My 2 Cents about the Future of AH

[daddog]

Eksel you said

 

Some suggestions made about submarines, I think are absurd. This game is a FLIGHT sim.

and then you said

 

Like I mentioned before, It would be good to see more action on the ground

Ok to expand on ground war but not naval war?  Huh???

Just so you know Eksel this is beyond a flight sim and is going to become WAY beyond a flight sim. While flight and air combat will remain the focus of HTC, read the writing on the wall. Aces High already encompasses land, sea and air. Further vehicles in each of those will only add to the flavor this "flight sim" offers.

Submarines would rock!  I bet dimes to dollars in 1 1/2 years we will have them and quite a few of those planes you listed on your napkin.

This is the sim to be in.
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CM daddog
332nd Flying Mongrels
Snapshots & Check 6!
There are three signs of old age: Loss of memory....I forget the other two.
Red Skelton

[Hamish]

Originally posted by Westy MOL:
As for people leaving AH? Happens in all the online games.  People come and go. It's online life.  But I sure don't see "a lot" of pay-to-play folks leaving.  The MA numbers have taken about a 20% dip due to the summer months and also a lot of folks are trying out the WW2O beta while it's free.

   Westy

[ 06-24-2001: Message edited by: Westy MOL ]

The numbers, in the MA on average now, are 10-20% higher Now than when i had to leave for my 6  month hiatus. What Westy says about summer months is true of All online sims/games etc. Seen it for years now. And if the numbers now, are 10-20 percent lower than average, i'd say HTC has grown quite a bit in the time i was gone  

Hamish!

[SirLoin]

People leaving?..Must be spring.I think this is geting better and last patch was the clincher for me..I'm here 'till I see the whites of their eyes.. :)Even then I'll escape and find some damaged planes to scavenge parts for my 109f..<S!>

[Spitboy]

Regarding numbers, this might prove interesting. A couple squaddies and me decided to do a little study for a couple weeks and compare player #s in the various arenas. Numbers include all available arenas. WW2OL #s are based on an average of 1000 players per 100% capacity per server. Times are Eastern.

 http://www.dweebhq.org/stats.htm

Chart links at the bottom tabs.

Too early to draw any conclusions, but two interesting things I noted that are repeated even in this small sample:

1. WB and AH are typically neck and neck, until prime time. In prime time WB edges out AH by a decent margin. Some of this is due to the fact that WB has its players spread around a few arenas.

2. WW2OL numbers seem to be trending UP, not down. This also suprised me, due to the rough launch and slow pace of improvement.

Regarding HTC's future - it's going to be interesting. I'm very curious to see what direction HTC will take now, with more potential competitors on the horizon and the pretty impressive numbers WW2OL is drawing despite its warts.

[Westy MOL]

" WW2OL numbers seem to be trending UP, not down."

 Easy. It's a *free* game for right now and all the RAM ordered online is arriving.
 
 It would be interesting to see the numbers if it was pay-to-play right now and imo it would also be more appropriate to compare numbers flying in WW2O vs AH/WB's at any given moment.

 I could skew it all and say AH has a 100% more players involved in the naval and amphibious aspect than in all the worlds of WW2O combined.

 
 
  Westy

[ 06-25-2001: Message edited by: Westy MOL ]

[Spitboy]

Hehe Westy, and you'd be right re: naval ops  

I think it's far too early to attribute any meaning to WW2OL's numbers aside from the fact that they are holding steady, if not rising. You are right, the true test will come when pay for play is launched. I DO think it's a pretty good sign for CRS there's still substantial interest despite all the doom and gloom. How long that will last without concrete progress is another matter.

[Buzzbait]

S! all

It`s funny how suggestions for change are almost always immediately met with a large SQUISH!!!

For some reason the diehards in this game can`t seem to accept that other viewpoints on where this game should go are legitimate.

We continuously hear from those who want more  complexity and historicity in the arena, not more planes.  And we continuously hear from those who are leaving BECAUSE they find the game is not complex or historical enough to hold their interest.  Are all these people idiots?  I don`t think so.

It`s too bad that these comments are not taken for what they are, which is an OPPORTUNITY, instead of being viewed as negativity towards the game which they aren`t.  If the posters didn`t care about the  game and had no interest or committment, they wouldn`t bother to write down their thoughts in some detail.

These posts are saying that a significant number of people WILL play or will remain as players if there are some changes made to both the structure of the game and the direction.  Changes which are within the scope of the game design.

AH numbers may be remaining relatively stable , or even growing slightly, but how is that a real success?  Considering the lack of real alternatives out there, (WB is lacking graphically, and the boxed sims have no real online playability) it would seem that the success the Sim is having is almost by default.

IL-2 will be coming out in the fall.  It is too early to say exactly how well it will perform, although playtesters from the Beta ongoing now are raving about it.  (as much as their NDA will allow)  If it comes out with stable 32 player online flying, and the modelling and graphics are as good as is being suggested, then AH and the other Online  sims out there will be facing stiff competition.

Everyone has heard the saying:  `The Customer is always right`.  Perhaps AH is listening to  1/2 of the customers and not the other 1/2.


                    Cheers Buzzbait

[Westy MOL]

"It`s funny how suggestions for change are almost always immediately met with a large SQUISH!!!"

 Buzzbait, it's probably not so much a "squish" as it is a collective "yawn" for yet another original list of features that no one here, let alone HTC, has ever thought of before!!!. That and the never ending assumption that if AH was $10/mo look how much better it would be. <big eye roll there>

 Why  is it that someone who claims to have been playing for xxx months they suddenly stumble upon the missing magical antidote for what ails AH (or add in AW, FA, WB's  etc etc as this happens there too).
 
