Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: saggs on October 08, 2017, 12:33:30 PM
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I'm a long time off and on player. I become somewhat active again since the Steam deal, and one thing that has been a surprise for me is that from that time, I have not seen a single mission posted.
Used to be every night there was at least one squad posting a mission or two. I once belonged to a squad (that I see are still active knights) that posted missions all the time, usually with good participation. I've flown squadless for a long time now, just doing my own thing, but I would still join a mission once in while if there was not other great action going on. Sometimes the missions where boring (just rolling undefended bases) but often they would stir up some great fights that I loved.
Is it just the smaller numbers? or is there some other reason that posted missions have died away?
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To my understanding smaller numbers where the main culprit in this process. Most missions actually drew only a small percentage of the players online. That wasn't really a big thing when a side could muster 100 players total, but when it's down to 20 players you won't get the necessary minimum number of participants to make most missions viable. When only 2 players show up for a basegrab or a fightersweep, you might as well just take off individually.
Smaller overall numbers also led to the decline of the big, multi wing squadrons of old, which made up the core of most large missions.
Bomber missions also got really hurt when the central strats where split up. It makes no much sense to conduct bomber raids on dispersed targets that a single player already can level all by himself.
Remember we once even had B-29 missions? (No idea how I could get the 'kill 4 B-29 in a sortie' these days' ;) )
And like so often, once a tradition is broken it's difficult to get it going again. The great mission leaders have mostly left us, and many players have never witnessed the constant stream of "MISSION UP!" on country channel. Which is a pity - I'm convinced missions where massively helpful to retain and train new players. These days, they are mostly on their own...
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Post a proper mission and not a Alpha male mission where you want to be in charge even though you dont have a clue on how to take a base :old:
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Posting missions seems to get them busted while simply calling in PM to gather up a few players doesn't.
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So Saggs is going organise missions or is he just making a observation :old:
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They turned into..."strike mission rolling from A"X" in 3 minutes"....
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They turned into..."strike mission rolling from A"X" in 3 minutes"....
Haven't even seen a single one in the past 1.5 months.
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Haven't even seen a single one in the past 1.5 months.
have you seen their fearless leader..
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We have a few people on Bishops that will post a mission from time to time; Reaper, ghi, and KrisKros, just to name a few.
Then, if you're looking for a small group to follow for some dogfights it never hurts to find Kanth, Dutch, and Jazzi.
I do terribly miss those large missions from way back, where I'd see 15 - 25 pilots in P51's and 7 or 8 sets of B17's flying long distance to destroy a few fields. :old:
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The mission planer is a bit clunky as well. Not because it does not work just there are a lot of variables to set. It has always been difficult to keep up with the players in the mission to assign targets.
Add to that the trees, hills and the building at the end of the runway so to have to pretest a takeoff. HTC has fixed some of these problems.
I know ET had quite a number of saved missions but they would many times lead to spawning in th the hanger when the runway did not match the saved mission. In ah2, you could takeoff from the hanger but in ah3 not so much.
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Missions worked well until m3 sup was introduced also. Kind of a enthusiasm killer when 8 guys noe a base and take it down only to find that 3 or 4 m3 suppers thwart the hard work.
Coot
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To my understanding smaller numbers where the main culprit in this process. Most missions actually drew only a small percentage of the players online. That wasn't really a big thing when a side could muster 100 players total, but when it's down to 20 players you won't get the necessary minimum number of participants to make most missions viable. When only 2 players show up for a basegrab or a fightersweep, you might as well just take off individually.
Smaller overall numbers also led to the decline of the big, multi wing squadrons of old, which made up the core of most large missions.
Bomber missions also got really hurt when the central strats where split up. It makes no much sense to conduct bomber raids on dispersed targets that a single player already can level all by himself.
Remember we once even had B-29 missions? (No idea how I could get the 'kill 4 B-29 in a sortie' these days' ;) )
And like so often, once a tradition is broken it's difficult to get it going again. The great mission leaders have mostly left us, and many players have never witnessed the constant stream of "MISSION UP!" on country channel. Which is a pity - I'm convinced missions where massively helpful to retain and train new players. These days, they are mostly on their own...
