Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Yarbles on August 01, 2021, 04:03:38 AM

Title: How much and How many
Post by: Yarbles on August 01, 2021, 04:03:38 AM
How much is AH per month in English money now and at 7pm  Est how many people are usually in the arena  :airplane:

I know numbers are down but I am thinking of coming back as forget about graphics it is a great sim and game  :salute
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Peanut1 on August 01, 2021, 05:21:50 AM
It's 15$ us.  Usually between 40-60 people around that time. If money is an issue, I am glad to pay for your first 2 months. Pm me if that can get you in....we want you. We need you...
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Eagler on August 01, 2021, 06:01:39 AM
Usually climbs to about 100 by 8pm EST

More than enough for a great time!

Eagler
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: oboe on August 01, 2021, 07:37:39 AM
Depends on the day of the week, also.  Friday nights tend to be more active - close to 150 in the MA is not unusual.   
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: fuzeman on August 01, 2021, 09:16:03 AM
Price as mentioned $14.95 a month and remember the 6-month plan; attendance, one more than before you re-joined the fun.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Volron on August 01, 2021, 09:42:15 AM
How much is AH per month in English money now and at 7pm  Est how many people are usually in the arena  :airplane:

I know numbers are down but I am thinking of coming back as forget about graphics it is a great sim and game  :salute

Let's round up both: $18 USD would be £13 GBP.

As for numbers, I couldn't say.  It'll depend on the day of the week, that is for sure, with Friday and Saturday likely being where numbers are highest.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Yarbles on August 02, 2021, 12:58:29 PM
It's 15$ us.  Usually between 40-60 people around that time. If money is an issue, I am glad to pay for your first 2 months. Pm me if that can get you in....we want you. We need you...

Thanks but no the money if fine at that price. I will get back in with attendance over 100. I guess the maps could be smaller now compared to when it used to be 800.  Excellent flight model and attention to realism I have seen anywhere x
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Lusche on August 02, 2021, 01:32:46 PM
I will get back in with attendance over 100.


At 7pm? Keep dreaming ;)
And while there are still complaints about 'big maps', the truly big maps for 600+ players were pulled from rotation about 5 years ago.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Peanut1 on August 02, 2021, 03:59:25 PM
Thanks but no the money if fine at that price. I will get back in with attendance over 100. I guess the maps could be smaller now compared to when it used to be 800.  Excellent flight model and attention to realism I have seen anywhere x
Sadly the attendance will only get worse over the next year. It's kinda like a locked door being shut from the outside. And this door is almost shut. Hi-tech threw the key in the trash years ago. I will continue to enjoy whats left until there is nobody left.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: guncrasher on August 02, 2021, 04:47:47 PM
Sadly the attendance will only get worse over the next year. It's kinda like a locked door being shut from the outside. And this door is almost shut. Hi-tech threw the key in the trash years ago. I will continue to enjoy whats left until there is nobody left.

been hearing for years that ah is about to die, only a few months left.  and yet we still playing.

if you enjoy the game, then enjoy the game.  no need to be so negative.


semp
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Yarbles on August 03, 2021, 03:48:40 AM
Definitely sounds like there is still a pulse here  :aok
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: popeye on August 03, 2021, 06:40:35 AM
I wonder how many people would be playing, if everyone who isn't playing because there aren't enough people playing, was playing.    :D
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: LCADolby on August 03, 2021, 07:27:03 AM
I wonder how many people would be playing, if everyone who isn't playing because there aren't enough people playing, was playing.    :D

Judging by BBS posts about 10
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: CptTrips on August 03, 2021, 10:42:28 AM
I wonder how many people would be playing, if everyone who isn't playing because there aren't enough people playing, was playing.    :D

I'm sorry.  I know that was just humor, but that argument, which is often trotted out, drives me crazy.

It is essentially like saying:

"If everyone would just go back to driving horse buggies, there there would be a better market for buggy whips.  :D"

It's both true and pointless. Those who had been horse buggy customers have either died of old age or moved on to buying automobiles.
What's left now is a handful of Amish.  Those remaining Amish are still loyal and appreciate the quality of the remaining world-class 
buggy whip manufacturer, but the market trajectory is not going to change by force of wishful thinking.  Especially if the criteria is that no material changes to the current game can be considered.  If you send the same parameters to a function, you get the same return value.

