Chicken Little

[LePaul]

Howdy Blue

My first questions would be, are you in a squad and do you fly at the same times that some are on?

I took a serveral-month break from the game and recently came back.  I hooked up with some other guys who enjoy flying bombers, 999000 and tatertot.  We like strat.  If we want to TAKE a field, not pork for the sake of porking, I know that with 3 bombers, we can do some real damage and be instrumental into our side taking a field.  For me, that's fun.  I enjoy the challenge of getting a bomber to a hot zone, survive some fighters and limp back home.

I joined up with SHawk's squad upon their invite and have been getting more into fighters than Ive ever been before.  The guys have had some good advice and every sortie has been fun, if not educational.

Sure, the game, as always, has some real buggy boos, such as the way way generous ditch model and a few others.  But things seem to be *improving* to me.

One thing I miss is knowing who most of these guys are and the Ch1 banter.  I dont know a lot of the folks Im flying against as they either dont play when I do or they've moved on.

And there are some evenings where every con I engage is a La7 or Spit, always going for the head on at every pass.  What can you do, out of 650+ players, I pick the dweeb.  Heck, with that streak, you'd think Id pick a winning Powerball ticket!  

I understand your head scratching, I've wondered it myself.

[Blue Mako]

LePaul,

I've been with the 412th FS for the last 3 years or so.  As I'm an Aussie there's probably only about a 30% chance I'll be flying at least one member of the squad on any given night.  No real problem, used to that.  I've lone wolfed most of my AH time.

Just seems to me that the skill level in AH has plummeted in the last couple of years and gameplay as a whole has suffered.  Just trying to come up with some ideas to arrest the slide.

[Stang]

Originally posted by Murdr


3.  Alot of gameplay issues are from too many players being entrenched in Class 3.  The answer isnt changing the game, its changing the player.  Share knowlege, share tips, give training.  Otherwise you end up with a game full of runners because that is the only skill they know.  

Amen.

[Guppy35]

Strange, as I was commenting to someone yesterday, that I thought the tone in the arena, and the overall gameplay had improved as of late.  I'd credit it to the attitude of the players in there lately.  It seems a lot more civil and folks seem to be having fun with the talk and the fights. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much of the trash talk.

The fighter drivers seem to be able to find the fights better, and the tac air drivers are still doing their thing, but less at the expense of the decent air to air fight.

I found myself flying more lately then ever.

Oh well, to each his own

Dan/CorkyJr

[kj714]

This beat up old horse still has some life in it eh?

[moot]

Hence the need for a 4th country, placed in the middle of the map, like A21 on one of Fester's, made up of all the vets.

Endless carnage and fun on both sides.

[Rolex]

Wait a minute... for $14.95 per month I can read the BBS and fly online? What a country.

[Kweassa]

3. Alot of gameplay issues are from too many players being entrenched in Class 3. The answer isnt changing the game, its changing the player. Share knowlege, share tips, give training. Otherwise you end up with a game full of runners because that is the only skill they know.

 If that was possible, human society would have reached Utopia by now Murdr, instead of develop social and legal systems.

[Guppy35]

Originally posted by Kweassa
If that was possible, human society would have reached Utopia by now Murdr, instead of develop social and legal systems.

It still comes down to how each player approaches the game.  No one can make me mad, but I can choose to be.

Or I can choose to enjoy the game for what it is, try and present myself as a reasonable and hopefully pleasant adult and with any luck at all, some of that might rub off on folks.

Too many of these threads amount to someone saying that everyone else is responsible for their happiness, and if it doesn't change, they're gonna take their ball and go home.

That just isn't the case unless you let it be that way.

There are way too many folks contributing positively to the game in any number of ways, and I think they far outnumber and outweigh any bad that people think they see in the game.

It still comes down to those moments when the cyber cockpit  surrounds you and the engine noise and the rattle of gunfire becomes real as you struggle to survive that dogfight you've found yourself in.  When you get sucked in like that, and for that brief moment it feels real, or what you imagine real felt like, all the peripheral BS becomes pointless.

And I still haven't found any other game that lets me have that.

Dan/CorkyJr

[Kweassa]

Guys,

 who's gonna "educate" or "pursuade" the others to approach the game with a different manner? The vets? They don't have any authority - this is a free game where everyone is free to do what they like.

 The players, will excercise(and are currentyly excercising) their freedom to the fullest, and choose not to fly or fight in any sort of way the "vets" think is fun, and that's the end of it. They fly in the way they can profit the most with their limited skills. They don't care if they get better or not, and no 'vet' is gonna ever pursuade anyone to fly differently.
 

Why should, or would, any individual in the MA ever change his way of thinking or flying, when his current course of action fits his needs in the current MA perfectly?

 Because he doesn't get any better in skill??  He won't learn much if they fly that way?  It's the dweebey way of flying?  It only shows how much they suck??

--- NEWSFLASH! --- They don't care.


