my whine thread

[Wiley]

The thing I don't precisely understand about switching from two arenas, to one, to two again, is why that is preferable to just removing the caps for the same timeframe as we have the single arena.  People would gravitate to Orange for the most part, but the ones who want smaller fights and can't find them there would go to Blue.  It would seem to me to result in pretty much the same thing, without killing the momentum of a fight in progress, and making the people who don't like single arena many people play an option.  What am I missing?

I often fly through switchover time at 2 AM EST, and it really seems to me to be about right at that point.  Numbers are starting to peter out, and we get lumped together into one arena right around the time I start to get sick of not being able to find a fight, which brings the numbers up to a better level.

Wiley.

[BiPoLaR]

BiP,

I see that folks are adjusting to the changes.  Making a simple observation, one might form an opinion that a specific change may cause problems. 

Here is the LARGER PICTURE, there is more than just a daily switch between arenas that is in play.  Sure, rebooting an arena when it is occupied has to rub feathers the wrong way.  The flip side of the arena boot, is that it actually unites off hours players into a singular Late War arena.  I believe that was the intent.  Another addition that came along with the rolling arenas, has been the snapshot saved arena conditions.  This I believe offers some sort of new sense of completing a daily mission.  You might say that we now have a time clock to punch.

Too often in the "old" system, folks in the evenings or in the mornings could have made massive progress, only to find that when they log in next morning / evening they were back to scratch or often even worse off.

To further disagree with your premise that it is the new system that is faulty, I suggest that playing on the same map for more than 3 to 4 weeks, does not properly highlight AH2's potential.  I have to either point out the difficulty in player based resets of maps, or the lack of timely forced resets, as the cause for any problems in keeping players engaged.

I do see your point.
The same map over and over is a bit tiresome. I think that may be what it is. Same map every single night. Its like a gaming nightmare gone worse.

[BiPoLaR]

Why don't you do a graph on FUN, Lusche, the one thing that actually matters? All this talk of business and graphs of attendance mean Jack.

[Lusche]

Why don't you do a graph on FUN, Lusche, the one thing that actually matters? All this talk of business and graphs of attendance mean Jack.

It's only about fun. there isn't anything about business in it.
4 hours of one locked arena and one with a few players only is not much fun. One large map for 50 players only for several hours is not much fun. Downtimes in activity are not fun. Logging in and being able to find dynamic fights & battles is.

[Lusche]

The thing I don't precisely understand about switching from two arenas, to one, to two again, is why that is preferable to just removing the caps for the same timeframe as we have the single arena.  People would gravitate to Orange for the most part, but the ones who want smaller fights and can't find them there would go to Blue.  It would seem to me to result in pretty much the same thing, without killing the momentum of a fight in progress, and making the people who don't like single arena many people play an option.  What am I missing?

You are basically asking to go back to the old setup, and you are missing two things.

The smaller one is that the samll map will be just as empty as the large one at offpeak. 50-80 players on a huge map like Ozkansas, and 5-10 on a small map like Ndisles. The situation on both maps is the same. Little actual combats. A town flashing here and there, quickly stopping when you up. Chasing single cons across the map.

The bigger one is when caps then kick in. We have the same situation as before: One "full" arena and a empty one, and this state lasting 2-4 hours.

[TinmanX]

It's only about fun. there isn't anything about business in it.

Nope, you haven't seen the point. For every voice on these boards against this, there are 10 times that many voices in game. What would work far better than the constant threads on the subject would be a simple poll in game (using the same coding as the plane vote) "Are you enjoying the arena changes? Yes or No". There's a chart I'd like to see.

[AWwrgwy]

Nope, you haven't seen the point. For every voice on these boards against this, there are 10 times that many voices in game. What would work far better than the constant threads on the subject would be a simple poll in game (using the same coding as the plane vote) "Are you enjoying the arena changes? Yes or No". There's a chart I'd like to see.

You would think it would show up in $.  But of course, the person making the $ doesn't know what he is doing.   

I would think arenas with people in them versus one full arena and one with ten people would be a good thing.

The only "I don't like it" justification seems to be you have to stop playing for five minutes, switch arenas, and wait the additional five minutes to build momentum again.   

Why You Should NEVER Listen to Your Customers


wrongway

[bustr]

To be fair about this discussion.

BiPolar what exactly is happening to you that impacts your fun? You have never realy provided details. Instead, Just your rancorious feelings as vitrol directed at HTC. Is your prime and only available time exactly when the switch over happens?..

