Frustration...

[clerick]

You might get your wish in a back handed sort of way...  School is out and we may soon have the numbers to fill two arenas....

[Yeager]

Due to the decreased numbers it might make sense to go back to a single LW arena, until the global economy picks up at least.

[BaldEagl]

On a side note I'm playing tonight when I suffer a screen freeze.  That's been happening a lot lately since one of the patches and there's no way to close the game.  Task manager won't even close it so I have to shut down with the power button.

But anyway this happens.  By the time I power back up it's 12:35 AM.  By the time I log back in and find a fight I'll hardly even have time for a sortie before the arena switch so I don't even bother logging back on.  It seems to me the way things are now it gives you more incentive to forget the game that it does to play it.  I'm not sure I exactly enjoy paying for something that makes it so hard for me to use.

[Tupac]

STRIKE THY TOILET IN TWAIN, IT'S A CESSPOOL!

[Lusche]

You might get your wish in a back handed sort of way...  School is out and we may soon have the numbers to fill two arenas....

Summer is actually the time of the year with traditionally lower player numbers. I think the game "outside" seems to be quite attractive to some people during this season 

[SmokinLoon]

Here is my question on the matter:

What is the purpose for not having one single LW arena?     

[Knite]

What is the purpose for not having one single LW arena?     

 

Loon, you've been around here a while, how could you possibly ask that question with a straight face? It's been discussed AD NAUSEUM, a simple search will give you HOURS of reading, and the direct answer from the head guy himself was even sarcastically used in this thread.

[Lusche]

Here is my question on the matter:

What is the purpose for not having one single LW arena?      

As if you didn't knew


But for the newer folks I'll still answer:

According to HTC, at the time of the big arena split (sept 2006) the  number player had become so large that the single MA arena was actually limiting further growth. In order to enable growth again, as well as enhancing the game possibilities by adding additional, themed arenas (EW, MW and - much later WWI) the Arena Split was put into effect. Again according to HTC, the results were positive as the numbers of subscribers started to grow again, and (if I recall correctly) the percentage of players subscribing after trial improved.

There are several reason why an arena too large could have a detrimental impact on gameplay and further growth. Unfortunately they are a lot of different explanations & stories about perceived "arena health" or "server problems" floating around the players, most of them just being rumors or plain wrong


For the record, the original message by Pyro:

Thanks to your patronage Aces High has grown to the point where a single Main Arena is no longer a sufficient solution.   It is time for us to move beyond a single main arena.  Today during the weekly terrain change, we will be revamping our arena structure with an entirely new model.  We’ve looked forward to this point because instead of just simply offering more duplicate arenas, we’ve planned to use this opportunity to diversify our offerings by making different arenas based on different time periods.  So instead of having a single arena with all planes available (which naturally emphasizes late war planes), we’ll have 3 different types of Main Arenas- early-war planes, mid-war planes, and late-war planes.  This will give us far more diversity.  

We hope that through further growth we can add even more diverse offerings such as more time periods and perhaps even time periods outside of WWII such as WWI or the Korean War.  This format will also provide more impetus for us to try and comprehensively develop the plane and vehicle set with stuff that would otherwise get swallowed up by the late-war monsters and see little use outside of special events.

Multiple Mains may seem like an oxymoron, but in fact it isn’t.  It’s not just a matter of semantics because they are all connected through the same scoring, squad, and perk point databases.  If your squad decides to spend the night in the Early MA, they don’t need to reform the squad there because it already exists.  There are no separate scores or perk points for these different arenas- it’s all shared.  In that regard, these Main Arenas are all one in the same.  It neither harms nor benefits your score or perk points to change which Main Arena you fly in from day to day.  Perk points earned in one MA count towards the same total as in any of the other Mains.  The only difference is what planes and vehicles qualify as a perk ride varies from arena to arena.

Being in this business a long time, we understand that people are creatures of habit and old habits die-hard.  Going through any major change is uncomfortable until people become acclimated to the change.  This change is especially difficult because we cannot simply add these new arenas; we need to redistribute how the arenas are populated.  To accomplish that, we’re going to be reducing arena caps so as to not have one arena dominate just by virtue of everybody following the herd.  We’ll also be using small terrains exclusively for now, but that is not a permanent change.  Once we’re comfortable that people have acclimated to the new format, we’ll begin to work those elements back in.  

With players spreading out, we are aware of the need for better tools to find and communicate with your buddies.  We will be working on some new tools to handle this but for now that can be accomplished with the squadron message of the day. (MOTD).  The squad MOTD will reach across all the Main Arena's so the squad leader can be sure that everybody knows where to go on a given night.

Once again, thanks for your support.  We hope you will find these changes refreshing.  We've waited a long time to get here and we’re very excited about the many development directions this opens.

