So what is the mentality behind ack running?

[SFRT - Frenchy]

I run when it's pretty obvious I can't do much except giving an easy kill. Usually it's like 2-3 guys showing up at once in far superior dogfighters.

What I fail to understand is the ones running from a 1 on 1 straight to their ack, especially when they are excellent sticks. I always record who they are and often go get killed in the ack myself to find out. I've been surprised by some of the 'high profile' names but it's fair for them to play the way they wish. 

[Skyyr]

The first rule of the MA is that there are no rules. If you want a fair fight, go to the DA.

[Ack-Ack]

Ack running seems to be the norm in AH2 anymore.

Players have always run to acks, it was the "norm" back in 2000 as it is now.

[ink]

wait.. didn't you spend time in prison?    


i actually tend to agree with you in your approach to the game.. fight for yourself, don't gang, make it a test of individual skill. etc.

it's a game though. not everyone is good enough to cut it by themselves. they need help (squads, ganging)

i don't know what people who have less skill in this game than others using whatever method they need to get an advantage has to do with your perception of the state of the world. no matter how lame their tactic.. call it lame, and move on. don't read so much into it lest you become bustr.

I did yes.... spent 10 years before I was 22 locked up...but what does that have to do with my assessment of the situation.



the state of the world....Aces High is just a mini version....

[asterix]

Haven`t played for a while due to some hardware related problems, but I used to do a lot of ack running during my gametime. Not so much during the beginning but after a while I could pretty much predict when I was about to get shot down and then it was nose down, stick stir and ack. Even if I told myself at the start of a flight that this is going to be a fight to the death and no running it all went out the door as soon as I felt at a disadvantage. It feels bad when I get shot down, it feels evil good when ack, wirble etc clears my 6, I feel neutral when someone runs away from me (usually I`m not going to chase), sometimes I get increasingly p****d when someone starts chasing me and just won`t give up. Ack running has paid off countless of times because of a fight that followed soon after that. There is only one kind of losing in this game for me and that is getting shot down. Someone telling me that I lost because I ran to the ack is like me telling someone "congratulations you`re winner" after running to the ack, in other words doesn`t feel like it.

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Players have always run to acks, it was the "norm" back in 2000 as it is now.

But it didn't help you much till HT biffed up the ack damage.

[BaldEagl]

What a ridiculous topic.

People run to ack because it gives them an advantage and... whoa!  You never see anyone trying to gain an advantage in the MA.

 

[DmonSlyr]

Do not run.

Face your opponent with all you have.

If you die you have something to learn.

Latrobe, you once said this to me. I have not forgotten it since.

That's actually a pretty badarse quote.

[GhostCDB]

Ack is lyfe.

[GhostCDB]

The first rule of the MA is that there are no rules. If you want a fair fight, go to the DA.

If there are no rules how could that be the first rule 

[caldera]

If there are three or more planes swarming me, I might run to ack.  The usual reason is a pilot wound.  Doesn't happen a lot, even though most time is spent defending friendly tundra.  Much of what I fly is too slow to make it to the ack anyway.   

Edit: I won't run to wirbels though, that's uber gay.

[XxDaSTaRxx]

Ack is lyfe.

And so is pretending to be in the Navy? You're good at that.

[Ack-Ack]

[Triton28]

 

Everybody has a threshold for running into ack.  It just sucks when somebody else has a threshold much lower than your own.   

[NatCigg]

Ack running seems to be the norm in AH2 anymore. Every single arena is infested with it. I've always made the joke that people run to their ack to "protect murrrr scuuuurrrr!" but I really wonder what it is that makes people run to their ack all the time? What is going through their minds when they choose to just give up and run? Is it really all about the score, or is there something I'm missing?

The only reasons that I can think of that people run to ack before even trying to fight are to protect their score, giving up fighting someone better than them, or are legitimately scared to die in a video game. I want to believe that people don't run to ack to protect score because score is the most pointless thing in the game and never accurately portrays a players skill (and never will), but there are some people out there that do run just to protect score. Not everyone runs for score though, right? There's just no way that 99% of the MA is completely obsessed with score. What is the reason that others run? Is it because they know that they just can't beat the person they are fighting? This one I kind of get. No one likes losing, no one likes dying over and over again, but what do you think you're doing by running to ack? Losing! Whether you're getting shot down or running to ack you have lost. There is no difference between the two. Besides, you will never be able to get better and eventually kill the people always killing you if you never fight and learn! Or is it really just that people are truly terrified of dying in a video game? How? Why? If you die, so what? We get unlimited lives in AH2! If you die then just reup! Why is AH2 the only game that I know of where the majority of the players are afraid of fighting? In other games that I play where you only get ONE life people still rush straight at the enemy and fight. AH2 you get UNLIMITED lives! There is no penalty for dying in this game. I just don't understand it. I've tried countless times to try and get in the head of an ack runner and figure out why they choose to run before even trying to fight and I'm just at a lose. I can not figure it out. Nothing makes sense.

What is the reason for people just giving up, hitting the deck, and running to the nearest friendly ack? I have a feeling this thread is going to go way off the rails, but I really want to know what ack runners are thinking when they decide to just give up so I can try and help them get better.

It is evolution. you killed all the non-ack runners and now only ack runners live.  must be some kind of intelligence there if the ack runner is the one still alive. kudos ack runner! Its a tough world out there. cept for knight F-4Us that swoop from 15k and run. they need to die as the pick swine is a scurge that needs control.