Earning your ride

[MadBirdCZ]

Originally posted by Midnight
1. Pilot killed = no points or perks for the entire flight

Only if you get perk penalty (severe) for killing chutes... I know it would harm FDB's bussiness but who the hell cares

[ergRTC]

absolutely, I think it would work.  

As far as chutes go, just give me a fricking 50 cal pistol so I got a chance.  Makes me feel good to let the other guy go, dont understand the guys that shoot em down.  In the CT i have not seen a chute shooter yet, but I have heard rumors......

[Vermillion]

No thanks.

{and for those with the elitest CT attitude}

Take the whole "people in the MA are just quake dweebs, while people that fly the CT are REAL pilots" crap and shove it up ........

[ergRTC]

Why vermillion? would this ruin your life?  Would your ability to play and enjoy the game end right there?  

Or is it the thought  of shooting armed chutes that bothers you so?  Perhaps its the idea of living and LANDING (yes that undercarriage has two uses) for perks that makes you nervous.

And for your information CT people are a better breed! Just ask any of them!

[Vermillion]

If it was implemented in the MA? Yup it would be a pain in my a##.

I don't fly for score personally, but for fun.  And I don't want others trying to dictate to me what and how I should fly. I personally love scenarios and other special events, and fly them when I can.  But scenarios are for that kind of flying, not the MA when I just have a few minutes for a short hop, and a hot and tastey furball.

Even then I still land a large percentage of my sorties (I avg between 1.5 and 2.0 in "official" HTC K/D most tours (ie overall total calculated on the scorepage), and thats pretty good considering all the deaths I rack up when I fly drunk ).

One tour (a very long time ago) I tried the whole "fly to live in the MA at all costs" and it bored the hell outta me.  I finished in the top 10 pilots in K/D that tour, but it was the least fun I've ever had in AH.  So I don't expect to try it again.  FYI it was like Tour 4 or something if you feel the need to check up on me and see if I'm lying. Its under "Verm"

So can I hack it? Yup if I want too.  But personally I find the CT or the HA in Warbirds (very similar beasts, with the same resulting elitist attitudes) very boring and not something I want implemented in the MA anytime soon.

So yah, I figure I know what that landing gear is for

[ergRTC]

Okay vermillion, I buy your reasoning.

[lazs2]

verm... couldn't agree more with ya and have had pretty much the same experiance.  The harder I try the less fun I have.   If I wanted to work at something I would put in the overtime on the job and make the money.    Besides... don't the everquesters realize that the more you have to "earn" advantages in the MA the less people think of those who have "earned" em?  

It is easy to earn respect in the MA and it has nothing to do with score or rank and it certainly is harder to earn respect by flying superior planes against mediocre ones.

Their needs to be a balance in the casual vs everquest player with the casual player getting the most attention since he pays the bills.
lazs

[Toad]

I think Verm essentially has it nailed.

I would only add that there's a vocal minority that apparently believes they know way more about building what the customer wants than HTC does.

I'd merely point to the nightly numbers in the CT vs the MA. Sure, some find the CT to be a truly religious, orgasmic experience. Clearly, they are in a very small minority. (Come to think of it, many of them remind me of television evangelists for some reason. )

Somehow, I think HTC has a much better grasp of what the average customer truly wants and enjoys.

[Puck]

Oh, I don't know, Toad.  HTC only keeps, what, seven or eight people gainfully employed?

You have to wonder how successful the online air combat simulation companies run by some of the other people around here are  

Just need to remember to:

:1,$s/we need/I want/g

in most of these posts  

[ergRTC]

Well, I am not one for changing the MA, but I will defend the CT, while knocking you guys a little.  The reason 75% of the people (Baaa) that are in the MA stay in the MA is because they are like moths to a light.  

They dont want to fly in an arena with only 10 people in it (I dont blame them if they dont think that would be fun).  So its kind of a circular thing.  

people dont fly in ct cause there are low numbers, and so the low numbers never go up cause nobody wants to fly in low numbers.

