Is Aces High Worth Buying?

[AKKuya]

Does Aces High possess the capability of improving with a whole new updated version?  Would that appeal to present day gamers?  Can a WW2 based combat flight simulator compete against missiles and jet aircraft?

Hypothetical:

Would an existing player who had the money be able to buy the game, hire a team of programmers, and market Aces High 4?

or,

Will Dale sell the game to a gaming company?


This is the real question pertaining to all the comments and suggestions for the game.


If I had the money, then I would buy the game and hire programmers plus start marketing the new version.  That's me.  I once started a topic on the players buying the game over a decade ago for a million dollars.  Dale responded X 5 for the amount.  What would be the asking price now?

[haggerty]

You'd be better off making your own game than buying this one and making an Aces High 4.  There isnt a following large enough to justify paying money for the player base.  A solid WW2 open world flight sim would draw the players away on its own.

[AKKuya]

You'd be better off making your own game than buying this one and making an Aces High 4.  There isnt a following large enough to justify paying money for the player base.  A solid WW2 open world flight sim would draw the players away on its own.

There is potential for bringing in tons of new and returning players.  It's about innovation and sustainability. 

Innovation requires fresh talent to create the new game at the core level of code and programming.  They would begin a new chapter in Aces High. 

Sustainability happens by keeping the methods of the game that works best. 
1) Monthly subscription that entitles a player to full access of all features
2) Limited free access to online content to peek at what is more to get with subscription
3)  Keeping the 3 chess piece countries for tradition

[potsNpans]

If you build it they will come... or you could just offer a service or two

[Animl-AW]

This comes up every couple months.
There are a lot of moving parts that can all go different directions.

The only true answers have to come from HT, and it's not going to be done on a bbs. The best way to find out is make him an offer on the phone or in person. Anything else is pure speculation, no matter who says it.
Can it be updated to say Unreal Engine? only HT could answer that. My assumption is yes....with work.

I think many of us learned the hard way with Air Warrior that selling to another gaming company could be almost certain death. OR they redo it to go a totally different direction.

5 million could be a decent price depending on future plans for it and are they marketable. of course 5m depends on when that price was made and how big the player base then and now.....either way the work is worth that.

NOW,.. to update it to say Unreal Engine,... and lets say everything goes smoothly,....depending on the level of updating,.... you're looking at 3-9 months of work with maybe 5 on the payroll. So that's is where your loss or gain begin.
 Depending on how many players you draw, how soon can you break even on that 5-6m. Topped with is it enough to do a major update it at least every 5 years. It is some serious gamble, not for the weak-hearted. I will say, it seems most 3d engines are at a point where it's as good as they can get, I don't think there is much room left to update to, maybe up date it to the best engine and small updates along the way.... unless we go hologram.

Despite a few bugs I wouldn't notice unless someone mentioned them, you have a very solid game. Most of the things brought up on bbs is some nit picking by the same group <ducks from projectiles> that usually turns out to be just controlling human nature with wack-a-moe than bugs or bad design. Maps and skins are still be created/updated. The FM is very good.
Yep, we'd all love to see an update, and I think most agree an update would draw back much of the former base and new players.....again,... that's what we think,.. it's a gamble.

[Animl-AW]

There is potential for bringing in tons of new and returning players.  It's about innovation and sustainability. 

Innovation requires fresh talent to create the new game at the core level of code and programming.  They would begin a new chapter in Aces High. 

Sustainability happens by keeping the methods of the game that works best. 
1) Monthly subscription that entitles a player to full access of all features
2) Limited free access to online content to peek at what is more to get with subscription
3)  Keeping the 3 chess piece countries for tradition

I agree on most you said. Everyone has their own ideas on marketing. right now it comes to reaching out with videos. Some of us have done that and with some results. we had it up to 200 in the MA last year, but had some unfortunate incidents that chased some off. Some are working on rebuilding that.

1) The problem I see with letting trials into the MA, is you will end up with leap-frog players who bounce from game to game, have no intention of committing to it, just trying to game the games. Think there is some dweebery now?,.. unleash that bowl of spaghetti on the MA, won't be pleasant I ASSUME.
2) You get most for free now, except certain arenas.
3) Again, I agree, not just for tradition, it just works, as long as you have above critical mass, for the MA is about 110-120. Above that the game starts rocking in all 3 countries.

[hazmatt]

Does Aces High possess the capability of improving with a whole new updated version?  Would that appeal to present day gamers?  Can a WW2 based combat flight simulator compete against missiles and jet aircraft?

In the game I currently play that has hundreds of thousands of players there are planes from just after WWI all the way to the newest jets. There are a great many players that play the WW2 stuff almost exclusively even though jets and wish em dead weapons are available. Based on this and IL2 GB Combat pilot and the other one I forgot the name of coming online I think there's a big marked for WW2 based combat sims.

I think the difference is that they are evolving and I am not aware of any other then AH3 that have payment models that are only subscription based. I don't think it would be too tough to modify AH to model some of these other sims. You could make ENY purchasable, you could do a progression starting in an early war arena with high eny planes and then progressing though to mid and late war areas. You could make planes purchasable.

