MA Off-peak is dying

[Redd]

Something I was thinking about after I posted in another thread.

The game is really struggling at the moment in the off-peak hours.With 50 people logged on the MA is not much fun .When you look at country numbers
there are about 30% of people "in flight" . So they are either in gv's or sitting in the tower looking for something to do , or afk.

The usual pattern is a bunch of gv'ers wandering around somewhere , 10 people in buffs bombing strats and undefended fields,
leaving about 6 or 7 people flying fighter planes looking for some sort of fight or engagement.

So what typically happens is I log on - look around the map  - see occasional little blips of radar across the map  (buffs usually)
so I either log off , fly around for a while bored , or go make a coffee , (1 more sitting in the tower).

I know people whine about the old days all the time , but this didnt happen in the old days because "everyone" was flying a plane.

So I was thinking of a couple of solutions.


1. Numbers in MA hit < 75  , GV's are unavailable.

and/or

2. Numbers in MA <75 , Map switches automatically to a small map (finish the war - give everyone some perks)


This problem at the moment is self-perpetuating , less people in the air = no fights = less people logging on to fly.

I know this will probably sound silly to some an unplalatable to others , but I can't see the numbers heading anywhere but down given where they are at now. At it's heart and soul Aces High has always been about Air Combat , we need some off-peak.


The game used to have a pretty strong community of people outside the US flying in off-peak , along with the shift workers an US night owls , they are dissappearing.

[ReVo]

Something I was thinking about after I posted in another thread.

The game is really struggling at the moment in the off-peak hours.With 50 people logged on the MA is not much fun .When you look at country numbers
there are about 30% of people "in flight" . So they are either in gv's or sitting in the tower looking for something to do , or afk.

The usual pattern is a bunch of gv'ers wandering around somewhere , 10 people in buffs bombing strats and undefended fields,
leaving about 6 or 7 people flying fighter planes looking for some sort of fight or engagement.

So what typically happens is I log on - look around the map  - see occasional little blips of radar across the map  (buffs usually)
so I either log off , fly around for a while bored , or go make a coffee , (1 more sitting in the tower).

I know people whine about the old days all the time , but this didnt happen in the old days because "everyone" was flying a plane.

So I was thinking of a couple of solutions.


1. Numbers in MA hit < 75  , GV's are unavailable.

and/or

2. Numbers in MA <75 , Map switches automatically to a small map (finish the war - give everyone some perks)


This problem at the moment is self-perpetuating , less people in the air = no fights = less people logging on to fly.

I know this will probably sound silly to some an unplalatable to others , but I can't see the numbers heading anywhere but down given where they are at now. At it's heart and soul Aces High has always been about Air Combat , we need some off-peak.


The game used to have a pretty strong community of people outside the US flying in off-peak , along with the shift workers an US night owls , they are dissappearing.

+1

[Max]

Maybe more mid-sized maps would help..NDisles size,

[DmonSlyr]

Dude no joke was thinking the same thing , being sick, and at home all day last couple of days. Its like 85% bombers 10% gvs and 5% airplanes. I was thinking inst this suppose to a "flight sim" and I guess personally, I can't understand why people would rather fly bombers and be in tanks but it seems that's the "thing". Idk I don't get it either redd.

[danny76]

Yep. Agree with op

[bagrat]

maybe in between the regular airfields we already have include smaller airfields which only enable early birds. So people can get to fights even quicker while possibly adding more plane variety. These early bird only airfields are connected to the regular bases making them themselves unable to captured unless the field they are connected to is captured itself. heck i dunno.





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                  like this.

[Aspen]

Small maps yes.  No gvs maybe not.  Assuming those guys would be in fighters if no GVs were available might be wrong.  They might play some other game, go to bed, or organize their action figure collection instead.

[Lusche]

The game is really struggling at the moment in the off-peak hours.With 50 people logged on the MA is not much fun .When you look at country numbers
there are about 30% of people "in flight" . So they are either in gv's or sitting in the tower looking for something to do , or afk.

"in flight" includes players in GV,as well as field guns.

Dude no joke was thinking the same thing , being sick, and at home all day last couple of days. Its like 85% bombers 10% gvs and 5% airplanes.

I mostly fly buffs at low peak hours, because there often is not much reason for me to up a fighter with less than two dozen players actually in a plane all over the map. Or I'm up to hunt down a strat runner.

[pembquist]

I like number two better. I think for thin crowds the importance of every player enjoying themselves goes up. I suspect that people tooling around in bombers or shelling un defended bases are experiencing more fun doing that then they think they would in air combat. So the tricky question is how do you make it more fun to engage without degrading the game? What if instead of a smaller map you could dynamically close bases to concentrate upping to just a few close bases? If one side got to steamrolling you could limit there equipment options instead of just doing it by population. Nobody likes to be cannon fodder all the time.

[Brooke]

I do think that active map area should scale with number of people flying.

Folks have discussed this elsewhere, and there are various things to figure out with it, but I think that it is the way to go.

[Gemini]

Dying? It's been dead for months and months...

[Plawranc]

I still think Medium sized maps should become the standard for all hours. Period.

[SPKmes]

And then when ENY kicks in it is quite hilarious hahaha ...

[WWhiskey]

"in flight" includes players in GV,as well as field guns.

Beat me too it,, maybe the op would like to rethink his original post?
Why would anyone want to eliminate play? Or players?
I remember being the only one on for hours at a time late night,, there was
GVs then,,,,,around the time of the jeep,,    I used to go drive around tank town waiting for someone to come along so 50 is a good bit better than then!

 If GV players don't fly and you remove the ability to GV when numbers are low,, how does that help anyone?

On another note,, I see more players during the time the newest map is up than any other time,, so if it was me, I'd figure out the average number of players during each map to see if arena population is affected by map design,,,  just a thought.

[Megalodon]

Make the Stuka Available at V Bases!

Historically Stuka were parked a "stones throw" from the GV's they were shooting? Introduce the air war at GV bases. Stuka can take off just like the little tard plane.

Only Seams Fair,


Edit: and while your at it give it the same view distances aswell!