What can be done about the game?

[ToeTag]

I read through the posts in most of the different categories that users can post in and come across similar topics and thoughts regarding game play.  I have loads of fun playing this game and have been doing so since 2003.  I have taken my breaks and then resubscribe because I can't stay away from the best combat Sim that I have ever seen.  With that being said, the common topics and replies to these topics is that the process for the game and a win is fairly simple and can become boring.  Find the green blob and watch the amoeba roll from base to base.  I can go to multiple posts and quote, but we all know what is being said.  We all see it everyday.  I am no stranger to these tactics and have been involved in many a vulch session.  Some feel better when we call it a "CAP". 

     I think that there are allot of implement's in the game that the HTC staff have worked hard on and rarely get used.  The game has become very predictable at best and my question is what can be done to utilize all of the efforts of the staff to make it less predictable?  I.E. the NOE town busting "don't forget to strafe the map room"....or the 5 day GV battles at the same location...maybe because of the map lay out or maybe because peeps complain if you try to ruin the gv spawn and respawn battle and actually try and take the base. 

     I understand that there are the special events and so on but most of the time the rules have been laid out and everone knows what ALT and direction and plane load out your flying. (not so much fun when you know the who, what, when and where)  Just saying it can get boring and there is enough stuff in the game to make it interesting.  Maybe...

More troops need to be put in the map room
Troops from a gv and a goon must enter a map room
limitation to the number of planes and GV's per base (150 aircraft) (100 GV's) after that you must defend from another base until 2 hours have passed and you get 150/100 back.

These are just thoughts. What are yours?

[LLogann]

Wow

[Westy]

when you get tired of the romper room antics of the main arenas
just do what many have. Wait for ACEs high:Combat Theater! It's
gonna have all sorts of new features and great stuf___er, wait.

Never mind.

[Yossarian]

I honestly don't think there's anything you can do to fix the CAP/vulching/picking side of the game.  PERHAPS if a pilot could press a button when engaging an enemy, which would then display a 'DO NOT ENGAGE MY TARGET' sign above their plane to all friendlies...that would at least let other people know that someone wants the 1v1 to remain a 1v1.


As for the NOE raids/5-day GV fights (): a solution that I can think of to this would be a commander system.  Perhaps by having several commanders per team (i.e. Rooks would have 5 commanders, Knights 5, Bish 5), then one would be able to get some strategy into the game.  So, in this scenario, the commander would tell his team: "Destroy FH #1 at Base 53, then proceed to CAP Base 53".  Then, if the game detected that that group of people destroyed the FH, and prevented any enemies upping at base 53 from leaving a certain area around the Base, those players would get a significant (maybe 1.5 or 2x ?) perk point multiplier for their actions.  I won't go into the complexities of what you'd have to do to become commander (maybe a sort of rank/election system?), but with an effective commander and a team who at least partially obeyed them, you'd suddenly see a lot of strategy and immersion coming into the game.

[Motherland]

     I understand that there are the special events and so on but most of the time the rules have been laid out and everone knows what ALT and direction and plane load out your flying. (not so much fun when you know the who, what, when and where)  Just saying it can get boring and there is enough stuff in the game to make it interesting.  Maybe...

I take it you don't fly special events/FSO? Part of the fun is that you never know what you're going to see, other than it will be a historical match up.

[AWwrgwy]

Some people like to do what others complain about.

Best of both worlds.  They have fun and we can complain more.

 


wrongway

[Anaxogoras]

when you get tired of the romper room antics of the main arenas
just do what many have. Wait for ACEs high:Combat Theater! It's
gonna have all sorts of new features and great stuf___er, wait.

Never mind.

I wish you hadn't reminded me of that.  That was half the reason I decided to come back to online flight sims, and now I'm hooked but it's vaporware.

[Saurdaukar]

Find the green blob and watch the amoeba roll from base to base. 

Try my method:

-Find green blob moving from base to base.
-Switch countries.
-Thin green blob.

[ToeTag]

I take it you don't fly special events/FSO? Part of the fun is that you never know what you're going to see, other than it will be a historical match up.

In my experience with special events a 1 pager of whos going to be doing what is posted before hand and for each side.  Half the other side does not follow the alt restrictions or all of the rules and spoils fun.  I only did a couple of these and this was why.

I honestly don't think there's anything you can do to fix the CAP/vulching/picking side of the game.  PERHAPS if a pilot could press a button when engaging an enemy, which would then display a 'DO NOT ENGAGE MY TARGET' sign above their plane to all friendlies...that would at least let other people know that someone wants the 1v1 to remain a 1v1.


As for the NOE raids/5-day GV fights (): a solution that I can think of to this would be a commander system.  Perhaps by having several commanders per team (i.e. Rooks would have 5 commanders, Knights 5, Bish 5), then one would be able to get some strategy into the game.  So, in this scenario, the commander would tell his team: "Destroy FH #1 at Base 53, then proceed to CAP Base 53".  Then, if the game detected that that group of people destroyed the FH, and prevented any enemies upping at base 53 from leaving a certain area around the Base, those players would get a significant (maybe 1.5 or 2x ?) perk point multiplier for their actions.  I won't go into the complexities of what you'd have to do to become commander (maybe a sort of rank/election system?), but with an effective commander and a team who at least partially obeyed them, you'd suddenly see a lot of strategy and immersion coming into the game.