^^what he said^^
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Haven't even seen a single one in the past 1.5 months.
I joined a couple last Friday. Also I know a couple were withdrawn because of plane and/or resources availability issues.
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There are those that are afraid of not hitting their target. I will say I have never been in a mission that anyone accosted a player because they missed their target. ET set he standard on the Rook side. "Don't worry. You will get it next time.", he would say.
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Missions worked well until m3 sup was introduced also. Kind of a enthusiasm killer when 8 guys noe a base and take it down only to find that 3 or 4 m3 suppers thwart the hard work.
Coot
A well planned mission might have accounted for taking down the VH at supporting bases. It's more a problem of numbers now a days. The 113th lucky strikes is running missions but only for it's members.
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I've posted very few B17 missions since coming back (again) in mid-July.
Really miss the AH2 heyday of escorted 90+ heavy bombers. :cry
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I've posted very few B17 missions since coming back (again) in mid-July.
Really miss the AH2 heyday of escorted 90+ heavy bombers. :cry
The lag must have been unbearable. :O
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A well planned mission might have accounted for taking down the VH at supporting bases. It's more a problem of numbers now a days. The 113th lucky strikes is running missions but only for it's members.
He said NOE mission...so he wants surprise...you hit the VH or troops at a field that spawns into your target field you give away which field you are targeting...then they just sit in the tower waiting for it to flash.
I don't understand how some of you just don't get it.
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Missions worked well until m3 sup was introduced also. Kind of a enthusiasm killer when 8 guys noe a base and take it down only to find that 3 or 4 m3 suppers thwart the hard work.
Coot
Utter nonsense. M3s had nothing to do with mission popularity or otherwise. Many missions even ran M3s.
What about your 8 guys going NOE to try and sneak-steal a field they otherwise wouldn't have the skill to take in a standup fight? Maybe THAT had something to do with the decline of missions? A cheap, easy way of avoiding combat and self-backpatting that just steamrolled defenseless fields before anybody could pop up? THAT more than anything you can think up about the M3 has done more damage to missions than anything else.
The best missions were always those that went into harm's way. They took a field where a furball was forming, or if they wanted to be polite the one right next to it, so as not to kill the fight but close enough that enemies could divert and try to stop them. The best missions were going into enemy territory to hit HQ (back when that was a thing) or strats (back when that was kind of a thing) and not just to take something totally by surprise.
And, P.S. Even those 8-man NOE sneak-steal missions always had at least 1-2 folks kill the VH bare minimum, or they would abort and scatter and try again on the other side of the map.
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Utter nonsense. M3s had nothing to do with mission popularity or otherwise. Many missions even ran M3s.
What about your 8 guys going NOE to try and sneak-steal a field they otherwise wouldn't have the skill to take in a standup fight? Maybe THAT had something to do with the decline of missions? A cheap, easy way of avoiding combat and self-backpatting that just steamrolled defenseless fields before anybody could pop up? THAT more than anything you can think up about the M3 has done more damage to missions than anything else.
The best missions were always those that went into harm's way. They took a field where a furball was forming, or if they wanted to be polite the one right next to it, so as not to kill the fight but close enough that enemies could divert and try to stop them. The best missions were going into enemy territory to hit HQ (back when that was a thing) or strats (back when that was kind of a thing) and not just to take something totally by surprise.
And, P.S. Even those 8-man NOE sneak-steal missions always had at least 1-2 folks kill the VH bare minimum, or they would abort and scatter and try again on the other side of the map.
The NOE missions hit the VH at the field they were attacking but not the one that spawned into that one...that would make it obvious where your going.
town resupply too gives a person a chance to avoid combat...so which is worse? At least with NOE missions they normally only have one chance of it going right, with resupply it's infinite
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Missions worked well until m3 sup was introduced also. Kind of a enthusiasm killer when 8 guys noe a base and take it down only to find that 3 or 4 m3 suppers thwart the hard work.
