill? I play a lot, and I have many downs.

Therefore I think, we need to see things relative. I think about the relative factor "downs per revive". Reviving someome sometimes just needs luck (be close, be faster than others). So skill needed, I dont konw. Not always. Not going down is skill though.

Think about solo. You get one more down than revives. So after 10 games, you may have something like 40/30 if you always use the QR's. What should this tell? Player 1 does 10 games, each one round 50. Gets 40 Downs and 30 Revives. Player 2 does 10 games, each one round 10. Gets 40 downs and 30 revives. Both are equally skilled? Noo. Considering solo, this factor is pointless.

Think about something else. What we could say skill is, is headshots per kill. Is it? 1k kills and 800 headhsots... pretty good! But wait.... Ray Gun? Jet Gun? Headshots? nooo. Skill is, when you go to round 50. You'll use the Ray, but get no headshots. It's not Skill ending every game at 30, cause the LMG's, which you use for headshots, get lame. So one player doing 50 is actually better, bot gets a lower headies per kill ratio, cause he uses the ray, than the other player, that just plays till 30 and uses the LMG.

So, what is skill and how would you measure it?

Downs per Revive: Doesn't fit solo cause it's (nearly) the same ratio for everyone. It can't be a lack of skill if I don't revive, just because I'm running at tunnel with player 2, which never goes down. But player 3 at farm dies all the time. Player 4 is with him and gets all the revives. Is then player 3 better than player 1 or 2? If you watch the down/revive ratio... Yes. But he is not in truth.

Hits, Kills, Headshots, Miles, Gibs and so on: Just a matter of the time you invest.

Headshots per Kill: Can't be considered as skill, cause Skill is to use the non-headshot-giving Ray Gun in 40+.

What remains? Well, average round done in the past 20 or 50 games?

OK, but what if I do research games? I wanna see how guns upgraded are. So I start a custom in 20, hit box ones, pap it, till I have no points left, die, restart. Is that a lack of skill?

I do a solo, click on start game, phone rings, I go off my machine, will die in round 1. Hmm.

I want the Knuckles, so I go risky in the beginning... I mean doesn't matter, just restart if you die. So no Jug, no Quick Revive until knuckles. Leads to some downs in Rd 1-10, although I have the skill to reach 50 once the start is survived. Hmm.

Average rank in coop games? Say in a 4ppl, the ones with most kills gets "+2 points", 2nd place "+1 point", 3rd place "-1 point" etc. No. What if I play with super pros, we all have ton of skill. And I get deranked because I play with good teams and have slightly less kills then them?

What if I do a great team strategy, like merging trains? E.g. on Moon Rd 66 with hands, he got all them kills with the Zapper (was like 10k Kills for him and 1k for me). I got lots of downs, cause I had nothing to defend myself and had to hide in a corner, where I was defenseless. It was part of the strategy, that I had to go down from time to time. For my sacrifice, super got a perfect train, could kill it, then revive me. Was perfect strategy. So many downs and no kills for me. But that a lack of skill?? No!!

So Ladies and Gentlemen, how would you measure skill?

[way2g00d]

I feel bad that you put so much time into misreading my sentence XD

I said that's the formula I would suggest that it use, not what it actually is, since it doesn't use that system.

I know its not the official one. I was just working on your formula with the numbers I have to show how off it is.. But At the same time I give you credit for coming up with a formula. We just need to find out what exactly it is and its not easy.

[way2g00d]

So Ladies and Gentlemen, how would you measure skill?

I agree with pretty much what Tom said.

There has got to be a formula like OP posted. I am sure it involves all the stats shown on the leader board including High rounds. It is confusing at the moment because people with better stats are still stuck at lower ranks.. like Tom and myself. Unless Tom ranked up recently.

[Tac]

Rez, who works at Treayrch, said the following. I'm sure it's known, but I would like to contribute.

@beaver0023: is there a bug with the zombies ranking system? I got deranked without even playing.

@_rez_: As Designed!

[Megaton A]

Rez, who works at Treayrch, said the following. I'm sure it's known, but I would like to contribute.

@beaver0023: is there a bug with the zombies ranking system? I got deranked without even playing.

@_rez_: As Designed!

Interesting. So Jimmy Z says it's based on skill, and we have Rez saying that by design you will lose rank if you don't play often enough. So the conclusion we can come to here is that Treyarch assesses skill based on having no life and constantly playing Zombies?

What a horribly stupid system. I see this so much with the Zombies team... brilliant ideas with horrible execution. I mean... a Zombies ranking system!! Awesome!! There are so many ways you could properly do that and make it a fun way to compete with your friends! Oh, but no... it's just "Play constantly or be punished." SMH

[javano]

Rez, who works at Treayrch, said the following. I'm sure it's known, but I would like to contribute.

