In a nutshell you can see what has made AH what it is today.
The huge maps and lack of encounters is slowly but surely killing the game. It has to. If you fly you can see it day by day, week by week. This is a game that RELIES on encounters between individuals to drive it but we will make encounters less likely by giving each and every person 110,000 sq. miles (no joke on one map) to fly and hide in. Anyone would have a hard time finding NYC in 110,000 sq. miles much less a single plane! You fly for hours and don't see anyone unless you are in prime US time.
If you are one person and fly where there are lots of enemies you become the object of attention for 5 to 10 people. Why? From their point of view you are the ONLY game in town! If they are seeking to shoot something, YOU ARE IT! So your battles are being on a horde or flying against a horde. If you can find a "normal" fight you feel lucky and you might play for a while and believe the game will continue. When you can't find anyone, you wonder why you aren't spending your time in a better way that flying a less than optimal flight simulator flying over unreal landscape with flat water. Or you become a ground attack guy because, well there are always enemy bases, even if no one is defending there is auto ack to make it interesting. Or spawn camp a place you hope the enemy will show. You have the target space zeroed in and you just need a handful of people to try and spawn to make it worthwhile.
Over time we have fewer and fewer people playing because the reason they up, whether they know it or not, is to ENCOUNTER an enemy. This makes the game exciting. This is a FACT!!! It is a perfect world that has no one else in it but its boring. It is the same has having a conversation in an empty room. If you believe otherwise you need to give everyone what you are smoking.
The absolute best suggestion is smaller maps. It increases the odds of an encounter. It is ludicrously simple to see. The logic is inescapable. We HAVE tried big maps, that got us HERE! Here, is fewer people playing than ever. Two teams does the same because everyone is an enemy or a friend and it concentrates the action. Again MORE encounters.
Everything is here to make a test, all of the code exists. It may not be perfect but its an attempt to get SOMETHING going. It is far, far easier to swat someone down for making a suggestion than it is to TRY something. Trying takes work. Swatting? Almost none.
But we can't change. Either this format and ONLY this format succeeds or there is no game.
Why?
Because.
End of story.
