Off hours-- or should that be low population WARNING>>RANT

[FESS67]

Peak time players close your eyes now - what you are about to read is that far removed from what you see you will never believe it.

horrible.  Totally terrible experience.  45 players logged in.  maybe 200 (I have never bothered to count) bases.  More like 50 bases that are actually 'in' the game.  Yummy..we get a base and a bit each.

Reality...we cannot (struggle) find a fight against a human player.  BUT WAIT.....you can find a fight...it is at the flashing base!!!....lift a plane..oops no planes.....GVs......that's where you lose me.  Back to the air stuff...

Log on...find a fight...wooohooo.....fight dries up.....look for a fight....fight found..woohooo...fight dries up....look for a fight..................nope.. ....look harder.......come on you noob!!......nope......oh wait!!!  dar bar!!!  auger, change fields, rolling!!!!.....bomb and bail......look for a fight.....For the next 2 hours you hunt and hunt for an air fight....you find a couple.....<sigh>

Seriously?  Is that what we have come to?

I understand that we all have our preferred way of playing and our preferred future for this game, be it fighters, buffs or gv.  I just have to say this and I think I am right...(ps.  those that know me know I say that only 5% of the time.  The other 95% I hold back)....now you know how strongly I feel about this.

You are getting it wrong and it is showing very clearly in the off hours.  I believe it has contributed to the decline from 600 players to 220 players in prime time.........the crux of the matter???

Make people fight!!!  It really is as simple as that.

All those bases with 12 players to defend them!!! come one...stupidity.
Wait..we can run GVs......great, radar is down at 4 bases, they are flashing......air or ground?  dunno!!   Ok I hate the ground game...in fact I have no ground warfare based games in my collection (I have 4 air based)...soooo I take off and patrol the base for 30 minutes.....takes that long to go green flag......I fight nothing........I see another base flash...rinse repeat......4 hours played, 5 kills achieved and a stat for rank is kills per hour....grrr

Point of the story.  The current set up encourages many people to avoid a fight (air).  Need to find a way to encourage that fight.

IMO you are trying to be all things to all men..fighters, bombers, tanks, AA gunners, Carriers

All you are doing is bleeding your player base away.  Since I cannot find fighter fights in here I have been in DCS and RoF.  Take note, people are leaving for a reason and it is not your graphics..they are fine......gameplay is the killer and you have to make a choice.  buff, GV, fighter.  Your new version will look great, I am following it.....but bad gameplay will out rank graphics every time...you know it

[Krupinski]

I have an idea to promote fights. Two countries and a 1 hour switch time.   

But it'll never happen. 

[Someguy63]

I have an idea to promote fights. Two countries and a 1 hour switch time.   

But it'll never happen. 

Remember the 12 hour rule? 

[Copprhed]

I'm sorry that you feel that way. I learned to GV, and found it's quite entertaining, and it can be a hoot, when you and a couple of other guys roll up a few bases until, guess what? someone comes to defend. Did you know one guy can do a damned good job of defending a vbase, if he tries? If you limit your game play to one single type of activity, I have a hard time feeling any sympathy, since the game offers a plethora of things to do. The problem, IMHO isn't the game, or the low numbers, but the refusal to adapt. If you want to have fun, HAVE FUN! Don't limit it to only one thing, it doesn't hurt anyone but yourself.

[Nunz31]

It's not exactly true that Aces High offers a plethora of things to do. If I wanted to GV, there would be a number of other games that do GVing much better. Aces High captures air combat in a way that many other games don't. So his points are valid, that hopefully for us who play during the day, there will be a remedy for the lack of air combat.

[Vraciu]

And ENY is ruining good fights when numbers get low.  It causes lots of people to log. 

After we drop below 100 players just turn it off.

[Vraciu]

I'm sorry that you feel that way. I learned to GV, and found it's quite entertaining, and it can be a hoot, when you and a couple of other guys roll up a few bases until, guess what? someone comes to defend. Did you know one guy can do a damned good job of defending a vbase, if he tries? If you limit your game play to one single type of activity, I have a hard time feeling any sympathy, since the game offers a plethora of things to do. The problem, IMHO isn't the game, or the low numbers, but the refusal to adapt. If you want to have fun, HAVE FUN! Don't limit it to only one thing, it doesn't hurt anyone but yourself.

If he wants to have fun alone he has X-Plane or FS.  Don't be narrow.

[Wiley]

I'm sorry that you feel that way. I learned to GV, and found it's quite entertaining, and it can be a hoot, when you and a couple of other guys roll up a few bases until, guess what? someone comes to defend. Did you know one guy can do a damned good job of defending a vbase, if he tries? If you limit your game play to one single type of activity, I have a hard time feeling any sympathy, since the game offers a plethora of things to do. The problem, IMHO isn't the game, or the low numbers, but the refusal to adapt. If you want to have fun, HAVE FUN! Don't limit it to only one thing, it doesn't hurt anyone but yourself.

I among others am here to fly against other people.  If I wanted to GV, I would be GVing.  If I wanted to toolshed or take undefended bases, I'd be toolshedding or taking undefended bases.

