I love this game but no other game I play has me tabbing out to fill time in

[FESS67]

What is that about?

I actually tab out to check other things on the internet whilst I am playing the game.  And I do not die very often doing it  lol

Need to tighten the fight, increase the action per hour quota IMO

[croduh]

I, for one, like that I can do a lot of stuff, while having my bombers en route to strats.

Very productive!

[bustr]

This was obvious when I created my first terrain. I experimented with a majority of airfields inside of 25 miles instead of all evenly spaced at 25 miles. Our smaller numbers don't need long transit times to keep us from super hoarding anymore. My latest design I just submitted has almost all feilds at the minimum of 19 miles. I suspect Hitech will only allow 13 miles on a setup like the center islands of NDisles and my Oceania as one off contained quick combat areas. This time around I did a 3 sector pond for quick task group combat as my experiment into game play design for AH3. My first two terrains were filled with experiments to understand how to evolve AH3 to address the needs of smaller numbers.

Anything more and we become War Thunder which is not what Aces High is.

[Lazerr]

What is that about?

I actually tab out to check other things on the internet whilst I am playing the game.  And I do not die very often doing it  lol

Need to tighten the fight, increase the action per hour quota IMO

Gameplay changes.. people would rather supply a town than defend a base...

Two countries would rather fight eachother while the 3rd sits with nothing to do but attack static buildings

ENY limits game content, 6 hour switch works against it

Maps.. larger than the player base can handle...

All contributing towards lack of action, and lack of people.. which feed off eachother.

My account is open.. ill log in the occasional friday late night to see some guys ive flown with over the years.  Other than that I dont bother..

Some major gameplay changes, some mentioned above, and a reboot to kickstart this game would maybe peak some interest.. but that is my opinion.. also around here known as a whine.

[Vraciu]

How about a Steal the Bacon type map where everyone starts with only the bases that can't be captured, carriers, and their strats.  Race is on!

Again, just thinking out loud to come up with different ideas. 

I also think repeatedly about non-contiguous bases (Wheel of Fortune) instead of three clearly defined countries.   

Would this not make action a little more dynamic or am I missing something here?

[Lazerr]

Forgot to mention.. its summer time.. people enjoying the weather.  I believe numbers dip always this time of year, regardless of the average population.  Probably more noticeable with the smaller average here.

[Mister Fork]

Forgot to mention.. its summer time.. people enjoying the weather.  I believe numbers dip always this time of year, regardless of the average population.  Probably more noticeable with the smaller average here.

That is probable as well Lazerr

... and if you go to the Wishlist subforum, and post major gameplay improvement ideas, you get shot down by the armchair generals who say the gameplay is fine.

Well, the gameplay may be fine, it's also very stale. I suggested adding new elements and got beat up JUST for suggesting it. Some of the counter-arguments were valid.... if our subscribed numbers were 5000+, but they're not. Lucky to get 120+ logged in for Friday night furball.

So, what do we need to change to get MORE subscribers and people to play?

[Copprhed]

It appears that FESS has taken over RODBUSTER's duties here on the BBS.

[bustr]

Fork,

The only person's ideas and direction that matters is Hitech's. You and I have had what, almost 20 years of knowing that. He never talks about major game changes until he is almost ready to make that change. AH1->AH2, AH2->AH3 and so forth. Chances are talking too much about Combat Tour then having to abandon it was a poor route to take with a segment of his customers.

Problem with many ideas is they try to turn AH into the competition's games. Or they are so complex, they will fall apart under their own requirements and bore players to the competition's games which seems to be the inspiration for many ideas for changing AH. It's hard not to pull from experiences in playing other games when trying to change this game if you are on the outside, versus inside building the code and running a business. Many make the easy mistake of forgetting this is Hitech's Industry and he has to stay appraised of his competition's games and "customer hooks" to keep them coming back. Maybe you can have a private conversation with him about his views on that.

I reviewed the competition's terrains to understand what was different. It was something very simple. The ground combat area's were micro textured to look and drive like the real world from a tank perspective. Then the macro terrain was scaled up from there to look real world. That is an area no one other than Greebo in AH2 with CraterMA attempted to work into his terrain. So everything was built all these years on a gross scale to look good to 25k planes in combat while at 1000ft in a furball it didn't matter. I've finally included micro terrain design in my latest project along with compressing fields to the shortest distance Hitech will allow. That will keep some happy for awhile. Also becasue of how small the competition's arenas are, very large city and town objects can be used with complex building arrangements and fun time micro terrain for mario brothers style bumper car tank fights while looking good from the air. In our world, that would grind FPS to a halt becasue 100 of their arenas can be laid down in our 10x10 arena.