(The annoying special characters are part of the original message after the BBS migration, I didn't feel to edit them all out  )

[ImADot]

Along with the comments already made, part of the problem with one side dominating the others is not just raw numbers in an arena; it's the ridiculous notion of chesspiece loyalty.  Instead of switching sides to find opposition and fights, people will just stay in their beloved chesspiece amongst the horde and then complain about not having anyone to fight.

I spend little time in the LW arenas, but I agree that the time for split LW arenas seems to have passed; the numbers just don't support it most of the time.

[Lusche]

Along with the comments already made, part of the problem with one side dominating the others is not just raw numbers in an arena; it's the ridiculous notion of chesspiece loyalty.  Instead of switching sides to find opposition and fights, people will just stay in their beloved chesspiece amongst the horde and then complain about not having anyone to fight.

Not trying to argue that, just my personal opinion on that matter: I do not think that chess piece loyalty itself is  ridiculous. Many players do like to be part of a stable team, working for a common goal, and loyalty is important to them. Nothing wrong with that. Ridiculous are just some extreme behaviors, like paranoia and watering colored glasses "They always gang us... they never fight each other... ENY is unfair to us, with numbers like this they never get restrictions, only we do... Rooks(Bish,Nits) always horde, we never do... only us can never get organized... we suck..." and generally forgetting that bad times for your country are the true test of loyalty (There is an awful lot of good weather only loyalists out there...)

But imho there is nothing inherently wrong with choosing a side and sticking to it.

[BaldEagl]

I've been a Bish since day 1.  Not that I'm particularily loyal to a chess piece.  Hell, I'm not in a squad and don't really even fly with the other Bish.  I just don't see a reason to change.  Some days we have numbers, some days we don't.  Either way I'm fine with it.  I can be a loner on any side.

[saggs]

I share in the frustration.  I think that when this $15 is up I won't be renewing.

I've just not been having fun lately, seems that there are far fewer good fights then I remember a few years ago (maybe it's just nostalgia).  Lately it seems that rather then confrontation I see 90% of team A flying in horde on this end of the front, and 90% team B flying in a horde on the opposite end of the front.  So my choices are either join the horde on my team (boring) or try and confront the other teams horde outnumbered 20-1.

I logged on last night as a knight, into the only LW arena I could get in, (I'm not a fan of the split arenas either) to find the Knights hording the Rooks in the south, and the Bish hording the knights in the north.  I tried to talk people into confronting the Bish horde and thus starting a good fight, but to no avail.   And since I had no interest in flying with a horde taking undefended bases I quickly logged off.  I don't have a problem with missions, I used to fly in them a lot, and used to be part of a "mission oriented" squad.  But missions are no fun to me when there is no resistance whatsoever.  Base captures are a lot more fun when you have to work for it a little bit.


PS, I'm not blaming HTC, it seems to me more like the overall player attitude has shifted.  When I first started (5 yrs ago) it seemed no matter what else was going on, there was always at least one good equal #s fight on a map, whether that fight was trying to take land or not, now not so much.  Not saying it's right or wrong, just saying I don't enjoy it much anymore.

[DREDIOCK]

Along with the comments already made, part of the problem with one side dominating the others is not just raw numbers in an arena; it's the ridiculous notion of chesspiece loyalty.  Instead of switching sides to find opposition and fights, people will just stay in their beloved chesspiece amongst the horde and then complain about not having anyone to fight.

I spend little time in the LW arenas, but I agree that the time for split LW arenas seems to have passed; the numbers just don't support it most of the time.

Im one of the chesspiece loyal. Thats how I choose to play (that whole My $15 thing) Plus. With my chess piece I know the handful whom I can trust in a fight to cover my butt as much as Im willing to cover theirs. I also know whom not to trust.

On the other hand you also have people change side just so they can clear a map faster and/or completely dominate the other side so's there is little risk to themselves.

I'll switch arena's when my chesspiece is completely dominating only to find the other sides chess piece completely dominating my side. Being the horder. Or the hordee isnt much fun so. often. I'll just log in hopes of finding a better fight some other night.

[The Fugitive]

I just got back from the WWII show in Reading PA (great show btw) and I had a chance to talk with a few guys who use to fly. Now while "stories" may get bigger and better with time    I remember this game being a LOT more fun. Most of these guys were "E" fighter types and use to really hate it when I got them killed by diving into out number situations, but many a time we would get out of it. Other stories were all about the battles that raged the whole night against MAWs and other squads that would go out of the way to FIGHT, not run from one to NOE a base on the other side of the map.

I think HTC should go back to a single arena for awhile again until he sees his numbers becoming a problem again. Leave the second arena open, but bump the cap back up to TT stats and see how it goes.

[Lusche]

I think HTC should go back to a single arena for awhile again until he sees his numbers becoming a problem again. Leave the second arena open, but bump the cap back up to TT stats and see how it goes.

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)