Already 5 votes....

[Animl-AW]

Nah, you did that and cried victim when you got called out:
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,409719.msg5431179.html#msg5431179

You make Goebbels look like a saint.

Don’t care, compared to you, I am a saint

[Max]

I hesitate a lot when the talk of "selling" comes up. When AW was sold the player base was all kinds of excited. New money coming in from a big developer, everything looked like it was going to be amazing with what they could do! and all they did was close it   

I think rebranding wouldnt be too tuff. HTC has down a lot of update since the last offering to steam so they could call it a rebrand easy enough. Knowing how it all went down before they could be a bit more ready for it with a bunch of people to be on hand to help out and such.

Sell, rebrand, call it what you will but the empirical evidence points to the fact that other than maintaining the servers, locking posts and whatever it takes to get new skins up, Hitech is done. It's one stream of retirement income which will probably continue without any further development until the expenses involved in keeping it u & running exceed the revenue.

[Dadtallica]

Sell, rebrand, call it what you will but the empirical evidence points to the fact that other than maintaining the servers, locking posts and whatever it takes to get new skins up, Hitech is done. It's one stream of retirement income which will probably continue without any further development until the expenses involved in keeping it u & running exceed the revenue.

Nothing wrong with that. Wish I had a passive income stream.

[Skyyr]

I believe Hitech stated that the average new user only spent 5 minutes logging into the game before logging out permanently. The barrier to entry was simply too high.

Ironically, this is precisely for reasons like the topic of this very thread. You can't make fights difficult to find and then expect brand new players to understand what's going on. Turning off the dar only penalizes the unskilled players, which every new player is, because they are the very people who you need to come and remain ingame.

Like I said, you can turn off the local insta-dar and I promise it won't affect the best players; but it'll make it much more difficult for the average-skilled player. And most everyone here is an average-skilled player, statistically speaking. New players are and would be even less skilled.

[Lazerr]

I hesitate a lot when the talk of "selling" comes up. When AW was sold the player base was all kinds of excited. New money coming in from a big developer, everything looked like it was going to be amazing with what they could do! and all they did was close it   

I think rebranding wouldnt be too tuff. HTC has down a lot of update since the last offering to steam so they could call it a rebrand easy enough. Knowing how it all went down before they could be a bit more ready for it with a bunch of people to be on hand to help out and such.

I don't THINK the selling price of AH would be enough for another team to buy out AH just to close it in hopes of getting their numbers.  The playerbase has shrunk too much, and there is too much other competition out there.  Just my opinion.

[DmonSlyr]

I never said anything about "turning off the dar." Just that the current Dar needs adjustments and shouldn't be available outside of radar range, especially if the radar is down. Any new player should understand immediately per the start of the game that Dar Bars indicate a presence of enemy in the sky. If radar was harder to kill at 3k pounds. It would prevent radar being knocked out immediately for the most part.

In anycase, I'm just unsure why SA has to completely destroyed in a MMO game and for advantages to be given to players after someone gets a kill.

[Eagler]

Multiple accounts provide the means to circumvent any dar setting .. it's happening now and would definitely happen if dar was changed as suggested...

Enjoy the game while you can as it will be the way it is today to the day your login fails and it's over..imo

Eagler

[AKIron]

[Grind]

Enjoy the game while you can as it will be the way it is today to the day your login fails and it's over..imo

Eagler

What incentive does Hitech have in doing anymore with his game? He’s made his money and probably ready to retire. IMHO, the fact he keeps it running is doing us a favor. Passion fades over time. I suppose the incessant squeaking in the forum provides a bit of entertainment for him.

[LilMak]

Everyone keeps talking about new players like people are too stupid to ask questions or figure things out. Thousands of players over the years figured out the radar system before it was made into the EZ mode awacs that ruined situational awareness. Most of you reading this thread figured it out. Where is this abundance of new players everyone keeps talking about? I see different names who are good sticks (returning players) but few (if any) new ones. Now there is a bunch of you saying people are basically too stupid to function without being spoon fed people’s exact location. When are we going to do that for GVs? Why don’t tanks appear on radar when I get within 6k? Clear what’s good for the goose should be good for the gander?

