Oh I remember the ArchieD thread.
I also remember that apparently his score etc still stands, so how is it cheating? Where is the book of rules for Aces High?? HTC is evidently cool with it, or something would have been done about it.
I agree it's lame...but OH NO! HE'S UPPING MORE 262s THAN HE SHOULD BE ABLE TO!! Seriously who cares? If he has to shade vulch to get them he obviously can't fly no matter what ride he's in. Not exactly gamebreaking.
The real issue is for people like Lusche (sorry Snail you are a good guy but this is true) who work hard for their precious ingame score (god knows why ) and get angry when the results are skewed because of this kind of behaviour.
Cool. We can agree shade vulching is lame.
As for HTC, that really doesn't matter to me. I'm told the policy used to be a complete wipe of perks and scores, so if there's a difference between then and now I have no idea why that is. I find it hard to believe HiTech woke up one morning and said, "You know what? Those shade vulchers... they're alright".
I think you're downplaying the skill level of some of these vulchers. I don't think anyone is saying they're Grizz reincarnate, but they're not two weekers either. Even an average pilot in a 262 is pretty dangerous (or at least very distracting) as long as he knows he can pull the throttle back and hit a notch of flaps every so often. In the world where "nobody gives a toss", it's a logical conclusion that more guys will shade vulch just so they can fly perk rides with more aggression. If you increase the volume of perk planes and the recklessness with which they're flown, that certainly does change the game.
Lastly, it's not just the soremongers who give a toss (I will now use toss in place of less desirable four letter words
). I don't fly for score. I fly to fight and have fun and hopefully make things blow up. I give a toss because of the principle. It's stupid and lame. Do I need a better reason to not like shade vulching?