606 replies to this topic

[BlitzStats]

Hello forumers,

 

As some of you will know, BlitzStars.com has now been live and in BETA for a few days.

 

For those who haven't visited yet, BlitzStars is a basic World of Tanks: Blitz player stats and history website/webapp. The aim is to provide statistical data that is clear, helpful and interesting. Once a player has been searched for, their statistics begin to be recorded over time.

 

As an example, take the image below which is a screenshot from my own (SockRobber(eu)) page - with 'Show tank averages' selected and the Conqueror's row clicked.

 

 

The aim of BlitzStars is more than just 'here are some stats and ratings' - it's designed to be a tool to help investigate your playstyle and performance. In the screenshot above, the data (made clear by the colourings) suggests to me that if I wanted to improve my performance and winrate in the Conq, I should consider the fact that my spot rate (>30th percentile) and per minute statistics (two in >40th) are in a lower percentile bracket than most of my other stats (which are mostly >50th and >60th).

A low spot rate and per minute statistics suggests that I have played the Conq too cautiously tomaximise my performance at my current skill level.

 

An example of a more well rounded performance would be in my T-34, where my percentiles are equal (>90%) across the board.

 

 

I find this kind of visual data can really help point out statistical issues and point to where I can improve my gameplay.

 

I find percentiles are a much better way to judge statistics than mean averages. Being 10% above the average can mean two very different things in two different tanks (this is one of the major flaws in the WN8 formula in my opinion). 

Being in the 60th percentile always means that a stat is better than 60% of all the other recorded (same tank, same stat) stats. In one tank that might be 5% above mean, in another that could be 10% above mean. Therefore percentiles provide a truer reflection of 'how much better' or 'how much worse' than average.

 

There are many graphs and datapoints that I hope people will find interesting and useful. The site is in BETA and I'd be interested to get feedback and suggestions for any additional data points people would like included.

 

I will continue to work on adding things and improving the site regularly during the BETA period before things become more stable and the site goes gold.

 

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BETA Update 1

 

Since the BETA begun there have been numerous tweaks and fixes across the site. In particular:

• WN8 ratings have been added ( * see notes below for details)
• Mobile optimisations, particularly when clicking on a row in the main tanks table on a player's page (screenshot below). My aim is that the mobile version of the site should be just as usable as the desktop version (hard when dealing with displaying data-heavy content).
• 'Periodic data' included in the graphs. (So stats derived from >100 battle periods for the player stats, and from >25 battle periods for each individual tank).

 

 

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Some final notes:

Yes, there is already a post about the site made by somebody (thank you) a few days ago. There has been feedback - thanks folks - and I have read all the replies. But I thought I would start an 'offical' post where I can interact with replies etc where the post title wasn't quite so inflammatory. On that note - BlitzStars was originally developed as 'BlitzStats' (hence my forum name) as a personal project, however by the time I realised it might be good enough to share, the blitzstats.com domain had been registered and the registrant was not wanting to give up the name. Stats to Stars was a 1 letter change and made things easy...

 

WN8: The means used in the formula are from the BlitzStars database (which is at around ~5000 players currently), and only count players with over 100 battles in each respective tank. Therefore the WN8 numbers will vary if compared with other places. The overall WN8 (the one at the top of the page, rather than per tank) only includes tanks with over 50 battles. The WN8 formula is the standard formula with no tweaks. But the data used will differ slightly, and such so will the results.

 

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Thanks for reading folks. I hope the site will be useful and interesting to people. Leave any feedback below or via DM.

Cheers,

SockRobber (eu)

 

 

 

Edited by BlitzStats, 20 September 2015 - 07:13 PM.

[PixelRage]

I like it, it has a nice layout to it and everything i set out very nice. I think i will start using this one to track my stats, Job well done mate

[Ammo]

Very nice.  Thank you for your contribution to the community. 