That doesn't add up. The best counter to m3 resupply would in fact be a mission, as speed and quick dominance over the base is essential when competing with m3 resupply. Nothing better than a mission with a plan for that: Field suppression, m3 hunters, town killers and troops all arriving at once or at least in very short order.
Running m3s mostly helps when the enemy takes his time...
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That doesn't add up. The best counter to m3 resupply would in fact be a mission, as speed and quick dominance over the base is essential when competing with m3 resupply. Nothing better than a mission with a plan for that: Field suppression, m3 hunters, town killers and troops all arriving at once or at least in very short order.
Running m3s mostly helps when the enemy takes his time...
You and I both saw the other day a guy sitting at a town waiting for it to be hit in an M3...he has a point
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You and I both saw the other day a guy sitting at a town waiting for it to be hit in an M3...he has a point
The town was hit by a single player in a bomber. Which gives time to react. Had this been one of the quick grab missions of old, things had been different.
When opposing resupp m3s, you must act swiftly and decisive. That's what a mission can do.
So no, I don't believe in any way that m3s killed the missions. If even proper executed missions couldn't grab a base vs resupply, the only thing working would be off hour sneaks.
The thing that m3s hinder the most are base captures by prolonged battles.
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He said NOE mission...so he wants surprise...you hit the VH or troops at a field that spawns into your target field you give away which field you are targeting...then they just sit in the tower waiting for it to flash.
I don't understand how some of you just don't get it.
Yes, surprise at the primary target, but an open attack on a nme supporting field where only the VH is taken down at the same time that the NOE arrives at the primary target,.
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Yes, surprise at the primary target, but an open attack on a nme supporting field where only the VH is taken down at the same time that the NOE arrives at the primary target,.
So an NOE VH killer....going to funny when they only grab to 4K and die to back before killing the VH.
Fact remains town resupply is out of balance.
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So an NOE VH killer....going to funny when they only grab to 4K and die to back before killing the VH.
Fact remains town resupply is out of balance.
NO, you got a NOE mission into a field for a capture. The 113th Lucky Strikes also included two P38's to an nme supporting airfield to kill VH, going to the secondary target at Alt. Timed so all attacking forces arrived at both nme fields at the same time.
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Nothing better than a mission with a plan for that: Field suppression, m3 hunters, town killers and troops all arriving at once or at least in very short order.
Running m3s mostly helps when the enemy takes his time...
true story, and the point of the game. hence how everything makes sense to the war planner, and game planner. everything else is uncivilized. :old:
(http://testyturnip.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Grey_Poupon_Squeeze1.jpg)
ty Mr. President, your input helps the "others" get it. :D
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The town was hit by a single player in a bomber. Which gives time to react. Had this been one of the quick grab missions of old, things had been different.
When opposing resupp m3s, you must act swiftly and decisive. That's what a mission can do.
So no, I don't believe in any way that m3s killed the missions. If even proper executed missions couldn't grab a base vs resupply, the only thing working would be off hour sneaks.
The thing that m3s hinder the most are base captures by prolonged battles.
It all depends on which players are occupied where... I could list players who wait for the chance to run an M3
NO, you got a NOE mission into a field for a capture. The 113th Lucky Strikes also included two P38's to an nme supporting airfield to kill VH, going to the secondary target at Alt. Timed so all attacking forces arrived at both nme fields at the same time.
Your lucky I've never seen this because Of be upping in a LA7 from the field your NOEing to before it even flashed
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It all depends on which players are occupied where... I could list players who wait for the chance to run an M3
Even more important the speed and impact of a mission would be, which is a more effective way to coutner m3s rather than to trickle in.
You are making a point FOR missions.
It's really a basic logic: When the enemy starts ressupplying, you must be faster. It's not getting any faster than a mission in which all arrive at once to establish local superiority, block m3s and get the troops in.
