Arena Cap is not cool...

[BMathis]

I've spent 25 minutes trying to join my squaddies in ORANGE...

Bish 91 Knit 97 Rook 115. NO ENY.


Why the cap then? Open that ish up please!

[2bighorn]

I've spent 25 minutes trying to join my squaddies in ORANGE...

Bish 91 Knit 97 Rook 115. NO ENY.


Why the cap then? Open that ish up please!

ENY has nothing to do with arena cap. Besides, you could log in BLUE and notified your squad mates to join you...

[Zazen13]

I've spent 25 minutes trying to join my squaddies in ORANGE...

Bish 91 Knit 97 Rook 115. NO ENY.


Why the cap then? Open that ish up please!

Yea, I have seen this many times. The problem is, when an arena is capped and no one can join the only way to even numbers is "internal" transfers between countries. So, in reality the arena caps hurt gameplay balance. It would work much better if the arenas were "soft" capped when significantly unbalanced, meaning people could still join it if they were willing to join the lowest country. The soft cap would change to a hard cap once relative balance was achieved. You'd just have to block those that joined during the soft cap period from transferring for 1 hr.

[BMathis]

Ya I could, but We want to fly in orange. And what is cap there for then?

* Half an hour now...  

[BMathis]

That's a good Idea, but couldn't just switch countries to join squaddies once I get in? Or there would be the hour wait still?

[Fulmar]

Amazing how many beatings this horse has taken.

[Zazen13]

That's a good Idea, but couldn't just switch countries to join squaddies once I get in? Or there would be the hour wait still?

You'd have to play for the low guys for 1 hr, just as if you had switched countries. After that hour you could move...

[Monty405]

why are there even two late wars? can the server not handle the full load? theres certainly room enough on large maps for everyone to be in.

[Zazen13]

why are there even two late wars? can the server not handle the full load? theres certainly room enough on large maps for everyone to be in.

At some point HiTech came to the conclusion too many people in one arena was bad for gameplay, he gave no other specific reason that I recall...I never really could understand how he came to that conclusion though. I tried really hard to attempt to figure out any possible way that could be true, but came up blank...He posted about it back then if you search the forums. It has been stated 397 times it has nothing to do with the server or connections, we only use about 5% of the server's power..

[Alky]

I think it should just be Titanic Tuesday 7 days a week, this 2 arena thing with caps is dumb!   

[BMathis]

nice info Zazen 

<<S>>

[2bighorn]

At some point HiTech came to the conclusion too many people in one arena was bad for gameplay, he gave no other specific reason that I recall...I never really could understand how he came to that conclusion though. I tried really hard to attempt to figure out any possible way that could be true, but came up blank...He posted about it back then if you search the forums. It has been stated 397 times it has nothing to do with the server or connections, we only use about 5% of the server's power..

There were 1000s of threads complaining about the gameplay and the community. As the number of subscribes grew, the positive feeling about  AH community went down the drain. The general consensus was that smaller numbers in arenas are beneficial for social interaction and building a better community, and with that, better gameplay.

That was the reason for arena caps. We also got side balancing for better play.

[Zazen13]

There were 1000s of threads complaining about the gameplay and the community. As the number of subscribes grew, the positive feeling about  AH community went down the drain. The general consensus was that smaller numbers in arenas are beneficial for social interaction and building a better community, and with that, better gameplay.

That was the reason for arena caps. We also got side balancing for better play.

Yea, that sounds familiar. I don't think it really changed anything though in terms of player dynamics. Other than we now have to exit and reload the server list 5 million times to get into the arena we want only to find a cavernous HUGE map with far too few players to make it really fun. There's always been something counter-intuitive about "splitting" the arenas to bring the community "together". I think it's a case of too many changes too quickly in a somewhat knee-jerk over-reaction to a problem that was mostly just a simple matter of perception and perspective.

[2bighorn]

IIRC at first we had much smaller caps (and small maps) to split the player's base evenly into all arenas. The idea was to rather have 4 smaller but working communities, than single and large but non working.

Due to complaints, late war arena caps were increased, and so we got what we have. Tuesday's Titanic is maybe a hint to what's coming (no caps), and maybe not.

I still believe it was worth the try. We wouldn't know if it works or not without trying.

[Zazen13]

IIRC at first we had much smaller caps (and small maps) to split the player's base evenly into all arenas. The idea was to rather have 4 smaller but working communities, than single and large but non working.

Due to complaints, late war arena caps were increased, and so we got what we have. Tuesday's Titanic is maybe a hint to what's coming (no caps), and maybe not.

I still believe it was worth the try. We wouldn't know if it works or not without trying.

Yea, it might have worked better if we still only had the small maps. But, splitting the population in half then sticking us on HUGE maps makes absolutely no sense. It certainly failed at improving gameplay and has had a neutral to detrimental effect creating an enhanced feeling of community cohesion.