Originally posted by BBBB
Ridley does bring up a valid point. The game play is stale. Really stale. Aces High has been reduced to quake with wings. You don't even have to know how to take off and land anymore. You log in, look for the group of green squares tangling with the red squares, spawn at the nearest field, auto take off, auto climb and your off.
Then you spend the next few minutes in the middle of furball latched on to the tail of an La-7 that is already being chased by 12 other players, in hopes of scoring that lucky shot and getting the credit for the kill..more times than not you end up with a assist. You head back to base, crash land, spawn again and repeat.
The game play is stale. The higher fuel burn started this trend. Followed by the ability to pork a bases fuel down to 25% being changed to only being able to take a base down to 75%. Finally there was the change that you could switch sides instantly now, rather than staying loyal to one country.
Strat targets are pointless to hit now, as they have very little effect on a countries fuel, ammo and town supply. HQ raids are few and far between because before when you could take off in a fuel heavy B-17 and fly two hours across the map to hit a target, it is nothing more than a nice wish now. So bombers are mid alt flak wagons or they are used to dive/carpet bomb GVs back to the stone age.
Aces high can add all the eye candy in the world. It might boost subscriber numbers for a month or two, but at the end of the day the game play is still the same as it has been. The old Aces High had something for everyone, the new Aces High is more like an FPS, hence the influx of kiddies lately.
There's so much with which I agree here. I spoke to Skuzzy on the phone a month or two ago. I asked him if porking a country's strat infrastructure produces a proportional result at the base level. He said it does. I don't see it. Does anyone see the affects at the base level?
But in all fairness, despite Allied bombing, Germany produced still more war machines at the end of the at then they did at the beginning.
HTC changing the field fuel porking maximum to 75% allows the fur to fly constantly at the front line. If someone wants that for their $15, I'm not against it. The ability to change countries (every hour is it?) without a 24 limit, produces something. I don't know what to call it. It's tough to measure the results. At least it is for me. To say,
this causes
that to happen. Maybe it's because my favorite part of the game has been minimized by increasing airfield barracks, no fuel porking (an N model jug can fly how long on 75% gas?), and increasing the number of Vhangars to 3 from 1 on Vbases.
I've flow much less over the past several years.
I do miss the old game. The one to which our currently Help Files refer as "Playing the Game." Up front an center the 1st sentence reads
Capturing territory through the use of air, land and sea power is the objective in Aces High II.[/b]. How I wish it were!
Those of us who have been here to see things evolve over years (before Trinity, Pizza Big Isles), followed by the next set of maps by Fester that favored a different sort of gameplay, through the change in base strat (fuel and barracks), and Vbase changes I don't think form a consensus of opinion. Some dig it. Some do not. Given the little expense AH requires, and the ease of getting started,
Quake with Wings[/b] does not hit too wide of the mark comparing the state of affairs today with lets say Pizza.
If internals of the game presets things towards fur, then the map, strat, buffs, vbases, any and all of that simply do not matter. Eye candy. Nice to look at. Bang bang, We're dead or not and taking off or landing/rearming again. Were HTC to revise the "Playing the Game" portion of AH's Help File, and were they to write
Shooting down enemy planes is the objective in Aces High II.[/b] I would say that statement describes the game I played yesterday.
In all fairness, I think what we have today makes more money for HTC than what we had formerly. Mom and Dad will part with $15 for Junior to occupy himself for hours. Babysitter in a box. The under 35 or 40 year old crowd dig it enough too. Especially those in their 20's to mid-30's who get a thrill out of not only besting another guy in a plane but besting him verbally on 200 or on the BBS.
AH is the #1 online WW2 flight simulator, is it not? AH as it stands today bested the competition. One could say
It's what people want[/i].
Is it the best it could be? Depends on what constitute
best. Most money for HTC? Most fun for a 15 year old? Most fun for guys who want to become a very good online fighter pilot? I'd say, it's just about as good as it can be in answer to those 3 questions.
The part missing existed somewhat in AH's older setup. A game tilted towards group versus individual achievements that is still reflected in the 1st sentence of "Playing the Game."
What strikes me as very odd is the presence of the vaunted
Horde[/b]. I'm referring to whatever it was that constituted "unhealthy gameplay" which drove the need for the changes in the first place. Over the past week, I flew in a few missions where a base or two was taken by overwhelming force. Was boring as watching paint dry. I thought the changes made that sort of thing more difficult to achieve. Break up big squads, add ack, and protect a base's fuel.
The capture aspect of the game is ill. Frankly, if captures were turned off, what would change?
Point and Shoot[/b] laughs at geography. It's there. It's pretty. So what? I played many hours yesterday. Was no big deal. Best part were the people I fly with. Had a band practice to attend from 6 to 7PM Mountain Time. Came back. I had expected to play for a few hours. Logged off in less then an hour. Watched a video. Read a book. There was nothing going on in the game that needed doing. Nothing that piqued my imagination and got my mind working along the lines of
Now how can we achieve goal XY or Z?.
For virtual pilots to defend something, like a base, it has to be made worth their while. All the stuff that motivates one in real life doesn't exist in our game. It's mocked by many on the BBS. Rightfully so. Maybe Combat Tour will provide some players like myself with what they find lacking AH as it stands today. I hope so.
There's only a few left on the BBS that made up the vocal majority of BBS posters -- unmannerly amplitude won that day -- who lobbied for the changes that we've come to see. To our joy or dissatisfaction.
My 1 cent:
Change the "Playing the Game" Help File. Or, change the game to reflect what it says.
Create Manufacturing Plants that churn out planes that account for the top few tier # of kills each tour.
Ditch ENY. Lose it completely. The Manufacturing Centers, their protection and lure of gains by destroying them would match WW2 goals and objectives and would allow for the same results as our handicapping system of ENY.
Reinstall 1 country change every 24 hours.
