White Flag...No white Flag

[1stpar3]

 

What are you guys going to do when I make about half the airfields on my next terrain have the map room next to the tower? That small airfield configuration is proving to cause some pretty hot fights for a sustained amount of time.

Once Hitech made the bridges viable as a micro combat terrain feature and accepted my use of a map room on the airfield, he opened the door to getting away from having to use the town for every airfield capture design. And who knows what evil 8thJinx will create that Hitech likes enough to introduce as a terrain object available to terrain builders? Under that scenario, what is a what flag......... 

Don't worry, I'm still of the opinion that towns and the micro combat around them can be enhanced by the same testing I've been doing with my terrains. Something like this test of a micro terrain design recently. Flag, white flag, seems a pretty irrelevant thing to worry about. That micro terrain test would work just as well if I removed the town and put the capture mechanism directly on the field next to the tower.


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OH YEAH! Loved those when you added them

[Mongoose]

  You can see the guns, and you can see if all the guns are down.  To capture the base, you must destroy 75% of the town buildings.  Unless you count all the buildings, you can't see if you have destroyed enough buildings, thus the white flag.  Once you understand what the flag means, and what it doesn't mean, the rest is easy.

There are 114 buildings in town.  You have to destroy 86 buildings to get the 75% to turn the flag white.

[1stpar3]

  Mouse over a base ICON. If clipboard map shows TOWN:Prepped.........WF! Right click Base ICON: Click Down Times: select all categories you want to check- No need to memorize Dot Commands for down times. Status is even on just mouse over of map Icons, IF all of those categories(VH,FH,BH) are down. Its very easy now for even a 2 weeker to get info. Town guns appear AFTER any town buildings down times. Too my experience EVERY TIME. Base and or other guns show up BEFORE Town building down times

[pembquist]

Aw hell! what about the guys that want to use the command line to control the joystick?

[Vinkman]

Technically, it is not an exception. The player (in the vehicle) triggers the alarm, so when the player is gone, the alarm ceases. 

I get that, but where does one learn these things? is that in the game rules posted on the site?

[pembquist]

I get that, but where does one learn these things? is that in the game rules posted on the site?

This is the perpetual question.

[Mongoose]

This is the perpetual question.

Answer:  http://trainers.hitechcreations.com
 
From the Aces High home page, click "Game Info"' then "Need Training?"

[pembquist]

From the Aces High home page, click "Game Info"' then "Need Training?"

I don't think that is really the answer people are looking for. A little less obscurity into the details of the game might be a big ask, and maybe some people think that the slow accretion of knowledge is part of the charm, but it isn't easy for a newcomer to look up a lot of stuff.

[Bizman]

I don't think that is really the answer people are looking for. A little less obscurity into the details of the game might be a big ask, and maybe some people think that the slow accretion of knowledge is part of the charm, but it isn't easy for a newcomer to look up a lot of stuff.

There's a couple of problems:

• It's impossible to put a ton of details into a few sentences.
• Most people, newcomers included, don't even read the crucial short texts like system requirements.

Apparently the only way to make people follow some instructions would be the way Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, The Magical Car, instructed the driver in tough situations: First a red button starts to glow. The glow deepens. A text appears: "Push the button". The text starts to flash. The font becomes larger. Adding an arrow: "This button here! Push!" The flashing gets more annoying. Finally the text says: "Now push the button already, you moron!"

[pembquist]

True, but I wasn't really thinking of instructions so much, I was thinking more along the lines of information that is indexed no matter whether instructions or tables of information, as in: map room, map room location etc. Your quite right that no one wants to read but I do think they want to be able to look up. Actually what I really mean is I want to be able to look up. And by look up I mean look up in one place with out wading through ancient bbs posts and etcetterata. (or encountering the ubiquitous "please update your account to enable third party hosting")

[Lusche]

I get that, but where does one learn these things?

Answering more generally:
Most things you can simply learn by paying attention while simply playing the game.
Especially when something is not happening in a way you have been expecting, many players just go into a rant mode instead of trying to think about what may have actually happened, and why.
Films are a great tool. Searching the forum with google instead of using the build in forum search function, too. Keeping notes. Using a private arena for some testing. Asking questions in the help forum on the BBS (asking questions ingame can give you astonishingly incorrect answers at times  )
Or even asking HT himself

[bustr]

When I set down an airfield without a town and the map room on the field, I can place the map room anywhere I choose. There are no rules governing that action. I chose to standardize the location next to the tower in my terrain Oceania because from experience it would make communicating the location easier for players. I could just have easily located it in a different spot on each airfield for the ensuing drama that would create. Since the airfield types are standardized by HTC, I chose to follow with that convention. It just happens that the flag is next to the tower and the map room I set down is next to the tower. Who-Da-thunk-it.......   

