Side balancing

[The Fugitive]

IMO, what needs to happen:

Change the available fuel % based on porking. Reduce minimum to 50%. If necessary,  back it down to 25%.

No, it was terrible when they could do this The side with the numbers would have pork team kamakasi fuel at all the front line base and then you spent half the night running supplies to only see them knock it back down before you were finished. And with 2x burn on it would be ridiculous.

Implement sector ENY. Dictates radar visibility. If more than X players enter the same sector, darbar and dot dar alts are lowered to 0ft. No more stealth hordes.

I like this, it follows with my "make it counter productive to horde" ideas.

Change arena ENY kick-in levels. Should follow a parabolic curve to be more lenient at low numbers, and so strict at higher numbers that some people will actually feel sorry for the horde.

I think the low number ENY is ok and it should get more restrictive as the total population goes up. So yes use the curve, but don't ease up on it, make it more punishing. I want to see the horde forced to fly P40s, 109E4's and stukas.

[pipz]

Gibberish!

I see your Gibberish and call Tommy Rot!

[zack1234]

Yes they are all cads and scoundrels

and wrong uns to suggest such idiotic complaints

Lets have capped arenas whereby you cannot get into to fly with your squad while we are at it

These people have short memories

[Tank-Ace]

No, it was terrible when they could do this The side with the numbers would have pork team kamakasi fuel at all the front line base and then you spent half the night running supplies to only see them knock it back down before you were finished. And with 2x burn on it would be ridiculous.

any ideas how to limit offensive capacity of the horde through player action? I'd rather have a way to let the players make an impact.

I think the low number ENY is ok and it should get more restrictive as the total population goes up. So yes use the curve, but don't ease up on it, make it more punishing. I want to see the horde forced to fly P40s, 109E4's and stukas.

I don't know. Especially in the EW and MW arenas, a few people can greatly affect ENY. Not fair to have a group of 4 forced to fly ENY 40 because one side only has 2 people on.

But at higher numbers, I agree. If there isn't at least one "BS, I'm canceling my account!" thread, and no fewer than 3 tards crying in their basement, its not strict enough.

[muzik]

Yes they are all cads and scoundrels

and wrong uns to suggest such idiotic complaints

Lets have capped arenas whereby you cannot get into to fly with your squad while we are at it

These people have short memories

Not sure who you're responding to, but I don't recall anyone saying anything about capping the arena. That was a failed experiment and capping bases is NOTHING like it.

You'd still be in the same arena with your squad. If part of your squad is at a base that is maxed out, and you ask them to join you at another base where you can fly together, if they say yes then you have a good squad. If they say no, perhaps they're trying to tell you something.

[Lusche]

Not sure who you're responding to, but I don't recall anyone saying anything about capping the arena. That was a failed experiment

I think HTC will disagree

Of course, that doesn't mean that I liked it.... 

[muzik]

I think HTC will disagree

Of course, that doesn't mean that I liked it.... 

Then why did they change back?

If you're going to repeat the excuse that was used at the time, don't bother.

The arena splitting ended shortly after I played last. The MA population was usually somewhere between 5 and 6 hundred at peak times. And that was the best it got on a regular basis that I recall around that time. Most of the day it was 400 or less. Yet they still split the arena into groups as small as 100/100.

Anywhere between 100/100 and 200/200 was the norm and it didn't exceed this average until peak hours.

The point is, I am willing to bet that the peak now is probably around 400 judging by a few hints I've seen that the population has declined, yet you don't have a split arena. Why is that? Why was it necessary to split anything over 200 before, yet it's not now?

[The Fugitive]

any ideas how to limit offensive capacity of the horde through player action? I'd rather have a way to let the players make an impact.

Oh the players could fix this with ease. If the "leaders" of these missions spread them out it would take care of the issue. The problem is they believe the "win/capture" is the be all and end all of a mission. Most look at the numbers available and say "I can't lose with twice as many people in the mission than I need!". The challenge, the fight, the team work needed to compensate for lower numbers just don't figure in.

[Lusche]

Then why did they change back?

If you're going to repeat the excuse that was used at the time, don't bother.

Sorry that I will still bother.


The players numbers to sustain the split went down. And this is not a result of the split either, as after the Arena Split was implemented in late 2006, the player numbers actually soared to reach their all time high in 2008. Only 2 years later the numbers dropped down significantly and AH went back to single LW arena in 2011.

