Transplants view of a multifaceted game based on these two posts from previous in the thread.
"As you know furballs/fights tend to form around base captures...but those game play features make it so they don't have to up and defend...so the only thing the furballers have to shoot is the ack....which leads to vulching.
I'm definitely not a purist...I just speak highly for the air fight because I think that's the one that has taken the most decline with the numbers dropping. I can jump in a gv battle today and it would feel the same as it was 5-6 years ago...a fighter??? Not so much"
"My perception is that the Wirbys have taken over the base defenses to quite some extent, previously it was a fighter job."
Seen this in another sim, where no one would fly to defend after getting shot once or twice, and rather than roll a neighboring field to come in with the advantage they would go to manned guns or ack wagons. It would lead to the flyers just logging since there was no one to fight (numbers much lower than here)....and with base sneakers having a large NOE ability, it was like playing whack-a-mole trying to find them.
However, here you can influence things by taking out VH's, fuel, ammo, etc... I don't see that done all the time, and you get the constant influx of ackwagons.
A contested field is a good thing--promotes the fight. A contested field where no one rolls air to support just leads to guys going elsewhere to look for an airfight....this is player driven vs game play driven.