Population issues in the middle of the night

[sullie363]

As someone who sometimes plays in the middle of the night I can say there is a problem with the new setup.  There would normally be about 100 players online at the low point which would be fine in the old MA.  But now with them spread out, simply finding somebody to fight is a problem.  A long standing player quit today simply because there was nobody around to fight.  I played for an hour this morning and only had two dogfights and it wasn't for a lack of trying.  I have no clue as to what can be done about this aside from every player agreeing to fly in only one arena during those low hours.  Otherwise those subscriptions are at risk simply do to boredom.

[Overlag]

this is my main gripe about the new setup.... its not so much as the spliting of the plane set's (i used to enjoy shootign down La7's with my 109F), but its the numbers.

AH clearly doesnt have enough players to populate 3 ARENA's all day long..... so WHY break it up? European times that i play are now absolutely pointless, as theres almost NO action at all.

so is my subscription charge going to go down now i cant play the normal hours i play???? i doubt it.

[Spatula]

Yup, totally agreed. Most all the people who play at my time slot agree too. Theres just little to nothing to fight with anymore...

[Xasthur]

This is definately a major issue that needs to be adressed.

Lastnight, I was on and there was only 60 people in the EA, 10 in the Mid arena and 40 in the LA.

Had everyone been in the Early arena, it would have been awesome because the map was getting close to reset, but it was too sparsely populated to be the great scrap it could have been.

If this problem is addressed (and I realise this isn't really an easy fix if the split is to be maintained) the new changes have the potential to be fantastic.

[Boyce]

I've been playing for about three months now and I've been having a great time. I've been a regular lurker here and I've taken advantage of the very useful links on this site, and I finally got around to registering today. I didn't just register to complain about the recent changes. For the most part, I don't mind. I haven't really been around long enough to be too entrenched in the "old way". That said, the late night (in the U.S., at least) issue is a big one for me.

Because I have a goofy work schedule, I do most of my playing during non-peak U.S. hours. When I logged off last night at around 2AM CDT there were 5 Bish in the mid war arena. Late night used to be great because there weren't enough players for ridiculous and unstoppable hordes to develop, but there were enough for the game to be enjoyable for furballers, strat types, and anyone in between.

I'm not going to throw a fit and threaten to leave, and I'm not sure what the solution is. I just wanted to add my voice as someone who isn't often able to play during peak hours. Hopefully the problem will resolve itself as I'm really enjoying this game and the folks with whom I've been playing.

all.

[x0847Marine]

Originally posted by Spatula
Yup, totally agreed. Most all the people who play at my time slot agree too. Theres just little to nothing to fight with anymore...

That is why I have challenged HT to include decent porn to help pass the time.

It should have been obvious some arenas would be near empty.

Even in the wee hours of PST the old MA was a ghost town... I cant fathom who thought fracturing a 3 team small player base was a good idea.

Why not log into the MA, with re-tooled maps that lets you choose which area with which planes you want to fly in? If someone tries to stray into another era, "out of bounds", al la Battlefield they start to die, run dry on gas, experience a mechanical failure or something.

This keeps everyone together and separates the planes. And it'd make it much easier to jump to another era to help out..

[cav58d]

Wow...Im suprised one of the a$sholes have not replied yet

[Yeager]

you mean to say that of all the arenas available, there was no one logged on?

[Overlag]

here comes one.......

[Boyce]

you mean to say that of all the arenas available, there was no one logged on?

When I left, Early War was the busiest with about a dozen a side.

[Spatula]

Yup, seriously on average when im on theres:
LW - 20 people TOTAL.
MW - 5 people TOTAL (dont know what they're up to, why not just do a H2H session)
EW - 40 odd.

Even when you add them all up the numbers seem lower than they were when we were all together in one MA. Usually there would be 80 - 120 people in the old MA during my normal times, which makes for good play. But now when i want to fly something othere than a slow spit or hurri, i have to try weed out a scrap from 20 odd people spread out between 3 countries/3 fronts. Seems a number of those people are just land grabbin taking advantage of the fact that no-one is around to oppose them (whats the fun in that?). Whats the fun in any of this??

[Xasthur]

Of course there are people online... but when you're splitting up 100 people six or seven ways instead of just three.... it starts to become tedious.

I'm all for the idea, I think it's great.

I can't wait for Stuka missions with 109 fighter cover.

The only problem is that if you want a decent mission, you would need at least 10 or so pilots and if you have only 16 people on your side in your arena....well it won't really work when you're trying to defend multiple bases two fronts

Like I said, this isn't something Hitech can just code fix... Perhaps it will take time.... but in the mean time that means that everyone who isn't American peak time suffers greatly.

I'm not one to ***** and moan and I find this game to be the best I've ever played, but this current situation is frustrating for us non-peakers.

Like I said, this isn't a moan, I like the idea.. it's just not working for us yet

[Yeager]

would seem to me if there are only a few people online spread across several servers then they would herd towards one server???  People are going to need to adopt some new behaviors I guess.....when numbers are low...try to populate one arena.  Arena caps surely cant be an issue with such low numbers.

I enjoyed late night in the MA because of the low dweeb density, but I liked the AvA too just because it was lightly populated.

Ok, arena check at 12:50 am east coast US time:

Early = 132/250
Mid = 50/250
Late1 = 225/250
Late2 = 24/25

These seem like pretty fair numbers to me totalling over 400+ people late night.

Thats actually pretty good with only the late2 server seeming really empty.  Wierd tho, becasye tjere is still room in Late one for those in Late2.

The one thing that has really surprised me about this whole deal is that so many seem to prefer Early over Mid.

[Xasthur]

It's probably just the novelty of being able to fly a 109F or a Spit I and not get shredded by a pack LA queens.

I've been in the EA 95% of the time since the change and I've been loving it, it's been great fun getting low and slow in a 109F or dominating people in a 190A5

[TheCage]

All I can say, be careful what you cry for, we got what all the whinners wanted, ENV, and now three arenas.  It's too late now, your stuck with it.  Where is the leading cheer leader now, with all his massive posts on the subject.