[muzik]

Oh the players could fix this with ease. If the "leaders" of these missions spread them out it would take care of the issue. The problem is they believe the "win/capture" is the be all and end all of a mission. Most look at the numbers available and say "I can't lose with twice as many people in the mission than I need!". The challenge, the fight, the team work needed to compensate for lower numbers just don't figure in.

Yes, this is the best description of the problem out there. Let us keep our laser-like focus on changing the mentality of 2000 people, without changing the rules of the game.

[coombz]

they will never do anything to limit the offensive capacity of the horde

most people that play AH care only about 'winning the war', and would say that winning by overwhelming your opponents with numerical superiority is both a perfectly valid and a perfectly realistic tactic

Fugitive you always talk about the number of customers that HTC would lose if the game was made to look better and therefore required a better computer to run - do you not think that HTC would lose just as many, if not more, if they suddenly made it much more difficult/impossible for the hundreds of really bad players to achieve anything by taking away the offensive capacity of the horde? ;o

[muzik]

The players numbers to sustain the split went down.

As I said, and since you didn't refute my guess about the current average, the numbers didn't change that much. It may have been a big hit to the company, but as far as the arenas go, not a huge change. They don't split up 400 people now, yet they did during the split. I'm not going to spell it out any further.

And this is not a result of the split either, as after the Arena Split was implemented in late 2006, the player numbers actually soared to reach their all time high in 2008. Only 2 years later the numbers dropped down significantly and AH went back to single LW arena in 2011.

I never assumed it was because of the split. Unlike SOME people, I don't associate a massive success to one single event without enough evidence to support that conclusion. If I were to do that, I would have to assume that the drop in numbers was due to going back to single MA.

horse hockey.

Sorry that I will still bother.

Don't be. Just thought I'd save you the trouble.  

[Lusche]

As I said, and since you didn't refute my guess about the current average, the numbers didn't change that much. It may have been a big hit to the company, but as far as the arenas go, not a huge change. They don't split up 400 people now, yet they did during the split. I'm not going to spell it out any further.

You might unferestimate how much more players we did have online for about 1.5 to 2 years after the Arena Split.
After the split we had 800+ online in both LW arenas at the peak for quite some time. I rember that quite well (and made a few notes, as you might expect from me ) That's about 400 per arena, as we have now.
(I also remember HT stating on the BBS that 'last night' there had been more than 1000 players online. I might be able to dig that up again)


As much as I hated (and still do) the Arena Caps, after the arenas split AH saw the fastest grow ever in it's history.

If I were to do that, I would have to assume that the drop in numbers was due to going back to single MA.

As far as I can see, the numbers are relatively stable since going to single LW

[Tank-Ace]

Oh the players could fix this with ease. If the "leaders" of these missions spread them out it would take care of the issue. The problem is they believe the "win/capture" is the be all and end all of a mission. Most look at the numbers available and say "I can't lose with twice as many people in the mission than I need!". The challenge, the fight, the team work needed to compensate for lower numbers just don't figure in.

No, I meant players as in the defenders. Any way you can think of to give them a chance at stopping the horde, or at least slowing it down?

[muzik]

You might unferestimate how much more players we did have online for about 1.5 to 2 years after the Arena Split.
After the split we had 800+ online in both LW arenas at the peak for quite some time. I rember that quite well (and made a few notes, as you might expect from me ) That's about 400 per arena, as we have now.
(I also remember HT stating on the BBS that 'last night' there had been more than 1000 players online. I might be able to dig that up again)

As far as I can see, the numbers are relatively stable since going to single LW

I'm not underestimating anything, although I never saw 1600 on as it sounds like you're suggesting. That would be cool to see, but I was comparing current average (400?) to the average at the time I left (500-600).

And one more time, someone apparently believes they can attribute the huge increase to the split arenas. I am falling all over myself trying to understand why a number junky like you buys into that.

Common sense would suggest that they split the arena's in the first place because the population was ALREADY GROWING and leading to what I am told were "cesspool" conditions which of course you don't have now that numbers are low.  

MAYBE the huge growth in the game reflected the lightning like advancements and plummeting PC prices during the decade. I'll put my money on this as being the reason.

MAYBE the cesspool conditions that were attributed to too large of a population were actually just the result of a sudden expansion and the "self policing" that is such a biblical principle around here, didn't have time to compensate before a kneejerk fix was applied.

MAYBE if the real problems with the game were addressed that massive influx of people would still be around. For example, the fact that two weeks is insufficient for anyone but the hardest core, ww2 aviation junkies. Or the failed efforts to police the group. etc, etc.