Follow up on "Were did everyone go"?

[The Fugitive]

First off, I love the VR. I have no issues with the "screen door" stuff as I normally wear glasses and dont in VR so I dont see it.

The problem I have is it does take getting use to. Your controls are the same, but you dont realize how often you still use the keyboard. I have a warthog and a CH throttle, plenty of buttons, but still not enough when in VR. I have tried voice attack or what ever the voice control software suggested by many but it has a hard time recognizing my voice.... new england accent  Also you still need the view switches because spinning all the way around is not an option unless all controls.... including pedals are attached to the chair.

The biggest hurdle is that for over 20 years I have been playing this game with stick/keyboard/looking strait ahead and changing all that even just the small bit is hard. Old dog new tricks syndrome  Add in that I play very little these days as the numbers are so low I hate "wasting" that time to play by "training" myself to fly all over again.

If Hitech came in here today and said by this time next year we would be back to 200 week night/400 weekend numbers GUARANTEED Id take the time to learn it, but as it is, Im thinking of selling it.   

[CptTrips]

I had to limit my playing time to 30 minutes at a time for the first week or so due to motion sickness but eventually I got used to it and have even been able to play 12 hour scenarios. Just don't over do it at first

Yeah, I didn't have too much problem, but had some brief moments of woosey at first.  That soon went away.  You get your sea legs. 

I played 11 hours straight in VR on Bavaria.  No problem.  Diving in to mass of B-17 all guns blazing was almost a sexual experience!   

You know what gets me though?  Watching someone else playing mirrored on the monitor.  I have to be careful not to watch that too long.  I think my brain is now trained to try and put me in those worlds, but i am not controlling the view movement.  I think that dissonance  me motion sick pretty quickly. 

I can play all day long, I just can't watch more than a couple of minutes.   

[Pluto]

I think some people will judge vr by the videos or mirrors they see of it because it looks so shaky or twitchy, but they don't understand that when the headset is on everything is moving with you so it is not as bad as it looks

[atlau]

I am a touch concerned about motion sickness.  I think I'll likely be ok, but I was playing an FPS that I was moving quickly through, and I kept dying in one area so kept going through it faster and faster and faster, and it got to the point I had to end my session because I was going to paint a picasso on the floor.  My equilibrium was screwy for about 3 hours after.  But I think (hope) maneuvering a plane from a chair should be easier to deal with.  I'll be pretty sad if I can't use it in here.

Wiley.

Took me about a week and could only play 15 min at a time. But now I dont even get any motion sickness. Except with gvs when in the gunner view

[1stpar3]

First thing you have to do is bail out of a plane and watch the ground. That still gets me occasionally

Even better than that...."The 3 Seconds of Air Time in a Jeep" OMG. Messa Map....AWESOME

[Squire]

WW2 FPS Games = Instant Action.

Its the latter they are drawn to...not the former. FPS (insert whatever the hell you want here) will be popular and not because the BF 109G-10 flight model is just so historically accurate...ect...they just get to blow s*** up.

AH? its going to be more than an hour to even get anywhere near something from download to rolling in an arena with your controls functioning.

[Tripp]

Hitech has stated a while back:
There seem to be plenty of people willing to give a WWII game a chance.  It must be other things about the game that is not convincing them to stay.

How about some input as to just what "other things" might be to hopefully narrow down these reasons. More minds the better?
1. Learning curve and training process.
2. Lack of visual motivation on the home page to gain curiosity.
3. Equipment requirements. A $30 J-stick will do the job, big expensive equipment is not needed.
4.
5.
6.
 please add to the list

[FESS67]

How about some input as to just what "other things" might be to hopefully narrow down these reasons. More minds the better?
1. Learning curve and training process.
2. Lack of visual motivation on the home page to gain curiosity.
3. Equipment requirements. A $30 J-stick will do the job, big expensive equipment is not needed.
4.
5.
6.
 please add to the list

#1 not accepted.  Every other game has a learning curve and if you hop over to DCS or IL2 they are on a par IMO with the learning curve.
2.  Home page is like something from the 90's BUT does it really affect the issue?  HTC has openly stated they can get them in the door but cannot keep them much past 30 minutes.

I believe that is the issue your many brains need to consider.

I think there are a couple of problems.

1...the game is called Aces High.  It will naturally attract 'fighter pilot' type players.  Fighter combat is lacking.  Much hitting and running but not much fighting
2...Invisible GVs.  I have never understood that.
3...The lack of a balanced fight.  2 sides can be going at it but the third is sat idle with no combat.  That does not promote a fun time.
4...ENY - whichever way you look at it this is a divisive element of the game especially when combined with point #3.  I can be denied a plane based on ENY yet be locally outnumbered.  Of course people will leave.
5...Trees at the end of a runway.  Why have 'auto takeoff' when if you take a heavy fighter if smashes you into a tree and you die.  Does not seem in the spirit of 'Auto takeoff'
6...Points system - yeah we all need a way to measure performance however the AH system rewards hit and run over stay and fight.  I can name many players who I can beat 1 on 1 but never get the chance because they run.  Yeah yeah, it is an open sandpit.  I get it.  But if you want to know why people leave or do not stay, I believe it is a factor.  Links in with #1

To many these may seem trivial however to a new player these are fun killers and you lose them before you had the chance to get them.

