There are times when you are really tempted to badmouth your fellows, though.
For instance, our side has enough advantage in numbers. We're starting an attack on an enemy field. You look around to see if someone else also gets a scope of the situation, and then, you are baffled to see not a single friendly plane attempts to knock down the acks.
No high enemy planes nearby, only a couple trying to get up in a small field with what, only 4~5 acks? .. and still nothing. Zilch. Nada. No response. All of them staying high and timid, just waiting for someone to do the job for them. Only time you see them coming down, is when you have risked so much to get behind a bogey - and then they swoop down, and steal the kill right in front of your nose.
So, you get pretty frustrated. You start to urge your fellows to join you in deacking the field. It's a ripe vulch chance. Nope - still nothing. They're all circling the field above. And, while all the time is wasted in timid merry-go-rounding at 15k, the enemys start to really up from the field. Soon, the whole area is swarming with bad guys.
You try to contain the situation, start aggressive passes to keep the enemies low..and then you look around. Where did your friends all go? They went home, thinking that the odds are starting to look bad.
Ouch, boy is one tempted to cuss.
...
Or, a simular situation. Two forces with about equal numbers meeting in the zone between the two hostile fields. Your side has the alt advantage. The fights become aggressive, and at low altitudes, a really hard furball is brewing.
There are a lot of enemies - but you also have a lot of friends. You think yourself "alright, let's get it on!" and confidently jump into the fight. Oops, somehow, the red dots near you are swarming by. Where are all your friends? They're all up high. Nobody committing himself to this fight. Wow guys, what are you doing up there? How we gonna get local air superiority by not engaging any of these low enemy planes?
Both sides have lesser skilled pilots. They are slow to understand the dangers, so naturally, they are the first to get shot down. You see those lesser skilled guys jumping into the fight. They may be average, but with a little help, they can do many things.
As you fly around at mid-alt, you see those newbie guys going in low into a dangerous fight. Since we have the alt advantage, we can cover our newbies so they don't die out in 10 seconds. Do it right, and we can push the battle lines nearer to the enemy field.
By golly, nobody's coming down to join the fight. Only time they come down, is when they see a single, low enemy on deck. And then, all of the guys come down and start a tussle for that one bogey - nearby at 10 miles distance, there are lots of targets to fight for.
So you're torn. You see those newbie guys getting shotdown like flies, while their plea for help falls deaf ears. You feel like going into save them - you know you can save them, and push back all the bad guys, if, only if all those friendlies weren't playing around at something like 20k.
But of course, no response. They won't come down until everything is totally safe. You go in alone to save your buddies - start a really hectic fight with zillion enemy planes buzzing by. The fight gets really dirty, and the nearby airspace is full of planes low and slow with almost no energy.
.. and then, as you save a couple of newbies, and get valiantly shot down in the process, you see the cavalry coming in after when all's already over. They start picking the low and slow enemy planes you've worked your prettythang off to push them into that state and rack up kills - and the triumphant roar of the friendlies ring your eardrums - as they fly by your chute. Geez, thanks a lot guys.
....
The altmonkeying and vulching, gangbanging mentality is sometimes just as harsh to the attackers!
