Arena format change

[Delirium]

Hate to say this, but I think the change will be good for the future of AH. I'm sort of surprised this type of changed happened since HiTech was sure it was the players that had changed, and not the game in another thread.

What this new idea will affect the most is the large squads like the 'Birds of PrAy', it will slice and dice them until they numbers will more closely resemble the rest of the MA squads. Not surprisingly, they are also the ones that are most vocal right now.

Take a look at some of the quotes below...

Originally posted by rshubert
I am a member of a VERY large squad, of people I like to interact with (wink,wink).  The effect of this will be to break us up into smaller groups.  That, I hate.  I enjoy being a BoP, and enjoy taking over the arena on Monday nights when we all get together.

Originally posted by viper215
You have to put it back HT this is the WORST idea ever.

Originally posted by FALCONWING
each arena is being dominated by one coutrny...waiting to log on becuase other arenas are full....2 knits vs 80 combined bish/rooks in late war2.  and i cant evenimagine what the morning will look like....hunting for fights or milkrunning empty maps....this is what made awc suck!

Originally posted by FALCONWING
the EXCITEMENT of one squad dominating an arena...AND learn terms like "milkrunner" and "B-n-Zer"

Originally posted by sullie363
We went from big maps packed with action where you could do anything to 4 little maps where there is nothing but huge mismatches in numbers.  For gods sake, this morning a 262 cost over 750 perks because Bish made up over 65% of the players in Late War 2.  

They enjoy dominating the arena with numbers, but don't like it when it bites them.

Some of the best fights I've ever had are against current and previous squadmates, split up your squad and have some fun.

[Eagler]

but then they'll die

[TalonII]

why are the Gun at airfields and carrier not working all the times, makes them easy pickings. so far i'm disappointed, got sdome bugs to work out.

TalonII

[toon]

Originally posted by BugsBunny
Anyone remembers what happened when Coke decided to change the original formula with out asking their customers, because they knew better?

I have a feeling this place is going to be really fun in the coming weeks

Actually Bugs, that was probaly the most ingenious marketing strategy of all time. pepsi and coke were locked in a stagnant cola war. coke comes out with an obvious inferior product. coke fans go beserk. pepsi fans curious.coke fans demand the reinstatement of their beloved product. coke apologises and with great fanfare brings back the oriinal. who's the hero? coke. who got all the free press? coke. who is numero uno? coke. brilliant. btw, havent seen new map yet. but, everyday there was a complaint about something. these people have tried to address that complaint.maybe this isn't the finished product. maybe it will be some mutated version of both. give these people a doggone standing O for at least doing something fresh.

[toon]

and btw, i still havent figured out yet how to make a new paragragh on this dam thing. i need some smartas to give me a pointer. and dont say hit enter 3 times.lol.

[TinmanX]

Originally posted by COBA94
and btw, i still havent figured out yet how to make a new paragragh on this dam thing. i need some smartas to give me a pointer. and dont say hit enter 3 times.lol.

Hit ENTER twice

[scottydawg]

Originally posted by COBA94
and btw, i still havent figured out yet how to make a new paragragh on this dam thing. i need some smartas to give me a pointer. and dont say hit enter 3 times.lol.

Hit


enter


three


times.

[skysnipr]

One of the most irritating things about the new arenas is that is difficult, if not impossible, to find a good gv battle. Not only are the maps much smaller with less bases, there are almost no vbases at all. And in the early war arena, T-34 vs T-34, lets face it, it's not that interesting. Also now that we have 4 arenas, the players are split up, making it hard to find a good furball.

On the positive side, it is nice to have something to spend bomber perks on other than a Ar 234, and its kinda neat having a Lancaster perked.

However, the arena that I probably would be most likely frequent is the mid-war arena, just because I like those sort of planes, but since there isn't even half the players that are in the other arena, it doesn't interest me that much. Again, it's too hard to find a decent fight.

