The game before the increased strengths of airfields

[FiLtH]

        For those of you who remember back that far, it seemed as though a handful of people could take down a town, and capture the field. Some people complained about this and over time it got to where it is now. Back then even though maps flowed quickly, and bases were taken easily when not opposed, it had the effect of spreading out the players. Many bases were flashing, you could get involved in many 1v1 , 2v2 fights.

        Since the change Ive noticed a "flocking" to a base, by the majority of the players. It seems necessary to have that many people to take a base, because they have alot of targets. Any given night you can log on and see the map, and usually the majority of the players are at 2 bases, either defending a base against one enemy, or all at another enemy's base trying to take it.

        Probably many people like this. Target rich and all that. Myself, I preferred the old way, where the fights were spread thin, but memorable. By making it easier to take bases with fewer people, fewer people were at one base, it spread it out across the map, creating smaller engagements, which to me was much more enjoyable.

        I was just thinking about this stuff tonight while I was sitting in the tower, with the 1000 yard stare at the map again.

[zack1234]

I think the game is better

Dont sit in the tower up a set of bombers and prep the map

[bozon]

Way way back we did not have a town. The map room was in the middle of the field and the only way to capture was to fly a C47 in (or LVT from the CV, but no M3s).

GVs have changed the land-grab game considerably. A 1-3 players trying to take off from a CAPed field can be suppressed by a handful of attacking fighters. 1-3 players rolling M3s and Wirbs again and again is a nightmare. A single M3 can undo many lbs of bombs on the town and acks and taking the town down with guns require lots of manpower. A single Wirble is a huge threat to fighters unless someone has kept a bomb for such an occasion. A single tank can roll all the way into town with the fighters powerless to stop it, unless they get lucky enough and de-track it by strafing far from the town. Even if they disable its turret is can still kill troops with the parallel mg.

The answer is to kill the VH on the base and all nearby bases that can spawn into the attacked field. Have a few attackers with bombs hunt down the tanks/M3/wirbs that already spawned. Kill the acks and keep a tight vulch + CAP against fighters from nearby fields, or kill ALL hangars (both FH and BH). All this require a very large force - a.k.a a horde.

The other option is to overrun the field with friendly tanks, but I never managed to take off in a tank. Something must be off with my throttle because I cannot reach 80-100 mph to lift off.

[bustr]

As Filth is observing, today 3 or 4 players cannot really target a field in terms of dropping VH and supplies at all linked support fields. Then get the town down along with pacifying uppers or local GV's if the VH is missed. The town buildings get out of sync quickly relative to the amount of time it takes for transit and simply accomplishing base capture prep chores. Even the local FH and VH often are out of sync while so few players are muddeling through getting everything prepped.

Today there are so many links in the chain to capturing anything, you are seeing a passive laziness in players because capture has evolved just into that realm of complexity which doesn't fit into the "FUN" of playing this game as often as it used to. We all spend 8 hours before logging into this game "Working". There are becoming times now the game in terms of capture, is us paying Hitech so we can work a second job. You no longer hear players getting fired up about going somewhere and capturing or taking a base away from the other guys. It's a lot of work now and not always very satisfying. And this has a chilling effect on newbies who are the most vocal cheer leaders for "common guys lets go get them". To which often silence or lame comments to distract them.

There have been no real POSTS lately complaining about hoards and base capture. Or map steam rolling. Why?? Because now you need 30 or 40 guys to capture a base and you feel lucky getting them interested.

When you actually get two bases these day exactly a single sector apart, the transit time is just perfect for furballing or some white knuckle attack and defense attempts at capture. At 1.5 to 2 sectors like a number of the maps seem to be spaced. Players get bored by the transit time and uninspired to go at it against the idea of just sitting there for that long doing nothing. In some cases you can get into action faster driving GV these days even if it's into a camped spawn. At least someone is shooting at you inside of 5 seconds opposed to 10 and 15 minute transits. And if after 10 minutes you die in 30 seconds, well now that's another 10 minutes getting bum sores riding your computer chair.

