Combat Theater Poll: Why don't you fly there?

[Pepe]

From my particular point of view, CT is all what MA is lacking, and a much better environment of what I think a "realistic" war sim should be.

Terrain is just awesome. Planeset is well conceived. GV's have a reason to be, and can make quite a mess of any ground target (pity we don't have T-34's). SA is a must, and definitely makes the difference between success and failure. When there are any decent number of players (let's say 10+) there's no problem in finding a fite.

Chose a time where 10+ people are in. Conx permitting, it's a lot more intense than MA. And you can chose air or ground forces. CAP, interdiction, Bomb, all of them are seen on CT.

In one sentence: If anyone wants to have a closer taste of what Eastern Front was, he owes a visit to CT.

Cheers,

Pepe

[bigUC]

Bad connection (TCP only).  Except for that I would spend more time in CT regardless of how many's on.  The terrain, countryspecific planeset and reduced icon range is a welcome change from MA.  I got a real kick the other night when we did a Il-2 mission followed by a tank-battle in the snow.  It looked just like *very* good WWII colorfootage. Just the terrain is a reason to expand VVS planeset and get a few Russian GV's (t-34/KV-1).  

Make radar available only in tower and it's a winner.

Hope the stalingrad arena stays!

Edit:  /Make perkplanes free for the country thats outnumbered/

[LUPO]

Buzzbait wrote:
We are going to keep improving it, and gradually I think people are going to start to appreciate the experience they get there.

Your effort is positive and visible, Buzz!!!
I like and strongly support the work you CT guyz are doing.
Many goals reached:
beautiful and challenging terrain.
Historical planeset=historical matchups.
Good 1 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 dogfight.
Use of RW and radio encouraged with only dar bar (stimulate pilots to be more collaborative).
And, last but not least:
ACTIVE AND POSITIVE ATTITUDE TO CHANGE THINGS!!!
We all are bored about MA but many just want to whine!
This poll was made for this reason: have a feedback about people INTERESTED in the project. I doesn't means everything is working OK but it means that a destructive attitude is JUST USELESS. It produces NOTHING.

Buzzbait!!! And listen to the profecy: the same people that now are just destructive will join the real fun in CT sooner or later...

[oboe]

Nice poll and lot of good info you guys can make use of.

I would add that the current planeset is very limited for some settings - esp. the PTO.  

The CT is similiar to WarBirds old Historic Arena, and the PTO setting was one of the most popular (due in a great part to the squad rivalries that developed between MAG-11 and the 27th Sentai).

I think the Japanese forces need a half dozen more aircraft types to make a late-war PTO setting interesting.  Another half dozen if you want to make early war PTO viable, but even the USN has no early war stuff.

Not sure how popular Eastern Front will ever get.  Also the Stalingrad terrain killed my fps.  My PIII 500 just couldn't handle it ended up in the low teens in most situations.

Our best planeset is Western Europe, late 1944.   Why don't we give that a try?    It might be an enticement for solid squads like the 13th TAS or the 412th Braunco Mustangs.

[ET]

I agree with Toad.
 
Go with a European map.
Allow base capture.
Turn off any automatic resupply.

I like what the CT is trying to do and I liked the fighting in the Baltic map.

I did not fly the Norway map as there was no base capture and was just a place for fighters.No strategy.

I like Stalingrad map but there are the bugs already mentioned.Before this map,we had up to 4 squad members in,with more coming. But for some reason,they and I are not flying
in Stalingrad.Possibly it is too limited in scope.

[DES]

reduced dar kills it for me. I like the idea of a two sided war with historic planesets and really enjoy learning new planes. The lack of dar and icons keeps me out. When I log on and play I want to look at the dar, find the fight, get there and know which are friendly and which are enemy. I know people say use radio to find the fight but I can tell you for me it ain't gonna happen. I don't even keep my keyboard inreach when playing. I have all controls mapped to my stick and throttle.

DES

[cp52]

Usually its the lack of people but I went in one night when MA was too full and couldn't find a Russian airfield anywhere near the action.  Lots of tank stuff going on but thats not me.

[Vector]

MA: 150-250
CT: 0-2

[RAS]

Bad connection.....TCP......arrrg !!!

Not that I have tons of time to fly lately anyway

RASCAL

[bozon]

1. not enough players:
I like start play. I dont like 40 guys in a furball but I do want to get involved in more than 1on1 situations - this is not a dualing areana. when numbers hit 40 in the CT I had GREAT fun and tried to promote CT in my squad, but now, when I see 5 people there, I dont even enter.
need the numbers for strat play.

2. bad connection.
self explanatory.

3. eastern front:
not my cup of tea.
but I'd still show up once in a while if not for 1 and 2.

as for the settings - I LOVE IT!
icons are just right, please don't change a thing, and dar is ok too.
Seems to me its a critical mass problem. If you can fill it with enough people other would follow in a herd effect. But it's hard to get it rolling, as most people like me won't come in and sit there for hours drying to "bait" others in. sorry.

Bozon

[Wanker]

Sabre,

I view the CT as being similar to Warbirds' Historical arena(HA). That arena had problems with attendance, too, and it seemed like the only thing that helped bring up the numbers there was to get multiple squads to hold their squad night in the HA.  That's the only way I can see you growing the numbers appreciably.

[K West]

"when I see 'x'  people there, I dont even enter."

 It's ironic in that if everyone who says they do that actually went in to fly instead of heading to the MA then numbers would be much higher.

 Westy

[Bullethead]

Sabre said:

Please choose one of the following as your number-one reason for not flying more often (or at all) in the Combat Theater

5) Other (explain, but please keep it short)

CTs are a niche market.  They only appeal to a small fraction of the total population of pilots.  Those are the only people who show up, and this is never enough to justify keeping the arena going when server usage decisions need to be made.  Thus, they never last.  This was true in AW and WB, and is now proving true in AH.  Thus, one shouldn't get excited about them--it only leads to bitterness when you see your favorite arena's plug get pulled.  I know, I've been there several times.

As to the alleged puzzle of why a "much-requested" arena isn't popular, it's sort of a function of the above.  Those who want CTs are a small, passionate group.  They post their desires many times each, until they get what they want.  Thus, they create an illusion of more support than there really is.  At the same time, the vast bulk of the players, who aren't interested, don't demand that a CT NOT be set up.  They aren't going to tell the others what's fun and what isn't.  So you have, over time, a lot of posts for CTs and zero or few posts against.  This does not mean, however, that the CT has broad-based support, although it is usually mistaken for this.

[Wotan]

Et the euro map is even more "bugged" then the stalingrad map unless it was fixed..........

[Vector]

Originally posted by K West
"when I see 'x'  people there, I dont even enter."
Westy

True when X=0 as it usually is during my flying times (euro).
You might have different situation as there's much more ppl online during US times.