Author Topic: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL  (Read 6106 times)

Offline Shuffler

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #105 on: August 28, 2009, 01:41:01 PM »
I think the root cause of the dispute is that like many here Hitech doesn't want to allow for people wanting to play for the same team all the time.

HiTech allows you to play on the same team all the time. He gives you the options and you make your own choice.
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Offline captain1ma

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #106 on: August 28, 2009, 01:42:55 PM »
Problem: ENY too high
solution: switch sides

Outcome: Problem solved!

if you're gonna stick with 1 chess peice, deal with it! Othewise have fun!!

Offline texastc316

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #107 on: August 28, 2009, 01:54:31 PM »

Seems simple enough.
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Offline Crash Orange

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #108 on: August 28, 2009, 02:59:10 PM »
And you are very mistaken, I really do not care what team anyone plays for.

That isn't what I said. I said it seems, based on quotes people have posted here, that you don't think anyone else should particularly care what team they play for.

Explain how the ENY system doesn't work because from my standpoint it works very well for its intended purposes.

It does not seem to reliably persuade players to switch countries or switch arenas, and it doesn't do much to create more balanced play because balance is affected more by local conditions than by overall numbers. If I'm in an A6M2 being ganged 2-1 or 4-2 by Spit XVIs it makes no difference to me whether there are 150 other players from my country at some other base across the map.

Could it be that you don't understand how the ENY system works and therefore are basing your opinion on faulty information?

No. Disagreement != ignorance.

Please expound/explain your proposal on how one could connect CAPS and ENY and how it would be better than what we have now ... I am very curious.

Certainly. Players who wish to change sides would have to exit the arena and re-enter after changing to their new country. Caps would be based on how many people from your country are in that arena, not the overall number of players in that arena. If 70% of the rooks are in Blue, then the cap for rooks in Blue would be lowered and the cap for rooks in Orange raised. This means the numbers within each country would be proportionately distributed between the arenas: you couldn't have 80 knights, 80 bish, and 20 rooks in Orange and 50 knights, 50 bish, and 100 rooks in Blue. It would also preserve the function of the existing caps because if there are three caps all proportionately balanced then the sum of the three must also be proportionally balanced.

It's just a thought, maybe there are reasons why it won't work. I just put it out there for discussion.

I don't think you were here before ENY was introduced, but the whineage and more than likely loss of subscriptions due to consistent (months at a time) country numbers imbalance was far more prevelent and damaging than ENY limiter could ever be.

No, I wasn't. However, I'm not proposing to scrap ENY entirely, just to run it slightly differently.

I also find the idea of localized ENY intriguing, but it would be much more complicated to implement and I imagine it would have a lot more rough edges and technical difficulties.

While I have no statistics or evidence that would or wouldnt work, nor does anyone else, I would say this about it. From what Ive seen the ENY is typically not caused by the caps and allowing more of the lower number side in wouldnt resolve the situation. I base that on the observation that most times when 1 side is low on numbers in 1 arena and has the highest numbers in the other arena its caused by 1 thing, people leaving the first arena to goto the other arena (usually caused by the other 2 sides ganging them).

Right. But that's EXACTLY what the system I'm proposing would address. The nits wouldn't all be able to do that, because after the first 5 or 10 did the nit cap on the  other arena would kick in and the rest of them wouldn't be able to switch - at least until some rooks and bish also switched. Or they could change sides just like they can now.

The point isn't that ENY is caused by caps, it's that addressing ENY and caps together could make each one work better.

This was cause IMO by all the Knights who were "getting ganged" in Orange migrating over to the Blue arena where they knew they would be the horde. Nothing wrong with this if you want to be the horde and not the hordee, however its very clear once again that its players actions dictating and not the ENY or Caps.

True, but from the POV of an individual nit logging on 20 minutes later, there's nothing he can do about it - it's either change sides, be ganged 4-1 the whole time, or have an ENY of 29 and not be able to find any decent fights. This system is meant to address that by making it impossible for the numbers to get that lopsided to begin with.

So by allowing only the lower numbered country to enter a capped arena where 1 side is way outnumbered wouldnt solve much as players always want to go where they feel they have the superiority.

They could want it all they want but they wouldn't be allowed to.

Having that feature on both arenas could prevent that sure..... but then youre introducing just 1 more factor that someone will complain about.

So let them complain. I think "I hate being stuck with this huge imbalance and having to choose between horder and hordee" is an infinitely more legitimate complaint than "The game won't let me team up with 50 buddies and go to the smaller arena and gang everyone 5-1!" To put it another way, if it's about choices, either way there are some restrictions, but I think the array of choices that would result from this system would be better both for the individual and for the game as a whole than the choices  offered by the current system.

