Hi all. I agree in that there would probably be less 1 on 1 fights, because people would want to fly with other people in order to preserve their life. However, if you want one on one fights, they do have the DA for that.
I think that the implementation of a 30 second or 1 minute respawn time would change game play but not for the worse like everyone seems to think. Any of you guys played Halo2? There is like a 15 second wait in some games to respawn. Its nice, 'cause it allows opportunities of offensive strategies to actually work. What I have noticed, is that this game was created with the defender always having the advantage over the offense. You need 3 offensive people for every one defending person to take a base in this game due to the unlimitted man power capability of instant respawn time.
30 seconds or one minute is not a ton of time to wait. The idea is to keep people from constantly upping like mad in order to hinder the offensive long enough to where the offensive is no longer doing anything good. Plus, if you haven't noticed, people are starting to fly more and more together than in the old days. I think its a good thing. This game should be a team game.
I'll give you a situation.. there are 3 of you guys flying together, and you get into a fight with 5 enemy. The three of you after a great battle end up killing all 5 enemy and you are ready to return to base feeling awesome about yourselves. But wait, out of the distance one by one, the enemy you just killed keep comin back out of anger and vengence. They actually keep you from returning to base because their soul is at unrest and they are persistent. After 10 min. of this, you either no longer have the fuel to get home or they end up shooting you down. The guys you killed a couple times over end up killing you in the end due to their persistance. Don't forget now, that you had to fly 2 sectors to get there, and they were just a stone throw from their base. They go back home feeling satisfied, and you are too far away to get back to them in time to serve your own vengence. Soon, dissapointment comes to your mind and you shout "lame" or "wuss" or something to the other team because they were able to keep comin back until you died by their hands.
With the timed respawn time, all of that could of been avoided. This happens a hundreds time a day in AH. It is getting quite boring. The defense will always have the upper hand. Whoever is closest to their base will almost always be able to put up a brick wall that your plane ends up smashing into. Only with overwhelming , and I mean overwhelming numbers will it be possible to take a base that is being defended decently.
I find that humans strive to have purpose in their lives. Without purpose, people get very depressed and bored. This game is losing purpose. It is turning into a giant furball with the only gratification one gets is when his name appears highlighted in the text bar exclaiming that he landed 2 or 4 or 40 victories in something. Thats great and all, but I want something more out of this game. It has the potential to be something much much more than what it is turning into.
I feel that this would allow the people that want to do strategic war a chance at succeeding, and at the same time, not be too much of a penalty for the people furballing. In actuallity this might end up being aplauded by the furballers that enjoy good fights. There would be less of those persistant vengence flyers coming back in a fresh plane and killing your hard work flight. just 30 seconds wait after a death would make a huge difference and I think for the Better! Its not like you got just one life and you have to sit out the campaign... its just 30 seconds or maybe just 1 minute. Perfect amount of time to cool yourself from a defeat and grab a snack! I truly think this would be a step forward for AH.
-DropW p.s. sorry for the long speech, but I am really for this