Please decommsion the big maps.

[Hungry]

I like big maps because I get that fun 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 or 3 on 2 intercept. Small maps have these chocke points with waves of diving fighters that are not really suitable for my favorite P47.

Furballs are fun in stuff that turns with canons where you can twist your way out and get kills with kust a few hit sprites but yet I find that borring.

Anyway, I like big maps where you can scan for these sneaky few dots and launch to try to mess up their plan. 😊

For his stats Lusche would like to know if you played Board games when you were a kid?

[Bruv119]

off peak hours,  or <100 players  it should be small maps only.

Maybe go back to saving the prime time map at X o clock.   

[Hungry]

off peak hours,  or <100 players  it should be small maps only.

Maybe go back to saving the prime time map at X o clock.

Offer both and let the player base decide by stats, Large maps and 10 vs 10 (example number only to indicate small) random savage maps

[Bruv119]

players will go wherever the #'s  are big or small.   

If you have a big map already up no-one will be bothered to switch. 

[Hungry]

Not when they get a taste of the instant action style small maps, fight or be killed, three bases (or minimal number) I know its somewhat been done before similar to H2H was it a number of years ago, but this isn't free its forced action.  Love it or go fly for 15 minutes to find a two minute fight.  Or go play the board game style fly for an hour to get to 35k to bomb someone's base hoping no one sees you.

[guncrasher]

I usually log off on the smaller maps.  for one thing they normally get rolled pretty fast.  so if you want to see 3 or 4 maps getting rolled every day.  go for it.


semp

[bustr]

Numbers tend to sweep the instant action short attention spanners and lone wolfs along with the flow. They get caught up in all the action numbers generate at any location on our maps. These players existed back before the 2009 start of the numbers down turn. With out those numbers for them to go along with the flow, to take advantage of the action, they are not a type of person who is interested in "creating" the fun. That's why instant action with all the sound and fury type games attract them. Especially if they think the game is free. It is also the reason squads are essential to the health of our game because the friendships are why many of those players keep coming back providing the bulk of the numbers we still have today. You see this on display every Friday night at FSO.

The game in it's traditional format can sustain the instant action and lone wolfs. Back in the day when they popped in for the first time, the numbers of players all going somewhere and doing something all the time was the attractor that kept them coming back. Every time these days a sudden uptick in numbers blooms at a location, you see everyone who can, get drawn to the action. You also see how our smaller numbers contributes to the shorter lifespan of these action outbreaks by the first wave of players not being sustained by a 2nd and 3rd like in the past allowing them a mental breather from getting killed. Then getting back into the fray because there was still a concentration of numbers creating action and fun, while today's obvious sense of the fight being lost inside of 30 minutes was not a norm back then. Today the sense of when the tide turns is very well honed with smaller numbers, shortening many large engagements so your sweet spot window for action is much shorter. Good or bad, with smaller numbers, today's players are more willing to see the writing on the wall and find another fight rather than offer up their scalps to a perceived lost cause or the same vets too many times.

Numbers is the secret to the attraction of this game. Shrinking the arena size will not proportionally ram a courage rod up anyone's kester and magically turn them into a fighter. Numbers will though, proportionally reduce your work load to finding people in circumstances attractive to your game play style to shoot down. You will be more inclined to ignore those who run from bad circumstances early. In a target rich environment it's easier to hide in plain sight for the early runners, while you didn't notice that most players ran back then just like they run away today. Because of the low numbers the running and other things players do to avoid getting killed are not proportionally hidden in the crowd. Most people in most games don't want to fight, they want to hide in plain sight and bag a few kills the fastest way they can. 

Anyway AH3 is about on us, and it has an instant action arena where you sit in the Oclub and get thrown into a fight after an automated countdown. Shades of WT......

[Brooke]

My opinion is that action and fun are, to an extent, proportional to player density (players/area).

Big maps, to me, are enormously less fun than smaller ones with the current number of players.

With our current number of players, the only motivation I can see for a big map is to get somewhere without encountering opponents.  For players like me, that is the whole point of the game, to encounter opponents.

[Hungry]

My opinion is that action and fun are, to an extent, proportional to player density (players/area).

