The Feel of the Arena

[Rude]

Heyas!

Just wanted to ask if any of you AH vets felt the change in the arena the last couple of months.

I realize that many new players are online, which is great....just seemed that something was missing.

Perhaps it's me...I have not been myself lately...maybe I'm, finally after all these years, getting burned out.

Who knows

Rude
CO 13th TAS

[Westy MOL]

I've not noticed much of a difference in the MA other than the focus has pretty much boiled down to "land grab", there's a whole slew of new people (as well as old) and the weather outside has been damned good  

 I would like to fly Mindanao and the Baltic terrains, more than the Island map, that is fur sure.

 Westy

[AKDejaVu]

I've noticed a bunch of newbies on... some of them with incredibly familiar flying styles.

AKDejaVu

[Yeager]

The short answer is yes Rude. AH has changed immesnsely since the first few BETA tours.

The long answer is, well.......long.  Many dynamic forces have converged at a nexus and turned AH into a very, very interesting experience.

Let me say that as a game where a main arena exists as a sort of colliseum where great gladiators spray blood and tissue into the four winds, its a fantastic experience.

As a WW2 combat sim, well......its still got quite a ways to go.  It has nothing to do with the capabilities of the software because AH is undeniably full of program capabilites.

Rather, it has everything to do with the fact that HTC needs to expand its customer base by doing what HTC thinks is the most prudent thing to do.  Create a great colliseum where gladiators fight in a great fantasy.

I only hope that as more people sign on, HTC can put more emphasis into the original simulation that attracted most of us to the BETA to begin with while maintaining a great colliseum for those that enjoy gladiating so much.

Basically, the simulators need the gladiators.

Hang in there and sorry for missing that six call

Yeager

[Karnak]

It seems to me that ever since the release of AH v1.06 the MA has been gotten faster and faster.

That is how it feels to me.

I AH v1.05 and earlier I could enjoy the A6M5b, but now it is nearly impossible to use in any role other than close base defense.

I also feel the the dominance of speed will make aircraft like the Me410 and Mosquito FB.VI useless and easy prey.

[GRUNHERZ]

Yes something is missing, but many of the amazinhunk cheerleader set refuse to admit it. AH is now less simulator and high end high-end high-realism game that it was meant to be and more air FPS and stupidity/dweeb l337 dweeb skillz game. I dont know what caused this exactly but the decline seems to have started with the Ostwind  then CV introductions a few tours ago, and now continues with the insta-vulch retarded field ack modeling. I fear deep down sooner or later the Flight Modeling will begin to go the same way just as has most significant semblance of semi-logical and non-dweeb gameplay. But AH is still the best Online-Sim, but sadly I fear again this is maybe becoming more and more a reflection of how toejam-POOR the others are rather than any specific merits, qualities and original innovations of AH. I feel that all the good qualities of AH, such as stabilty, efficency to run on poor macunes, good FM, very good clean and efficient graphics, responsive, capable HTC leadership and skills, and frequent updates are being hurt more and more by incresingly dumb gameplay, pointless and overreaching "gameplay" adjustments ie. M16 armor model, and an overall sense of dweebiness that permeates the MA. Im sure we all love endless vulching, car-bombing, CV flak saturation over bases and all things over 3k alt for miles and miles around CV, PT boats mainly used as ack pickets, waves upon waves of idiot CV kamikaze jabos, then waves upon waves of kamikaze CV killers, bizzare armor model where light personell cariers and AAA vehivles are harder to kill than battle tanks. How about Battletanks which are disabled by 7.92mm and .50cal macine guns with only a few rounds.

HTC Maybe im being an bellybutton myself and being too hard on your efforts but I feel you have taken, or pehaps inadvertently let this program go too far away from what I read in one of your gamespot.com interviews a few years ago and that drew me to AH. Please take this as a concerned and well meaning, if a bit jaded and cynical reflection on AH as it is now. HTC you guys need to change pace and take charge of this BS, I feel this is no different than the difficult change you guys described from the 1.03FM to the 1.04FM, you didnt want to do it but it was shown to you to be wrong. Now I cannot present you drag modeling charts and figures like whels did regarding the 1.03FM, but this issue is no less important and damaging to your product. Reign in some of this dweebiness, maybe dedicate a development period to clean AH up and re-introduce some fresh and decent gameplay ideas. This will not go away and must be adressed. Its still the best game but I fear you are loosing focus.