@beaver0023: is there a bug with the zombies ranking system? I got deranked without even playing.

@_rez_: As Designed!

Interesting. So Jimmy Z says it's based on skill, and we have Rez saying that by design you will lose rank if you don't play often enough. So the conclusion we can come to here is that Treyarch assesses skill based on having no life and constantly playing Zombies?

What a horribly stupid system. I see this so much with the Zombies team... brilliant ideas with horrible execution. I mean... a Zombies ranking system!! Awesome!! There are so many ways you could properly do that and make it a fun way to compete with your friends! Oh, but no... it's just "Play constantly or be punished." SMH

I assume by "rank" he means hashmarks. Which makes sense since they appear to be tied to play frequency.

[javano]

So Ladies and Gentlemen, how would you measure skill?

I agree with pretty much what Tom said.

There has got to be a formula like OP posted. I am sure it involves all the stats shown on the leader board including High rounds. It is confusing at the moment because people with better stats are still stuck at lower ranks.. like Tom and myself. Unless Tom ranked up recently.

I think the downs/deaths leaderboards are really heavily weighted. The good players play more, hence go down more, hence are stuck at the bottom of those two inverse leaderboards.

[way2g00d]

Good job on the formula however I want to say it is incorrect but it is pretty close and needs more tweaking. This is why I spent some time to put the numbers down like I do for every other theory. I think revives/downs multiplier is probably either doubled or tripled and there needs to be a more numbers added like Miles and Round average.

Here are my stats to disprove your formula..

-------------------------

Registered stats

Till date 12/5/2012

-------------------------

gt: way2g00

Kills:65,000

Downs: 1078 (I played lot sof custom challenges with friends with no Jugg, that explains lots of downs

Headshots: 11,838

Revives: 755

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [65000 + (11838/2) ]* (755/1078) = 49669.615

Emblem: Skull

-----------------------

Tranzit: 45 (solo) 37 (2p)

Farm: 32 (solo) 35 (2p)

Town: 22 (solo) 37 (2p)

Bus Depot: 17 (solo) 36 (2p)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 40 (2p)

Grief Farm 14W 18L

Grief Town 4W 2L

-----------------------

gt: xxWarxDaddyxx

-------------------------

Kills:28300

Downs: 427

Headshots: 5666

Revives: 321

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [28300 + (5666/2) ]* (321/427) = 23404.43

Emblem: Skull w/ Dagger.

----------------------------------

Tranzit: 41 (solo) 33 (3p)

Farm: 32 (solo)

Town: 22 (solo)

Bus Depot: 17 (solo) 36 (2p)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 33 (4p)

Grief Farm

Grief Town

-------------------------

gt: NyBlazed4

-------------------------

Kills:21618

Downs: 322

Headshots: 7171

Revives: 412

Skill rating = [kills + (headshots/2)] * (revives/downs) = [21618 + (7171/2) ]* (412/322) = 32247.95

Emblem: Skull with Dagger

----------------------------------

Tranizit: 22 (solo) 42 (2p)

Farm: 24 (solo)

Town: 10 (solo)

Bus Depot: 9 (solo)

Nuke Town: 26 (Solo) 24 (2p)

Grief Farm 1W 0L

Grief Town

-----------------------------------

So according to your theory, I should have a Higher Rank because my Skill rating is above my friends who already have Daggers which is higher Ranked than Skull.

Screenshots:

Just an update I just got a Skull and dagger after I got 40 on tranzit. My second co-op 40 and third 40 in total.

[Tom852]

I checked on PC leaderboard. The 2 guys with most kills have a skull with a dagger. So it's not just kills. It must be something relative to kills (like headshots per kill) or kills do not matter much?

[javano]

I checked on PC leaderboard. The 2 guys with most kills have a skull with a dagger. So it's not just kills. It must be something relative to kills (like headshots per kill) or kills do not matter much?

Maybe try reading my original post.

[ZombicidalManiac]

If u watch the Black Ops 2 Zombie reveal trailer that was released like 2 months ago, you'll notice that the emblems are shown at every stop that the bus makes. The bus stop has the cross bones, then all the other ones, then the town has the skull withe the shotguns. Maybe it has something to do with how long you can survive at each stop or something.

[way2g00d]

@Everyone who is still wondering, it is Kills to Down ratio (k/d) for the most part. I checked all my friends KD who have shotguns and its over 100.

[MysteryMachineX]

@Everyone who is still wondering, it is Kills to Down ratio (k/d) for the most part. I checked all my friends KD who have shotguns and its over 100.

That doesn't prove anything. There might be a confounding variable involved.

[949]

@Everyone who is still wondering, it is Kills to Down ratio (k/d) for the most part. I checked all my friends KD who have shotguns and its over 100.

Mine is about 112 and I only have the knife.