Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Klam on June 06, 2011, 02:26:21 AM
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Had a great time last night before the arena change (10pm GMT), some of the best furballing fights I have seen/had in a long time.
Was flying Rook. The enemy were wise and parked thier CV about 20 miles offshore from our base.
This allowed for both sides to get decent alt before engaging in combat.
I reckon on approx' 40/50 planes were giving it hell in a wide and deep furball. Some great flying and commited 1v1 fights separated from the main bunch.
Then................"ARENA WILL BE LOCKED IN 5 Mins" "NEW ARENAS AVAILABLE"
200 channel went a little crazy and to be honest I don't blame them. I thought it was a bad way to finish the fight.
So, I logged out just before the arena closed and find that LWblue is 100/100 cap and LWorange is a quarter full but Rook have an ENY problem of 21.
Not only does a great fight get mercilessly scrapped but now can't get to fight with the guys I was with 5 mins ago and even the plane I decided to run the tour with is ENY'd out.
I don't really understand all this arena change stuff or why it has to happen like this.
Just a suggestion HTC. Leave the off hours map running 24/7 and open up the the extra arena for the busy time.
Just my penny's worth
<<S>> To all who were there.
Klam
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Why noy just go back to the way it was, 2 LW arenas and TT.....done :salute
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Or the way it use to was..... one large LW arena.
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Or the way it use to was..... one large LW arena.
^THIS +1000
no eny and skip the psychiatry of "the arena is unhealthy crap"
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If the off-hours arena was running 24/7, it wouldn't be an "off hours" arena anymore, would it?
No ENY? Sure, I would love nothing better than the side with the highest number of players to be able to field a spixteen, tempest, and whatever other perk ride they choose, simultaneously. :rolleyes:
A single arena wouldn't bother me, though.
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Had a great time last night before the arena change (10pm GMT), some of the best furballing fights I have seen/had in a long time.
Was flying Rook. The enemy were wise and parked thier CV about 20 miles offshore from our base.
This allowed for both sides to get decent alt before engaging in combat.
I reckon on approx' 40/50 planes were giving it hell in a wide and deep furball. Some great flying and commited 1v1 fights separated from the main bunch.
Then................"ARENA WILL BE LOCKED IN 5 Mins" "NEW ARENAS AVAILABLE"
200 channel went a little crazy and to be honest I don't blame them. I thought it was a bad way to finish the fight.
So, I logged out just before the arena closed and find that LWblue is 100/100 cap and LWorange is a quarter full but Rook have an ENY problem of 21.
Not only does a great fight get mercilessly scrapped but now can't get to fight with the guys I was with 5 mins ago and even the plane I decided to run the tour with is ENY'd out.
I don't really understand all this arena change stuff or why it has to happen like this.
Just a suggestion HTC. Leave the off hours map running 24/7 and open up the the extra arena for the busy time.
Just my penny's worth
<<S>> To all who were there.
Klam
Change sides to help even teams and get to fighting. :)
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ENY seems to do a good job of keeping the avalanches away, but arena closures are worse than wife-ack. Really worse than wife-ack. :mad:
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If the off-hours arena was running 24/7, it wouldn't be an "off hours" arena anymore, would it?
Call it what you like
No ENY? Sure, I would love nothing better than the side with the highest number of players to be able to field a spixteen, tempest, and whatever other perk ride they choose, simultaneously. :rolleyes:
The ki84's not exactly Uber or perked is it?
Change sides to help even teams and get to fighting. :)
It's an option of course.
I can't remember the numbers but after the arena change it was 100/100 in blue and maybe 45/100 in orange. A lot of guys logged out for a while and blue took ages to get going with attacks showing up on the map. Just saying that there was one hell of a battle going on in the "Offhours" and it was a shame to interupt it with an arena change.
Why close 1 arena to open 2 more. Not much effort required to keep one arena running and have the 2nd open as player numbers increase.
ENY doesn't normally bother me too much, it was the combination of arena change and cap and ENY.