As for core mechanisms, too often the urge and end result is something that is reminiscent of WT arenas packed full of eye candy and goodies crossed with a WW2 board game.   

[madrid311]

I get killed a lot looking at my phone, can you imagine cell phones in WW2? Lol. But it can take so long to get to any action what else are you supposed to do while climbing out and getting alt for 20. Min.? Sometimes I enjoy the flight and the view or the clouds when they are out but soon the phone comes back up and totally distracts me which leads to overshoot or easy death for me. At least if you defend your can get some instant action but that really takes away from the capture part. 

[Vraciu]

It appears that FESS has taken over RODBUSTER's duties here on the BBS.

 
No. Fess uses reason and logic. 

[Vraciu]

So you're saying my ideas won't work or can't?  Big difference.  Again, just wanting analysis not necessarily advocacy. 

[bustr]

Fess wants Hitech to say and do what he won't say up front while dancing around the solution he wants. He wants AH3 turned into something like WT to give him instant constant forced action while still magically being AH3 for everyone else. Some number of you walk the same bleeding edge Fess does and I bet all of you have played WT along with Fess. All of you want Hitech to merge WT instant action with magically keeping AH3 intact.

Dear Hitech:

Please turn AH3 into WT instant action while keeping AH3 capture the flag open world intact. I'm not sure how you will keep everyone from running away and leaving Fess by himself but, you are a genius and will pull something out of your hat.

Gents, the only way to make this work is reduce the AH world to one 25x25 sector and stuff everyone in it. But, that is another thing Fess and others dance around and won't say point blank. That is the secret to WT and it's instant action, no place to run in a timed match up. Even if the MA was reduced to 5x5 instead of 10x10 they would not stay put for Fess. A single 25x25 miles sector arena is the only way he could get at them at will. Then 125 players would have a density and hoarding propensity equal to the 60 man hoards on 20x20 and 10x10 arenas in AH2. Along with trying to get off the ground would be quite the feat and suddenly the next wish would be for air starts or even queued matches and we would be WT.

It's a bit transparent how many wish Hitech could make AH into WT becasue they want instant action.

[Vraciu]

Fess wants Hitech to say and do what he won't say up front while dancing around the solution he wants. He wants AH3 turned into something like WT to give him instant constant forced action while still magically being AH3 for everyone else. Some number of you walk the same bleeding edge Fess does and I bet all of you have played WT along with Fess. All of you want Hitech to merge WT instant action with magically keeping AH3 intact.

Dear Hitech:

Please turn AH3 into WT instant action while keeping AH3 capture the flag open world intact. I'm not sure how you will keep everyone from running away and leaving Fess by himself but, you are a genius and will pull something out of your hat.

Gents, the only way to make this work is reduce the AH world to one 25x25 sector and stuff everyone in it. But, that is another thing Fess and others dance around and won't say point blank. That is the secret to WT and it's instant action, no place to run in a timed match up. Even if the MA was reduced to 5x5 instead of 10x10 they would not stay put for Fess. A single 25x25 miles sector arena is the only way he could get at them at will. Then 125 players would have a density and hoarding propensity equal to the 60 man hoards on 20x20 and 10x10 arenas in AH2. Along with trying to get off the ground would be quite the feat and suddenly the next wish would be for air starts or even queued matches and we would be WT.

It's a bit transparent how many wish Hitech could make AH into WT becasue they want instant action.

I don't see it that way.

Instant action isn't the goal.    But eliminating droning around for hours with nobody to shoot at?   Sounds a lot like what you are trying to do with your maps--to some success I might add.

[Copprhed]

No. Fess uses reason and logic.

A whine about the same old same old is still a whine, no matter if you couch it in "reason and logic". The fact is, Latrobe and all of his buddies thought that they could force HiTech by continually whining and using "logic and reason". Where are they now? There aren't many people who would really miss the ones who fly at stratospheric altitude in their low ENY planes to hit and run, and call themselves AH gods all the while complaining about the game. I have no problem finding a fight at any time I come on, IF I really want a fight. You guys don't. You just want your kills. Go find them elsewhere.