I think that it would be doable but I think you would have to get the the interest of those players in the other sims. I do think there is also a big base of previous players that may be able to be convinced to come back based on what changed.

[uptown]

I'd rather buy cattle. I can't eat a video game

[Animl-AW]

If not for subs, Ah may have dumped yrs ago.
Look at the problems of other sims. If they didn’t have a massive player base they would fold. AH is surviving a smaller base, the others mathematically cannot survive this. One is having big problem with a huge player base.

Many don’t do basic math, in the long run they pay as much, or more. Its mental, its marketing. Smoke and mirrors.

[The Fugitive]

Does Aces High possess the capability of improving with a whole new updated version? 

What kind of update is really needed? A higher poly count interior is about it. The skins look great at a 200-400 mph closure, even slow in a rope they look good.

Would that appeal to present day gamers?  Can a WW2 based combat flight simulator compete against missiles and jet aircraft?

There are many WWII sims out there, some are doing well. If they werent there, like in the old days, they would still be flying AH.

Hypothetical:

Would an existing player who had the money be able to buy the game, hire a team of programmers, and market Aces High 4?

or,

Will Dale sell the game to a gaming company?


This is the real question pertaining to all the comments and suggestions for the game.


If I had the money, then I would buy the game and hire programmers plus start marketing the new version.  That's me.  I once started a topic on the players buying the game over a decade ago for a million dollars.  Dale responded X 5 for the amount.  What would be the asking price now?

I seriously doubt Hitech would sell the game any time soon, to us or another game company. Nobody but Hitech knows the numbers but lets do a bit of wild speculation.

500 players x $14.95 a month = just under $7500, x 12 months = just under $70k a year. Im sure his server is paid up by now, he has had it a few years. Electricity and cooling are something he pays anyway because the server is in his home so you can call it a wash. That leaves connection and maintenance. An average T1 connection in Texas is $750 a month, fiber is less for 5GB. AH uses many small packets, so Im unsure of the up/down data stream that is needed, so call it $10k a year. That leaves him $60k to cover his maintenance of the servers. A nice sum for not a lot of work any more seeing as he build a pretty bullet proof game.

Im sure there are more than 500 subscriptions, and Im sure there are other costs involved with keeping the game running, but $60k is a nice little income Id be happy with, wouldnt you?

I dont know the cost of living in Texas, but 60k is a nice income here in New England for poking at a keyboard from home for a couple hours a day. Why would he give that up? He still seems to be involved with the game. He gave me the OK to start a Discord Server, he is still checking and approving maps as they are built or edited, he is  still adding skins as they are made and approved, he monitors the BBS and edits where necessary. Maybe the more he works on the game the more interested he will be to dig deeper into things. Maybe he'll add a new plane, who knows.

I truely believe he isnt going to sell the game, not now, not for awhile.

[hitech]

$7500, x 12 months = just under $70k a year.

Math must not be a strong point of yours.

HiTech

[AKIron]

T1? Do they still sell those? I see Frontier offers 7GB business connections for $149. 25 years ago a T1 would cost you over a grand a month. T1 is 1.544Mbps.

[The Fugitive]

Math must not be a strong point of yours.

HiTech

LOL!!!! true, but it was all made up numbers anyway but it still proves the point I was trying to make...... Why sell? Its still a good income..... even if my numbers came up $20k shy   

[Animl-AW]

Slipping into darkness.....Depending on standard of living, a family of 2-3 must hit over $70k+ per year for the stress of meeting bills starts to subside, and still take a small vacation.  Now if you have a loaded bank account and $60-70k per yr, you're probably keeping your nose above water and retaining that savings.

We all have blind ideas and perceptions.  I'm sure HT has a few laughs and rolling eyes.

The scary part of updating to higher poly counts is another gamble. Lets say we up the poly count........ya may have just lost about 1/4 of your current devoted players who would have to upgrade gear to play it,...some might afford it, some may walk away with a broken heart. Would it be enough that you get enough replacements and beyond to offset that? How far can we up the count before losing some long time dedicated players? The fact this game can play on old computers quite well is a great thing. I don't play other games, so I'm not sure,...but for some of these players AH is their whole life. I personally wouldn't have the heart to push them out with higher requirements beyond what they have.

For me, totally opinion,.... it's either go real $big$,... or just add some fresh visual$,... which is why I lean towards FX (broken record). If I ever got a green light I would certainly dig into it.

I'm totally speaking from the twilight zone, as without HT's extended input, we all are. bbs general is prolly not the place for that convo beyond this. Way too many fingers in the pie. We don't know what the limitations are under the current engine.

Some people complain, ya make changes, then they move the goal post of demands.

I'm not sure selling it is a great idea. Prolly cause some of us got burned before, stigmatized. We had our hopes, rightfully so, it just didn't go as wished.

[Dadtallica]

I would be up for some sweat equity. I know how to do some stuff.