What a bunch of nonsense. I can't say it NEVER happens, but cases where people level fields in order to make the furballers go away are maybe one in a hundred, if that. Maybe more like one in a thousand. The other 999 times they're not out to do anything but take the base - even if they don't try to take the base the way you think bases ought to be taken.
I can say that I've never, and I mean never, joined a posted mission and had the person leading it say "Okay, let's go ruin that furball so those guys will have to help take bases." Never. Not rarely, never. It's always a plan to take a base. Maybe some individuals say that, but not guys running missions.
On the other hand, 100% of people ratting out missions are doing it just to sabotage other players on the same side.
I have many, many times either said or heard someone in the squad say "Let's just leave that alone and attack somewhere else, it's nothing but an endless furball that's been going on there for 2 days."
I have some great 1-1 or 2-2 fights that I stumble into randomly, but much bigger than that the furballs tend to become exactly like what ardy describes. Usually they're not dominated by veteran players, they're dominated by the people who fight in packs of ten or more, never get more than 5k from the rest of their huge horde, and heroically jump, ten at a time, on any lone pilot on the other side who dares to come out of his side's horde. Maybe that's not a problem for the 1% of veterans with the skill to beat those odds, but it is for average players. Not clueless idiots, average players, the ones who've been playing more than six months and less than five years, the ones who make up the majority of the player base.
It forces average players into timid play, not because they have no chance of getting kills against other average players, but because they have no chance of getting kills or even learning anything if they take one step out of the cover of their own horde and get devoured by the piranhas. If they want to do anything but get massacred, they have to either (a) fly timidly like everyone else and compete with 10 other guys for each kill, (b) leave the "furball" and hope to find a 1-1 somewhere else on the map, or (c) have something happen that motivates all the players in both hordes to quit flying like milksops and actually get in there and fight.
That's why without exception, and by a long shot, the best large fights I've had have been base take attempts, either defending or attacking.
So yes, the furballers do need the base takers, because when a base is threatened it forces both the attackers and the defenders to roll up their sleeves and actually get in close with the enemy and fight if they want to keep the base, as opposed to dawdling around in your horde waiting for some poor schmuck on the other side to leave his horde. Sure, the veteran players don't need that motivation, but they're as small a portion of furballers as they are of war winners, and the other 49 people in the "furball" do need something to motivate them to actually fight. It's not making anyone help take bases, it's improving the intensity of the fight.
I suspect that's why the numbers in the WW1 arenas dropped to almost nothing once the novelty wore off. It's why I never go in there. I like the planes, but with no larger goal to focus on the action is mind-numbingly boring.
And on the other hand, if someone gets a horde mission up to go level and capture a base with no opposition, what do you furballers care? It's not affecting you at all, because if it's without opposition, it can't be anywhere near your big furball. Aren't they doing exactly what you want them to do, leaving your precious furball alone? So why is it necessary to blow their mission, unless you just want to be obnoxious? You've just gotten to the point where you can rationalize any degree of rude and obnoxious behavior by telling yourself that those guys don't deserve any consideration because they aren't playing the game right like you are.
I agree with Tralfz, but I'd like to add a few things
The truth is they are easily thwarted if there are twice as many defenders who've had 10 minutes to prepare knowing exactly where you're coming from and what planes you're in.Thats just down right funny right there. If I could have 30-40 guys standing by to just jump to were ever the next mission is coming in there would never be another base taken EVER! Not only is that not really possible to do... who wants to sit in the tower waiting to launch? it still isn't a fight. It would be a bigger horde crushing a little horde.
One, new subscribers don't know how to capture bases any more than they know how to dogfight,Your right, but give me an hour and I'll have the freshest newbi bombing at over 200% and yelling for a goon. Bombing is easy to learn. There are not a lot of factors to take into account. Thats why MOST players start out in buffs and GV's. It's why most newbs jump into missions. They get to "help" even with their limited skillset, they get to feel a part of the group, and they get enough protection to last long enough to have a bit of fun.
Like I've said before, too many people put this label on the players....furballer.... landgrabber....win the war types. This is a game that is suppose to be about combat. The new guys are excited by all the things this game has to offer, tanks, fighters, buffs, co-ordinated missions, voice coms, comradary, squads, competition. The old timers have learned that while all that stuff is here most have played them all to death. The only thing that lasts is the fight, the combat, the competition. I think everyone could get along just fine as long as people don't look for the easy way out, the quickest way to avoid a fight.
If your here just to take territory until you own the whole board, go play Monopoly
If your here to only engage when you can't be hurt, go play Microsofts Flight Simulator
This game is all about the fight, thats all most of us "old timers" are looking for. Give us a fight !