I mean, if we’re just going to make the game stupid, let’s make it totally stupid. Turn on F3. Make the lead sight available. Eliminate perks all together. Enable unlimited ammo and fuel for 163s at all bases. How about autopilot that shoots why enemy for you?

[Skyyr]

Everyone keeps talking about new players like people are too stupid to ask questions or figure things out. Thousands of players over the years figured out the radar system before it was made into the EZ mode awacs that ruined situational awareness. Most of you reading this thread figured it out. Where is this abundance of new players everyone keeps talking about? I see different names who are good sticks (returning players) but few (if any) new ones. Now there is a bunch of you saying people are basically too stupid to function without being spoon fed people’s exact location. When are we going to do that for GVs? Why don’t tanks appear on radar when I get within 6k? Clear what’s good for the goose should be good for the gander?

I mean, if we’re just going to make the game stupid, let’s make it totally stupid. Turn on F3. Make the lead sight available. Eliminate perks all together. Enable unlimited ammo and fuel for 163s at all bases. How about autopilot that shoots why enemy for you?

Well that's one of the reasons there's no new players: other games offer this and AH3 doesn't. I'm not complaining about this, I'm just pointing out a clear-cut difference.

Back when this game was popular, there weren't many other MMO air combat games and the ones that existed were worse. Now, you have War Thunder, World of Warplanes, etc. and they all do the things you suggest are ridiculous. Coincidentally, they have quite literally 1000x the number of players.

Players gravitate towards what's easy, because the average player is average and quite literally cannot absorb more without suffering performance drops. If there is anything that Dunning-Kruger has shown, it's that the average person is average and doesn't understand they're average nor do they understand how to identify it. Ergo, games that enable features that reduce nuanced complexity will generally have an increase in attractiveness. Reducing complexity increases perceived skill and success.

I mean, look at this tour and the stats required for Top 10. They've fallen so far compared to what was required just 5-6 years ago. I think the next highest fighter rank has < 3.0 k/d and almost 1 kill per sortie. 6 years ago, that wouldn't have made top 50 and likely not even top 100. 10 years ago, it wouldn't have even come close to the top 100.

Overall player skill and experience is nonexistent now, and that's for at least half of the current player base. If that's true (which it is), imagine how high the barrier to entry is for new players. Now realize players can go where nuance is reduced and they can get to the core of gameplay (fighting) near-instantly.

The average player age here is 60+, according to Hitech. The average gamer age is 34 and 52% of gamers are between the ages of 18 and 44, according to current marketing stats and poll results. Only 9% of gamers are in the 60+ crowd. A lot of the players here have certainly supported the game for a long time, but if you're not making changes to appeal to the current gaming group, you're not going to grow. It is what it is.

[DmonSlyr]

I doubt there is any statistical reference that would suggest the current dar and kill messages have done anything to increase #s. Infact I'd say they dropped off since those changes. No one wants their name splattered infront of everyone when they die...

Warthunder has a lot of players because it's free to download and hop right into the action, AH has no custom arena server gameplay. These kids wants to hop right into the spawn and instantly start fighting. It also has a way better marketing team, and team in the first place. AH never had any real marketing.

Then it's rather low graphics scare the rest away, if you play war thunder or IL2 and then come to this, it's like going back in time. That's why it will never compare to those games. Especially with a subscription model on a game that should probably be free at this point.

That's why it's good to keep the game with strategic nuance rather than try to make it what it's not. No other game has the MMO achieved, so AH needs to stick to the niche and not become arcade which is what the other games already have.

[Animl-AW]

Well that's one of the reasons there's no new players: other games offer this and AH3 doesn't. I'm not complaining about this, I'm just pointing out a clear-cut difference.

Back when this game was popular, there weren't many other MMO air combat games and the ones that existed were worse. Now, you have War Thunder, World of Warplanes, etc. and they all do the things you suggest are ridiculous. Coincidentally, they have quite literally 1000x the number of players.

Players gravitate towards what's easy, because the average player is average and quite literally cannot absorb more without suffering performance drops. If there is anything that Dunning-Kruger has shown, it's that the average person is average and doesn't understand they're average nor do they understand how to identify it. Ergo, games that enable features that reduce nuanced complexity will generally have an increase in attractiveness. Reducing complexity increases perceived skill and success.

