Hair brained idea

[Chris79]

Ok, numbers suck, there is no denying that. I was thinking maybe a three tiered solution may work.
Tier 1. FTP, Spit1, Hurri1, 109E, Ki43, A6M2, C202, He111, Ju88, B25c, T34/75, and the 109F, spit5, perked.
Tier 2. 7.99$ All mid war planes with the Spit16, K4, abd D9 perked.
Tier 3. Normal subscription

[Peanut1]

#1 thing hitech could do is either come out of retirement and put 1 hour a day into implementing a few changes we ask for in the game OR better yet sell it to one of the few people who have expressed interest for a realistic price.

[RichardDarkwood]

Ok, numbers suck, there is no denying that. I was thinking maybe a three tiered solution may work.
Tier 1. FTP, Spit1, Hurri1, 109E, Ki43, A6M2, C202, He111, Ju88, B25c, T34/75, and the 109F, spit5, perked.
Tier 2. 7.99$ All mid war planes with the Spit16, K4, abd D9 perked.
Tier 3. Normal subscription

Some of us who have played this game many years enjoy the cartoon aircraft you first mentioned. Some of us.

For the most part people will not fly those planes unless they are in a scenario/event, and they have to do it.

[lunaticfringe]

I would rather just pay the full subscription price and fly what I want when I want. And earn perks to fly perked planes.

[Eagler]

I think it sounds like one of the best ways to possibly change the pay structure of AH and keep it going

Eagler

[DmonSlyr]

I'm all for allowing a few free planes to get the #s up.

Here's my issue: the 190D, spit16, yak3, and La7 should all be perked. They are detrimental to the game play. I leave the P51 out just because too many would get their panties in a wad. Just look at the plane stats for the last few months. The Yak 3 and 190D has one of the highest amounts of kill rates with some of the highest amounts of K/D. It's like having too many predators in the woods killing too many chickens or something. It's not good for the natural environment. The spit16 and La7 should be perked. They are the best defensive planes in the game. They can be-line to almost any plane with their exceleration, have more than capable cannons with the spit16 having 50 cals too. They can out turn almost any plane, especially the spit16, and can run away from almost any plane. The yak3 fits in that category as well. Too many are just not good for gameplay and it seems that these planes are dominating the plane stats every month. Would a 5 perk cost really hurt? Eventually the noobs flying these planes aren't noobs anymore but they still continue to fly them. This making the game actually much harder for noobs. These abundance of super planes are IMO a big reason why so many have given up and left.

[popeye]

My guess is that there would be enough players currently paying full price who would move to "Tier 1" or "Tier 2", that would offset any new "Tier 2" subscriptions.

Replacing the 2 week free trial with some number of free hours might be a way to give new players enough actual playing time to learn the game and get hooked.

Or, something.....

[-gg-]

I think one problem with new players is that the learning curve is so steep that they just give up. Especially if they're limited to those early war planes. Even though it might be free, they might just get so frustrated and just leave.
I think that current players would just be all over new players and shooting them down relentlessly. There's so many players that just play for rank. Or maybe not, I haven't played in a couple of months. I'm not as in tune as I was when I played all the time.

For me, I love a challenge. If I get shot down a million times I'll keep coming back for more. Lol.

[lunaticfringe]

Well not only that Gina, new players some if not most will not ask for help, if you offer to help they won't answer you. I've tried many times to help noobs get plane Off the ground the easy way by using auto take off until they learn to get up manually. I have seen noobs quit because they keep crashing on take off.
 

[Eagler]

What about just extending the 2 week free trial to say 6 weeks?

Not many will pay $15 a month to learn how not to die...let alone actually shoot something down...

With the learning curve being high and all the free sims out there now,  it would give newbies more time to get better before paying for it

And it seems it would be the easiest to change code wise

Eagler

[lunaticfringe]

Oh and this is just my thought, with the economy the way it is, high food and fuel prices etc. Some of you all still insist on HiTech lower his price in some shape or form. Counting himself he has 5 mouths to feed high electricity costs I'm sure. Lowering game price would hurt his income just as sure as losing players. Some of you all are leaving it up to HiTech, to solely to try to get new players.

How many of you have tried your self to get new players. Asked friends family (brothers sisters cousins uncles nieces nephews to play. Coworkers,fellow students, neighbors if you are friends with them. Etc.
I'm going into my 4th month without a computer, my 11 year old computer finally took a dump, but I'm still paying my $16.03 a month in hopes of getting a computer and making a comeback before the year is out.

Roast me if you must (not 1st time hehe) RTB you all take it easy.

[Tig]

I've gotten two fellow cadets to install Aces High and try it out, but one has decided to move on from games, and the other one is just a broke teenager lol. 

I really like the idea of tiers though, I just flew the Spitfire Mk 1 last night into a full blown air battle in the MA, and it held its own quite nicely. I know for a fact I would be happy to play for free with early war planes, and it would have gotten me into the MA months earlier. A lot of people would have just quit before those few months.

[-gg-]

I don't know about the pricing. I mean do you really want a bunch of people in here en mass that are basically just gamers?
I think there's a good balance of numbers. Maybe it's a little low right now. But I don't think you want thousands of people that are just gamers. I think it's okay to charge more money for something that's more of a niche. You know I think it's more of a niche game and I don't think people mind paying.

There's lots of things that might get to new people though. Even me coming back to the game after years. Like the fact that they don't answer you could just be as simple as they think their mic might be working and it's not. Or they don't know how to tune to the right channel or something. Or they don't even know how to select the channel to type on. Maybe they're even typing on the wrong channel .

Maybe something as simple as automatically tuning somebody to the local channel would be good. I don't know. Like I said I am not in tune so much as I used to be.

[FLS]

Thousands would be good. Even a hundred new gamers would be nice.

I doubt pricing is the problem. It may be the first obstacle but getting shot down for a year is likely a bigger issue.

[CAV]

Maybe something like WW2 Online does with their they're "Welcome Back Soldier"... One would think HTC still has the e-mail address of most of the pass players. Give them a free week a few times a year to come back..... and hopefully get hooked on the game again.

CAV