To the usual BBS gang, go ahead and attack me....  

And SW reflect on why  HTC kicked u off the BBS when u write ur usual delightfully insightful remarks.

[AKSWulfe]

I was kicked off because of foul language, that was friendly, towards the FDBs.

Anything else you think it was is simply incorrect.
-SW

[hblair]

It's my opinion that the arena monitors need to get their keyboards fixed and start typing some .mute and/or .eject commands. I was showing a friend of mine the game the other day after bragging to him how cool the game is since you're actually fighting people and not the code (he's into boxed games). well, I get him online at about 8pm central time, with his wife sitiing there, I show him how to get in the main arena just in time to see gunman26 go into a f*ck this/that tyrade. My buddies wife got a real good dose of it. I was embarrassed.

Please start chunking the garbage out the door.

That's only my opinion of course.

[AKDejaVu]

Yes something is missing, but many of the amazinhunk cheerleader set refuse to admit it. AH is now less simulator and high end high-end high-realism game that it was meant to be and more air FPS and stupidity/dweeb l337 dweeb skillz game.

 

To the usual BBS gang, go ahead and attack me....

 

[Baddawg]

GRUNHERZ
 The Main Arena of  any Flight Sim game in in my experience has been unbridled carnage.

Take the bull by the horns and get involved  in the SEA of the sim  organize  some events to quench your thirst for more historic behavior.

If weekend events are not enough to satisfy your needs, try improptu events in special events arenas Like Zigrat organized on many occasions.

Be part of a solution not part of your problem and you will find  HTC has given the tools to mold gameplay.

I see a new TOD is being made for SEA.
Join it, contribute to it, offer constuctive thought to it, and im sure rewards will be reaped.

[Westy MOL]

Baddawg beat me to it. Word for word just about.
 
 Grunherz you've always been pretty well articulate and clear with your thoughts and what you were trying to express.  I've had differences of opinion but never lost respect as a fellow player. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

 That being said, the MA is Quakers High here. Just like there's one for Quakesbirds and also for Quake Warriors.

 I personally would enjoy the hell out of an Axis vs Allies arena but in the meantime I try to satiate my historical need via the special events. Sadly their date & times conflict with real life (or vice-versa) and I've not been able to enjoy them much. When I do I've flown whatever side needs the numbers. Most often the Axis side.

 My only wish is that I had more personal time to get involved and help with more frequent scenarios. I really miss not having been involved at all with the last one.

 -Westy

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Baddawg:
GRUNHERZ
 The Main Arena of  any Flight Sim game in in my experience has been unbridled carnage.

Take the bull by the horns and get involved  in the SEA of the sim  organize  some events to quench your thirst for more historic behavior.

If weekend events are not enough to satisfy your needs, try improptu events in special events arenas Like Zigrat organized on many occasions.

Be part of a solution not part of your problem and you will find  HTC has given the tools to mold gameplay.

I see a new TOD is being made for SEA.
Join it, contribute to it, offer constuctive thought to it, and im sure rewards will be reaped.

Aye, an excellent reply by an excellent online friend!

[Apache]

Yeah Rude, I've seen a change since beta as well. Can't really put my finger on it. I don't think it is the sim itself but those of us that populate it.

Have we gotten a little childish? Do some say whatever comes to mind without engageing any sense of common decency? Is the kill so important that some just suicide into a field? Are some so inept at the use of the english language that cursing & berating our community members and the sim itself is common place?

It may be my perception. I came here from WB with guys who I knew & flew with and against. We were avid online flight sim enthusiasts. We were mature as we went at it, albeit, we would get silly at times but yet enjoyed ourselves and those we fought against. Heck, I even got along with stiglr  .

