Play quality

[Hap]

the other day, i posted a reply on this thread, but being old and dotty I must have hit delete rather than post.  when i joined aces high, base captures and race to reset was the order of the day.  porking bases, and taking them with hangars up, ack down, and a fun cap was common.

there.  that's the real short version.

[FALCONWING]

And The only thing they have in common is they have a set goal, the journey is total unimportant. To those of us who like to fight, the journey is the only thing. Yes we like to take bases too, but we would like to use a co-ordinated attack timing the bomb drop with the fighter suppression and clearing the air space just as the goon rounds the nearby mountain. Todays player just throw everything they have at a base and then move on to the next one. And much like you Falc, they will get bored and move on.

If 15 years of doing exactly what you are saying isn't along enough journey then i don't know what is

And if you think that most of the original "mission leaders" hadn't done exactly what you said in terms of coordinated base taking then I'm sorry you only ever noticed the mega-missions or squad night activities.  TBH the game was more fun when the field was an easier capture...5-6 men could get together and run a flakpanzer/m3 misson or 3 buff/goon sneak....and if a few guys rose to meet you then it was a fight.  

I don't think it is because I am a "gamer" that I want to try new things, enjoy the latest graphic/fight engines, set new goals and try to accomplish them.  Constantly explore new worlds...

Be honest....how long did it take you to be good at this game???  I assume you were a student like I was and read shaw's and bugged the best to teach you and at some point became pretty durn good.  Of course in the 80's this game was a dream come true for us who loved ww2 aviation.  That was over two decades ago for me...now do i just repeat the same journey over and over and over again and dominate the newbies???  TBH that quit being fun or challenging a long time ago.  I stuck around for the friendships.


So i get it...this game is like backgammon or chess or checkers to you and you don't want it any different.  You love it and you have fun ...just don't look down on folks because they realize there are much more exciting ways to use technology nowadays then a basic joystick and a handful of mapped buttons.  You are running the risk of being our grandparents and locking their mindset into a "brand loyalty" and never trying new things.

[icepac]

I forgot to mention that I don't mind the enemy pilots making the same mistakes over and over.

[Tilt]

With one notable exception no change sonce AW4W 1996  as far as I can see.

That exception is that when the "genre" was more expensive to play then the player mix differed slightly.

Even this debate has not changed since AW2/3 introduced "land grab"..............

As I see it the land grab model centred only on taking bases is just toooooo simple a focal point that in the end divides game play ambitions as we see above...........

[Nathan60]

Strategy should include blowing up bridges thereby stopping gv attacks or making them take a longer route. Should include bombing factories and supply lines, trains and trucks, weakening enemy and forcing them to use less optimal resources (planes / gvs) until repaired.  

Sinking merchant ships weakening the resolve of citizens in towns to fight and make towns easier to take.

We also have great looking hq and strats, but don't really fight in them.  
Zone strat with gv spawns might add more fun as well. Especially if planes could blow up and block routes within them.  
But then this is aces high and the dogfights are what it is mostly about still, right?   :
 

This would be nice  more  targets for  Attack guys that want  to  use attack planes for more than deacking. Maybe insteasd of  massive strats have smaller strats  more spread out  and as you lose  feilds you lose  resources.

[Shuffler]

Even though I haven't logged in to play for almost a year now, I can tell what finally had me move on to a different game....

And this is just my opinion.....so don't get defensive....

Besides periodic graphic upgrades the game never really got better....no new strategy/fighting was ever introduced...at some point one wants to do something different or at least not so repetitive....

I stayed as long as i did because i honestly did not know how amazing other online games had become...the graphics are stunning, the fighting is awesome but there are also "stuff" to accomplish (better gear/better abilities).  A reason to log on if you will....by the end i logged on to AH only out of commitment to my ingame friends/squad.

I understand what shuffler is saying but dude its been >12 years now....how much longer are you going to play a "flight sim" that never changes????  You may not like "the win the war" aspect but it is honestly the only goal oriented accomplishment there is.

When your fighting live opponents every time you log on something is different. Nothing else out there competes for those looking for planes that fly differently.

[The Fugitive]

Falc, I have seen maybe not all mission that you could run, but I've seen most. Not only have I run the small 5-6 man missions with success, but I have also run the huge horde missions, and this was before the Bops even had a full squad, never mind 3.
. It was then that I saw how boring it was to be the 3rd guy in on a FH. I split my forces and attacked 2 and 3 bases at the same time just to make it more fun for everyone.

Today's players won't try a mission with anything under 20 people. They have only ever seem big missions succeed because the skill level has gone down so much. I have never played Aion, bit what if evertime you got close to your goal some one snatched it away? Would it still be fun? In all the years I have played this game it has always been billed as a combat game. Now we have players who do nothing but avoid combat, or if they do clash it is nothing more than a horde wiping out the dew defenders that get there.

Yes game play has suffered tremendously. Where once we had fights everywhere we now have bodes trying to grab bases before anyone notices. HTC added new towns for those games who want more, what did they do, cried because the town was too spread out and it was too easy to get lost on the streets. All these players want is fast grabs on the towns. They cant fight for them so they horde them. Might as well give them the nukes so they can do it quicker.

[icepac]

Racing for a reset because some don't like the current map is pretty ridiculous.

All of the maps have features that can be enjoyed greatly if you know enough to adapt your game to them and try to have some fun.

When I see a map with crazy sheer mountains, I don't complain that you have to fly 2 sectors instead of 1 to bomb a field.    

Instead, I fly longer missions or up a tank and enjoy showing up where nobody expects or even thought possible because of the challenging terrain.

