S5 scores difficulty intentions?

[fierce epoch]

The new scenarios are great, but why are the score requirements made so much harder?

Is this a bug of a feature? If you wanted to add new scores to shoot for, add them to the top end or adjust Celestial's score reqs. Certainly Intermediate and Novice scores from s4 to s5 should be similar.

I'm only asking because currently I've went on average from Master to Diamond in a lot of scenarios. Even GM > Diamond in some of the TS ones. Aether, controlTS, penta bounce, and drift TS seem the worst in particular (although I didn't get a chance to play the static and dynamic scens yet). I know we'll learn the scenarios with time, but rank deflation shouldn't be an intentional goal. It makes you wonder what the point of benchmarking even is if that's the case.

I do love the scenarios though, I always appreciated controlsphere so I'm glad it's a benchmark scenario now. The only other criticism I could give is that Raw Control seems quite different to clover's version (i.e less focus on small fingertip/precise movements). It's a shame because I personally felt that was an important area that was often underlooked.

Thank you Voltaic!

[pulsar jackal]

• cloverRawControl was an attempt to make an actual good version of older less polished similar tracking scenarios, it's not related to the benchmark one rather that one is more based on Whisphere than anything else.

• The benchmarks have been in BETA for three days, the novice and intermediate reqs are ballparked often by more advanced players, which is why they've historically often been very off. Which doesn't matter because you cannot submit for ranks anyways for BETA benchmarks.

"but rank deflation shouldn't be an intentional goal. It makes you wonder what the point of benchmarking even is if that's the case."

I don't entirely understand this because s5 should be compared to other s5, s4 came out almost 3 years ago

The ranks are a very much per benchmark thing, they've never been close in difficulty really and generally get easier the older the benchmarks are

[fierce epoch]

Appreciate the response, thanks. That makes sense.

Regarding intentional rank deflation, I don't think it makes sense since a benchmark should provide a standard to measure against by definition. In this case, the rank of Diamond (for example) from s4 to s5 should be relatively similar. Of course, the scenarios are different so your scores will vary somewhat, but overall a diamond ranked player should still be expected to be roughly Diamond in the new season. If the intention was to add a higher ceiling, then new ranks can be added at the top end (I.e. after Celestial, rather than making Gold the new Jade and bronze borderline impossible for new players - as an extreme example). It keeps the integrity and relevance of Voltaic rankings as a standard of aim, which I think is one of Voltaic's key USPs. Unfortunately I still see people refer to themselves as GM because they were GM in s3 - I think intentional rank deflation from s4 to s5 will only exacerbate this issue. Not to mention it'd be demotivating for most since their raw aim hasn't changed or gotten worse.

To be clear, I was just confirming that this wasn't the intention. Not stating that it was. If the rank deflation was simply a mismatch due to it the scores being off in Beta (which from what you said, is the case) then that's completely fair and understandable!

[pulsar jackal]

The initial intention was something like a -1 rank universally but nothing like master to diamond, that would just be a balancing error. We did bring up adding a rank above celestial but there was some friction with that idea..

It's all pretty unconcrete as of this moment, nothing I'd say here or confirm as far as internal discussion goes

Personally don't think the statement "s3 is easier" should be controversial to say unless it's intentionally brought up as someone celebrates w/e they achieved on it.

But I disagree that the vague abstract idea of a "grandmaster" rank should be consistent across years of benchmarks (keep in mind s3 is from early 2021 and s4 is from early 2022). It's pretty pointless and imo should just be within x season. When you're playing S5, you don't compare to someone playing a completely different set of scenarios like S4.

Again I don't personally want diamond to be the new grandmaster but I'm also thinking about the future and possible skill ceiling, I don't think a rebalance of some sorts should be that controversial. I also cannot relate to losing motivation because you get a lower rank in a new season it really is meaningless to me icl because it's just disconnected from other seasons

Like you're the same exact skill it's just a different name now

The player skill bell curve would shift along with it

You also have to keep in mind there's pattern learning you need to do now in new scenarios that you have already done in s4 a while ago. Like I've gone up 2 ranks by just putting in an hour or two in a scenario. People who just run through the benchmarks without giving a scenario proper playtime obviously will get bad scores

[pulsar jackal]

That being said I’m not even passionate about benchmarks or ranks really I’m chilling as long as I get some decently challenging scenarios in my advanced category

[fierce epoch]

That's all reasonable. A 1 rank shift down is understandable. In theory it'd be nice if the ranks were plotted along a normal distribution/bell curve. I do fear that intentionally shifting the ranks down might cause a large concentration of players at the bottom end / off the ranks - due to aim training being a growing space. New players keep joining and are naturally at the bottom end. As for motivating the top players, I can see the argument for not adding a rank above Celestial, in other ranking systems traditionally at the top rank you would get a number or maybe a percentile instead to give you something to shoot for. It'd require some work but I'm sure it'd be possible to integrate this with the spreadsheet and kovaaks/aimlabs leaderboards.

Anyways, just a couple ideas for the future. If the rank change was only supposed to be 1 rank it should be fine for now. Thank you for the hard work and new scenarios