Now I understand why most prefer the MA

[Ripsnort]

This is JUST MY OBSERVATION and personal opinion.

The MA is where I do about 90% of my flying today, ONLY because that's where I find my squaddies.

Last night, after a long absence from the CT arena, I dove in their to check out Hblairs set up.

First thing I noticed were the perk points being lower...now say what you want about perk points, but I personally think they are too high in the MA.  But, being "cheaper" I expected to see 'Uber-planes High' in the CT yesterday when I logged in.  My 2nd sortie (after being shot down by Saw in my quest for a goon that captured a field, grasping a foothold on the French coast) I met no other than two Tempests in my 109.  After a short battle I was shot down.  So, I grabbed a Dora, which costs nothing.  That gave me an almost even playing field with the Tempests.  During my 2 hours online I met Spits, P38's, P51's, Tempests over the Channel.  To ME, it just seemed more balanced, and realistic, to have this match up with the LW aircraft.

Anyway, to my point.

I honestly think that the adrenline level peaks in the CT.  With limited radar (bar dar only when over the channel) you really don't know what the "dot" you vis is, until you start to recognise little 'flashes' that the dot may give out, such as you can recognize a P51 or P38 due to their silver glint.  I was totally exhausted after flying 1 hour and getting 8 kills in 3 sorties.  Wilbuz, Furzy and I were on RW and CERTAINLY helped the SA, as well as the realism of being in a real ATA battle.

Bottom line, the CT might just be an "Adrenline Overload" for a few...adrenline is like a drug, you get alittle, you go back for more.

If you haven't tried the CT lately, try it now.  They've been getting about 10% of the MA population in their lately, so its picking up.

Please don't turn this into a CT FLAME FEST Laz or others that don't care for it, I'm just simply stating my experience with it, and a possibility as to why some will pass on it, it just *may be* alittle too much "rush" for some human life support systems.

[Nomde]

I fly the CT bout 30% now or more, I love it.

[Steven]

Ripsnort,

It seems your comments and support of the CT don't match the thread header.  People prefer the MA because of the high perk costs and lower adrenaline rushes?  ;-)

CT can be great fun, I whole-heartedly agree.  The one problem I do see with the CT is balance of sides.  I never fly LW/Axis in the MA but I'd guess more than half of my time in the CT is spent flying a 109 or KI.  It's not completely painful, but I do prefer flying my American iron.

[Ripsnort]

I like flying them all, so I just fly whatever side needs the balance.  Do you agree that the adrenline is alittle heightened in the CT than the MA?  I honestly think that's why some avoid it, it may be just alittle too much for them...

[Apache]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
I like flying them all, so I just fly whatever side needs the balance.  Do you agree that the adrenline is alittle heightened in the CT than the MA?  I honestly think that's why some avoid it, it may be just alittle too much for them...

I disagree. Thats what I like about the MA. The 3, 4 or 5 v 1's. Thats a rush!

However, I do think thier may be some who don't go to the CT because they can't hide in said 4 or 5 but may have to 1 v 1? If you're not confident in your skills, a 1 v 1 could be a little disquieting

[lazs2]

well, I don't know how "laz" feels about your post but it is pretty patronizing IMO.   It also doesn't ring true on several levels.    Claiming more realism for shorter radar or icons is not very bright and claiming higher levels of adreniline is at best, misleading

I will give you this..  A short icon furball is fun if... iit has some numbers.   eight kills in 3 sorties is allways fun if the sorties are not 20 minutes long each.   rip.. your  score doesn't show a 2.7 kill per sortie or a K/T that would support  your contentions of non stop adrenilene burnout.   Nor, does anyone elses  that flys there so far as I can see.  

The CT experiance for most would likely mirror mine in that there is a lot of doing nothing.   I also see no bonus in having perk planes all over the place.   Hopw many of those tempest's did you shoot down?   What is their K/D ratio?  do you really think that new guys will like flying against them?

