The F4U-1C arena

[spinny]

Alright, Leonid, I'll give you that...and I will still maintain that, on your numbers. most fights in AH now do not take place at historical altitudes. I'll say again what I've said before, what we usually end up with in the main arenas (of AW, WB, and AH) is WW II planes flying in WW I environments: low-alt furballs. Cannon-armed planes have the edge in these situations, where snap shots are favored. I've flown in three online sims, and in each one, cannons were/are favored, but only because of the low alt of most of the fights.

FWIW, last night, well up to 7 PM EDT US, I didn't see many Hogs up, but I saw a lot of N1K2s, Spits, and Macci's. I typically look for hi-alt fights, but the only plane I ran into over 15K was a B26. I had to go down into the weeds around a field to find a fight...and I don't really like to do that.
Maybe this will change as more strat elements are added. I certainly hope so.

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Spinny, VF-17, The Jolly Rogers 8X

[SC-GreyBeard]

I agree with Animal.
Lose yer E and yer dead.
at low E the HAWG ain't out running, out-diving,out-climbing,-out-living anything.



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GreyBeard
Flight Commander, Aces High
Skeleton Crew

[spinny]

"It used to be Gadfly (you were around then weren't you?). Same thing happened, it became the cannon bird of choice for the masses. Ended up getting sneered at because of it. Public out cry was enough to have it's 20's removed and replaced with 6 50 cals. Usual circle of want/modelling vs play balance, you know the routine."

Actually, that was the -4B...I can just hear the yelps now if that was modeled here.

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Spinny, VF-17, The Jolly Rogers 8X

[eskimo]

I agree.  It has become a one plane arena.
eskimo

[leonid]

Spinny,
Thinking back on the last week of so, combat does seem to be occurring more at the 16,000-20,000 range than before.  In fact, I can remember flying at 25-27k just to stay above the crowd, no small task in a La-5FN (I flew a Bf 109 once and was amazed at how much HP it had at 23k).  Not that I really mind it as a la5 driver, but I can see your point.  
It used to appear that players were more concerned with survival, flying at higher altitudes, trying to get that initial edge, but now the urge to get there PDQ is the norm.

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leonid
129 IAP VVS RKKA

[Rude]

The F4U-1C....................Pony Food

Rude...............Out!

[Hristo]

 

Lose yer E and yer dead.

That goes for just aboout every plane in AH.


 

at low E the HAWG ain't out running, out-diving,out-climbing,-out-living anything.

neither is any other plane  

[This message has been edited by Hristo (edited 01-27-2000).]

[Animal]

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at low E the HAWG ain't out running, out-diving,out-climbing,-out-living anything.
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"neither is any other plane"

Hey Hris, try fighitng Niki's more often!  
those things seem to gain E like a nuclear power plant. Of course I could be wrong, I never fly the plane, but they seem to catch me up in a climb as soon as they take off.

And we all know very well how deadly YOU are with low E!

[Ripsnort]

Animal, you are correct sir, I was flying a 190,I merged  HO with a Niki at 15k, no guns, and continued straight down to the ground,(low ammo, lots of wep, heading home)At merge, I was doing 300 IAS, once I got to the deck, I was doing 450 IAS.  The Niki turned around and pursued me.  10 mins later, he caught me.  

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Brian "Ripsnort" Nelson
++JG2++ ~Richthofen~
(Formerly VF-101 Grim Reapers~Defected~)
"There is no reason anyone would
want a computer in their home."
   Ken Olson, president, chairman and
founder of Digital Equipment Corp.,1977

[AKDejaVu]

This is a wierd and extremely biased thread.

I flew for 3 hours yesterday.  In that time we defended bases, lost bases, attacked bases and captured bases.  When we lost F24, it was attacked by a single bomber escorted by numerous c.205s and a few other planes.  At least 4 of the aircraft were c.205s.  Eventually, we took the base back and managed to sneak in at f13.  Getting the rooks attention quickly, we were soon attacked by a large contingance of Spitfires and a few 109's.  Once again a single bomber made it up high to bomb the base.

When we took f7, I was being trailed by 3 Spitfires as I flew a bomber to f4.

As the Bishops ammassed forces, they finally sent in numerous bombers to attack the base escorted primarily by p51s.  All but one of the bombers went down in flames, and eventually all of our ack went down too.  The fighters had alt on most of our countrymen and eventually forced them lower.  Then and only then did the F4u's come in.  Once the vulch fest had started.  When we got up, we were just as prone to shoot down an F4u as a N1k... I even got 2 in one sortie despite being outnumbered 2:1 at the base and without e.

4 spits can vulch a base and nobody cares.  4 c.205s can play tag with people all day and nobody cares.  4 F4u-1Cs vulch a base and it is branded uberplane.

Those F4u-1Cs were the first I'd seen all day.  If you want to talk ballance, explane why every base was destroyed by just one bomber.

AKDejaVu

[Gadfly]

Fenris, that is my point.  AH added it because it used to be in WB, and isn't now.  Their strategy is to pull in disaffected WB pilots.  Not a bad strategy, but not conducive to game play either.

Hopefully they will keep pumping out the planes and it will all balance out.  Till then, stay high and watch your back.

[Fenris]

Hey I fly 109's...I'm always high  

[AKDejaVu]

An interesting discovery...

Over half of the kills I have since 1.0 are F4u-1Cs.  I kill one at least every other sortie.  60% of my kills were done with a SpitIX.  Most of the rest were done with a F4u-1C.  Half of my deaths were at the hands of an N1k pilot. The rest were c.205, F4u-1c and spitIX losses.

Maybe this is why I'm having such a hard time with any uberplane arguments.  Sure alot of people are flying them, but not many are flying them well.  I respect the F4u in the same way I respect the 190.  I do my best to stay well out of their sights and pray they make the mistake of turning.

The noveltly will wear off.

AKDejaVu

[Pyro]

Lephturn,

Any new competitive plane always gets a lot of flight time.  Things will settle and the process will repeat over and over.  The 1C is by no means outclassing the arena but it is an extremely good vulcher.  Vulching is fairly easy right now but that too will change.

Lizking, our strategy is to build and support an excellent game.  By doing so, we may attract some people who are looking for something else, but most aren't.  In the end, we don't expect that to be a lot of our customers.  We've been through this before and know what to expect.  Our business strategy isn't that shallow.  

BTW, it's bad form to put words in somebody's mouth.  Maybe you should take care of that.



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Doug "Pyro" Balmos
HiTech Creations

"The side with the fanciest uniforms loses."

[Gadfly]

Sorry Pyro, I never came back till I searched.

I was not putting words in your mouth, but if you want to deny there is truth to what I said, I will be surprised.

I also didn't say that it was your long term business plan, nor that it was a bad thing.  

At any rate,  Thank you for the beta, you are building a good game and I wish you and your crew the best of luck.