Perk points and the "runstang" dilema

[Midnight]

Why does everyone keep getting so worried about these types of things before they are actualy brought into play. The same kinds of disscusions were running amuck before 1.05 came out.

RELAX for something's sake! When the perk planes get here, we will get a chance to try it. If there are problems, HT will fix them. Just like the original 1.05 map with no spawn points for vehicles and PTs. We told HTC and they listened and made changes.

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"Wing up, Get kills, Be happy"

Midnight
13th TAS

[SkyVon]

Does anyone even LIKE the perk idea?  I for one can easily envision a marked decrease in people playing because of perking.

[PakRat]

 

Originally posted by AKDejaVu:
I believe that if the loss of a perked aircraft results in the loss of perked points then people aren't really going to experiment with the perked aircraft.

Crap. Perk points come and perk points will go. People *will* experiment.

 

Setting asside the arguments about realism in regards to pilot behavior (fear of death and all that)... this penalty will result in non-perked aircraft forever chasing that running perked plane.

Before we start divining the future, how about we just wait and see? This is nothing but more crap. Sure there will be people specifically out to kill the perk planes. So what? How bad will the problem be? I sure the hell don't know - and you don't either.

 

I was thinking about a resolution to this problem and was thinking that a flying perked plane should result in loss of perk points regardless of surviving.  Make the planes cost less, and keep the money instead of giving it back.

There isn't even a problem yet and you're solving it. Cost less than what? We don't even know what will be offered, let alone how much it will cost. And if this plan was followed, wait for the howls about getting dumped while in a perked ride. This is all just foolish.

 

It seems this would enable everyone to fly perked planes at some time and would prevent the "Now I have a perked plane... I'm going to fly at 30k picking my targets for the rest of the tour" mentality I believe will occur.

So what if someone decides to fly at 30k? Maybe, just maybe the perk doesn't perform well up there. Maybe they will have to come down sometime for a kill. Maybe some other perked pilot will also be at 30k to kill the first perked pilot. We don't even know what the perks will be, remember. This is just tripe Deja.

 

I don't know exactly how perk points are/will be accumulated, so I don't really know what the cost should be.  But it seems that 10-15 average perk-point yielding sorties should be sufficient.

This is the crux of the whole situation. We don't know really anything yet some of us are posting how it all ought to be. Give it a rest. Unbunch the panties. And wait and see how HTC implements perk points and planes.

Wait until you know what to whine about to whine, eh?



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Rape, pillage, then burn...

[2Late4U]

Its just another thread in the rich tapastry of Aces High.  Some people will hunt perk planes...others will run away because they know they are out classed.  The key is, VARIETY, and its going to make things fun.  

 

[SKurj]

Hmm only one point above that really sticks out in my mind...

Do we want a larger client base?  Would aircraft with limited availability, ontop of the already limited planeset do it?
Or.. do you think a broader base planeset would be the ticket?

Personally I think the latter, perhaps HTC can for each Perky added, add a non perky to the planeset.  I'm sure they eagerly await the release of their latest perky, perhaps some willpower tossed in such that not only the uber plane gets its deserved attention, but the non-perky as well.

My thots.. not yours..

AKskurj

[PakRat]

What Midnight said. With a bullet.

I really get tired of the people who just have to whine about something they only think they know about.

Let's stir up controversy. Let's piss off the people working on the software. Let's try to influence how this will all play out when we don't even know if we will like how it is planned - and don't even know how it is planned anyway.

And what the hell does the lead message have to do with the "runstang" dilemma? Nothing in the post referred to a "runstang" at all.

And what the hell is this with everybody deciding what plane others should fly anyway? What gives you the right to dictate what I fly? I pay my bills - not you. If I want to fly a C-Hog, then by God I'll fly an f***ing C-Hog. If I want to leave a situation that turns against me and I'm flying a plane that can do it, who the hell are you to decide that is a bad move on my part? What's wrong with doing the right thing strategically and surviving (perk points intact) instead of dying and giving you more perk points?

You whiners are the biggest bunch of inbred crybabies I've ever seen. Don't kill me. Lay yourself down so I can kill you. Don't fly that plane - I don't like it. Perk points. Oh my God! What ever will we do? I know - implement them my way because obviously HTC doesn't have a clue what they are doing.

This is the biggest bunch of crap I've seen in a damn long time.

[AKDejaVu]

 

There isn't even a problem yet and you're solving it.

Erm.. I'm not solving anything.  I'm discussing it.

 

Cost less than what? We don't even know what will be offered, let alone how much it will cost.

Sigh.  I don't know what they will cost either.  I do believe the cost should be set up to make it available to anyone with 10-15 average perk point sorties.  As opposed to making it difficult to get the perk planes, but you hold onto them indefinately.

 

And if this plan was followed, wait for the howls about getting dumped while in a perked ride. This is all just foolish.

