maybe the three country system needs an adjustment

[bozon]

Always allow a switch to the least populated country.
Switching to the two most populated countries will activate the 6 hours rule.

[Max]

Because even an intransigent can change his mind if given enough evidence.   (I say this generally, not specifically.)

Three sides isn't working any more.

There are 3 absolutes in The Universe - 3 countries, 6 hr side switch limitation, taxes.

Have a warm cookie 

[JunkyII]

If anything I think the longer side switch time just creates longer periods of eny. Which is why you are getting more complaints from players who DON'T like to switch sides...like Bozon said...unlimited switches to the smallest side shouldn't be a big deal and I personally would like to be able to switch once and switch back prior to logging off so I think 3 hours would be better then 6.

[guncrasher]

Always allow a switch to the least populated country.
Switching to the two most populated countries will activate the 6 hours rule.

if you switch to the least populated country  you can always switch back to the most populated country right away.  if you answer is to force you to stay in the least populated country then we go back to the system we have now.

I used to switch often when it was a one hour switch.  me and a lot of  guys.  it was never to help it was to get more kills.  not that we were doing poorly in the country we left.  me and those guys are the reason we have a 6 hour switch time.  eny would swing depending on which country we went to.

I find the reasoning of switching to help hilarious.  we arent here to help a country we play to kill each other and have a good time.  only exception is during fso and scenarios where we fly for 1 hour or so and engaged in combat for what 2 minutes?

semp

[bustr]

Helping to smooth ENY is a canard to cover wanting to switch as often as possible to follow fights. ENY is a long term issue during prime time and POTW switching rook was a major change by one squad which seems to have had and impact. Now ENY is not as much of a problem during prime time.

I still think the rook were doing a walk out to create an unnatural ENY issue to attack Hitech. Once POTW moved over to rook, and we don't have more on than about 4 on nights other than Tuesday squad night and some weekend nights. More rooks started showing up every night and ENY stopped being as big an issue. Funny coincidence how all that happened.

It's things like this that probably won't get you reductions in side switching time in the near future. Unless you really believe Hitech is the clueless moron many try to paint him as to justify whining about his decisions in these forums.

[JunkyII]

Bustr, even within POTW you're a minority of people who think ENY is fine....so stop acting like this is just a few disgruntled customers trying switch up the game or some consortium out to get Hitech.

Yikes

I don't care if it's a personal problem that we can't get 1 hour rule back, if that truly is the reason for not making a change to the game then the game will ultimately fail because making a decision out of spite in business is just bad business....so stop bringing that crap up because it's garbage.

Now someone explain to me why letting everyone change to the low number side whenever they want is a bad thing??? How does it hurt gameplay??? The only thing it had the possibility of doing is evenly distributin the players in the arena....from then on everything whether it be ganging one side or fighting in a horde is all a players choice which HTC does not currently influence(as far as what country they fight against/ who they fly with ect ect)

Fact is bustr and semp...you both could not give a reason for why having side switch to at least the low number side would hurt gameplay...any reason you would try to give would or could be correlated to something else in the game.

[Vraciu]

He's not a clueless moron, but he also doesn't play enough to experience firsthand the issues that are driving people away. 

Nobody can play the game 24-7, and relying on anecdotal reports is fraught with risk.  I get it.     But this isn't working. 

I used to play more in one day than I now do in a month.  ENY (and all its insane swings) is 90% of the reason.   I'm not alone.

Enough is enough.  It doesn't help/work as presently implemented.

[Vraciu]

Bustr, even within POTW you're a minority of people who think ENY is fine....so stop acting like this is just a few disgruntled customers trying switch up the game or some consortium out to get Hitech.

Yikes

I don't care if it's a personal problem that we can't get 1 hour rule back, if that truly is the reason for not making a change to the game then the game will ultimately fail because making a decision out of spite in business is just bad business....so stop bringing that crap up because it's garbage.

Now someone explain to me why letting everyone change to the low number side whenever they want is a bad thing??? How does it hurt gameplay??? The only thing it had the possibility of doing is evenly distributin the players in the arena....from then on everything whether it be ganging one side or fighting in a horde is all a players choice which HTC does not currently influence(as far as what country they fight against/ who they fly with ect ect)

Fact is bustr and semp...you both could not give a reason for why having side switch to at least the low number side would hurt gameplay...any reason you would try to give would or could be correlated to something else in the game.

Bingo. 