Anyways. Rant over :)
See you up
Klam
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Call it what you like
Not really. If it is open 24/7, by it's very nature, it can no longer be considered an "off-hours" arena.
The ki84's not exactly Uber or perked is it?
Wouldn't know, don't fly them. There is rarely a time that ENY affects the German planeset, which is all our squad flies. Being disadvantage 2-1 however when the team with the most players is not hamstrung by an ENY restriction would be very unbalancing, hence the reason we have ENY. There are other choices. Change sides or choose a lower ENY plane to fly
It's an option of course.
I can't remember the numbers but after the arena change it was 100/100 in blue and maybe 45/100 in orange. A lot of guys logged out for a while and blue took ages to get going with attacks showing up on the map. Just saying that there was one hell of a battle going on in the "Offhours" and it was a shame to interupt it with an arena change.
Why close 1 arena to open 2 more. Not much effort required to keep one arena running and have the 2nd open as player numbers increase.
ENY doesn't normally bother me too much, it was the combination of arena change and cap and ENY.
Anyways. Rant over :)
See you up
Klam
Why HTC has chosen the particular time(s) that they have to open/close arenas is not something I have ever really pondered.
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Why HTC has chosen the particular time(s) that they have to open/close arenas is not something I have ever really pondered.
I believe the gist of it is European prime time, possibly compromising somewhat with North American primetime.
I truly think the game would work better with one arena, or two uncapped arenas. People today are a lot more used to being just a face in a crowd, and the choppiness of arena change times is frustrating to some. Tuesday is my favorite night of the week.
I see quite a few BBS posters who loathe TT, but the question I'd like answered by one of them is, what bad environment do you see Tuesdays that you don't see any other day of the week? If it's a 'super mega horde', does it really matter if there's 15 planes rolling a base with fewer people total on or 40 with lots of people on? It's still a cheesy thing to try to defend against either way.
Wiley.
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I believe the gist of it is European prime time, possibly compromising somewhat with North American primetime.
I truly think the game would work better with one arena, or two uncapped arenas. People today are a lot more used to being just a face in a crowd, and the choppiness of arena change times is frustrating to some. Tuesday is my favorite night of the week.
I see quite a few BBS posters who loathe TT, but the question I'd like answered by one of them is, what bad environment do you see Tuesdays that you don't see any other day of the week? If it's a 'super mega horde', does it really matter if there's 15 planes rolling a base with fewer people total on or 40 with lots of people on? It's still a cheesy thing to try to defend against either way.
Wiley.
I really don't mind the NOE hordes. It makes it easy to decide which plane I'm gonna shoot down next.
One well-oiled schwarm of 4 guys are way more than a match for 20 guys on an NOE mishun.
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before the change to 10pm GMT, the caps used to kick in at 6pm GMT,
You would have 150/100 people in arena 1, and the other would have 10 or less and you would be stuck locked out for an hour or two. The boot idea was all snailman's fault but it did alleviate a BIG problem for the Euro guys, it has just moved it 4 hours later with a similar issue but not as bad. You have two arenas that both fill up within 10-15 minutes.
It does suck that it kills the pace and intensity of the gameplay but having TOO many people in a small map is just as bad as having TOO little in a large map.
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You would have 150/100 people in arena 1, and the other would have 10 or less and you would be stuck locked out for an hour or two. The boot idea was all snailman's fault but it did alleviate a BIG problem for the Euro guys, it has just moved it 4 hours later with a similar issue but not as bad. You have two arenas that both fill up within 10-15 minutes.
A few comments from the Snailman :)
Towards the end of the old system with caps just kicking in, we were up to 3-4 hours for the second arena to get up to numbers. If it had been "only" one-two hours, I would not had proposed the boot mechanism, it would clearly had not been worth it then.