Big maps, to me, are enormously less fun than smaller ones with the current number of players.

With our current number of players, the only motivation I can see for a big map is to get somewhere without encountering opponents.  For players like me, that is the whole point of the game, to encounter opponents.

Brooke

Very well put, much better than I, player density is why I still play Battlefield 4 Knife and pistols only Locker Room, sometimes up to 60 players fighting is a relatively small area is a blast. Granted its cold not much conversation and unless you join a clan there's not much in the way of long term friendships, but, it does attract the players night in and night out without fail even after all the bad press BF4 has gotten and gets.

If AH3 could find a way to increase the intensity a player feels when they enter an arena.  Of course you have to cater to the vet crowd who continue to use "I" in every post that refers to changing something as if its a veiled threat or don't question me I know better.

[LCADolby]

My opinion is that action and fun are, to an extent, proportional to player density (players/area).

Big maps, to me, are enormously less fun than smaller ones with the current number of players.

With our current number of players, the only motivation I can see for a big map is to get somewhere without encountering opponents.  For players like me, that is the whole point of the game, to encounter opponents.

[Hungry]

From the June AARP news letter page 6

"Older Gamers Join Digital Fun"

The good news
Nearly 4 in 10 American's age 50 plus play games on various devices (laptop or desktop)

The Bad News
Only 5% of those play shooter games and 1% play fighting games. Someone's playing them but not this particular population.

My takeaway is those under 50 are not here in numbers seen elsewhere, HT needs to get younger, optional smaller maps with more intensity, of course I don't play any of the World of... games how do those maps compare?

[The Fugitive]

I live in fear of the day HT comes out with an arena that's set up like WT with 15-30 minute rounds to accomplish some specific goal with a reward at the end of it.  It will be hugely popular, and the MA will become a ghost town.

IMO this game had its heyday at a time when there wasn't anything remotely comparable in terms of flight and gunnery mechanics that had instant action, so people tolerated the open world MA because of the gameplay.  When a few companies came out with a F2P option that had different performance for different aircraft and rounds based gameplay, there was a viable option and people didn't need to tolerate the open world sandbox to get their fix.

The people who are still here either like the mechanics of the game enough to tolerate the parts of MA gameplay they don't like, or like the open world sandbox style play they can't get anywhere else other than WBs.

If I wanted to play Counterstrike in airplanes, I wouldn't be here.  Unfortunately an awful lot of people seem to want to play Counterstrike in airplanes, and they are elsewhere.

Wiley.

Agreed, an instant action setup like WT would knock off half the people who play now. It takes away too much of the options for other game play.

However things could be tweaked to encourage quicker action in this game.

Go to the smaller maps until numbers increase.
Change the percentage of enemy bases needed for the win to create more fights per map and also make them last a bit longer.

coading changes..... (added for the new version)

move bases a bit closer.
add goals.... land "x" amount of kills per day/week for bonus points/perks... get "x" amount of kills per day/week for bonus points/perks..... get "x" amount of buildings per day/week in a buff or attack mode for bonus points/perks and so on.

Adding these mini goals will get more people to "participate" in one way or another. More buff runs, more missions, more furballs, more action all around.

[Wiley]

From the June AARP news letter page 6

"Older Gamers Join Digital Fun"

The good news
Nearly 4 in 10 American's age 50 plus play games on various devices (laptop or desktop)

The Bad News
Only 5% of those play shooter games and 1% play fighting games. Someone's playing them but not this particular population.

My takeaway is those under 50 are not here in numbers seen elsewhere, HT needs to get younger, optional smaller maps with more intensity, of course I don't play any of the World of... games how do those maps compare?

More like Battlefield than this.  It's free, you should check it out.

Wiley.

[Hungry]

Agreed, an instant action setup like WT would knock off half the people who play now. It takes away too much of the options for other game play.

Even if they still had their favorite rotation maps intact?  The trick would be to get the word out, hey try this we've expanded our two week free trial to 30 days for this one time limited offer blah blah blah

[Hungry]

off to play Tom Clancy's The Division, pick a gun a mission and go run down the street and shoot, its not half bad, open world