Originally posted by DoKGonZo
So, just for the sake of argument, lets see what we can fix by messing with one little thing- the kills landed messages. Change them to: "A member of the XXX squadron just landed Y kills."
Now, suppose that squad kill message then did a quick rifle through the stats and if the squad is in the top 10 in any category that's measured, the message has appended to it: "The squad now ranks 5th in kill/death ratio" ... or whatever stat they're best at in the top 10.
Same deal when a base is captured - say which squadron got the troops in.
Then do one more thing on the kills landed message ... announce assists as well.
Hehe .... geez, DoK ... wouldn't it just be easier to just ditch all glorydog messages?
But .... on the gamer/simmer black and white classification thang:
While I like Bumba's post I don't entirely agree with it's premise (at least in regards to the communities I've belonged to online so far). Although I certainly see those two personalities exhibited in the community I see them as extremes (granted .... I also see each end having more than a minimal percentage of the population). I've also noticed players that I suppose, for lack of a better term, could be classified as gamer/simmer hybrids. I belong to that particular demographic.
These would be the players who've enjoyed sims, strategy games and role-play type games over time and wouldn't mind seeing elements of each combined. Sure, some find one aspect more appealing than the other but they appreciate the differences and what place they do or don't have in whatever enviroment they're currently playing in.
Aces High actually has more depth to it than most games online and can be customized to suit different demographics of the community. By and large, the player base plays in the main arena which is set up to be as generic as possible. There are three sides that participate in a three way free-for all RISK style territory capture and nobody belongs to a side that depicts itself as a virtual representation of any of the nations that actually participated in World War II. The terrains are custom created to be as equal as possible when the arena is reset and aren't representations of any actual geographic region. All aircraft modeled for Aces High are available within the limits of whatever has been coded in the system to try to assure some degree of balance.
That, right there, is an important clue that Aces High is a game.
Players can earn points for air to air kills (with modifiers applied depending on whether they make it back to land, are forced to ditch in friendly or enemy territory, bail over friendly or enemy territory or are killed). They can earn points for conducting air to ground attacks and bomb runs, ground to ground fights between vehicles, base captures and defending bases abd ships via ground and ship guns. This is true for all servers, plane match-ups, settings and enviroments. It's player feedback. A measure of success.
Methods vary. Players can operate as lone wolfs or in wolf packs. They can dive into the middle of furballs and go berzerk. They can load up with fuel, grab alt and look for prey to snipe. They can make head on attacks. They can vulch aircraft taking off. They can drive a tank or ostie or other vehicle to a spawnpoint, anticipating players from other sides spawning there and pick them off. They can take command of fleets and take them out to sea or use them to assault bases on the coast. They can look for easy routes to get their bombers to a target and back with the minimum of opposition (none being preferred by many). They can take heavy bombers and make suicide attacks on bases for the sake of either disabling something that makes it harder for the other side to use that base effectively or to assist in the capture of bases/territory. ALL within the design and parameters of Aces High. Yes ... all of this is by design. Players prefer some methods over others. Players hold some methods in disdain. And which specific ones are considered acceptable or not in their eyes vary from player to player.
Group
strategies are actually less varied in the MA. Who do we attack? Where do we attack? What do we attack with? Are we a cohesive group or are we a chaotic mass? Do we have numbers? Should we devote ourselves to defending a base or front?
And since the goal of the main arena is to "win" a reset, each side, by default, plays "RISK." Players often mistake the MA goal of reset to be the goal of all server enviroments in the game but, in actuality, it's specific to that one arena.
So still .... we have a game more than a sim.
BUT ...
HTC has devoted itself to making Ace's High the premier online mmoSIM by spending a great deal of effort on the flightmodel as well as the comsetics of over 70 aircraft, vehicles, ships and boats (well boat). The gunnery, damage model and even details such as blackouts, pilot wounds, oil on the windscreen were all developed to give the players a sense of immersion. And it was coded is such a way to keep the community from suffering bloated downloads. The coding is lean and mean.
Once players venture out of the main arena into the Combat Arena or into an event they find that they can further immerse themselves into a setting that involves historically accurate plane match-ups and terrains (or at least will, again, as the terrains and more models fill in the gaps currently in the system).
Events are more structured, having rules and guidelines designed to reduce the chance of "rogue" players ruining the immersion for the whole group. The Combat Theater, though less structured, offers a taste of history by having historical match-ups and realistic terrains on a weekly rotation 24 hours a day.
This makes Ace's High not only a simulation but a place to "re-enact"* famous air (and possibly land and sea) battles from WWII.
Ok ... there's two aspects of the game ... a dual personality, if you will.
Role-play can exist in either enviroment. With the CT it requires the flexibility of changing a squadron's personality to reflect what's available there that week. In the MA it requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief or perhaps just completely ignoring the fact that P-51s in U.S. markings are fighting opposing P-51s in U.S. markings for a piece of territory referred to a "Pizza" (not to be confused with Pizza , Italy).
So ... does each player have to be one or the other? Not really. Even if their personality is a cocktail of all of the above, each one can be (and probably is) uniquely different.
If you stop and think about it, this may actually be one of the greatest strengths of Ace's High that will keep it a viable community and product for years to come.
(Geez ... if I spent this much effort every night working on writing short stories or novel chapters I'd probably be published by now)
I'm tired ... I'm sure whoever took the time to read this is too. But I think I'll go to bed.