[Spinee]

Wow this is really nice. One thing I felt that WoTBStars lacked is the style and design. It was just a bunch of graphs and it looked pretty unattractive with the ads everywhere. With this site I like how you make it look nice whilst giving out detailed information about the player. Bookmarked and I definitely recommend this over WoTBStars

[Stave_1]

Just checked it out I like.

[ScumbagJuJu]

If I may ask why are the number values different compared to WOTBstars?

Possibly the amount of players searched? Do we need a farming effort on names like WOTBstars had?

Edited by ScumbagJuJu, 20 September 2015 - 03:47 PM.

[GentleNova]

I definitely like your layouts much more so. That said, it pretty much tells me what I've always known. I exceed with high alpha TD tanks more so than others (other than the highest tiers which I'm still figuring out). And when using mediums, I can win but my damage output is way below normal. Why is that I'd like to know. My hit rate is good but my damage output sucks. My guess is that it has something to do with the faster gameplay style of mediums and I'm missing opportunity fire because of it. Still not 100% sure though.

[_S3MPRIAN_]

Very nice job dude. 

 

Why are the WN8 values different from WoTBStars? 

 

There are still a few bugs like my Leo 1 isn't showing up in my top ten tanks for DPB

Edited by _S3MPRIAN_, 20 September 2015 - 04:02 PM.

[LE_gend_VI]

I first said I would use stars page to view my stats for rehab. Which i may still use but this one seems to be able to show me what im doing in my current grind or tier 10 that i need to fix. 

 

Also needing a better stat evaluation for recruiting purposes. Seems to be the way to go

[KimJongSpoon]

Great job, I really like the layout! If you wanted to, you could try pulling info from Wotbstars.com for players' history of battles/win rate etc, assuming that's not to time consuming and face4star's cool with that.

[Unitater]

This site is amazing! Thanks so much!

[BlitzStats]

ScumbagJuJu, on 20 September 2015 - 03:14 PM, said:

If I may ask why are the number values different compared to WOTBstars?

Possibly the amount of players searched? Do we need a farming effort on names like WOTBstars had?

 

This is down to the way WN8 is calculated - based on the tank 'expected values' (means/averages), which for BlitzStars are based on it's own database and updated daily. I did put a note about it at the bottom of my long OP.

To clarify:

The tank averages (which you can see on the 'Tank Averages' page) are based on players with over 100 battles in the tank. This is a fairly high threshold and may change at some point - but that's the way it is for now. This data is of course from a fairly small pool currently (about 5000 players - and far less per tank). Certainly if people want to 'farm' in names to the system it could help get 'truer' numbers.

When it comes to the 'overall' WN8 (at the top of the page) I only count tanks that the player has played at least 50 games in towards the score. That is likely also a factor.

I will add a note to the OP about how the WN8s are calculated on BlitzStars.

Personally I think WN8 is at least slightly flawed, but then so is our dataset (only wargaming have all the numbers). But lots of people have asked for it, so I've put it in.

Hope that clears things up!

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GentleNova, on 20 September 2015 - 03:50 PM, said:

I definitely like your layouts much more so. That said, it pretty much tells me what I've always known. I exceed with high alpha TD tanks more so than others (other than the highest tiers which I'm still figuring out). And when using mediums, I can win but my damage output is way below normal. Why is that I'd like to know. My hit rate is good but my damage output sucks. My guess is that it has something to do with the faster gameplay style of mediums and I'm missing opportunity fire because of it. Still not 100% sure though.

 

I guess the thing here is that different people may interpret the numbers in different ways. And a really top player would probably think differently to me...

But here are some of my thoughts, looking at your medium tank numbers for tier 8 (I love the filtering even if I do say so myself!):

Your hit rates are higher than 90% of recorded players. So you're probably not taking enough snap shots and/or waiting too long to shoot. This is probably a hangover from playing slow-reload/aim-time/big-alpha ATs. Your per minute stats and spot rate, are higher than your per battle stats and ratios (DR (damage dealt / damage received) and KDR (kills/deaths)), suggesting you play aggressively in the mediums. Perhaps too aggressively (this might include not using cover correctly and avoiding damage by staying on the move, etc).

