New Gameplay coming? I hope.

[Midnight]

This “capture the field” Main arena play has absolutely drained away its novelty. All it becomes is a constant gangbanging “capture the field” movement full of roving hordes of JaBo attacks. It’s near impossible to find any good fights at peak hours, because the bases change hands so fast.

Last night, after the Pizza map was reset by the bish (who had nearly 200 players on) it was ndisles. Half of the bish that won the reset didn’t bother coming back in, knowing that they were going to take a gangbang from Rooks and knights. They were right too. In less than 1 hour, the bish were reduced to 6 fields. There were more field capture messages than ‘joeblow landed x kills’ messages.

The main arena, and the whole AH strat model has become too dumbed down. It is far too easy to capture fields now, and bombing strat targets is all but forgotten except for those that want to pad their bomber scores.

Something needs to be done to make this feel more like a war, rather than a moving pork and vulch fest for the country with the most numbers. Personally, I think its time for some sort of limited supply system (which has been suggested in many way by many people) that can slow down the movement and reset of these maps. There should be no way that an entire map can be reset in less than two hours, but as we have seen many times, it happens on a regular basis.

[Amboss]

Maps rotate so fast these days that all I am ever seeing is the infamous pizza map, and only because it takes the most time to reset due to its size.

Fully agree with Midnight here.

-Amboss

[Ripsnort]

MA=Quake
SEA="More like real war"

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Amboss
Maps rotate so fast these days that all I am ever seeing is the infamous pizza map, and only because it takes the most time to reset due to its size.

Fully agree with Midnight here.

-Amboss

This proves that in theory, the Pizza map IS what AH needs.  Maybe not THAT particular map in your opinion, but that size.

[Amboss]

You know what would be really cool, if they could dynamically change mapsets, from small to medium to large maps, depending on the number of people in the arena....

Mapsize:
<100 people = small
<250 people = medium
>250 people = large

Seems a good way to make sure it won't get boring, either way.

-Amboss

[Wotan]

that map resets as fast as any of umm. But gameplay in terms of a2a is much funner on the smaller maps because you can actually find a fight.

Field capture as a reset trigger is tired and old. It works with 200 folks. But when you have waves of 50 suicide gangerbangs rollin up on field field after another its no fun.

Shift the reset conditions to the strat model and anyway from airfield grabbing and the small maps will be fun again.

The pizza sux all round. I had been one to argue for larger fronts (especially if you look at midinao). The pizza map swung to the extreme with with many large fronts.

a 512x 512 is the way to go. But you dont have to fill that whole 512 x 512 area with land. You can reduce the land ares so that we can have large fronts and strat zones but not so large as they are in the pizza map. Look at mindinao. The land area is relatively small in comparison with the maps overall square miles.

But simple adjusting the map size wont change what the main has become.

Theres nothing really wrong with any of the maps, its with how gameplay works that creates the problems.

Capture the flag is tired and worn out.

[Ripsnort]

Well, here lies the problem.  "War" as defined simply...IS Capture the flag.  All you can do is add more variables.

[Betown]

I would realy like to see the MA go the way of a full Strat model with missions and side commanders a bit like the WW2OL idea. I think there should really be two arenas the MA and a dogfighting arena. A bit like Fightertown in AW. If you wana furball then go to Fightertown but if you wana have fun and fly then go to the MA where we have two or three sides with an indeapth strat model, automated supply lines, TrainStations, Factories, Citys, Lots of vilages all based in a more historical format. So instead of the Pizza Map we will have the Northern Europe Map or the Pacific Map, Africa Map Etc. Even if we don't use historical terrains I think we should have a much larger map with fields as a station for launching aircraft but City's being the Main Targets. All with fully working strat systems and a more intresting method of capturing fields. I really think that airfield capture is outdated and we should move more towards the idea of City Capture.

Think About it...
If there where citys, Really Big Citys that acted like Zone Areas where all the supplies where kept, factories and production lines that affected the progression of the war. Citys that where able to be captured by a formation of C47's who would drop troops and the troops could fight there way into the citys and capture it and subsiquently capture the surrounding airfields. If you want to stop people from upping from a field the bomb the $h1t out of it! Then cut the supply lines so that it can't be resuplied!

It's the way forward guys

[Betown]

My main problem with the Pizza Map is that there is just to many fields to close together. Less Fields and more Strat Targets on the Pizza Map with some sort of supply system would rock!

[gofaster]

Originally posted by Betown
My main problem with the Pizza Map is that there is just to many fields to close together. Less Fields and more Strat Targets on the Pizza Map with some sort of supply system would rock!

Actually, I think some of the fields are too far apart.  The only plane I'll fly in the MA is the Mustang (or a 190 with tanks) because everything else takes forrrreeeevvvverrrr to get into attack range.  I'd like to see more strat targets in between the airfields to liven up the trip.  More ports would also be nice.

[Revvin]

Hopefully much of this will be solved with the mission based arena but until then the pizza map causes many to stay away.

