loss of members

[lefty2]

Just remember what happen to AW they putzed around and look what happen to them

[The Fugitive]

Just remember what happen to AW they putzed around and look what happen to them

AW didn't have the money to invest into the game. They sold it to EA games with an understanding that they would put the money into it. EA games closed AW and used the on-line software they were looking for. That is what happened to AW. They didn't "putz around" they made a change for what they thought was for the betterment of the game.

HTC is rebuilding the game, graphics and sound wise from the ground up. Investing in more employees would run the company out of money faster with the slowly dwindling income so they work with a small crew. While saving money it does slow progress down. Advertising for AH2 wouldn't be smart as it wouldn't return enough income as the game stands now. Once the upgrade to AH3 goes live I hope they run some ads to increase traffic.

Again, you haven't posted any helpful hints/tips on how HTC could bring the numbers up. What are your ideas?

GMAN, there are a couple of things they could do tomorrow morning that wouldn't take more than a few minutes of their time away from AH3. Remove the large maps until the population can once again support them. Second adjust the percentage of bases to need for the win on the small maps to help them last longer. Do you remember the fights we had when the win the war was set to taking all the bases on another team? The battle for the last base was epic! If they change the win mode to 90% of your own and say 40% of each think of the battles as the countries getting hit fight back to save the last 25% of their bases.

Two small changes that are nothing more than a couple of table changes and the dynamics of the game change dramatically. Would it help? Would it make the game more fun for more people? I don't know, but it is something that could be tried and it certainly would "look" like they are working on making things better.

 

[BaldEagl]

Instead of complaining, maybe you should suggest a cure for that issue? I agree numbers are low, but HTC isn't going to wave Harry Potter wand and POOF we have 600+ players on all the time again. What do you think could be done?

What's the point in that?  Everything's been discussed ad nauseum for years with no action taken by HT.

[FLS]

No.. this is just concern for something we care about.

If we didnt, i know myself,  wouldnt waste me time coming here to post.

Id just move on.  I dont see any of the current features of the new game changing my feelings.

Today after work i upped with a buddy to go pork a central base on the islands of the current map in the MA.

We were greeting by several manned guns,  and three wirbles on the base,  no opposition in the air at all.

And get this,  those same guys had the field resupped within 10 minutes.

Borrrrrrring...  and dont tell me to sit in a bomber for 2 hours to bomb strats,  or go sit over a vehicle spawn and kill m3's...  both of those ideas suck.

And that kind of makes the game suck. 

...

Why waste your time doing that when you can duel your buddy?

[FLS]

Not at all, however if it is the right players, less could be more.

Sounds like the qualitative difference in game play is not numbers or maps but the attitude the players bring to the game. 

[ROC]

There is a limit to what you can do with an old version.
I just went through this with my company.  Over 24 businesses like mine throughout California.  Each independent, each one software based, and the software was 10 years old.  It had been patched, fixed, modified, adjusted time and time again to keep up with the wishes of my customers.
But, it was at the peak of what obsolete software could do.  2 years ago we embarked on a new system, one that would Start at the level our current system was Peaked at.  It was designed to expand, to build on, to grow.  We don't need to rebuild the entire database to plug in a new tool later.
But, we were on hold for that 2 years. How do we market what's coming?  How to we compete with what might be in a world tainted by vaporware? 
We couldn't, so we waited.  Some in our network complained that they were not being listened to because the changes they demanded were not being implemented.  We tried to tell them, it's coming, the current system can't do that, the new one does, here, look at the alpha version.  They didn't understand, it wasn't the software and a long term strategic plan, it was what they wanted right now.
So, they left our network and started a newer, better, greater thing.  But, ours finished in October and we rolled it out.  Theirs was scheduled to launch in January, it didn't work.  Their system had 6 companies join it, my system had 13.  6 months later, we are now 18 and they are 5.  We brought in new companies and took one of theirs.  Our system is doing everything we wanted, and we can market.  Our market share skyrocketed, we used to be a collection of loosely affiliated companies, we now merged into a single shared database and are the single largest networked system like ours in the nation.  We have former national competitors now asking how they can piggy back on our system and are in negotiations with them to spend their money branding our product. 
We lost members in the process to better marketing and deep pockets from that other network that left us.  We just smiled.  Last week, that network called and asked if there was any way we could collaborate.  I said no.  No reason to collaborate, when they lose their members, their members have a home and we are marketing that base aggressively.
Patience.  I know tech.  I know HTC.  I have no doubt they know exactly what they are doing.  AH2 is maxed out, peaked, beyond patching and expansion.  This new version is better than the old one by leaps and bounds, and it's just the base of the possibilities.  Just looking at what the foundation of the system can do reeks of possibilities many haven't grasped yet.  This is about to get good. 

