LOL when it gets to this point ???

[Pei]

Originally posted by -sudz-
Heya Nopoop - back to your original request for enlightenment.

AH is a game of skill and, as such, most players _want_ a metric by which they can measure their improvement.  I remember the days before the score was implemented - the message board was flooded with score-keeping requests.  

It's understandable, really: how can you discover if you've made Big Time pilot status if you can't compare your performance with the known big-shots.  (Especially if they're in a different time zone or the same country and you never fight them.)

The fallout of implementing score has been two-fold:  pilots would sometimes find themselves enjoying bragging rights a little more than the game itself, and good pilots, who never cared about score (they have no doubts about their skill level), found themselves dogfighting a new type of opponent - the score hound.

It's a minor dilema in the scope of things, but if you want to resolve it you'd have to propose a solution which allows pilots struggling to improve some kind of metric. The "solutions" I've seen proposed mostly involve someone else changing their behavior. (Count on that happening tomorrow and all over the world!)

If you want to pursue this to _your_ satisfaction, I'd suggest finding a way to group the true dogfighters into one part of the arena.  Perhaps a standing gentlemen's agreement that the southermost, closest opposing fields are always selected by anyone interested in dogfighting.  

One caveat, though, keep it secret from the rest of the community (invite only serious dogfighters you know).  'Cause there are alot of pilots who get even more fun griefing the 'elitists'.

- sudz

Perhaps we should form the

Ancient & Noble Brotherhood of Honourable Furballers

motto:

"Nos porci nobis, non fuelus"

[dracon]

I think it's too much Radar, Dar Bars, and those goofy "flashing fields".  Radar needs to be more realistic to the era.

Let the GVers sit at a field and wonder when or IF anything is coming.  Missions may change from total Field Capture to a good deal of Fighter Sweeps.  Spend some time looking for the enemy and I'll bet there will be less running and more fighting.  Might just add a bit more adrenaline rush if you don't know if the "Dots" are Bogies or Buddies.

Of course the Kills/Hour may become mute.  It's already a silly inane number anyway.

My $.02

[Blooz]

How about doing away with that message "so and so landed 1500 kills in a P40E"


All these guys want is their name in lights and they'll do anything to see it.

[SKurj]

Originally posted by dracon
I think it's too much Radar, Dar Bars, and those goofy "flashing fields".  Radar needs to be more realistic to the era.

My $.02

I consider the flashing field to represent the communications/spotter network

Sure the pilots would not neccessarily be told such and such a field is under attack, but hey we don't have controllers directing us from hq or the ground...


Many non-military folks were trained how to spot enemy aircraft, in their area, in europe.  Perhaps you can suspend your disbelief for a while and assume thats why the field is flashing..  The local bobbie spotted the huns overhead...


SKurj

[Midnight]

The "game" has become nothing more than kill and get kill messages and gang-bang fields to get a reset.

Ever see people logging into the arena and asking the question, "who won the last reset?" Obviously, if they are asking, they weren't online when it happened, but why do they care? Whoever won the last reset has 0 effect on the current arena situation.

The game as a whole has no point anymore. Strat is non-existant and no one seems to care about strat targets unless they are easy milkruns to pad their attack/bomber scores when a friendly field is nearby (within 20 miles)

Big bomber raids are a thing of the past. No point in doing them when JaBos can do the same job faster and better. Without the bomber raids, there is no escorts needed, and a whole major portion of WWII aircombat is lost.

AH has turned into a shoot-em-up game and is falling further away from being a WWII air combat "sim" that it could have been. It seems most players would rather go in a gangbang against a lightly defended airfield than lock horns with the enemy. The other night, there was something like 20+ rooks attack one bish field (almost completely undefended) and then another 20+ bish attacking a mostly undefended rook field. It could have been a huge furball, but the majority decided gangbanging and vulching a field is better than an actual fight.

[bockko]

Nopoop, I feel your pain. There game is at its peak when you are on the edge in a good all out dogfight. Fast, slow, hi, low, doesn't matter as long as one false move means you get a trip to the hangar or one more merge and you get to put guns on someone good. Gv's: blah; vulching: well, kinda fun for a few minutes, sorta the old virtual one night stand. But the good dog fight -- there's where the old $14.95 (us) becomes good money spent.

[dracon]

Originally posted by SKurj
Many non-military folks were trained how to spot enemy aircraft, in their area, in europe.  Perhaps you can suspend your disbelief for a while and assume thats why the field is flashing..  The local bobbie spotted the huns overhead...