[Betown]

I really think the Mission Arena is going to be one big fat bummer.... I think that nobody is going to go into it because all there main fighting and relaxation is going to be in the Main Arena. Also Adding more arenas is only going to spread out the player base. Which is all in all a bad thing.

If they are going to do anything they should create a Dogfighting Arena and use the MA as the Mission arena with crap loads of strat! Send the bloody furballers to there own arena!

[Midnight]

There is nothing wrong with furballers. They bring a lot of action into an area.

The problem as I see it is how fast everything moves from one field to the next. The bigger problem is HOW it is done.

For whatever reason, the majority of players have decided it is somehow 'fun' to get in a mission with 20+ other players in fully loaded Typhoons, fly to an enemy field, dive in and then shoot all ords off just before crashing headlong into the dirt.

It just becomes a giant pork fest followed by a short lived vulch fest just before the entire field is magically captured by 10 guys running into a little under-ground room 3 miles away.

Then, no sooner than the field is captured, the enemy is able to launch full scale pork runs to the next field.

Strat and gameplay needs to be changed... badly.

TODs are fun, but certainly not for everyone, and even they are limited to how they can be played due to the strat and gameplay model.

Until the supply system is changed from unlimited supplies to something where there is a fixed quantity that must be replenished, the endless pork and vulch fest will continue forever.

The way it is now

As long as there is just 1 ammo bunker, every plane can take a full load of any type of ordnance they could carry (unlimited)

As long as there is just 1 fighter hanger, an unlimited number of fighters of every type can takeoff.

As long as there is just 1 fuel bunker, every plane that takes off can take 25% of their maximum fuel load, regardless of how many gallons of fuel that represents.

-----

How about...

Once ammo bunkers start to be destroyed, the types of ords available get decreased.
25% bunkers dead = no ords over 500lbs available (no 1k, 2k or 4k bombs)
50% bunkers dead = no ords over 250lbs available
75% bunkers dead = no bombs, rockets only
100% = no ords available at all.


For fuel ==
change it so that the fuel available is based on gallons, rather than percentage. In most cases, bombers don't take more than 50% fuel anyway. Make it so that every supply convoy brings in 5000 gallons of fuel. The base can store 5000 gallons in each fuel bunker. Every time a vehicle or plane leaves the field, whatever it took for gas is deducted from the total stored. If the total stored fuel is used up, nothing can leave from the field until a new supply convoy brings in more fuel. If a fuel bunker is destroyed, then the total fuel storage is decucted by 5000 gallons until the bunker is rebuilt.

----

Change it so that if the supply convoy doesn't make it to the field, it doesn't get rebuilt at all, no just effect times of rebuilds. This would encourage people to actually search for convoys and destroy them. As it is now, who even bothers with those stupid little trucks anyway? And the trains? Huh! it's easier to re-bomb the town  or factory than it is to attack a train.

to me, the whole supply system is pointless becuase the field will be rebuilt regardless of convoys, and even if the convoys are stopped, the field retains unlimited supplies anyway.

----

Field capture needs to be changed as well. Let the town become a checkpoint for the supply convoys. If the town is captured, the field gets no more supplies, yet it remains in operation until its existing supplies are used up. That means the attackers have to maintain control of the town long enough to clear out the defenders, but the defenders have the chance of retaking the town if the field has the resources to support a counter attack.

I am sure there are many many more ideas out there, and I am hoping that HTC is examining how to make changes to gameplay. Air-Quake is getting boring.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Midnight

For whatever reason, the majority of players have decided it is somehow 'fun' to get in a mission with 20+ other players in fully loaded Typhoons, fly to an enemy field, dive in and then shoot all ords off just before crashing headlong into the dirt.

Newbies.  Funny, things I've witnessed lately is vets trying to get in position to get the proximity kill on Suicide dweebs! LOL!

Last night at A56, suicide P51D dweebs was on the menu, I was completely out of ammo, chasing a P51D away from the field (I couldn't land quite yet, as field was under attack ) I finally caught up to him within about D1.0, he ejects himself out of the cockpit rather than giving me the kill.  I get the kill anyway, and thank him on private channel for the kill, also telling him I was out of ammo!

[MRPLUTO]

These are excellent (and funny) comments; I expect HTC is reading this carefully.

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Wotan wrote:

"A 512 x 512 map is the way to go.  But you don't have to fill that whole 512 x 512 area with land."

Exactly right.

One problem with the Pizza map is that there's no room for fleets to manuver or hide.  Another problem is that the Pizza map has no focus.

******

I think it would be outstanding to actually have supplies delivered and used at fields.  It would seem fairly simple to just keep track how much each plane used, and how many gallons were delivered by each convoy or C-47 and available at each field.  Instead of a C-47 taking "field supplies" the pilot could choose fuel, or bombs.  Of course, trains and convoys can bring in much more than planes.  Think how inadequate the Luftwaffe supply effort at Stalingrad was.


******

How about this:  Could supplies like barrels of fuel actually pile up around the field as the supply increases?  And disappear as they're used?  And go up in flames if bombed?

******

 MRPLUTO  VMF-323  ~Death Rattlers~  MAG-33