A returning players thoughts on the game

[StokesAk]

I logged in to the MA for the first time in a WHILE yesterday. I was glad to see so many familiar names, and to see the community is still going strong.

I do have two thoughts, which I am sure has been discussed before.

1. Why do we still have three active countries when there are less than 100 people in the MA most of the day?

As all of you know, two counties tend to "gang-up" on a third country, who usually has the fewest players. This creates a situation where country A and country B are both fighting country C, but not fighting each other. In practice this means there is one fight for country A and B, but too many fights to handle for country C. Many people have complained about "horde" tactics recently, but can you blame them? If there is only one fight for country A and B, everyone must join the horde if they want to see an enemy name tag.

Wouldn't it make a little sense if there were only two counties these days? In my mind this means there are multiple fights between the two countries, and players can spread more evenly across these fights if they chose to do so. This would also help alleviate many issues with ENY because it is only compared against one enemy country, not two.

Possible issues with this include:
-alienating players who want to stay loyal to their country
-most, if not all, the maps are balanced around having three countries
-winning the map would become much harder in a two country war, maybe with some tweaking to the victory conditions would be needed.

I'd like to hear the communities thoughts on this. Maybe I am not seeing something, and I have admittedly not played the game too much in the past five years.   

[guncrasher]

let me see, 2 countries gang up on the other.

to fix it, let's have only 2 countries, because it's been proven, it's impossible to horde with only 2 countries.


semp

[Shuffler]

Use search....... lots of info in past old threads.

[Arlo]

It'll be extremely hard to find the ENY disgust ones.

[flippz]

Use search....... lots of info in past old threads.

No there’s not a lot of info on why there’s still three countries. Except the old tried and tried reply of “because it did not work 20 years ago”. But I see that post count still rising wtg.

[Arlo]

Post count envy is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen someone post about. I'd gladly donate my count to people who seem to think it matters. I've never seen anyone with a high post count pretend that it did.

[Arlo]

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,400339.msg5307229.html#msg5307229

[Ack-Ack]

No there’s not a lot of info on why there’s still three countries. Except the old tried and tried reply of “because it did not work 20 years ago”. But I see that post count still rising wtg.

And the same holds true now.  It is B.S that a 3 country system can't work with a small population arena, Air Warrior proved that when 100 players was the max arena population over 20 years ago.

[DmonSlyr]

1 side would always have more players and the complaints would begin.

You cannot auto place players for balance because players would leave who can't fly with squad and friends.

The side who is about to win typically attracts more players, thus creating embalance.

"Spies" would be more prevalent as you'd only need to do it to one team.



Generally the lowest # team is not always getting gained or losing the war.

The lower #s team can gain the advantage by attacking the side who is busy attacking the other in a big furball.

3 sides means at some point the other 2 teams have to fight each other if they want the win. The lower #s side or side with least bases can use that opportunity to take bases back.

2 sides is not the issue.
Base distance, layout, and size of maps is. Maps like Bowl MA where players are scattered everywhere and there are 120 bases, and you cannot easily roll to fight both sides at the same time. maps that have 22+ miles in between bases. Maps where players can easily find the action and get into a fight.

There will always be side embalance, but it doesn't mean one side will be better than the others. The sides actually become pretty even in the afternoon.

When you are talking about low #s. Its really beneficial to have a smaller map with bases that have a good layout so all teams can fight each other and you can reach a fight where the other teams are fighting. That's what really makes the fights fun.

[Shuffler]

Seriously... if you don't like the game... it's not for you.

Told a player that the other day and he said... no I love the game. All he ever does is complain. He didn't realize that the real problem was him.

[DmonSlyr]

Seriously... if you don't like the game... it's not for you.

Told a player that the other day and he said... no I love the game. All he ever does is complain. He didn't realize that the real problem was him.

I can be like that sometimes, ill admit. Sometimes the game makes me heated due to long sorties being ruined or puff ack blowing me outa the sky with 6kills from 8k away. I love the game but it can anger me. Just the nature of the game.

The only thing I really hate is sitting in the tower not being able to partake in air combat with other fighters. My reasoning about base layout and distance is that during the off hours, low #s need to be confined in a smaller map that has closer bases. This allows players to quickly reach a fight. Most new players thrive off being able to fight more quickly. It helps them learn and keeps them active. If a new player has to consistently fly 5 minutes to fight one guy in a plane he has no idea or alt of the guy, then dies quickly every time, he's going to have a hard time. If he could fight more players quickly, he wouldn't care about dying in order to learn and get better. We need maps that engage players. When you have BowlMA on at 2AM with 20 players. It really is not good. These kind of maps bleed players quickly at night because the furball dies and too many bases spread out the players, furball players log earlier. Long distance bases really kill the fights going into off hours.

That's just my observation over the years.

[Trev95]

Welcome back Stokes!

[LCADolby]

Strokes, a name I remember, jolly good show!

[1stpar3]

I can be like that sometimes, ill admit. Sometimes the game makes me heated due to long sorties being ruined or puff ack blowing me outa the sky with 6kills from 8k away. I love the game but it can anger me. Just the nature of the game.

The only thing I really hate is sitting in the tower not being able to partake in air combat with other fighters. My reasoning about base layout and distance is that during the off hours, low #s need to be confined in a smaller map that has closer bases. This allows players to quickly reach a fight. Most new players thrive off being able to fight more quickly. It helps them learn and keeps them active. If a new player has to consistently fly 5 minutes to fight one guy in a plane he has no idea or alt of the guy, then dies quickly every time, he's going to have a hard time. If he could fight more players quickly, he wouldn't care about dying in order to learn and get better. We need maps that engage players. When you have BowlMA on at 2AM with 20 players. It really is not good. These kind of maps bleed players quickly at night because the furball dies and too many bases spread out the players, furball players log earlier. Long distance bases really kill the fights going into off hours.

That's just my observation over the years.

[Eagler]

Welcome back but don't count on reducing sides from 3 to 2 as that would require major coding.

Eagler