Why are they leaving?

[GFShill]

In AW you could see who you last shot down and who last shot you down, so there was some personal interest in who you got, rather than how many.

[Animl]

In AW you could see who you last shot down and who last shot you down, so there was some personal interest in who you got, rather than how many.

Yup the whole arena could also see who killed who instead. "A kill has been recorded".

Especially great during dweeb smack, entertaining at the responses etc...

Problem is the population is bigger here in one arena and the text buffer would go mad dog crazy keeping up, you'd barely be able to chat........ hmmm....you may be onto something.

Animl

[FiLtH]

lol really...make it so the text buffer only showed that and it was up to pms to commiuncate with enemy.

[airbumba]

I'm gettin as old as they get...yet I don't need to worry about the text of who I've killed....cause frankly , in 6 years here I haven't managed a kill...
nor delegated one neither.

But would drink with a Shill any day.

[Fugita]

Well I went back into the cockpit last night and I had a blast. I'm going to try to learn different planes. I was in a pony B last night and it doesn't handle anything like a Ki-84. Weird feeling. I think that may have been part of my issue to begin with. I overused the Ki, and it seemed that I was always looking for a fight with the conditions for advantage and when that wasn't happening and I would get my butt handed to me it lead to frustration. That's just my take on it.

[Horn]

I am an old player and I'm coming back.

That there is more time for me to play is certainly one reason but I think the one thing that pushed me over was the news that the CT had been put on permanent hold. As an outside observer it always seemed to me that the CT thing was really splitting HTC's talents; there were superficial improvements to the current game but all the eggs were in the CT basket. Everyone just had to wait. And wait. And I wasn't sure I would like it when it got here.

Now, I haven't played in the split arenas nor do I even know how they work yet but I am encouraged that development resources will be focused on the core game perhaps even harking back to the really cool time in AH1 when there was new stuff every couple of months. Some of it worked, some of it didn't but the changes seemed to throw the quake crowd off balance -- their guaranteed 'points' weren't there any more, the game was evolving. It is my hope that this development level will return.

AW will never come back and frankly I don't want it back. This game looks freakin *beautiful* even with less than current graphics. All I can hope for is some good one on one fights, some good squad nights and for HTC to continue to provide an environment where such things are possible.

I will now endeavor to persevere in the practice arenas as currently I suck so badly that to say that I suck is an insult to the word suck.

[Animl]

I am an old player and I'm coming back.

That there is more time for me to play is certainly one reason but I think the one thing that pushed me over was the news that the CT had been put on permanent hold. As an outside observer it always seemed to me that the CT thing was really splitting HTC's talents; there were superficial improvements to the current game but all the eggs were in the CT basket. Everyone just had to wait. And wait. And I wasn't sure I would like it when it got here.

Now, I haven't played in the split arenas nor do I even know how they work yet but I am encouraged that development resources will be focused on the core game perhaps even harking back to the really cool time in AH1 when there was new stuff every couple of months. Some of it worked, some of it didn't but the changes seemed to throw the quake crowd off balance -- their guaranteed 'points' weren't there any more, the game was evolving. It is my hope that this development level will return.

AW will never come back and frankly I don't want it back. This game looks freakin *beautiful* even with less than current graphics. All I can hope for is some good one on one fights, some good squad nights and for HTC to continue to provide an environment where such things are possible.

I will now endeavor to persevere in the practice arenas as currently I suck so badly that to say that I suck is an insult to the word suck.

All true.
I gotta give HTC credit on the CT thing,...much like AW and AWVN (nam) when they couldn't make it happen they didn't sell out to EA.com, looking for <cough>talent<cough> and $$ to "finish it",... YET .

It's fine the way it is IMO, I'd like a tweak here or there. But, like I've said on many occasions,...most things here are things we begged for in AW and just ran outta rope. IMO, us older AWers appreciate the simpler things.

You'll see the same trivial complaints hashed, rehashed and run into the ground several times,... everyday. Much like in AW only exaggerated by a larger population,...there's some community issues, nothing really new there.

Me thinks that recommitting their time to the main game was a very smart thing to do, a bummer CT's on hold but,...more likely to see improvements faster. Hell I'm elated about the new terrain that's coming, pretty major in IMO.

That said,... saddle up

Animl

[airbumba]

I was just foolin around in my previous post, but if ya want a more thought out and refined response, then here it is...

