After 3+ years, I'm starting to love HO threads. In the history of online sims, to paraphrase a famous quote, sort of... "never have so many, complained so much, about so little."
What people who complain about HO'ing are really saying is... "I had a different outcome in mind, with some dazzling ACM turning and burning on my part, and you following the script I want, to your untimely death. How dare you do anything to disrupt MY gameplay!"
It's very nice if two opponents decide to engage in a merge without resorting to the HO, but to expect it and then complain the other guy is "not honorable", or a "no skill dweeb" (which he may be if he's new) is the height of childishness. If you want fairplay and rules, go to the DA. Otherwise, you're in the best available aerial combat sim possible, which includes your opponent doing anything and everything HE decides he wants to do at the time. Your job is to expect the unexpected at all times, and counter whatever he does to beat him.
And, in certain situations, where least time to a kill may be imperative (especially when outnumbered), the HO may be the best thing going. Learn to know when to expect it, like when your opponent is in a 110, or an IL2, or a Niki, a 109G-14 with 20mm gondys, an 190A-8 with 30 & 20mm's, an F4U-C, etc, etc, etc.
My rule of thumb is, anytime you let your plane get in front of my guns expect to get shot at. I might not, cause HO is 50/50 proposition at best (maybe 55/45 if your in a big gun ride and the other guy isn't) and I prefer the odds to be more like 95/5 in my favor if I can work them that way. But sometimes I don't have the time, and sometimes the inclination, to work that hard. I ain't telling you when I will, or when I won't, so be prepared.
