If it sounds like heaven then why aren't you still playing at Warbirds or FA where there are only a few guys BnZin each left?
Again, your point of view is the only one that matters. Latrobe who has been here for years couldn't possibly know what he is talking about, nor could Junky. Who are these clowns? So obviously the OP couldn't know what he's talking about as you can't find him on the score page.
I believe you have completely missed the point of the posts. What was posted, that in this big old sand box it no longer lends it self to turning and burn/knife fights like we had years ago, and that were for the most part the norm. We, well I'm not complaining, just stating a fact.
A few years ago it was hordes. Those have been easing up but I think that is more due to the general numbers being lower. The "new thing" is these guys who think being at the top of the score board is cool. What ever, this too shall pass. The point is that while everyone says "the game hasn't changed!" explain why we can't hit 300 players on a good night any more instead of the 1000 players we were poking at a few years ago? Something has changed.
Good old knock down drag out fights are pretty much history in this game where it use to be an all night affair. We use to log back in the next day only to find half the guys we were flying with the night before were still at it .... and only a little bit more drunk. Not any more. You log off for some dinner and when you come back it's whole new crew. There is a lot less combat in this game which is sad as it is suppose to be a combat game.
Sitting up on your perch, diving down and picking guy after guy isn't fighting, it's picking. It takes little skill and a half decent aim. Taking bases with 30-40 players isn't fighting, it takes very little skill and just a wiliness to die a lot. I'm not telling anyone how to play the game, and never have, I'm just pointing out how much of the game they are missing. It's like playing poker where all the cards are dealt face-up on the board. No skill, no challenge.
The OP has some points, whether you agree with them or not doesn't really matter. He felt he needed to get it off his chest. He remembers the game a bit differently, as many do....or so it seems. The point is the game has to change. Many see it it on the edge of extinction, not only here, but you hear it in the game as well. Numbers continue to drop. New players are chased away by loudmouths on 200 or on their own country channel and yes even directly on private channels. Something has got to be done, if not what we have WILL continue in the slide it IS in. If everything was "OK" the numbers wouldn't be dropping, they would at least stay stable.
You seem to correlate a energy fighting flight style with a lack of skill. I need not remind you our last several encounters where you attacked me from a disadvantage, one time even 1v3 on the deck. How did that end again?
The point here is that energy fighting is not a lack of skill, rather it readily makes apparent the deficiencies in other pilots' lack of skills. You, on the other hand, seem to make some sort of Freudian connection with gameplay tactics vs. overall player satisfaction in a world-wide sense.
My opinion isn't the only one that matters, but I can also count on one hand the number of players I've encountered in the 12 months I've been here that actually understand air combat tactics outside of Aces High (I'm sure there's more that are here, but the low number I've seen is indicative of a general lack of awareness overall). When the average player here is too busy whining and posting about a front-quarter shot, that speaks volumes to the experience said player has in the genre of WWII air combat games. Go to any other sim and see what tactics are in use. You'll find, to a "T", the majority of experienced players will use the tactics I outlined above. That is where my opinion comes from, and it is readily validated by ACM and the genre as a whole.
"Sitting up on your perch and picking someone," to quote you, is killing them. You decry gaming tactics, yet you fail to realize your entire classification of the term "pick" is purely a gaming aspect. In air combat, it doesn't matter where you were shot or what tactic your opponent used - you were simply shot down. The same applies here - being shot down is being
shot down. Any other attempt to call it anything else is this: an
excuse to validate your playstyle.
"Good old knock down, drag out fights" - this is a term for two pilots who are screwing up, each trying to screw up less than the other. You highlight this as if it's the epitome of air combat, when in reality it's the very thing that ACM was invented to prevent. The goal of offensive ACM is to shoot down your opponent as quickly as possible. If you cannot shoot down your opponent as quickly as possible, then you're doing something wrong when it comes to ACM. And that's fine, you might enjoy that; however, to decry others who don't do things wrong is, yet again, an excuse.
I'd be more than happy to take you to the DA and show you first hand that it wouldn't matter if I had alt on you or not - the fights would proceed the same way. This is because energy fighting doesn't require altitude, and it can handle turnfighting 1v1 just fine. If you were interested in learning the truth, you'd accept; however, I doubt you will (and I doubt most would) because it's easier to believe in a romantic notion of what works than in your actual performance. Just ask Lazer.
I've played several flight sims, and all of them go the same way. This one is no different.
-=S=-