The fact is even during primetime there are times when there's over 100 enemies logged in, and enough bardar that at maximum, there's a dozen enemy planes in the air and they're mostly spread out milk running towns or strats.  During the day, I've seen times where there were 2 or 3 enemy planes visible on my country's fronts.

I'm sorry I don't find sitting in a GV fun, but it really is that simple.

Wiley.

[Jed]

I feel about the same way...  Have been playing DCS more .  I  have grown tired of the low level furballs in the ack..   The gameplay has gone downhill and I am hoping it will come back or change with new release. 

Hub

[SlipKnt]

We actually do have a lot of control in this game.

A few things have happened though...

The DA seemingly dwindled down.  At least when I log on.  I just don't see as much in there.

During those hours the LW is small in population and fights are hard to find, check out EW or MW.  Still small numbers, but you can find fights in there.

I also recommend the AvA during their scheduled events.  There are ALWAYS good fights in there.

I know I haven't been putting many hours in over the last year.  Largely because I moved across the country, got a new job, bought a home, and just now finally settling back in.

I don't normally just up and fly around looking for fights though.  My fulfillment in the game is a little bit of everything.  One thing I noticed is once we get moving, we usually generate fights against defenders. 

I understand the rant.  It has gotten boring during certain hours.  When it does, I usually go to another arena and try a few things out and eventually find my way back.

 

[SPKmes]

Unfortunately slipknot....at our time the other arenas are dead.... you may have 1 person in MW but they are just milking and ensuring there is no chance of interaction.... The map up at the moment is the worst for our timezone (our = south pacific) sooooo many high alt bomber guys .... and if there is an inkling of an enemy con the fights are gone... to be fair there are some who like to have a bit of actual PvP but even these people are becoming less and less..... damn man...highlight o my login time sometimes is searching for cybro in his jeep...but even he is just sitting in field hangers most of the time now...

[Copprhed]

If you chose to limit yourself to the one activity, it's your choice. Noone else is responsible for your choices. So, if you choose to limit your own gameplay, voluntarily, by no fault of Hitech, or any other player, you have only one person to complain to. Saying "I only want to play one thing, and won't do anything else, so the game has gone bad" is not true.

[Vraciu]

If you chose to limit yourself to the one activity, it's your choice. Noone else is responsible for your choices. So, if you choose to limit your own gameplay, voluntarily, by no fault of Hitech, or any other player, you have only one person to complain to. Saying "I only want to play one thing, and won't do anything else, so the game has gone bad" is not true.

Aces HIGH.   


HINT.  HINT. 


The lack of opponents is a limit.  Bury your head as you wish.  Fess has a valid point.   Something needs to be tweaked.

Empty arenas are not fun unless you consider watching grass grow entertainment. 

This is a multi-player platform. Without adversaries it does not serve its core function nor fulfill its primary purpose.  People can do other things, including offline, rather than drone around an empty arena and find more enjoyment.   That's a problem.   

[Bizman]

If you chose to limit yourself to the one activity, it's your choice. ---

I suppose by "the one activity" you mean flying, gv'ing or gunning within Aces High instead of doing something else instead. Doing any of them without an opponent is not fun. If it was, no one would pay $15 a month, they'd all be offline flying planes, driving gv's or gunning. Actually, offline has sometimes more action than the main arenas together! At least there you can find something to shoot down. And they'll keep coming back no matter how many times you drop them.

Capturing fields as a one man team isn't fun, flying around looking at landscapes isn't fun (ever noticed they look the same all around the map?), driving around staring at the surroundings is even more boring. An hour long bomb run? Leading the CV near a red field and hammer it into smithereens with the ship gun? Oh! The excitement! The adrenaline rush!

If you really know a fun way to play AH alone, please tell us. Trying to break personal records in tasks like "how long can you keep a P51 in the air with 25% of fuel" or "how many buildings can you demolish with one bomb" don't count.

[715]

I am not sure I understand the OP.  Everyone agrees that the drop in player numbers lessens the appeal of AH.  But I don't understand what you want done about it?  You seem to dislike GVs and that implies you think removing GVs will somehow increase numbers.  Will it not just reduce numbers?  About 25% of AH players are in GVs at any point in time, take that away and you'll probably lose up to 25% of the player base and not force those people into airplanes.  AH is an open sand-box where players can pretty much do whatever they want.  Perhaps you could increase the "fights" by being like other games and forcing players into localized timed missions.  I personally prefer the open sand-box, but the alpha has the future possibility of host generated missions including AI to increase targets.  Using smaller maps makes sense, but how do you do that without just removing all large maps from rotation (thereby denying them to US prime time players where the numbers are larger).

The underlying problem is a drop in the number of players in general and European players in particular.  How does HTC fix that?  Well a start is making the game appear more modern in visual appeal, and with the alpha, they are doing just that.  What attracts people to a game they are unfamiliar with is it's appearance, if it looks outdated they may never even try it.  Of course, once they do try it, then other factors, like game play or community character, come into play. 

What are other factors in the drop off of European players and how can they be countered?