Level-up Arenas.

[Krusty]

I may have been confused with your wording.

I thought you were saying that even if you make the score more balanced, it's still a bad thing, as it won't help the gameplay.

Sorry if I mis-read

[Vinkman]

Stats can be fascinating. Score can be a fun thing for some of us . Rank can give you a nice "look at me feeling" that nobody else cares about.


But giving score & rank a "true" meaning beyond a necessary evil for controlling task groups is most probably not a very good idea for gameplay.

Arenas divided by any kind of "success"? There's already way too much EGO in this game.

True, But I think the game loses a lot of players due to the feeling of futility that ensues during thier first month or two. But that is speculation on my part. Does Skuzzy have stats on player retention rates vs. k/d vs. time? That would be very insiteful as to whether speration by, let's call it 'experience', owuld be beneficial

[Krusty]

I flew fighters waaaaaaay back many times when I first joined. I wasn't any good. Matter of fact I was utter crap. I couldn't fight or kill anybody. I could fly but that's it.

Didn't drive me off. The game had a lot to offer. Matter of fact I took up with bomber-piloting and had a blast, and did eventually learn to get kills in fighters some months later.

Just because the learning curve is steep doesn't mean it drives folks off. Makes them more interested, sometimes.

EDIT: Checkers has a much smaller learning curve than chess... But folks are much more likely to KEEP playing chess well into their life. If it's easy, it stops being fun.

[Anaxogoras]

True, But I think the game loses a lot of players due to the feeling of futility that ensues during thier first month or two. But that is speculation on my part. Does Skuzzy have stats on player retention rates vs. k/d vs. time? That would be very insiteful as to whether speration by, let's call it 'experience', owuld be beneficial

Even if you're into flight sims, Aces High might not appeal to you.  In some cases the mixed aircraft arena thing turns people off completely.  I have a friend who owns a number of computer flight sims, but he will not touch AH because of the Spitfire vs. Spitfire aspect of it.

In other words, I would suspect that the AH game mechanics may turn just as many away as the learning curve, if not more.

[Vinkman]

You hardly can get better if you're not fighting better opponents.
 Rank is easy to manipulate - in both directions. It has very, very little to do with actual skill.

...so you keep tweeking the formulae until you get the disired results...namely better retention of noobs, and happier campers in the expert arenas.

In answer to your other post, the noobs would learn on Titanic Tuesday from the vets.
To answer your other post, the only way to manipulate your score backwards is to let yourself get killed. Do you think people would let themselves get killed so they could level down so just so they could get kills they could have gotten in the level up arena if they weren't letting people kill them? Not really sure it matters either way though, because the point is not to determiine how good pilot is based on what arena he ends up in, but to create different playing evironments based on how well a pilot plays the game.

 

[Vinkman]

Even if you're into flight sims, Aces High might not appeal to you.  In some cases the mixed aircraft arena thing turns people off completely.  I have a friend who owns a number of computer flight sims, but he will not touch AH because of the Spitfire vs. Spitfire aspect of it.

In other words, I would suspect that the AH game mechanics may turn just as many away as the learning curve, if not more.

Perhaps that's true, but we could still retain the ones that want to play aces high, but are getting shot out of the arena.

[Lusche]

...so you keep tweeking the formulae until you get the disired results...namely better retention of noobs, and happier campers in the expert arenas.
 

Maybe you should come up with a "better" formula first before wishing for any possible implementations of it?

[Chalenge]

Sounds like a WoW mindset or something (I wouldnt know from experience or anything) where you want to control the 'lesser creatures' or whatever. Just play the game and stop being scared of noobs. 

[jimson]

The general idea behind this post has some merit.

There are so many guys here that have years of experience.

Getting blown out of the sky every time you up is frustrating and you have to really be dedicated to playing a game like this to get past the "noob" stage.

I'm still working on it.

[Soulyss]

What about squads? friendships?  An arena separated by an arbitrary ranking system would suddenly see friends unable to play together, I see that driving off more players than noobie frustration playing in the main arenas now.

[FLS]

And how would this work with squads?

You talk about clubbing baby seals like it's a bad thing.

Sorting by rank is for competition. The arenas are for fun. There is a competitive aspect to score for some but most players aren't competing.


Edit: Good point Soulyss.  Beat me to it. 

[Plawranc]

A halo style matchmaking system would be cool, players who are in the two week trial fight eachother and the winner goes  up while the loser fights another guy until he wins.

That would be good in a special arena for old hands as well.

But almost completely infeasible on this system, still a nice thought

[ImADot]

1. Keep noobs in the game by creating a safer arena for them to cut their teeth in

Here's an idea...
How about not caring so much about a quick kill, your score and/or rank and maybe giving that noob a good long fight?  I've been in 10-minute dogfights with noobs...not because I suck, but to let them fly around and experience a dogfight.  I ping them with a handfull of .303's now and then, just to let them know they'd be dead.   Unfortunately, too many people only care about the quick kill and the chest-thumping afterwards.  This, to me, is the reason a noob would leave and never return.

[Enker]

What about squads? friendships?  An arena separated by an arbitrary ranking system would suddenly see friends unable to play together, I see that driving off more players than noobie frustration playing in the main arenas now.

Agreed, that's what drove me away from RumbleFighter. I was in the Semi-Pro Arenas while the rest of my friends were in either the Pro or Amatuer arenas.

[guncrasher]

what makes me laugh about this game is people who think they're so good that having a new player in the same arena is beneath them.  maybe we should have an arena where the top aces can fite among themselves and let them have a commite who will select the 'experts" .  but with one condition once u join the top ace fraternity u cant come back to the regular arenas.  that way the rest of u noobs can keep on having fun.  btw u ever think about how many "experts" are logged in at any one time?  how many do u think u would have playing, my guess not many.

semp