HQ

[mERv]

I would compromise with you on this in regards to the strat bases. Take away the c47's and add an extra flak base to each strat factory. You will increase the chance of losing birds while still making it profitable to attack strats and you can still drive an m3 to resupply. In my strategic mind that would be a good trade off and more realistic in regards to flak. Would also cover the factories a little better as the coverage is always lopsided. I usually come from the opposite direction of a flak base and immediately turn away after my drop. This would also encourage players to drop below that 3k flak ceiling making it easier to intercept rather than having to climb to 30k for 20 minutes.

[JimmyD3]

Another option would be to reduce the Strat downtime to 120 minutes, and reduce the maximum end product downtime to 90 minutes from 150 minutes.

[Animl-AW]

I’ll prolly be tarred and feathered for posting.

>IMO< The best way to discourage a one man band is to make it a worthless miserable waste of time, more then once.

All he’s doing is exploiting swiss cheese.

Fugative makes a valid point. Is it healthy for the game? Prolly not. Be creative.
The bank robber just exposed how he does it. Anything taking off from deep bases is prolly going to the stratosphere.

You’re not going to talk him off the roof, he loves it up there, and your misery.
2 cents.

[Lusche]

The strats are kinda unbalanced ever since AH split up the single strat complex and did away with the large maps. On some maps, they are basically indefensible from the start, so why even try? On other maps, they are totally covered by Me 163 base all the time, which pushes the incoming bombers to insane altitudes (so that's almost impossible to engage them in conventional fighters in time), or results in offmap NOE attacks or suicide jabo runs (which cause inordinate amount of damage compared to regular bombing runs).
And most of the time, it's way more effective just to resupply the factories instead of engaging the factory, especially with many of the newer maps, where you can do a supply run in less than three minutes.


My idea for better balance:

- The Me 163 gets pulled from all maps.
- All damage to the strats except for HQ is fixed at 45 or 60 minutes, no resupply possible. (Fields still can be resupplied as before). HQ get's a fixed downtime of 15-20 minutes or so.
- Offmap planes are visible to everyone on map, all the time, regardless of altitude.
- All strat targets get hardened against strafing damage and/or the light ack will be increased massively.

But don't worry, nothing of that will happen

[CptTrips]

- The Me 163 gets pulled from all maps.

Wait.  What?  Did you just type that!?!?!  Are you being held hostage?  Blink three times if you need help.

- Offmap planes are visible to everyone on map, all the time, regardless of altitude.

I like that one.  Still keep the AWACS dar elsewhere?

But don't worry, nothing of that will happen

Two weeks.

[oboe]

The strats are kinda unbalanced ever since AH split up the single strat complex and did away with the large maps. On some maps, they are basically indefensible from the start, so why even try? On other maps, they are totally covered by Me 163 base all the time, which pushes the incoming bombers to insane altitudes (so that's almost impossible to engage them in conventional fighters in time), or results in offmap NOE attacks or suicide jabo runs (which cause inordinate amount of damage compared to regular bombing runs).
And most of the time, it's way more effective just to resupply the factories instead of engaging the factory, especially with many of the newer maps, where you can do a supply run in less than three minutes.


My idea for better balance:

- The Me 163 gets pulled from all maps.
- All damage to the strats except for HQ is fixed at 45 or 60 minutes, no resupply possible. (Fields still can be resupplied as before). HQ get's a fixed downtime of 15-20 minutes or so.
- Offmap planes are visible to everyone on map, all the time, regardless of altitude.
- All strat targets get hardened against strafing damage and/or the light ack will be increased massively.

But don't worry, nothing of that will happen

Following this discussion with interest, as I have generally neglected trying to understand the strat game and am more or less a fighter puke.  Having said that, how do you guys feel about maps where all the strats are congregated into one rear location protected by many flak bases, versus strat factories spread out through the rear portion of the country's territory and protected by 1-2 flak bases each?   Which makes for better gameplay?

Also, could you guys rank the importance of strat factories?  Which ones are critical to the enemy's war effort, and which are less important?

 

[Lusche]

Wait.  What?  Did you just type that!?!?!  Are you being held hostage?  Blink three times if you need help.

 

I like that one.  Still keep the AWACS dar elsewhere?

I'm a sworn enemy of the AWACS dar, but this is a different topic not particularly related to HQ/strats, and I didn't want to get into random ranting mode. 

[Lusche]

Following this discussion with interest, as I have generally neglected trying to understand the strat game and am more or less a fighter puke.  Having said that, how do you guys feel about maps where all the strats are congregated into one rear location protected by many flak bases, versus strat factories spread out through the rear portion of the country's territory and protected by 1-2 flak bases each?   Which makes for better gameplay?

