Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: mechanic on September 27, 2004, 03:51:16 PM
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First off, we need the MA sides sorted. If we studied the BBs for a moment, which many of us do in some manner, we have quite a good number of opinionists. Opinionists who usually side with the same rough groups each time theres a disscussion.
we should hold 10 monumental threads, about simple miniscule gameplay changes, and after thus mighty threads, it should be quite obvious what, and how many, new teams should be delagated. or maybe we have allready left the evidence to delegate....
after these teams have been deduced from current subscribers, any newbie MUST have a two week free trial, where they have the TA as a newly setup arena being the only available option.
In said arena, AI orientated challenges must be acomplished with any help from trainers possible.
when they have passed this training* they may are able to subsrcibe to the game.
Imagine their anticipation. or boredom. or frustration.
if boredom then then they maybe shouldnt play anyway.
if frustration then they can always try again with a new pilot name.
if anticipation....
"You are being trained for war rookie. you cannot be sent into the field with no experience, if you find these challenges too hard you will not survive the real fight!"
they wait all week while they battlle through the training and maybe at the end they pass. if not, they have another week to shape up, or that CPID is gone baby! they must begin a new life.
*The training would be various tasks like fighters on looped paterns(but not just orbiting a base, loops an' all that). they must be destroyed without HO, ram, etc.
A bomber to shoot down with no personal damage, etc.
landings, Sea deck manouvers, rockets, bombs, bombers, tanks, TnB, BnZ, merges, snapshots,acmSA, leading,engines, ropes revs, fuel, the lot.
any way, i rant on, and on....
and i think my baked potatoes are burning.....
*snif*
hmmmm....
wonder if something like this would be involved in the Tour of Duty. it could change alot of things about the way the MA evolves.
it maybe almost feels like the MA is being left to ruin, not by HT, but by us, in expectation of ToD.
hmm...
*snif*
mmmmmm baked potatoe and cheesey beans...
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I agree that a duhweeb arena would probably be a good thing. Especially if some off the non-partisan folks (i.e. those able to put aside their MA politics) would be willing to stop in an hour or so a week and act as trainers or just answer questions. If the new player influx is as high as folks say, attendance would probably be reasonable as people cycle through it.
Maybe even make it a reduced arena - 2 or 3 bases per country, only the Hellcat, P-38, and Spit IX (easy planes to fly, but still diferent enough). No bombers, ord, or GV's and AAA is unkillable - so no vultching - just learn the basics out there.
-DoK
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The newbs aren't the problem.
It's the vets that "game the game" once they learn it's quirks.
Nothing is going to change it. These guys exist in every online game.
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Air Warrior aint dead folks. Looks like you are talkin yoursevles into a Relaxed Realism Arena.:aok
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Not really ... but I can imagine what the MA looks like to a total newbie if he happens to show up at the wrong time and on the wrong side.
If there's even 50 new players per week, that would keep such a training ground well stocked ... er ... engorged ... er ... populated with new victims ... er ... targets ... er ... trainees.
Not saying we de-tune the game any ... just limit the feature set and planes so that new players can focus on the basics.
-DoK
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TA not working any more?
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Originally posted by WilldCrd
TA not working any more?
Show of hands ... who reads the manual on a game?
Same deal.
Maybe newbs have the training arena and the "free 2 week trial" arena to pick from.
Dunno ... worth thinking about tho.
-DoK
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Originally posted by Blooz
The newbs aren't the problem.
It's the vets that "game the game" once they learn it's quirks.
Nothing is going to change it. These guys exist in every online game.
this is why we need the monster argu.. discussion threads in the coming weeks, to split the factions of players by opinion.
we could have 50 questions with 4 choices each question.
the averages would obvious.
4 teams.
more reason to fight, take the battle from the BBs to the MA. instead of making the BBs where we all do too much talking.
obviously the BBs wouldn't die down, but there would be more order to the chaos of opinion that may consume our message boards too much.
maybe im just crazy, but they didn't only lock me away cos i talked to the trees ya know.
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One of the concepts discussed during the Q&A session was having something similar instituted for TOD. What Dale and Doug implied was that to begin your "career" you would have to undergo some sort of "training" sessions, nobody mentioned another arena, just some scripted 'training" courses. Maybe a few hops, maybe even three hours. There were no specifics given and this is not written in stone but it would also serve as an incentive to follow "orders" during the missions. If you got demoted for consecutive failures or "court marshalled" for deviating from the assigned target you would have to undergo the training again. After doing it a few times you would DEFINITELY not want to have to do it again. Note: deaths would not require this, only failing in a dramatic way to carry out your assignments.
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that will be a good feature of ToD, but what about MA standards?
the overall point of this thread is that new player MUST soend 1week/2weeks of their free trial training. no addmitance to the MA is possible without at least one week of training.
this is not just for pilot skills, but for attitude, honour and the patience to play the game well once they reach the MA.
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Originally posted by mechanic
the overall point of this thread is that new player MUST soend 1week/2weeks of their free trial training. no addmitance to the MA is possible without at least one week of training.
I know, you just reminded me of something that was discussed in Q&A that I had not relayed.
Regarding the requirement for new accounts...aren't you worried they may find the TA too boring and not activate (pay) when the 2 weeks are up? I mean, the MA is so much more fun, even if you die easily you can see how many people are enjoying themselves. In the TA there are how many folks? Even if that number tripled with this requirement I can see people ask the usual question "how do I take off" and everyone else reply "I don't know, I'm new here too" :D
(yes yes I know there would have to be trainers, I just thought it was funny is all )
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Only problem I see with manditory training is that this will upset the instant gratification crowd. I think you can get a lot of the same results with a restricted feature set training-wheels arena while still letting players feel like they're playing a game.