And you would still always have the option of changing sides if that's how you choose to resolve the situation.

Now instead of me seeing Orange with 206/200 and thinking hmmm I might get in there in a few minutes, now Im going to see Orange with 85 Rooks/85 Bish/46 Knights and say...... no chance of getting in there for a few hours. Then look at blue with 100 Knights/30 Rooks/30 Bish and say ya I really want to donate kills to the horde

But you would never see that, because the country-based caps would never let the balance in either arena get that badly skewed.

Of course, it would still be a problem if there were twice as many knights online as opposed to the same number but all of them piled into one arena. But that's true with the current system too, and I don't see how the one I'm describing would make that any worse.

ENY is not that bad.  Would you prefer ACS (Auto Country Selection).

No, but I don't think "It's not the worst possible way" is much of an endorsement.

This is just my opinion.

As is mine. And I find the forums much more rewarding when people do like this and offer their opinions for discussion rather than just tearing into people they disagree with.  :salute

Problem: ENY too high
solution: switch sides

Outcome: Problem solved!

if you're gonna stick with 1 chess peice, deal with it! Othewise have fun!!

Problem not solved - or rather, problem solved only by creating a worse problem.

This is what I mean by not respecting the choice to stay with one country. If you want to switch teams twice a day, fine, I'm not going to shout "Spy!" at you or call you a traitor, it is just a game. But I think it's wrong to suggest that preferring otherwise is not a legitimate way to play or a preference to be accounted for whether there's a relatively easy way to do so - in other words, why punish people for staying on the same team when the same purpose can be accomplished without punishing anyone?

And it's not a chess piece, it's a team made up of fellow players for which the chess piece is just an abstract identifier. A sports team is more than its mascot and an AH2 country is more than its chess piece.

Offline moot

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #109 on: August 28, 2009, 03:35:26 PM »
Orange that's not realistic.  Take a game population, divide randomly by 3 (initial logon country allocation), and then add squads, ENY, country numbers (some people want to fly horde, others against it), fights, country "allegiance", time zones, and other more or less random factors, and you get a player population that will fluctuate away from a perfectly even distribution at any given time between the 3 countries. 

So, you then add the path-of-least-resistance type of gameplay that many of the players follow, and you easily get lopsided country numbers.  Lopsided enough that it stops being fun for those on the worse end of those odds.

------------->  ENY.
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And it's not a chess piece, it's a team made up of fellow players for which the chess piece is just an abstract identifier. A sports team is more than its mascot and an AH2 country is more than its chess piece.
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Offline sethipus

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #110 on: August 28, 2009, 03:45:34 PM »
and end up fighting squadies..... ummmm no.  or should i restrict myself even more and only fight one country???  amd as far as getting rid of eny... well make the plane costs fixed as well in a small arena... so they wont be grabbing cheap 262's
1.  What's wrong with cheap 262s?  The only side that gets truly cheap 262s is the side being hoarded.  Seems fair to me.

2.  What's wrong with fighting squadmates?  If it's just about not being on a common vox for chatting purposes, I don't know if the >200 channels in the MAs work across countries like they do in the DA, but you could give it a try.  But nobody really dies in this game, so "killing" a squadmate need not be seen as some horrible, backstabbing, traitorous act.

Offline SlapShot

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #111 on: August 28, 2009, 03:52:16 PM »
Certainly. Players who wish to change sides would have to exit the arena and re-enter after changing to their new country. Caps would be based on how many people from your country are in that arena, not the overall number of players in that arena. If 70% of the rooks are in Blue, then the cap for rooks in Blue would be lowered and the cap for rooks in Orange raised. This means the numbers within each country would be proportionately distributed between the arenas: you couldn't have 80 knights, 80 bish, and 20 rooks in Orange and 50 knights, 50 bish, and 100 rooks in Blue. It would also preserve the function of the existing caps because if there are three caps all proportionately balanced then the sum of the three must also be proportionally balanced.

It's just a thought, maybe there are reasons why it won't work. I just put it out there for discussion.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No, I wasn't. However, I'm not proposing to scrap ENY entirely, just to run it slightly differently.

I also find the idea of localized ENY intriguing, but it would be much more complicated to implement and I imagine it would have a lot more rough edges and technical difficulties.

In response to the 2 sections in the quote above.

