No country dar

[BaldEagl]

only P*!&ies complain about no dar. the fight is right there at the blinking bases HQ or no HQ. these guys are just too scared to take it because they have less intel and dont want to risk looking at it without it being a sure thing.

any base that has an enemy player near it will flash with hq up or down. finding a fight isn't the issue. the security of watching dots on a map is what people are really complaining about. it takes a lot more effort to scan for the enemy vs waiting for them to come to your territory and bounce them after you climb to alt from beyond visual range.

If I've been logged on and have some general ideas of where the fights are and the magnitude of those fights then dar going down isn't really an issue.  It's when you log on with 20 minutes or an hour to play then have to go jumping all over the map scanning from the towers to try to figure out what's going on that you might as well just log off.

If I'm going to play I want a realistic chance of having fun.  Not flying into a horde, be it friendly or enemy, or flying to a flashing base to find a single Panzer or... the list goes on.  At that point I can probably find something better to do with my limited time.

[lunatic1]

so dar on festers map doesent have a color other than gray so what.HQ is down and you can't see the dots on the screen--so what--if you can't see the red enemy planes coming in over your base--esp and air field-esp when the city starts flashing when the dar ring is crossed...then you need glasses...people here have gotten lazy..when the town starts flashing--up the fighters--look at surrounding air fields-to figure direction..whiners and cry-babies here..u want this game on a silver platter....every body hollers for new maps--and a guy goes thru the time and trouble to make one...and still people gripe and complain--the map is to big--the dar bar is not in color.SO WHAT!
do you play the game for the dar bar? or do you play for the fun--shooting down planes--destroying gv's,ships, destroying towns winning the maps-making friends-HAVING FUN!!! people are returning to play this game-new players are coming in--I saw a new squad with new people tonite..I doubt they want to read the negative vibe a lot of you'all put out..i like festers new map--it's big a lot of stuff is spread out-- most bases are close togeather--and it has a lot of water<--that's a cool feature- it looks like fester's map will  time out--then we go back to the same old boring mudane maps--and you'll see the same gripes--map is too small--map is too big.bye

[pembquist]

During busy time it's not a big deal makes some sense, at slow time it is an irritant that if you poled the 15 people actually playing you would find is unwanted and pointless.

[Vraciu]

Yep.  Big map + no dar + low player count = lots of time looking for fights.

Its been suggested before but I believe a fixed downtime would be better.  Maybe 15 minutes.

I don't recall how WBs dealt with this but I liked it better.

One thing that makes no sense is why with HQ down local dar is still inop.     The local aerodrome doesn't have a radio?   Or maybe vice versa.   Lose close range dar but surely there are spotters giving vague locations like within a grid or so.    Something...

But then again, I advocate a button that will instantly give the map across my full screen.   When I have had a map on a kneeboard I could always take it off and unfold it.......

[Vraciu]

I just logged off.  All dar was down for us the entire time.  For a game that promotes air combat why make it so hard to find said combat?

I get that strats and HQ and everything should mean something.  Here's an idea: Any time any type of damage is done to radar you can still see dot dar within visual range of the/a field, but not friendly/enemy differentiation until they are somewhat closer so as to be able to make an ID on the plane, thus simulating people on the field and in the tower looking around and sending reports.

+1

It happened around 9 tonight PAC time. I was sleepy, couldn't stay awake long enough to find a fight... Logged off. Bummer. I'll be back though. 

+1

[Vraciu]

This is really getting old.  I agree either shorten the time or eliminate this irritating feature of AH.  Lots of Vox traffic on this newest trend.

Totally agree.

I think ridiculous is the word you were looking for.

I stand corrected!  

[Vraciu]

What happens when HQ goes down is a rotten dynamic to have in a *combat* game. Actually it hurts combatants on BOTH sides-if the enemy doesn't have much clue where to up, they are less likely to give you a fight. What can be more boring and disappointing than flying to a base, only to find it undefended or barely defended? (Notwitstanding all the back-slapping and "Yay us!" that most of the green guys around you will emit when they kill their inanimate objects and drop some drunks on town ) And in a combat game where players are leaving because it is too hard to fights at times, such a dynamic seems a bit suicidal.

+1

[EagleDNY]

I like some of the ideas in this thread.

