DA V MA

[Yenny]

and then ther's "dora time"!  hee hee

Gotta keep all them skill fresh 

[Ghastly]

Everything is greatly concentrated in furball lake. There is also a much higher concentration of both younger and newer pilots and much greater percentage of the "screw living, squirm til someone pops ya" flyin' in Furball lake than there is in the average MA battle. As a result, in the DA you don't have to be a better than average pilot to manage multiple shot opportunities in a sortie.

In the MA, things are spread out, folks are much more focused on surviving the sortie - and as a result your chances of getting a good shot on someone in a POS plane that can't catch squat is about 3% of what it is in the DA if you fly offensively, and if you up for defense over a capped field, your opponents will (generally speaking) have about 5 times as much E-vantage over you than is usually the case on average in the general furball that you are used to in the DA.

SA is very different as well - in the DA, it's such a general cluster that about all you have to do is make yourself slightly less appetizing than someone else to catch a break - what you are mostly concerned with when it comes to SA is making sure that you don't get clobbered by someone you didn't see.  In the MA, your SA has failed you long before the time the guy commits to his attack - you have to react to the enemy far, far earlier.

I like the DA - In an hour or so, I can get what would be about a weeks worth of gunnery and handling practice if I were to do it in the MA.  Handy when I'm trying to get a better handle on planes I don't usually fly when we're assigned them for FSO's.

But I wouldn't want to fly there all the time.

<S>

[1pLUs44]

When you're in the DA, you have a 'better' SA. I guess it's because that you already start out at 5k, and the knowledge that almost no one will be higher than you except score tards.

DA=Better SA

[FiLtH]

  Thats what was great about AW with a relaxed and full realism arena. It gave a place for everyone, while still be "the place to be".

[BnZ]

I agree wholeheartedly Zazen, as one who suffers daily from the affliction of being rather good 1v1, then seeing folks I've DAed with and outflown 1v1 repeatedly landing 10 times the kills I do, primarily because I cannot seem to get the gunnery down and often run dry on ammo while having 1, 2, or no kills.

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]

Everything is greatly concentrated in furball lake. There is also a much higher concentration of both younger and newer pilots and much greater percentage of the "screw living, squirm til someone pops ya" flyin' in Furball lake than there is in the average MA battle. As a result, in the DA you don't have to be a better than average pilot to manage multiple shot opportunities in a sortie.

In the MA, things are spread out, folks are much more focused on surviving the sortie - and as a result your chances of getting a good shot on someone in a POS plane that can't catch squat is about 3% of what it is in the DA if you fly offensively, and if you up for defense over a capped field, your opponents will (generally speaking) have about 5 times as much E-vantage over you than is usually the case on average in the general furball that you are used to in the DA.

SA is very different as well - in the DA, it's such a general cluster that about all you have to do is make yourself slightly less appetizing than someone else to catch a break - what you are mostly concerned with when it comes to SA is making sure that you don't get clobbered by someone you didn't see.  In the MA, your SA has failed you long before the time the guy commits to his attack - you have to react to the enemy far, far earlier.

<S>

Hmmm that sound about right. I will ponder this furthur.

When you're in the DA, you have a 'better' SA. I guess it's because that you already start out at 5k, and the knowledge that almost no one will be higher than you except score tards.

DA=Better SA

considering how low I fly my Hurri that makes everyone in the DA a score tard

[crockett]

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.

This first half of your post is exactly why I don't dual. Dueling in the DA allows far too many things that somewhat game the game IMO. You can't fly on 25% fuel in the MA or fly from 3rd person. In the MA you aren't running into the other con at co alt and be able to make that same practiced move time and time again, simply because you know what the merge will be. In short dueling in the DA isn't random and IMO not as challenging  because you already know what to expect in the fight.

To me that's not a good or accurate challenge to a pilots skill set. In the Ma you may have just leveled off at alt and maybe slow or have almost 100% fuel while the other guy might be on a light fuel load and have more E stored up. Much less you have no clue what the other guy will be flying, which ends up causing much more random fights. This IMO is more of a challenge and a better test of skill.

The sad part is you can almost never find good one on one fights in the MA, as for the furball lake, that place is a total joke.

[Jing0]

BTW what is a greifer?  thats a new one to me....

[Zazen13]

BTW what is a greifer?  thats a new one to me....

A griefer is someone who performs an action not for any sense of self-fulfilment, but for the sole express purpose of ruining the fun for others. Think of it like a fun vampire, your pain is their pleasure and your pleasure is their pain.

[Jing0]

okay, and how do u identify one?

[Zazen13]

okay, and how do u identify one?

Horns, a forked tail, a sociopathic personality disorder, no sex life, no friends, yellow teeth, stained underwear, an offensive body odor and a tendency to cackle uncontrollably when people lament publicly about their lame behavior...

[crockett]

<-- likes to greif NOE missions and goons

[ImADot]

okay, and how do u identify one?

Someone who flies to a GV-only section of the Dueling Arena to harass a group of people who put together a GV-only event.

Someone who will sink a carrier or destroy the fighter hangers at a base to break up a good furball when there is no intention to capture said base.

Etc., etc.

[Anaxogoras]

Eh, I know I'll take flak for this, but in my book people who hit the HQ to take away bar dar are griefers.   I simply move to another arena so I can find the enemy with a reasonable amount of effort.

[Xargos]

Jing0, if you're having problems with 1v1's in the DA, you may want to make sure your opponent is following basic Duelist Rules.