Arena caps are...

[The Fugitive]

Funny thing is I miss the hoard!
Nothing more satisfying than a handfull of you stopping a huge incoming raid. OK fine you died a lot, didn't matter, the fun was in stopping them.
When I first joined I flew Knit, the bish were infamous for there mass Tiffy raids, never happens anymore.
Dunno, I think there a hell of a lot been lost with the arena split, and I still don't believe the benefits outweigh the cons.

to HTC they do, more money in their pockets 

[SlapShot]

Funny thing is I miss the hoard!
Nothing more satisfying than a handfull of you stopping a huge incoming raid. OK fine you died a lot, didn't matter, the fun was in stopping them.
When I first joined I flew Knit, the bish were infamous for there mass Tiffy raids, never happens anymore.
Dunno, I think there a hell of a lot been lost with the arena split, and I still don't believe the benefits outweigh the cons.

Kev ...

The benefit, at least to me, is that I have a choice to NOT participate in the LW horde/picking/constant smack talk/forever whining arena(s) if I don't want to.

If we ever went back to just 1 LW arena ... I think I would have to kiss this game goodbye ... and that I think that would be the "con" to HTC and I don't think that I would be the only one to part ways with this game if that were to happen ... so the "benefit" is to keep the types of arenas a "choice", thus keeping/gaining the player base.

Remember, not ALL people want to fly in the LW arenas ... and it isn't necessarily due to plane selection ... it has to do with community.

[Anaxogoras]

LWO capped at 120/100 2pm EST.  Yeah, I don't have a life, but that's BS.  Blue is not worth playing with 50 people in it.

[Kazaa]

The DA has a cap of 500, go go go

[The Fugitive]

LWO capped at 120/100 2pm EST.  Yeah, I don't have a life, but that's BS.  Blue is not worth playing with 50 people in it.

So whats the solution? You guys are great at coming in here and complaining, but nobody has come up with a better idea. I'm already convinced that the way HTC does it is the only fair way at this time. With that I have learned to live with it. But if you have a better idea, lets hear it!

[Overlag]

So whats the solution? You guys are great at coming in here and complaining, but nobody has come up with a better idea. I'm already convinced that the way HTC does it is the only fair way at this time. With that I have learned to live with it. But if you have a better idea, lets hear it!

only solution is to log onto arena earlier and leave it afk in tower (or in buffs like me)


or, allow people to join, only if they join the side with lowest numbers then they stuck on that side for whatever the limit is.

[james]

So whats the solution? You guys are great at coming in here and complaining, but nobody has come up with a better idea. I'm already convinced that the way HTC does it is the only fair way at this time. With that I have learned to live with it. But if you have a better idea, lets hear it!

What about raising the caps to all arenas to 350.This will at least let people in instead of HAVING to go to another arena for a while. Some people do have jobs and only have but so often a day to log in as well. Kind of getting tired of seeing alot of good fights go up in smoke because a couple guys can't get into the arena THE REST OF THE SQUAD is already in and making some headway. Been here before the split. It really wasn't all that necessary either. We as a group would like to get into the arenas and play the game we pay to use. It's simple. Noone wants to start an angry whine thread but hey no one likes paying for the busy signal on the big fight arena either. Yes, of course we get the fact it's a game. It's also something we pay for man.

[Mr No Name]

Funny thing is I miss the hoard!
Nothing more satisfying than a handfull of you stopping a huge incoming raid. OK fine you died a lot, didn't matter, the fun was in stopping them.
When I first joined I flew Knit, the bish were infamous for there mass Tiffy raids, never happens anymore.
Dunno, I think there a hell of a lot been lost with the arena split, and I still don't believe the benefits outweigh the cons.

Damn right, that was always a lot of fun

[vorticon]

LWO capped at 120/100 2pm EST.  Yeah, I don't have a life, but that's BS.  Blue is not worth playing with 50 people in it.

and if you and the other 50 people or so actually went in there, rather than leaving in disgust, you wouldn't have a problem.