+1 to the idea of HQ having its down Dar - no reason for it not to. 
+1 to having massive Ack at the HQ - you should be flying through hellish puffy as soon as you hit the dar ring - again, no reason for it not to be defended to the utmost.
+1 to the idea of HQ being a strat / groups of buildings that have to be destroyed to take it down a percentage - I would suggest that the % down of the HQ affects the refresh rate of the dar bars like we did in the BoB in FSO.  Instead of having the dar bars refresh instantly, put a 1 to 5 minute lag in the dar bar refresh tied to the percentage that HQ is down.   When HQ is 100% down, the Dar Bars vanish, but regular local dot dar from airfields stays up regardless.

[Naughty]

        I guess all you guys missed the memo..  AH is no longer about air combat. It is about hordeing and rolling bases.  But look on the bright side. Soon we will have pretty trees and water !
 

[Vraciu]

       I guess all you guys missed the memo..  AH is no longer about air combat. It is about hordeing and rolling bases.  But look on the bright side. Soon we will have pretty trees and water !
 

WBs tried that....   Didn't end up so well.....

12 players online during peak.

I slogged this death march before...   Perhaps it is inevitable.  Maybe this type of game just isn't "cool" any more-never mind that WT seems to be thriving on some level.  That said, our world is about instant messaging and instant gratification.   If we expect to grow this game making it impossible to find a fight...instantly.    Fuhgetaboutit.


"If you like Warbirds better then go back."   Meh.   Remember, if you're the last one to drown you don't "win" anything.

[Wiley]

WBs tried that....   Didn't end up so well.....

12 players online during peak.

I slogged this death march before...   Perhaps it is inevitable.  Maybe this type of game just isn't "cool" any more-never mind that WT seems to be thriving on some level.  That said, our world is about instant messaging and instant gratification.   If we expect to grow this game making it impossible to find a fight...instantly.    Fuhgetaboutit.


"If you like Warbirds better then go back."   Meh.   Remember, if you're the last one to drown you don't "win" anything.

WT and WoT do well because it's essentially counterstrike with vehicles.  Rounds, instant action, short bite sized 'fair' fights that give the people something specific to do in that short time frame.

And if this game ever goes down that road, I won't be playing it either.  Open world isn't popular, but for those of us that like it nothing else will do.

Wiley.

[pembquist]

And if this game ever goes down that road, I won't be playing it either.  Open world isn't popular, but for those of us that like it nothing else will do.

Wiley.

For the life of me I don't understand why it isn't more popular. I think it's a joystick thing. I want to be fooled into thinking I'm flying not playing a game based on flying.

[Wiley]

For the life of me I don't understand why it isn't more popular. I think it's a joystick thing. I want to be fooled into thinking I'm flying not playing a game based on flying.

Two reasons.  $0.50 a day is a major hurdle compared to $0.00 per day, even though the microtransactions might add up to more.

Secondly the achilles heel of an open world game is that hording can and does occur.  If numbers are high enough, it's ok because most of the time a counterhorde appears to oppose them.  When numbers aren't there or if enough of the opponents aren't interested in fighting, the horde rolls unopposed and the few defenders get frustrated because it's not fair.

Wiley.

[Vraciu]

WT and WoT do well because it's essentially counterstrike with vehicles.  Rounds, instant action, short bite sized 'fair' fights that give the people something specific to do in that short time frame.

And if this game ever goes down that road, I won't be playing it either.  Open world isn't popular, but for those of us that like it nothing else will do.

Wiley.

Well I am not saying we need to do that exactly, but we do need to facilitate more action.   Knocking down dar bars when you have 50 players online isn't good for gameplay.

[Skyyr]

Two reasons.  $0.50 a day is a major hurdle compared to $0.00 per day, even though the microtransactions might add up to more.

Secondly the achilles heel of an open world game is that hording can and does occur.  If numbers are high enough, it's ok because most of the time a counterhorde appears to oppose them.  When numbers aren't there or if enough of the opponents aren't interested in fighting, the horde rolls unopposed and the few defenders get frustrated because it's not fair.

Wiley.

Full radar coverage goes both ways. It shows where the fighters are and where they're not. It actually serves more as a defensive mechanism than an offensive one. If anything, it's easier to avoid fights and protect bombers, provide escort, etc. with radar than it is without.

Conversely, full radar allows countering of hordes much better. Hordes can be spotted grids out and can be managed defensively with less numbers, instead of the whole unknown dar estimate we have now.

I'm not sure why people are so cainotophobic here, especially to ideas that have worked well for years in the genre.