Are Bigger arenas always better?

[Sikboy]

I just wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts on reducing the size of the MA, and creating more arenas. As it stands, we can fit everyone in the MA, but is that the best way to get everyone flying? It seems to me that the MA is, while not normally "full", pretty near capacity. So where do we go from here? In order for AH to be growth oriented, it seems that HTC are going to have to increase player capacity. What do we do? Do we just create a secondary arena, just like the first? How about capping the MA and just turning the left overs to the CT? Maybe we can offer Different planesets for different arenas (maybe one arena having a "gasp" RPS).

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but I was wondering if anyone had an opinion (there's a loaded question)

-Sikboy

[MikeKA]

would like to see the MA capacity grow larger if they will be able to get servers that can handle the numbers.  I think with the additions they are rumored to be planning to make the MA will be a full scale conflict with ground troops, ships, ect.  Would be very very very cool in my opinion.  (And no I'm not going to WW2Online becuase its a POS)

[J_A_B]

I too agree that more arenas is a better option than having one giant map.   Having several arenas supports just as many people, and allows the game to have more variety as well.

J_A_B

[Revvin]

Large arena's are the way to go. Larger they are the better chance of keeping everyone happy with many more players either furballing or taking part in missions etc.

[laz]

Agreed Revvin

[J_A_B]

Larger arenas restrict missions more than they help them.  On a very large map, you often have to fly so far to the target (be it DAR or some factory or DEPOT), that its not practical to even bother.  This already comes in to play at times with AH's current-size maps.  So in other words,  larger maps don't affect the tactical (field capture) missions all that much, but adversely affect strategic missions.   Obviously, if you're among the AH players who'd like to see strat play a larger role in the arena, this is undesirable.

Larger arenas may or may not affect the "furballer" or "fighter-sweep" missions; it depends on whether you also increase field distances with the larger map.  Generally increasing field distances is a bad decision as most gamers are less interested in the "realistic" aspect of flying to the fight, than in the fights themselves.   A larger map without increased distances should not negatively affect gameplay for people who like fighters.  

Another downside to using one large map as opposed to a number of smaller arenas is lack of variety.  Everybody is currently lumped into the "MA" and there's no real alternative.  There's nowhere to go if you don't like LA7's/P-51's/N1K2's, nowhere to go if you don't like perks, nowhere to go if you want an RPS (the CT cannot be considered a true alternative due to the lack of consistency in its setup).  Furthermore, a change to this system to make one group happy, will inevitably result in making some other group unhappy.  Having several full-time allows you to have variations on the basic arena theme without excluding anybody.

A plus to using one large arena is your player base stays together.  Not everybody likes having the player base divided.  In addition, at times players in one arena in a multi-arena setup may begin to feel ignored by the people running the game; this is particularly true if one setup is much more popular than another.

Both systems have advantages and disadvantages.  In the end it's up to HTC to decide  


J_A_B

[Wotan]

you can have a large arena with a large map with more bases.

large maps dont = longer flight times if there are lots of fields.

what we have in the main is a small map with small fronts and a huge number of players.

no need for more arenas

we need bigger maps more fields bigger fronts

that would solve most of our current "overcrowding" issues.


for instance
a map like the euro map (doesn't need some much to be historical but playable) is plenty big enough (currently it buggy but for thois example assume its to main standards) with double the number of a bases v bases and strat would be about perfect.

A med terrain would be better because the cvs would have a place to play.

or better yet a "made up" terrain would be even better.

[Joc]

Yup,bigger maps PLEASE!

[J_A_B]

I would also mention that larger maps do nothing to solve the problem of lag-causing 40-50 plane furballs.  

J_A_B

[Sikboy]

I think I'm leaning towards more arenas/lower capacity. The intriguing part of the large map movement would be the "virtual battlefield" Maybe someday we can get our hands on that pipe dream. That will be a nice day indeed.