The biggest change is that one had to invest a sizeable amount of time and effort to even connect to an arena in the early days that I doubt many playing now would be willing to do.

Some of the guys who invested huge amounts in the past are still flying today and their missions are far more interesting to join than the typical single sector fighter gang bang/vulch that pays off in personal score but results in nothing more.

This is indicated by the fact that only about .5% of the current population who drive tanks actually drive further than the stupifying short distance from a spawn that puts them only a couple of miles from the enemy field.

The same people also seem to prefer feeding a vulching horde by taking off right under them to taking off from and adjacent field and actually having a chance at affecting the fight by arriving at a competitive altitude.

I would rather capture a remote field or kill a ar234 I stalked for 5 sectors while slowly gaining an altitude advantage that will allow me to catch him than hover over a base and vulch noobs in 26 one-way missions in a day of flying.

[68ZooM]

Play Quality is what you put into it and how others react, last night we did a Spit 1 fighter Sweep at 6,000 ft lol The Bad guys dove on us like fat chicks on Twinkies and between the radio chatter, engines cutting in and out( gravity feed carbs lol ) endless laughing we managed to kill the first wave and drove them back almost to their field, we wasn't expecting to live long flying Spit1's that's not why we took them, we took them for the fun factor and giggles the enemy was going to have seeing a Pack of Spit 1's,  needless to say it was a blast and I'm sure the bad guys had fun to cause they kept coming back till we were gone.  Point of the story i guess is having fun and try to include the enemy into it.

[bmwgs]

Falc, I have seen maybe not all mission that you could run, but I've seen most. Not only have I run the small 5-6 man missions with success, but I have also run the huge horde missions, and this was before the Bops even had a full squad, never mind 3.
. It was then that I saw how boring it was to be the 3rd guy in on a FH. I split my forces and attacked 2 and 3 bases at the same time just to make it more fun for everyone.

Today's players won't try a mission with anything under 20 people. They have only ever seem big missions succeed because the skill level has gone down so much. I have never played Aion, bit what if evertime you got close to your goal some one snatched it away? Would it still be fun? In all the years I have played this game it has always been billed as a combat game. Now we have players who do nothing but avoid combat, or if they do clash it is nothing more than a horde wiping out the dew defenders that get there.

Yes game play has suffered tremendously. Where once we had fights everywhere we now have bodes trying to grab bases before anyone notices. HTC added new towns for those games who want more, what did they do, cried because the town was too spread out and it was too easy to get lost on the streets. All these players want is fast grabs on the towns. They cant fight for them so they horde them. Might as well give them the nukes so they can do it quicker.

Where do you get the information noone will run a mission with under 20 people?  I see them run all the time.  I also see GV missions run all the time.  Some are organized in the mission planner, and some are impromptu missions.

You speak that all the players want is a fast grab.  There are a certain percentage of players that like that blast and grab, but I don't see it as the majority of players.  As for avoiding fights, some of the bigger runners in this game are some of the so called named players.  If they loose just a little bit of an advantage, they drop their nose and the race is on.  There are some exceptions, but really not that many.  

Concerning players avoiding combat, I see fights all the time.  Heck I'm getting killed all the time.  Every base I go to I see combat, I don't even need to go to an enemy base, I can just hang out over a friendly base and it won't be long before someone shows up and the fight is on.  I don't know where the heck you are flying, but when the hordeing is going on and you don't want to fight it, there are other fights all over the map.

I have never had a problem finding a fight at any time during the day or night in this game.  The fight may not be on my terms, but the fight is there if I want it.

Fred  

[grizz441]

Where do you get the information noone will run a mission with under 20 people?  I see them run all the time.  I also see GV missions run all the time.  Some are organized in the mission planner, and some are impromptu missions.

You speak that all the players want is a fast grab.  There are a certain percentage of players that like that blast and grab, but I don't see it as the majority of players.  As for avoiding fights, some of the bigger runners in this game are some of the so called named players.  If they loose

Stopped reading at loose.

[bmwgs]

Stopped reading at loose.

And your point is?

Fred

[grizz441]

And your point is?

Fred

You spelled "lose" wrong.

[bmwgs]

Where do you get the information no one will run a mission with under 20 people?  I see them run all the time.  I also see GV missions run all the time.  Some are organized in the mission planner, and some are impromptu missions.

You speak that all the players want is a fast grab.  There are a certain percentage of players that like that blast and grab, but I don't see it as the majority of players.  As for avoiding fights, some of the bigger runners in this game are some of the so called named players.  If they lose just a little bit of an advantage, they drop their nose and the race is on.  There are some exceptions, but really not that many.  

Concerning players avoiding combat, I see fights all the time.  Heck I'm getting killed all the time.  Every base I go to I see combat, I don't even need to go to an enemy base, I can just hang out over a friendly base and it won't be long before someone shows up and the fight is on.  I don't know where the heck you are flying, but when the hordeing is going on and you don't want to fight it, there are other fights all over the map.

I have never had a problem finding a fight at any time during the day or night in this game.  The fight may not be on my terms, but the fight is there if I want it.

Fred  

Corrected.  

To late to modify the original post, so I did it in a quote.  Would hate to have you not to be able to read the entire post due to a spelling mistake.  Come to think about it, I imagine you have a lot of problems reading entire posts on this BBS if you stop at every incorrectly spelled word.

 

Fred

[grizz441]

Corrected.  

To late to modify the original post, so I did it in a quote.  Would hate to have you not to be able to read the entire post due to a spelling mistake.  Come to think about it, I imagine you have a lot of problems reading entire posts on this BBS if you stop at every incorrectly spelled word.

 

Fred

Just "lose".