I think you may have missed my point. If someone wants a one on one fight with another, going to the DA is just fine... that's what it's there for. They can also go to a couple bases off to the side where they can be alone. It's all good.
The fact that you cite AH was designed for arena capture is precisely why I argue that HTC should not have done so. It validates your choice of game play over all others. It validates the idea that players should capture all the bases they can, the best and most effricient way, without regard to how they do it... which it turns out is mass attacks on the base, avoiding or overwhelming all resistance. If that's what you want to do, great. But this should not be to the exclusion of all other styles of game play, even though it is "the way AH was designed".
Some folks may just wish to grab a bomber and try hitting ground targets without constantly getting shot down. Fine, they can go off to some remote part of the map where they will be able to avoid interception. It's called milk running, but there's nothing wrong with that.
A couple folks may want to fight each other without others interfering. Or maybe a squad or two. The DA seems like a good choice if they can't find privacy in the MA. But then they are bringing their own players, not depending upon them to be available in the arena.
Some folks want to go at each other in a massive, swirling, never ending battle with fighter planes. Furballs are fun, but can hardly be held in a DA for need of a great number of participants. It can also coincide with an attempt to capture bases... just not very quickly.
Some players, like me, enjoy fighting over a base... keyword being "fighting". You don't try to avoid the enemy to Jabo his hangers. You don't gather up a massive force to completely overpower him... though this temptation often wins out. You don't attack the bases the enemy isn't capping. You realise that if you drive the enemy away, you've ruined your own fun. You have a deep appreciation for why they call the plane you fly a "fighter". In this type of game play, you actually engage the enemy and try to drive him back to his base with aerial combat... and then vulch him silly >=o)
None of these game styles require the capture of the entire arena for fullfilment. Capturing a single bases is just fine... or not even capturing one, but having a heck of a fight trying. Even the losers have fun... imagine that. In AW, before they added base capture, just killing a base was great fun. Often groups of players on both sides get to know each other and look forward to repeating these battles each night, as the seemingly mindless land grabbing hampsters around them run on their wheels.
Then there are the GV battles. Trinity is a great example of the great fun to be had in Crater Town, where base capture is abhored and mountains are intended to keep out the land grabbing mobs... for a while anyway. =o/
You see, there are many kinds of game play happening in the MA. Each can do what they enjoy most. Players can move from one game style to another for variety to stave off bordom. Players don't have to go off to another arena, the MA is good for them too. Each can play as they wish, at least until the hordes of arena crippling land mongers flood through their sancturary like a swarm of locusts leaving nothing but waste and destruction in their wake. But alas, they have a right to play that way also... it's built into AH.
The only game that should not be played in the MA is expecting everyone else to march to your drum, or go elsewhere.
Originally posted by Sixpence
What I am saying is that the people who capture bases are playing the game the way it was designed.The dogfighting people on one hand say they want a 1vs1, then on the other hand they say the main is where everyone is , that doesn't make alot of sense. The DA is the best place for a 1vs1, that's what it was designed for. If there is no one in there you go in the main and offer to go 1vs1 in the DA, you will find plenty to accomodate you, even squad vs squad.
So don't get mad at the people who play the game the way it was meant to be played. It's not just a flight sim, it's a strategy game also.