[bozon]

WW2 FPS Games = Instant Action.

Its the latter they are drawn to...not the former. FPS (insert whatever the hell you want here) will be popular and not because the BF 109G-10 flight model is just so historically accurate...ect...they just get to blow s*** up.

AH? its going to be more than an hour to even get anywhere near something from download to rolling in an arena with your controls functioning.

I bet 99% of under 25 year olds will not be able to tell the difference between a WW1 and WW2 game. I don’t blame them if their education comes from Battlefield series games - they all play exactly alike no matter if it is WW2 Ardens, WW1 Somme, or starwars battle of Hoth. They all look like bunny hopping soldiers with some kind of a shooting equipment and health bars.

Now get into a combat flight sim where physics matter. You can’t just point at where you want to go, twitch is a lot less important than forward thinking and understanding of flight physics. The age of planes (WW1, WW2, and jets) make all the difference of how these planes move and what they can and cannot do. It is complicated before you even fired a gun.

Now gear - it is not a mouse or a game pad that goes with the other games. “A stick? Really? Just to play this one game I downloaded on w whim? Pass.”

I you don’t get a hard on from imagining that you are in a Mosquito, Spitfire, Mustang, etc... games like AH will not be able to keep you. On the ither hand, if you are the kind that like extreme modeling accuracy of every switch and knob and don’t care much about the actual combat, then DCS probably got you, not AH. I have friends that like flight sims, but will never play an open PvP game - I’ve been trying to get them into AH for nearly 20 years.

What is left is a super nitch of players that were already highly interested in WWII aviation and are competative enough to want to play PvP online. I am afraid that we are talking about a ridiculously small fraction of the population that keeps getting smaller as the “glory” of WWII fades into anchient history.

The only thing that I can see somehow reviving this kind of games is a crossbreed of DCS and AH that completely focuses on the planes and air combat without any playable ground combat component - the latter is poison. It will have to mix players and AI.
It will still be a super nitch game, but at least the sim-nerds, the history buffs, and the PvP aircombat guys could be in it together.

[CAV]

The only thing that I can see somehow reviving this kind of games is a crossbreed of DCS and AH that completely focuses on the planes and air combat without any playable ground combat component - the latter is poison.

Odd............ WW2OL is doing Ok with combined arms combat. And IL-2 is adding tanks to the mix, but these are still trying to be a simulation not a game. As to were did they go?              WW2OL, IL-2, IRACING & DCS has many ex-AW/AH players they didn't stop playing, they just stopped playing AH.   Maybe they needed something than a Furballers club to make them stay.

[The Fugitive]

Odd............ WW2OL is doing Ok with combined arms combat. And IL-2 is adding tanks to the mix, but these are still trying to be a simulation not a game. As to were did they go?              WW2OL, IL-2, IRACING & DCS has many ex-AW/AH players they didn't stop playing, they just stopped playing AH.   Maybe they needed something than a Furballers club to make them stay.

I think the "Furballers Club" is BS. The fights are few and far between more often than not these days. The issue with the "war" game play is the players have melted it down to the least common denominator. Dive bombing buffs, over whelming attack forces and such have killed the "war" aspect of the game. OddCAF use to run squad missions inviting anyone along that wanted join in. Once it got to the point that you needed 50 players in an attack force there was no longer any point in running them.

I still think there are game adjustments HTC could do to to move players into better game play that would bring back the "war" aspect of the game with missions and all.

[guncrasher]

Fugitive please be specific about what those game changes could be.


Semp

[usvi]

A simple one word answer...work. That is all.

[bozon]

Odd............ WW2OL is doing Ok with combined arms combat. And IL-2 is adding tanks to the mix, but these are still trying to be a simulation not a game. As to were did they go?              WW2OL, IL-2, IRACING & DCS has many ex-AW/AH players they didn't stop playing, they just stopped playing AH.   Maybe they needed something than a Furballers club to make them stay.

WW2OL is a ground game with planes. By the way, “Combined arms” means “shit flight sim” in Armenian.

DCS multiplayer is like the old LAN games. I really wish they had company run servers with more substance.

IL-2 I never liked, but some ex AH players enjoy mods of it with multiplayer. I would call it “small scale multiplayer” if AH numbers were not down to this level.

IRACING, I have no idea what is that. Does not sound interesting at all.

[Lusche]

I just looked up where I actually went - This is what I have been playing in the last 14 months:



(measured by recording 'time in focus', which is somewhat incomplete for games where I use to 'tab out' a lot like AH or Elite)