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