More - better GV battles

[steveb999]

  I primarily GV. Only when for reasons which are beyond my control which force me in to a plane do I fly, and that is really rare. The last week or so I hadn't been having much fun GV'ing. Took WAY too long to find combat and then I seemed to get killed too quickly. I was seriously thinking of moving on to some other game.

Then the map changed to ndisles I believe. This map has a large island in the middle with 3 GV fields and 3 air fields, 2 for each country. Wow. What a difference! It seemed ALL the GV'rs were working that island. No more spending 10-30 minutes looking for a battle that then may only last 10 minutes and then you have to start looking again. No spawn camping to speak of. Just a ton of GV fun! I heard more exclamations of of fun from other players over voice chat during those 2 days the map was active than I have heard the last few weeks combined. I had a blast!

The things that contributed to this were all 3 countries being in the area equidistant from each other which made it difficult to spawn camp. No terrain advantage to any one base. Yes, there was terrain that did give advantages but it was equidistant from 2 bases so as not to be an advantage to one base and not another. A stack of buildings in the center of the bases for those that like city fighting.

So why is it we don't have something similar in EVERY map? Or at least half of the maps? It was disappointing to log in today and see the map had changed. I spent 20 minutes looking for a GV battle then just logged off.

Zed

[ImADot]

I believe the majority of maps in the rotation were designed before the GV element in the game was as large or popular as it is today, and/or they were made by people who focused more on the air war than the ground war.

As arena setup practice, and for something different, I often spawn up a custom arena with the ndisles map. I set the whole center island for GV fights - the airbases only have the C47 enabled, and the WWI planes are enabled at the vbases to act as spotters or just for dogfights over the battle. All the other islands and CV groups are available for island-hopping air fights.

Many of the players who design the maps are most likely taking into consideration what makes for good GV battles...we must wait for them to finish and the maps to be put into the rotation.

[steveb999]

So GV'ing popularity is only a recent phenomena? I have only been playing for a couple of months.

Zed

[Reaper90]

GVing is awesome fun, and this map has an awesome TT in the center of that island. The only problems are that 1) there are airfields close by so there will be bomb****s griefing the GVers all the time, and 2) in no short order some "win the war" mouthbreathers will capture all of tank town island and effectively end the fun for everyone else. Once that happens this map is mediocrefor GVing.

But yes, GVing is fun, I just wish I were better at it!

[AKP]

Hehe... I remember seein you out there yesterday Zed.  Were some good fights too.  TT can be a lot of fun as long as too many bombers dont show up.

[SmokinLoon]

GV'ing has recently become more diverse.  In April of this year, HTC released an update that applied historically accurate tank sights to each respective tank.  Previously, each tank had the exact same sight so each has the same ability to reach out to long ranges equally in terms of sighting for tank battles.  That certainly was not the case in WWII.  The Germans had by far the best optics in the war, everyone else was a distant second.

In think what would make GV'ing more fun is to introduce terrain that has fewer trees, more rolling hills, and some terrain obsticles that can NOT be traversed by tanks (gullys, rivers, etc).  Also, have the risk of the infamous "bomb****" be absolute minimum. 

It is a lot of fun when the front lines have moved enough that when you up a gv and look around you see no familiar terrain.  being able to have legit gv battles on those terrains is a good time.  In a number of cases, what I suggested earlier can be had on most maps, but it is 4-5 bases behind the original front.   

[Reaper90]

GV'ing has recently become more diverse.  In April of this year, HTC released an update that applied historically accurate tank sights to each respective tank. 

I GV'd occasionally prior to the update, but now I GV a lot more than I used to. IMHO the GV update was one of the best things they've done. I guess I think that way because I wasn't so used to the old way that it "hurt" to change.... but the new system rocks. I particularly like being at a bit of a disadvantage in the T34 or a LOT of a disadvantage in an M3 with the 75mm...... killing 7 or 8 enemy tanks with an M3 while scooting around at high speed and hiding from tanks is a HOOT, and a lot more fun than having super zoom fights and getting 1-shot killed from 3K+ away like happened so often with the old tank sights....

[Melvin]

What's the map with the big Tank Town on it?

Now THAT'S some GV fun right there.

[321BAR]

What's the map with the big Tank Town on it?

Now THAT'S some GV fun right there.

Ndisles. but there are a few others with Tank centers that are unexploited and amazing also. you get on trinity with 30-50 GVs in the center and you'll fall in love. sadly nobody uses it anymore

[steveb999]

Hehe... I remember seein you out there yesterday Zed.  Were some good fights too.  TT can be a lot of fun as long as too many bombers dont show up.

There were some great fights! The great thing about that setup is it was constantly changing. One group would hold an area for a bit then get pushed out and the enemy would hold it for a while. Then we would push back in a re-take. It was back and forth all the time which is MUCH more fun than the usual battles I find on the other maps.

The GV bombing can be a pain and in some cases just sucks the fun right out of the battle. A good compromise would be to eliminate enemy icons for GV's altogether. That at least gives you a chance to hide. Once an enemy GV'r spots you they can call in a bomber if they feel the need. But even then you can move and at least have a chance to re-hide for a while longer.

I don't think I would care very much for a completely open map with no trees or bushes. I like to sneak around and find good places to snipe from. I do think you should be able to shoot through hedges and bushes though.

Zed

[Lusche]

So GV'ing popularity is only a recent phenomena? I have only been playing for a couple of months.

No, it is not. While some aspects of the ground game have changed over the last few years (most notably the decline of the Tank Town concept), players do basically spend the same amount of time in GVs as they did in the past 6-7 years.

[bmwgs]

No, it is not. While some aspects of the ground game have changed over the last few years (most notably the decline of the Tank Town concept), players do basically spend the same amount of time in GVs as they did in the past 6-7 years.

Is it possible to make a bar chart that shows the number of players GVing opposed to the players flying?  I don't mean against each other, just the activity level.  In other words something like on a given day 25% GVing opposed to 75% flying.

Thanks

Fred

[Lusche]

Is it possible to make a bar chart that shows the number of players GVing opposed to the players flying?  I don't mean against each other, just the activity level.  In other words something like on a given day 25% GVing opposed to 75% flying.

Thanks

Fred

Not possible for single days, but...



Tour 20 is a randomly selected AH1 tour, it was a much different game back then not just because of the players but also because of different (and often less) gameplay options.

[Zoney]

If you had to choose either a life as a bird, or a life as a frog, what would it be?

I'm going to choose the bird.  I might on occasion fly over the frog and wonder what it is like to be him but I don't want to be him.

I have no interaction with frogs when I'm flying around untill one of their bird friends flys over him hoping for him to catch me with his sticky tongue because he's losing a fight.

I just don't understand why you would come into the best place in the world for birds to fly and choose not to.

[Belial]

The ground game is the 2nd highest on the chart and would be alot higher I believe if we made a few changes.

Make Ndisles 3 center gv bases uncapturable

Same thing with Ozkansas but make the 3 outer air bases uncapturable as well.

This would be a good change for the short term until more tank oriented maps come along, as ozkansas comes up alot and takes a long time to win.

And see if theres any way any new maps could be created with destructable trees