The game play lately sucks!

[Naughty]

    This is exactly why the game is degrading. This HQ issue has been discussed on these forums for YEARS now, Becoming even more prevalent in the past 8 months. Emails and phone calls have been made to HTC also. But NOTHING has been offered by HTC, No comment, No solution. Infact .. not even an acknowledgement.  MANY grat players, have offered MANY great ideas to solve this problem, but without ANY feeback from HTC, we can only assume they have been ignored.

             (forgive me if this has been addressed by HTC, I don't read the forums nearly as much as I used to. But since I have not personally seen a response, and people are still complaining about the exact same issue, I can only assume it has not)

    So their customers are left frustrated and ignorant to the future of the game. I have seen so many long time players who contributed immensely to this game, simply throw up their hands and leave. 

     I used look forward all day, to getting home and playing. Last month I hardly played at all, this month I think I've logged in 3 times, and quite frankly.. I was a little peeved when I saw HTC billed my card this month, because I had planned to suspend my account for a few months, maybe even cancel completely.   

[Canspec]

The nature of the game allows the game play to evolve and this will probably be cyclical in nature over time. I believe that the biggest challenge is that everyone has a finite life in the game......eventually at some point all players will lose interest and leave(for various reasons).........some people will come and go and some will be gone for good.......hopefully others will take their place to keep it going for those that remain....that will be the challenge for the new format....

[JVboob]

Ill restate to upp with your wingman/men and drop just a couple of bombs on a base and you will have a fight

[dirtdart]

Seems to me there should be a variable on damage and timings depending on how many people are logged on. In days of old when you had 4-500 people online, dropping HQ to enable captures made sense. Theses days when you have 25 people on, dropping HQ is a smartasses milkrun.

I am about a year from being able to come back into the game. I hope it is still around.

[Obie303]

I had a 3 year break from AH.  I've been back for about a year now and I've noticed that the HQ bombing is pretty rampant since my return.  There hasn't been a day that I'm on when I see the strats flashing.  I don't understand why the change all of a sudden. 

On a side note, I've also been accused of cheating pretty much once a week in a PM.  Have you seen my score??? 

This isn't a complaint, just an observation.  The reason why I returned was because I did miss out on the flying.  I still suck, but for $15 dollars a month, it's still pretty fun. 

Looking forward to AH3.   

Obie

[Nefarious]

The game play lately sucks!

Not seeing it.

[Guppy35]

You are seeing it though Nef.  Look at the numbers for special events.   Even FSO isn't what it used to be.   The best advertising for special events is a vibrant and full main arena.  Combine the drop in numbers with the state of gameplay in the MA and it hurts all over.

To sell Special Events the game has to give people a reason to get hooked.  When even the long time diehards are logging in and logging off right away thanks to the idiocy of a few, that's not a good sign.

[The Fugitive]

Not seeing it.

Two things, one, how often do you see that in the mains? As that picture is named "41715FRANCE.jpg" I'm thinking that is a shot from a scenario, not the mains. There are the occasional buff raids, but more often than not it is a lone buff sneaking in to either milk run citys, or drop HQ for sh$ts and grins.

Second, not a lot of people would call that a fight. Some who are good at shooting would call it a turkey shoot, other , like the majority of the players would call it suicide hope to take one or two with them knowing they wouldn't have the time to get back to them anyway.

Whats the point of having over 100 planes when players only seem to use 8 or 10 of them?

Whats the point of having 30 vehicles if players only use 3 or 4 of them?

Whats the point or having an HQ that can be flatten by a single player?

Whats the point of having a mission planner if all anyone ever does is "grab the fastest cannon bird with bombs and run noe to yada, yada, yada"?

Game play is going to change as different types of players migrate through the game. However, when things get twisted out of what you SHOULD be able to expect in a COMBAT game that "takes the art and science of vintage WW1 and WW2 air combat and sets it in a high intensity online multiplayer environment.  Hundreds of players simultaneously battle it out against each other in massive aerial dogfights and bomber raids.", adjustments must be made or we will continue to see the slow exodus of players that we have been watching for a while now.

