Man, I hate to jump into this little discussion, but I am............
I am TOTALLY against a RR arena, for the simple reason of what it did to me.
I started WB back in 1999, one of the first things I did was check out the ACA. Easy mode, all that CRAP.
Thought I was getting pretty good, so I headed into the main arenas. To sum it up, I got my bellybutton handed to me, on a regular basis. Mainly as a result of the fact that I had flown easy mode, or relaxed realism, call it whatever you want. I went to the training arena, first thing they asked me was how much I had been flying. So, I, in an irate tone, told them I had been flying in the ACA. You could almost hear the "Aww crap, not another one..." thru the 'Net.
RR only increases the difficulty in learning how to fly in the full realism mode, IMO. I had to start flying a duelling ladder before I really learned how to do anything right.
What I am afraid I am seeing is people who came from AW and flew in that RR setting, and they automatically want HTC to create an arena especially for them. That bothers me a lot. I would hate to see HiTech and company EVER compromise the FM in AH. You want one of the most realistic, if not THE most realistic combat sims ever? You are there right now. AH is not perfect, far from it. But it is a work in progress, and what they have done so far is create probably the most realistic combat sim you will find outside a full blown military simulator.
I agree with the idea about the AH Training Arena. It has degraded to nothing more than a FFA, and if it is to be used for the stated "training" purposes, HTC is gonna have to get dedicated trainers and give them some authority. Like being able to boot someone out of the arena if they won't follow the rules. Simple as that. Or being able to ground them so that they can't up in anything, not even a field gun.
Said trainers would be shouldering a lot of responsibility, and would catch a lot of flak for doing their jobs. But, eventually, the arena would become what it should be, a place for newbies and veterans alike to go and hone their skills before entering the MA or CT.
(gets down from soapbox)
....and that's all I got to say about that.....
