Originally posted by Taiaha
I agree. The numbers are creating an avalanche of kill messages at the moment. I mean, do we really need to know every time someone waxes someone else? I kinda liked the Warbirds system where it indicated who was rogering who, but it is still subject to the same problem (or would be if anyone was playing it in these kind of numbers).
Another option. Host reports you your kills in private. But kills only start showing up in the main public buffer when someone reaches a streak of, say, three (or whatever number).
This relates back to BBs essay on shame and glory.
The WB system was the ultimate in 'shame and glory'. Everyone knew who waxed who, great for building the hate.
In AW we only had the 'shame'. You knew someone got shot down, but you didn't know who did it unless you saw it or they ran a macro...
/MUAHAHAHA SUCK IT DOWN!
That gets you twice the message traffic in the 3 line buffer.
Early versions of AW had a 'scream' feature. When a friendly got killed near you, you heard a "AAAHEEEAAAHHH!" noise.
AH has the 'glory' system. We see who got the kill, but we don't know the identity of the poor dweeb who got wacked. You don't know if your wingman got nailed unless you see it or he tells you.
Shame and glory aside, kill messages in the text buffer can help your SA in a fight, especially if you know who your opponents are. The text buffer is also vital for the land grabbers and kill messages crowd out their pleas for help. But with everyone hooked up on voice comms, these issues become less important. Voice comms have certainly reduced the amount of text to read.
I am not sure what the solution is, the buffer is crowded but it is nice for people and squads to get recognition. Perhaps kill messages could be restricted to 'room' range, but when you reach a five kill streak it gets announced to everyone. Only air to air kills though