[Nefarious]

You are seeing it though Nef.  Look at the numbers for special events.   Even FSO isn't what it used to be. 

Numbers are Numbers, that's it. FSO is FSO whether the numbers are 50 vs 50 or 250 vs 250. Right now it hovers at 125 vs 125 and me and my squad are having a blast.

Two things, one, how often do you see that in the mains? As that picture is named "41715FRANCE.jpg" I'm thinking that is a shot from a scenario, not the mains.

It is from FSO, which happens every Friday Night. It may not be an 8th AF bomber raid every Friday, as it changes from month to month, but the fights are there and they are planned and usually well executed.

I hardly fly in the MA, over 15 years in this game. The Main Arena stopped doing it for me in 2004 or so, I want historical fights and more realistic settings with squad mates who put mission over squad accolades.

If the Main Arena was a historical battlefield arena, I would be there, but it's not, so I am not.

[Lusche]

On a side note, I've also been accused of cheating pretty much once a week in a PM.

While there had always been such accusations in AH, the depth and frequency has (imho) really gone through the roof.

When I joined AH, trhe occasional nutbag ranting about that (or 'hacking') would have met some serious flak on the country channel. These days, not anymore.
I remember two recent nights in tank crater were literally everybody on my team but me agreed on the 'fact' that this game is totally hacked by players like DR7 and others. I was speechless.

In my opinion, this is far more damaging to the game than any other thing in AH. But there's also not much that you, as an individual player, can do about that anymore. Even detailed explanations about game mechanisms don't help when new players learn from well established large squads that abotu everything is hacked and everyone cheats on them.

[JunkyII]

Nef, some can't get into the Special Events because they only have a short time to play.

And sometimes the historical match ups make for some pretty lame fights. Like F4F vs Zeros, that one was terrible because the zeros historical tactics actually made them timid...because they didnt have to fight....then there is the buffs flying above 25K...seen about 4 threads in the past year.....

The one event that doesn't change (except day of the month because we only have one host) is KOTH. You can expect to find good fights in there even if the MA is getting stale. Would like to see it get back to Fri and Sat.

[glzsqd]

Nef, some can't get into the Special Events because they only have a short time to play.

And sometimes the historical match ups make for some pretty lame fights. Like F4F vs Zeros

I beg to differ.

[Lusche]

It is from FSO, which happens every Friday Night. It may not be an 8th AF bomber raid every Friday, as it changes from month to month, but the fights are there and they are planned and usually well executed

...and at 5am 


Not that it matters pretty much to me personally, as I, being in total opposition to you, have given up on special events years ago anway 

For me it's all about the MA, and during my usual times it's now between less than 20 at noon, about 80-120 during prime and maybe 160 at late evening during the week.
Some gameplay mechanisms that had been put in for substantially higher player counts start to fail with numbers that low, notably the combination of HQ downtime, large maps and 12 hour rule.

[Guppy35]

Numbers are Numbers, that's it. FSO is FSO whether the numbers are 50 vs 50 or 250 vs 250. Right now it hovers at 125 vs 125 and me and my squad are having a blast.

It is from FSO, which happens every Friday Night. It may not be an 8th AF bomber raid every Friday, as it changes from month to month, but the fights are there and they are planned and usually well executed.

I hardly fly in the MA, over 15 years in this game. The Main Arena stopped doing it for me in 2004 or so, I want historical fights and more realistic settings with squad mates who put mission over squad accolades.

If the Main Arena was a historical battlefield arena, I would be there, but it's not, so I am not.

I'm not telling you anything you don't know in regards to my interest in history.  Bottom line for me is the survival of special events is getting people invested in the game and creating an environment that encourages them to explore all aspects of AH.  New folks start in the MA not special events.  If the MA isn't healthy the health of special events suffer.

[RotBaron]

Make the HQ an object that must be scouted in order to know the location???

Oh, and harden the kg requirements...