I live in a neck of the woods where in the 70's there was nothing but fields around our house, as a kid , I played in the meadows and forest's that made up my world.
Well, nowadays, they've built all around us,bulldozed the forest , plowed the streams and filled the ditches.

Now,most of you reading this will understand that this is the 'natural' progression of man, and his drive to build bigger and more populous cities. But I used to be here when there were forests and streams , so it's understandable that I can't even comprehend the modern building their doing here, in my neck of the woods, as an old timer ..it makes me want to leave.
...........except...

....when our house was first put here, there probably was an older resident who looked upon the construction of our home, which bulldozed, dug up and modified the countryside equally as much as the new developments are doing......the same as I complain about.
well..

AH ,the game. AH,the people, are just like the land being built on......as sad as it sounds, the change in the game is parallel to the change in the land. Most people have pride in being the first residents in a hood, and unwittingly , tend to resent the following wave of residents.....so it is in the game.New people are moving in , the neighborhood is expanding and that has to be dealt with.

Many have asked HT to keep the old crew going and all the points necessary to do so. But replace HT with a township. As boss, or township mayor, HT allows all them homes to be built, doing nothing but the job that one would expect....town growth....new residents...taxes..upgrading infrastructure, and all the things that would attract new residents, while unfortunately, in the eyes of the original inhabitants, alienating them. Just as an oldtime resedent of a modernizing neighborhood has to decide to stay put and exist in harmony with the expanding hood, or pack up and move on, is what old time fliers have to deal with here.

so, I guess after all this verbal spewing I've done, I must say that the same argument has been going on since 'progress',was ever given a title. Communities, old and young, expanding or receding have dealt with these same parameters, and this game is no different.

airbumba

[stickpig]

My issue with one-one is I remember reading WWII history where pilots from both sides would back off while a German or Japanese and American went at it one on one. Everyone just circled watching until they finished so someone else could go one on one.

I gotta read this book....... Can't imagine a fighter pilot watching a friendly get shot down if he lost the advantage cause it was a 1 on 1. Never happened and wouldn't happen

[Bubbajj]

I dunno, I've seen just the opposite. In R/L during WWII, the HO, pick, vulch, BnZ etc etc were the rule, not the exception. Squads worked together and wingmen scraped doo doo off their wingy's tail end. If you encountered an inferiour number of opposing fighters, Great. We all get to go home and they don't. In R/L, if you lose, you might quite likely die. There was no second place and winning was everything. I suspect the type of game play we all hate is probably more closely aligned with real life than we'd like to believe.

Of course, you don't die in game when you go down and you immediately get another plane. This is the odd thing about the current style of play that perplexes me. You really have nothing to lose by fighting. And yet, the cowardice one encounters is astonishing in it's depth. It's even more ridiculous in the DA where you don't even get to keep score. Maybe score does need to be turned off. Just a tally of kills and deaths at the end of the month.

Lets face it, if every time you got shot down in game you got electrocuted into unconciousness, you'd fly a mighty danged conservative game too.

[The Fugitive]

There is nothing wrong with the game. Yes it has changed, been added to, updated in a world where "graphics" is king. The only problem I see is game PLAY. In the old "neighborhood" we had mostly older guys who where in to the history side of the game more than the "win the game" type of thing. You would spend hours fighting the same guys over and over chatting about each fight as you were on the way back to the fight.

Today I would say 60% or maybe even as much as 70% of the people who play are in it to WIN. Whether that win is your name in lights, top of the score board, or resetting the map that is now the main drive of the majority of players. For every new "history buff" type that joins today we get 3-4 "win the game" types.

Now this split really has nothing to do with the "furballers", "landgrabbers" split. If you think about it, the majority of the furballers are the "win the game" types, they are trying to get their names in light, or to the top of the score boards as fast as they can. On the other side of the coin, a good percentage of the "landgrabbers" are also the history types looking for that massive mission with all of the immersion that goes with it.

Game play has evolved, because on-line gaming has evolved. Is it a good thing? Oldtimers say no, new guys don't know the difference. Oldtimers leave the game, the new guys don't learn anything different and nothing changes. Rules and scoring is set-up to maintain game play in certain parameters. I suggest that the rules and scoring be adjusted to promote better game play.

Change the "name in lights" to needing 3 instead of 2. It will still give those that need a goal to win something to shoot for, but being that much harder to attain it will force people to learn more about fighting as well as fight more to attain that goal.