[Kev367th]

Kev ...

The benefit, at least to me, is that I have a choice to NOT participate in the LW horde/picking/constant smack talk/forever whining arena(s) if I don't want to.

If we ever went back to just 1 LW arena ... I think I would have to kiss this game goodbye ... and that I think that would be the "con" to HTC and I don't think that I would be the only one to part ways with this game if that were to happen ... so the "benefit" is to keep the types of arenas a "choice", thus keeping/gaining the player base.

Remember, not ALL people want to fly in the LW arenas ... and it isn't necessarily due to plane selection ... it has to do with community.

Hi Slapshot - I am all for choice, no problems with EW , MW arenas. All the problems with the LW arena split and caps were predicted within days of it happening. It's a toughie, how do you 'encourage' (not force) people into the lower populated LW arena. If you raise the initial cap you still get the same problem, only later on.
Would be interesting to see what would happen if there were the two capped LW arenas and a third uncapped arena added, well i think we can guess......

[SlapShot]

Hi Slapshot - I am all for choice, no problems with EW , MW arenas. All the problems with the LW arena split and caps were predicted within days of it happening. It's a toughie, how do you 'encourage' (not force) people into the lower populated LW arena. If you raise the initial cap you still get the same problem, only later on.
Would be interesting to see what would happen if there were the two capped LW arenas and a third uncapped arena added, well i think we can guess......

Ahhh ... I guess that I misinterpreted ... Dunno, I think there a hell of a lot been lost with the arena split, and I still don't believe the benefits outweigh the cons. ... thinking that you were referring to the EW/MW/LW arena split and not just the LW dual arena split.

There is no "guessing" Kev ... even HTC doesn't need to guess, they know. They know that their overall subscription base was suffering under the "single" arena cesspool, and all the pleading, whining, and stamping of feet most likely will not change their minds ... unless their bottom line changes.

The argument ... "There aren't enough people in Blue" ... is a bunch of bollocks. If I fly LW it is the Blue arena that I fly, and I have absolutely no problems finding any type of "action" that I want ... air2air / GV / base taking.

I started playing this game in 2002 and I can remember when all we had in the "one" arena was the numbers that I see in the "Blue" arena and for the life of me, I don't ever remember people pissin' and moanin' about the lack of numbers nor the lack of "action" back then. I remember a night when the online numbers went to over 300 people ... it was UNBELIEVABLE back then.

You don't need 200+ to 800+ people to find action and those who think that those numbers are needed for "action" are those that don't know how to start "action" ... they just look/react to those who do start it.

I'm sure if Zazen were to read my post, he could comment on the psychology of "top down" thinking.

Remember the Mindanao map ... remember the team at the "bottom" of the map almost ALWAYS got reset, or NEVER "won the war". There is something within our minds that perceived an up-hill battle and a down-hill battle and the one with the perceived down-hill position seemed to always have the momentum.

I believe the same applies to LW arena choice ... had HTC, when first splitting the LW arenas, had put the Blue before the Orange ... we would have seen the Blue with the most amount of players and Orange would have been the bastard child.

For some reason, people think that because Orange is first in the list, it must be the "better" arena ... and it really isn't.

[The Fugitive]

What about raising the caps to all arenas to 350.This will at least let people in instead of HAVING to go to another arena for a while. Some people do have jobs and only have but so often a day to log in as well. Kind of getting tired of seeing alot of good fights go up in smoke because a couple guys can't get into the arena THE REST OF THE SQUAD is already in and making some headway. Been here before the split. It really wasn't all that necessary either. We as a group would like to get into the arenas and play the game we pay to use. It's simple. Noone wants to start an angry whine thread but hey no one likes paying for the busy signal on the big fight arena either. Yes, of course we get the fact it's a game. It's also something we pay for man.

.... and if you were the 351st person to log in you would be pissin and moaning that you STILL couldn't get into Org ! At least as it is set up now the cap will adjust quicker as blue fills and you can get into your precious org sooner.