Since the on/off peak arena system has been installed, the number of players online continued to decline. That means the time it takes for the second LW arena to get to numbers starts to increase again. In effect, the "US players" start to experience the same problem as the "Euro guys" did. It just is not nearly as much pronounced as it had been. It still sucks, and to be honest, I do not see it getting any better. The lower the absolute number of players online is, the more difficult it is to create two balanced late war arenas.
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A few comments from the Snailman :)
Towards the end of the old system with caps just kicking in, we were up to 3-4 hours for the second arena to get up to numbers. If it had been "only" one-two hours, I would not had proposed the boot mechanism, it would clearly had not been worth it then.
Since the on/off peak arena system has been installed, the number of players online continued to decline. That means the time it takes for the second LW arena to get to numbers starts to increase again. In effect, the "US players" start to experience the same problem as the "Euro guys" did. It just is not nearly as much pronounced as it had been. It still sucks, and to be honest, I do not see it getting any better. The lower the absolute number of players online is, the more difficult it is to create two balanced late war arenas.
Are you saying that all paying customers share the same burden, now?
How unfair of you! :neener:
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Are you saying that all paying customers share the same burden, now?
Uhm... they should, but they still don't. :(
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what about we keep the arena switch, but make "off hours" a small map only arena, and have a single arena with huge maps only for prime time?
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what about we keep the arena switch, but make "off hours" a small map only arena, and have a single arena with huge maps only for prime time?
Would be perfect in my book :aok
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Seconded :aok
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Or the way it use to was..... one large LW arena.
I vote THIS, but only use the LARGE maps. Maps like Mindanao and that tiny map with the large mountain in the middle would not be good with 400+ players.
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No ENY? Sure, I would love nothing better than the side with the highest number of players to be able to field a spixteen, tempest, and whatever other perk ride they choose, simultaneously. :rolleyes:
I keep hearing about this and it does not hold up...In FA you didn't have ENY, nor perk points, yet you didn't have people all flying just one or two planes...I saw many a new person grab a Spit 16, A LA7 or a Tempest get shot down by people with "inferior" planes....And for the good players?...Well, they earn the perk points and grab a Me 262, or a Tempest and then they can pound the snot out of someone who can't take a Tempest because they don't have the "points"...
And before any of the top notch flyers bellow, "learn to fly and get the perks!", not everyone is a "Top Gun" in AH... Not everyone, can fly 24/7 to up their perks....There are some people that join AH just to spend a few hours per week having some fun, but not enough time to earn these points....
AH is supposed to be reaching out to ALL people...But the attitude among some people here appears to be "if you don't play often, and are not a Top Gun, we don't want you"....
And yet, some of those very people are wondering, "How to stem the tide of dropping subscriptions?"...
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I keep hearing about this and it does not hold up...In FA you didn't have ENY, nor perk points, yet you didn't have people all flying just one or two planes...I saw many a new person grab a Spit 16, A LA7 or a Tempest get shot down by people with "inferior" planes....And for the good players?...Well, they earn the perk points and grab a Me 262, or a Tempest and then they can pound the snot out of someone who can't take a Tempest because they don't have the "points"...
And before any of the top notch flyers bellow, "learn to fly and get the perks!", not everyone is a "Top Gun" in AH... Not everyone, can fly 24/7 to up their perks....There are some people that join AH just to spend a few hours per week having some fun, but not enough time to earn these points....
AH is supposed to be reaching out to ALL people...But the attitude among some people here appears to be "if you don't play often, and are not a Top Gun, we don't want you"....
And yet, some of those very people are wondering, "How to stem the tide of dropping subscriptions?"...
Well personally, ENY means squat to me. Our squad flies German planes only (with the exception of the Macchi's whichcan be considered of German design) so there are only a few planes below 15 ENY. In almost 7 years, I have yet to be unable to field a plane in the German plane set.
If you think that the lack of ENY restrictions or perked planes would not be reflected in the percentage of uber planes that were fielded, look to the DA and see what most of the mouth-breathers in there fly, on average.
As for attitude? I would pay double the subscription rate if I could be assured that the "I don't want to learn, I want it now" console types could be discouraged from playing.
