The game before the increased strengths of airfields

[999000]

I'm thinking about Filth's thinking...no I'm not having filthy thoughts.....Filth Might be on to  something. 9900.

[bustr]

We have gone from hoards attacking and taking fields to hoards of fighters hiding above 15k from getting shot by counter ACM. We have gone from simple to capture fields with a hand full of players bumping heads against a hand full of defenders spaced around the map. To needing almost all of the players logged in for your country to capture a single field maybe after 2-3 hours with long transit times to get back to the action. And about 1\3 of those getting bored hiding in GV for the rest of the evening. Not sure how many just log off out of boredom.

Almost seems like the sectors should be reduced in size to 20mile x 20mile to get players back at each other sooner than later. Lately I've been performing a test in large furballs. At 10k I will see how long I can fly straight and level before something try's to pick me. Then see how little effort I need to make in avoiding their shot. More often it takes a while to get attacked unless a small hoard of HOers on every pass without fail to get rid of my (hoard of 1) isn't flocking to the single level flying guy. Then unless it's a veteran player, showing skill at not getting picked, quickly causes the picker to climb back up and look for easier prey. I've flown through furballs recently performing this test where I RTB'd bingo fuel and all of my ammo.

Hitech once changed the game because he saw how hoards avoided each other and the resultant amount of real combat in the arena suffered for that avoidance. So one might say that was horizontal avoidance of conflict. Now we have achieved vertical avoidance of conflict to which 1.5 and 2 sector base spacing has a positive or negative influence depending on what you are using altitude for.

And when POTW decides to fly high altitude fighter sweeps into these 15k and above hoards to furball at alt. Many run away and avoid conflict. Conflict avoidance unfortunately dictates a lot of our game play.

[The Fugitive]

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?

I think you miss understood me. I agree that taking a base with a few skilled players isn't all that hard. What is hard is convincing the "horde" that it IS possible, and more often than not a lot more fun than just being the 5th guy in on the ord bunker.

The Mafia was a big squad and we could get 20+ players on for a squad night often. Instead of hitting one base with the full force we would split it and hit a number of bases. 8 players hit one, 8 another, the last 4 deacking the next field on the list. The two teams of 8 would compete against each other seeing which could capture the base first, if at all. It was great fun, and more often than not created 3 different fighting areas. Now and then one would turn into a furball and all base taking stopped until the furball died    Then it was back to the next set of bases.

Back then you saw more people playing for their SQUAD more than you did for a "country". Some were great at taking bases, some at defending, some for just dropping everything to help out at one thing or another. You could name off a dozen squads easy off the top of your head by how active they were in the arenas. These squad drove the game play. Now squads aren't that big a deal. Join the next horde is the main plan and roll another base. Doesn't matter if you get bombs off, shoot someone down in a cap, or even get a vulch or two, as long as you were there and "part of the team" 

I think the resupply to repair the town hurts more than helps. Now a single guy can defeat a small group capture just by running supplies in at the right time. They don't even need "defense" any more just ore supplies. The logical move would be to split that horde up and send a couple guys to pork the troops/supplies at all the bases that are close/spawn in to the one under attack, but again, that takes planing, coordination, and dare I say it...... skill 

[Vraciu]

+1

[Tr1gg22]

i remember when bases had puffy

[bustr]

Fugi,

It takes time from getting your vulch on or being safe in the hoard.

Complexity in this game does not attract players to indulge mental nuance because this is not online chess for the masters. The number of tiny factors to account for at all times during a capture attempt that have been introduced in redent years. May well be too far past the complexity tolerance and frustration threshold of todays average player in our game. But, they do attract the risk averse greifer since it's intoxicating to screw over 30 guys by dropping a single box of supplies. And an M3 with supplies is more effective against a base take than diving in with a fighter to be slaughtered by that hoard padding their landed kills message. So who wants to waste all that effort to get screwed by a single M3?

Base takes are funny cat like creatures in their attention span and motivation. 30 guys can loose all of their steam when the town ack suddenly comes up after they abused that town for the last 40 minutes. Then you can watch the attack become flaccid as more guys fail to return with more ords to rework it back to the peak of the take moment. You see this around the arena as a general attitude these days over many activities which have become a tad more complex with the evolution of our game.

Wining is it's own reward. Too much uncertainty and complexity standing in the way of wining is not attractive as a challenge to the 80%ers. And they are who you need to attract to your initiatives when you want to take real-estate in this game. Or keep under 12k if you don't want to spend all night flying in circles wondering when they will come down and play. 

