After functionally being away from the game for the last 12 years (and a few years before that outside the O'Club) I decided to give it another serious run. I've peeked my nose in here or there and did some ack gunnery, but nothing more. Now, I had kept an account open all those years even if I really never ended up online during that time. That might not make much sense, but to me it was like having a Pateron account for Aces High like you can have to support youtube content providers. I suppose I wanted to hep keep alive a good middle ground non-arcade, non-DCS platform and wait for something to change. A few weeks back I committed to making a serious run and see see if I wanted to keep it up or if it was simply time to move on. Not that WoT or WT seemed all that appealing with their grinder/pay to win models.
I was frankly not finding a lot of fun when I dived back in for the same reasons I had faded away in the first place. Going back to the AW days (4261) I always like the fight and was never big on winning the war, though I don't mind if both work well together. But so often it is a lot of horde warrior, where you are either being ganged or part of the gang and that does nothing for me. I was only finding 1-2 good fights per hour which was not encouraging. Not to say that is the wrong way to play the game, a lot of people seem to enjoy it, but it's not the way I like to have fun.
Well, when I logged on last night there was a lot of uneven base capturing going on, but I noticed an announcement for a special event -- axis vs allies with a mid war plane set. After not finding a good battle and seeing the event was now open I entered and picked a side with the lowest number not knowing what plane set I would have (luck of the draw was allied). It was a huge, non stop flowing fight. No kills being recorded (who cares), lots of check 6 calls, lots of action. What a blast. I saw a few familiar names. Eagler was on. I imagine he got me a few times like he used to back in the day.
I had also bought a track IR a few years back and never really took it online because it always seemed a bit awkward compared to the hat and support buttons I had used for views since 1992 and was VERY comfortable with. But man, for some reason in just one flight a week ago it just clicked, and aside from a sore neck (I have the pro locked into a heavy 5.1 surround headset) it's amazing. In fact it has motivated me to maybe dive into DCS world and actually learn to fly one of the plane modules I had bought. DCS World for me is like one of those model builders that has a closet full of unbuilt kits (looks in mirror). Wow, that looks cool, so you buy it. But then you never get the time to dive in and build the damn thing, or in the case of DCS spend the days required to learn how to close the canopy and start the engines. And I'm ready to get set up to give ARM3 a shot. I'm now pissed that more FPS and RPG platforms don't support it. Hell, I may even give the griefer kiddie set a run in DayZ.
Flying wise my dog fighting is better than it was 12 years ago, but my gunnery is horrible. For the first time I'll actually be a NiK2 dweeb because I need the cannons and the ammo load to actually get a kill on the rare occasion I land a few hits. Plus, since a Zero would be dead meat and that was a long-time favorite before the win the war days it's a nice upgrade. Still an easy kill for any of the faster planes that are flown right.
So, I'll check the arena every now and then to see if there are any good fights and I'll seek out the special events. And if I only get a few good times per month that will pay for my subscription.
