Obviously.
I hope that my pointing out the ToS violation wasn't viewed as heated. Personally, I would agree that for the most part the vGuys aren't the biggest part of the horde problem. On the Bishops side, the Alchemists (Chuwie) are the real horde masters.
I have always believed that the base taking squads have an important place in the Aces High ecology. The base rollers are the first place of refuge for a high percentage of the brand new players. The base takers are the ones posting missions and welcoming all who wish to participate to join in on their fun. Many of you guys berating the hordes are the same guys who continually beat down new players, both in the sky and via ch200 or even worse, private message. It is only natural that a new player, who has been getting his butt handed to him repeatedly, would seek refuge in these missions. I often wonder how the game would change if the non base rolling squads went out of their way to take as many new guys under their wing as possible. What if The Muppets or The Few (or whoever) was posting up missions frequently, advertising them, filling them with new guys, and accomplishing a goal. Imagine the time a mission commander has during climbout, to talk with the guys in the mission. To answer questions. To teach another way to take bases, other then overwhelming force. The opportunity to shape the new players early in their AH career is there. Until now, the community seems to be perfectly willing to let squads like the Alchemists, or Devils Brigade, (insert whatever base rolling squad you like or dislike).
The missions give the new player a way to feel successful in this very steep learning curve game. Also, the contact with other players (many of whom are at a similar noob skill level), gives the new guys a way to make contact with other players more on their level. A way to bond with others who are like them. This also serves to make these new guys feel like they are part of something and not just additional fodder for the experten lurking over head in their K4s and LAs, or griefing them in 262s.
Ideally, these new players will spend a period of time in the base rolling squad, learning the basic mechanics of the game. Giving them just enough of a taste of success in the Aces High world that they eventually begin to seek out more. Eventually, hopefully, they realize that if they are ever going to truly become skilled pilots they are going to have to branch out and seek out training that the base rolling squad cannot or will not provide.
They hopefully discover that constantly flying in a cloud of friendly aircraft does not present the challenge and experience necessary to make significant improvement.
It is my hope, that squads like Devils Brigade, understand what their place really is in the ecology of the game. Accept their role, enjoying the playstyle that they have chosen. But always remembering that they should be helping the newer guys to truly grow in abilities. Whether that means providing training as the new guys seek it, or by encouraging the new guys to spread their wings and leave the nest that the horde truly is, striking out on their own in search of the training and experience that they crave.
It is also my hope that the folks who so dislike the turn towards hording that the game seems to have taken, will take this as a clarion call to adopt a few new guys. Get ahold of them before the hordes do. Teach them to fish so that they may feed themselves one day, rather the allowing them to rely on the socialist horde for their every meal.
Great Post
We take the heat for all of the spur of the moment chewie missions. I don't agree with how he operates, but i dont bash him for what he does. Will i join no, but will I encourage the other members to join? Yes. We have some members that strive off of the "base taking" mentality. So i encourage those that do to join up in those missions. We also have others that love to dogfight, runs GVs, and some that have a passion for Bombers.
We don't always do missions for the capture of a base. We very often enjoy doing fighter sweeps or GV runs. There's a few times we will even do bomber raids. It doesn't matter what we do, someone will complain about us either: hording, taking an undefended base, or running.
We occasionally do fighter sweeps in D3A1's which is a blast. However we get bashed for "ganging" or "hording" cause it wasn't a 1v1 fight. We have a video of that, all everyone saw was a bunch of "horders". We also have a video of 2 members stealing a base with one wirb trying to figure out what was going on. There is a video of that also, but it was taken as "taking an undefended base".
As far as training goes, we do offer it. We offer it in many different ways. We have a hand full of members that are really dedicated and good at what they know how to do. However a lot of our members have something to offer as training. We have a few members that are good fighter sticks that would take someone under their wing in a heart beat to show them the basics of flying and ACM. We also have a few that excel in Dive Bombing that would do the same for anyone who need some help placing bombs on target.
But i wont sit here and tell you that all of members are good at everything. Cause they are not. Do i have faith in them to accomplish any and every goal, YES. We have members that strive to to have a good time and be better within the community of the squad and those around them. For some of our members this is their get away from real life. When they have issues with real life, they come to AH for their fix. This is where they get away from reality and get to be that fighter pilot for a couple hours. The problem is that we have people in the AH Community that want to try and bash people for what they have a good time doing. The mains ones that do so, are fully engulfed into AH, and i don't expect them to fully understand why our squad works together for a common goal, no matter what the goal is.
So yes, we get bashed for everything we do. We get blamed for every poor tactic that occurs on the Bishop Country. We get the blame for every runner in a dogfight, every person that misses their target, every person that augers into an object or the ground, and for every player that is unskilled.. But we have fun trying to accomplish a goal that may be taking a base or running supplies to a base that was just porked.