Sure they try to bait them into the CT with varied setups (and we dont even get lake ueterus, that alone would be enough to keep me in CT) but the sheep people would never come over simply because of a map or scenario (thank god).  

A great way to test this is artificially increase the number reported for that arena, and decrease the number in the ma, see where the people go first when they log on............

on a side note, I found somebody in the TA, skatjr i think, with 640 kills.  Thats 640 kills in the TA.  Wow, each to there own I guess.

[Toad]

I'm neither attacking the CT nor defending the MA.

I'm merely pointing out that there seems to be a lot of "CT folks" that seem absolutely sure that they KNOW what other players want. However, it appears to me that HTC seems to have a much better grasp of this concept of "what people want".

Basically, HTC "threw a bone" to the vocal minority of players dissatisfied with the MA. They gave "dissatisfied MA players" control over their own arena setups and turned them loose to create "paradise" as far as the code allows.

To me, the numbers tell the story. Paradise is in the mind of the beholder. But then I always knew that.

Tell, upon what research do you base your "75% baaaaaaaa" statistic? That would actually be unsupportable opinon, would it not?

You have done research that shows the MAIN reason people don't fly the CT is "low numbers"? Have you reliably defined "low numbers"? I mean, how many does it take until it's not "low"? Have you given your detailed research to HTC to help them out here?

Low numbers are NOT the reason I don't fly the CT. But then, I guess I'm already accounted for in your research and you knew that.

"but the sheep people would never come over simply because of a map or scenario (thank god)."

Let me get this straight.. you bemoan low numbers but thank the diety that the "sheep people" aren't coming over to your Paradise due to maps or scenarios?

To sum up... within the limitations of the game code, the CT is free to become whatever those who dislike playing in the MA can make of it.

Despite continual changes in search of the "holy grail" arena, the CT continues to draw the merest fraction of the player base.

So the conclusion is that the vast majority of the player base doesn't know what it likes?

You guys crack me up.  

Please.. don't ever consider that the changes made in the CT that differentiate it from the MA have anything to do with the situation.  

Enjoy the CT. Fly what you like, like what... oh, wait, that's my sig!

[ergRTC]

No man, I dont like the numbers, that is why I fly CT!  that and the axis vs. allied.  I already told you how to test this: artificially inflate the numbers and see what happens.  the 75% is just my guess (but I am pretty sure it is right, gut feeling, just watch a crowd sometime).

I used to fly big pac in AW which tended to have around 40-80 people in it.  That was about perfect.  The CT runs from 10 -40 which I enjoy.  Normally on squad nights we have right near that number.  

The original thread here was about using a system like one which was popular and worked well in the CT.  A thread which I did not start, but believed it may be a better perk system in the MA than the perk system it now uses (yes I used to fly in the MA before it got to be the 400 person furball it is today, back when it was around 180 it was great fun).  Repeat the perk system it now uses.  Perk system, used in MA.  Yes perk system.  There is a perk system in the MA.

 Since it is not the free-for-all that many of you pretend you have, why not try to make it better?  60 perks for a f4u4, what a joke.

[Toad]

Ah, ok.. so it's just opinion presented as fact. Got it.

12+ arenas limited to 40 players each... well, it's a thought and it would make you happy I guess. Write it up and send it off to HTC.

Perk system? At its very basis, it is a means to encourage or "make" people fly things they don't necessarily want to fly in order to gain points to fly things that are considered "too popular". (The idea that "perking" is solely based or even primarily based on performance has pretty well been discredited by recent history.)

I'm a big "fly what you like guy"... but I'll leave the intracacies of perking and gameplay to the guys with the credentials and the proven experience. Haven't seen any of them post in this thread yet.

Personally, I don't pretend that the MA is anything at all... except a fun game or me.   I'd never have the nerve to suggest how someone else should be playing nor criticize them for their choice in how to spend their free time.

[ergRTC]

I dont understand toad?  So there is not a perk system in the MA?

[Toad]

Of course there is.

I just leave it to HTC to work it out... seems like they have a way better handle on what the players want than anyone else.