I asked the question on how could/would someone connect CAPS and ENY ... you only addressed CAPS ... no mention of ENY.

you couldn't have 80 knights, 80 bish, and 20 rooks in Orange and 50 knights, 50 bish, and 100 rooks in Blue

In the above scenario, it looks like the 20 Rooks in Orange are in deep yogurt ... and ENY should kick in for the Knights and Bish to try and level the playing field ... in the midst of your CAP balancing scenario ... so we are again, in the same boat ... pissed off Knights and Bish who will scream about ENY.

I'm not proposing to scrap ENY entirely, just to run it slightly differently.

Not trying to poke you in the eye on any of this, but I fail to see where ENY was implemented (run slightly different) in your scenario.

Crash ... the bottom line in all of this is to try and make the game as FUN for as many people as possible. The angst that ENY causes if far less than the angst that caused it to be invented/implemented ... so even tho there are some unhappy people who are not having fun as a result of it ... there are far more that are happy because of it (and they might not even know it).

Balancing gameplay and fun in a game like this is like walking on a razors edge ... there is going to be some blood spilled, but you want to keep it to a minimum.
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Offline crazyivan

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #112 on: August 28, 2009, 03:57:03 PM »
1.  What's wrong with cheap 262s?  The only side that gets truly cheap 262s is the side being hoarded.  Seems fair to me.

2.  What's wrong with fighting squadmates?  If it's just about not being on a common vox for chatting purposes, I don't know if the >200 channels in the MAs work across countries like they do in the DA, but you could give it a try.  But nobody really dies in this game, so "killing" a squadmate need not be seen as some horrible, backstabbing, traitorous act.
262 is a 262, some are flown well and some not.

On fighting squadmates. It sometimes can be fun and competitive at the same time. I don't mind seeing afew players in the same squad on different sides. As long as their fighting each other. No gamey chit. :aok
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Offline SlapShot

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #113 on: August 28, 2009, 03:58:15 PM »
1.  What's wrong with cheap 262s?  The only side that gets truly cheap 262s is the side being hoarded.  Seems fair to me.

Along with the fact that I can probably count on both hands the amount of people that I have seen in the past 7 years that truly know how to use a 262 ... the rest are just posers.

If I hear that Fester or Kappa are in the area in a 262 ... they have my un-divided attention ... otherwise I just casually keep on eye on the 262 and fart in it's general direction ... it's no more dangerous than an N1K in lesser hands.
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Offline batch

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #114 on: August 28, 2009, 05:14:28 PM »
Your scenario tends to leave out a few important considerations.

First you assume that players log on to their respective countries evenly. If both arenas are balanced perfectly with 100 players in each then it doesnt take much to upset that balance in either arena....... so if the next 20 players that decide to log on happen to be from the same country.......... then anyone else from that country would be locked out of both arenas for a bit, and both arenas would have high ENY for that country. While this may seem extreme it does happen based on different country numbers and different time zones.

The other example would be something that happens daily. Assuming both arenas are evenly balanced, and in Orange 2 countries are ganging the third. Now players from the third country are going to leave the arena. As your example points out after the first 5-10 then the other arena would be locked to that country, now they either goto MW/EW or simply log off and come here to whine for a bit. That means the Orange arena will once again be stuck with very high ENY for the other 2 countries.

Net gain on solving the problem = zero
Number of players who are still upset and whiney = however many decided to leave Orange because they were getting ganged.

The ENY is not there to balance countries or arenas, its there to balance the equipment.
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Offline noman

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #115 on: August 29, 2009, 01:26:11 AM »
+1  :aok batch
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Offline Crash Orange

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #116 on: August 29, 2009, 02:26:16 AM »
------------->  ENY.What did you do when you first played AH?

IIRC I went knight just because it seemed appropriate. But that's not the point. There's no inherent difference between the Mets and the Yankees either.

Offline Crash Orange

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #117 on: August 29, 2009, 03:14:21 AM »
I asked the question on how could/would someone connect CAPS and ENY ... you only addressed CAPS ... no mention of ENY.

True... what I mean is that the issue that ENY is meant to address - number imbalances - can be addressed better through ENY *and* caps working together. The way ENY works wouldn't change, but situations where ENY kicks in would be less frequent.

you couldn't have 80 knights, 80 bish, and 20 rooks in Orange and 50 knights, 50 bish, and 100 rooks in Blue

In the above scenario, it looks like the 20 Rooks in Orange are in deep yogurt ... and ENY should kick in for the Knights and Bish to try and level the playing field ... in the midst of your CAP balancing scenario ... so we are again, in the same boat ... pissed off Knights and Bish who will scream about ENY.

