What about us new players?

[Buzzz]

I'm a NEW paying customer.  I have been participating in AH for 5 weeks now.  It looks like the new rules and features that are quickly being implemented do not take new players into consideration at all.  This game is difficult enough to learn as it is without having to constantly make an accounting of how many players are logging in and to what country they are on.  Most people are glad to befriend a newbie and offer help.  But if you have to constantly switch sides any relationships you build are gone in the blink of an eye if you jump countries and you are back to square one.  Being FORCED to fly a inferior plane with only a few hours total stick time in any AH plane is pure suicide.  Especially when you don't have time to build relationships so you can have wingmen to fly with.  I would be weak in the best plane in the arena as would any new customer to this game.  

I know this game is extremely hard and it takes a great deal of time and determination to manage to crawl over the learning curve.  I'm not usually a quitter.  But, what may be a mere handicap to experienced players is impassable barrier to new ones.  

Now add to that equation that the power of ack and the hardness of fields may increase and vary depending on the number of players on each side... well it appears that new customers mean nothing to the game developers.

I realize that one subscription and one easy kill for other  players means nothing in the big picture of things.  But as a consumer that's the only recourse I have.  Farewell and perhaps I will see some of you over at that new flight sim that's in free beta.  Maybe it's a bit more newbie friendly.

-Buzzz

[Arlo]

Well ... you can not fly rook (at least to start out) and that may help you get settled. Then later, if you feel like switching ... or if overall numbers shift, you can throw off the lala training wheels.

That or you can find yourself a squad that knows how to switch sides as a group.

Just a suggestion. I'm sure there'll be others.

[Urchin]

Everyone was new once.. we didn't just jump right in and become super-aces, or building-battler extraordinaires, or GV geniuses overnight.  

It takes work.  Find out what you like doing.. and do it until you get good at it.  I don't mind flying with a newbie, if you don't mind dying when we plunge into a horde.  I go by Urchin in the MA, I play at various times.. usually in the evening EST time.

[Horn]

Originally posted by Buzzz

I know this game is extremely hard and it takes a great deal of time and determination to manage to crawl over the learning curve.  I'm not usually a quitter.  But, what may be a mere handicap to experienced players is impassable barrier to new ones.  

You merely need to change sides. That's it. Since you are new you have no squad affiliation or "country" loyalty. Switch to knights and you will never lack for whatever ride you need.

Our squad has some great trainers--goto roster, sort by squad, look for the Damned Air Group. We fly Knight at all hours of the day. PM one of us and we'll be happy to help you find your way.

h

[Hyrax81st]

Buzzz,

Run, do not walk, to the Training Arena to get a handle on how things fly in AH2.

Second, H2H forums can be a blast for quick get up and shoot-em-up fights where you don't have to fly 20 minutes to enemy airspace just to get ganged by 7 enemy aircraft.

Third, You may want to skip the Main Arena (MA) altogether as worthless and proceed straight to the Combat Tour (CT) arena for a more pleasurable experience.

[Schutt]

I really think that is a valid point.

When starting most people advise flying one plane for a while, and i for sure wouldnt want to fly in training arena for 4 weeks.

So this side balancing stuff really hurts the guys that are new to AH2.

ciao schutt

[bozon]

But if you have to constantly switch sides any relationships you build are gone in the blink of an eye if you jump countries and you are back to square one.

You dont have to constantly switch sides. The pendulumn doesn't swing that fast. It's usually the same country over crowded, and if the ENY will work, the coutries will be more evenly ballanced so the ENY will not even kick in.

Besides, there are only 3 countries and so many players. You'll get to know enough of them.

Being FORCED to fly a inferior plane with only a few hours total stick time in any AH plane is pure suicide.

If you are a newbie, you might not be aware of that, so I'll let you in on a guarded secret: high ENY planes are not nececerily inferior.
Most plane lines have a very good earlier models. The 109F/G2 are very capable. The P51B and La5 are monsters. F4u-1 is just as capable as the F4u-D, faster and has better range. The mossie and 110 are great JABOs. Flying them is far from suicide.

Ballance is good for the newbies. ENY tries to achive that. It might not be the only solution, it might not be the best solution possible, but it's a solution.

Bozon

[jamusta]

Buzzz,
Become a knight.
Look up myself or vic.
Fly with us.
We will help you in anyway we can.
Die with us.
Have fun.
We are always looking for newbies. Hell half the squad are newbies.

[SlapShot]

Buzzz ...

You are only thinking of the new players that have joined the side that, for the most part, enjoys overpopulation.

What about the new players that don't join that side. How do they feel after getting wheels up, and then shortly into their sorties, they are constantly ganged by 5 or more bandits ? ... every single sortie. That would be more disconcerting to me than to have to fly some mid or early war planes.

[Morpheus]

Simply put, with no BS attached.


Switch sides.

If you cant deal with that option than your just going to have to deal with the choice you made.

[Karnak]

I flew one or two sorties in the beta.  I shot down one enemy Spitfire by riding the edge of a stall in a hard, flat turn.  That was my first experience in AH.  I didn't participate in the beta beyond that.

I signed up in v1.03.  It took me nearly two weeks to get my first kill, and when I did I ran out of fuel seconds later.  I had some fighter where I almost got kills before that, but it took nearly the whole freebie period to get to my first kill.

I did one session with a trainer in the TA.  I recommend that you try that out too.

I flew for the Rooks for the first two years I played AH and we were almost always outnumbered in that time period.  I switched to the Knights after joining a squad in the CT that then started a Knight squad in the MA and I've been a Knight ever since even though the squad is no more.  I have been on the out numbered side way more than on the side with numbers.  I don't fly often anymore, but I am certain that I would not be nearly as good as I am (a bit above the average I'd guess, certainly nothing to get excited about), if I had started out as a Bish or if I had stuck to flying the most powerful aircraft in the game.

[dedalos]

You want a super plane? fly the SpitV.  It should be available most of the time.  If not, TIFY is not bad either.

[Stang]

P-40!!!!

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Originally posted by Stang
P-40!!!!

A good option for the average or above average pilot. Being underestimated can give you the upper hand.

Hardly the tool for a new player faced with "wonder pilots" flying LA7's and Spitfire IX's.

And yes, I know you were joking.

[Soulyss]

Some would argue that you learn more and will become a better player quicker by flying the "inferior" planes.  Which I find from my own personal experience to be somewhat true.  When I started playing AH I flew the P-51 nearly exclusively for a couple years.  I achieved a decent kill to death ratio, and was generall pretty successful.  I couldn't fight my way out of a 1v1 for the life of me, unless I had a comfy altitude advantage to start with.  Then I started flying the Hellcat.  Suddenly I couldn't run from any fight that I was losing, I had to learn/relearn a lot of lessons.  I died a lot... the result, I'm now a much more capable opponent than I was when I could rely on the aircraft to get me out of trouble.  Now I have to get MYSELF out of trouble.  It forced me to become a better player in this game.  You can learn a lot more from flying "inferior" aircraft than you can flying the big and fast planes.  That's not to say that they're are not some very good players out there cruising around in P-51's.  But I found a "worse" plan to be the best learning tool I had.

*edit*  I had a teacher tell me once that learning is being uncomfortable, as long as you are not comfortable with what you're trying to do you're learning it, when you lose that feeling it's time to move on to bigger, better things.  I think there's some truth to that.