First off, thanks for switch to turn off field icons that I asked for last time
. Also, understand that I like the additions to the game introduced in 1.10. However, I am seriously not liking how things are working out in practice. My 2 main problems are the connection quality and the pizza map.
For me (and most of my squaddies), the bad connection thing manifests itself in planes warping in short spurts all the time. In addition, there are serious delays in damage taking effect, so when I manage to hit somebody he flies along 5-10 seconds without a wing. This works both ways--guys who seem to still be 1k or more behind apparently are already shooting.
Of course, these things have all existed before periodically, but back then it was a rare night and could be blamed on the luck of the internet draw. However, since 1.10 came up, it's been a constant problem. Something changed for the worse at that time. I don't know what, but whatever it was, things were much better in terms of warps and delays back in the 1.09 days.
As for the pizza map, it's got a number of detail problems that hopefully will get fixed someday. OTOH, fixing them will not solve the basic problem that it's just too friggin' big for the number of people we have these days. There are still only 300-500 flying and the arena max is still only 550 so that's all we're going to get for a while. But it will take 1200-1600 folks to result in the same level of intensity we had back on the smaller maps.
I realize that other's experiences will differ but from what I've seen so far, the new map has robbed the MA of both purpose and intensity. With so much space, it's next to impossible to force a reset over the course of an evening unless it's almost there to start with. This takes the purpose out of doing anything organized because more than likely it won't have any net effect you'll see during your time online. The result is just mindless fighting superficially like back in DOS AW. But unlike DOS AW, the map is so huge that nothing forces people to fly in the same area. The result is a lack of big battles against determined foes. Instead, one side or the other usually has overwhelming local superiority, so you're either getting gangbanged or milkrunning. In between these mobs, there's basically nothing for miles and miles.
In addition, on those rare times when a reset happens, it's still the same map. I have to admit, I'm getting pretty tired of the same old pizza all the time.
As a result of these problems, I request that the pizza map be put back on the shelf until the peak AH nightly population reaches at least 1000 pilots. For now, PLEASE go back to the maps we were using before.
