Is this what you wanted HTC?

[JB42]

This game has become a shell of what it used to be. I have been flying this game since 2000, less and less often as time goes buy. It doesn't suprise me why those that leave do. What Happened? It has devolved into just one mass of planes flying into another. There are no tactics, strategy, no reason other than fly into one area of the map and hope you can get a kill or two before being raped.
You made the bases harder to capture and the planes easier to fly. There is no emmersion anymore. I feel like everytime I takeoff, I should put a quarter in my computer. Its gone from a combat flight sim and real time strategy to an arcade game.
I remember when I couldn't wait to get home and fly. I even went to a couple of cons to meet those who i flew against or with. Now it's just a facebook account to keep in touch with some of the older fliers. Even their numbers are starting to dwindle.
For now I continue to play, but not with the same enthusiasm as I had in the past. Not nearly the entusiasm as I had in the past.

[Kermit de frog]

There is a Scenario tomorrow Sat @ 3pm EST.  If you have the time, come check it out.


I remember the fights I've had with you over the years as they are still the most memorable...especially when you and another JB# would team up.

Good times that I hope to continue to experience with you in the future.  Hope you find what you are looking for very soon.

<S>

[Yossarian]

Why you're blaming your own boredom on someone else is beyond me.

[JB42]

I don't recall using the word bored.

Thanks Kermit <S>, those were good times indeed. I remember when I wouldn't miss a scenerio, and FSO or even a snapshot. Now, tomorrow I will be golfing. Sorry I can't make it.

[MachFly]

Take a break for a week, you'll be really happy when you get back 

[JB42]

I've been taking breaks foorm months Mach, and every time I come back, another piece of the old AH dies inside me.

[MachFly]

There are no tactics, strategy, no reason other than fly into one area of the map and hope you can get a kill or two before being raped.

Well your saying there are no tactics and your are being outnumbered, try to learn/create tactics for multi-enemy engagement.

Or change the airplane that you fly, learn to master a new plane.

[pervert]

This game has become a shell of what it used to be. I have been flying this game since 2000, less and less often as time goes buy. It doesn't suprise me why those that leave do. What Happened? It has devolved into just one mass of planes flying into another. There are no tactics, strategy, no reason other than fly into one area of the map and hope you can get a kill or two before being raped.
You made the bases harder to capture and the planes easier to fly. There is no emmersion anymore. I feel like everytime I takeoff, I should put a quarter in my computer. Its gone from a combat flight sim and real time strategy to an arcade game.
I remember when I couldn't wait to get home and fly. I even went to a couple of cons to meet those who i flew against or with. Now it's just a facebook account to keep in touch with some of the older fliers. Even their numbers are starting to dwindle.
For now I continue to play, but not with the same enthusiasm as I had in the past. Not nearly the entusiasm as I had in the past.

Don't think theres much wrong with the game but HTC can't control fully how people choose to do things, if he could he'd probably make us empty our bank accounts 

I don't understand how the planes are easier to fly? or how making a base harder to capture leads to the game feeling more arcade like? 

[The Fugitive]

Why you're blaming your own boredom on someone else is beyond me.

For anyone who hasn't been playing this game for at least 7 years you just wouldn't understand.

I know, ya'll say I look at this game through a fogged memory, but it has changed a lot since the old days. Back then you could have an uneven numbered situation like 5 on 2, and 2 or 3 of the 5 would just circle and watch the fight and only join in if one of his teammates got shot down.

"Bingo" meant I'm out and the enemy gave you a salute and told you head see ya when you can back, instead of chasing you down with 12 of his closest friends just so one of you could have the kill.

You would spend hours fighting the same 10 guys over and over a gain and nobody would be PMing or swearing over 200. Even the good natured "ribbing" was done with a bunch of laughs.

The only frustration in the game was when you had to make a run to the bathroom because you just couldn't hold it any longer.

It is much harder to find a good fight these days and I really enjoy those that I find. My frustration level climbs quickly when those few fights are destroyed by some Ahole that just NEEDS the kill and has to pick, or HO. It seems to me that some of that has come back with the changes HTC has made. Is it better, yes, is it like it use to be, not even close, but I'll take what I can get and hope things continue to improve. Until then my wife likes having me hang around with her more than I fly.  

[grumpy37]

I will agree, I also have played off and on since 2000 and I would give anything to have AH1 back.  Im not saying the new version of the game is bad, graphics wise it is nothing short of kick azz..  But I agree that the game has evolved over the years and strayed from what I think it was intended to be.   Can't even get a decent fight in MW anymore.  I mean, in an arena with only 30 players do all the hangers at a Vbase or Airfield need to be taken down?  I miss the skill and finess that was once used.  A player on another country made a comment that just made me laugh earlier when he said they are "working smarter not harder" by using a carrier to take all the hangers down at a Vbase that we had just captured 15 minutes earlier hangers up.  No horde needed and was not a 15 - 3 fight either.  The game has turned more into a 'capture the flag at all costs" and isnt as fun as it was.

