Yes but the same argument applies to AP, speed, or other stats. A skill rating should at least give you an understandable ballpark
No, because what you mentioned are objective linear stats. Someone with Building level AP is
always stronger than someone with Wall level AP. There is a single objective measure of AP (energy) and that will clearly sort characters in categories where the higher category always has more of said objective measure (i.e. has more energy).
So you don't need to compare feats and statements to figure out whose attacks are stronger, because the person with the higher AP rating is guaranteed to win that competition regardless of which feats and statements got them there. (Hax not considered, as they are not really strength in common sense)
Same with speed. A supersonic character is
never faster than a Hypersonic one.
The whole problem with splitting up the level as you suggested is the lack of a single objective measure of skill that separates characters as cleanly as energy does for AP. Skill is made up of a lot of capabilities which makes it impossible to say that someone that would have the higher rating would actually always come out on top in a skill comparison.
If you have a Superhuman Skill 1 rating and a superior Superhuman Skill 2 rating, you would need to define them such that the characters in the latter are always superior in skill to those in the former, because people will assume they are without comparing feats and statements. And I don't see that being possible at all. Hence it's better to have them in the same rating, because then people can't just say "mine has higher rating so mine are better" and actually have to look at details. It overall creates a much more healthy and accurate debate.
I can understand what
@DontTalkDT mean, but again those are exceptions to the general rule, should not somehow become rule, again like every other thing on the wiki we compare feats against feats, statements against statements, even when it come to haxes battle, no one see a guy with CM hax vs a guy without CM hax resistance assumed that the guy with CM hax automatically win the other guy without showing the actual feats of how that CM hax work, the same applies to intelligence.
I know that it is hard to apply a metric so something like intelligence, being smarter and more skilled doesn't automatically make you win, sure. But again vs matches and powerscaling itself is vague, doesn't stop us from making profile and powerscaling either, assigning abilities, stats to fictional characters; hell we even equalizing many aspects that most of the time exist exclusively in fictional verses so put them against each others; and vs match is the least of our problem since the foremost matter of our wiki is to indexing profiles. So i don't see the problem of assigning a metric to measure combat intelligence, just make a note that "these intelligence ratings is for reference only to measure overall combat intelligence that was displayed by characters, in a vs match it should not be an absolute factor to decide the result of battle, feats and statements should be compared in order to find out who going to have advantage in the fight"
Complaining about people going to use metric to claim their supported character going to absolutely winning in a match due to higher combat intelligence rating is......pointless, because no offense, there will be always people who going to make outlandish claims no matter what, even if we try to avoid these issues by removing ratings, or not assigning a metric to something, there will be always a guy who going to claim "this character A feats and statements is way better than that character B, he absolutely skill/combat/etc....stomp B, etc...."
The issue isn't them arguing that their character wins against reason, skill is only a small part in that to begin with and, yeah, people will consider factors other than skill.
The problem is that people will argue that their character is better in specifically the skill department due to specifically the reason of having a higher rating written on the page instead of comparing the reasons for those ratings. As pointed out, some replies in this thread already demonstrated people's tendencies to wish to do exactly that and it's not something we should encourage.
Furthermore, with nebulous distinctions between two superhuman categories that don't properly consider all factors involved in skill, I think it will be far more than just a few exceptions once we get lots of ratings and lots of comparisons are made... well, assuming people would then consistently make the comparisons propely, which I doubt would be the case.
Well, first somebody needs to write a brief instruction text regarding why combat skill statistics are not allowed in our pages, and also write a draft text for my new public announcement thread, as I think our best available solution here seems to be to make as many members as possible aware of this issue, so they stop adding such definitive ratings and also help us find and remove the previous ones. Are you willing to handle it please?
Well, assuming that option is what gets accepted, we could put a "Combat Skill" section on the Intelligence page that reads something like
Combat skill encompasses a range of factors that together describe how well a person can fight. This includes not only how effectively they use their abilities, but also whether they can apply them in ways that usually require special training or practice, as seen in martial arts. It covers aspects such as knowledge of fighting techniques, variety in combat styles, precision, experience, strategy, prediction, information processing, learning ability, and more.
These factors can also influence a character's general intelligence rating. For example, skills like strategy, rapid learning or the ability to predict an opponent's moves could contribute to a high intelligence rating. However, for many characters, it's useful to separate combat skill from general intelligence. This distinction is particularly important when a character is highly skilled in combat but lacks academic or intellectual prowess.
Unlike general intelligence, combat skill is not ranked on a scale with labels like "Genius" or "Supergenius." Due to the many factors involved, a simple rating system would fail to accurately capture a character's combat proficiency. For instance, it wouldn’t make sense to say someone who can learn any real-world martial art by watching it for a minute is necessarily superior to someone who has mastered a single martial art to a superhuman level. These are different types of skill that can’t be easily compared.
Using one-word ratings for combat skill could lead to misunderstandings, as a higher rating wouldn’t always mean that a character is objectively more skilled than someone with a lower rating. To avoid this confusion and better represent a character's abilities, we omit such ratings.
Instead, if a character profile includes a section on combat skill, it should only feature specific feats or statements that demonstrate their proficiency. This approach allows readers to directly compare characters based on their actual achievements, rather than relying on a potentially misleading rating system.
For the announcement, I take it that is for after the decision is officially passed and the Intelligence page is edited? If so, maybe something like:
Following the recent discussion
here, we've decided to no longer use ratings (like "Genius" or "Supergenius") to describe combat skill on character profiles. We have added a section laying out this decision to the
Intelligence page.
The reasoning behind this is that combat skill involves a wide range of factors—technique, strategy, experience, adaptability, and more. A simple rating doesn’t do justice to these unique differences and can lead to confusion when comparing them.
Instead, we'll just list the feats and statements that would serve as the justification for ranking. We hope that it encourages readers to compare characters directly using these, rather than by relying on a much too simplified ranking.
As we move forward, if you come across any remaining combat skill ratings on character pages, we kindly ask that you remove them or report them in this thread so our staff can take care of it. Your help in this process is greatly appreciated!