On the positive side, I suspect the rate of population decline is shallowing. Not because the market is changing, but because most who are likely to have left, already have.  Those who are remaining probably represents a fairly durable population.  They have pretty much decided to stay until they take a dirt nap, or HT unplugs the server.  But it still seems to be an evaporation rate of about 20 players a year, at least since 2018.  But I defer to Lusche.

If WB or WWIIOnline would finally give up the ghost, AH might get one last handful of refugees.  But I wouldn't expect more than a 20 player bump.

Everything is impermeant.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

$0.02.


Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: 800nate800 on August 03, 2021, 01:46:17 PM
Definitely sounds like there is still a pulse here  :aok
most definitely
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Wiley on August 03, 2021, 02:04:16 PM
I'm sorry.  I know that was just humor, but that argument, which is often trotted out, drives me crazy.

It is essentially like saying:

"If everyone would just go back to driving horse buggies, there there would be a better market for buggy whips.  :D"

It's both true and pointless. Those who had been horse buggy customers have either died of old age or moved on to buying automobiles.
What's left now is a handful of Amish.  Those remaining Amish are still loyal and appreciate the quality of the remaining world-class 
buggy whip manufacturer, but the market trajectory is not going to change by force of wishful thinking.  Especially if the criteria is that no material changes to the current game can be considered.  If you send the same parameters to a function, you get the same return value.

On the positive side, I suspect the rate of population decline is shallowing. Not because the market is changing, but because most who are likely to have left, already have.  Those who are remaining probably represents a fairly durable population.  They have pretty much decided to stay until they take a dirt nap, or HT unplugs the server.  But it still seems to be an evaporation rate of about 20 players a year, at least since 2018.  But I defer to Lusche.

If WB or WWIIOnline would finally give up the ghost, AH might get one last handful of refugees.  But I wouldn't expect more than a 20 player bump.

Everything is impermeant.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

$0.02.

The thing that boggled me was when HT mentioned that over a few months 40k people passed through the MA after it went on Steam, and I didn't notice an appreciable bump in numbers when I'd log in at prime time.  I always figured before that a few hundred more people would create a noticeable difference.  While the majority of that was likely the sub-30 second and log people, it was just an eye opener about how many people it would take to make a difference in the arena numbers at any given moment.

Wiley.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: CptTrips on August 03, 2021, 02:34:38 PM
The thing that boggled me was when HT mentioned that over a few months 40k people passed through the MA after it went on Steam, and I didn't notice an appreciable bump in numbers when I'd log in at prime time.

Hmmm.  I know a boat load downloaded the game from Steam.  I don't remember how many he said actually went into the MA.  But many of those that did, probably just sat on the runway for a bit, couldn't figure out what to do and exited and uninstalled. 

Would canned tutorials help?  Maybe.  Should it prevent them from entering the MA until they are completed? Maybe.  That may also cause it's own problems to lock the MA behind a tutorial wall.  But maybe it is the better trade-off. 

I think the average time online for those Steam players according to HT was something like less than 10 min.  A lot could have come and gone in an evening without you ever noticing  them, as most apparently never got wheels up.

Yeah, I know.  Those kids on Steam are nothing but a bunch of twitch kiddies.  They aren't serious flight simmers.  Yadda Yadda Yadda.  Throw in some Millennial/Avocado Toast slurs... :old: 





Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 03, 2021, 02:44:49 PM
Sadly the attendance will only get worse over the next year. It's kinda like a locked door being shut from the outside. And this door is almost shut. Hi-tech threw the key in the trash years ago. I will continue to enjoy whats left until there is nobody left.

That's not true at all. The #s will pick up going into winter. The summer typically has lower #s in general. Hitech has not thrown away the key. Thats a false statement. He has done quite a bit of work. IMO, hitech just needs a bigger team and a bigger marketing apparatus at that. Like I said before, one commercial goes a long way. Sometimes you gotta invest before you can reap the reward. Heck. Even send out a newsletter email to old players. Who gives a rip if someone calls it spam. They can delete it. It might encourage someone or squads to come back to the game.