SKurj

Ok Skurj, I am well aware of the "Coast Watchers".  They are way Over-Modeled here

Dracon

[beet1e]

Nopoop

The problem is one of other players "not playing your way". They're in GVs, having fun, but not your kind of fun. I once made an observation which parallels yours. Mr. Toad understands well this problem. Why not ask his advice? Wait, I have it here...

[lazs2]

if we formed an order of the noble furballer with secret meeting places and such... we would be just as silly and pompous as the strat guys.

beetle.. you never have figured out toad have you?  I think everyone else understands what he is saying.   He doesn't want to tell people how to play but he would protest the implementation and using of say... the atom bomb in AH.    The skilless and small minded have too much effect on too many people.   Sorta like suicide gameplay.  suicide the fuel... suicide the CV.
lazs

[beet1e]

Originally posted by lazs2
beetle.. you never have figured out toad have you?  I think everyone else understands what he is saying.   He doesn't want to tell people how to play but he would protest the implementation and using of say... the atom bomb in AH.    The skilless and small minded have too much effect on too many people.   Sorta like suicide gameplay.  suicide the fuel... suicide the CV.
lazs

Lazs!  I understand the esteemed Mr. Toad perfectly. His quote comes from a thread in which I whined about gangbangery - mission editor/bardar etc.

But now the tables have turned, and it's a furballer complaining about his lot. Why should not the same advice apply?

As for the atom bomb, why shouldn't we have it? People have been pressing for the B29. You have the Me163 you asked for. Why shouldn't the buffers have their B29, with an atom bomb payload? It existed in 1945, and therefore meets AH eligibility requirements.

But like you, I hate the suicide crap. At least we can agree on something...

[lazs2]

yep... I asked for the 163 and... it happened.  not because I asked for it or even because it had never been thought of... I'm not that pompous but....  tell me, how did the 163 effect gameplay?   seems to me it just helped even things out a little.  

and that's the difference... you see the atom bomb as being ok... one person using little or no skill more than learning to use a mouse... ruining the fun for dozens of guys.

the 163 on the other hand was my sugtgestion and it.... it what?  it evens up the effect of dweeby fluffers milkrunning.   How many people does the 163 effect?   one... maybe two (who are trying to affectr dozens or more)... if... the 163 driver is skilled... if he is not then he affects no one.

see the difference?
lazs

[beet1e]

It's nothing to do with "how much skill is required". The B29 existed in 1945, therefore why should the buffers' requests for it to be added to the AH planeset be refused?

Attacking HQ is not milkrunning. And the 163 is available only at a single base near HQ. The 163 seems to have been released as a tool to protect HQ, nothing less, nothing more. Given that it exists, so should the B29 - replete with atom bomb.

[nopoop]

Originally posted by beet1e
Nopoop

The problem is one of other players "not playing your way". They're in GVs, having fun:D

Beet you crack me up. You just enjoy arguing.

If camped at a medium field at the ends of all the runways and the rear of all the fighter and bomber hangers ( a minimum of eleven GV's ) shooting spawners is in ANYWAY different than a gaggle of suicide bombers, explain it to me.

I'd really like to know.

[Grizzly]

Originally posted by beet1e
It's nothing to do with "how much skill is required". The B29 existed in 1945, therefore why should the buffers' requests for it to be added to the AH planeset be refused?

Attacking HQ is not milkrunning. And the 163 is available only at a single base near HQ. The 163 seems to have been released as a tool to protect HQ, nothing less, nothing more. Given that it exists, so should the B29 - replete with atom bomb.

The A-Bomb affectively ended the war, and would do the same in AH. Then AH will become an A-Bomb race and have precious little to do with fighting. But those darn selfish furballers would just whine and whine...

You claim others are dictating how to have fun, but you won't see that you're doing the same thing when you destroy the arena. You're version of fun affects and limits all others. No one would give a darn about what you do if you didn't screw up their game doing it. A couple suggestions to fix this:

a)  What difference does it make what the designated target for annialation is? Perhaps there can be a designated area within the arena that can be destroyed and perks awarded. Then the players who choose NOT to play your game can do so elsewhere without being disrupted by you and your real estate mongers.

b)  An arena full of nice juicy bases that can be captured. All teams start out with one base and race to capture the most. When the last base is captured, the team with the most bases will win the perks. And maybe an atom bomb will be located randomly at one of the bases that can be used by the team who captures it. Great fun without the pesky interference by the furball jocks... and no 163 to worry about!

[beet1e]

Nopoop!  :)

Griz - not trying to ruin anyone's fun. Just pointing out that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. I don't fly buffs, but I like joining in a capture. The thing about captures in AH is that because of bardar, flashing map and "base under attack", they always end up as smashdowns.

I know quite a few buffers who have quit recently, and the 163 played no small part in their departure. Seems like the B29 would be a good balancing act...