 AH has had several upgrades over the last 8 mos, the developed passes out tid bvits of where they are going but someone comes in and says they are bored with the same-old same-old.... Well?  AH is improving in leaps and bounds so the questions gets eflected back on the player and I'd say the player isn't improving in leaps and bounds or adding new things to thier online "diet".  I then look for a score to see what they do and I find nothing. No score usually means H2H use only.  and I can see H2H becoming pretty boring after 8 mos.
 If not H2H then most often than not it's because someone flies one plane the same way and that is what gets boring.

 IMO, HTC has the actual log stats of what people like that also show what people want. This combined with thier own lengthy time (years) as producers/developers combined with even more years as core community players too and I tend to believe they have more of an idea on which way to progress AH than someone who has played a game for a year or less.

 
 I concur Spitboy. Let's set a debate and discussion for September?    

  Westy

[ 06-25-2001: Message edited by: Westy MOL ]

[AKSWulfe]

Originally posted by Buzzbait:
IL-2 will be coming out in the fall.  It is too early to say exactly how well it will perform, although playtesters from the Beta ongoing now are raving about it.  (as much as their NDA will allow)  If it comes out with stable 32 player online flying, and the modelling and graphics are as good as is being suggested, then AH and the other Online  sims out there will be facing stiff competition.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that IL2 will give AH or WB any form of a run for their money.

Simple: AH and WB were built from the get-go with one vision in mind: Full scale arena wide warfare with strategic targets and building up to a fully developed WW2 planeset.

IL2 is built around the simple concept of an offline WW2 campaign with 32 max multiplayer.
EDIT: AND you will never see a Japanese plane in IL2 either. Or USN aircraft either (F6F, Corsair,TBMs, etc). IL2 is limited in what it can offer, it will by no means take AH or WB and require them to change what they are doing.

AH and IL2 are on opposite sides of the spectrum.
-SW

[ 06-25-2001: Message edited by: SWulfe ]

[Nomde]

still better than making vrroom vroom noises with my plastic models

[/b]

hehe, I used to blow tanks up with m80's and put gas on the soldiers. Then I would light a plane on fire and throw it into the whole mess. WOOHOO fire fire fire  

Nomde
http://www1.jump.net/~cs3/index.php" TARGET=_blank>63rd FS/56th FG
"Zemke's Wolfpack"
 
"God loves the 56th"

[AKSWulfe]

I use to build plastic models, paint 'em and everything (nice looking too)... then take 'em out into my backyard and take my BB gun rifle to them.

Ahhhh... the good ol' days. When I actually had time to be destructive. <G>
-SW

[RKY]

SWulfe:
--------------------------------------
I use to build plastic models, paint 'em and everything (nice looking too)... then take 'em out into my backyard and take my BB gun rifle to them.
--------------------------------------

Me too    Well, I never painted them, cause I can't paint anything worth a crap.  But I did build lots and lots of planes, and they all ended up as mulch under the trees in our backyard.

If I only had AH back then.

anRky

[Buzzbait]

S! SWullfe

Sorry to disappoint you, but Oleg Maddox, the designer of IL-2 is already talking about add-ons for IL-2, including Japanese aircraft to allow the 1945 invasion of Manchuria and Korea by the Soviets.

He has also said he is interested in creating a purely online game similar to IL-2, using the IL-2 graphics and flight engine.  This sim would include vehicles.

Right now aircraft are in the process of being developed as addons for IL-2, including Stukas, Me262's, Hurricanes, Spitfires, P-40's, A-20's etc.

A free online server which will effectively accept 32 pilots is something which a lot of Flight Simmers will adopt with enthusiasm.  Especially since the Sim is also designed to allow scenerios online with AI aircraft, tanks and troops.

Whether or not you choose to believe this is up to you.  Personally I think any Sim Vendor has to take this possibility into account.

Whether IL-2 lives up to its promise will of course only be answered when it comes out.  At the moment it looks very good.

I am not saying this as a booster for IL-2.  As far as I'm concerned, the more choices out there, the better.  Right now however, I and a lot of others don't find AH's Furball oriented structure appealing.

[AKSWulfe]

Buzzbait, we've all seen and heard every time a single player game comes out that it will blow away MMP games.

32players with AI, no matter which way you slice it does not compete with AH or WB's style of play or have an impact on it's player's base.

Sure it looks and sounds good, but it's stil just 32 players. Don't even know how it will handle people that have 56K modems. Don't even know what the netcode is like. That's what makes or breaks a game.

IL-2 will not compete with AH in anyway.

Sure, IL-2 might come out with MMP format a year or so down the road.... but by then where will AH be? Who knows!
-SW

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by SWulfe:

Sure, IL-2 might come out with MMP format a year or so down the road.... but by then where will AH be? Who knows!
-SW

I think this answers your "Who Knows?" question of the future of AH:

 

SIMHQ:"At what stage do you think you are in right now in the total life of Aces High....what is the ultimate goal?"

Pyro:"I would say that we’re about 10-15% there looking at it from the player’s side of the fence. Even less if we expand in the future to eras outside of WWII. The ultimate goal is to build the AH brand into a juggernaut in the sim market. To do that will require expanding the scope of the game beyond the traditional online offerings and building bridges to close the gaps between boxed sims and online ones."