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There were the old smash and grab missions that worked well with the old AH1 towns that were briefly in AH2. If done properly 2 110's and a C47 could easily sneak a base. Having 4 110's worked even better... Some would do 2 110's and a lanc.. but all basically the same thing.
It was totally a surprise mission and would usually go bust if there was a defender.
Next came the massive Joker's NOE missions when the towns changed. You'd run across 4+ sets of Lancs with P38 support and 2 or 3 goons going to an undefended base, and the second they saw they were spotted would all bail to avoid giving any kills, or even attempting to use their already numeric superiority on a base.
Then came the 20+ P38L's at 20K from 2 sectors away and augered into the hangars, but because normally you could at least muster 3 or 4 guys to defend, they quit doing those too because it wasn't as easy.
Now it's back to having a lone set of buffs drop a field, have an m3 run into the edge of town, wait for a single plane to deack so there's not a huge darbar, rinse and repeat.
This is what happened to missions.
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Smash & grab missions had been the most numerous, but not the only kind of missiosn around.
Fighter sweeps, strategic bomber raids (especially from 2012-early 2014) and what I would call tactical bomber missions had been popular too. And, of course the occasional odd "candy mountain" raids and similar follies :D
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My brief time in the BoPs we would do clown car raids that were pretty fun. Get a group of heavy KI61's to dive bomb a CV from 15K.
The ThunderEgg missions were always fun to either be a part of, or defend against... but those were few and far between even at the height of missions.
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3 b-17 sets and 4 juggs to a v base with 4 p-51s buzzing around.
The best, jerry. the best mission for a v base.
:rock
can u see the wirbs? :x
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The lag must have been unbearable. :O
30 flights (90 planes), plus escorts, plus opponents. Most times lag wasn't too bad, at least for me. Most everyone seemed to have great fun in those days. Check out the head on mess of red guys we ran into in this mission from 2011. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wzKYE0mhlg
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Enjoyable film. I have to admit I enjoyed participating in a couple of big missions, myself (both as escort and as bomber*).
Tis my guilty secret that my second fave plane in AH is the B-17 (and I'm actually better in one than in my beloved Corsair).
(http://img.tel.pmdstatic.net/pad/http.3A.2F.2Fimages.2Eone.2Eprismamedia.2Ecom.2Fprogram.2Ff.2Fa.2Fa.2Fd.2F2.2Fe.2F4.2F1.2Fc.2Ff.2F0.2F0.2Fb.2F5.2Fd.2Ff.2Ejpg/900x600/quality/80/memphis-belle.jpg)
(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qyRAmR4PmeA/hqdefault.jpg)
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Its the type/style of game we have today.
In the old days team work, squads, pretending to be a WWII pilot was the reason MOST of us played the game. To slip into the alternate reality and fly/work with your mates/comrades/friends is what it was all about. Whether you were winging and dogfighting all night, or part of a buff group hitting a base/start/porking run it was pretending to be "that" pilot. Working to get the job done, not wanting to let your mates down, thats what it was all about. All this did was generate action, and fun for both friend and foe alike.
Today, its more about getting a good score, racking up kills by picking and avoiding fights, hiding in ack, running supplies instead of defending, porking bases only to lawndart again avoiding all fights just to "get the job done". Score, ranks, and name in lights seem to be the driving factor these days.
Posting missions gets very little action these days (tho many spent 5 minutes pre launch spamming the radio to get players to join in the old days). Most either dont know how to join one, how to work in one, or feel they cant be held responsible to pull their weight and so feel embarrassed to fail in front of others so dont join. Tagging along in a "movement" by a few well know players here and there is ok as they can hide in the anonymity of the group.
This game has lost a lot of fun to the "gamer" generation.
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Score rank and landing kills :)
They know who they are :)
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Perhaps if mission stats were added to encourage stat players to up their mission stats? :confused:
Missions ran
Missions participated
Mission damage
Missions ranking (?)
(Assuming all these metrics can be accurately recorded.)
