A vast majority of the updates have been bug fixes (https://www.hitechcreations.com/company-info/news/40-software-updates) a gun elevation change, a couple HUD display changes and so on. Most have been behind the scenes with very little Upfront where the customer can SEE the new stuff. Lusche posted this chart that shows we havent had an new plane or vehicle since tour 168, 5 years ago. Sure we have had a number of new maps from "Bustr", but from the customers point of view, thats it.
What do you want the man to do? There are bugs that need to be fixed, and he is fixing them. Should he not fix the bugs? Do you think he is just lounging around the pool?
And new planes? How many planes are in the stable now? How many get flown on a daily basis? I can only imagine the amount work it take to add a new aircraft with all the control surfaces and damage modeling, animation rigging work. And then it will get flown one week and then forgotten. None of the new players trying the game give a squat if you have the Dewoitine D.520 or not. Once we have 500 players back in the arena, I hope you get every plane of your desire. I hope you get a new plane a week!
War Online: Pacific, of the 46 reviews posted on Steam most are "negative", granted some are from disgruntled Aces High players, but still not a great showing. War online: Pacific, most would have said would fail anyway as it is a "Furball" setup and so wouldn't hold many players attention for long. It is missing the richness of Aces High. You mentioned at one point that it may be setup to take/make bets of fights. We have seen nothing of this since.
Look. Let him try some stuff. He is obviously not allowed to try anything here. Let him try some stuff there. It is obviously not finish, but he can only spread himself around so thin. It doesn't really seem like my cup of tea yet. I was hoping for more of a Battlefield version of AH, but I'm just going to wait and see where he is taking it.
I agree with you a 2 sided arena won't work, but If you run one once a week as say "Red Team", and "Blue Team" to do away with Rook, Knight, Bishop Nations you would have proof for this day and age that it doesnt work..... or would it work?
I don't think that would work. I don't think the win the war logic would work properly.
Adding a few free planes I dont think would be a huge programming issue (what do I know),
I doubt programming is the problem. It is the modeling, UV texturing and rigging. And all that effort for putting in an obscure Italian or French plane in that would not add one single new paying customer.
Either add in a "mission" program that has missions run in the MA, or hire a few players to run missions at prime times both US and Euro. Build some action in the arenas. Free players add numbers, missions add action. Action and number means more players having fun, generate more fun.
Back when I was still trying to convince myself to find a way to tolerate the Melee, I thought I might go in with a six-pack and a clipboard and not fly, but do nothing but setup missions across the arena all night long. Sorta like a Dantoo for the Melee, but without the kewl accent. Battlefield had a similar thing with their commander mode, who coordinated squads and tasked supply drops for them and directed UAV coverage to assist certain attacks, etc. Pretty cool.
Then I decided it was just too hard to set up non-trivial missions before facts on the ground changed out from underneath you. And 98% of the players would just ignore the missions. The other 2% would tell you you are doing it all wrong. And the rest would just take off in the mission and go off and do whatever they wanted, ignoring the plan, and then blame you when things didn't work.
I decided it would probably just be more fun to go in the garage and start poking myself in the eye with a rusty nail.
I may disagree with Hitech on the 2-side thing, but only in the narrow case of player numbers below 300'ish. That's one thing in a thousand.
It is important to keep in mind here that Hitech is not the enemy. The situation is the enemy. I assure you Hitech is doing everything humanly possible with the resources he has to work with. We all have had a long history here, but none of us want it to work more than he does. This is his rice bowl.