If you are going to use another game as an example, try not to step on your own Johnson in the process. We all know how the train wreck that used to be called FA ended.
Carry on.
:salute
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I keep hearing about this and it does not hold up...In FA you didn't have ENY, nor perk points, yet you didn't have people all flying just one or two planes...I saw many a new person grab a Spit 16, A LA7 or a Tempest get shot down by people with "inferior" planes....And for the good players?...Well, they earn the perk points and grab a Me 262, or a Tempest and then they can pound the snot out of someone who can't take a Tempest because they don't have the "points"...
And before any of the top notch flyers bellow, "learn to fly and get the perks!", not everyone is a "Top Gun" in AH... Not everyone, can fly 24/7 to up their perks....There are some people that join AH just to spend a few hours per week having some fun, but not enough time to earn these points....
Yes, it would be nice if everybody could totally fly what he likes all the time. Unfortunately the history has shown that this doesn't work (perks and eny limits have not been here from the start). There has to be a kind of limit on some rides which otherwise could unbalance the MA. I know the term is very vague and we can argue a lot about wich planes should or should not be included. But just imagine what happens if the 262 or the Tempest would be unperked, with the only thing being able to fight them being another Me 262 or Tempest. And you don't need even to go far back in time when the not perked F4U-C was utterly dominating the MA in any way - See the EW setup, where the unperked and unjustly high ENY Hurricane IIC dominated the arena and had (probably still has) a very detrimental impact on gameplay.
It is true that the concept of perk points favors vets and dedicated players, but on the other hand it's also providing a kind of goal or incentive for players to become better or play more. And so far, no one else has come up with a practicable alternative to limit the usage of those potential "dominators".
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AH is supposed to be reaching out to ALL people
It is? It looks to me more like an online competitive PVP game. Those rarely seem to have an 'everybody's a winner, everybody gets a gold star' mentality. Someone somewhere once said the idea behind the game is to piss the other side off.
...But the attitude among some people here appears to be "if you don't play often, and are not a Top Gun, we don't want you"....
Unless you are completely unable to get guns-onto anything at all, you eventually get perks. Flying in attack mode and strafing defenseless buildings, you can build perks. HOing everything in sight, you should win the occasional one and get perks.
It adds some pressure and excitement as well, as you don't want to lose your hard-earned perks, so you perhaps fly a bit smarter when you get into the perk ride. Perk planes are the one single thing that isn't 100% disposable in the game, where dying actually has an impact on you.
what about we keep the arena switch, but make "off hours" a small map only arena, and have a single arena with huge maps only for prime time?
Would it even be worth it to switch to a small arena in off hours? Would a sparsely populated large map be that much worse than a moderately populated small map to offset the logoffs and grumbling when the arena switches?
I've come to the realization lately that the changeover times are only a small window every day, but there are people whose couple hours a day to play come with that changeover right in the middle of their playtime, which results in frustration.
There's no perfect solution, but if it's going to be always one map, is it worth switching from big to small?
Wiley.
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Would it even be worth it to switch to a small arena in off hours? Would a sparsely populated large map be that much worse than a moderately populated small map to offset the logoffs and grumbling when the arena switches?
Yes, absolutely. The disparity between peak and offpeak numbers is too large.
I mean, one reason that players complain about split setup and do want to go back to single LW MA is that "there are not enough players for a second arena." Well, there are also not enough players for a large arena during offpeak times. It's now 10 hours into the offpak map, and we have about 120 players online. On good days it's about 160 at the same time. For several hours the population is less than 100 during offpeak.
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I guess when I look at the map during off hours, big or small what I see is a couple hot spots on the fronts, and some singletons flying around looking for undefended towns to bomb, and a few guys hunting the buffs looking for undefended towns. Your gameplay options more or less are to either do something at the hot spot, bomb towns, or intercept those who are bombing towns.
How does the small arena improve that situation? The grids are still the same size for hunting the buffs in, right?