Additional encouragement could be that high mission ranking could be the sole factor in TG seniority. :eek:
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Perhaps if mission stats were added to encourage stat players to up their mission stats? :confused:
Missions ran
Missions participated
Mission damage
Missions ranking (?)
(Assuming all these metrics can be accurately recorded.)
Additional encouragement could be that high mission ranking could be the sole factor in TG seniority. :eek:
Interesting... I would like to see some form of perk system applied to the pickup missions... Do damage/land kills through a pickup mission, see your perk points doubled or something...
HANDS DOWN BEST PART OF THIS GAME IS PLAYING IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO OTHER ACTUAL PLAYERS! ..in my opinion.. And the calm before the storm (see boring climbout) is at least interesting when there's a few cartoon pilots close by to chat with.
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Missions? I still wish I had the recording of when we had 100 B-17s Yes 33 pilots at least, a full wing of P-51 (15-20) escort to Knight Capital. Many years ago, had the time of my life leading that one and had GREAT Fighter protection. That one of the few ones that did NOT get ratted out on 200. To this day, I recall seeing a Spit Climbing up to us and I called out HOLD HOLD HOLD your fire-...........Light him up!, must have 200 guns on that one spit-PUFF OF SMOKE. I could not stop laughing for 10 mins. Chewie, Bish. :airplane:
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What is the difference from how we who were there remember missions? The country wide mission up on text announcement, the signing up and getting ready not knowing the target. And the launching and traveling to the target from how we do it today?
Bases still get captured by groups of players who could have easily filled a mission roster and all launched together. Instead today I see several players head to a field and start working it. Then several more trickle in with fighters, then some GVs show up, and suddenly the rest of about 10-20 players start upping and moving that way. It's like everyone is waiting for the last moment for the other guys to show up before they will commit to showing up. Numbers controlling an area matter in that case. And ad-hoc numbers in that manner can just as quickly disappear leaving other players late to the show feeling green guys can never be trusted. There are players who dislike their own countrymen just about as much as the red guys because of this. This creates a sense of distrust that group initiatives lack any real direction or, that anything will come of them other than getting you towered for no good reason. But, that love hate bargain is what initiatives(missions) have "evolved down to".
If POTW on squad night decides to pound a feild and we want more numbers, Waystin sends out a message on text. POTW ups as a group, and I can see green guys upping just as soon as they see our numbers create a darbar. Waystin also gets PM's from small groups at times telling him they are about to pound some field and could POTW make a show of force. I'm betting squads reaching out to players and squads they know with requests like this are more the norm now in all three countries. I still regularly see up to 20 guys attack feilds out of nit and bish lands that are organized and made up of more than a single squad.
The formal mission process has been abandoned for a number of reasons, too many gamers with a laptop logged in on a second and third game account watching text and the map. Too many gamers using a cell phone or third party VOX or just game PMing. Too many years of low numbers where a formal mission was not needed, everyone showed up for anything that had three or more guys making a darbar. Operate conditioning works very well if the environment never changes over a long period of time.
We know what positive thing has stayed with the game. If a squad with a name brand reputation for going places and breaking things is online, people go where they go. If that squad asks other squads and players to come help with something, everyone shows up to break things and have a good time. I may be missing individuals who can still do that, I don't see such on text, 200, or feedback from Waystin about requests on PM for POTW support. Right now it appears to be squads leading initiatives, and I can say over the last 10 years I watched the frequency of missions being busted way too soon for someone to guess at exactly where the mission was going. It made joining missions a joke.
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Is there any possibility, even a slight chance, that there are players that study the map and have learned how to anticipate and find missions? No? Really?
Missions are always busted because of spies then, because there is just no way they can be found otherwise.
