DA V MA

[Jing0]

Back when I first started playing AH2 a couple of years ago (under the name of reynolds) I spent most of my time in MA...at first I was a N00b and spent a lot of time in the tower, untill i learnt a few tricks and started sending people back to their tower. Sometimes I even got home again. On the few occasions I stuck my nose in the DA I tended to last to just after take off before somebody would score themselves some easy points.

Then I had computer problems, I was outa the game for 8 months before I came back flying as Jingo.

This time things were different: I tried a few sorties in the MA, got pwned, and headed back to the TA. After a while i went for the DA thinking it might help my furballing skills. Again at first I got my bellybutton kicked a lot, but now me and my mk1 hurri are landing the occasional kill.
Anyway just the other night I decided it was time to go back to the real warzone. I flew a number of sorties, flew around trying to find a fight, would spot an enemy plane and be sent to the tower almost immediatly, usually without firing a shot. Did slightly better last night, landing two kills, but after that one good sortie it all went very quickly down hill.

Now I almost exclusivly fly mk1 and mk2 hurricanes, and have done since I started so Its not the plane. So what is it?
What makes the MA and DA feel like worlds apart when your in a dogfight?  I am the only person having thos problem? Spend to much time in one and you suck in the other?!
I mean on the face of it there cant be much difference: both arenas have the same plane sets, similar fields, a variety of terrain to fly over, the sky is pretty much identical, and both are inhabited by a selection of pilots who skills range from n00b-dweeb-uberstick.

And yet how well I do (or at least how well I think I do!) in each arena deems to depend on how much time Ive spent there recently.

can anyone shed any light ?

[The Fugitive]

I havn't spent a lot of time in the DA, but here are my thoughts.

In the old days the DA was used for dueling. The top sticks hung out there and would duel anybody. Duelers not only used skill to get the kill, they used tricks.... low fuel amounts, dump ammo loads to lighten plane, climbed above merge alt and then dove down to get extra speed, also, with all the practice you could get the timing down better so you could start your merge turn that much sooner and be around in your turn before the other guy. Basically it was an arena that some got VERY good at.

Today, the DA is more full of cherry picking, greifers. Those people who can't handle the Mains due to their lack of skill. Now they gang fight in temps and run away when you get an angle on them, basically a bunch of no skilled dweebs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are still some skilled people in the DA, but its not the place to "hang out" anymore, so there are not as many anymore. So in the old days you would fight  top pilots in the DA, today you run into more dweebs.

[Ghosth]

What fugitive said in spades.

DA is 20% people working on skills
80% losers who can't cut it in the main.

Hitech really needs to invent a new command for the DA.

.duel gameid  works just like the join command only it initiates a duel.
Choice of text accept or pop up box accept just like the join command.

No one in the whole arena takes damage unless they have accepted a duel.
Then damage works between those 2 people, and only those 2 people.

No more confusion, no griefers, no problems.
Ideally it would also work for pt boats, and GV's.

[Noir]

What fugitive said in spades.

DA is 20% people working on skills
80% losers who can't cut it in the main.

Hitech really needs to invent a new command for the DA.

.duel gameid  works just like the join command only it initiates a duel.
Choice of text accept or pop up box accept just like the join command.

No one in the whole arena takes damage unless they have accepted a duel.
Then damage works between those 2 people, and only those 2 people.

No more confusion, no griefers, no problems.
Ideally it would also work for pt boats, and GV's.

Yeah bring the duel "instance"  to AH

[gpwurzel]

DA - Personally, I just love getting into a 1 v 1 (last time was with squaddie to practise) and then get bounced by some numbnut - just gotta ask why

MA wise, there is (sometimes) so much more going on, so more SA required (I could of course be completely wrong - nothing would surprise me today lol..) and the chances of coming across one of the more accomplished pilots seems higher (or I'm flying in the wrong place and getting my backside handed to me lol....)


YMMV,

Wurzel

[dedalos]

Back when I first started playing AH2 a couple of years ago (under the name of reynolds) I spent most of my time in MA...at first I was a N00b and spent a lot of time in the tower, untill i learnt a few tricks and started sending people back to their tower. Sometimes I even got home again. On the few occasions I stuck my nose in the DA I tended to last to just after take off before somebody would score themselves some easy points.

Then I had computer problems, I was outa the game for 8 months before I came back flying as Jingo.

This time things were different: I tried a few sorties in the MA, got pwned, and headed back to the TA. After a while i went for the DA thinking it might help my furballing skills. Again at first I got my bellybutton kicked a lot, but now me and my mk1 hurri are landing the occasional kill.
Anyway just the other night I decided it was time to go back to the real warzone. I flew a number of sorties, flew around trying to find a fight, would spot an enemy plane and be sent to the tower almost immediatly, usually without firing a shot. Did slightly better last night, landing two kills, but after that one good sortie it all went very quickly down hill.

Now I almost exclusivly fly mk1 and mk2 hurricanes, and have done since I started so Its not the plane. So what is it?
What makes the MA and DA feel like worlds apart when your in a dogfight?  I am the only person having thos problem? Spend to much time in one and you suck in the other?!
I mean on the face of it there cant be much difference: both arenas have the same plane sets, similar fields, a variety of terrain to fly over, the sky is pretty much identical, and both are inhabited by a selection of pilots who skills range from n00b-dweeb-uberstick.

