Herding Arenas !!!

[Lusche]

I have more hours in buffs than in fighters this tour... absolutely unthinkable  before, but a utter lack of battles/targets had forced me into it. I'm desperately looking for any bigger fights... but there are none. I'm looking for my old favorite prey.. high buffs, going deep into my territory by skipping dar - there are none anymore, no real "hunt" possible. I even miss NOEs...
I'm not looking to up for single fighter in a sector, that might immediately rtb if he sees my on his dar, covering my base too. I'm not looking for another DA experience in the MA. 

[Nwbie]

     Well I've been here right around a decade, and the only person who was ever not meant it
as an insult was AKAK when he called me Phanboi.  So I guess I am biased by years and years
of it being an insult.  You sure weren't intending it that way in your post.

Hiya PhanBoi... < -- take it as an insult... (this seems to be the veterans thread, next thing you know NB will pop in with a comment ).. or jeez - here's an oldie - sehob shows up and comments...

Spin.... Arguing in here about arena caps is as frustrating as hoping wrag will sing on key.... or that Rocky will cover your six... or that I wouldn't steal your killz.. etc..   

NwBie

[pluck]

The problem is A. Cap "questions" are rarely questions but, in reality, a whine for pity, which few, if any, are going to give here.  And, B.  The "question" has been answered repeatedly by the good folks at HTC.  (Yes, I'm a fanboi (Image removed from quote.))


Doesn't seem to be working.



wrongway

  agree, and I'll throw in a lol

[pluck]

I think battle sizes have more to do with maps and mentality than they do with numbers.  Obviously if there are 100 people in an arena, fights don't have the same population potential.  On the other hand, 300 people on a big map isn't always a fight fest either.   I don't fly much anymore, got a few hops in last week though.  Went to the more populated arena...nothing at all going on.  No fights, just small brief skirmishes here, a horde over there, a few bases flashing with no dar and a single dot overhead.  Went to the "unpopulated" arena, great and long fights all night.  To be fair, I've also been on when nothing going on in either arena.  I guess the point is, that population does not equal quality, either in fight or community quality.  It can, but if something is shown to be untrue once, than it is not true.     

switching sides also helps alot.  luckily I'm in a squad that doesn't mind mixing it up to find/try to create a fight someplace.

I realize that time can be a big pain, such as when caps are activated.  I didn't see anywhere, anyone, offering up an idea as to how to implement a change that would keep arena balancing in without using this method though.  Obviously HTC isn't going back to the 1 ma, how many years has it been?

Comparing AH to a mmorpg like eve is just silly. Completely different game mechanics.

guess I'm just another stupid fanbooooi. oh well.

[thndregg]

I have more hours in buffs than in fighters this tour... absolutely unthinkable  before, but a utter lack of battles/targets had forced me into it. I'm desperately looking for any bigger fights... but there are none. I'm looking for my old favorite prey.. high buffs, going deep into my territory by skipping dar - there are none anymore, no real "hunt" possible. I even miss NOEs...
I'm not looking to up for single fighter in a sector, that might immediately rtb if he sees my on his dar, covering my base too. I'm not looking for another DA experience in the MA. 

I hear ya', buddy. We still put up our B17's on a regular basis, and we do still get chased after by lots of bad guys, but you're right. Where's the hunt when you already know where we're at?

A few nights ago, we set out in various attack A/C to knock out radars at certain bases to attempt to create a blind spot in Rookland to run our B17's through. Overall, we hit most of what we were after. We then set out in our heavy bombers, but of course, the radars popped back up one by one by the time we got there.

To be self-sufficient within HiTech's game settings is not enough. Ordinarily, I would pork the radar factory and city to attempt to increase radar resupply time, but that is no longer realistic to expect to do that and SURVIVE. I want to be able to have a chance at survival. I would like to retain just enough "fog-of-war" to make self-situational awareness a key part of game play.

[RTHolmes]

^

[Lusche]

Obviously if there are 100 people in an arena, fights don't have the same population potential.