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Actually I never thought it was spies, I thought it was individuals who had personal reasons to rat out their own players and players with multiple accounts ratting out things. A certain percentage of busted missions had to do with not being aware of task groups having been there more than once. Missions above radar minimum can be determined easily, but NOE missions need help when it's not task group related. Yes a percentage got busted because of a timely response to the country wide shout out. So once you eliminate all of that, second accounts which are a reality, and players ratting out their countrymen for various reasons are left. I doubt anyone was tooling around running film mission busting on the off chance they might pickup a mission at max range for the film. Or is that why Hitech changed being able to playback films with the game open or on another PC until a set time had passed after capturing the film. The Jaro country text meet at feild x in your favorite jabo ride missions didn't suffer from none accounted for untimely interventions nor did the FreeBird missions that gave no target destination and upped from a different field than advertised. I think the FreeBird missions stopped being fun once all those extra gyrations were introduced for no perceptible reason.
I know, Jaro and Dred spent an inordinate amount of time trying to determine CV locations before hand, and only invited trusted friends even if the roster for each mission was ever changing. And game players are choir boys who go to church 7 days a week while worshiping the rules of Edmond Hoyle.
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Many NOE missions are busted because not everyone stayed below the dar threshold. On take off they would pop. As a turn is made they would pop. it was obvious, you would see a small darbar and then gone, up again and then gone, up again a sector closer to target and then gone. The more participants you had the more likely it would be given away.
Stop the delusional paranoia.
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Typically those older missions went for the target of least resistance.. it was quite easy to see where they would go next by looking at the map.. gv spawns.. terrain features, etc..
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You still see the occasional one. Last month I saw an organized set of 5 or 6 bomber boxes and a few escorts roll a few bases on our front. It was fun to see, they used the clouds to their advantage, and enough people upped to defend it was a relatively fun fight.
As for spiez/rats/people figuring out your next move/whatever else, if your mission depends on a complete lack of enemy resistance, your mission sucks and deserves to fail.
Wiley.
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It was the later missions getting towards the time period of when the AH3 closed alpha started that were not working no matter what gyrations the FreeBirds went through. Wonder what the FreeBirds did to get treated that way in the first place. By then it was common knowledge players had other accounts and kept a laptop open, players were PMing, 3rd party VOXing, and texting game info. Players were keeping track of players leveraging films and .wingman. So ad-hoc showing up disorganized, eventually with numbers became the norm instead of formal missions. You can't rat out people who all just happen to be wandering towards the same destination hoping other green guys are doing the same thing. Disorganization has some virtue.
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If I were investigating something like spoiled NOE missions, first I would put on my tin foil hat just to give the Wizards of AH Smart a target to blow up at. So here.... :noid
You could investigate it from gamer's are naughty little boys or, you can investigate it from who had the most to gain by outing missions. Personal gain versus revenge, over the long haul, revenge takes way too much emotional energy to keep it going after the first successful spoiling of a mission. And carrying it on after just for the greifing, those end up outing themselves by doing it too much and too frequently. They get careless and arrogant with success.
Now personal gain, yes you can gain from spoiling base captures to help your country defend against loosing the war or winning the war. That is too strategic and long viewed to be realistic for this game. So what can be gained in the short term? Spoiling an NOE mission always exposes the members to combat which most mission followers didn't want to fight and joined the mission to avoid combat. So one way to force them to fight, expose them when they can't do anything but fight. Does not matter if you are in their country or another, when the mission is spoiled, combat will happen.
Tin foil hat off... :rolleyes:
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As for spiez/rats/people figuring out your next move/whatever else, if your mission depends on a complete lack of enemy resistance, your mission sucks and deserves to fail.
Hah! I like this.
- oldman
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Many NOE missions are busted because not everyone stayed below the dar threshold. On take off they would pop. As a turn is made they would pop. it was obvious, you would see a small darbar and then gone, up again and then gone, up again a sector closer to target and then gone. The more participants you had the more likely it would be given away.
Stop the delusional paranoia.
Also they often went through CV dar circles. Or the next target was simply obvious, especially when shortly before a member of a well know NOE grabber suicided on the DAR with not even trying to pork anything else.
