Few suggestions

[Scca]

This statement is just wrong.  First, you can't "sneak" bases.  It's not possible.  The lack of a fight is not because one side is attacking a base, it's the lack of anyone upping to defend that creates the lack of a fight.   An attacking force by it's very existence is creating combat but only if another force shows up to oppose.  The base flashes, or the town flashes, there is no way to avoid that simple fact.  IF there is a lack of combat, it's not due to an attacking force.

The definition of "sneak" in this case is "To choose a base to attack, and approach that base in a 'sneaky' way that most players would not notice the attack until it's too late to do anything about it" or "Kill all the ack (and white flag a town in the case of an air field) and position an goon or M3 so that the defender doesn't identify the base take in time to act"  Those are my definitions of a sneak

NOE for an hour over water around the outside edge of a map to rear field base is a "sneak" attempt. 

The day I flew NOE over a mountain in a goon while the NME thought the reason for the flashing base with the fight over the water 10 miles away and took the base.  I sure felt sneaky then

I guess it's all in how hard you want to make the definition. 

[FBKampfer]

Scca is correct. The enemy doesn't have to be entirely unaware the base is under attack to have the base be snuck (sneaked?).

Basically, if you attempt to get the goon in before the enemy has time to react (NOE hordes where troops drop with the bombs and rely on sheer numbers to make it through the ack until it is down would qualify), attacking a base the enemy has no reasonable cause to closely monitor, etc. all attempt to avoid combat.

Do not lie and pretend that the intended goal is to fight through resistance to capture the base in 100% of cases, as this is patently false, and can be proven so.


But regardless of your attempts to white wash the matter, it still remains detrimental to the gameplay. I personally believe even the "winz teh war!!,$" armchair generals would derive even greater enjoyment from my proposed system, even though they might initially object until they figure out new strategies and tactics.

[Traveler]

The definition of "sneak" in this case is "To choose a base to attack, and approach that base in a 'sneaky' way that most players would not notice the attack until it's too late to do anything about it" or "Kill all the ack (and white flag a town in the case of an air field) and position an goon or M3 so that the defender doesn't identify the base take in time to act"  Those are my definitions of a sneak
NOE for an hour over water around the outside edge of a map to rear field base is a "sneak" attempt. 
The day I flew NOE over a mountain in a goon while the NME thought the reason for the flashing base with the fight over the water 10 miles away and took the base.  I sure felt sneaky then
I guess it's all in how hard you want to make the definition.

Scca is correct. The enemy doesn't have to be entirely unaware the base is under attack to have the base be snuck (sneaked?).
Basically, if you attempt to get the goon in before the enemy has time to react (NOE hordes where troops drop with the bombs and rely on sheer numbers to make it through the ack until it is down would qualify), attacking a base the enemy has no reasonable cause to closely monitor, etc. all attempt to avoid combat.
Do not lie and pretend that the intended goal is to fight through resistance to capture the base in 100% of cases, as this is patently false, and can be proven so.
But regardless of your attempts to white wash the matter, it still remains detrimental to the gameplay. I personally believe even the "winz teh war!!,$" armchair generals would derive even greater enjoyment from my proposed system, even though they might initially object until they figure out new strategies and tactics.

It really doesn’t matter, my point being that all based and towns flash, when nme come within range, if no one defends, it’s not the attackers that are avoiding the fight.  It doesn’t matter how long it took the attackers to reach the point where the base starts to flash, it always flashes and if no one ups to defend it’s not the attackers fault.

[Latrobe]

I remember the capture order system. That was very horribly implemented. It was very obviously going to fail as it felt like they really didn't put in any thought into how to make it work. They just threw it into the game with no thought, saw it fail (as it was bound to in the state they introduced it as), and got rid of it for good. The idea is a solid one that can work and other games have made it work. Planetside 2 is one such game. However, I don't think the system would be good for Aces High. The great thing about Aces High is the freedom you get. Free to fly what you want (almost) whenever you want, attack whatever base you want when you want, or go and do anything you can think of.

I think a lot of the problems we're having right now stems from the low numbers we currently have. It looks to me that the majority of players currently playing in the MA are the base take war winning type, closely followed by GV guys, then dedicated bomber pilots, and lastly the fighter pilot/furballers bringing up the rear as a tiny minority. Base takers want to take bases and win the war in the least amount of time with the least resistance. Best way to do that is NOE raid undefended bases and with the current numbers that's pretty easy to do. There just aren't enough players to go around on the larger (and some medium maps even) to defend everything. The majorities in this game (base takers) are too busy NOE hording undefended bases to defend their own bases, GVers are all in TT or at some spawn camping it, bomber pilots are on hour long runs to strats/HQ or bombing towns/bases, and there just aren't enough fighter pilot/furballers left to do everything. I think if we can get more players into this game, get the numbers back up to at last 500, then a lot of the problems will start go away.

[FBKampfer]

Traveler, the way you make it out, you expect people to just be watching the map, scanning for NOE sneaks. That either requires sitting in the tower, and actively not participating in the game, or for people to compromise their ability to fight elsewhere by distracting themselves.

And I would say that that people are able to plan things and play the game in such a way that they are COUNTING ON little to no resistance is a huge problem in itself. And this is without question what many count on; I've flown for all sides, and seen that it occurs everywhere. Hell, that's what my squad does in large part. I don't particularly like it, but I help on squad nights and when many are on for the sake of participating with the squad.


Ideally we would see sneaks not being a practical option for winning the war, but captures coming more easily.

Perhaps a better method would be requiring 40% of enemy bases captured, but place a certain number of bases worth more towards winning the war than a regular base. To facilitate easier capture, perhaps lower white flag limit to 50-60% of town down, and 5 troops needed.

[Scca]

Traveler, the way you make it out, you expect people to just be watching the map, scanning for NOE sneaks. That either requires sitting in the tower, and actively not participating in the game, or for people to compromise their ability to fight elsewhere by distracting themselves.

Not really.. hear "BASE UNDER ATTACK", open clipboard map, see flashing base in rear area, call out on country "V?? flashing noe????"  Someone will take a look...

Continue vulch/camp

[FBKampfer]

That thing is going off all the time. It's literally no help.

[Toad]

Fewer numbers? Smaller maps. Right now you almost have early AH numbers with mid-AH huge maps.

More action? Bases a little closer together, reaction time shorter.

Never, ever gonna happen.