So in my in-expert opinion, I'd say you are playing too aggressively as far as your positioning/brawling goes, and are conversely being too cautious about missing some shots.

 

That's my take on your situation based on the data. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else wants to chime in!

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_S3MPRIAN_, on 20 September 2015 - 03:52 PM, said:

Very nice job dude. 

 

Why are the WN8 values different from WoTBStars? 

 

There are still a few bugs like my Leo 1 isn't showing up in my top ten tanks for DPB

 

Hopefully I've answered the WN8 thing above.

The 'top tanks' on the player pages only list tanks with over 100 battles - so 6 more to go for the Leo 1!

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KimJongSpoon, on 20 September 2015 - 04:06 PM, said:

Great job, I really like the layout! If you wanted to, you could try pulling info from Wotbstars.com for players' history of battles/win rate etc, assuming that's not to time consuming and face4star's cool with that.

 

Glad you approve. Very much a code guy rather than a designer so it's great to hear positive feedback on the way the site looks! I think taking data from other places probably wouldn't be considered cricket so I won't go down that road. The best way to get more history stats for a player is simply to play lots (>25 games since the last record and a new tank stat is recorded, more than 100 games since the last 'overall' record and a player's stats are recorded).

 

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Thanks for all the feedback everyone! Appreciated and motivational. Love seeing some people spend 30+ mins looking at graphs and tables on the site.

Edited by BlitzStats, 20 September 2015 - 06:36 PM.

[Player_13082010666]

The pick of colors is great and the page looks atractive, I really love it, thanks!

But there is one thing I didn't really understand, in the part where all the tanks are shown, what is the type of sort they have? I noticed that the first ones where the ones I have in garage right now, then there is a bit of disorder and it ends in the lower tiers. 

Edit. Nevermind, I fixed it

Edited by adrieeel, 20 September 2015 - 06:46 PM.

[_S3MPRIAN_]

So WN8 is a relative ranking system? I never new that

[Psyberius]

Wow! Very nicely done! Very clean and attractive layout and the features are easy to use.

 

A couple of things I'd like to express: 

 

     I like how the columns for the different stats can be sorted. Is there a way to sort the stats by deviation from the mean for each stat? (Best to worst or vice versa?). I don't see a way to do this. But I think it would be cool to see which stats in which tanks I have the greatest deviation from the mean in. 

 

     Have you considered making an app in the future? I think that would be pretty great. 

 

Thank you for creating and sharing this. This is a very promising tool that I know I will use along with wotbstars. Well done!

 

[BootlegTampico]

_S3MPRIAN_, on 20 September 2015 - 01:16 PM, said:

So WN8 is a relative ranking system? I never new that

 

WN7/8 are all relative

 

[BlitzStats]

_S3MPRIAN_, on 20 September 2015 - 07:16 PM, said:

So WN8 is a relative ranking system? I never new that

 

Shawk_91, on 20 September 2015 - 11:24 PM, said:

 

WN7/8 are all relative

 

 

WN8 is relative. I wouldn't call WN7 relative (unless I'm missing something...).

PS. Shawk, the link in your sig is broke. Maybe time to update it to something else...

 

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Psyberius, on 20 September 2015 - 10:30 PM, said:

Wow! Very nicely done! Very clean and attractive layout and the features are easy to use.

 

A couple of things I'd like to express: 

 

     I like how the columns for the different stats can be sorted. Is there a way to sort the stats by deviation from the mean for each stat? (Best to worst or vice versa?). I don't see a way to do this. But I think it would be cool to see which stats in which tanks I have the greatest deviation from the mean in. 

 

     Have you considered making an app in the future? I think that would be pretty great. 

 

Thank you for creating and sharing this. This is a very promising tool that I know I will use along with wotbstars. Well done!

 

 

Thanks for the nice words!