I'm not devil's advocating, I'm just not seeing where there's a measurable difference in gameplay between large and small arena in that situation.
Wiley.
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I guess when I look at the map during off hours, big or small what I see is a couple hot spots on the fronts, and some singletons flying around looking for undefended towns to bomb, and a few guys hunting the buffs looking for undefended towns. Your gameplay options more or less are to either do something at the hot spot, bomb towns, or intercept those who are bombing towns.
How does the small arena improve that situation? The grids are still the same size for hunting the buffs in, right?
I'm not devil's advocating, I'm just not seeing where there's a measurable difference in gameplay between large and small arena in that situation.
Wiley.
On a large map and only 60-100 players, those hotspots are quite rare, and even more rare are prolonged battles. Because it's too easy just going elsewhere when an attack fails. Also take into account the "too many chiefs, too few Indians" syndrome, when about every player decides to attack a different target, further spreading out the action.
I stopped playing AH last year when we still had large maps (and two arenas), because I was tired upping for single cons that far to often didn't even stay but just went elsewhere when they saw someone taking off. With a smaller map and higher player density, the individual battles tend to get bigger, and there is far less time wasted looking for action.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for packing everyone into one single place. The best situation is having a medium number (I could try to define that if required) of people on a large map, so that the biggest number of options for gameplay is available for every player, from low key actions and occasional sneaks at remote places to high intensity, multi-squad battles at hotspots. In fact, I was the biggest proponent to get large maps back into the game in the year after the arenasplit. But we had a lot more players online at any given time back then.
There can be both to little room on a map (crowded) as well as too little (deserted).
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Well personally, ENY means squat to me. Our squad flies German planes only (with the exception of the Macchi's whichcan be considered of German design) so there are only a few planes below 15 ENY. In almost 7 years, I have yet to be unable to field a plane in the German plane set.
If you think that the lack of ENY restrictions or perked planes would not be reflected in the percentage of uber planes that were fielded, look to the DA and see what most of the mouth-breathers in there fly, on average.
As for attitude? I would pay double the subscription rate if I could be assured that the "I don't want to learn, I want it now" console types could be discouraged from playing.
If you are going to use another game as an example, try not to step on your own Johnson in the process. We all know how the train wreck that used to be called FA ended.
Carry on.
:salute
Well, FA didn't go under because of the lack of ENY or perk points...It was the failure to adapt..For example, the maps in Territorial Combat never changed....I left for quite awhile because it was boring...When I returned, no change..The same old pie map despite numerous complaints...And FA was certainly no "train wreck"...Just a lack of listening to subscribers and the, "everything is A OK"....
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The big maps are boring as hell when there are only 100 players online. Locking the arena to switch maps also kills whatever action was going on, since a lot of players don't bother coming back after the map switch.
Why not have the number of available "unlocked" fields in a map change based on how many players are online? Force players into a smaller area as numbers drop so that the density of players is always the same no matter how many people are online.
This way a big map will behave like a small map when numbers drop without having to lock the arena to switch maps.
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I keep hearing about this and it does not hold up...In FA you didn't have ENY, nor perk points, yet you didn't have people all flying just one or two planes...I saw many a new person grab a Spit 16, A LA7 or a Tempest get shot down by people with "inferior" planes....And for the good players?...Well, they earn the perk points and grab a Me 262, or a Tempest and then they can pound the snot out of someone who can't take a Tempest because they don't have the "points"...
And before any of the top notch flyers bellow, "learn to fly and get the perks!", not everyone is a "Top Gun" in AH... Not everyone, can fly 24/7 to up their perks....There are some people that join AH just to spend a few hours per week having some fun, but not enough time to earn these points....
AH is supposed to be reaching out to ALL people...But the attitude among some people here appears to be "if you don't play often, and are not a Top Gun, we don't want you"....
And yet, some of those very people are wondering, "How to stem the tide of dropping subscriptions?"...
You see a ton of perk planes. It's the only place many of them will probably ever get to see inside a perk plane.