What do you want HTC to do with the arenas?

At least Lusch made an effort to provide substinative data that made sense to HiTech and Pyro in their effort to keep the Euro players in the game. Lusch didn't expect them to provide customer service via clarvoyence and his ongoing assertions the game wasn't fun anymore.

Its not your job to know how to fix this game. But, customer service is never a one way street. Being specific helps the support tech to get you up and running faster than yelling at him "it's broke, you suck, fix it and screw yourself".......

[Wiley]

The bigger one is when caps then kick in. We have the same situation as before: One "full" arena and a empty one, and this state lasting 2-4 hours.

Ah, I just realized what I hadn't described.  What if we did it that way, and when the caps kicked in, they booted everyone to relog to redistribute it?  Same thing as now, somewhat less loss of momentum on the maps, it would seem to me, people who don't want single large arena play aren't locked into it during off hours.

Wiley.

[Lusche]

Ah, I just realized what I hadn't described.  What if we did it that way, and when the caps kicked in, they booted everyone to relog to redistribute it?  

Hmm you mean keeping the map in orange all the time, and just boot everyone & enable caps, so that a part of the players will have to go to blue?

If so... I was initially thinking the same way. The problem is just that in that case everyone absolutely wants to get back to the map in orange to finish the battle that's just been non. Some players will make it some won't. I'm afraid the complaints would be far more greater than they are now.
(And actually there are quite few complaints for a change as big as this one, I had expected a lot more of them not as much "I like it" comments). But it's not my judgement anyway what makes any decision in AH. I just made one suggestion that happened fit into what HT himself was looking for already.

[SunBat]

I propose that we change all times zones to match CST.  Fixed.

[Wiley]

Hmm you mean keeping the map in orange all the time, and just boot everyone & enable caps, so that a part of the players will have to go to blue?

If so... I was initially thinking the same way. The problem is just that in that case everyone absolutely wants to get back to the map in orange to finish the battle that's just been non. Some players will make it some won't. I'm afraid the complaints would be far more greater than they are now.
(And actually there are quite few complaints for a change as big as this one, I had expected a lot more of them not as much "I like it" comments). But it's not my judgement anyway what makes any decision in AH. I just made one suggestion that happened fit into what HT himself was looking for already.

Right.  I think you're probably right about (relatively) reducing frustration at boot time.  It puts everyone in the same boat, instead of having the so-called 'lucky ones' that got back into Orange and those who are 'forced' to go to Blue.  I was just thinking of the guys that aren't fond of single arena gameplay, giving them an option during off hours.

I'd still be really curious to see if the game would degenerate if they just kept 2 arenas, but removed the caps period.  It would give those who loathe single arenas an option, but it would wind up with the vast majority in Orange.  I think it's possible that the majority player mentality is more comfortable with larger arena numbers now than it was when caps were first introduced.

However, it's not exactly the kind of thing I'd gamble on if my livelihood depended on it. <g>

SunBat is still a bloody genius.  I'd be good with that.

Wiley.

[bustr]

The current solution seems equitable after experiencing it several times from california P.M. time. It was late enough that most players were setteled into one small furball, milkruns and scattered GV attempts at taking undefended bases and milkruns. It was no different than getting caught by X-Side just won the war map reset in 4.

Who is being inconveinienced the most by the switch over then? Which side of the switch over is doing the inconveiniencing?

Maybe throw in 25 perks to the players on the map that have to jump arenas. It's late enough at night and the numbers are low.

Give BiPolar God Mode powers once a month because he's unhappy........

[68ZooM]

its when the off hours kicks in that pisses me off, im on the west coast and there always good fights going around 9pm to 11pm, THEN Arena's locking 5 mins message comes up, i just log at that time, i dont play in the afternoon no more because everytime i do have time to fly,  it's always right around the time the off hours goes into lock and 2 LW arena's get started, we all try to make time to play this game but when those times are always inbetween the Arena's locking and opening it get frustrating trying to have fun, when you start having fun guess what, go to another arena please this one's closed now, i liked it better before

[TinmanX]

You would think it would show up in $.  But of course, the person making the $ doesn't know what he is doing.   

I wouldn't actually. There are plenty of folks here who continue to subscribe and play despite their dislike of the system. To paraphrase my original point; Don't measure the profit margin or the arena numbers, measure the fun. Do that and you're halfway to fixing a problem and understanding why we show up in the first place.