I think what Hitech needs to do is just go back to the basics. One MA arena. One simple DA arena. One Team death match small map arena (Free to play), the TA,  and the special events, all on one clip board that is east to follow - no tabs.

I think going back to a simpler set up would help a lot. A once a year newsletter to emails would help, a commercial would help, fixing some plane, tank, bomber ENYs, and remove old maps and replace with new, would do a lot to help. Maybe even going back to the old radar, but making radar towers harder to destroy, which was always the idea I had.

Other than that, I think we will be back into the 150 players a month range by September and there is still a good amount of fun and fights to be had most of the time.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 03, 2021, 02:46:41 PM
Hmmm.  I know a boat load downloaded the game from Steam.  I don't remember how many he said actually went into the MA.  But many of those that did, probably just sat on the runway for a bit, couldn't figure out what to do and exited and uninstalled. 

Would canned tutorials help?  Maybe.  Should it prevent them from entering the MA until they are completed? Maybe.  That may also cause it's own problems to lock the MA behind a tutorial wall.  But maybe it is the better trade-off. 

I think the average time online for those Steam players according to HT was something like less than 10 min.  A lot could have come and gone in an evening without you ever noticing  them, as most apparently never got wheels up.

Yeah, I know.  Those kids on Steam are nothing but a bunch of twitch kiddies.  They aren't serious flight simmers.  Yadda Yadda Yadda.  Throw in some Millennial/Avocado Toast slurs... :old:

The training videos that were made were very helpful. Most of us wouldn't see them until you completely re-download the game. I was quite surprised to see the videos and thought they did a pretty decent job.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Lusche on August 03, 2021, 03:06:09 PM
I think the average time online for those Steam players according to HT was something like less than 10 min.

I recently started up a new steam installation without joystick plugged in and I can say that I would not have lasted any longer than that if I had not been playing AH before.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: Wiley on August 03, 2021, 03:43:59 PM
Hmmm.  I know a boat load downloaded the game from Steam.  I don't remember how many he said actually went into the MA.  But many of those that did, probably just sat on the runway for a bit, couldn't figure out what to do and exited and uninstalled. 

Ha!  Found it.

Don't mean to jump on ya but on this rare occasion I want to point out how mistaken almost all people on this board are about the dynamics of AH.

In the last 100 days aprox 40,000 people have installed Aces High, 20,000 new people have created accounts and entered an arena. Of the people entering the arena 65% are gone and do never reenter by the 10 minute mark of being in the arena. 75% are gone after 30 Minutes.

...

HiTech

15% had joysticks when they came in, ~1% conversion rate overall.  So by that, Steam caused 200 subs at the time and the change was undetectable looking at numbers in the arena at any given time.

Quote
Maybe.  Should it prevent them from entering the MA until they are completed? Maybe.  That may also cause it's own problems to lock the MA behind a tutorial wall.  But maybe it is the better trade-off. 

I would love to see real stats on what the majority prefer on stuff like that.  It would seem to me it might be beneficial as long as it was kept super short, like no more than 3 minutes or so to go through it smoothly.

Quote
Yeah, I know.  Those kids on Steam are nothing but a bunch of twitch kiddies.  They aren't serious flight simmers.  Yadda Yadda Yadda.  Throw in some Millennial/Avocado Toast slurs... :old:

Heh, I don't see it like that at all.  If you look at a lot of the new guys that come in and get good, their gunnery is usually terrifying IMO due to people generally being more familiar with shooting stuff in games these days.

For me the problem is when it's good, I actually like the style of gameplay here versus the stuff that's more popular.  Not many people do.  I don't see anything that would indicate that changing in the future, so here we are.

Wiley.
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: LCADolby on August 03, 2021, 04:25:28 PM
The training videos that were made were very helpful. Most of us wouldn't see them until you completely re-download the game. I was quite surprised to see the videos and thought they did a pretty decent job.

 :rofl
Title: Re: How much and How many
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 03, 2021, 06:35:03 PM
:rofl

Hell, that's more than most games these days.

Of course, it's tough to understand effectiveness when you already know how the game works.