Numbers?   every time I sign on at prime time the numbers run from about 5-10% for the CT.   those numbers are useless for most terrains  and at most times  except prime.   The sertup now is about optimum for low numbers and keeping the "i only like late war planes and wont fly anything else" (the real CT lovers) crowd   sure, you lose the PAC guys but Guys who like "historical"arenas generally like ETO 109/190 planesets anyway.

But... I see the CT getting a lot of new blood very soon.  At least for a while.  BOB..  Yep, the BOB is allways a crowd pleaser.   1.09 will have early war planes and they will be flat useless in the MA.   People will have to go to the CT to fly em.. Course,  the "historical" guys have a penchant for shooting themselves in the foot...  They are allready talking about limiting Spit ones so that the 109's can have a field day.  

Soo...  I see a big boost for the CT when 1.09 comes out and the BOB starts but numbers generally dwindling as people get bored with the CT limitations.

lazs

[Udie at Work]

Originally posted by lazs2
They are allready talking about limiting Spit ones so that the 109's can have a field day.  

lazs

 Man so many untruths in your post, but this one is downright dishonest.  In the CT forum we had a talk about perking the spit, and 109.  Not just the spit like you say, nor for the reason you put forth.  The reason to perk them is to give the insentive for people to fly Hurr's and 110's to try and keep the match ups historical.  For a person I've yet to see once in the CT you sure do hate it and speak out against it at every chance.  Another thing you got wrong is the numbers.  I've been tracking them for the past month and they've doubled on average in that time period.  From about 10-20 at peek times to 20-50 and even more on the weekends.

 If the CT isn't your cup of tea that's fine, but why do you feel the need to try and give everybody else a bad impression of it?  Personaly I think you'd be better off playing IL2 where you can get your furball island thing going.  You certainly don't add anything to this game or community other than heart burn.....

[Ripsnort]

FYI, I was shot down once by a Tempest and shot down 1 tempest, since their relatively cheap, a newbie can be up and flying in one in only a few sorties compared to the MA where you'd have to fly a great deal to "earn" one.Anyway, there's enough in the arena to balance them out, ie, the Dora works fine for engaging Tempests, didn't see any 262's though, even though they're only about a 25-50 point perk in there....I love late war stuff, that's probably why I'm enjoying it, fast to alt, fast to the fight, fast action!

[Phantom4]

I have switched to flying CT almost exclusively.  Overall the atmosphere is much more civil.  Fights are much smaller and do tend to be longer, but that is closer to reality.  During WWII most fights did involve fewer numbers and many sorties never saw an enemy plane.  In the MA it is hard to learn good ACM in the middle of a huge furball.  It becomes a shootfest.  I almost never flew LW in MA - didn't have time to learn on the fly.  I fly now whatever side balances but try to fly LW (which is generally the lower number anyway).  I initially got clobbered but I am now approaching 1.0 K/D.  With somewhat smaller numbers and the fact that the CT attracts a lot of really good sticks, I have really had to improve my skills. I have learned more about ACM in a month in the CT than I did in 2 years in the MA.

Let me give one other example.  A couple of nights ago I got into a 1 v 2 near P39 flying a 109F4 against a Spit and P51, after a bout a five minute fight that seemed like 5 hours I managed to down both of them.  Now low on fuel and out of ammo I started a slow return to France.   About half way back, I caught sight of a higher fast approaching dot.  It was a P51 chasing me from England, with no ammo and not enough fuel to even manuver, I was sure I was dead.  As he approached D1.0, I waggled my wings and stated I had no ammo.  To my surprize, the P51 pulled up and tooks an escort position and covered me all the way home.  I ran out of fuel just short of the coast made a dead stick landing (it wasn't pretty) and climbed out.  The P51 said "get some bullets and rejoin the fight" and with that pelled off and disappeared bck towards England.  I don't remember who it was but that act of chivalry reminded me of many stories I had read about actual combat in the ETO.