For instance, you could have some "suggested activities" in this arena. Like sink one of the destroyers roaming offshore (learn about rockets and dive bombing). Shoot down one of the Lancaster "supply transports" that flies from base to base (learn about how to take down a big bird - great gunnery practice). And then there's just plain dogfighting. Point is new players could learn a lot of needed MA skills while still having fun and not getting jaded by the MA's politics.
They'd only be there 14 days so that's not enough time to become score junkies.
Kind of depends on just how many new players a month are coming in tho. As long as that arena had 20 to 40 players cycling through, it'd be fine.
-DoK
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What problem are you trying to fix by doing this?
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Originally posted by dedalos
What problem are you trying to fix by doing this?
Just a guess but...a flatter learning curve?
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Originally posted by dedalos
What problem are you trying to fix by doing this?
just wondering if it is possible to up the general calibre of MA pilots in all ways.
maybe i should make a start and cancel my account! :rofl
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Originally posted by mechanic
just wondering if it is possible to up the general calibre of MA pilots in all ways.
maybe i should make a start and cancel my account! :rofl
lol, I don;t think the newbs are the problem. Sure they could learn a little more before they come in the MA but who wants to wait 2 weeks? I wouldn't have subscribed if that was the case. In anycase, the problem is us, not the new guys. You can easylly see that for yourself.
Go to the CT where the "flying is different and the vets fly like gentlemen" and see for your self.
No newbs there but . . .
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Maybe if the "Vets" spent half the time in the TA training the newb dweebs that they do on the BBs whining about them, things would change. Just my observation, but for a newb, even the TA can be a little confusing. "Oh, Training Arena, Cool. I'll try that out. Hmmm......Ok, two people in there, should be easy to get some help............where are the trainers? Where is anyone? ....SK-rew this, there are 450 people in the MA, someone there will help me.......Ok, wow, look at all these people. How do I Raise my flaps? Alt-F4?, cool thanks for th.........." and you wonder why all this dweebery goes on:rolleyes:
JMO
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Yes in the CT we politely tell each other to get bent after we even more politely ream each others sorry sixes with lead. Politely though. Yes we use those magic words like "please" and "may I" and "why thank you". Yeah we a bunch of Ol'fart aces in the CT. We even ask/offer on open channel to change sides if the numbers are off.
Yess and when its 4 vs 1, all 4 politely ask me if they can gang bang me first...very polite.:D But then thats what falk is for isnt it hehehe.......;)
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Originally posted by dedalos
lol, I don;t think the newbs are the problem. Sure they could learn a little more before they come in the MA but who wants to wait 2 weeks? I wouldn't have subscribed if that was the case. In anycase, the problem is us, not the new guys. You can easylly see that for yourself.
Go to the CT where the "flying is different and the vets fly like gentlemen" and see for your self.
No newbs there but . . .
i agree in someways and i suppose it wouldnt be the best business sense to hinder subsribers. obvious really.
but personaly if it was me training i would anticipate so much that i wouldnt be able to resist subscribing.
just personal though, i have a slightly addictive personality...
come to think of it, the only thing that would stop me subsribing now, if i was a newcomer to the game, would be the ammount of negative thoughts revolving around the gameplay issues, on the BB and in the MA.
bat
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i started this game right in the thick of it. playing against all those killer pilots (MOSS, morph, octavious,..ect) made me a better pilot. depriving the new guys with this "meat grinder" expericence is doing them injustice. the way to get good is to play against those that are alot better. all the old timers in this game taught me things that the trainers didnt, see the whole picture not just what is in front of you. new folks should be encouraged to join a squad so they can learn the ropes of squad tactics and wingman tactics (train, train, train). what im trying to say is that i dont think that you should have to complete a battery of tests before you can enjoy the game. once they get their butt handed to them a few times they will find their way to the training arena (i did). we all have to be willing to take these new pilots under our wings and show them what to do and what not to do.
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very good point 101.
reminiscing, i started about 11 months ago and went straight in the MA, died and died and became better little by little.
just a fantasy, this thread now, hehe. must have been my hands got drunk again, the swines!
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Originally posted by mechanic
that will be a good feature of ToD, but what about MA standards?
the overall point of this thread is that new player MUST soend 1week/2weeks of their free trial training. no addmitance to the MA is possible without at least one week of training.
this is not just for pilot skills, but for attitude, honour and the patience to play the game well once they reach the MA.
Monkeys can fly in the MA.! The MA holds nothing to teach newbies except bad manners, how not to post a mission, how not to work as a team and how to perform "counterstrike" minded furballing with little purpose to the overall arena.
For all the people who claim that "skill" is lacking in this game, I say the playerbase and not the game is to blame. This is what "you" wanted. The MA is a direct result of all the lame crying thats gone on over the years and "true" arena's such as the historical setups have suffered as a direct result of it.
I speak for myself but no doubt there are others that feel the same but have given up voicing their opinion on the subject, that the MA is an arcadey gamey hogde podge of bodies that would rather cry about LA7's, Spits, Niki's and god knows what else, rather than actually do something about it. Because its gameplay, brought about by the playerbase itself rather than the planes.
As long as the MA holds the majority of players, there will never be answers to the whines. Some enforced historical arena play for 6 months might actually teach most of our "vets" something.