So anyway, I'll wait and see how this works out, my subscription will need to be renewed in a week or two, but now I'm not sure whether I'll renew it or not. It's too bad, I was starting to really like this game, but it seems like its messed up now.

[Major Biggles]

Originally posted by Overlag
erm what about 1939 till 1941?

Don't be silly overlag!

Everyone knows the war only started in 1941, when America entered it. Did you know America also won the Battle of Britain???

[Cable]

Originally posted by pluck

i don't see how this will break up squads.  if flying together is so important, which it is, than do it.  organize your organization:)

Yeah, but HOW?  With 90 people, and say 50-60 of them on for a squad night, where is you think we're going to fit with a cap as low as they are?  What's going to happen is a good number will make it in an arena until it fills.  The rest will have no way to let those inside they are outside waiting to get in, something that might make those inside leave to find another arena where we can all fly together in.

At that point, what will the arena look like we're all going to fit into?  It's going to likely be very low-populated, such that when 60 or guys show up that alone will throw the entire arena out of balance - BADLY out of balance.


I realize some don't like the idea of many people flying together because they view it as hording, but it isn't like that usually.  Probably half our previous squad nights were spent defending bases from OTHER hordes, which made the fights MORE fair, not less.  The way it is now, you could have 130 of one side, and only manage to get 35 of so opponents on the opposite sides, making it a huge imbalance.  Nor is this a problem solved with ENY; some guys have THOUSANDS of ENY points, and spending 12 or 25 here and there is no big deal, even with ENY multipliers.

Some parts of this change are really good, really admirable, with terriffic potential, like having all the early planes off in one arena.  It's just these dang cap limits that present an obstacle for enjoying them with friends.

HT and Pyro, PLEASE reconsider them and jack them up a bit.  Maybe even think about capping each country to a maximum, so you don't have 150 vs. 25 vs. 25.  What would be wrong with each country maxing out at say, 100-125 people, and when that limit is reached, only members of opponent countries could get in until they too reached their limit?

[richard_rd]

I was hoping that the mid war arena would not have the Tiger tank available, so the panzers and T34's could have good gv battles without interfearance from the dominating tigers.  But maybe this does not line up correctly cronalogically with the arena eras.

If the Tiger can not be removed from the mid war arena, maybe we can perk it heavier in the mid war arena then in the late war arena.  For example:

   When Perk point bonus is even (1.0) a Tiger costs 50 points in the late war arena,  But that same tiger will cost 200 points in the Mid war arena when the perk point bonus is even (1.0).  This should make Tigers more scarce in the mid war arena's so their could be better even battles between panzers/T34's.

   I have another idea for perk points that will probably get alot of negative feedback, but that i think will make the game better.   The idea of perkies carring over month to month is good, but it is rediculous that some player have 25,000 perkies saved up so they can up Tigers and 262 any time they like.  Most of these players with the carzy numbers of 25,000+ perkies are carry over from the AH1 days when their were exploits in the game that allowed them to accumulate so many perkies.  I think perk points should be carried over each month, but only at a 90% rate.  This way over the course of a year the people with the 25,000-50,000 perk totals will be gradually brought on par with the rest of the comunity.  And if they really are that good that they can acheive that type of perk numbers then a 90% carry over each month should not effect them that much.  Bottom line,  this will even out the perkies for all but the elite players who may be able to overcome the 10% monthly carry over penalty.

     For eample i usually average betweeen having 500-1000 perk points in the 3 catagories at the end of the month, so lets say i finished this tour with :

Fighter perks = 600
Bomber Perks = 1000
GV Perks = 400

   At the end of the month my new total would be:

Fighter perks = 600 - 60 = 540
Bomber Perks = 1000 -100 = 900
GV Perks = 400 - 40 = 360

   Still more then enough to let me use some ubber rides the next tour and try to maintain these perk numbers for carry over to the next month.