Change the score page to first only simplified settings. No more figuring in hit percentage and all of the other parameters used now. Fighter is air to air kills, Attack is air to ground kills, buffs are buildings, and GVs are gv kills. Then mark scores on a curve so that the guy who flys 10 hours a month can compete with the guys who fly 300 hours a month. Some thought will have to be made to missions. NOE's would then need "fighters" as well as "attackers". GVers would FIGHT GVers instead of padding their score by flattening a town or factory and then running away. Buffs would ba apprecaited for the ability to take out town with a pass or two of a couple of formations..... giving more targets for A2A fighting both as cover for the buffs and to attack them.

The last thing I would do is add a 1/2 mile radius "no kill" zone around all spawn points, both airfields and GV spawns. Either the kills don't score inside this zone, or you have rubber bullets inside the zone, either would work. This would take away the vulching and spawn camping. Vulching and spawn camping are cheap kills. Those being killed don't stand much of a chance defending themselves. Creating this no kill zone give you options. You can up to defend a base, there by making it a fight. That no kill zone give you time to get wheels up, and some room to get a bit of speed up. It also give you time to check the attack and decide the where and when of how you can get out there a fight. For the GVs, the hunt is on ! How much more fun would it be if you spawn and had a chance to get moving to either join in a battle that was going on, or to set up an ambush for others, instead of the spawn and die as you spin your turret to break the spawn camp over and over again.....padding someones scores.

These changes don't really change the game at all, but it would change the way it was played. It would promote more fighting because that is what you would get rewarded for in the scores and name in lights. Everybody wins. The oldtimers get the game they want....fights for the sake of the fight.... the new players get what they want... a game with clearly defined set of objectives in scoring to win.   

[BnZs]

Change the score page to first only simplified settings. No more figuring in hit percentage and all of the other parameters used now.

Scoring for Kills/Sorties and Kills/Time rewards engaging early and often. K/D alone does not.

Hit%...well, I'm not too sure what the point of hit% in fighter score is. Its how effective you are at downing planes, not how effective you are at never wasting ammo, that counts. For instance, if one is flying a Jug and "wasting" a good bit of ammo on every kind of shot that comes along, that is not necessarily a bad thing, the plane has the ammo to waste and it may be worth it to have a chance of destroying/damaging/psychologically disturbing the enemy. Hit% mostly rewards buff hunting or flying tater planes.

[Bubbajj]

Excellent suggestions Fug', but if there is a no kill zone around bases, how would you attack and capture them? Maybe a short period of invulnerability for those launching to allow a fighting chance and break the spawn camp would be better.

[toonces3]

My issue with one-one is I remember reading WWII history where pilots from both sides would back off while a German or Japanese and American went at it one on one. Everyone just circled watching until they finished so someone else could go one on one.

I gotta read this book....... Can't imagine a fighter pilot watching a friendly get shot down if he lost the advantage cause it was a 1 on 1. Never happened and wouldn't happen

They didn't hit alt-X while they went to the fridge to grab a beer, either.

[The Fugitive]

Scoring for Kills/Sorties and Kills/Time rewards engaging early and often. K/D alone does not.

Hit%...well, I'm not too sure what the point of hit% in fighter score is. Its how effective you are at downing planes, not how effective you are at never wasting ammo, that counts. For instance, if one is flying a Jug and "wasting" a good bit of ammo on every kind of shot that comes along, that is not necessarily a bad thing, the plane has the ammo to waste and it may be worth it to have a chance of destroying/damaging/psychologically disturbing the enemy. Hit% mostly rewards buff hunting or flying tater planes.

The idea is to simplify the scoring system to give those who are the "win the game" types a clear and defined target to reach those goals. STATS on the other hand are something else entirely! I don't see a problem keeping the stats, I just don't think they should be used in scoring, too many places to "tweak" things.

Excellent suggestions Fug', but if there is a no kill zone around bases, how would you attack and capture them? Maybe a short period of invulnerability for those launching to allow a fighting chance and break the spawn camp would be better.

As long as the town is outside the "no kill" zone I don't see a problem. Hangers can still be flattened, goons can still be killed as well as M3s. The airfield "no kill" zone would give defenders time to get some speed up before they jumped into the fray, even tho enemy will still be lurking over the base. Gvs might try to hide under the blanket, but they won't be able to defend the town from the field, and must come out of the protection to be any help.