After a near 6 month layoff I have come back to AH, never didnt have an account, but just didnt feel like playing for many reasons..
I flew with the 242 before the arena changes, and then went to EW when the change came because I was really into(still am)the zero vs f4 fights, I was doing alot of reading at the time about the real life pilots and planes, plus DOGFIGHTS had run the James Swett f4 vs zero episode around that time which again had me digging those planes.. had some great times in both planes in EW and a big <S> to all the pilots I have fought with in those two planes. The 242 stayed in the LW's in ftr's and I rarely saw them or had any interaction with them due to being in EW most of the time so I quit the sqd and was eventually picked up by SOAR a couple months into the arena changes. I moved to the rank of Capt. and started the SOAR website which I still admin today.
There was a time when the "cheating" and "aimbot" etc accusations became too much for me, I started to tell Eaglehrt and the other guys dont use the "C" word anymore, you make yourself, the sqd and the game look bad when you do, in my eyes. It slowed but still continued, and that was part of the reason for my break from AH. You will not find me making any such calls of cheats or BS nowadays or in the past, Ive always stayed away from doing such.
The sqd has earned a bad name for itself there is no doubt about that, and it cannot be changed really.. even if we began flying LW and such we would still be known as the "old milkrunning/cheat calling" SOARS I imagine. In the earlier days in EW I could see it stem from the top in the sqd, higher ranking members would call BS or accuse someone of cheating and then the lower ranking and new members would pick it up and the cycle would continue. Lately I have seen more accusations coming at us than have been given(thought it has gone both ways for sure), the best is that we are somehow shooting a second account, or each other(or something), when you can look right at our ftr scores and see obviously that isnt happening. No one says anything about the 2-3 guys in EW with 2 bomber sorties and +100%, and in one case over 500% this tour.
There are guys in the sqd who will
not call out BS,cheat, hack, whine etc.. and there are some who will from what I have seen since my return this tour, trust me when I say I try to have a talk with them. Some of them are older players and arent going to listen to my reasoning anyway if I try it. Many of us are doing our "own thing" in the sqd now and while we may not approve or like comments made by some of our members we stick around in the sqd for the other guys and good times we have there with them. If you come into an arena where a majority of SOAR are for an hour a week youll learn little about what we do, and have plenty of rumor, BS and maybe some facts to go on, but come and stay in EW for a month for a few hours a night and youll probably understand what we do and why more, maybe not <shrug>. The EW arena is so differant than any other, the dynamics are nothing like LW arenas. One person can have a huge effect on the gameplay in EW, sometimes becoming the "Hero" for the night, or for a few minutes anyways
We seem to get a bad rap sometimes due to our "history", the other night we were accused of milking because we had a vbase inbetween two rook strat bases, rooks were trying to take the vbase back and due to the location of the strat every time we upped even a gv the strats would start flashing. There were several calls made out against us for milking but we really werent, we were just defending the base. This week one of the EW maps had a "fightertown" type setup, SOAR fought in there for hours, we didnt milk, take a base, or do anything else that night. Another night this week we got bored in EW and went to MW, where sqdmate LtKlutz and myself upped ki-61's and headed into enemy territory, we ended up in a nice fight with AKAK in his 38(and Mace I think too), was a good time, we got him once and ran into him again during the "patrol" where he proceeded to splash us both.
This post is in no way meant to excuse, smooth over, or debunk etc. the behavoir that some SOAR members have exhibited in the past, there is no excuse for that.. moreover just a posting to say that alot of us guys in the sqd are just guys playing a game they enjoy playing just like the rest of the AH community does.
Have I thought of leaving SOAR? Yes I have.. many times over the years I have, I was even asked this past week "why stay in a squad with such a dolt in it?" My answer: Im just doing my thing <shrug>.. they are for the most part good guys, and we have some fun.
Much honor and respect to the AH communty <S>
