Results of skills in kill count

Q: Does a higher skilled player get to kill more mobs for the same cost using the same equipment as the lower skilled?

Test: Two players (me + my wife Winterhart) using the exact same gun, amp and armor. Use mission system to count kills.

Items: Karma Killer+A104+209.33 ammo (exact amount needed to break A104) No scope/sights. Unplated kobold

Location: New Switzerland young argo area (300 health/mob, 250 for the occasional scout)

Skills:

Not a huge difference between us as far as skill goes, but hopefully it'll still help.

With my skills, I get an avg. 40.15 dmg/hit vs. her 38.25 avg. On a 300 health mob, that's not much of a difference in the # of hits to kill a young. I need 7.47 hits and shes needs 7.84, so basically 8 shots each. So on this mob, my higher avg. dmg. is not enough to gain any benefit.

But w/ my slightly better hit & crit rates, I should waste less ammo, and gain a slight advantage.

Results:
Winterhart beginning count: 4,475
Winterhart ending count: 4,661
Total killed: 186

My beginning count: 4,573
My ending count: 4,780
Total killed: 207

I killed 21 more mobs w/ the same amount of ammo+gun due to skills alone.


WARNING: Long math section ahead. Bored already? Skip to the end


Cost per kill:
At 260.50 total TT cost (gun+amp+ammo) our kill cost/mob was:
Winterhart: 1.40 ped/mob
Me: 1.26 ped/mob

Defense bills:
Her defense bill: 4.76 armor + 0.42 fap = 5.18 (2.78 pec/mob)
My defense bill: 2.20 armor, no fap (1.06 pec/mob)

New Switz was a nice place to test because we both easily got mobbed a lot, though I may have tried to avoid that more than she does, so hunting style likely influenced the defense cost.

Loot:
Since this was only a single run each, and results between runs vary wildly we will not worry about actual loot at this time.

However, we can extrapolate expected loot results under two common loot theories. We'll extend the numbers over a full 16,600 argo youngs (full mission from beginning to end)

Eco = better loot theory:
Her total cost/kill: 1.40 gun + .0278 defense = 1.4278/kill x 16,600 = 23,701.48 total cost
My total cost/kill: 1.26 gun + .0106 defense = 1.2706/kill x 16,600 = 21,091.96 total cost

So I can do the whole argo mission at a cost of 2,609.52 peds less then she can. I have a much better chance for loot to be able to cover the cost.

Loot = ~94% of weapon + lose defense cost theory:
Her total weapon cost: 1.40/kill x 16,600 = 23,240
23,240 x 0.94 = 21,845.60 in TT loot
Lost defense cost: 0.0278 x 16,600 = 461.48
Total cost 23,240+461.48=23,701.48
Total cost - loot: 23,701.48-21,845.60 = 1,855.88 lost

My total weapon cost: 1.26/kill x 16,600 = 20,916
20,916 x 0.94 = 19,661.04 in TT loot
Lost defense cost: 0.0106 x 16,600 = 175.96
Total cost 20,916+175.96=21,091.96
Total cost - loot: 21,091.96-19,661.04 = 1,430.92 lost

I lose 1,855.88-1,430.92= 424.96 less than she does simply because of skill alone
Even if we factor out defense bill:
Her weapon cost - loot: 23,240-21,845.60=1,394.40
My weapon cost - loot: 20,916-19,661.04=1,254.96
So she loses 1394.40-1254.96=139.44 more in TT over the course of the mission than I do, not even counting defense bill.

Skill gains: Not tested, but the math has already been done by others, and long story short, her skill gains vs my skill gains won't help her cover the gap.

Conclusion: Regardless of what loot theory you subscribe to, yep, it seems skills help.

And just for those really interested, here's some similar tests we did a year ago.

Wow, that leads to some huge long term savings.

JohnCapital said:

Conclusion: Regardless of what loot theory you subscribe to, yep, it seems skills help.

Click to expand...

I've never doubted this to be honest.

Corey 'Greyfox' said:

Wow, that leads to some huge long term savings.

Click to expand...

Which is just one more reason to stick with maxed weapons.

nice test.

mastermesh said:

nice test.

Click to expand...

yeah nice test
too bad that mining doesn't work on my hunting skills... it will hopefully work on my ped card though.

Good test, +rep

I would however like to see the same test with L maxed weapons and maybe a bigger sample... for instance 1 nuub (0 skills), 1 low lvl player (lvl25 max), mid lvl player (lvl50 max), high lvl player (lvl75 max), 1 uber player (lvl100 max).

Let you whife use a H21 and I assume she will soon have saved enough to buy a A106......

Yes I know that was not what you was testing, this comment in not intended for you but rather for all "new" players that will read this.

/Dendron

PS I have not done any calculations on this and if I am wrong I look forward to read about it (I haven't even checked that she has 10/10 on it, but I assume so. Otherwise use P5 or Korss H400 instead.) DS

Wait, didn`t you say before that it only matters how much you spend and you`ll get the same results and only savings will be less armor decay due to increased dps?

Futurama said:

Wait, didn`t you say before that it only matters how much you spend and you`ll get the same results and only savings will be less armor decay due to increased dps?

Click to expand...

Review the last of the loot theories I list at the bottom. That's the one that I currently believe in (or at least, I believe in something close enough. Some details of my idea, I keep to myself.)

In it, I show that even if her and I get the same % back, since I can spend less and get the same result, the amount I need to cover w/ MU is smaller.

Thanks for sharing JC. Was à nice read duribg the 12hour roadtrip to northern Sweden... After ski ftw!

very useful information, but still one slight problem.

there are those who say that the more money you spend, the more loot you'll get back, though there is a limit. Normally I don't subscribe to loot theories and such, but this would make some sense, in which case you'd have to include TT returns and extend the test to killing a billion argos instead

Seriously though, nice test.

JohnCapital said:

Review the last of the loot theories I list at the bottom. That's the one that I currently believe in (or at least, I believe in something close enough. Some details of my idea, I keep to myself.)

In it, I show that even if her and I get the same % back, since I can spend less and get the same result, the amount I need to cover w/ MU is smaller.

Click to expand...

Ok, so she lost more on the mission but on the other hand she had more turnover and well thats what matters. So if you both get the same average return it doesn`t matter (apart from defense costs ofc).

Nice test, skills matter ... yes, this is a small % becomes big in the end game (hence some MU on stuff too )