I dont think there is anything wrong with capping a base.  It is tactical and necessary.  I just can't stand the fact that you can shoot sombody down twice and then they get you on the third go around.  On the other side of the argument the same 35 people keep coming in over and over again.  No rest for the people winning the fight is my point.  It has become a battle of attrition instead of skill.  The last suggestion in the origional post would limit the amount of upping going on.  Make people think about assets instead of it being an endless supply of lives and equipment.  If you can't take a base with 150 / 100 assets then maybe you should think about using tactics from the next base.  One reason battles are lost is because of a lack of men and equipment.

[Vudak]

You just need to switch things up...  For example, I've been having a very good time flying attack and bomber sorties for a change.  For the longest time all I'd usually do was fly a fighter, and that was making my patience with the game wear too thin too quick.

I've also had a good time joining player-organized missions...  Sometimes they're well-made/run, and other times they're not...  When they aren't, I just pretend I'm one of the few "vets" in a squad with new rookies fresh from the farm. 

I might even devote some time to trying to learn the GV aspect of this game a bit, though I think I'm beyond hope there.

[trotter]

     I understand that there are the special events and so on but most of the time the rules have been laid out and everone knows what ALT and direction and plane load out your flying. (not so much fun when you know the who, what, when and where)  Just saying it can get boring and there is enough stuff in the game to make it interesting.  Maybe...

You have completely the wrong idea about special events. Yes, your own group gets orders regarding alt, target, and loadout. But you have no idea what the other side is planning, or what type of enemies you will directly encounter. You have no idea if your side's strategic plan will work out until it does, or it doesn't- and you and your group have an influence in the outcome of the overall success of your side. To me, there's nothing better than that. This would only be an average game, in my opinion, without special events.

But, different people find different things interesting, and if historical immersion isn't your thing, you may become frustrated with Special Events. I think what you're asking for in MA terms can be accomplished by providing a bit more variety in the strategic aspect of how the war is won.

Base taking is actually quite well done for what it intends to do: promote air to air fights. Yes, NOE is all the rave lately, but failed NOE attempts usually spawn furballs over time. Even if an isolated base taken quickly NOE, it will often spawn a furball between the newly captured base and a now adjacent base. Regardless of how it is enacted, a base capture attempt will more often than not result in a furball. And that accomplishes the goal of promoting air combat.

The problem, for me at least, is that it does not spawn a very authentic air combat. I would love to see higher altitude fights, more bombers, and more JABO (from planes not starting with IL and ending in 2). Would be more historical, and this is what interests me in Special Events, and what would make the MA infinitely more appealing.

Here's two quick ideas, all of which have been raised on this board before:
-reworked strat factory system (they are pretty much meaningless now, other than for score padding)
-terrain restrictions for GV's (roads must be used for movement bonuses, therefore creating better opportunities for JABO patrols)

In my opinion, the MA needs a major strategic overhaul, not something that just tweaks the current dynamics, such as increasing the troop capture amount, as you suggested.

[Motherland]

In my experience with special events a 1 pager of whos going to be doing what is posted before hand and for each side.  Half the other side does not follow the alt restrictions or all of the rules and spoils fun.  I only did a couple of these and this was why.

What events were you flying??

[ghostdancer]

In my experience with special events a 1 pager of whos going to be doing what is posted before hand and for each side.  Half the other side does not follow the alt restrictions or all of the rules and spoils fun.  I only did a couple of these and this was why.

In FSO we used to rely on the honor system for alt caps. We now have the tools in game to enforce it (set a down draft of 127mph and while you maybe can zoom climb 1K above the cap you can't say there for very long until you get forced under the cap).

As for the other rules the CMs constantly go over the logs for each frame and listen to the players to see if there with violations. We take them very seriously and individual players and squads do get suspended for violations. Since the players and their squads no there is consequences for rule violations (being suspended for 3 months or longer for major offenses or costing their side points and being put on probation for lesser violations) I would say that most of those involve follow the rules. The ones that don't are a small exception that pops up every now and then. I definitely disagree that half the other side (100 - 125 players) ignore the rules. When we have issues it usually ranges from 1 - to 15 players out of 500.

[ToeTag]

Historically accurate game this is not.  I get that.  I am not asking for that.  As far as special events they are not my cup of tea.  Thanks for the suggestion but i've been ther and done that.  I am trying to get good positive feed back on the pest control of the always present hoard and eny crap.  I have changed my game play to make it interesting enough for me to chime in and play a few minutes here and there.  I started the post because so many others get frustrated with the hoard and eny aspect.  Wether you want to admit it or not it has probably ticked everyone off at some point.  Like tonight for me I was trying to defend a base 1 v 1 and our eny was 24+.  I got shot down twice because of having to fly a EW plane in the LW arena against a LW aircraft.   

Limit the number of gv's and planes per base.  That translates to no more hoards with unlimited assets.  We don't have unlimited fuel or ammo in the game.  Why should we have unlimited tanks and aircraft?  If we have unlimited tanks and planes why aren't there unlimited field guns to spawn and respawn and again and agian.  You see my point. 

[trotter]

I got shot down twice because of having to fly a EW plane in the LW arena against a LW aircraft.   

Oh, enough of this. You didn't get shot down because you were in an EW aircraft. You got shot down because you lacked the skills to use said aircraft. People have to stop using ENY as an excuse, and instead use it as an opportunity to up a different plane and better their own skillset.