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

[fd ski]

i play euro times. 60-80 people in the arena is a norm, 100 is high levels.
Even at 80 it is a challenge to find a fight.

As far as I can tell, maps are simply too large. Back in WB days i remember 80 players as excellent number on given map, but they weren't THAT big.


Notice that largest distance between airfields on N-S W-E axis is 120 miles.

Ok, not much room for strat, but you can find a fight really easily.

I wrote to HT while back with an idea of "sizing" maps using cloud fronts - basically - depending on arena numbers clouds from the external edge of the map would close in or move out to make to narrow or widen playing field. Obviously map would need to be designed to accommodate for that. This way you could size the map without kicking everyone off the server.

Game is fine. Just need to make it easier to meet Too much room.

[save]

Agreed,
either a cloud front, or simply shut down some fields, and when numbers allow it, open them up again,  the front-line need to be more narrow.

i play euro times. 60-80 people in the arena is a norm, 100 is high levels.
Even at 80 it is a challenge to find a fight.

As far as I can tell, maps are simply too large. Back in WB days i remember 80 players as excellent number on given map, but they weren't THAT big.

Notice that largest distance between airfields on N-S W-E axis is 120 miles.

Ok, not much room for strat, but you can find a fight really easily.

I wrote to HT while back with an idea of "sizing" maps using cloud fronts - basically - depending on arena numbers clouds from the external edge of the map would close in or move out to make to narrow or widen playing field. Obviously map would need to be designed to accommodate for that. This way you could size the map without kicking everyone off the server.

Game is fine. Just need to make it easier to meet Too much room.

[Brooke]

I think it would be good for battle area in the game to be adjusted according to the number of players.

We do that in scenarios to keep good action.  For example, in ones focused on a lot of tactical action, if we have a battle that will have 60 players, we focus the battle into about 4 sectors by 4 sectors.

Here is an old Air Warrior map, from back when having 10 people on line still resulted in good multi-aircraft fights.



It is, in AH terms, about 1.5 sectors by 1.5 sectors.  However, as I vaguely recall, there was some aspect of aircraft operating in half time in Air Warrior in those days, so that is perhaps like 3 sectors by 3 sectors in AH.

[FLOOB]

Playing two games at once is pretty common nowadays. All them spawn campers in EQ etc. are also playing Civ or something at the same time.

[Traveler]

Something else is you cant search "Air combat" or "WW2 fighter game" on Twitch and find the game.

Hell, you can't google it either, not even listed.

[Skuzzy]

Hell, you can't google it either, not even listed.

I keep seeing people say this and yet when this is what I get when I do a search.


My guess is there will always be word combinations some things are just not going to show up on.

[TWCAxew]

Same exact words its also not in the list when you click trough the side buttons.

DutchVII

[The Fugitive]

I typed in the same words as your and it doesn't show Aces High at all. Google tailors the results by the person doing the search history. I do t do a lot of searching. because I have a thousand links saved so it gives me a much wider, generic set of results. Someone new looking g fle an air combat game won't see AH until at least the second page.

I dont think streaming will help much unless its someone e who already has a large following doing it. I do believe having an active presents on social media would help.  My little attempt brought a bunch of followers. I couldn't get anyone else to fill out other times of the day and week, but for my little time on it seemed draw some intrest.

HTC  needs to get the game out there front and center. They need to be a bit more proactive with the community like they use to in the old days. They need to have a hook to hold new players to the game long enough to get them hooked and subscribed (half dozen unlimited free planes and gvs in the MA)

Maintaining the status quo isn't going to bring in new players. Change with the times is always needed.

[Skuzzy]

I do not do a lot of searching either, especially for ww2 air combat games.  I also do not have any cookies stored on any of my computers.

Matter of fact, I quit using Google and switched to Duckduckgo some time ago.  I am not a fan of Google's strong-arm tactics they have been employing lately.  That is a personal observation, not related to anything at HTC.

[FLOOB]

I was thinking on that subject they other day. If I was a new player who'd never heard of aces high, how the hell would I ever hear about it today? The only reason most players our age ever heard of AH is because we picked up a box of AW or WB from a store shelf twenty years ago.

[Skuzzy]

It is not a matter of players not finding us.  It never has been.

[FLOOB]

Then what is the matter?

[Traveler]

I do not do a lot of searching either, especially for ww2 air combat games.  I also do not have any cookies stored on any of my computers.

Matter of fact, I quit using Google and switched to Duckduckgo some time ago.  I am not a fan of Google's strong-arm tactics they have been employing lately.  That is a personal observation, not related to anything at HTC.

We all understand how much you dislike Google, Microsoft, but the customer base uses what is delivered on their machines, they just use what ever that works for them.  You may have no trouble using your Duckduckgo to find what you want, but the majority of the potential customer base is using what they got and as several have pointed out, they can't find a listing for AH using the tools that came on their machine.   

[DmonSlyr]

It popped up for me. That being said. I think the thumbnail could be updated or reworked.

From an online marketing perspective. I think HTC could is missing a lot of opportunities with videos, pics, special even announcements. All of this stuff would be much better right on the front page instead of having to click on other tabs, or search the forums. More excitement on the front page would help a lot. Posting a film on of a scenario where you are in the cockpit (the full cockpit not 2 inches from the aimer) merging with like 20 enimies with your squad would go way way further than just that one vid of the F4F.

[Vraciu]

Then what is the matter?

People aren’t staying.  Most are gone in ten minutes.  Solve that mystery and you’ll blow the roof off.