I don't know how I'm being unclear on this, but apparently I am. There could never BE 20 Rooks in Orange and 100 in Blue, because the rook cap would kick in in Blue long before it got that bad. After the 60th or so rook logs in to Blue, the next 40 or 50 rooks trying to log on would see Blue as full and presumably most of them would go to Orange. On the off chance that they instead all decide to log off or switch countries - which I see as pretty unlikely - ENY is still there. 

Crash ... the bottom line in all of this is to try and make the game as FUN for as many people as possible. The angst that ENY causes if far less than the angst that caused it to be invented/implemented ...

Understood. Like I said, I'm not proposing to scrap ENY. What I'm suggesting is a mechanic that would address the problem in another way so that most of the time you don't get to the point where a high ENY is necessary. If you do get to that point, or to address the minor imbalances that would remain, ENY is still there. (I don't know how others feel but I don't mind an ENY of 5 or 10, it's when it gets into the 20s that it becomes really irritating.)

First you assume that players log on to their respective countries evenly.

No, I assume that some imbalances are caused by people from the different countries logging on in different numbers, and some (and I believe this is most) imbalances are caused by similar numbers online being distributed very differently between arenas. My proposal is intended to address the second category. You are correct that it doesn't address the first category. But it doesn't make it any worse either. ENY would still be there so at worst it would be the same as things are now.

If both arenas are balanced perfectly with 100 players in each then it doesnt take much to upset that balance in either arena....... so if the next 20 players that decide to log on happen to be from the same country.......... then anyone else from that country would be locked out of both arenas for a bit,

First, I think a minor imabalance is acceptable and can be addressed as it is now. Second, if there were more knights (for example) in *both* arenas, but distributed proportionately, then both arenas would be open to knights. The country-specific cap for knights doesn't kick in when there are more knights than bish or rooks in arena X. It kicks in when the distribution of knights between Orange and Blue starts to vary significantly from the distribution of all players between Orange and Blue.

The one real problem I can see with this is that it will tend to force huge squads to split between arenas. However, it seems to be generally agreed here that having 20+ people from one squad in one arena at the same time is not a good thing.

The other example would be something that happens daily. Assuming both arenas are evenly balanced, and in Orange 2 countries are ganging the third.

That situation is going to be a problem for any system that attempts side balancing, including ENY as it now exists. There's really no way to address that (with the possible, though maybe unworkable, exception of local ENY effects). And it's really annoying having an ENY of 20+ while still being outnumbered 3-2 or so on both fronts. But, it happens.

Now players from the third country are going to leave the arena. As your example points out after the first 5-10 then the other arena would be locked to that country, now they either goto MW/EW or simply log off and come here to whine for a bit.

I would think most of them would go back to Orange. But really what's being taken from them is the option to flood Blue en masse and gang up on the other countries there, which, again, I think most would agree is not a good situation.

That means the Orange arena will once again be stuck with very high ENY for the other 2 countries.

Net gain on solving the problem = zero

Yes, it is correct that what I'm proposing won't solve every situation. But it will solve others.

The ENY is not there to balance countries or arenas, its there to balance the equipment.

That makes no sense to me. First, it doesn't balance the equipment, it imbalances the equipment in an attempt to balance a disparity of numbers. So a system that addresses the disparity if numbers in some other way doesn't work against ENY, it works alongside it.

Second, it contradicts what most of the folks here - including, IIRC, HiTech - have been saying, that the intended function of ENY is both to motivate people to switch sides and/or arenas, thus balancing the countries, and to use the equipment to offset the disparity if not enough people switch. It's the first function that I don't think it's doing very well.

Anyway, I set out to propose and explain it, and at this point I think I've done that about as well as I can, so I don't think defending it more will serve much purpose. But I do appreciate the points that have been raised in response.

Offline JunkyII

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #118 on: August 29, 2009, 04:25:02 AM »
If you're a luftweenie like me =), you don't need to worry about ENY. Of course those like moot who fly the 152 wont be able to take one up, but the next highest bird is the dora which is at 15 ENY not to bad. There's also the F-4, G series, and the 190A8 if things get really bad with ENY.
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Offline JunkyII

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Re: SCRAP ENY ONCE AND FOR ALL
« Reply #119 on: August 29, 2009, 04:42:09 AM »
Only problem I have with eny is when Knights have it I cant get 40 perks a sortie in my mossy killing Spit 16s and N1ks :devil
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