There's been some confusion in how scores lower in the HSC, and my attempts to explain it through IRC don't seem to be clear enough, so here's a full explanation, detailing how everything comes together.
It seems complex at first glance, but you'll find it is actually quite simple once you understand it.
Category Weights
I don't believe this area has any confusion whatsoever, but I'm referencing it here so that you don't have to head over to the other topic to check up on stuff.
- Writing - 40%
- Gaming - 25%
- Graphics - 20%
- Imperial Holiday Ball - 5%
- Recruiting - 5%
- Miscellaneous - 5%
Points vs. Score
It is important to note that although points do contribute heftily to your score, they do not necessarily provide a
direct comparison.
Points are accrued independently for each category, that is to say there are Writing Points, Gaming Points, Graphics Points, etc...
Your squad's Score is a percentage value out of 100%
So, How Do my X Points Contribute to my Score?
Basically what we do is take your points for a category, divide it by the highest amount of points in that category to arrive at a fraction (or percentage if it helps you think easier). You multiply that by the weight of the category for how much of that category contributes to your score.
So, let's actually put that into application with an example:
Squad A has 50 writing points.
Squad B has 40 writing points.
Squad C has 30 writing points.
Squad D has 20 writing points.
Squad E has 10 writing points.
The highest in this category is 50 points. The weight is 40%.
Squad A has 50/50 -> 100% in this category, which means they get the full 40% towards their score.
Squad B has 40/50 -> 80% in this category, which means they get part of the 40% (namely 80% of the 40), so writing contributes 32% for their final score.
Squad C has 30/50 -> 60%, for 24% towards their final score.
Squad D has 20/50 -> 40% for 16% towards their final score.
Squad E has 10/50 -> 20% for 8% towards their final score.
Your final score is basically all the percentages you gain in each and every category. If your squad does not do any recruiting or partake in the Imperial Ball, the maximum score you can receive is 90%. So be sure to participate in every category!
Once again, your score from a category is determined by your points in that category divided by the highest value of points in that category that another squad has.
Alright, That Makes Sense... But How Did my Score Drop?
There are two ways for your score to drop. Negative points, or the most likely... the highest points in a category got even higher.
Suppose Squad A had 50 points in Writing, but recently managed to raise their writing points to 60. Squad B remained at 40 points the whole time.
Squad A's score would not change, as they still maintain the full 40%, however... Squad B would "lose" some percentages, as they now have 40/60 (66.7%) instead of 40/50 (80%). Instead of the 32% towards their final score, they now have 26.7% going towards their final score.
Wait, the Leader Can Make the Loser's Score go Down? That's NOT Fair!
Actually, it is. They will only drop percentages in categories that you linger behind in. If you keep up at the
same pace, your score will actually
improve.
Want proof?
Squad A has 50 writing points
Squad B has 40 writing points
We've already established they get 40% and 32% towards their final score, respectively.
Let's suppose both squads gain 10 writing points.
Squad A now has 60 writing points, Squad B now has 50.
Squad A has 60/60, and this still has the full amount of 40%
Squad B now has 50/60 (83.3%), and will get 33.3% towards their final score.
Squad B has closed the gap in that category by 1.3% simply by gaining the
same amount of points.
The
only way the leader is going to decrease your percentages is by gaining points at a higher rate than you do (that is, posting higher quality posts at a faster rate for writing).
Quick Clarification of the Total Score
I think that should help explain and alleviate any worries most folks have, but I should finish the explanation
Your final score is out of 100% as I've stated.
You simply add together the percentage values you've gained from each category to arrive at your total.
So, let's assume you get full percentage in Writing (40%) and Misc (5%) because you're awesome. Gaming you did alright, got half of the percentage (12.5%). Recruiting, well, you couldn't find anyone, so you get none. You managed to get a nice 4% from the Imperial Ball. Lastly, Graphics, you only got a quarter of those, for 5%.
That's 40%+5%+12.5%+0%+4%+5% = 66.5%
Therefore you have 66.5% as a total score.
I hope that explains everything you folks wanted to know... If there's any questions, don't hesitate to ask them.