That's an interesting idea for the table sorting - but I have two issues:

• Firstly, how to implement it (UX) wise? The current sort (click a column header) is a simple and standard/expected UX feature. How to add a secondary sort?
• Secondly, I don't like mean deviations. I talk about it in the OP; I'll take a percentile based rating system over a mean deviation rating system every day of the weak. Is there a case to be made against my position?

 

I like the idea of an 'app' and in fact BlitzStars.com is a 'Single Page (Web) Application'. It is made using AngularJS. Effectively you download the initial page which pulls in all the code and additional pages to run the app. To give you an idea, there's over 3MB of JavaScript and HTML (before minification and compression) that makes BlitzStars work. Almost all of the calculations and hard work is done in the web browser rather than on the server (which the server appreciates a lot). This is coupled with direct API access from the browser to the Wargaming API so that the stats shown (and calculated) are based on the latest 'fresh' data.

 

My goal is to make the website/webapp work great on mobile devices. Then people can 'Add to Home Screen' on Android, which will add a shortcut on the desktop/homescreen and when opened the 'app' will run without that annoying location bar and associated browser options/chrome. I'm pretty sure there is a similar feature available on iOS. Of course, the app can also be packaged and added to the various app stores but I'm not sure that's worth it.

 

Before I look in to getting any of that extended 'app-iness' in place though, I still have things I'd like to sort on the mobile version of the site to make it work 'better' on smaller screens. 

[GentleNova]

Thanks for the feedback on my stats. I agree that I probably play way too aggressively in mediums. It's that "I feel the need for speed" thing that gets me in trouble at times. If I could merge my TD play style with the capabilities of the medium, I think I'd do better. Actually I was commenting on that to dimzzy the other day, as he was driving a T54 but played it very cautiously. Anyways something I need to figure out and work on. Thanks again. 

[BootlegTampico]

BlitzStats, on 20 September 2015 - 06:22 PM, said:

 

 

WN8 is relative. I wouldn't call WN7 relative (unless I'm missing something...).

PS. Shawk, the link in your sig is broke. Maybe time to update it to something else...

 

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IT's relative to tier, related to a specific value. What ever floats your boat...

Thanks ...Perhaps I will when I am less lazy

[BlitzStats]

_S3MPRIAN_, on 20 September 2015 - 07:16 PM, said:

So WN8 is a relative ranking system? I never new that

 

Shawk_91, on 21 September 2015 - 04:22 AM, said:

IT's relative to tier, related to a specific value. What ever floats your boat...

Thanks ...Perhaps I will when I am less lazy

 

Well, I guess what _SEMPRIAN_ was referring to was that it is relative to a datapoint set - in this case, the 'tank averages', which will be different depending on whose data you use. In that way it is different to WN7.

I have added WN7 right next to WN8 on BlitzStars now and if you compare the two stats against the stats on other sites, you will see that the WN7s are (or should be, give or take a rounding error or two) identical regardless of site, where as the WN8s do vary.

 

GentleNova, on 21 September 2015 - 03:26 AM, said:

Thanks for the feedback on my stats. I agree that I probably play way too aggressively in mediums. It's that "I feel the need for speed" thing that gets me in trouble at times. If I could merge my TD play style with the capabilities of the medium, I think I'd do better. Actually I was commenting on that to dimzzy the other day, as he was driving a T54 but played it very cautiously. Anyways something I need to figure out and work on. Thanks again. 

 

No probs! Hopefully some of my points are correct eh. Using the 'periodic data' on the graphs when you look at a specific tank's extended view you can really easily see the effects of changes in your gameplay style hopefully!

The tank records update every day (minimum of 25 battles since the last record) but are 'live' since the last record. So play 10-20 games and check back and the periodic data will have changed for the latest period (ie. the last 'period' will be from the last record to 'live' - you do need something recorded before it will work though). 

Edited by BlitzStats, 22 September 2015 - 12:28 AM.