Originally posted by hitech
On the balancing issue it really is very simple. The people on the low numbered side can do absolutely nothing to solve the issue. Their only choice is to join the problem and make it worse.
Previously we had tried the ENY and perk plane cost systems, as the least intrusive way to motivating side balancing. They were not a strong enough messure to keep things in check. If side unbalance was only a occasional spike I would not have needed to change any thing, but it has not been an ocasionals spike, but had become the norm.
Also do not judge the balancing on a 1 day test. It should settle the waves in balance as people adjust, and after things settle some what, very rarely will you have to wait in queue.
Also where the queue kicks in also might need to be tightened up.
HiTech
HT,
If you know anything about me, you know I've been an AH customer since Air Warrior was orphaned by EA, and I flew Air Warrior on EA, on AOL before that, and on Compuserve before that. That's, what? 16 years of multi-player air combat flight sim experience. Many of the people I fly with have flown with me for that entire time, and we moved here as a group from Air Warrior.
The decision we made to move to AH wasn't an easy one, let me tell you, because we had no idea about the community here, or about the flight model, or about the management. We had just be burned, royally, and we were gun shy. It's a real testament to the power of squads that the Flying Tigers AVG, as well as the SkyKnights, moved en masse to Aces High. many of our squaddies have traveled across the country to visit each other, and we've been there when the real life sixes of our squad mates have been threatened by illness, death, divorce, unemployment, loneliness, depression - you name it, and we've been there.
Now our squads are in a crisis, because the air combat flight simulation seems to be moving toward an artificially-controlled stasis that is more like a video game than a simulation. This idea of balance is more like a standoff than a war scenario, with no highs, no lows, just good old-fashioned furballing. Furballing is fun, but it's not the object of a wargaming scenario. Wargaming, like war itself, is
always about taking territory, and it's never about artificially maintaining a balance of force strength. There have been times when we have picked up the phone and called friends and squaddies to log on to fight back against overwhelming odds, and other times, we're part of the overwhelmers. That's just the way war - and wargaming - is. You play the hand you're dealt when you log on. There have also been times when a small but determined force has attacked the horde fields to prevent them from capturing fields and wining the reset, and to blind them by taking out their radar, etc., etc. That's been part of the fun of the overall AH experience. To me, and to my friends, numbers and balances have nothing to do with it.
Please answer one question for me: Why did you decide that imbalance was a bad thing? I asked NB this question: Did you conduct exit polls of people who decided not to subscribe after the 2 week trial, or who decided to cancel their subscriptions? Did you use solid marketing tools to determine how to attract and keep subscribers? Did you send out surveys to people who have flown AH for years, to see what we want? You must know that "screwing" with the game in what seems to be an arbitrary manner is going to produce dissatisfaction in many of the people you are trying to retain, so you will lose subscribers in the process of implementing code meant to keep them. Already, 4 of the squad members of The Flying Tigers AVG and SkyKnights have quit over this.
I can't speak for other squads, but if it comes down to choosing between AH and my squaddies, it will be no contest.
All of that said, it's your ballgame, and your park, and you have to do what you think is best for you and your business. I just need something I can take back to my mates that will encourage them to stay. Is there any way you can keep one arena in the MA style, and just see how popular it remains? What do you have to lose by doing this? That would be enough to stop this attrition, and it might demonstrate what the majority of people want and need to remain loyal to you.
Sincerely,
