Simulated Aerial Combat Roundtable

[Lusche]

It’s obvious their “friends” are elsewhere. So why stay?

I have no friends anywhere, so I might as well stay here 

[GasTeddy]

It seems like the only reason they’re here is to talk negatively about AH. It’s obvious their “friends” are elsewhere. So why stay?

I have those I can call friends in AH and when went to IL-2, made friends there. Enemies in both as well, but isn't that part of warfare?

[Bruv119]

2) Combat Flight Simulator, the first word in the term. I’m prolly the last one who should ask this,…How many kills have you gotten in DCS in the last year of another human pilot?

Some dude has 250 human kills in January on the most populated WW2 server.  I wouldn't want to see his hours played stat but he is an American fellow when primetime is Euro centric.  Clearly an exception to the averages but fair play to him.   

That's roughly 10 a day.   Now 1 decent dogfight against a human player is enough adrenaline to keep the addiction going so he is definitely having "fun"

Not being a negative nancy but just pointing out the numbers is folly, having 150 in one arena split three ways does not automatically equate to more action especially when it is commonplace for both teams to gang the other and individuals to run, hide in Gv's and manned guns (see shane's thread in general discussion).   So unless you go about switching sides and hunting the dar bar for fights, something I have never really done, because I enjoy the capture the flag teamwork element.  you cannot argue that more players means more action whilst comparing these games.

AH does multiplayer the best due to it's current variety of things you can do, I think we all accept that but it can get repetitive when certain behaviours come to the forefront.  Human nature I guess.

[LCADolby]

From another former aces high player this pretty much sums it up



Quote: It's a gamer Hospice.  Most of those old farts are too old to learn anything new.  They just want to spin in the hamster wheel just like they've been doing since Bill Clinton was President.  Besides onset dementia preventing them from learning anything new, this close to the bone yard, most of them can't invest in a new machine to run it.  Half of them are probably on intel 486 chips.  No, at this point the best we can do is keep grandpa comfortable until the inevitable end comes.

  Cuts a bit close to the bone, but it's funny and there is truth to it.
As people get older they get stuck in their ways become more resistant to change, Windows XP sure is comfortable.
I think everyone in AH over 40 will be seething reading that; more name calling than valuable discussion 

[edge12674]

Not being a negative nancy but just pointing out the numbers is folly, having 150 in one arena split three ways does not automatically equate to more action especially when it is commonplace for both teams to gang the other and individuals to run, hide in Gv's and manned guns (see shane's thread in general discussion).   So unless you go about switching sides and hunting the dar bar for fights, something I have never really done, because I enjoy the capture the flag teamwork element.  you cannot argue that more players means more action whilst comparing these games.

AH does multiplayer the best due to it's current variety of things you can do, I think we all accept that but it can get repetitive when certain behaviours come to the forefront.  Human nature I guess.

Well said Bruv! 

I think it also matters where you take your social satisfaction.  Some get their main satisfaction from shooting down a "human" player.  Shooting down A/I (no matter how challenging) doesn't do it for them.  For others, the payoff comes from working closely with friends to accomplish an objective.

For those that like fighting with friends, AH can be problematic.  Low numbers outside of US prime time, uneven numbers being split among three countries, numbers being further divided between air/ground vehicles, and player behavior, can make for very slow game play.

A majority of my game play is meeting with my friends on Teamspeak, deciding what we want to do (air to air, air to ground or both), starting a mission, and then working together to complete the objective.  The enemy is A/I, it is challenging enough to pose a serious threat, is ALWAYS available, and ALWAYS aggressive.

Whenever I feel the need to go against a human adversary there are usually several servers with 60+ players available (both US and European prime times).  That number may seem low, but the number is split between two sides, all air to air, and is also augmented with A/I.  It makes for a challenging environment.

Then there are the times I want to do some solo flying.  I have missions, campaigns, instant action, and training scenarios available.  If I don't like those I can create my own missions or download missions created by others.

For me, this varied content ensures that I can have a good play experience any time I can carve out some precious playtime from real life.

[Spikes]

Seems this thread has run its course lol.

[Shuffler]

  Cuts a bit close to the bone, but it's funny and there is truth to it.
As people get older they get stuck in their ways become more resistant to change, Windows XP sure is comfortable.
I think everyone in AH over 40 will be seething reading that; more name calling than valuable discussion 

Most of those probably don't have half the machine I have. ROTFLMO

[AKIron]

My younger brother, turns 68 this weekend, just upgraded to a Pimax Crystal and RTX 4080. He did this solely for DCS. Just sayin'.

We upgraded him to a Ryzen 7 5800X3D not long ago and now he's looking at upgrading to a 7800X3D. Told him to wait and see how well the 5800X3D can push the 4080.

[Spikes]

  Cuts a bit close to the bone, but it's funny and there is truth to it.
As people get older they get stuck in their ways become more resistant to change, Windows XP sure is comfortable.
I think everyone in AH over 40 will be seething reading that; more name calling than valuable discussion 

I know it was a bit tongue-in-cheek but I'd be surprised if Windows XP had even 5% of the OS market share of AH players.