    But the guy with 25,000 Perks will be loosing 2.500 perks to penalty, so unless he is really that good of an ace, eventually over the cource of a year or two his perk numbers will come down and be more on par with the rest of the community.

[Jolly]

Your going to see the arenas become control by one country in each one.

You log in and find, your country out numbers everyone else in mid war, you go to that one because, you like the odds. Or in an arena where your becoming out number by the other side, you leave because you don't like getting kill before you get off the ground.

or 5 squad leaders, with 25 members each, plan to enter the same arena at the same time.  Now with 125 more players from the same side, the other sides start to leave to avoid a loosing fight.

So to avoid the trouble let just set things up now.

Bishop can have the mid war, Knights can have the late war 1, Rooks can have the late war2. Early war is for solo players.

No more HOs or Cherry picking and your side wins the war every night.

At least with only one MA, everyone was in it and yes some times things got one sided. But that was just a matter of numbers and every side had more player from time to time.

Now just five players can control it.

Have fun.

Jolly

[Guppy35]

Originally posted by dtango
Guppy -

My livelihood is based on making sweeping changes in global businesses.  Here's a simple formula regarding managing change...

current 0 / new + = high probability of successful change
current + / new + = high probability of successful change
current 0 / new 0 = good probability of successful change
current + / new - = high probability that change will be unsuccessful
current + / new 0 = good probability that change will be unsuccessful

In essence, anytime the new is less positive than the old, the success of a change is in jeopardy.

For squads like the 412th FS the current arena settings are a double whammy.  There are two negatives in the new setup that we have to overcome - 1) a love for the Mustang which is at odds with switching arenas, 2) flying together which is at odds with the way the arena capping works right now and the inability to find and message each other in real time to move to the same arena.

To make #1 a positive for me and others like me - HTC needs to give me some incentive that makes it a positive to fly other planes.  Simply stating that other planes exist so go fly them isn't enough of a tangible incentive.  I love the Mustang.  There's a reason I love the Mustang and choose that over other planes.  Give me a good, worthwhile, tangible incentive to fly something else besides the Mustang.

To make #2 a positive HTC needs to come up with some way to overcome either the cap limit issue and/or a way to figure out in realtime which squadmates are online, which arena they are in, and ways to communicate to them in realtime to go to the same arenas.  A squad MOTD message is not enough of a mechanism to do this with the current cap limits.

Tango, XO
412th FS Braunco Mustangs

So take the crowd to midwar and hunt 80th 38Gs and Js in P51Bs  OK so you have to do it with 4 50s instad of 6, but that Malcom hooded B is a nice liking kite and still a Mustang.  The majority of the great 51 Aces made their names in Bs during the Spring of 44 so it's not like it's a dog of a 51.

We're sticking with the 38s since that's our ride of choice.  The L drivers are now flying Js, so it's no power assisted ailerons or dive flaps.  As a 38G driver it just doesn't matter to me with none of that and no wep too

[Birddogg]

My biggest gripe is that world, squads and planes are split over 3 arenas.

One of the good points of this game was everyone in 1 world. This helped build the community as well.
Its understandable that MA got a little too crowded, but i thought thats why CT was in development.
I dont mind being forced to fly a certain plane, but i do mind the way that HTC forced us to use diffrent planes in diffrent worlds in MA.

If you experimenting with arenas couldnt you add 1 arena with rolling plane set?

Everything is cool, i just cant digest population/squads/action being split in 3 worlds.

You split your main AH product(MA), into 3 smaller  products. It divides the communities, squads and players.

Oh yea i think, people will flock to where the numbers are, not where the planes are.

there is always going to be 1 dominant arena, and since now pop cap is lower, people will not be able to fly join a certain arena and fly the plane they want.

But i guess time will tell.

[dtango]

Guppy - that could be a solution except they have the P-51B's available only in the late war arenas last time I checked.

Tango, XO
412th FS Braunco Mustangs