NOT!!!
I been reading several post from a certain sect of people that presume the hoard is gone from AH2. I have flown LW and EW during peak times enough now to get a feel for it. And i have seen the hoard plenty. Albeit the hoard is less players, it is by proportion the same ratio.
In the EW it's a different feel with things happening at a slower pace. But the numbers still accumulate in one place. These 1v1s yall claim to be so abundant are few and far between when the EW is at or near capacity.
Just two nights ago the Bish were hoarding at A60 A61 area. Eventually the Rooks responded and we had a good battle. The Bish won out in that battle because of numbers mostly. The only difference in this example is that in today’s EW arena things happen sloooooooowwly.
Last night in the LW1 arena the Rooks hoarded against the bish in the same ole fashioned way of the old MA. Once again we see that the players flock together.
This is never going to change, for it is human nature. To think that it will is foolish.
The following is an interesting reply to an idea Midnight had some time ago.
Originally posted by hitech
Thanks a lot for the idea midnight. Obviously you have put some thought into it.
But have a few issues.
1 Im becomeing more convinced perks are not the way to balance the arena.
Primarly because it is not fair to new users. And the perk system is realy desiged to limit the choice of each user as to how often they can fly some planes. When you try make it a balancing issue you suddenly have created a big economic system And where it would lead becomes very unpredictible results.
2nd your idea of reseting all to 1000 would create a huge cry from those who have been saveing perks. Next it would remove the goal of the new guy to want to to earn points to try out the 262.
3rd with this "use a local multiplier based on a 4 sector area" you suddenly are complety changing the issue at hand.
Basicly I am not against consentration of forces in the arena. That is a very valid war tactic and infact it is a fundemtal doctren that the attacker must have a numbers adavantage. When all sides are equal each country has the choice of how to allocate there forces i.e. in a group to go on attack/ or spread out/ how ever they wish. I do not see this as an issue. With a country imbalance 1 country could still dominate 2 different 4/sector areas while the others putting up adefense would have the same limitations as the large country but only in 1 area, and hence you are back to square 1. More numbers in a country would still be an advantage.
The issue is all about country balance not consentration of forces.
And to put it simply, fairly equal numbers between sides makes a better a game and is lot more fun for every one. I realy can not think of one game either board game/sport/computer game any type game where each side is not equal. It apears to me to be a fundimental game concept.
HiTech
Last night in the LW1 around 10:30 PM, Rooks 36 Bish 18 Knights 12. I have seen the same imbalance in the EW several times already.
Looking at the evolution of AH2 over its existence, we clearly see an effort to "Balance" sides. First we got the perks. Next it was an ENY limiter. And now we have the current setup. The efforts have worked to some degree but it is far from balanced now, or then for that matter.
Without actually deciding for the player which country they will fly for, or what area of a given arena you will fly in, you will never be able to balance the sides...ever!
While many online games implement an auto balance system, (Deciding what team you will be on at login to balance the teams) this certainly wouldn’t work for AH2.
Seeing that a lot of players feel that switching countries to balance sides at will, would be a good idea.
Why wouldn’t it work?
Because of the cries that players would have about not being able to fly on the same team or arena as their squad mates or buddies?
How would this really be so much different that what we are doing now? (Player caps and all)
The current ENY limiter only dictates what we fly and (Contrary to HT’s propaganda Sorry HT,) has done very little to balance sides or game play for that matter. We still saw huge imbalances in the old MA. A given country would roll the other by shear means of numbers regardless of what plane’s they had to choose from. We are already seeing imbalances in the new arena format of 2 to 1.
I still reflect on the Zone system and see it as a viable solution to balance the sides and control the numbers in a given area of the arena. By nature it is much more subtle and just as effective. I believe this system would ( IMO, based on seeing it at work in another game) allow for a much smoother transition towards side balancing as well as game play balancing by.
1. Not rewarding a country with superior numbers by way of letting the majority of them attack in one place could go a long ways to balancing sides. Because in effect you prohibit them from benefiting solely by way of a numbers advantage, thereby making-switching sides seem more appealing.
2. A zone system by nature addresses the hoard in any given area of play from the onset.
edit. I mistakenly stated that we were in LW1 when in fact we were in LW2.
Thanks for the heads up Hondo