Now how about we set blue up for the old times. Put Donut, Mindanao and the other old maps that are no longer in rotation in Blue ONLY. Reset the map every week. I wounder which arena would be the one everyone would be crying to get into 

[Sunka]

Fugitive how much is HTC paying you to countlessly defend arena caps over and over again?

[james]

Fugitive how much is HTC paying you to countlessly defend arena caps over and over again?

He does have that "you might steal my wallet so i better pipe in" kind of an attitude here huh? Maybe be a little bit of "i've been here for years and you have not so i'm right no matter what, unless you've been here for around as long" maybe? HEHE Kidding.

Maybe that would work as far as different sized maps fugitive. The big problem is that orange is not the precious arena. It's the map with the most people in it for a bigger fight that is so much more attractive. I've seen at 1pm on a sat. the arena caps at 150/100. Even right now the arena in orange is locked at 310/300 while the others are arround are at 10-20 except for blue at 128/250. Special events is @ 75/650. The other arenas were at 10-20/350.  Let's let that number sink in a bit.

10 to 20 people out of 350 in ALL OTHER ARENAS. Let that echo a bit so that it gets understood and heard..........
...

There is no way at all outside of some cookie cutter answer that those numbers are cool when you are trying to find a good fight maybe with some limited time to play due to work or lifestyle. This is why i say open the caps up to 350 til after 5 pm every day and TRY THAT. We aren't going to be able to solve problems in one fail swoop here with all the different opinions be them biased or not but at least we can put some things out there to be TRIED at least, no?

[The Fugitive]

Fugitive how much is HTC paying you to countlessly defend arena caps over and over again?

Im not defending per say, Im goading people on to find a solution thats hasn't been presented before. Crying about caps doesn't do anything. I'm just pushing people to look for a new solution. I'm not crasy about the cap myself, but foe the life of me I can't come up with a better fairer way to do it.

If you look back at my posts, Im all for the community to handle these problems including the "unhealthy" problems that caused the arena split in the first place. I believe that mods should go through a training process and must but endorsed by HTC. These approved mods should have the power to not only mute, but eject, as well as bane from the servers anyone causing problems. This game is a fun place to blow off steam after a hard day at work, and you shouldn't have to put up with a bunch of "crap" while your trying to have some fun. This community some times goes just a bit too far. Trash talking has its place, but when some cross the line there should be someone standing by with a big stick to get it back under control.  Had there been consequences to some of the stupidity that caused an unhealthy arena there may never had been a need to split the arenas to control the population.

I've always advocated the cut back of the hordes. I've always said that those squads with large numbers should use more strategy than their shear numbers. Little things like this can enhance the fun of many instead of increase the frustration and canceling of subscriptions.

It just happens that I'm on the same page as HTC about the caps, but I hope there is a better way to handle it. Those of you that have only flown for a year or two give us "old timers" a hard time about the stories of how it use to be some much better in the old days. I believe the old days were much better, not because I'm burned out (ask anyone who knows me from as far back as the AW days, I just love flying too much for that), but because it was. There was a better class of player and the community made everyone tow the line. "Kill macros" were the norm in AW, it was a bit childish, and some of them were a bit over the top. When we switched over to Aces it was frowned on due to the childness of it, and the fact it was a bit low to rub someones face in their failure. Sure you could run one out, but the ridicule you got from the community quickly stopped them.

Today too much of the community (the younger crowd) are looking for recognition and jump on the band wagon of the more vocal of our community. Not all of this groups are ones I'd be proud to be associated with, nor are they the pillers of the community that some of these people think they are. Is this the way the community should continue to grow? If this was the community you were looking to buy a house in, would you? The game is not my life, but neither do I change my personality when I'm here. To me thats not part of the game, Im the same guy in the game as out of the game. Everyone looks at the game a bit different, but it has been proven that if things get so nasty in the game that people start cancelling, changes will be made, and not always for the better, from some peoples point of view.