Innovations

[FORK2]

Not saying we should do this now or anytime soon but the game needs an innovation upgrade big time, that means we need to think about new and cool features that bring ppl in. I see a lot about play balance and that's important but as is, it won't bring new in.

I say we should be thinking about new features like self propelled arty,

 like new infantry features (like maybe being able spawn in as a troop with a bazooka etc)

 like new planes (the late war aircobra for example),

 like submarines (have them fire only on the surface and having limited "lvls" they can submerge too, and letting the fleets have depth charges set to one or the other lvl, yes it's abstract but hey we got subs!)

how about using the perks in new and exciting ways?

I say the game can expand without losing its soul, I say some of the new features can be abstract until we can do better

 I say we should have an "experimental" forum to check out all these new ideas without squealing up the main arena or the squad nite. I say we can have both innovation and keep an old arena just the way the old timers like it.

I say we can come up with a lot of ideas Hi Tech and Skuzzy both like and can do.

[Zoney]

Not saying we should do this now or anytime soon but the game needs an innovation upgrade big time, that means we need to think about new and cool features that bring ppl in. I see a lot about play balance and that's important but as is, it won't bring new in.

-1New players have an overwhelming number of new things to do.  Putting so much new stuff in will not necessarily bring more players in.  They don't even know what we have much less what we don't

I say we should be thinking about new features like self propelled arty,

-1

 like new infantry features (like maybe being able spawn in as a troop with a bazooka etc)

-1

 like new planes (the late war aircobra for example),

Only if they fit the criteria

 like submarines (have them fire only on the surface and having limited "lvls" they can submerge too, and letting the fleets have depth charges set to one or the other lvl, yes it's abstract but hey we got subs!)

-1

how about using the perks in new and exciting ways?

I say the game can expand without losing its soul, I say some of the new features can be abstract until we can do better

 I say we should have an "experimental" forum to check out all these new ideas without squealing up the main arena or the squad nite. I say we can have both innovation and keep an old arena just the way the old timers like it.

I say we can come up with a lot of ideas Hi Tech and Skuzzy both like and can do.

Thank you for your suggestions, I disagree

[FORK2]

I don't think I mentioned why I said all this...

 I read in other forums, that AH3 is just a graphics upgrade and its the same old AH with smaller maps, no innovations and the same toxic gaming community. That is if I can find a comment at all, I have to really look. MEANING THE GAMING COMMUNITY AT LARGE DOES NOT CARE ENOUGH ABOUT THIS GAME TO EVEN BASH IT, THEY ARE DISMISSIVE, WHICH IS WORSE. The outside gaming community, if they think of us at all, think we are sad and pathetic.

 Bear in mind this is what they ARE saying, this is NOT ME posting this on other forums.... this is me reporting back and me responding to the OUTSIDE comments.  I have NEVER ONCE gone to another forum or chat and cut down AH.

We can go on just the way we have been, after we all here love the game this way, we just all want a few more ppl.... which we will never get as is.... I tell you this... This game is declining and fairly soon it'll just be you and your 4 best friends.

 I'm sure Hi TEch will want to run the game at a loss so you can have your fun.....

[The Fugitive]

There is nothing wrong with the game, why does everyone want to fix it?

The declining numbers is due to more players leaving than are coming in. And why is that? Because very few people KNOW about this game. If you ask around on other boards the most they can say about it is "Isnt that the old WWII game?".

HTC has just rolled out a new graphics update and how many people KNOW about it? Two, maybe 300? WOrd has got to get out. People have got to be convinced to give it a try. Once they do, many, not all WILL be hooked like us old timers.

Why? Because there is nothing wrong with the game. There are a lot of options, many things to do and many ways to do them. Once the numbers go back up everyone will be able to once again find other players who play the way they do.

That why Steam looks like a good deal. They have the numbers and advertising power to get the name "Aces High" back out there as something other than "that old WWII game".

[AAIK]

I don't think I mentioned why I said all this...

 I read in other forums, that AH3 is just a graphics upgrade and its the same old AH with smaller maps, no innovations and the same toxic gaming community. That is if I can find a comment at all, I have to really look. MEANING THE GAMING COMMUNITY AT LARGE DOES NOT CARE ENOUGH ABOUT THIS GAME TO EVEN BASH IT, THEY ARE DISMISSIVE, WHICH IS WORSE. The outside gaming community, if they think of us at all, think we are sad and pathetic.

 Bear in mind this is what they ARE saying, this is NOT ME posting this on other forums.... this is me reporting back and me responding to the OUTSIDE comments.  I have NEVER ONCE gone to another forum or chat and cut down AH.