What does my idea have to do with this?  Either way you are going to loose the perk points.  The disco during perk whine would pale in comparison to the people crying "perk-discoer" when anyone in a perk plane pulls the plug if things get sticky.  Basically, no matter what the perk point implimentation... when there is a disco in-flight... you should lose the plane.  There just isn't any way to figure if the disco was intentional or not.

AKDejaVu

[This message has been edited by AKDejaVu (edited 01-11-2001).]

[BigJim]

Here's how I feel about perk points, chogs, niki's, Tempest, spits etc etc etc.  When the game stops being fun for me THEN I will STOP playing till then they can do what they want with game.  If they do something that makes it no fun for me I will be gone, like everyone else of like mind.

[kfsone]

Just a thought...

You're a non-ace like myself; you've worked hard for your perk points, and you finally get enough to fly your plane. You taxi it out onto the runway, stopping briefly to spit & polish (several times, infact). You're so chuffed you decide to start from the hangars and taxi out to your take off point. You get a friend on Vox to play ATC, and do the whole nine yards before finally hitting the throttle for take-off. You rotate and the plane departs the ground.

Just as you are about to bank right to climb out in relative safety, a dialog box appears; "Host disconnected" -- your ISP was so impressed it dropped you.

This is going to be a neccessary evil; if you don't lose perk points for stick waggling and finally yanking the modem cable to avoid death, people will do exactly that.

But more often than not my experience with discos is that they happen just as I level out at 25k feet or something.

Normally it's just a bit of time that's lost, or a tactical position gained from rolling that aircraft at that time before the field was swamped.

Perk-points introduces a different aspect on the non-persistence of the Aces High world. For the first time you will be able to lose something other than just a little kudos on behalf of the guy who was on your six.

Any of you who have played UO or EQ will know what screaming babies this can make of the most mature woman (us men turn into screaming babies far more readily, just try taking our BFGs away!).

For most of us, from the Host's perspective, a disco is a brief "dropout" of signal from  a player. In some games it is possible to recover from these situations.

Is there any way it is going to be possible to create a disco-recovery system which won't be utterly exploitable? We don't want people using disco as a quick way to RTB without crashing an aircraft. Perhaps if a disco'd aircraft could go into a controlled dive; thus disco in combat = increased chance of death. But also if you recover from the link death within the timeout period (say 90s), you will find your aircraft having flown in a straight line at a lower altitude?

Perhaps recovering from the disco you find that your aircraft has sustained damage too?

K

[AKDejaVu]

Discos have been a problem since the start of on-line gaming.

Really, the only way to make things less "whinable" would be to make the perk aircraft more attainable.  Having to wait a week to get a perk aircraft only to have it lost to the net-gods may be a tad bit worse than having to wait a day or two.

Basically, I can't see why one perk plane sortie shouldn't be available to everyone once every day or two.  The loss of a perk plane isn't so bad when you know you won't have too long to wait before you get another one.  Of course... its always better to see a little action before that happens

AKDejaVu

[Graywolf]

Personally I think a disconnect will just have to be viewed as some sort of mechanical failure and you lost the plane. It happens, dela with it. I can't see an easy wasy around this. Although kfsone's idea of a controlled descent you pick up later has some merit.

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Graywolfe <tim@flibble.org>

[This message has been edited by Graywolf (edited 01-12-2001).]

[Tac]

Yep. Ive always looked at discos as the ultimate simulation of mechanical failures  

However, if HTC is capable of introducing a "10 seconds to re-log to AH after disco=no loss of plane or perk points", it would solve this problem. This person would be back in tower though. Its already bad enough that the disco screwed your sortie and the time you took to fly to 20k =)

Why? People who intentionally disco have to pull the plug on their modem. This means they will have to exit the game, reconnect to the internet, re-log. This takes way more time than simply re-logging into AH (which is the only step the "true" disco sufferer has to do).

[AKDejaVu]

Alt-tab > cntrl-alt-del > close aceshigh.exe.

Sorry.. its just too easy.  Besides.. it usually takes longer than 10 seconds to receive the "connection to host lost" message.

Discos will happen.  Its unfortunate but true.  They really need to be treated as a death or else they will be used and abused.

AKDejaVu

[lazs]

Ok... I will make this as simple as I can for you "perk lovers".... The idea was... To introduce new planes without too much imbalance... This has been modified to.... to reduce the amount of "popular" planes seen in the arena to a manageble level.

In the current, second case... one or several planes will be perked to curtail their usage to say... 10-15 percent of the arena total by various "perk" values.   Now... the new guy or infequent flyer or just not anal point gatherer will log on and eventually know, that 1 or three planes are unavailable for him to fly most of the time.   He will also know that 1-3 planes out there or..... 10 to 50 percent of the planes out there are superior to anything he may choose to fly and that they are being flown by people that are either more skilled, have more experiance or both...

How much fun is that gonna be?   How many new people will be thrilled with this abortion?
lazs

[AKDejaVu]

Get your own thread lazs.  Your points really have nothing to do with this one.

AKDejaVu