 In the deepest irony, the more the vets rant about this, the more they are 'interfering with the freedom' of the MA folk to fly the way they want to.

 Who's gonna make them care about how the MA can become a better game? Me? You? Anyone?

 ...

 This isn't some other person's fault, nor is it my own fault. It is everyone's fault, which their only crime is nothing but flying the way they like to, because that's how the MA is made.

 And when it's everyone's fault that's ruining the game, then the only thing that can effect everyone, is a change in the system. Change, how the MA is made, and you will change how people fly.

[Urchin]

Think Kweassa's got his finger on it, personally.  

I just stopped having fun... I "beat the game" about 3 years ago.

[BigGun]

All these ideas sound self-serving to make AH more to the ideal of your perception. I am sure there are plenty of people like it how it is.

I have limited amount of time I can fly, I definately don't want to spend it climbing to 20k...bases further apart or spending time in the tower.

[Murdr]

Originally posted by Kweassa
If that was possible, human society would have reached Utopia by now Murdr, instead of develop social and legal systems.

That extrapolation is just dumb.  Did I make an absolute statment? Did I claim to pursuade everyone to play my way?  Did I claim I should?  Did I claim to present the magic bullet?  No.  I cited a contributing factor.  I guess its neither 'big picture' enough of convoluted enough for to admit to.  

The players, will excercise(and are currentyly excercising) their freedom to the fullest, and choose not to fly or fight in any sort of way the "vets" think is fun, and that's the end of it. They fly in the way they can profit the most with their limited skills. They don't care if they get better or not, and no 'vet' is gonna ever pursuade anyone to fly differently.

Some players do care.  Some players dont need pursuaded, but just need directions to get where they want to go.  Some players will never care.  Seperating one group from the other is good for gameplay.  I dont know how you could argue otherwise.  

And btw, I didnt come in here complaining or ranting.  I came with a pragmatic view.  Players have a shelf life, regardless of gameplay issues.  If gameplay concerns you, here is one way to shift the magnification of a particular problem.

Its fairly innocuous and unrelated to your prior posts.  I see no need for your ridicule of the view....other than someone posted a point of view unrelated to yours,  *gasp* and other people actually have the gull to agree with it.

[Howitzer]

Did I claim to present the magic bullet?

No Murdr, you didn't.  But I KNOW you were on that grassy knoll... and by God, one day I will prove it!  Utopian society or not, you're goin down buddy!  

[crd]

I have limited time.  If the maps get any bigger this game will be unplayable for me.

Quote:  "I just really think that this game is online quake".  Not to pick on the poster, but this game is nothing like quake, or CS, or any other shooter.  This game is at least two orders of magnitude more complex than any shooter-type online game.  The number of variables you have to keep track of regarding your own plane (V speeds, flaps, landing gear, convergence, etc etc) plus the SA of the air environment are way beyond any of the shooters.  You don't spend three hours messing with your controller mappings for Quake.

In any of those games, you can hop in for a half hour if you have time.  With AH, if you only have a half hour, your options are pretty limited.

" Many, many, many online games have a time interval between dieing and respawning. This does not limit the popularity of any of them."
Yeah, but those games have a very limited session frame time.  The obvious example is Counter Strike.  One life per session.  You die, you wait until the next one.  The difference is that the CS sessions are only 5 minutes long.  What can you do in 5 minutes in Aces High?  Nothing, unless each country has one CV, and they're all anchored in the same harbor (which, actually, might be enormously entertaining for an evening ...).  It works because at most, you only wait 5 minutes.   And also note that  everybody restarts at the beginning of the next session.  Or, let's examine the Call of Duty method, where you can only respawn at set intervals (every 30 to 60 seconds or so, when "reinforcements" arrive).   Taking down the hangars enforces this type of penalty on a single field - not sure what the point would be of preventing a defender from upping from another base.

Couple of other quotes:
1.  "Because it's only a virtual death their tactics can have as many flaws as they'd like because there is nothing at stake"
2.  "If they do engage, it's only with more alt and only to BnZ. When they lose adv., they run. I feel they are afraid to lose their virtual plane"
 

See, you can't have it both ways.  If there is a significant penalty to dying, pilots will become more careful.  They will seek to engage with more E, with more Alt, and surprise opponents.  In such a system, when faced with a significant tactical disadvantage, if an opportunity presents itself to disengage the Smart Pilot will take it, to live to fight another day.  Textbook Shaw.[/I]  So the opportunities for kills, and the overall frequency of fights, will decrease in general.

If there is no signifant penalty to dying, you get a lot more fights, because people are less worried (or not at all worried) about losing their "virtual plane".  But, oh my god, there's more furballs.

I think the current system with Perk points, which provide a positive incentive[/I] to fight intelligently and land kills, is about the best solution for this.

It's like sex and marriage.  Even though the sex may not be what we wish it to be, hey, it's still sex.  And the sex that we might wish it to be probably exists only in our minds anyway.

Mobieus