Late war Plane dillema

[bustr]

You can always go back to wishing for simple out of Hitech.

Let them have their 2 week free access to all rides then, or instead, a new kind of account where they get only a spit9 or 109 G2 or A6m unlimited forever. Don't give them more options then that and you won't get slumming by vets canceling their accounts. And those three planes will not make anyone into a L33T since everyone else will have access to late war rides. Those are pretty simple rides at a minimum to learn and stay alive, if the person engages the vets for advice and decides to put in the effort. Otherwise, those rides will be here waiting for them whenever they remember the game is out there. Let them change to one of the other two each tour, and no activity for a tour on the account, it auto deletes. When they come back around months later, they make a new account.

Got the impression accounts like that are a pain to support the database from something Skuzzy said years ago. Still, If only those three rides are available, you won't get slumming for the GV game or long slow flights in the moonlight by previous vet strat runners who hate Hitech. At the minimum, you will have some "looky loos" to harvest knowing what the three rides are 15 seconds after your first merge. Be funny seeing all the spit9 being used as vets alt account so they can change country at will. At least it won't be vets changing at will upping perk rides.

If you complicate this it won't work.....though the last few times I've seen some thing like this thrown out there, the complication looked like a laundry list of what people would accpet at a minimum themselves to cancel their accounts and keep playing free with a reduced ride menu.

[Vraciu]

You cannot have a game this complex and expect to thrive when players are stuck on the runway firing their guns, unable to communicate.

You're bailing water without plugging the leak.   

[atlau]

pretty sir hitch had said that most players don't stay for more than 15 minutes. 2 free weeks or 2 years won't make a difference.

semp

But they would be more likely to stick around and play every now and then. Increasing total number would make the arenas busier and thus more attractive to further bring in more people.

[Arlo]

I once made a list of 'free planes' I thought would work. 

[bustr]

One free plane that they know will always be there and "Free" will translate to the current gaming cultural demographics translation of "Free". They will remember one free anytime ride and will tell friends about it becasue there won't be any confusion.

Anything more and vets will stop paying and tell Hitech to screw himself becasue of all their past gimmie x, y, z whines, and accept a few less rides to play occasionally for free. They will do it thinking he will suddenly go Oh gee golly, they were serious I better create everything they ever wanted to beg them to come back. At which point they might come back just to look at it, then rant in the forums about what kind of sorry SOB Hitech is for driving them out of his game by not doing what they "told him too do" all those years ago. Then go back to where ever they went off to to play in those game communities they made new relationships in. Very few people once they disconnect from a community and all the reasons they stayed in the past can reconnect and pick up where they left off.

Make a single ride free, a fighter like the spit9, even rotate three in that class to choose from at each tour start day. That is enough to try out the game, play once in awhile, or grow into the game and get serious creating an account to get all the rides. The abuse of it will be like anyone who keeps creating a second two week account to game the game. Essentially it's more honest than freemium, one plane a month from a menu of three free or, $14.95 a month for everything. 

[Vraciu]

Sounds about right.   

[FESS67]

I still think you are all missing the problem.

How will giving a free ride solve the problem of:

• late war monsters running away
• new users unable to understand basics like controller setup or access to radio comms

[DmonSlyr]

I still think you are all missing the problem.

How will giving a free ride solve the problem of:

• late war monsters running away
• new users unable to understand basics like controller setup or access to radio comms

Perhaps a link to approved training videos on the clip board map might be a good idea. At least they would have an easy click to research. Most players do not check the boards or the website, so any directions in-game will get the most views and understanding.

I wouldn't mind having a single plane for free simply because it gives people a longer chance to play the game and they WILL buy a sub just get to get fly a p51D or their fav plane. It would be great for guys who can't afford it at the time but want to just fly. Who don't care about dying and flying a lesser performance plane. It would make the fights more fun and actionable.

Eny should be restructured for some planes. I do feel as though too much easy access to top late war planes really does make the fights slower and more drawn out, so when you have to travel 8 minutes to a base, then chase planes, and then get picked by 4 other guys while you are chasing em, then it just gets tiring after a while taking that much time.

Also it's really just having maps that's direct the action rather than have it spread out all over the place when the #s are low. With smaller area maps and 15 mile bases, players could still attack un-occupied bases but with only 3-5 bases as a front, the fights would be more directed and more actionable.

[DmonSlyr]

Also, maybe adding an assist indicator, like turning the icon purple If you'd get the assist, would reduce ganging. Just thought about that.

[Karnak]

Its been years since I played.  I was decent.  Not top dog, but good enough to win more than I lost by a fair margin.  If I came back tomorrow I'd be meat on the table.  I left for a few reasons and they can't really be quantified as to which was more of a reason than the others. I know the final straw was the "run to the nearest Wirbelwind" tactic that became very common after the distance to spot enemy GVs was massively reduced while leaving friendly vehicles visible at 6,000 yards.

Karnak's list of issues that made the game not fun:

• Unrelenting and, functionally, unrestricted use of the player base as a captive audience to spout bumpersticker, garbage politics at
• Plane selection narrowing as the faster planes became a larger and larger portion of what was used making most planes uncomfortable and not fun to use.  Yes, my preferred ride was one of them.
• Reducing the enemy GV icon range to the point where you would be in the GV's effective range before the icon was visible coupled with not doing so to friendly GV icons creating close cooperation that didn't remotely exist between WWII aircraft and GVs
• Burnout, but this had happened many times before and after a break I'd always wanted to come back.  Frankly I have, on multiple occasions, thought about coming back, but the issues list above always remind me I want to come back to a game that no longer exists

[Bushmills]

An interesting read, after returning from a few years absence I have to say its heartening to see a good lot of the players I remember as adverse to danger now up for a fight, death, even your own, is the oil of the game. 

[Vinkman]

I still think you are all missing the problem.

How will giving a free ride solve the problem of:

• late war monsters running away

This is not a real problem. It's player choice. No rules changes can fix it without destroying the MA. too many players want the MA to be all things and it can't be. More players would fix running problems. When the arena is full of enemies, there is no where to run, and when it's full of friends, there is no reason to run.
 

• new users unable to understand basics like controller setup or access to radio comms

This is the real problem with low player base. That and expensive front end start up costs. Perhaps an easy mode set up for gaming controllers, and XBOX console access would help. Do we have that yet?

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