First, I just left MA again with bish at 93, rooks at 138, and knits at 157. I call those odds of 3 to 1. I know we don't fight all of them at once (except those wonderful times when knits and rooks gang up on the bishes), but is a simple, comparative way of measuring the numbers. Or you could say the rook/knit players were 148% and 169% respectively, of the total bish players. Either way, this is a very consistan and persistant situation.
And of course, you can look at the out of balance numbers from many perspectives.
One guy likes being on the short-handed side cause he gets to make alot of kills by just pulling the trigger in a target rich environment where he's bound to hit something. Glad he's happy, but I think most (many?) of us have more involved aspirations.
And I don't know exactly where he was playing, but with the kind of numbers I was talking about, where I was flying all night I could go for two, three, even four minutes and sometimes never get off a shot (before I got shot down) cause I was too busy dodging 6 or 8 planes, and I'm not exagerating. Put five or six of those kind of situations back to back in one session and the game loses all joy. And if you look at my rank numbers I'm not a total dufuss in a fighter.
Getting outnumbered locally at a base is part of the strategy and gameplay, and you expect it to happen time to time, especially if the enemy puts together a good strategy and executes a good mission. But when you go to four or five different bases (on a small map) and can't get off the ground cause they're all swamped, you wonder if your $15 isn't just buying you more aggravation than entertainment.
And while dogfighting and matching skills one-on-one is part of the fun, its not the end all, be all, for me and many others. Its just not my sole cup of tea.
Many of us are not in just to rack a score (though admittedly we all like a good rank), but to enjoy all of what the game offers. Teamwork, coordination of attack, a good capture, a great defense. Some just want one-on-one dogfights to the detriment of the rest of the game. So be it. But some want a reasonably fair fight to test flying skill, tactics and strategy skills in taking objectives. Truthfully, I don't care that much if we win the map, I just want some breathing room most of the time (not just occasionaly) to enjoy all aspects of the game.
One more thing, I'm inherantly a damned, stubborn bastard (hard-headed Welsh miner stock). I once got vulched 37 consecutives times cause I was so damn mad and wanted to get up just once (my score might be better if I didn't still do that on occasion, though now, not as many times until I quit). i'm basicly loyal and dedicated to what I commit to, and really want to stay and help my friends and countrymen fight off the attackers at every turn, but sometimes the aggravation just drives my blood pressure up so high that terminal frustration sets in. That's when its "Hasta la bye bye" for me.
You'll have to take my word for it, but if I give up and leave the MA cause the numbers are too lopsided and the thrill is gone, then others have left prematurely before me.
I still think there is a workable solution out there and we as a community can find it if we all want to. And those that want to slam and bang one-on-one will still always be able to do that.