Generally I liked the central strats as a high value, deep strike target in contrast to tactical field bombardments close to the frontline.
And for the record, most players think of me as a pure buff hunter - in the era of central strats in AHII, I spend much more time bombing the strats than defending them. Just nobody noticed it because it's less spectacular.

Also, could you guys rank the importance of strat factories?  Which ones are critical to the enemy's war effort, and which are less important?

#1 AA factory. Helps in all base captures and has no detrimental effect after the base capture, because all guns are instantly back up again.
#2 City, because of the increased town downtimes
#3 Ammo

#5 Troops facility - almost not worth it anymore, because after the base layouts changed and with much fewer porking players available, barracks on field rarely get taken down nowadays.

#6 Refinery - totally irrelevant.

HQ is a special case...

[CptTrips]

I'm a sworn enemy of the AWACS dar, but this is a different topic not particularly related to HQ/strats, and I didn't want to get into random ranting mode. 

Fair enough. 

But if they make a bunch of changes to harden things from the bombers then it would be fair play to get rid of the AWACS radar. 

Or just drive away the few remaining bomber pilots.  And after that start working on driving away the GV player by forcing them into fighters against their will. 

[Shane]

This holds up, but I am also finding myself porking a base's barracks to slow down an advance. It's not the easiest thing to do in timing or achieving. 2 people doing it would be more effective, but... not the easiest thing to coordinate. 

#5 Troops facility - almost not worth it anymore, because after the base layouts changed and with muich fewer porking players available, barracks on field rarely get taken down nowadays.

[CptTrips]

HQ is a special case...

Have you ever committed the war crime of attacking an enemies HQ and ruining their fun?

[Lusche]

Have you ever committed the war crime of attacking an enemies HQ and ruining their fun?

My bomber logs (which only started in late 2012) show  5 serious attacks on HQ:

3/11/14, 17:02 (local takeoff time) on Mindanao. HQ down
3/12/14, 14:47 Mindanao. HQ down
3/12/14, 18:44 Mindanao. Lost 2 bombers before reaching HQ, switched to secondary target
3/13/14, 10:39, Mindanao. HQ down
3/13/14, 13:28, Mindanao HQ down, lost all 3 bombers after drop to enemy fighters

In all cases, I was flying Lancasters at 14k against the Rooks.

I did several attacks on HQ in the years after, but they all have been in single Mossie XVI without any chance of actually hurting the HQ

For the time before 2012, I simply don't remember.

[molybdenum]

.......and saw numbers drop as players just logged off.

I play AH to have fun fighting against other players. If I wanted to play "Microsoft Flight Simulator" in goons I could do that, but I dont because that isnt fun.

I think I lasted about an hour into the second time the HQ was flattened, which was a lot longer than most. Saturday night is the only night I get to play, and if Im not going to get to play, whats the point of sticking around. Its hard enough to find fights with the numbers we have. Why would anyone think this is a good way to play the game?

It just seems to me we had a few selfish players who went out of their way to take away the fun for a third of the players in an already low populated map. The last time they had an issue with the HQ being down all the time player not only logged, they canceled subscriptions. So much so that the coding was changed for HQ down times. Last night was one night I know, but the fix if it continues might be just close the doors considering Hitech health.

Yup. Started my own thread on the topic before I saw this one. But, yep.

[CptTrips]

Yup. Started my own thread on the topic before I saw this one. But, yep.

Honest question.

What remedy are you suggesting?

[molybdenum]

The strats are kinda unbalanced ever since AH split up the single strat complex and did away with the large maps. On some maps, they are basically indefensible from the start, so why even try? On other maps, they are totally covered by Me 163 base all the time, which pushes the incoming bombers to insane altitudes (so that's almost impossible to engage them in conventional fighters in time), or results in offmap NOE attacks or suicide jabo runs (which cause inordinate amount of damage compared to regular bombing runs).
And most of the time, it's way more effective just to resupply the factories instead of engaging the factory, especially with many of the newer maps, where you can do a supply run in less than three minutes.


My idea for better balance:

- The Me 163 gets pulled from all maps.
- All damage to the strats except for HQ is fixed at 45 or 60 minutes, no resupply possible. (Fields still can be resupplied as before). HQ get's a fixed downtime of 15-20 minutes or so.
- Offmap planes are visible to everyone on map, all the time, regardless of altitude.
- All strat targets get hardened against strafing damage and/or the light ack will be increased massively.

But don't worry, nothing of that will happen

Mordred?