Lend a hand

[SEraider]

Last night a friend and I helped improve my game a little more.  I took film and had a discussion.  I respect this man for his teaching.  And yes, I am always looking for ways to improve.

This is for all you top of the pyramid guys:  As I have, lets bring some of these 'n00bs' along and spend a little time in the TA or DA and show them a few things.  There are some that complain that this game has gone down hill because of falling skill.  Let's be proactive and help them along so we can enjoy the higher level together.

After you shoot them down, PM them with helpful hints and offer a helping hand.  Make a new friends because we are a community.

That is all. 

[CAP1]

Last night a friend and I helped improve my game a little more.  I took film and had a discussion.  I respect this man for his teaching.  And yes, I am always looking for ways to improve.

This is for all you top of the pyramid guys:  As I have, lets bring some of these 'n00bs' along and spend a little time in the TA or DA and show them a few things.  There are some that complain that this game has gone down hill because of falling skill.  Let's be proactive and help them along so we can enjoy the higher level together.

After you shoot them down, PM them with helpful hints and offer a helping hand.  Make a new friends because we are a community.

That is all. 

i do try to do that. i had offered guardian some teaching, as when he bombs, the only thing he hits is dirt. he hasn't taken me up on it yet, but if/when he does, i'll gladly spend some time in ta teaching him. 

[Shuffler]

Last night a friend and I helped improve my game a little more.  I took film and had a discussion.  I respect this man for his teaching.  And yes, I am always looking for ways to improve.

This is for all you top of the pyramid guys:  As I have, lets bring some of these 'n00bs' along and spend a little time in the TA or DA and show them a few things.  There are some that complain that this game has gone down hill because of falling skill.  Let's be proactive and help them along so we can enjoy the higher level together.

After you shoot them down, PM them with helpful hints and offer a helping hand.  Make a new friends because we are a community.

That is all. 

This works sometimes. There are many who do not wish to improve. Then there are some who take offense if you offer guidance.

[shreck]

  There are some that complain that this game has gone down hill because of falling skill.
[/quote]

Actually I believe this standard gripe is waaaaay off base. This complaint is generated by quite the opposite of what is cited. It is the "natural course" of things that skill improves over time. The "top of pyramid" folks as you call them once upon a time, had their way doing all manner of things they complain about now. Newcomers had not the experience to differentiate tween good play and poor play, now that the whole community's skill level has improved "overall" it is much more difficult for the "top of the pyramid" folks to get away with the play they once enjoyed, having taught the rest of he community (by example) how to perform. Don't get me wrong, the "top of the pyramid" folks are extremely experienced and would trounce most others, but still doin all manner of distastefull game-play as always, as almost everyone here does at one time or another. The virtual skies are no longer the "uncontested" playground for the "top of the pyramid" folks and it weighs on them heavily IMO  

The days of trouncing "noob after noob" is officialy over! The game population has exploded and the skill level of that population has been increased as a result! Welcome to the new era of "competative" virtual flying    

[moot]

This works sometimes. There are many who do not wish to improve. Then there are some who take offense if you offer guidance.

Yep.  Can't hurt to send those PMs out when you never ran into the other guy though.

Actually I believe this standard gripe is waaaaay off base. This complaint is generated by quite the opposite of what is cited. It is the "natural course" of things that skill improves over time. The "top of pyramid" folks as you call them once upon a time, had their way doing all manner of things they complain about now. Newcomers had not the experience to differentiate tween good play and poor play, now that the whole community's skill level has improved "overall" it is much more difficult for the "top of the pyramid" folks to get away with the play they once enjoyed, having taught the rest of he community (by example) how to perform. Don't get me wrong, the "top of the pyramid" folks are extremely experienced and would trounce most others, but still doin all manner of distastefull game-play as always, as almost everyone here does at one time or another. The virtual skies are no longer the "uncontested" playground for the "top of the pyramid" folks and it weighs on them heavily IMO 

The days of trouncing "noob after noob" is officialy over! The game population has exploded and the skill level of that population has been increased as a result! Welcome to the new era of "competative" virtual flying     

That's a piegon hole shreck... From day 1 I wanted to fight. I was in FFA H2H for whole nights back then. One of the reasons I can't play video games (other than PvP or coop) with my little brother is that he always plays things on the easiest mode... Total opposite from me.  Anyway, point is that a substantial part of that top tier of AH gets no kick out of picking etc.

[moot]

doppleposten

[1DOGFITE]

 There are some that complain that this game has gone down hill because of falling skill.


Actually I believe this standard gripe is waaaaay off base. This complaint is generated by quite the opposite of what is cited. It is the "natural course" of things that skill improves over time. The "top of pyramid" folks as you call them once upon a time, had their way doing all manner of things they complain about now. Newcomers had not the experience to differentiate tween good play and poor play, now that the whole community's skill level has improved "overall" it is much more difficult for the "top of the pyramid" folks to get away with the play they once enjoyed, having taught the rest of he community (by example) how to perform. Don't get me wrong, the "top of the pyramid" folks are extremely experienced and would trounce most others, but still doin all manner of distastefull game-play as always, as almost everyone here does at one time or another. The virtual skies are no longer the "uncontested" playground for the "top of the pyramid" folks and it weighs on them heavily IMO  

The days of trouncing "noob after noob" is officialy over! The game population has exploded and the skill level of that population has been increased as a result! Welcome to the new era of "competative" virtual flying    

I agree!  However; frame rate issues still henders me from improving in the dogfighting aspect as well as other pilots, I am sure.