[WEZEL]

  While I wont disagree with you Wezel,you could always come and shoot at me in the TA,as you know everyone does and you used to enjoy chasing me around!


I might take you up on that 



   

[The Fugitive]

Sounds like the qualitative difference in game play is not numbers or maps but the attitude the players bring to the game. 

I've always said it was the players causing the problems. HTC has made a great game here and I don't think anyone is trying to limit what other want to do. Land grabbers can grab land, gvers can gv, bombers can bomb, and fighters can fight. The only thing that needs to be in common is that all of them fight for their action.

You want to bomb strats, no problem but you cant bail when Zoney comes diving in.

You want to GV, no problem but you cant tower out when someone pickles a bomb or gets too close with their M18

You want to pork ord along the front, no problem just don't lawn dart it when you run out of ord and fight the defender that came out.

You want to take a base, no problem but try it with co-ordinated ops buffs, fighters and GVs with a plan other than "flatten everything and hope the goon makes it in".

Too many players have "bastardized" the game with cutting corners and lame game play that most don't even know what is available in the game. With so many options available why do we see the same 3 plans all the time?

Players are not going to change. Thats why I think HTC should tweak a few settings to bring back some of the other options and so generate more action/excitement in the game. Make it more beneficial to fight for those actions instead of looking for the easy way to accomplish those actions.

[Vulcan]

I think people are unfairly comparing AH to other online games. The market demographic is way different, most AH type games are the realms of the mature gamer. You will get way different population peaks and troughs compared to twitch gaming. We're not all twelvies playing after school til midnight.

[Tumor]

There is nothing wrong with AH the game.  Nothing.  Anything wrong, is a direct reflection of the ***clownery that goes on IN the game, BY PLAYERS.  A game with a WW2 combat setting, where absolutely anything goes as long as you can get away with it.  Game-the-Game types are the worst thing that ever happened to Aces High.  Want to know what's changed?  The players have.  Used to be a whole lot of people who had respect, admiration and dreams involving WW2 combat... they'be been replaced by those who can't wait to make something go bang-bang and make pretty colorful explosions.  There's your change.  And people wonder why numbers are in the tank.... <smh>

[Brooke]

Remove the large maps until the population can once again support them. Second adjust the percentage of bases to need for the win on the small maps to help them last longer.

I, too, think it would be a lot better for fun to increase players/area -- most especially outside of peak hours in the game, when play can become a sprinkling of players scattered over 100 sectors.

[wil3ur]

Get rid of CM and profanity filters, nothing worse than getting muted for saying something only a 90 year old woman would consider profane.  If people are that easily offended, they should not be on the internet.   

[Traveler]

113th Lucky Strikes is down to two members, and we left the game early last Saturday night East Coast prime time rather then continue to suffer unnecessary ridicule we received from out team mates, when attempting to get some help re-supplying bases to get some ords up.

It's really a shame, game was always a lot of fun, even if it hasn't really changed in the last 18 years or so and the capture the flag game play is stale as all get out.  The people were fun, but not any more. Or at least that's how it seems to me.

[FLS]

Get rid of CM and profanity filters, nothing worse than getting muted for saying something only a 90 year old woman would consider profane.  If people are that easily offended, they should not be on the internet.   

Polite conversation is a useful skill. Negativity is contagious.

[wil3ur]

Never said anything was negative...  just people need to lighten up.