[JB42]

The base capture mechanics are more difficult, which leads for the need to have a horde instead of a few skilled playes to capture a base. Not only are the planes easier to fly, they introduced a bunch of easy-mode planes to pile on.

[RealDeal]

I've been playing for about 5 years now and I agree for the most part. I thought the planes have always been a bit to gamey but I've been willing to overlook it for the most part. However, I fully agree that the game play has declined in recent years.

[K-KEN]

Having started during the Beta (Open) back in Aug or Sept of 1999, there have been many many changes to Aces High.

I laughed when they allowed folks to fly with a mouse ... a mouse!!  I thought to myself, what has happened.

I remember many things back in the day, many good things, maybe a couple of things I just totally hated...but I don't remember them now. The reason, is I know Dale (HiTech) and his team are working very hard to provide us a gaming environment, like some, but unlike many. It is evolving over time, growing...with growing pains. The pain lessens if we grow with it.

Frankly, there was a time that squad operations were frowned on, then the zones were changed  (terrain) and capturing fields did X instead of Y..... then there were more than one arena.  People hated the night....I LOVED the NIGHT!!!  Weather, clouds, waves, wind, a sun that moves...folks to meet and also folks to shoot that can and do shoot back.

Honestly, if we were back in the day with 7 or 8 planes, an M3, and one terrain...and dogfights that were with 10 or 12 folks...we wouldn't be having this conversation some 11 years later. (for me)
I can't disagree with anyone who has an opinion contrary to me, but I for one accept and like most changes. The newer graphics, GVs, fleets...and Scenario's keep me going. The WWI Arena is fun, but like my old Air Warrior days, those were "special" times our squad had a private party and arranged the Arena be closed!  Thanks to Mage!

Keep up the great work HTC. I also like the fact that every release they have "ever" done, best I recall, had patches out in days or less....that doesn't happen either. Here it's the norm.  Yes, I am a happy customer.


 

[maddafinga]

For whatever it's worth, I've been here really for less than a year.  I was here a few camps after AW died and drifted away, it just didn't feel like home to me then, now it does.  Since then, I've been here less than two years.  My feeling of the game and the players isn't any different than it's been since the early AOL AW, before it went all you can eat.  The feeling changed since then, but it has felt the exact same to me through AW2 on Gamestorm and AW3 and all that.  AH hasn't seemed any little bit different to me in my time here.  There are people you can count on to fly with bushido, and then there's everyone else.  It's always been that way.  The majority are after kills only and not fights, that's been the case since the days of the small pac arena in AW in my experience.  Everything else since then has been the exact same, just with larger numbers of people. I don't see any difference in the game at all, and despite being new to AH again, I knew what to look for.

You have to just learn to treasure the bushido fighters, the Samurai players, and accept the rest as the chaff man.  The magic is still there, it's just harder for you to see it these days, your vision is clouded by time is all.  

I'd say that the change has probably taken place within you.  I was there after AW, nothing felt right at all, it all just suddenly seemed tedious to me.  I took ten years off and feel invigorated again.  I'm not saying take a decade off like that, but take some time man, give yourself a set period, 3 months or 6 say, or even longer if necessary.  Long enough that you need to re-acclimate when you get back.  You'll feel new and excited all over again.  

This past year and a half or so since I've been back have hooked me like AW did originally.  I can't wait to get home and play every day, and I grumble at the girlfriend when she wants to spend time with me and keeps me off AH.  It's just as addictive as it first was for me the day I read Brooke's manual for AW back in the day.  Sometimes you just need a break, you might be there now.  

[Delirium]

Overall, I'm satisfied with Aces High and for obvious reasons my wife is not. It keeps me busy, its cheap (well, the subscription is, not all the gear I want to play) and I could think of far worse things to do with my time.

JB42, I would urge you to take a break from AH. A few months, a year; don't even think about coming back until you have forgotten more about AH than you remember.

I will agree with you on one point, the community has definitely changed. Instead of the older crew who came from Airwarrior and Warbirds who were around in the infancy of online game-play (before the 'fail' and 'pwn' attitudes), we have many more young people. Many of these younger people don't know a time before online gaming and don't know how to meet/greet people outside of virtual reality. Instead of treating people in the game as comrades they may even eventually meet like the old timers did in flight sims, they'd rather use the game as an ego booster. Please, I'm not saying all younger players are like this but it is much more pervasive than it ever was in the past. Regardless, Aces High needs these players if it wants to continue to exist and it is up to the old timers to help out the younger ones.

I cannot take credit for the idea presented in the last paragraph, one old timer brought up the point to me (another old timer).