But my knowledge of the game has grown immensely and I will answer any question I see on the country text as I see them and offer my services to all that want it.

[shreck]

Yep.  Can't hurt to send those PMs out when you never ran into the other guy though.That's a piegon hole shreck... From day 1 I wanted to fight. I was in FFA H2H for whole nights back then. One of the reasons I can't play video games (other than PvP or coop) with my little brother is that he always plays things on the easiest mode... Total opposite from me.  Anyway, point is that a substantial part of that top tier of AH gets no kick out of picking etc.

I never said peeps never wanted to fight, in fact I would say the potential thrill of of the "dogFIGHT" is the lure that brings (just about everyone) into this game.. Most if not all folks learn by example, this is true in this game as well. There is no official training program to get started and most folks just want to get in the mix as soon as possible, so spending large amounts of time in the TA is not realistic for most. Also those trainers are teaching basic game skills and to a lesser degree advanced theory and application, there are only so many trainers to handle a large population. So the consiquence is that most folks learn in the MA or on their own ( such is the case for me) and they learn by example from the actions they see and experience from the "top of the pyramid" folks! It is merely human nature to try and emulate those better than you untill you are equal to or better than them. So my point being is that the community has learned gameplay "by example" from the best and as a whole is still learning and striving to improve as they have experienced from the "top of the pyramid" population!
 Back in the day when "top of the pyramid" folks reigned supreme I would bet most folks were actually in the "low end" of skill with even fewer "mediocre to good" and even less "excellent" Now I would say most of the population is "mediocre to good" with more "good to excellent" than there is "low end" skilled peeps. It is the natural course of improvement!
And I would say there is not a single player EVER that has not commited poor gameplay at one time or another. The difference being most of the population do not have the memories of "smacking baby noob seals" at will without someone gettin in their way

[cowboy73]

This is a great post! Lots of good can come out of this, Fly harder planes, get with better sticks, learn, learn. I would be willing to help any beginner although  my acm skills are mediocre at best. If any of you top tier fellers ever want to go rounds, i want to get better.


<S> SThavoc

[moot]

Shreck that's not how I remember it.. It's always been a bottom heavy pyramid from what I recall.  Lusche could probably best assess the stats one of these days, unless he already looked at this.

[John Curnutte]

 Shreck I believe has got this spot on . If we just remain calm and answer a few questions from folks just starting out and be kind to them , it would go a long ways . If someone wants to go to the TA and work for a few minutes why not , it would save a noob hours of radio buffer questions I'm certain . When I started it always seemed as if for every 15 minutes of TA I could save 1.5 hours of MA time . I'm no great ACM or Top of the Pyramid guy by any means but for basic flight or start your comms session or simple things why not help a person and give a little back the other way , just like alot of you guys gave me .
                     Nutte
                                                                                            

[SEraider]

This works sometimes. There are many who do not wish to improve. Then there are some who take offense if you offer guidance.

You are absolutely right on this Shuffler and there will be some that take offense if you do.  Very true although (knock on wood) that never happened to me yet.  I am just making a generalization.  But there are those that will listen.

[Lusche]

Back in the day when "top of the pyramid" folks reigned supreme I would bet most folks were actually in the "low end" of skill with even fewer "mediocre to good" and even less "excellent" Now I would say most of the population is "mediocre to good" with more "good to excellent" than there is "low end" skilled peeps. It is the natural course of improvement!

Of course, I can't say anything about absolute skill levels - nobody can, as you can hardly measure it.

But the pyramid in terms of K/D, the ratio of top "killers" to bottom "vitcims" hasn't changed that much over the past 7 years:

(...)
I sampled two tours, the last full tour (111) as well as one from the "glorious past" 7 years ago, tour 24.

Tour 111.
I found that
- only ~37% of all players managed to get a K/D better than 0.5
- only ~22% of all players reached 1.0 or better
- only 9% ended up with a K/D of 2.0 or better
- the 50% threshold was at about 0.3


Tour 24
If the general skill level at that time had really been much better back then (with more WWII aviation enthusiasts and much less "XBox/Quake gamers" as it's been frequently called), I would had expected a different, somewhat more balanced distribution. Of course, there would still had been a small number of players at the top getting high K/D's, but I would had expected a little bit more even numbers at the lower and medium ranks.

I found that
- about 37% of all players had a K/D better 0.5
- about 19% got 1.0 or better
- about 6% reached K/D 2.0 or better
- the 50% threshold was at about 0.27

[Strip]

If anything the skill depth as grown....judging solely from k/d though.

[texastc316]

I had a guy pm me the other day about dive bombing. He wasn't hittin anything, so I told him what I knew and it helped him. He kept asking and I kept answering. He was eating it up, helped him a lot it seems. He PMd me just this last week thanking me again for the help. Seems as if I created a bomb****, sorry GV guys