[Eagler]

I still think the days with numbers that allow decent play with 3 countries is long gone and not coming back

Need to make this two countries imo as that would resolve many complaints about AH discussed here to infinity without any resolution

Isn't that just a change in map making..just setting it up with just two countries as the selection of sides?

Like MNM is now..imagine that split up 3 ways with the low numbers in it? Same in ma to me these days..

Eagler

[Dadtallica]

I still think the days with numbers that allow decent play with 3 countries is long gone and not coming back

Need to make this two countries imo as that would resolve many complaints about AH discussed here to infinity without any resolution

Isn't that just a change in map making..just setting it up with just two countries as the selection of sides?

Like MNM is now..imagine that split up 3 ways with the low numbers in it? Same in ma to me these days..

Eagler

It’s my understanding that maps take several months to complete with tons of testing. It’s not like you can just delete a side.

Also, it’s a super bad idea that will only exacerbate the issue it’s trying to solve.

[The Fugitive]

I still think the days with numbers that allow decent play with 3 countries is long gone and not coming back

Need to make this two countries imo as that would resolve many complaints about AH discussed here to infinity without any resolution

Isn't that just a change in map making..just setting it up with just two countries as the selection of sides?

Like MNM is now..imagine that split up 3 ways with the low numbers in it? Same in ma to me these days..

Eagler

How would you control the side balance? How many players would log on and jump to the side that was rolling the map? Once one side was over loaded, it would ALWAYS be over loaded.

Auto placement.... you log in game decide which team to put you on for side balancing. Now the sides are always balanced. Squads are gone because you can never be sure which team you will be assigned, OR you tune squadies and "spy" for each other or work to pad each others scores by being sacrificial lambs.

Maybe Hitech could build an algorithm that looks back at the previous tour and calculates attendance by squad and automatically places them on sides to maintain a balance..... as long as the players keep playing.

Those "other games" work ok with 2 sides because they have much lower numbers, or are friends setting up missions, and have AI to fill out the imbalances. One of the best things in this game is NO AI.

Sure AH has issues with 3 sides due to the numbers. I still think HTC could adjust the coad to "guide" players to attack the other fronts thus giving everyone some action. Whether it is limiting resources along the front with the prolonged action,

Dont limit planes, other than by ENY, but limit fuel and ords. Tale more than 2-3 bases from one team and fuel and ords on that side of the map automatically drop to 50%. Supply cant keep up with the advancing front.

or harding the targets along the front with prolonged action but only until the action switches to the other front for a bit.

Years ago you could take fuel at a base down to 25%. when the attacking team porked all the fuel along a front you couldnt up a plane with enough gas to defend and they would just roll bases.... HTC made a change

Years ago NOE missions were the norm, a base would flash over here and by the time you upped it was captured and they would disappear to attack some place else along the front and sometimes on the other front. Time after time flash up lose a base, "wack-a-Mole". ..... HTC made changes.

Years ago The cities and HQ would be down for hours for some countries which removes ALL radar. No dots, no bars, no nothing.....HTC made changes

I think its time HTC made some more changes to keep up with the evolution of the game.

[Eagler]

Well in MNM we are mature enough to balance the sides ourselves

I guess that is too much to hope for in ma

And yes it is as simple as leaving out the 3rd country isn't it

I'd be for a trial run where say knights are disabled and we are forced into rook or bish depending on the numbers

It needs to happen imo

Eagler

[CptTrips]

Well in MNM we are mature enough to balance the sides ourselves

I guess that is too much to hope for in ma

And yes it is as simple as leaving out the 3rd country isn't it

I'd be for a trial run where say knights are disabled and we are forced into rook or bish depending on the numbers

It needs to happen imo

Eagler

I can understand that at this late date, there is probably too much hard coded logic in the ENY\Win-the-War logic that assumes 3-sides to make it worth trying to fix at this point.

And the player are so invested in their little chess pieces, a third would quit if you removed their country.  Though you could switch to Reds vs Blues.  But then all three chess pieces would melt down.  lol

They will claim this and that, but HT has long ago explained that 3-sides has nothing to do with side balancing and has no effect on that.  So obviously 2-sides won't be worse than 3 in that.  3-sides already has all those problems and doesn't seem to help a bit.  Just ask Shane.

Their arguments are as irrelevant as incorrect, but the real issue is that would be way too much code to expect to be touched at this point.

Your best bet is to just keep compressing maps to a size that maintains your desired density, but one side will still get ignored occasionally in a 3-sided war.  That's what you've had.  That's what you got.  That's all your gonna get.

[Eagler]

Does it take any coding though?

Couldn't the one side just be disabled making it two sided instead of 3?

I don't care about "winning the war/map" as I never have so that doesn't figure into that I guess..

Eagler