[bustr]

You guys have finally run out of canards to hide behind and have come to your real whine. You think 1 hour or quicker side switching will fix ENY as your presenting argument. You really want faster side switching while ENY is a vehicle to not get banned for what the muppets got banned over a few years ago trying this with a forum mob revolt. Faster side switching even if it is a free switch only to the low side at will, only creates population oscillations. The more population the worse the oscillations. You seem to keep forgetting Hitech has given that explanation a number times in different formats or this is where you dismiss him as a moron.

So continuing this is treating him like you think he is a moron because he doesn't get how right you are based on your own declarations. Then upping the anti by inventing a consensus of opinion that is supposed to speak for "all" of the community even if they don't know who you are. Pretty standard fair if you watch the daily media soap operas, and then you act like Hitech does not know how this script works while you beat that dead horse with the same old script one more time.   

[Vraciu]

Uh, maybe it is because I did NOT sleep at a Holiday Inn last night but...

We ALREADY HAVE wild oscillations as it is WITHOUT faster side switching.

We also get outrageous ENY spikes with almost nobody playing.  This merely encourages logging off. 

Looks like the canard is yours.

[bozon]

bustr,
no one wants to switch to balance ENY. Some want to switch to balance numbers, other want the lower numbers side in order ti find more fights. A very small number of players must absolutely fly their high ENY plane and are willing to switch countries for that. These are selfish reasons, but not bad reasons.

If the above players switched to the low numbers country, this would be a good thing for the game. However, most players are in a squadron. When their buddies log in, they will want to go back to their previous chesspiece to fly with them. With the current 6 hours rule, they cannot. What we are asking is a way to switch to the low numbers side and then go back to your previous country within a time that is not longer than a typical play session.

Some suggested a generally shorter switch time. Other suggested exceptions when switching to the low numbers side. I can see negative points in all suggestions, but the intention is good (even when selfish) and perhaps in the grand scheme the result is a net plus.

We are discussing.

[molybdenum]

I don't think there's a correlation.  My point is, the undesired behavior is already there.  What's the point in worrying about the switch time causing wild swings in population over short periods, when today, right now, we have wild swings in population over short periods?

Wiley.

I'm always on early mornings PST and almost always on mid-afternoons. Mid-afternoon the #s are pretty stable; mornings you usually have mild nit ENY transitioning to significant bish ENY over the space of 2-3 hours; and evenings seem the most stable of all. I never see you on in the mornings when the greatest swing in ENY (yet not even close to "wild" by my definition) occurs, so it's hard for me to figure out what you mean by "wild swings over short periods," wiley. I play the game far more than you do and I don't see it.

[Wiley]

I'm always on early mornings PST and almost always on mid-afternoons. Mid-afternoon the #s are pretty stable; mornings you usually have mild nit ENY transitioning to significant bish ENY over the space of 2-3 hours; and evenings seem the most stable of all. I never see you on in the mornings when the greatest swing in ENY (yet not even close to "wild" by my definition) occurs, so it's hard for me to figure out what you mean by "wild swings over short periods," wiley. I play the game far more than you do and I don't see it.

Weekend mornings and long weekend mornings are about the only time I get to play days.  Pretty much every time I've done it lately it went from moderate ENY for one side to moderate/high ENY for another side.  Maybe it was just the recent Rook number change throwing off what I thought I was seeing.

Wiley.

[ACE]

Bustr acts like any suggestion to the game is awful. Always post useless walls of text too. Must be part of the good ol boys. Just calling it how I see it from the sideline. I'm down for anything to promote AIR combat.

[Vraciu]

Weekend mornings and long weekend mornings are about the only time I get to play days.  Pretty much every time I've done it lately it went from moderate ENY for one side to moderate/high ENY for another side.  Maybe it was just the recent Rook number change throwing off what I thought I was seeing.

Wiley.

I used to play almost around the clock.   Mornings have always been the worst, tapering off as the day goes forward.   This is why I continue to press for the elimination of ENY during low number periods.   It serves no purpose other than to piss people off when numbers are low.   Anything that causes people to log off is *NOT* good.   

If you turn ENY off and ramp it up SLOWLY as numbers increase then you get a better overall result.    If players login and see ENY 30 with only 15 players in flight they log off.  But if they could fly what they want then they would stay.   The problem would self-correct. 

If you can keep people who log in and then log off in frustration from doing the latter then you would actually have a use for ENY eventually because numbers would reach the threshold where it begins to trigger (but not at a level of nuisance).