And yet how well I do (or at least how well I think I do!) in each arena deems to depend on how much time Ive spent there recently.

can anyone shed any light ?

Heh, it is the plane and the arena. 

1)  In the DA if you were dueling someone, that someone did stay and fight with a pretty equal plane and e.  You were both looking for a fight and not for a kill.

2) If you were in the cherry pick lake, well, you either found someone that did not see you on time, you might have had the advantage, and really the skill level in that lake is below 0.

3) In the MA however, you will most likely meet the professional dweebs lol.  These are the guys that have been practicing their tactics of fighting with an advantage for years and know exactly when and how to get you.  In the Hurri I, you already gave them the advantage anyway since your plane cannot climb, cannot excel, no HP, no guns etc.  All you got is two maybe three turns until you get too slow and then you die

[Zazen13]

Even before the DA was adulterated by the griefers it was not a microcosmic representation of the MA. The dueling experience is designed to articulate particular aspects of air combat in isolation, particularly on the mechanical level. In the MA, 1 vs 1 encounters, especially of the Co-E/Co-Alt/Same Plane persuasion, are relatively rare. So, it stands to reason that practicing that rarely occurring situation over and over and over again in the DA will only have a limited degree of applicability in the MA. Conversely, the unpredictable, dynamic and complex MA environment where 1 vs 1 encounters are rare is not going to necessarily magically endow you with the mechanical refinement necessary for dueling prowess.

The MA is 90% mental acuity and 10% mechanical flying, the DA is the opposite, 90% mechanical flying and 10% mental effort. I am generalizing for the purpose of contrast to enunciate the point of why success in one does not guarantee success in the other...This is not a popular assertion among those who measure their E-Peens by their success in the DA then marginalize their relative failure in the MA due to the fact there's few 1 vs 1's.

As rare as 1 vs 1's are in the MA they're still exponentially more common than they were in real life. The 1 vs 1 duel is really a contrivance of gaming with very little to do with the spirit or practice of real air combat in WWII. In WWII if you were involved in a 1 vs 1 both you and your opponent screwed up very badly at some point to even put you in that situation to begin with.



<Waits patiently for the thread stalking Nazi's to come>

[Jing0]

Ok so far the concencus seems to be that I sepnt 6 months fighting dweebs in the MA...went away for 6 months, and by the time i came back all the dweebs had moved to the DA just in time for me to arrive there.

This seems unlikely somehow...

[gpwurzel]

Nope, the assertion is that the 2 are very different. Whilst you can get in a furball in the DA, its not like a furball in the MA. There are some very good sticks that will da anyone and everyone - who also do very well in the MA's. Then there are those (like me) who 1 v 1 suck badly, but do reasonably well in the MA.

As Zazen said, the MA is more about having your wits about you (ie, good SA), whereas the DA requires more skill flying your individual plane against a single opponent.

Wurzel

[*PAPA*]

The DA Lake is a furball, and the tactics learned there here don't help in the MA.  I think the Mid War is a much better place to learn ACM and flying skills. 

[ImADot]

Jing0,

Come to the EW arena...it's usually under-populated (sometimes too much so) and relatively easy to find 1v1 or 2v1 fights.  Since you fly Hurri-I and Hurri-II, you'll be right at home.  Sure, you'll find some dweebs and HO-ers there and the occasional gangbang, but for the most part people are willing to call off their countrymen (or stay out if asked) if there's a good 1v1 fight.

Guys still love to grab bases and "win the map", so if there's a base assault going on, all bets are off and you get what you get.

[Yenny]

In DA, I just work on skill. Practice my 1 v 1 etc. In MA, I'm a land grabber half the time, and half the time I'm furballing at TT.

[Jing0]

Id have thought that the DA furball lake would help with sa and acms...people there might or might not be dweebs/pickers/vulchers/ho'ers etc but given the difference in population sizes Id expect to find a fair number of these in any MA  anyway. Its rarely 1-1 (given that bish usually seem to be outnumbered these days its more like 2 or 3 v1!) and theres up to a couple of dozen craft in a furball most nights. Ok so Ive been in bigger MA fights (the biggest probably having about 100 fighters involved not long after i first started...I got shot a lot that day)  but usually not much bigger. 

I cant see it being the plane. regardless of the arena my hurri gets picked by ponys/38s/yaks/typhie etc whilst twisting and turning on the deck with a corsair/zero/spit...some days its raining aircraft.

I might try the EW/MW see if thats a better step up.

Im wandering if theres some sort of strategic/tactical difference Im not aware of. EG: in the DA/furball u just head for nearest red dot and start shooting whilst trying to dodge the other red dots...in the MA there are other factors; bases to take, ack to watch out for, base taking missions to join/intercept/escort and a variety of other objectives which change the nature of the game.

[Murdr]

Ghost, look for a wishlist topic started by me in the past 10 days

[SkyRock]

In DA, I just work on skill. Practice my 1 v 1 etc. In MA, I'm a land grabber half the time, and half the time I'm furballing at TT.

and then ther's "dora time"!  hee hee