Wow! Even Swager being effected!!

[Hangtime]

Radar Eagl... THATS why the MA has it. You can be in a fight just as quick as you like... if yah don't mind having to work real hard fer yer kills. Of course; you CAN do the Alt monkey bit; up from a field not being attacked and arrive at the furball nice and high.... (my preferred routine)

You can fly the sim any way yah like.. and I frankly don't mind flying it either way.. Quake-birds style, upping close to if not IN the fight; or comming at it with the advantage of speed and altitude for the price of a longer flight. Choices are yours.. it's not a AH problem.  

Hang

 

[eagl]

Hang,

The problem with using the radar (assuming it hasn't been bombed out of service) is that even taking off from the airfield nearest the battle, it takes forever to get to the fight and even if I do a max climb the whole way and arrive at 20,000+ ft some 15 minutes after takeoff (which is possible between most fields), when I get there I find a dozen c-hawgs at 30k or so.  The only way to survive there is to fly away and climb up to 30k along with everyone else, then do high alt jousting until succumbing to the inevitable HO.

Put a few fields closer together, and the endless need to climb to the stratosphere disappears.  A straight-line climb in a spit with an arrival of at most 15k alt worked wonderfully well way back in the age of 2D WarBirds.  Those who wanted alt and didn't want to roll from a capped field took off from a "rear" field (which was about as far away from the fight as current "next door" fields) or took off from the front line field, and grabbed alt away from the fight before coming back.  Those who just wanted to furball of course just took off and flew direct, and within a few minutes found themselves immersed in a swirling furball.  The "come-back-again" factor was very high due to the short transit time, and there was always someone to fly with and someone to fly against near these furball fields.

Those wishing to play the strat game just worked around the furball area, either overflying the furball or routing around it.

For a rather weak "proof" that I'm right, just look at the arena numbers.  I remember when it was common to have an arena maxed out at well over 200 players, and a second arena with 100 or more players in it.  Bumping up against the 32 plane limit, while annoying at times, seems a more desirable side effect than flying 15 minutes or more looking for just a few planes to fight.

I'm not slamming HTC, just commenting on what seemed to be the most fun part about brand W.  I think lots of others found furballing fun too.  With under 200 in the current big AH arena, I have only seen a 20+ plane furball 2 or 3 times ever, and I have NEVER seen a big 3-way fight.  That's kinda sad.  Some of my best WB memories involved taking a 4-ship of squealing pigs into a furball that looked like a shook-up bag of skittles.  All 4 colors involved in a fight with 40 or more planes makes for a VERY complex situation    More fun IMHO than the current long drone times and tiny furballs we get today.

My opinion of course.  Ever since that furball-friendly arena, the trend has consistently been away from arenas that foster furballing.  As far as I recall, every single arena from then on had fields placed farther and farther away from each other.  This is a arena design priority that I do not understand (is it based on host/bandwitdh/technology problems?  Forcing gameplay in a certain direction?) and as a player I don't really like the trend.  

I don't expect HTC to stop this trend either, and again I'm back to "I sure miss the big WB furballs"



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eagl <squealing Pigs> BYA
Oink Oink To War!!!

[Hangtime]

Yep.. tends to be a matter of perspective.

Last night the knits gobbled up terrain all the way to a18 before the bish finally rallied for a showdown south of A17 in the triangle of death.. between the Vfield; the HQ and the factories. Intense furball.. about 2-3 min flying time for the rooks from 18 or the bish from 17.

There were alt fights; 10k fights and fights in the dirt fer 4 hours... one long continuous good old fashined WB furball.  

It's tuff sometimes; we all go in cycles. The game can sometimes underwhelm you and a few days later you get re-energized and soon enuff; yer overwhelmed again.

When I get in a rut; I usually come in here to the BBS and blow off some steam, take a few days off the MA and come back to the sim after a rest (*twitch*) flying a little better.. or more likely; with a better attitude.  

Have a look at Nuttz' PAC terrain... and take a sixpack with yah when yah go on the world tour. That alone ought recharge yer batteries.

 

Hang