I can feel for the furballers and their wish to repeal the 12 hours side switching rule. One of the biggest things that bores my squad and other Knights I talk to these days, is how long it takes to get anywhere. The two maps with TT and and airfields at each corner of the triangle, have the best transit times for air combat of our maps.   

[SFRT - Frenchy]

   The big gameplay change I think was the AAA getting deadlier or/and the nutering of 50 cal planes as de-ackers. In the old days (tm) there was no ack hiding, you had to fight your way back to the runway. 

[Lucifer]

I see what OP is saying -even if i wasnt there at that time- BUT considering low pop times inbalance,
it would be imho an error to go back to the old version : if a "handfull" could take an AF+town, then a specific side with only 15
more players during low-pop could finish a whole map alone in 2-3h, which would make other sides players rage-quit, as they couldnt stop them...

My 2 cts.

[Scca]

I agree in that before the changes to the town, 10 people could take a base in no time.  Five could if they had some luck.  Now it takes 20+ to have any real chance during peak times, and even then it requires a little luck. 

I can also see both sides of the argument and am not sure which is more valid.  Life is busy for many of us and even medium sized squad find it hard to successfully take a base without help from outside the squad.

That being said, I don't think town percentages will be changing as the next release appears to have an entirely new setup for towns.  We will see how it works out.  I can hear the  already. 

[Randy1]

Half the hording though is done and the town is never touched.  Cap the base, de-ack the field and blow up anything that takes off.  Not much game play in that.

[Bizman]

I remember when we could sneak to a base, destroy what was needed and capture the field with three guys: One or two heavy 110G-2's and a C47. The 110's could even cap the field for uppers and the C47 had to be quickly in place to drop the goons.

Today it takes at least three guys to take a base. One skilful bomber formation can white-flag a town in two passes, six minutes. Would that make the buildings pop up out of synch? Another bomber or a heavy attacker can take care of the VH and capping and the third guy will bring the goons in.

Of course, in both cases any enemy activity will reduce the success percentage. Then again, a couple of escort fighters would raise the number of missionaires to a horde of five...

[The Fugitive]

I remember when we could sneak to a base, destroy what was needed and capture the field with three guys: One or two heavy 110G-2's and a C47. The 110's could even cap the field for uppers and the C47 had to be quickly in place to drop the goons.

Today it takes at least three guys to take a base. One skilful bomber formation can white-flag a town in two passes, six minutes. Would that make the buildings pop up out of synch? Another bomber or a heavy attacker can take care of the VH and capping and the third guy will bring the goons in.

Of course, in both cases any enemy activity will reduce the success percentage. Then again, a couple of escort fighters would raise the number of missionaires to a horde of five...

The problem with that is you have to have some skilled players. You know guys that can bomb or fight long enough to get the troops in. Players aren't afraid to fail on a mission now and then.

[Bizman]

The problem with that is you have to have some skilled players. You know guys that can bomb or fight long enough to get the troops in. Players aren't afraid to fail on a mission now and then.

Huh? I'm sorry, sir, but this community doesn't seem to know what it wants! Every time a new guy says hello on this forum, everyone will tell about the steep learning curve of this game. Every new guy will very soon find out there's lots to learn. We even have a Training Arena including trainers! Why should the base capture be in arcade mode if the aerial combat is based on realistic flying and damage modelling?

[Biggles]

Open an "AH Nostalgia Arena", complete with some of the old maps we never see anymore, and the old style base-taking motif. I'll bet it would see a lot more activity than some of the current arenas (such as WW1, although I love the WW1 arena).

[Brooke]

I like it much better the way it is now.

[batch]

I also like it better now......... a chatroom with a cartoon war in the background

[Vraciu]

I think the game is better

Dont sit in the tower up a set of bombers and prep the map

Wow.  Would hate to see what worse looked like in this regard.

No heartburn with the intensity on a map proportional to player size, but having 1+ base per player on average is a little strange.   It certainly slows down the dynamics of the place.

One of the fun things about Brand X was seeing the front move back and forth relatively rapidly.   It was fun.