Snailman's scary graph

[5PointOh]

Snail,

Just curious, where was the 1hr to 12hr switch time?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Look up my "f2p TA" wish in the wishlist forum and support it if you think its good. It would go a very long way to cultivate the kind of basis for people to enter the LWA/MA. Of course, supports alone wont get ideas in, HT has to like it as well.

I don't think a F2P TA would be such a good idea. It would get abused fast.

Offline AI is a much better choice as it induces little cost to HTC and lets new players to practise in a non-hostile environment. Whenever you put other players in the mix you get also competitive players who like to boost their egos by seal clubbing noobs. That's why I think the F2P TA would be populated by non-trainers whose sole purpose would be to ruin a noobs day.

In that sense WB offline was perfect - it let you focus on SA and ACM in a predictable environment without having any human intervention. Once you get accustomed to air combat in general the drones become boring and you'll want to subscribe to the live arena.

[Lusche]

Snail,

Just curious, where was the 1hr to 12hr switch time?

Shortly after AH went back to one LW arena it also went back to the 12h switch time, which the single LW format it had featured all the years before as well.

[5PointOh]

Thank you Sir!

[shoresroad]

Whenever you put other players in the mix you also get competitive players who like to boost their egos by seal clubbing noobs.

I've been playing about 6 months now and have finally gotten past the point of a baby seal (but not by much).  The three new players I talked into the 2 week trial over the past 6 months didn't make it.  They were seal clubbed out of the game.

I still think if there were an intermediate arena where new players could enjoy the game in the absence of the uber players it would be used and HTC would keep a lot more newbies who could evolve into good players.  Maybe restrict an intermediate arena to players with a k/d less than 1 or 1.5 or something along those lines that would exclude the top 20% of players that appear to be so dominate.  Player stats reset each month, but even if the uber players came down to the intermediate arena to club seals their k/d ratio would keep them out within a day or two after the start of a new tour.

HTC would have to figure it out, but I'm sure they could come up with an intermediate arena fairly easily if they thought it was a good idea. 

[Delirium]

One thing many are probably over looking here as far as the numbers go.  Many of us old vets don't fly in the MA's much anymore.  We spend our time in FSO, Scenarios,or practicing for such events. 

For this reason it is incredibly disappointing that HTC never finished Combat Tour. It could of been a big draw for subscribers.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

For this reason it is incredibly disappointing that HTC never finished Combat Tour. It could of been a big draw for subscribers.

Just as why I was thinking that HTC probably did some development already on combat tour, AI drones included. It wouldn't probably take a big effort to create an offline practicing arena with AI.

[BluBerry]

We have one thing in our favor if we want to make use of it.

The under 27 gamers are willing to try new experiences longer if they feel accepted for giving the new game a go.

Many of the other Internet games are dominated with a pre accepting age population of similar minded gamers. We are asking them to accept the problems for themselves in hanging out with a bunch of bad tempered foul mouthed copies of their older brothers, fathers, uncles, and grand fathers. Kind of like Thanksgiving dinner for 2 hours every night. Then finding the family blog where they all describe in vivid detail what kind of a useless POS kid you are for leaving the dinner table after the 200th insult about your age and guessed at sexual proclivities.

In many cases it's like several hours of learning to ride a bike while their father tells them they are garbage because they can't keep the bike up and smacking them for asking too many questions about how to ride it. And then when they finally get some feel for keeping the bike going straight, dad demands a BMX race to the death while calling sonny boy a &ussy for not taking the challenge.

We eat our young around here and blame them for not being fast enough to get out of our way when we ambush them from the side.

QFT

[Wiley]

I've been playing about 6 months now and have finally gotten past the point of a baby seal (but not by much).  The three new players I talked into the 2 week trial over the past 6 months didn't make it.  They were seal clubbed out of the game.

I still think if there were an intermediate arena where new players could enjoy the game in the absence of the uber players it would be used and HTC would keep a lot more newbies who could evolve into good players.  Maybe restrict an intermediate arena to players with a k/d less than 1 or 1.5 or something along those lines that would exclude the top 20% of players that appear to be so dominate.  Player stats reset each month, but even if the uber players came down to the intermediate arena to club seals their k/d ratio would keep them out within a day or two after the start of a new tour.

HTC would have to figure it out, but I'm sure they could come up with an intermediate arena fairly easily if they thought it was a good idea. 

How long would it take for that K/D to bubble to the surface though?  If it's immediate, suppose on the first of the month, a newbie ups on his first sortie into the right situation, flies over to a deacked field and gets a few vulches and lands them.  Does he then get punted for having too good of a K/D?  If it's only going to be calculated daily or whatever, that runs into another problem.

Based on what I've seen, if it's going to happen, getting frustrated happens over a pretty short timespan.  If you spend an evening getting clubbed repeatedly, it can be supremely frustrating.  Suppose a vet logs in and goes in there knowing he has 24 hours to club people all he likes once a month.  How do you set up a system that avoids the first scenario above that doesn't allow for this one?

Also, if you happen to be the 'man with one eye in the land of the blind' and you happen to be a newb with style and get your K/D up, it would boot you out even though you really don't know much of anything.  You go into the MA, and you're still fodder.

How does that improve the situation?

Any attempt to create a beginners arena is effectively pointless.  Any way you cut it, coming into the MA you're going to have a bad time at first.  It's just the nature of the game.

Just as why I was thinking that HTC probably did some development already on combat tour, AI drones included. It wouldn't probably take a big effort to create an offline practicing arena with AI.

...Couldn't they just add a 'training' menu option when you start the game that has some offline missions that were a bit more engaging than the 4 planes flying in a circle over the base?  Seems like something that would be cake to put together, there's probably enough missions that could be used from the people in the offline missions forum right now.

Wiley.

[SirNuke]

One thing many are probably over looking here as far as the numbers go.  Many of us old vets don't fly in the MA's much anymore.  We spend our time in FSO, Scenarios,or practicing for such events.  This is the game to us, and what we enjoy.  Nothing against the guys who enjoy the MA, I did for about the first 3-4 years.  But I think it's possible there is an ever increasing part of the aces high population that is now playing like I do.  If the subscriber numbers are about the same but the MA numbers are down, I think this is a likely explanation.

 
BigRat

how much players do you get nowadays in FSO?

I was thinking, reading the comments that a few new playing modes would go a long way to get players to return to the game...like a door system à la redbull racing that would make warbirds racing something worth competing for.

Retaining new players is great but they need something to look up to.

[Arlo]

how much players do you get nowadays in FSO?

You can get an idea by visiting the events log page:

http://www.ahevents.org/event-logs.html

[bj229r]

I believe I figured it out: Snailman's graph doesn't show buildings destroyed. Whords tend to drive off opposition, which levees naught but the poor, defenseless buildings

[Wiley]

I believe I figured it out: Snailman's graph doesn't show buildings destroyed. Whords tend to drive off opposition, which levees naught but the poor, defenseless buildings

Heh!  Now that would be an interesting comparison.  Activity shown as buildings destroyed.  Wonder if that stat could be pulled from the pages?

Wiley.

[Lusche]

Heh!  Now that would be an interesting comparison.  Activity shown as buildings destroyed.  Wonder if that stat could be pulled from the pages?

No such numbers published.

[Wiley]

Pity.  It would be interesting.  I was thinking of FSO logs when I vaguely remembered something about 'objects destroyed'.

Wiley.