[Don]

>>>it just *may be* alittle too much "rush" for some human life support systems<<<

Ripsnort:
Or then again, it may not.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Phantom4-Mag33
I have switched to flying CT almost exclusively.  Overall the atmosphere is much more civil.  Fights are much smaller and do tend to be longer, but that is closer to reality.  During WWII most fights did involve fewer numbers and many sorties never saw an enemy plane.  In the MA it is hard to learn good ACM in the middle of a huge furball.  It becomes a shootfest.  I almost never flew LW in MA - didn't have time to learn on the fly.  I fly now whatever side balances but try to fly LW (which is generally the lower number anyway).  I initially got clobbered but I am now approaching 1.0 K/D.  With somewhat smaller numbers and the fact that the CT attracts a lot of really good sticks, I have really had to improve my skills. I have learned more about ACM in a month in the CT than I did in 2 years in the MA.

Let me give one other example.  A couple of nights ago I got into a 1 v 2 near P39 flying a 109F4 against a Spit and P51, after a bout a five minute fight that seemed like 5 hours I managed to down both of them.  Now low on fuel and out of ammo I started a slow return to France.   About half way back, I caught sight of a higher fast approaching dot.  It was a P51 chasing me from England, with no ammo and not enough fuel to even manuver, I was sure I was dead.  As he approached D1.0, I waggled my wings and stated I had no ammo.  To my surprize, the P51 pulled up and tooks an escort position and covered me all the way home.  I ran out of fuel just short of the coast made a dead stick landing (it wasn't pretty) and climbed out.  The P51 said "get some bullets and rejoin the fight" and with that pelled off and disappeared bck towards England.  I don't remember who it was but that act of chivalry reminded me of many stories I had read about actual combat in the ETO.

Wow! That's amazing! Must of been Pepe or one of the veterans..?

[Raubvogel]

You're lucky it wasn't me...I woulda shot ya them strafed your chute

[hblair]

Just to clarify, this weeks setup is brady's. Sabre's is up Saturday, then mine next Saturday.

[Apar]

The CT experiance for most would likely mirror mine in that there is a lot of doing nothing

Lazs2

Although this doesn't apply to all CT maps, in BOB set-up most action is concentrated in a relative small area. Hence you can get into a fight pretty quick.
The constant adrenaline rush Rip is referring to has nothing to do with K/D or K/T scores (I thought you didn't care about scores anyway, lazs) but everything with the fact that you have bar dar info mostly and short icon range. You have to look around all the time once you enter a sector with a red bar.
In the MA you can still comfortably fly around in a red bar sector by just looking at the dar dots on the map.

In the CT you also try to identify a dot for being friendly or enemy because you don't have friendly dots showing on the map either.

Because of the short Icon range you also try to identify the planes type from what you see (without an icon) to be able to react in time or judge your first merge before you come into icon range.

Most pilots that fly in the CT now have been around a long time and are really good pilots that require allot of concentration fighting them.

I agree with Rip on the fun part,  CT is more fun (for me anyway).

(Doesn't mean I won't fly in the MA anymore,  )

Apar

[Lephturn]

I found hblair's last one my favourite so far.  This one has no dot dar at all, which isn't that big a deal I guess.

I do not enjoy the reduced icons.  They are not realistic in any sense to my mind, and just add to the tedium and don't add anything for me.  I hate chasing dots all night.  I guess my SA just sucks, but it doesn't add anything in my book.  Makes it harder to find a fight, and anything that does that is bad IMO.  It's getting better though, and sometimes I have fun in the CT.  Smaller maps and a few more folks combined with more planes should make for some really fun setups.

You know, D6 icons wouldn't be bad.  I find D3 icons rather limiting from the point of view that I can never tell iff a dot is a friendly or an enemy, so I have to chase them all.  Decent dar bar helps, but it still strikes me as more time than I want to waste chasing dots that turn out to be friendly.

Looking forward to your next one hblair, I found yours the most fun so far.