Missions? I still wish I had the recording of when we had 100 B-17s Yes 33 pilots at least, a full wing of P-51 (15-20) escort to Knight Capital. Many years ago, had the time of my life leading that one and had GREAT Fighter protection. That one of the few ones that did NOT get ratted out on 200.
I have never understood those people expecting their multi darbar 20k bomber+escorts mission would go unnoticed for 30 minutes. It's amazing how often I got angry PMs explaining that I could have found them only by spies/shades, all while I was watching their darbar move slowly across the map :confused:
(Hint: a 50% fuel B-17 takes 30 minutes to reach 25k, a 100% fuel Ta-152 only 9...)
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Also they often went through CV dar circles. Or the next target was simply obvious, especially when shortly before a member of a well know NOE grabber suicided on the DAR with not even trying to pork anything else.
I have never understood those people expecting their multi darbar 20k bomber+escorts mission would go unnoticed for 30 minutes. It's amazing how often I got angry PMs explaining that I could have found them only by spies/shades, all while I was watching their darbar move slowly across the map :confused:
(Hint: a 50% fuel B-17 takes 30 minutes to reach 25k, a 100% fuel Ta-152 only 9...)
LOVE it when our "billboard" darbar gets some attention. Then the fight's on! Clear across the damn map, too! :D :aok
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Maybe if the mission system would grant some sort of rewards for a successful mission, like extra perks, it might cause players to start running missions again.
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Maybe if the mission system would grant some sort of rewards for a successful mission, like extra perks, it might cause players to start running missions again.
Much like virtue, running missions is its own reward. :old:
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In the past when the Bish were doing a ton of NOE Lanc raids, it became very predictable where they would hit. Find a base 1-2 sectors away from a bish base that is currently 4-5 sectors away from the nearest flashing base, and you pretty much were guaranteed to find an NOE coming in. Add to that their pension for sending a single Jabo to take down dar before the mission gets there, and it was just one big telegraph where they were headed.
One time in particular Bone, SYSTEM, Redbull, myself and a few others were in a big 262 Gaggle. We ended up finding a Bish NOE and smacked the hell out of it. Decided to head to another base away from the front to land, and ran into a SECOND NOE!!! We busted that up and again went to another base only to find them headed there NOE now. At this point we were all low on gas and out of ammo, but still managed to break up the mission and all but one of us made it back to base to land 20+ kills in a single sorte.
Oh the tears were delicious and the rage PM's about how we were spying were even better... just so happened the good bases to land a 262 at away from the front were the same bases bish thought would be undefended and an easy take. :noid
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LOVE it when our "billboard" darbar gets some attention. Then the fight's on! Clear across the damn map, too! :D :aok
LOl yep, great fights ensue. I will be tracking you guys for 30 minutes, trying to figure out where you are going, getting in a position to intercept and then I will see another friendly doing the same, maybe from a different base and angle, roll my mouse over the player and inevitably, "Snailman" comes up. Then the race is on because that bastage steals my kills!
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LOl yep, great fights ensue. I will be tracking you guys for 30 minutes, trying to figure out where you are going, getting in a position to intercept and then I will see another friendly doing the same, maybe from a different base and angle, roll my mouse over the player and inevitably, "Snailman" comes up. Then the race is on because that bastage steals my kills!
So is the scene something like this between you two? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvTLhkEyWQw
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Then the race is on because that bastage steals my kills!
Little risk these days though, as I'm rook since a while ago and will become a Bishop this weekend.
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So i guess from the threads there will be no missions organised because the unicorn king has put a spell on the game :old:
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So i guess from the threads there will be no missions organised because the unicorn king has put a spell on the game :old:
Usually it's no missions because of bad timing. I love missions, but hate spamming country channel and waiting more than 10 minutes. Pickup Missions require some patience and an investment of time, which we all have a limited amount of...
I never understood why the pickup missions didn't take off and there wasn't something being run every hour. I've run a few on the rook side, and it seems like ppl are annoyed with country text spam. I've gotten a few, and we always have a good time, but it's not easy to convince someone to land immediately, or bail out to join a mission.
