Assist Points (Concept)

A partial reward granted to the player for aiding a teammate by softening a target or helping to fully score by completing an objective in competitive multiplayer. Assist Points may also refer to bonuses awarded for simply supporting an ally with repair, supplies or a defibrillator zap.

Summary
Short summary describing this concept.

Assist Points last edited by bobafettjm on 08/04/22 07:35PM View full history

Not to be confused with sharing XP

Contrary to just dividing points based on how many players helped or based on how much each of them contributed, Assist Points add to the sum total of rewards (XP) received.

Even thought certain role play games employ added party-bonus experience points (XP), they should not be considered unless explicitly displayed or stated as assist points.

in Sports

Most sport games have some kind of assist tracking, but these shouldn't be associated with "kill assists", partly because they don't influence the score and player-ranking.is always secondary to team results.

Advantages

Assist points inflate the total number of points, thus making cooperation in team based multiplayer more rewarding e.g. Assuming a kill is worth 100 points, when two players play alone and in turn get kills they will be averaging around 50 points for every downed enemy. Working together team mates may walk away with 100 (kill) + 50(assist) points or up to 75 points on average having accomplished the same task.
Kill assists lower the frustration and randomness associated with point/kill/reward stealing a.k.a. jacking.

Disadvantages

Like all multiplayer progression, points just add an arguably unnecessary layer of statistical meta-game, also increasing server cost and intruding on player privacy.
The point incentives may add to the tactics and teamwork or they can distract from play, resulting in players juking the statistics and playing for individual rewards rather than their team.