[The Fugitive]

I would love to see a cheat sheet like the old "Quick Reference" sheet that you could print out in AHII. It listed the default key commands for the game.... well most of them.

If one was done up for "game play" I think it might help. Some thing short and easy to use like this.
Air Field Base Capture
Town builds MUST be 80% destroyed giving a White Flag

All guns MUST be destroyed at the town, field only if is a base without a town.

Fighter hangers are destroyed with 2000lbs of ordnance, bombs, rockets, cannon and bullets fire.
Fighter Hangers are down 15 minutes and can not be resupplied. Timing is started when EACH is destroyed NOT when ALL are down.

Bomber hangers are the same as Fighter hangers.

Vehicle Hanger is the same as the Fighter Hanger.

Ordnance can be destroyed to stop players from lifting with ordnance (bombs and rockets) ALL bunkers must be down to shut it down
Ordnance can be resupplied.

Fuel can only be destroyed to 25% allowing player to up, but with very light fuel loads.

Just the basics. Another for Vehicle bases, a short one on strat, another on Ships, all formatted to fit on a single page.

   

[Rodent57]

What are you guys going to do when I make about half the airfields on my next terrain have the map room next to the tower? That small airfield configuration is proving to cause some pretty hot fights for a sustained amount of time.

Once Hitech made the bridges viable as a micro combat terrain feature and accepted my use of a map room on the airfield, he opened the door to getting away from having to use the town for every airfield capture design. And who knows what evil 8thJinx will create that Hitech likes enough to introduce as a terrain object available to terrain builders? Under that scenario, what is a what flag......... 

Don't worry, I'm still of the opinion that towns and the micro combat around them can be enhanced by the same testing I've been doing with my terrains. Something like this test of a micro terrain design recently. Flag, white flag, seems a pretty irrelevant thing to worry about. That micro terrain test would work just as well if I removed the town and put the capture mechanism directly on the field next to the tower.


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BUSTR Sir,

I love the level of effort you put into getting us new maps!   However, to answer your question  "What are you guys going to do when I make about half the airfields on my next terrain have the map room next to the tower?":  I'll likely just sit out and wait for a map that has a construct that makes sense to me.   

Cheers!
- Rodent57

[Kingpin]

What are you guys going to do when I make about half the airfields on my next terrain have the map room next to the tower? That small airfield configuration is proving to cause some pretty hot fights for a sustained amount of time.

Bustr,

First, let me also say that I think it's great that you are creating new maps and helping to keep the game updated and fresh.  Keep up the great work!

That said, I have to side with Rodent and encourage you to reconsider an increase in "on field map-room" bases.  The idea that those base types create great fights has not at all been my experience.  What I have seen is that they are great (read: easy) for attackers, but horrible for defenders, which in no way protracts a fight.

The requirement for capture of those fields is simply dropping the VH and de-acking.  This can be done (and has been done) by a single player (with some luck and little resistance).  Once de-acked the only thing for the attackers to do is hover over the field and hope for uppers that they can vulch.  This is usually the nature of the "fight" at those fields once the VH is down.  The only time I have seen a protracted fight at one of these fields was when the ack or VH were kept up (neither of which is easy to do, as those are soft targets).  Usually these "fights" are simply a vulch-fest for the attackers or no fight at all, with little resistance able to be made.  There is also virtually no requirement or role for bombers or ships when attacking those field types, again limiting the nature of those "fights". 

On the other hand, I have seen protracted fights at bases where the towns are some distance away from the field.  The distance between the airfield and town (capture point) seems to creates more space for defenders to up, allowing for an air defense even if the attacks arrive unopposed.  The ones that allow for a ground defense spawning to town from an adjacent field also seem to help.  These layouts are where you tend to see longer protracted fights, in my experience.

I'm concerned that increasing the number of those fields is just a recipe for creating more vulch-fests or unopposed base takes. Again, this is just my opinion based on my experience (so completely anecdotal).  But I can say with confidence that a map with a large number of bases with on-field map-rooms and no towns will be one of the least popular maps for me.

My two cents...

<S>
Kingpin