All I can do is keep trying to post them, i've been trying to run squad missions to at least ensure a few people in the mission to entice others, but it just doesn't seem to be the draw that it used to be. (no i don't run NOE. or even base captures for that matter, just enjoy heading out as a group to stir poo up)
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Personally, this has been an issue for Aces High for a couple of years. Lack of willing mission builders in the arena...and this...
... the tendency for plays to just up an airfield, find a lone enemy airplane, and follow the horde of 3-6 fellow countrymen, club them to putty, and call it a good kill. :headscratch:
I just don't get that type of gameplay. Why do we need 3-6 players to pounce on a single plane and pummel them into oblivion? When I see it, I just avoid and fly away. Now, sometimes when there are multiple bogies, you do see excellent engagements when you have multiple contacts and you work together with 6 calls, coordination of planes, and other collaborative style gameplay tactics. That is what I think most of want to see happen.
Maybe more missions will help eliminate that style of seal clubbing style of gameplay?
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I distinctly remember one time in AH2 I was coming back from a flight up into the Zoneysphere hunting some bombers. As I was RTB, I started descending out over the water and about 15K or so I spotted several formations of bombers and a group of dots low on the water. So, I called it out on country channel... "NOE raid on XX AF coming from (whatever the direction was)." A bunch of folks upped at that field and were starting to engage when I finally got down low enough to come in from behind and sprayed a few bullets into their goons. For the rest of the night all I got was PM after PM about having a shade account, cheating, etc. because their mission got busted. All it was was simply the power of the eyeball and them not ever looking up to notice I was up there. Player experience has to count for something when it comes to predicting where an attack might come or what a giant, moving darbar represents.
What I've observed as far as lack of missions go is that there is often little or no warning. It's rare to see a text that says, "Hey, I'm going to put up a mission in about ten minutes, takeoff about 5 or so min after that." Instead, I see "Mission UP... JOIN!" But there aren't a lot of folks on the ground or ready to land at that moment, so not many join. Instead of trying it again with some notice, the mission poster gets upset over lack of participation and simply stops trying. Well, sorry I didn't just bail after getting my bombers to 20K at long last, but be reasonable. Not everyone is sitting in a tower waiting for a mission. Give people some heads up and I think the chances of a good sized mission will increase.
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I will be tracking you guys for 30 minutes, trying to figure out where you are going, getting in a position to intercept and then I will see another friendly doing the same, maybe from a different base and angle, roll my mouse over the player and inevitably, "Snailman" comes up. Then the race is on because that bastage steals my kills!
...and will become a Bishop this weekend.
Seems to me the only fair thing is for Snailman to come escort us this weekend and now you'll be in an environment where any stolen kills won't be yours. He might even use his Zener bullets on you. They are easily identified... they go Tink, Tink, Tink BOOOM!! :D
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Seems to me the only fair thing is for Snailman to come escort us this weekend and now you'll be in an environment where any stolen kills won't be yours. He might even use his Zener bullets on you. They are easily identified... they go Tink, Tink, Tink BOOOM!! :D
Snailman defending..................I'm not sure you can do much better than that. I think the best bomber defenders are those that attack them often. You learn what it takes to keep the aggressor out of the area that he can make passes.
I used to fly buffs a lot, in the Zoneysphere and learned from being attacked and killed which angles were the hardest to defend from. Those buff runs taught me at least as much as actually attacking buffs with interceptors.
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{snip} Now, sometimes when there are multiple bogies, you do see excellent engagements when you have multiple contacts and you work together with 6 calls, coordination of planes, and other collaborative style gameplay tactics. That is what I think most of want to see happen. + 100 Hammer meet Nail Head
It really doesn't take a server full of combatants to have a ball (I prefer furball).
I know a bunch that will leave an attacking CV standing just so such gameplay is extended.
:joystick: << More of those and I would hope more of these >> :x would soon follow.