Originally posted by Wotan
He did it for a reason, to balance the numbers which is something a good number of folks in this community have called for over the years. If folks can't take it upon themselves to balance the arena then it forces HT to act.
HT did this to encourage folks to switch sides and balance the numbers. The fact some of you are so set against just high lights the problem of how ridiculous side loyalty is. Most of the ones complaining are rooks. It just happens they usually enjoy close to a 100 person advantage over the other 2 sides. If the situation were reversed you and your squad wouldn’t have zip to say about it. When rooks were down folks switched sides on their own. That’s not happening now.
First off loyalty to a country is not just a Rook thing. I posted in other threads an analysis of all the squads (it took me a day to go through and check all of their flying stats) and the vast majority of squads only fly for one country.
As of the snapshot I took on 7/12/04 here is how the 341 actively flying squads break down.
82 - Bishop Dedicated - 24.0%
8 - Bishop Primary - 2.3%
96 - Knight Dedicated - 28.2%
16 - Knights Primary - 4.7%
91 - Rook Dedicated - 26.7%
31 - Rook Primary - 9.1%
As you see the Bishops and Knight Squads are in the main much, much more loyal to flying just for their team. You might find it silly but the vast majority don't and calling somebody irrational just because you don't agree with their point of view is not warranted. Also painting it as primarily a one country or the people on one country not getting it as the truth also is not correct.
Humans are social creatures and tend to look to groups or to form groups to form social dynamics. We do this all the times with fans for teams .. how much of a difference there is between Football team A and Football team B .. is debatable but you will still have people debate and show loyalty to it. If you changed the names from chess pieces to another thing .. wouldn't matter since people are more focused on interacting with their squad and the other people on their team.
There are some people who will switch and nobody condemns or questions that or calls it irrational. It is just that the vast majority don't and calling them irrational is unwarranted.
Second a massive influx of players from the Knights and Bishops did not happen and create this situation. The Rooks situation of being the low man on the totem started with the game. It got very back in 2001-2002 and through a number of factors the Rooks built up their player base and yes, some squads switched.
Even lets say that the massive groundswell did happen that a massive amount of squads and players switched to because the Rooks were massively outnumbered and they switched to help even things out.
Okay they switched from teams with larger numbers to even things out. They didn't care about a team loyalty they switched to balance numbers and too many of them switched causing Rooks to grow massive, no other factors besides that.
If they switched to balance numbers before then why are they not doing it now? You already stated that its irrational to show a team loyalty, by this I mean to a side, and that their is no cultural or community difference at all between sides. So if a larege influx of squads switched (which I don't believe is the case) to balance numbers (that being their only goal .. since Rooks were the smallest and why switch to the small team if they are actually only interested on being on the large team) they should be doing it now by your logic?
Next in the thread that HiTech started discussing options I posted screen shots of not one night but from a range of nights over 2+ week period sampling times from 9-9:30 to 10:30 ish. The Rooks have a massive advantage on sunday nights. They don't other nights and actually over the past week or so from 9:-11 EDT things have even out quite a bit. Although the Knights still seem to be more often fielding the least amount of numbers.
So we are roughly talking about 1 night a week where Rooks have a massive number advantage. Primarily do to the reason dracon states .. most of Rook squads have their squad nights sundays and I propose this is because taking sunday night and flying 3 hours doesn't interfere with RL things (wives and girlfriends don't object as much) as would trying to do that Friday night (quite a few Rook squads flyin in the SEA FSO's on friday) or Sunday night. Meaning sunday night is the most attractive.
Now other nights the Knights and Bishops have fielded in the 160s .. on tuesday at 10:38 it was B134, K166, R149.
http://www.dgideon.org/aceshigh/ahss27.pngOn sunday they don't turn out the pilots at all they do on the other nights. And some squads have even posted that they now avoid sunday nights .. further reducing their numbers. It is not just a Rook thing .. Rooks should try to branch out to fly other nights as their squad nights. However, other squads should work at turning out their players to bolster their numbers more on sunday nights. If the arena was 160, 160, 200 that is not that bad of a spread.
So implying it is only caused by those who fly Rooks is possibly simplistic outlook.
Also stating that only Rooks have been objecting to HiTech ideas is your perception on things. Quite a few from all countries were stating or not liking HiTech first idea about a time delay. Most, from all sides seem to be on board about the disabling better rides as the numbers get out of balance .. which should only affect sundays in a extreme way .. call sunday FM2 sunday.
Dracon was not stating a country loyalty but a ride loyalty. And what he is worried about is the 12 hour limit rule. They want to fly P51Ds which are 6 ENY. He says they are willing to switch but what he is worried about is switching to a country that has the P51D (the country with say the least pilots on sunday) and then say they gain pilots and become the second most .. enough pilots to have the P51D shut off there also .. and then they are locked into that second country that can't fly P51Ds.
Not the fact that they have to switch.
All I can say is that will be the case with all the top planes .. and which is why I suggested the P51B.
