Waystin,
Now you forgot to count our freinds and guests on channel who occasionally expand our ranks. Admittedly we have no control over them and what they choose to do. And they like following along when we pick fights away from our own green DAR map hoard. Or the few times all of the squads who are personal freinds of Pandora hooked up with her and started taking feilds. She has alot of friends in her own right who like to spend time together playing the game.
So I'm expected to beleive this is a bad thing having freinds in an online community who enjoy playing a game together as a group? With as many long timer members of the POTW, I'm already 10 years into this game myself, we all have many in game freinds and squads who want to have fun together and join up with us when they are online for a few sorties. This story is the same for all three countries communities of squads and their freinds hooking up to have fun playing the game together.
I'm going to venture those complaining the loudest about "groups" playing together as freinds in a game with no rules tend to spend their time playing the game from the mindset a bit like story book samurai stories of individual dueling and contests of arms from The Heian to the The Nambokuchô Period ending with the Muromachi Period. So far our Shogun likes the way his Empire is being utilised by those paying his access tax to the 21st century combat sand box.
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In the Muromachi period in Japan where the manner in which swords were worn for combat changed from the "tachi" slung like a calvery saber for honorable horse back combat between "Samurai". To the "katana" pushed through the sash and quickly drawn for slashing close quarters attacks worn by most combatants. The non-Samurai blood line "Ashigaru" or foot soldier(peasant class) in large units with his spear, naginata, bow and "katana" came into being. This became the eventual end of the lone "Samurai" dueling on battle feilds due to the real danger of being hacked to bits by hoards of "Ashigaru" while pinned down by spears and arrows. There was no GLORY found in feeding themselves to the reality of superior numbers with the limitations of a single man. In reality dueling was deuling and battle was battle. And why there are shools of deuling(Kendo, Iaido) and shools of strategy(Kenjutsu) in Japan to this day.
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I guess it's time for HTC to impliment a "Save Our Noble Samurai" rule with draconian punishments including ejection from the game for non-compliance or respect for those who protect the higher ideals of our game in spite of oursleves.
Lets see if I can distill all of this whining down to what the Noble Samurai want....
First:
Hitech will code 2 keys which works like Check-6 but, sends a challenge (Challenge-Call from Player X) to any con to 1 v 1 which the challenged must hit the response key to. Non-acceptance of the challenge message results in a HOST text message in neon bright cowardly YELLOW:
Player xxxx refused a challenge from player yyyy so is a COWARD
And you are emidiatly sent to the tower for non-compliance to mull over your cowardess. Bombers, C47 and Storch not applicable. AFK and personal emergencies are your own fault. A monthly list will be posted of Cowards and who they refused to fight along with all other stats. I expect this to be abused adfinitum like the report function gets gamed to punish players. But, negative reinforcment will cull game killing Cowards from our ranks and populate Aces High with those who really get what it's about. Whatever that may be.......
After 10 years the following list is the best I can reduce most of the game play complaints down to by those who beleive unregulated groups are killing the game. It's funny how as an unregulated play entity, opposed to other games, AH outlasts them.
Draconianly Enforced Rules:
1. - No more than 6 players can be a squad. Squads cannot have additional wings.
2. - Missions can have no more than 6 members.
3. - No more than 6 players can be on a VOX channel at a time.
4. - Only single players can fight each other at a time. No more superior numbers against an individual or inferior numbers.
5. - Bomber boxes will be discontinued and bombs larger than 500lb will be perked at 250 per bomb.
7. - No more NOE missions to defeat defenders by dishonorably hiding their intentions.
8. - Mission members are not immune to the "Challenge" button.
9. - Hiding in ack for longer than 5 seconds results in the ack killing you including CV.
10. - CV can only come within 20,000 yards of any shoreline.
11. - CV auto ack is only effective up 15k feet, out 5k yards and starts at 5k feet alt. At 1k yards out, ack is from water up to 15k.
12. - GV cannot be bombed, only shot from the ground or the air including rockets within 1k of an airfeild by aircraft.
13. - Players cannot begin earning Perks until they have played for a year or achive 120 honorable kills to 10 deaths in a tour.
14. - No more than 12 players can up planes from any airfeild or CV and be in that sector. The tower won't let you launch untill the sector count drops below 12. A sector player counter will be coded to each tower to give real time info.
15. - Moderators will monitor fights and randomely tower combatants from both sides when the numbers become uneven or greater than 12 per side. 36 max if it's a mix of all three countries. Side balancing will be enforced by the moderators up to ejection from the arena for repeat offenders. Even when only 1 player from a contesting country is left in a combat area with 12 of a single country or 24 of two countries. It's in the Moderators discretion to tower all but a single challenger for the 1 player to assure fairness of opportunity to the disadvataged single player.
16. - Fairness Will Be Enforced At All Times By The Moderators, Without Restriction To The Moderators Decisions Or Motives.
17. - All moderators will have illuminated Icons to such at all times to use presence as enforcement.
I here by nominate "The Fugitive" as the first Moderator General of Aces High to enforce Fairness in the game over all of us.
Any sane adult knows forcing outcomes of conduct to halt evolutionairy change upon human cultural, societal or social groups that don't wish to comply, then requires cohersion by force of emediate and draconian consiquence forever after to freeze them in time. This is how minorities through history have enforced tyranny upon majorities by some form of deception and\or Proxy Enforcers like our so far benign Moderators. In our case the revolution of the Ashigaru will not be by arms but, a foot vote killing HTC's revenue stream.