And this is the issue. Oh, I completeley agree with you: You can have bad nights with many people, and very good ones with just a few.
But overall, it's a matter of statistics. The potential is much smaller with 60 or 100 players, and if you have to cope with that numbers every evening when you had 250 players before the caps were invented, you surley note the difference. And you might get jealous about the players that still see that numbers.
With 100 or less players, you hardly get the whole package. When I joined AH, every evening was like a free buffet. Take part of a GV battle, a huge buff raid, a base sneak, a valiant defense for hours - the chances are much higher that I could find everything very moment. Again, of course you could face a generally sucky night ( I don't pretend the grass was always green "back then", heck, I even logged out of TTuesday because I couldn't find any fights) , but that's much rarer that with 100 or less players. And the size of battles does matter to me. Currently I look at the map and see a single dot here, a single dot there... (and the hunt for intruding buffs at high alt is almost completely gone)
For the standard US player, caps changed the game from having two arenas of 300 players each instead of a single 600 players one. But at my prime time it's two 100 arenas instead of a single 200 players arena. And one of them full of people just not logging out out of fear they can't get back in

I didn't see anywhere, anyone, offering up an idea as to how to implement a change that would keep arena balancing in without using this method though.

I did
The current problem is, that the caps are kicking it when the numbers are rising most quickly, which absolutely makes sense in one way. Unfortunately it's at a time when total numbers still do not support full gameplay in two arenas. But if HT would just move the time caps are kicking in to a later point, the disparity between the two arenas would be too big, and the 2nd one would fill up even slower, making it more unfair. And just setting the min cap much higher (to 300 or 400) as some proposed would just be one of those solutions that sound great, but won't work as intended (as much as they would help me personally)

That's why I once proposed the cap'n'boot method.

[groundfeeder]

I have more hours in buffs than in fighters this tour... absolutely unthinkable  before, but a utter lack of battles/targets had forced me into it. I'm desperately looking for any bigger fights... but there are none. I'm looking for my old favorite prey.. high buffs, going deep into my territory by skipping dar - there are none anymore, no real "hunt" possible. I even miss NOEs...
I'm not looking to up for single fighter in a sector, that might immediately rtb if he sees my on his dar, covering my base too. I'm not looking for another DA experience in the MA. 

Lusche,

   I'm sure you remember my other post.....This is the exact thing i warned the community what would happen with the new radar settings( which don't work quite right anyway) I did take your advise and,well learned to fight better, turns out i ain't half bad, in fact when i get serious I can be fairly damn good!
Finding same problem as you, no high buffs, and "runners" I don't ever remember as many of them, and for the life of me cant figure out why.
Yesterday I had four cons coming into a shore base , they where spread out a bit and it looked like a pork run. The thing is the nearest enemy base was 3 sectors away....shot down one 38L and then the rest, just turned away....all in different directions
As far as the arena caps, it has been unusually hard to get in lately, when i did eventually get in, there was about 30% not in flight. The arena campers are whats killing the caps.

[pluck]

Lusche,

   I'm sure you remember my other post.....This is the exact thing i warned the community what would happen with the new radar settings( which don't work quite right anyway) I did take your advise and,well learned to fight better, turns out i ain't half bad, in fact when i get serious I can be fairly damn good!
Finding same problem as you, no high buffs, and "runners" I don't ever remember as many of them, and for the life of me cant figure out why.
Yesterday I had four cons coming into a shore base , they where spread out a bit and it looked like a pork run. The thing is the nearest enemy base was 3 sectors away....shot down one 38L and then the rest, just turned away....all in different directions
As far as the arena caps, it has been unusually hard to get in lately, when i did eventually get in, there was about 30% not in flight. The arena campers are whats killing the caps.

auto booting arena campers might help caps, then again, who knows how many many people are afk in the other arena which may be helping to prop up the cap of the more populated arena.  Personally I don't think it will be a "easy button" solution.  Maybe people will try to get into the populated arena more frequently, leaving the other arena more unpopulated, which isn't desireable either.

