LB Reform: The Metallicana Experiment

About a year ago I started a petition to get the Leaderboard ranking system changed, in light of some research that showed past actions, especially spy actions, played a huge role in deciding leaderboard ranking.

I got over a hundred supports and emailed my petition to the devs who (surprise, surprise) did nothing. Apparently increasing the bust size of the cover girl took priority over making an accurate leaderboard.

Basically my problem with the leaderboard is that it is supposed to show “the most powerful kingdoms in the land”, but in actually it often shows “the kingdoms that did the best job farming EBs and osfs.” Case in point is Metallicana.


Now, from the outside Metallicana’s build looks real cool. “Look! No powerpacks! Not LC! Not even BC on the lands he’s got! But he is still the 16th (previously top 5) build in all of Kaw.” He gives hope to all those 9-year-olds without enough allowance money to buy nobs.

But is he really that strong? Let’s crunch some numbers and do an experiment.

Metallincana’s stats.

At the time of writing, Metallicana had the following build:




With the following stats:



This means that his spy defense strength(sds), not including allies or equipment, is 44.4 mil and defense strength (ds) is 245.7 mil. The LB has him 16th overall, 39th in allies, and 18th in battle wins. Notice that his overall is much better than either his ally rank or his battle wins rank. Why is this? Metallicana has an obscene amount of spy actions (over 275000 assassins/22000 scouts/ 110000 steals) which blows away most of the competition on the LB.
How did this happen? Metallicana knew how the lb worked before most people did. You see, back in the pwar days, most clans supplied OSFs but not many OAFs. As a result most players concentrated on attack actions and ignored spy actions, thinking it didn’t factor into their overall ranking. Unfortunately, for them, their ignorance of the LB ranking system led to their undervaluement. A great example of this is the player Dawnstar. For a long time he was pure attack, carrying no spy buildings whatsoever. As a result while he ranks much higher in allies(20th) and has a much bigger build than Metallicana, he only ranks 37th overall.

So Metallicana’s obscene spy actions led to his high LB ranking, and good for him! He understands how the system works better than 99.9% of the people who play this game. My problem is, however, is that KaW claims he is the 16th “most powerful kingdom in the land”. Really? Lets put that to the test.

Metallicana vs the Mediocre Spy

I bribed my friend in a case of beer to both hit and steal Metallicana to see just how tough the 16th overall really is.

The spy used was a battle hardened t4HCBC build halfway to t5. LB rank is a humble 8190 overall. Spy attack strength is 183 mil. However, unlike Metallicana, this build has all the powerpacks meaning it has an additional 25% added strength that Metallicana doesn’t have, giving it a total strength of 228.7 mil. On the downside, this is an ally-less spy designed for strip wars.

Equipment and pots are equal, so for Metallicana to defeat this spy he needs his bfa to overcome a 184 mil deficit. With the average t5HCBC spy giving an additional 5.6 mil in stats, he would need approximately 33 t5HCBC spies to withstand this spy’s attack.

And how did he do?



Well, not so well. The 8190 ranked spy had no trouble stealing the 16th “most powerful kingdom in the land”.

Metallicana vs the Mediocre Attack build

The above outcome could be expected, but we must remember than Metallicana is not a spy build. Could an attack build fair as well?

I got my friend to hit him with his build. Ranked a meager 3333 overall, this again is a build that has seen plenty of battle action and therefore has a laughable bfa of only 500k on attack. However the overall build is 298.4 mil which is slightly better than Metallicana’s 245mil.
But wait! This attack build not only has all the Power packs, but has all the reset bonuses giving him an additional 33% advantage that Metallicana does not have. Therefore his actual strength of 396.8 mil or a 151.8 mil advantage.(*note: For simplicity, I am assuming that clan, equipment, and pots are about equal). For Metallicana to overcome this he would need about 22 allies that give him 7 mil ads.

The result?


The 3333rd ranked attack build won by a narrow margin, and made a nice penny off of Metallicana, who cannot stop a build that is ranked over 3 thousands ranks lower than him.

Conclusions

Now it is not my intention to criticize or embarrass Metallicana. He is a genius at maintaining a top 20 LB status under the present ranking mechanics. However, I would like to point out how incredibly flawed the LB ranking system is. If attack actions and spy actions were ignored and LB was based solely on build strength and bfa, Metallicana would not rank even in the top 200, let alone #16 overall. It is a totally inaccurate system.
In conclusion, I would like to urge the devs to once again rethink their LB rankings. Past actions are merely past actions that have nothing to do with a player’s true strength. Why should players be rewarded for hitting their Osf a lot or constantly scouting inactives? They can have their own “warrior’s leaderboard”, but let the overall leaderboard be a sign of true strength.

Finally, thanks to Metallicana for being a good sport. Your build is still kinda sexy. Lol

 

reserved. I hope I can learn to use photobucket better. lol

 

HOw does it look now?

 

sorry Photobucket noob.

 

@ Val

I known this for a while too. I made a whole petition thread about this a year ago. Devs have done nothing. I guess increasing the KaW girl's bust size took priority. lol

 

@Miss Ali

Normally that is true, but Metallicana has not bought Pro pack, the last HIghland, done reset bonuses, or even bothered to BC his build. He in particular is much weaker than advertised.

 

@ ryujin

It does. Look at the slogan just above Chongo's name.
"The most powerful Kingdoms in the land."