I mean, look at this tour and the stats required for Top 10. They've fallen so far compared to what was required just 5-6 years ago. I think the next highest fighter rank has < 3.0 k/d and almost 1 kill per sortie. 6 years ago, that wouldn't have made top 50 and likely not even top 100. 10 years ago, it wouldn't have even come close to the top 100.

Overall player skill and experience is nonexistent now, and that's for at least half of the current player base. If that's true (which it is), imagine how high the barrier to entry is for new players. Now realize players can go where nuance is reduced and they can get to the core of gameplay (fighting) near-instantly.

The average player age here is 60+, according to Hitech. The average gamer age is 34 and 52% of gamers are between the ages of 18 and 44, according to current marketing stats and poll results. Only 9% of gamers are in the 60+ crowd. A lot of the players here have certainly supported the game for a long time, but if you're not making changes to appeal to the current gaming group, you're not going to grow. It is what it is.

You never cease being an arrogant idiot. YOU suck

[Lusche]

I mean, look at this tour and the stats required for Top 10. They've fallen so far compared to what was required just 5-6 years ago. I think the next highest fighter rank has < 3.0 k/d and almost 1 kill per sortie. 6 years ago, that wouldn't have made top 50 and likely not even top 100. 10 years ago, it wouldn't have even come close to the top 100.

Numbers play a big role here. The environment has changed just because of it. You don't necessarily need less 'skilled players' to explain the decline of the stats.

The 'top shots' have much fewer targets to fee upon. As a European player, a long time ago I was able to play with up to 300 ppl in my timezone. Action was packed. Lots of opportunities for action of all kinds. Plenty of raids vs the single strats, so even an alt monkey like me could get a considerable number of engagements per hour. Now numbers are in the 30s during my prime time, in strat defense you could fly for over an hour without seeing anyone (and small maps means little early warning, so you gotta be airborne before spotting a strat runner, unless 163s are available)

Or vulchings - plenty of prolonged battles with extensive vulching opportunities, even during euro times. Lack of players means those things hardly happen anymore on that scale, especially when the number imbalance has become more volatile and the two defenders say "screw it" vs 12 attackers.


Remember, once ago, the top 10 players made up less than 0.2 percent of all pilots. Last tour it was 1.3%

[Animl-AW]

Numbers play a big role here. The environment has changed just because of it. You don't necessarily need less 'skilled players' to explain the decline of the stats.

The 'top shots' have much fewer targets to fee upon. As a European player, a long time ago I was able to play with up to 300 ppl in my timezone. Action was packed. Lots of opportunities for action of all kinds. Plenty of raids vs the single strats, so even an alt monkey like me could get a considerable number of engagements per hour. Now numbers are in the 30s during my prime time, in strat defense you could fly for over an hour without seeing anyone (and small maps means little early warning, so you gotta be airborne before spotting a strat runner, unless 163s are available)

Or vulchings - plenty of prolonged battles with extensive vulching opportunities, even during euro times. Lack of players means those things hardly happen anymore on that scale, especially when the number imbalance has become more volatile and the two defenders say "screw it" vs 12 attackers.


Remember, once ago, the top 10 players made up less than 0.2 percent of all pilots. Last tour it was 1.3%

It always invites numbers to target players over and over, then kill the less skilled and called them retarded childish names, like an infant. The guy is a walking oxyMORON. He chews his own feet off then crys like a lil spoiled baby brat that he has no feet to walk on.

We got 200 and bbs somewhat calmed down to be more inviting, then we get this GARBAGE circus geek forced upon us after we fought so hard to get numbers up, just for this fecal farmer to chase them away.

I'm way beyond fed up with this decision. Someone needs to admit they were wrong, or admit they want the game to die. Because it's doing a damn good job of it.

To be in his ripoff squad name to insult others, you probably have to bow down to him, kiss his ring and praise him as the god of gods. For god sakes, spare yourself SOME damn dignity.

Say ONE thing that MAY not praise his shallow feeble ego, you get "punished" with videos, again, like a spoiled rotten crybaby brat baby. As if we care as much as he does. We should start bombing the life out of the bbs with videos of him be killed every 10-15 minutes, as it is.  He does it because he knows he'd lose his ever loving mind if someone did it to him,.. thinking we are as shallow and fragile as he is. We're not. we don't care, he looks more the fool than anyone he does it to.