With that said, For me, AH is first and foremost about Air Combat. Everything else (Strat, Maps, Other Players) is there to set up Air combat. Please note that this is just my vision of the game, and NOT a dictation of "how the game should be, and all you strat wusses and Tank weemies can KMA." With this in mind, I would much rather have more arenas and more variety. I mean, 400 players all at once is great, but honestly, how many can I fight at once? I suppose that to take my argument to its end conclusion, you could say that I should go play IL-2 or some other suitible game which keeps the fights small, and takes the first "M" out of "MMPG.", and that would be a fair criticism. I would just like something in the middle somewhere. Even down to 200-225 people would be a start. But since I get the feeling that I'm in the minority here I guess I'll just have to suck it up.

-Sikboy

[Wotan]

those 40-50 man furballs are caused by small fronts.

a large map with bigger fronts and more bases will tend to distribute those 40-50 man furballs over a larger area.

more arenas wont werk because as soons as rooks nits etc get pushed back to a few fields they will just migrate to the next arena. throwing off its balance.

eventually there will have to be 2 arenas or a rps.
 
I believe an ak (dont remember which 1) stated that like in warbirds that theres a 64 limit on the number of different plane models that can be available in one arena. We are closely approaching 64. I haven't heard ht say this but if its true we will need a rps or a more then 1 arena.

right now 2 arenas is premature.

a larger map with more air fields more strat and larger fronts would distribute the 400 or so folks across a wider area relieving the overcrowding.

Now to address early birds if you could drum up enough support you may get ht to set aside bases that have early birds only available. I dont care either way about this. But I would prefer it to seperate arenas.

[Revvin]

To use smaller arena's would mean HTC standing still and not improving their arena's and that would be a bad thing. AH is only second to WW2OL in capacity terms and should be applauded for that. Bigger, larger maps are needed not smaller arena's its a step backwards.

[Sikboy]

To use smaller arena's would mean HTC standing still and not improving their arena's

I'm not sure I understand the logic of this statement. Seems that we are assuming facts not in evidence. Why would HTC stand still on improving arena's if the only change is the size? Honest question here.

-Sikboy

[lazs2]

yep... bigger arenas are better.  Much easier for everyone to find something to do.   If even 20% want to do something other than fly smaller arenas are boring with fights harder to find.
lazs

[J_A_B]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say Lazs.....but if you're suggesting that smaller maps make the fights tougher to find you're completely mistaken.  The smaller the map gets, the easier it is to find action.  This has been the case in every game I've ever played, be it flightsim, FPS, RTS, anything.  AH is no different.  In the case of flight sims, having a smaller map also makes strikes deep into enemy territory more feasable.  Almost nobody will participate in a mission to a target (DAR, depot, etc)200 miles away in the MA.  

Of course, you need to have your map limited to a proper number of players, that goes without saying.  If you're using smaller maps, you also need to limit them to fewer people (around 150-200 on a 128 x 128 map).  Having 300 people in a 128 x 128 map would be as bad as the current MA with 600.

I know a lot of people would prefer having one larger arena for AH, but I can't see the advantage to it aside from not dividing the community.  What does it really matter if there's 600 or 700 people in one arena?  What matters are the planes in your little section of sky--people fighting 300 virtual miles away across the arena don't make a difference.  Increasing numbers has serious technical problems, such as ever-increasing lag.  There are already complaints about AH's connections during peak hours; imagine the anguish if there were twice as many people logged in.  

If AH IS destined to stay with the "one MA" policy it also needs its interface re-worked, especially its communication system.  The radio is already difficult to read when there's 400 people logged in the MA; imagine how horrible it'd be with 700 or 800.  Communication on anything but private channels would be impossible with 700-800 people in the MA (you'd have to squelch 1, 2 and 6), which is horrible since communication with real people is half the point of AH.  The radar gets cluttered almost to the point of uselessness in the big furballs and "ICON overload" is also a very real problem--both of these are only going to get worse with increased players in one arena.  

Seriously...what is so good about lumping everybody into one single arena?  It is probably easier (and maybe cheaper) for HTC this way, but that's irrevelant to gameplay.  I'm not saying there isn't anything good, I'm just missing it.  AH is the first game (of any type) I've ever played that lumped all its players into just one map, and honestly all I can see is the incredible limitations of this system.  

J_A_B