[Hap]

I was here in 2002. 

Re-set happened when 1 country was reduced to 1 field.  Sometimes, it was a race between 2 countries.

Much fun.

[The Fugitive]

Fugi,

It takes time from getting your vulch on or being safe in the hoard.

Complexity in this game does not attract players to indulge mental nuance because this is not online chess for the masters. The number of tiny factors to account for at all times during a capture attempt that have been introduced in redent years. May well be too far past the complexity tolerance and frustration threshold of todays average player in our game. But, they do attract the risk averse greifer since it's intoxicating to screw over 30 guys by dropping a single box of supplies. And an M3 with supplies is more effective against a base take than diving in with a fighter to be slaughtered by that hoard padding their landed kills message. So who wants to waste all that effort to get screwed by a single M3?

Base takes are funny cat like creatures in their attention span and motivation. 30 guys can loose all of their steam when the town ack suddenly comes up after they abused that town for the last 40 minutes. Then you can watch the attack become flaccid as more guys fail to return with more ords to rework it back to the peak of the take moment. You see this around the arena as a general attitude these days over many activities which have become a tad more complex with the evolution of our game.

Wining is it's own reward. Too much uncertainty and complexity standing in the way of wining is not attractive as a challenge to the 80%ers. And they are who you need to attract to your initiatives when you want to take real-estate in this game. Or keep under 12k if you don't want to spend all night flying in circles wondering when they will come down and play. 

Thats where those old squads were far superior to todays. Today a player puts up a squad and says "join my squad, it will be cool!". In the old days squads were some what selective, they trained players so that they could count on them to accomplish their part of the mission, in some cases they even spent time practicing those fundamentals. Being part of a squad didn't mean you were hanging with the "cool guys", it meant you were on a close knit team that had skills and whether it was important to you or not other players KNEW these squads and the players in them due to these skills. A case in point that many STILL remember, the LTAR's. They were the best ground pounders this game has ever seen. Name one other that was even close... I know I can't.

Sure there is lots to learn in this game, but that is what makes it such a great game. Picture a game of 7 card stud. All the possibilities, the combinations, the possible bluffs, the pressure of betting, body language, learning "tells". Now picture the same game with unlimited numbers of Aces. Same game, but wheres the fun in the second version?

[scott66]

I remember when there was nO map room...sept 56 I think

[Meatwad]

+1 vote on missing the old ways long gone. I miss getting with about half dozen and flying NOE around dar circles just to sneak an airfield way in the back corner of the map. It didnt serve much purpose, but it was fun nevertheless.

Mindanao and the uterus map were my favorites

[FLOOB]

I miss when fighter squadrons flew around running into enemy fighter squadrons and base capture was something players did when they got bored of that. There's only couple of MA fighter squadrons now. Most players now it seems aren't in squads and if they are they don't fly as squads, or they're base capture squads. I attribute the mentality that invented the term pick to this general change in how players use the MA.

[bustr]

I doubt subtle changes in the process will scare away players. I suspect changes to influence what they end up focusing on as normal game play will not be noticed as much as they will return to the well for the fun factor. Reducing the size of sectors or moving bases closer together, both will shorten transit time.

This latest fad in furballing since last year's fall grosse slauge at 30k over Europe, furballing around the bomber streams, has gotta get under control. Eventually the hoard comes down below 12k and everyone furballs. Until then, the alt heroes mill around up there wasting everyone's evening including their own. You have about 3 good hours of prime time with bodies in the arena, and then everyone gets called in for bed at the same time. Then the late nighters tend to rely less on alt because half are busy trying to sneek fields while the other half just want to get at them and defend the field of fight.

Many of the vets in this game won't waste the time trying to get above 12k during prime time. Many of the newer players hide above 12k thinking they will get lucky picking and running. So now we have vertical conflict avoidance. It influences everything including how long it takes to get back at a field being worked for a capture.

Something subtle in the process needs to change to help funnel bodies closer to each other sooner.

[Lusche]

This latest fad in furballing since last year's fall grosse slauge at 30k over Europe, furballing around the bomber streams...

I wish there was any truth to that.

[danny76]

Something subtle in the process needs to change to help funnel bodies closer to each other sooner.

[bozon]

I was here in 2002. 

Re-set happened when 1 country was reduced to 1 field.  Sometimes, it was a race between 2 countries.

Much fun.

That part I do not miss. Win conditions are much better now in terms of gameplay. I hated the siege phase on the last few fields.