Frustration...

[The Fugitive]

During the first weeks of WWI arena exactly this was done, and I didn't see any serious problems or players complaining about it  (and the numbers were greater than they are right now)

I didn't see HTC or "Hitech" listed in that, so "those" opinions aren't really the ones to matter 

[SpinMan]

Ive been saying this for quite a while, HTC needs to let the community decide where and how it wants to fly.  Instead of herding us like sheep (nothing wrong with sheep btw) from one place to another.  Had the best furball in months on this game, actually even years, things were in full swing, numbers even, and then the message, arena will be closed in 5mins *SIGH*  thats the 2nd day in a row, things are in an enjoyable full swing and the arena closes, to split into 2, not so much fun arenas.  I'd like to hear reason for this arena split/caps,  have the 2 arenas, sure, make the limit of each 500, let the community decide if they want small local fights or big hairy furballs, stop dictating to us where WE must and must not fly, after all we are the customers and we do pay the bills!!!

I thank you:)

[saggs]

Just was logged in the off hours arena for a while (usually don't get to be on during off hours).

And guess what??  There was a fantastic 3-way fight going on around A45, with a Rook base, a Knight CV, and a Bish CV!!!  

It was more fun then I've had in a long time, and it was the first time I'd been on during the off hours single arena in a long time.

I know it's only anecdotal, but it confirms my belief that a single arena is more fun.  (for me anyway)  Haven't seen a fight like that in either of the split arenas for ages it feels like.  

[BnZs]

One arena.

Works every Tuesday, week in and week out.

I've never logged in on Tuesday and been unable to find some violence.

Fly P-40Bs with your squaddies if sides are unbalanced.

[Lusche]

Just was logged in the off hours arena for a while (usually don't get to be on during off hours).

And guess what??  There was a fantastic 3-way fight going on around A45, with a Rook base, a Knight CV, and a Bish CV!!!  

It was more fun then I've had in a long time, and it was the first time I'd been on during the off hours single arena in a long time.

I know it's only anecdotal, but it confirms my belief that a single arena is more fun.  (for me anyway)  Haven't seen a fight like that in either of the split arenas for ages it feels like.  

The last 3 hours of offpeak arena are something like the "old main".  We have a relatively high player density, yet not too many players overall. There are some hogh intensity areas as well as some low key activity spots, but not much chance to completely roll remote areas totally unnoticed. And you have much less problems to get players for something different due to higher total numbers. (One reason we do not see that many huge bomber missions anymore  is the problem of pulling such thing off when one arena is capped and the other has hardly players in it)

[BaldEagl]

Before the game froze up on me last night I was going to try to organize a fighter sweep but with 30 people per side I decided it wasn't worth the effort.  I agree split arenas don't really accomodate mission planning very well.

[Lusche]

9 months ago I was tracking the exact arena numbers, because I was astonished how low they went at that time. We had 205 LWO and 175 LWB on a Sunday at ~ 6:30 eastern then.
Right now, at ~6:30 pm eastern on a Sunday too,  there are 75 players in LWO and 199 in LWB....  


It's really time to uncap LW for the summer to get back a gameplay as rich and varied as possible with the current population  

[saggs]

9 months ago I was tracking the exact arena numbers, because I was astonished how low they went at that time. We had 205 LWO and 175 LWB on a Sunday at ~ 6:30 eastern then.
Right now, at ~6:30 pm eastern on a Sunday too,  there are 75 players in LWO and 199 in LWB....  


It's really time to uncap LW for the summer to get back a gameplay as rich and varied as possible with the current population  

Do you have any data on how those numbers compare to years past?

Seems like there are fewer players now then there was 3-4 years ago.  Makes me wonder about the long term viability of this game, just look what happened to FA.   Also one would have thought we'd see a large increase in players here after FA shut down last year, but nope.

[Lusche]

Do you have any data on how those numbers compare to years past?

Yes, but...

In case of actual numbers of players logged in, I am keeping an eye on that number for years now, but only have sound, presentable  data for a relative small number of selected dates

In terms of the bigger picture, overall activity, I just have the same data any player can have via score & stats pages. Of course I do not have no data at all about # of subscribers and other business relevant things.
But you can take the number of kills in an arena as a very good measure of activity, played hours (and thus relative player numbers logged in), because the kills/hour is a remarkably stable number over the years, at least for the LW MA


Here's an example covering the time since AH went AH II in 2004:



Arena Split was early Sept 2006, score's were split one year later. My projection for the second quarter 2011 is a conservative, slightly optimistic one based on it's first two months.

[Guppy35]

Ive been saying this for quite a while, HTC needs to let the community decide where and how it wants to fly.  Instead of herding us like sheep (nothing wrong with sheep btw) from one place to another.  Had the best furball in months on this game, actually even years, things were in full swing, numbers even, and then the message, arena will be closed in 5mins *SIGH*  thats the 2nd day in a row, things are in an enjoyable full swing and the arena closes, to split into 2, not so much fun arenas.  I'd like to hear reason for this arena split/caps,  have the 2 arenas, sure, make the limit of each 500, let the community decide if they want small local fights or big hairy furballs, stop dictating to us where WE must and must not fly, after all we are the customers and we do pay the bills!!!

