But why is that griefing? Why isn't that War?
Is dropping a fighter hangar griefing?
I mean I'm asking a legitimate question. I've heard GV'ers say that destroying a VH is griefing unless the vehicles are assaulting a base. I've heard fighter-Mafia say that destroying a fighter hangar is griefing.
If I were to ever open an account again, I need to know all these little rules. Should I ask Mother-May-I before destroying any enemy asset? Should I only destroy enemy assets that have no effect?
I've given it some thought, and based on my observations:
You may only shoot people down from behind 4 and 8 o'clock on their plane, otherwise you must hold fire or be deemed a Bad Person
(tm).
Bombing GVs is Right Out
(tm).
You must not up an aircraft from a CV until the self-appointed Rear Admiral
(tm) deems it is time. Nor shall you take out the radar of the base it is near to alert the enemy of its presence.
You're right about destroying the hangars, unless a Legitimate Base Take
(tm) is occurring. Definition of a Legitimate Base Take
(tm) varies by player, but you must know what it is for all involved on both sides at that base before destroying any hangars at all.
Weirdly enough, you're fairly safe from being a Bad Person
(tm) destroying ammo bunkers and radar or troops.
War IS griefing the enemy.
If a dedicated squad of bomber pilots worked to keep fighter hangars down on all front line bases and keep fuel at 25% on second line bases, and kept them down with a constant rotation of flights, is that griefing?
The difference with that is, it would actually create gameplay. That much going on in a concerted effort would take a ton of players and a ton of time, and provide ample opportunities to defend. A few guys in deuces hitting bombers as they grab would have a heyday.
Treating this like a war has resulted in a lot of what many call bad gameplay, like the people who only ever engage if they hold all the cards (5k alt advantage or more, 3+ more buddies there than enemy planes, and a plane that can outrun everything in sight). But generally, that only affects a local area as do most attempts to degrade the enemy.
Globally taking away the enemy's capability to find a fight or up an aircraft simply doesn't create good gameplay.
The main problem I had with taking out the HQ was it was a single target that in my opinion pretty much shut down the entire country's ability to play. That coupled with the fact that the necessary steps to defend were prohibitively boring for the majority of the playerbase made it so people wouldn't bother.
We can talk about what people should do, but the fact remains they didn't. People will tolerate limited ammo, vulnerable planes, and the ability to stall their aircraft but they seemingly won't tolerate not being able to tell from the map what's going on.
That's IMO why the AWACS dar came about, is because you could alert on country channel all day that enemy aircraft are inbound to field 23, but until people can look at their map and see dots, it doesn't exist. I saw a clear improvement in people upping to defend when the AWACS dar was implemented.
What semp said too. People will only put up with so much inconvenience. We've seen over the years IMO how much they'll put up with fairly clearly.
Wiley.
