side-switching abuse

[Traveler]

Traveler that's a good ideA.

But some of us don't switch sides due to balance....

So you would not select the button to switch sides. 

[tuba515]

i have also noticed alot of side switching abuse from certin people (person ) , i think there should be a extension on when you can switch after you switch bec this person after switching to a side, to kill are cv ( but failed miserably ). was back to are side with in two days . that should def be extended to a week or longer   

<S> from tuba515

[JimmyD3]

You people all sound just like Congress, Whine Whine, Blame Blame, and do nothing. Call "Right" wrong and "Wrong" right. 

[Arlo]

It's been discussed many times.  Perhaps HTC could take a new approach to switching sides.  Suppose instead of the current process for switching sides, the entire process was altered so that any player could elect to switch sides at any time, as often as they wanted.  But instead of picking the side you switched to, you were only presented with one option, a change sides button.  When you clicked on that button.  The system looked at the balance of numbers on each side, if all sides were within say 10% of each other, You stayed on your current side.  If one side was lopsided , your side had larger numbers than either of the other two sides, than you are placed onto the side with the fewest numbers.  In other words, you don't get to pick the side, the system does.  You always have the option of not clicking on the change side button.  You could click on the button as often as you want, the system decides what side you will be placed on based on the current numbers on each side.

This would allow players that want to switch sides to balance numbers to do so.  This would allow players that want to remain loyal to a side to do so.
This would help limit spying because a player could not change sides unless the numbers on each side were unbalanced and the potential spy would may not end up on the side he wanted to spy on.  Players that wanted to remain on a side to remain in a squad could do so, by not selecting the change side option.

[Zacherof]

So you would not select the button to switch sides. 

then

[guncrasher]

One of the reasons I only fly Special Events is the 12 hour rule...stabbed game play in the back.

so you wait days to join an event where you cannot switch sides but refuse to play where you can switch every 12 hours.


semp

[bustr]

Travler's idea has merit for the purist solution it would accomplish. I falls short with the squads who change countries every tour. ENY is supposed to address the side imbalance,.....I think it is.

We once had Titanic Tuesday. It often turned into a giant brawl because it was the Tuesday night fight date everyone could count on. It worked in that sense. I suspect many have great stories to tell from the TT times.

I don't know if side switching in shorter time periods would hurt the game. If anyone is supposed to know this it is Hitech. He's betting his company and his new child's future on knowing these things.

Over the years in the CT\AvA I've watched unlimited side switching be a fun fights balancing tool and just as often ignored and abused to the point of turning the place into Cricketville. When it was good it was rrreeeallly good and just the opposite at the hands of the average don't give a whizz and screw you crowd that inhabits our game 24x7.

Getting Hitech to try anything we want takes time and persistence. Also a reasonable argument or presentation. Why don't you start small and expect nothing more than asked for? Then if he gives it, allow him to see if the outcome over time is viable to his bottom line.

 
----------------------------------------------------------
Hitech, in the same spirit as the old Titanic Tuesday.

LWMA 60 Minute Side Switching Weekends.

Friday night at midnight Texas time until Sunday night midnight Texas time. Side switching in the LWMA is reduced to a 60 minute wait. All switches made before the "last" 60 minute clock runs out at midnight Sunday will be in force for 12 hours as normal into Monday.

Alternately, since many start their weekend MALW game play on Friday daytime. Have it begin 12 noon Friday Texas time until 12 midnight Sunday Texas time.

Have a countdown clock show up in everyone's client Friday thru Sunday. It can be an "event timer" option in the clipboard to bring up or toggle on\off to show how many hours and minutes are left for the LWMA 60min Weekend. Even add a second timer to it of time remaining on the current side switch.
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This will either promote more combat, or the muppets and similar squads will push it too far and spend weekends abusing everyone for not being DA gods like themselves, forcing them to log or play the tank game for two days. Or it will be a greifer's wonder land:

1.- to spy. 60 minutes is a beer break for many players. So your squad mate will be back in 61 minutes.
2.- mess with CV. Yep I'll hold command and keep it straight you just bomb it, hehehehe.
3.- spoil missions. Gonna fix those hoard cowards this time.
4.- enhance missions with friends switching sides to interfere with defenses or CV.
5.- get even with other players for ch200 garbage or countrymen and sqweekers you really don't like. We all know a few.
6.- farm kills from missions by switching sides to meet them with a 262 and\or friends in 262. I know this has never happened in all the years I've been around since 2002. Nawww never, nope, nada....

But, would it make the majority of players look forward to playing on weekends and showing up in droves? Or would it turn the game into a greifer's paradise dominated by free ranging ACM monsters side switching every 60 minutes killing war win initiatives and missions? That could loose a few accounts after a few weekends.

After all of these years of showing Hitech the unvarnished truth of how we will play this game when restrictions are reduced.

What do you guys think you are going to do if Hitech lets you?

Hold a bible camp for boy scouts?   

[Butcher]

People will spy, second accounts will always be around Aces high, if someone wants all they need is two shades and you will never find them out - HTC benefits so he won't care.
I switch countries if not daily, then weekly depending on the fights available, however many times I switch countries to join in on a fight only to see it fizz out and nothing else happens for hours.

Let people switch countries, its not like the shades/spies will care - they have always existed and I doubt anyone with a shade is going to care whether the timer is 12 hours, 6 hours or 3 hours, its just more money in HTC's pocket.