I thank you:)

Quite a while being a relative term

It's been explained so many times it's gotten silly.  Who might that 'community' be that gets to decide?  The folks on the BBS?   

[Knite]

I'm kind of wondering... if instead of a split based upon time of day, would there be the possibility of split based upon total arena population?

What I mean is... right now, you've got off-hours as no limit, and on hours as limit...
Instead of that, would it be feasable, and would it be POSSIBLE that a system be built where...

Every 15 minutes, the server examines the total population numbers.
If a single MA > 400 for 4 straight time period checks, lock the arena, warn of a split in 15 minutes. The split arenas stay in place until 8 straight time periods of MA < 400 after the first 30 minutes ... The new split arenas are the identical map that was used in the single arena. It would be great if there was a way that when the arena splits, it actually takes the current players, and the next 200 to "take off" or spawn, immediately spawn into the 2nd arena. When the "split" re-merges, then it takes the map of the arena with the majority of players, and merges the other arena into them. The biggest problem with the auto-split/join method is that it can split up squads who need to decide what arena to run in. But it gives somewhat of a "persistent" world, while still cutting down the "chat cesspool" issue. Obviously if that's not possible, than the current system of dump and re-join would have to be used.

So that would basically mean the main arenas would have to contain > 400 players for at least an hour straight before the system would even consider splitting the arena, and they would stay split for at least 2 1/2 hours afterwards, minimum. I know this doesn't solve the problem that some people prefer the split and some do not, but at least this would dynamically decide the issue based upon # of available players instead of an arbitrary time of day irregardless as to if it's busy or not.

I personally think that if the "cesspool" problems the game seems to experience with too many people on at once is too much garbage in the text buffers and too little self policing due to the anonymous nature of the larger numbers, that a better fix would be to limit the chat buffers to regions of the map, and no longer have an complete "total server" chat room anymore, but that's a whole different topic.

[W7LPNRICK]

6:30 on a Saturday evening.

Orange- 80/300 with rook eny in the 25+ range and very few fights to be had.
Blue- 200/200

It's been like this for about an hour now.  I know I could switch countries to solve the eny issue, but due to low numbers, there really isn't much at all going on in Orange.  I upped Lancs to burn some time until more people logged on, but after about an hour flying over enemy territory and only seeing 3 planes, I bombed some stuff, got shot down, and logged off.  I'm betting that alot of folks log on, see these types of numbers and just log off again.  In this situation, it'll take most of the evening to populate Orange to the point that Blue will open up.  I've been seeing alot more of this situation as of late, and have finally come to the point where I agree with the "one LW arena on the weekends" crowd.  We just don't have the numbers to support two balanced arenas right now.  
Rant over, we'll now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

 

Exactly, except it was more like 3 hrs. Is pissing off a large percentage of your subscribers good business? NOT! RAISE THE FRIGGIN' CAPS! after an Hour I logged and rechecked still full in Blue 200/200. There has to be a smarter way to do this. 200 is definitely too low. If we had options to check in so you're the next one in line...? gives you a screen message "Do you want to go to Blue arena?"& a few seconds to say yes/no? All my squadies are on blue....Logging to check is a stupid waste of time.     what are they thinking?

[Lusche]

Every 15 minutes, the server examines the total population numbers.
If a single MA > 400 for 4 straight time period checks, lock the arena, warn of a split in 15 minutes. The split arenas stay in place until 8 straight time periods of MA < 400 after the first 30 minutes ... The new split arenas are the identical map that was used in the single arena. It would be great if there was a way that when the arena splits, it actually takes the current players, and the next 200 to "take off" or spawn, immediately spawn into the 2nd arena.

A lot of problems with that.

First, there will be much additional uncertainty about if, and when a split will occur. Now you can at least plan accordingly, especially important for our buff friends.  The next problem... nobody wants to get out of the current arena, so a whole lot of players will  simply stay in tower waiting for someone else spawning & being teleported away, until the 200 slots are full. Action will die down quite a lot.
Third, the unwary ones being teleported out of the arena will probably try to get back in and back to the specific battle they fought at all costs, more than now as everybody gets kicked out and there is no battle in progress to rejoin.

[Lusche]

At this point I don't care either way, but I'm wondering if it went to one arena would there be a way to balance it so it doesn't become one sided as it seems both LW arenas seem to become.

Can't edit my original answer above, so let me here add this example from 10 minutes ago

LWO:


and at the same time LWB:


The combined numbers would have been 127 (32%), 143 (36%) and 126 (32%) with no ENY for anyone.

[Guppy35]

Do you believe that all those folks are chess piece loyal, or do you think with one arena it would go back to folks going to where they think they can win?  I guess in the end it comes down to me that I don't care if it goes back to one arena, but I want some balance so that it isn't horde wars.  I know there are folks that think Titanic Tuesday is heaven.  And there are those of us who'd rather watch grass grow then fly that night because of the horde warrior mentality.