[Nifty]

How come I never see any of the people complaining AH is a quake fest or asking for more immersion in the Special Events on the weekends?  Check out the specs on the Tour of Duty that daddog posted in the Announcements (shameless plug for my CO!!!)  That's immersion right there.  Assignments, no inflight radar, short icons (turn 'em off if you want even more difficulty).  It's gonna be tough, and it's not for everyone's style of play.  It IS for the immersion crowd though.

If it wasn't for the special events and the squad I fly with, I wouldn't have stayed with AH after the first month.  I get the immersion I want from the events on the weekends.  I enjoy them so much, that Friday nights, Saturday and Sunday mornings are Aces High times for me, I have no desire to do anything else during those time slots!  (sheesh, how nerdy is that?????   )  I get comraderie, friendship and support from my squadmates, which far makes up for any lack of immersion in the MA.  I've learned to have fun in the MA flying with my squad, or with other squads if no Mongrels are on.

What you get out of this game is directly related to what you put in it (not talking about yer $30US per month, either!)  When I log into the game tonight, if I have hopes and desires to jump in a Spitfire and hope to go up against some 109's and 190's only, I'm not gonna be happy.  Pure and simple.  If I log on tonight, with the desire to wing up with my squaddies, team up with some fellow Knights and get something accomplished (whether it be defending a base, taking a base, or just causing havoc and mayhem), then I'm going to have a wonderful time, just like I always do!  

The Main Arena is the Main Arena.  It's there for you to be able to fly WWII planes with good FM and DM in a combat environment.  CV groups, GVs, buffs, and the strat layer are there for variety, not as the main focus, IMO.  It has a Quake mentality because that's what a good portion of the paying customers want.  The MA is definitely what the people flying in it make it, and that's how it should be, once again, IMO.

[GRUNHERZ]

Rip and Westy I think you two have had more experience with these big online Arena type games. So I accept your comments about the MA being a free for all setup.

My only previous online sim experience has been janes ww2 fighters. Belive it or not it started off as a pretty well regulated community with good relations,interersting and tactically appropriate, if FM limited gameplay. Then it started going downhill people got lazy HOs became more common, dweeby lag related tactics took over, more and more obscene and vulgar players came to the sim, and some even figured out how to cheat and modify the FM. That was the final straw for me and I left.

I was hoping and still do hope that AH avoids these things and avoids such a deterioration of gameplay and personal behavior. I admit my attitude on BBS and MA before wasnt always best one as I brought over much of my frustration from the ruined Janes ww2 fighters community and this was often multiplied when similar trends became more visible to me in AH. I dont know if Im succesful at projecting this attitude to our AH community, but my real wish is that we all enjoy ourselvess and have a challenging and interesting gameplay exoerience. But most of all that we do this with some sort of character and decency regarding dweeby things. I suppose sadly in this way AH has not met my expectations. I always looked up to WB/AH when I was in janes ww2 fiters as I hoped it would be a more adult,respectful and decent community, many on the BBS and in MA have often shattered those hopes. My blow-ups on BBS and in MA usually result from that sort of thing.
 
But im stil trying to be honest hopeful and helpful even if im a bit tired and jaded these days. Im even trying to help gunman26 clean up his stupidity on Ch1 by offering advice from my own expressive "nikichog" BBS/Ch1 period. Alas he doesnt care and just goes on rambling and isulting people. But ill keep trying I guess.

I donno guys, I relly do like AH a lot but am truly sadened and concerened with some extreme gameplay wierdness and stupidity that is present here. Ive been here 11 months now and it seems to have incresed recently. Mostly Osti stuff (much better now though, BTW excellent example how HTC can reign in dweeby issue), CV flak, and the new v1.07 ack which dies way to fast and is much too inaccurate leading to instant-vulch field capture strategy. For example Ive often seen Lancs and B26 fly 1000ft or so off the ground straight through the full field ack and only emerge with a smoked engine or two. Does this make sense?

BTW Thanks Westy and Ripsnort for your honest, reasonable,  and decent posts. Seeing people like you post here, even in disagreement, is very good indeed. AH needs more adults like you! <S>