I think the "running" "lack of high buffs" is AH mentality rather than gameplay changes.  They've always been here.  Maybe more, maybe not.  There are less NOE's, so maybe this is how these guys are going to avoid fighting now.  There will always be a portion of the population looking to avoid meaningful combat.  Really not much difference in my eyes.  If someone is running, can't fight em.  If giant NOE horde, basically the same, fight stopper.  

just my thoughts.

[Lusche]

I think the "running" "lack of high buffs" is AH mentality rather than gameplay changes.

No. it happened from one day to another, right after the dar circles where extended.

[pluck]

nm

[pluck]

No. it happened from one day to another, right after the dar circles where extended.

I guess what I meant was, if it's not one thing, it's another.  It's nearly impossible to get some to fight if they don't want to.  At least with the dar changes, defenders have a chance to launch some defense.  I'm sure the changes were aimed at a broader scope.  It is unfortunate that there are friendly casualties as well.  I do find it strange to hear of more running, I'm just not sure how that relates to dar.  You get the advantage on someone, they look at dar and book it  As it relates to buff flying, I definetly respect your opinion though, as it is an activity I seldom engage in.  I would be interested to hear if well organized missions with buffs could be successful with escorts.

[Lusche]

 I would be interested to hear if well organized missions with buffs could be successful with escorts.

Yes... but that's a bit my point: For the solo flyer it's much less feasible. It's been reduced to "brute force & ignorance". No more trying to get into enemy territory alone by carefully planning your route.
And same about the experience of going out to hunt them, to look where the con that makes the darbar might be, guessing correctly where he might going to (is he approaching or already on his way home?) Now a 10 seconds look at the dot: ahh, there he is, and he's moving towards xxx.

[sky25]

Yes... but that's a bit my point: For the solo flyer it's much less feasible. It's been reduced to "brute force & ignorance". No more trying to get into enemy territory alone by carefully planning your route.
And same about the experience of going out to hunt them, to look where the con that makes the darbar might be, guessing correctly where he might going to (is he approaching or already on his way home?) Now a 10 seconds look at the dot: ahh, there he is, and he's moving towards xxx.

Well Said Lusche

I used to enjoy flying bombers deep into enemy territory and playing that game of cat and mouse. I enjoyed that part of the game. I think that part of the game is gone now with these new settings. I'm not trying to take away from the guys who like the furball fight. I just dont enjoy that aspect of the game. After playing now for two weeks with the new settings, I realize that I no longer enjoy playing the game as much, and havent been playing as much. Some nights I would log on, set a route and take a long range bombing mission to the strats and play cat and mouse with a defender guessing where I am based on the dar. That was my idea of fun playing the game.

[AWwrgwy]

Yes... but that's a bit my point: For the solo flyer it's much less feasible. It's been reduced to "brute force & ignorance". No more trying to get into enemy territory alone by carefully planning your route.
And same about the experience of going out to hunt them, to look where the con that makes the darbar might be, guessing correctly where he might going to (is he approaching or already on his way home?) Now a 10 seconds look at the dot: ahh, there he is, and he's moving towards xxx.

Well Said Lusche

I used to enjoy flying bombers deep into enemy territory and playing that game of cat and mouse. I enjoyed that part of the game. I think that part of the game is gone now with these new settings. I'm not trying to take away from the guys who like the furball fight. I just dont enjoy that aspect of the game. After playing now for two weeks with the new settings, I realize that I no longer enjoy playing the game as much, and havent been playing as much. Some nights I would log on, set a route and take a long range bombing mission to the strats and play cat and mouse with a defender guessing where I am based on the dar. That was my idea of fun playing the game.

So Hitech not only killed NOE raids by lowering the dar altitude, forcing people to fight, he also effectively killed milk running by extending dar range, forcing people to fight,


wrongway