I had a shade once, I got my nephew an account and tried to teach him to fly, ultimately that month went on to bust bish NOE's back in early 2000s, however it was rather hard to scream "SCRAMBLE" when there was no dar-bar around said base, that and nobody would up in time anyhow to bust said mission.
I see no point in a shade other then for killing, as the map tells you all you need to know, even if you had one whats the point if only a select few will scramble, even then you will be caught and wacked with a wiffle ball bat on the forums.

Shades now a days you will never find out who owns them, so who cares? HTC does - more money to fund the rest of us newer planes while other still need to kill shades to get perks.

[bustr]

Quit avoiding all the other poor conduct and griefing players engage in that eventually acquires a life of it's own due to no restrictions.

Spying is the "least" of all greifing and or time based human nature dynamics problems that would happen. The MA has no rules. Just enforced dynamics to control what evolves over time as players act out their urges. The shorter you make the time control, the faster urges can be acted upon as change in the environment.

12 hours stabilizes population in the MA as it's base control. It also provides a break on human nature. We never got to find out if the vTards would have stayed with the bish, or every 60 minutes launched a new hoard in a new country with new intel. Or attempted to help themselves with small groups sent to interfere with defenses at bases they were targeting. Over the years of nightly fighting against them, I think they would have taken advantage to the fullest of 60 minute side switching. Because there are no rules in the MA other than bad language and hacking the game code. And their conduct in the game reflected knowing that no rules were being broken by their game play style.

None of you guys will ever give Hitech a list of unintended consequences to your wishes. But, those of you with children I bet grill them about the responsibility and wisdom of thinking through the consequences of their actions to survive and prosper in life. It's no different in this game because human beings play it not AI.

[StokesAk]

so you wait days to join an event where you cannot switch sides but refuse to play where you can switch every 12 hours.


semp

I think he is meaning to say that because of the 12 hours side switch rule he has lost taste in the main arena therefore only flying in special events because that is the only thing in Aces High that he derives pleasure from...I think....

[Spikes]

so you wait days to join an event where you cannot switch sides but refuse to play where you can switch every 12 hours.


semp

No. I rarely fly in the MA anymore. This is how my MA experience goes:
Log in
Locate fight, switch sides
Fly 2-3 sorties, fight dies
No more fights on the map...time left on said country: ~11 hours
Alt F4.

If it were the old setup, it would be just about time for me to switch countries and find a new fight.

But yes. I will wait days to join an event where I can immerse myself in the setup and fight against historically accurate aircraft of the time. I have been involved in events as a pilot, CiC for FSO, Flight lead, Group lead, XO and CO of scenarios, and now I have the opportunity to make these events actually happen. I wouldn't have it any other way.

[SIK1]

No. I rarely fly in the MA anymore. This is how my MA experience goes:
Log in
Locate fight, switch sides
Fly 2-3 sorties, fight dies
No more fights on the map...time left on said country: ~11 hours
Alt F4.

If it were the old setup, it would be just about time for me to switch countries and find a new fight.

But yes. I will wait days to join an event where I can immerse myself in the setup and fight against historically accurate aircraft of the time. I have been involved in events as a pilot, CiC for FSO, Flight lead, Group lead, XO and CO of scenarios, and now I have the opportunity to make these events actually happen. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up for me too.

[RELIC]

I've been Bish for over 10 years and this whining about taking the "strat base" is embarrassing.  If keeping that base in enemy hands was so critical then why take adjoining bases on that section of the front?  If it was such a HUGE deal then why didn't one of you jump sides and kill the goon/troops?  This wasn't about winning the war but about milking strats and helping your personal ranks.  I got no problem with that... it's your $15, but enough with the soapbox.  If you want to play for the furball - good for you.  If you want to take bases - good for you.  If you want to milk your rank - good for you.  Do whatever makes you happy but stop crying when other players fail to support your opinion of what is the proper way to play the game.  Trust me, you will be a lot happier in the long run.

[guncrasher]

No. I rarely fly in the MA anymore. This is how my MA experience goes:
Log in
Locate fight, switch sides
Fly 2-3 sorties, fight dies
No more fights on the map...time left on said country: ~11 hours
Alt F4.

If it were the old setup, it would be just about time for me to switch countries and find a new fight.

But yes. I will wait days to join an event where I can immerse myself in the setup and fight against historically accurate aircraft of the time. I have been involved in events as a pilot, CiC for FSO, Flight lead, Group lead, XO and CO of scenarios, and now I have the opportunity to make these events actually happen. I wouldn't have it any other way.

ok let's see the special events and fso.  log in, cant switch sides at all.  cant even up at all if you are late.  fly for 1 hour and if you die, your plane gets damged, pw then you cant up another plane.  then you must wait days or weeks to join another sortie versus unlimited deaths and 12 hour switch for the MA.

it doesnt make sense. I sense it's something else.


semp

[Nathan60]

I've been Bish for over 10 years and this whining about taking the "strat base" is embarrassing.  If keeping that base in enemy hands was so critical then why take adjoining bases on that section of the front?  If it was such a HUGE deal then why didn't one of you jump sides and kill the goon/troops?  This wasn't about winning the war but about milking strats and helping your personal ranks.  I got no problem with that... it's your $15, but enough with the soapbox.  If you want to play for the furball - good for you.  If you want to take bases - good for you.  If you want to milk your rank - good for you.  Do whatever makes you happy but stop crying when other players fail to support your opinion of what is the proper way to play the game.  Trust me, you will be a lot happier in the long run.