We can go on just the way we have been, after we all here love the game this way, we just all want a few more ppl.... which we will never get as is.... I tell you this... This game is declining and fairly soon it'll just be you and your 4 best friends.

 I'm sure Hi TEch will want to run the game at a loss so you can have your fun.....

This is a problem; what is AH's image? I don't feel good about it.

[JimmyC]

I've been seeing lots of new names
And old players coming back
Good stuff

[thndregg]

I've been seeing lots of new names
And old players coming back
Good stuff

Absolutely. 

[lunatic1]

I think he is related to you know who.
-1

[nugetx]

Agree with OP, and I don't understand why some players don't want the game to expand.

It's like saying you would want to constantly play  super mario from snes from 1990 even if the developers are running new mario out today which has new gameplay and is better overall.

Sure there is nothing wrong with mario from 1990, but would you want to play it all the time? That's why developers are making new ones so the gameplay does not get boring.

[caldera]

Agree with OP, and I don't understand why some players don't want the game to expand.

It's like saying you would want to constantly play  super mario from snes from 1990 even if the developers are running new mario out today which has new gameplay and is better overall.

Sure there is nothing wrong with mario from 1990, but would you want to play it all the time? That's why developers are making new ones so the gameplay does not get boring.

Change for change's sake isn't always a good thing.  "New and improved" doesn't guarantee a better game.
The most important change AH needs is a large influx of new players.  To new players, everything here is new to them. Whatever whizbang innovation you can dream up will not entice them to play any more than what we already have.

There are minor gameplay adjustments needed from time to time and of course refreshing old airplane graphics, but as-is, this game is the best I've ever played and have done so for over 10 years.  How many of these "innovative" games have stood the test of time?  AH is the video game equivalent of "Monopoly". 

There is a reason today's Porsche 911 looks a lot like the same model from 50 years ago.  The same reason the Dodge Challenger looks like a refresh of the '70s vintage: You don't eff up a good thing.

[nugetx]

We can ping-pong arguments like that all the time, but majority of 'new players' from 10 years ago are not playing this game no more.

If the gameplay was so strong as you suggest, Aces High would retain the numbers without changes, but as you can see it does not, meaning something is there in the gameplay.

[nooby52]

I say we can come up with a lot of ideas Hi Tech and Skuzzy both like and can do.

Balony.

[oboe]

I hope HTC is still working on the transportation/supply system.  Its been gone from the game a long time, and I think its one area where a "new and improved" version could be innovative and help the game, giving more targets and mission types for players to conduct. 

I'm thinking about roads and RR tracks running between bases and strats, with tunnels and switchbacks used in mountainous terrain to keep grades realistic and reasonable.  Bridges, big and small, all difficult to hit but destroyable.  Truck convoys, supply trains, freighters spawning at sea and sailing into port, unloading into dockside warehouse districts next to RR marshalling yards, with two way train traffic on parallel lines running between ports and cities, that kind of stuff.   Bomber guy and fighter-bomber pilot heaven.

This, this plus a well-implemented cloud system and enhanced explosion and damage graphics, get me excited about the future for AH. 

[lunatic1]

Fork2 it's nice to have ideas, but all the things you are wishing for have already been wished for in the past, in the past 10 years I do believe.

[nugetx]

Fork2 it's nice to have ideas, but all the things you are wishing for have already been wished for in the past, in the past 10 years I do believe.

Well here is a big hint.

If they have been wished for past 10 years, it means people would like to see them, if people are leaving it means they are leaving because those features are not in.

That's why the game is losing the player base, because it remains the same, like Air Warrior did and Warbirds.

I'm not saying that the game should cater to every player wish, but it should be constantly evolving under HTC vision.

Gameplay should always take priority before graphics, this is a game, not a movie, majority of fun comes from playing it and not looking at it.


Check out this thread from 2001, it has a message from 16 years ago which can be applied today to Aces High.

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,15603.0.html

Not quite. AW was one of the oldest games around of the "$9.95 all you can eat" type. AW's problemwas that besides the AW3 graphics change, it just .....never changed. All the features promised for AW II never made it into AW III either. The final AW slide to this point has been in the making for over 4 years IMO when they failed to do anything with the program the last time they had a chance..

 You can only rest on your laurels for so long before community innovation and veteran interest starts to wane.  'Maintenance Mode" = online death.  Especially when competition arrives on the scene as WB's did, then Fighter Ace and now AH.

 I've yet to see any threat of  AH settling for "status quo" or heading for "maintenance mode."