The new two country arena

[MiG Eater]

I know it has been longstanding position of HiTech Creations to promote a three country main arena.   The new terrain and recent squad moves have effectively eliminated one country from any meaningful flying in the MA.  The two countries with a 20 pilot advantage on each side during prime time are naturally taking bases from the weakest country.  Sure it provides some action , but by its nature, it lacks the ebb and waning of front lines as we've seen in the past.  The result is a constant retreat (or offensive push, depending on which side you are on).

Just two days into this tour, I am also seeing much higher flying and fights.   In itself it is an interesting new challenge as capabilities of each aircraft change quite a bit from predominantly low altitude flying in the past.   But with the number disparities, this has the effect of making a serious defense from a few remaining bases in the corner of the map very difficult.  When there are no rear area bases to take off from it takes too long to climb to milkrunning buffs before they can be effectively engaged.  With their altitude, they are far out range of the only meaningful base defense left - the field ack.  The defenseless fields offer easy targets for the incoming bomber flights and raids. Even with radar (when it hasn't been bombed into oblivion for hours), there is not enough reaction time to intercept once inbound bombers have been identified.   This is made worse with the re-emergence of the off-the-map flying enroute to targets.

Tonight there were several instances when all of the hangers were down for one side.  It is frustrating to be unable to fly unless you switch to one of the other two countries.  This naturally makes the situation worse.  People dedicated to one country have three choices: wait for a field to open so that they can be vulched, watch the destruction from the tower and complain over the radio, or leave the arena hoping it will be more playable tomorrow.  A non-patriotic flyer only has to switch countries to find a field to fly from.

The other issue I have with the new "heart" arena is that defending a ringed land mass lacks the appeal (IMO) of defending a main island as seen in the tour 13 arena.  With the Pacific-like island terrain there was usually a rally by a beaten down country to defend their main island.  There seemed to be more purpose in this type of defence than simply flying, fighting and bombing.  There was more teamwork and organization.  The appeal of AH in the past (at least for me) is the great interaction with the real people you are flying with.  This facet is diminished in the new arena.  

Why did I take the time to write this?  There were no fields to fly from in the MA and I'm a part of a squadron dedicated to one country.  I left the arena and ended up here.
  Hoping the first two days of Tour 14 don't indicate a trend for the next month.

-sigh

MiG

[Dingy]

Rgr this.

This map blows major chunks.  There are two fronts per country and the law of least resistance stipulates that the two dominant sides primarily hit the weakest.  Unlike the previous map however, the weakest country has nowhere to go except backwards.

Boring..purely boring.

-Ding


[This message has been edited by Dingy (edited 03-03-2001).]

[airspro]

Hard to believe I was waiting for this map change  

Were is the V fields ??? I miss them .

Plus it doesn't look like any "heart" to me , looks like the "y" if you get my drift  

[Yeager]

Ive had a crappy, I mean CRAPPY start to this tour.  I dont like the feel this layout gives.

Yeager

[Sunchaser]

Agree, nothing to do but log off.

I cannot believe this map given the overall quality of the game.

This is going to be a long month, perhaps too long.

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When did they put this thing in here and WTF is it for?

[Oosik]

This is very ture, but can HT correct it?
Also will HT even admit that there is a problem.

 

[Pongo]

The southern country is at a signifigant disadvantage. Its two large fields are not able to support each other and can be picked off one at a time. Once one is gone it is extremly hard to get it back so how do you stop the constant hammering of your infastructure.
Once we lost 5, 11 was isolated. Once we lost 11 there was no way back to that side of the map except 5 and it was a solid red block. with dozens of fighters in it.
How did we lose 11?
A constant procession of lancasters and tanks flying into the barbwhire in a way that would have made Bomber Harris proud kept all the hangers down at 11 till it could not be held. there were no bases close enough to support it. 5 was allready capped and 10 is an hour away.
 
So although I like the terrain. it is extremely poorly designed from a stratigic point of view.The southern country starts out divided and set up as the natural bucket boy.

The southern country is about 1/4 as good as the nw county. NW disadvantage is that its facotries are not defended by large fields.
The  NE country is signifigantly better. All its strat is defended by large fields. The fields are close enough to support each other and holding 29 and 51 really forms a bottle neck to advance into that country.

This map is about 10% as good as a similar but symetrical one would have been. Or even if the coutries were HQd in the wider pieces of land instead of the bottle necks.
 

[DA98]

I really like the terrain, it's the most "natural" looking map IMHO, but from the gameplay/strategic point of view is by far the worst...

[TheWobble]

 

it's the most "natural" looking map

Huh??..umm...yes it bears a striking resemblance to...umm...uterus land.

[DA98]

I mean the terrain, not the shape of the lake as seen on the map... wich reminds me of the South Park cows  

[Pepe]

Dunno if it's a matter of new terrain, but I have the feeling I has more to do with the numbers. I know numbers vary with the time, and I assume It's Rook's time in the bucket. But last 5 nights I logged in, the best numbers I saw was Rooks lo 30ies, Bish High 30ies, Knits 60something. Things only got worse from that, to bish and knits in the sixties.

Not a whine, neither I have the feeling of switching to Bish or Knit, but is tyring to be in the same position night after night.

Anyway, mostly happy to be Bish or Knit's target. Just don't blame me if I seldom use Quakebird or Dweebwagon  

Cheers,

Pepe.

[Oosik]

Pepe I think you are close.  There numbers have been bad for the Rooks lately.  But what is worse is squad numbers, last night (9:30 Pacific) the Rooks had 29 to 52 Bish & 52 Knights, BUT the only Rook squad that had more than 2 members on-line were the Assaassins (and they were giving the knights a hard time   ).  There was no other major squad to turn Fatty's Bish horde (I did manage to tie 5 or 6 of you up for a little while <S> ).  

With this map there is 2 well defined front lines of 2 to 3 bases, which concentrates all battles to those bases.  With an even 1/2 of forces at each front line we were at 14 to 26 odds.  But as we were in the bucket it odds were closer to 14 to 34.  Thes odds are made much worse by organised squads.

Also there were alot of newbee's in the Rook ranks during the last few days (I know alot of them have experince in other on-line sim's and will pick this one up pretty fast) that are just figuring out how this GAME works.  Its is hard to coordinate attacks and defend bases with with so many rookies.

I don't know what it will take for other squads to return or come over to the dark side.  I know that the squad that I am in rotates countries, but we try to go where we can help.

[SKurj]

At one point on Sunday night, it was actually Bish with the low numbers, rooks = 52, Knits 65, bish 47...

real fluid #'s lately with the exception of the knit horde

SKurj

[StSanta]

Heh, no matter what the numbers say, I'm a kniggit.

I was a kniggit when numbers were low, and they're going to be low soon again, and I'll stay a kniggit.

Illoyal country jumpers are to be shot at first sight, preferrably with 30mm

*Note, this does not include organised jumps, like some squads rotating

------------------
Baron Claus "StSanta" Von Ribbentroppen
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
"Live to pull, pull to live"

[Dingy]

 

Originally posted by StSanta:
Illoyal country jumpers are to be shot at first sight, preferrably with 30mm

Bah...I jump countries as I see fit.  I get shot with 30mm when I dont jump and I get shot with 30mm when I do jump sides.

Consider it a silent protest.  These squad rotations are majorly imbalancing.  Besides its kinda fun to fly with some of the pilots who were once "enemies".

You dont like the squad jumping...tough.  I dont like the number imbalancing.  We all have our own opinions.

-Ding

[This message has been edited by Dingy (edited 03-06-2001).]