We're changing the way Duel Stats are displayed on the website. People who do not duel for 3 months will not be displayed as part of the stats. Their ranking will still remain, and be revived next time they duel.

For instance, Eldrad might not duel for a long time, but should he return, his new ranked position would still be based on his earlier history.

The intent of this is to make the stats list a little more representative of current people and activity in the game. Our method of statistical ranking is based on the chess "ELO" system, and they handle overall "ranking lists" in much the same manner.. if an International Master stops playing for a period of time, they'll still retain their ELO (and title), but they cease to appear on the competition rankings until they participate again.

In addition, our duel stats page will be updated less often (daily instead of every few minutes).

I hope to move towards having more actual duel "events", with interesting prizes and specific medals/awards and stuff. This is a step towards rejuvenating that system.

This sounds good :)

You probably want to have a look at freechess' unique rating system, which basically is a fine-tuned ELO system plus an RD- (Rating Deviation) factor, which not only shows how recent a given rating is, but also affects further calculations. In particular how 'real' (or current) the rating of your opponent is. To put it simply, the more stable your opponents rating is, the more it will affect your new rating.
I don't expect you to adopt this system 1:1, just meant as a source of inspiration.
If you're interested, this stuff is explained here:
http://freechess.org/Help/ficsfaq.html#Section005
and here's the more detailed explanation (the formulas) of the so-called Glicko Ratings System:
http://freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/glicko.html

As a sidenote, I play on freechess for several years now. Compared to my national rating (DWZ), this rating seems to reflect my current form more accurate, not as tenacious as ELO or DWZ is known for. In my opinion this system could fit better to VO than pure ELO.

Andy would have to comment further, but I don't think we actually use a pure ELO. I think it's based on that idea, but modified somewhat for our own uses. That was sufficiently long ago that I don't remember.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion, worth looking into.

This is brilliant i love it.

But they can get a Prom or an X-1?

Any player can get a SCP or X-1 if the invest the time to do so.

And besides, isn't the Marauder supposed to be the SCP/X-1 equivalent especially with the many variations produced by UIT, corps, and Corvus? And if you think the Marauder doesn't match up to being worthy in combat with a SCP or X-1 then you should look at the nation it is supposed to represent. Furthermore, if you haven't already figured out how to use a Marauder in combat efficiently then you haven't played long enough.

EDIT: Almost forgot about this topic.

Yes, I like the new change to Duel Stats. It shows that this place is updating itself more often and those that may have looked at the Duel Stats page 1 year ago and then looking at it now may see themselves removed and feel the incentive to join us again in combat.

Ok, it is done. Heh, we're down to 7 pages of duel stats.. there were 49.

...except search works even worse now.

Yes, it would be much better to introduce some kind of standard deviation into the calculation of ratings. I'll check it out but it would shake up duel ratings a bit.

yay gj devs :D

i want moar content soon tho

I say enough with the background work give us a bit of goodies :)

If Unaligned is going to be a faction people can choose, they need a special ship too! other than the corvult >_>