Different LW Country Setup?

[Masherbrum]

Incorrect? 

I would go so far as to say, especially after everything was added to LW, that EW arena numbers stayed that way for only days.

It was pure "click on the first arena" mentality at best.  Not "Oh boy!! EW arena!!"

Otherwise, how do you explain the current lack in popularity or the EW "popularity" at the time of the split?

wrongway

Did you even read what I typed?   Feel free to ask SlapShot (most of the BK's), Xbrit, OddCAF, BJ229r, Hugo9 and many others who WERE IN THERE to "get away from the redundancy of the LW/old Main Arena".   You're trying to play the role of "know-all, be-all" and your replies state otherwise. 

Almost 6 months the numbers in the evening were around 90-100.   Until the "SOAR" types came in and all of us "moved on".    You're "guessing and assuming", I was in the EWA.

[SlapShot]

Why is it a barren wasteland?

AvA is a barren wasteland because the majority of the people don't want to be limited as evidenced by the population of the LW arenas. The LW arenas aren't populated just because "that's where the action is" ... it's because they offer the most diverse and "safe" plane set ... and I believe that is the point that Lusche was making ... it's no strawman argument ... it's the truth.

AvA has all the ingredients that you are looking for ... but no one wants to play in that sandbox because most can't or don't want to deal with choosing a particular side and then dealing with the limited planes for that side.

If you were to make an LW arena with 2 sides and offer ALL allied planes on 1 side and then ALL Axis planes on the other side ... the Axis side would get slaughtered ... and then it too would become a barren wasteland.

Forget about the LW arenas going with just 2 sides ... it will never happen and that comes straight from the horse's mouth.

[dedalos]

Who said anything about setting limits?  All allied equipment available for the allies and all axes to the axes.  If I want to fly a 109 Ill switch from allied to axes.  The AvA is empty for a lot of reasons.  Not just limited aircraft.

[Ardy123]

I've been to AvA on the weekend in the morning and there were a few people in there, about 6. It wasn't bad, but I lucked out, the people who were there were fun to play with.
I've also been to EW, and as stated before every time I've been there the map was overrun by the yellow shortbus crowd, except one time. One time I went there and Murdr was there with some others and it was actually lots of fun fighting in old birds.

My point?

Its not the arenas, its the people who are in the arenas. The problem with many of the under populated arenas is they attract the cartoon napoleons, etc... and thus they are not fun to play with, where the more populated arenas have more options of people to play with.

[grizz441]

AvA is a barren wasteland because the majority of the people don't want to be limited as evidenced by the population of the LW arenas. The LW arenas aren't populated just because "that's where the action is" ... it's because they offer the most diverse and "safe" plane set ... and I believe that is the point that Lusche was making ... it's no strawman argument ... it's the truth.

AvA isn't a bad setup but it's not incredibly appealing in its current state.  In order to get a boulder moving, you need more initial force and it's just not good enough to get that initial umph.  No one wants to commit to a marginal arena with no player base and no upside, simple as that really.  EW vs LW is a different animal since LW had tons of upside and a very good chance of getting momentum shifted due to its incredible appeal, which is exactly what happened.

[Lusche]

No one wants to commit to a marginal arena with no player base and no upside, simple as that really.  

I don't say it's totally wrong, numbers do play a important role... and once an arena is down, it's very hard to get it back on track -  but it's just not "simple as that"

Arena population is a result of several factors

- maps
- gameplay & balance
- freedom of action (including freedom of plane choice)
- numbers on login screen
- novelty factor and even
- placement on the arena lost (as dumb as this may sound at first)

Now the size of influence each factor has is somewhat floating, and they are influencing each other in a complex way. (For example, most maps don't have a large influence, but a few MA maps will make people leave arena in droves).
 But in my opinion, the "freedom" factor is the single most important one in the long run, with numbers on login screen the single most important in the short/medium run

[Qrsu]

I think the key for the AvA is to have a few dedicated squads (or groups) in there every night. It's been done in the past but for only a short period of time. I think it has to do in part with the fact that squads prefer certain planesets (PTO, ETO etc) and lose interest when they can't fly their plane(s).

The few times I've been in there in the past year have been pretty fun - with smaller numbers there have been some pretty fun fights... the issue is logging in there first and waiting for the others is boring and if there's only 1 or two people in there already it's not very appealing to join up.




 

[FLS]

If you changed LW Orange per Grizz's suggestion I believe that after a week LW Blue would be full and there would be a chorus of complaints from those who couldn't get in.  I assume Grizz is talking about changing both LW arenas to avoid this. MW and EW would probably see a boost simply by virtue of not being AvA.

The current setup is the result of many years of experiments, tweaking and tinkering. A lot of things that are fun occasionally are not going to work day in and day out. I'm not saying that nothing can be improved, just that there are good reasons for the choices HTC has made.

[jdbecks]

I enjoy all the arenas, and I do like flying the early birds, The only reason why I mostly spend time in the LW arena is due to population levels at the time I can play.

[texastc316]

I'd like to try it. Make blue the experiment. Do it for a week. See what its like, get whatever interest is there and then if it works out implement it in the AvA permantly. Axis will not have the 4 engine buffs, so what, use what you got, kill what the other side has. If its late war then axis pretty much defends. Rotate western front, eastern front and PTO. Who knows. 

[FLS]

Why not try it in the AVA? Forcing people who can't get into Orange to choose EW, MW, or AVA Blue isn't a good way to treat paying customers.

[texastc316]

If HTC wanted to try it, I'm sure they could do something about the cap.

[FLS]

Good point but then how is it different from the AVA? Would it just be that the scoring counts for LW?

[texastc316]

Not in my mind. No one goes to AvA, because of the population. Make it in blue to have it more visible. Or just advertise like crazy on arena messages and BBS and implement it in AvA right off bat. I think that the more people that are exposed to it the more will like it, and the better it will work. I think its a pipe dream anyway, but I do like the idea.

[whiteman]

AVA doesn't always allow field captures all the time so open it up to captures and each side gets all it's available plane & GV sets. The AVA runs with historic plane sets for the map, not all axis and allied planes are available. thing's like jeep, m8 and c47 would have to be available to axis to even a few things out and maybe give allies the wirblewind and/or osti.