Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: nrshida on November 16, 2017, 11:50:29 AM
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Seen so many obviously new players come to the MPA, Most often flying P-51Ds, opening fire at icon range and either augering after the first merge or flying straight into the electric fence. Some last as little as three bouts before leaving - never to be seen again as far as I know.
Is this an advisable first point of contact for new players? Is it not prefereable to confine them to the TA until they've at least distinguished their arse from their elbow?
Discuss... :banana:
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Is it not prefereable to confine them to the TA until they've at least distinguished their arse from their elbow?
Who will teach them in the TA? Who will judge their progress?
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Why not have a quick intro video.
Green guys are good/red are bad.
Coogan
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Why not have a quick intro video.
I would have skipped it. :old:
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Who will teach them in the TA? Who will judge their progress?
I was just thinking at least a couple of hours, they can't even turn without accelerated stalling. It's a tragedy! :old:
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Couldn't this in theory already be covered by the 'achievements' system? :rock
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Seen so many obviously new players come to the MPA, Most often flying P-51Ds, opening fire at icon range and either augering after the first merge or flying straight into the electric fence. Some last as little as three bouts before leaving - never to be seen again as far as I know.
Is this an advisable first point of contact for new players? Is it not prefereable to confine them to the TA until they've at least distinguished their arse from their elbow?
Discuss... :banana:
Personally I think confining people to the TA is a horrible idea. People come into a game, they want to play. When it's got a learning cliff like this, they're not going to do well for the first few hours/weeks/months. About all that can be done is to make information really available to them ingame so they have access to the tools they need to get better. Many will not use it, and if they quit from frustration, that's on them IMO.
Wiley.
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Personally I think confining people to the TA is a horrible idea. People come into a game, they want to play. When it's got a learning cliff like this, they're not going to do well for the first few hours/weeks/months. About all that can be done is to make information really available to them ingame so they have access to the tools they need to get better. Many will not use it, and if they quit from frustration, that's on them IMO.
The MPA isn't the place imho. There just isn't enough time for the frustration to be exceeded by enthusiasm. Recently this one guy wizzed on the electric fence twice and by the time I'd typed an explanation he was gone.
I agree quitting after a few goes probably disqualifies them from AH anyway, but I'm just frustrated to see potential new players to go down the drain this way.
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The MPA isn't the place imho. There just isn't enough time for the frustration to be exceeded by enthusiasm. Recently this one guy wizzed on the electric fence twice and by the time I'd typed an explanation he was gone.
I agree quitting after a few goes probably disqualifies them from AH anyway, but I'm just frustrated to see potential new players to go down the drain this way.
By the same token it's simpler than the MA, you've only got one opponent to worry about, and it might be less overwhelming for them.
Like I said, the info needs to be very available to them. I don't even know what the electric fence is and I can imagine it might be confusing. Again, there's only so much you can do. One of my favorite steam reviews so far was a guy complaining that flying the airplane with his Vive was so disorienting he almost fell over.
...He was playing standing up. Not entirely sure what you say to that person to overcome that level of... whatever it is. This appears to be the guy warning labels were made for.
Wiley.
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I'm sure it's been happening since day 1 release of AH1, and will continue until the end of time. If they have no concept of how a plane flies, then an actual flying game isn't for them. This isn't the typical arcade "flying" game and isn't for everyone.
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In the MA you're not immediately pressured to defend yourself against an opponent you airspawn into and you're more likely to get help from friendlies.
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In the MA you're not immediately pressured to defend yourself against an opponent you airspawn into and you're more likely to get help from friendlies.
On the other side, you've got to figure out how to take off, and depending on what's going on you might very likely be taking off into a vulch.
Any way you cut it, bad things can happen to newbs when they start. If they want to MPA, they're going to be irked they've got to go elsewhere for x amount of time until they can do what they want to do.
Why are you trying to harsh their groove with rules maaaan? ;)
Wiley.
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On the other side, you've got to figure out how to take off,
I'm not suggesting the MA is the best place to start either, but it's better if they can at least start getting help without dying every 60 seconds.
MPA is two men enter, one man leave, with an airspawn 30 seconds from engagement & and a counterintuitive edge barrier, and murderous f3ckers like me that'll kill em on the second merge if they don't kill themselves in a viscious flat spin. I honestly don't think most of them know what the arenas mean. MA is account-based and the TA is even deader than the MPA, so they go there because they see someone.
This is a waaaaaaay less than ideal first contact. Surely in other complex games there is some kind of welcome / training programme?
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Part of the drive to get better, the hook that this game had on me, and many others I've talked to, has been that you get into the action and you want to get better so you get kills, survive, get out the victor. A lot of that was going into the MA with trepidation and the tension of trying to get into and out of a fight in 1 piece. If you remove that, I probably would have got bored with the game. I flew a lot of the HTH rooms when I didn't have a sub at first. Most were set up kind of like the TA. It kind of got old after a while and the MA was better even if it was more deadly to me.
My dying didn't stop me from playing the game. It made me play it more. I wasn't looking for an arcade game. I didn't want airspawns.
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Right now there is no visual cue that we can use to identify an new player, yes the name is unfamiliar but I don't know everybody. If there was a way to identify them maybe we could be able to offer friendly advice.
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Right now there is no visual cue that we can use to identify an new player, yes the name is unfamiliar but I don't know everybody. If there was a way to identify them maybe we could be able to offer friendly advice.
Normally they don't have any stars on their name.
HiTech
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If the OP didnt blow them out of the sky after the first merge EVERYTIME maybe they would hang around more than 3 flights.
I know the will to compete/win is strong in most people who play games but a vet knowing a players is a newbie could be come a great ambassador for the game by slowing down, giving the newb your six and letting them get off a few shots. A few wins and that start getting hooked, a few more and they start learning and before you know it they asking questions and taking their lumps like the rest of us did.
Blowing them out of the sky relentlessly is nothing more than chasing them away. As a "vet" we should be able to handle a bunch of "loses" much easier than a newb. I know what my choice would be in that situation, do you want to have someone to fly against, or do you want to chase another guy away?
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Normally they don't have any stars on their name.
But so do others... I think I had 0 stars three times int he past 2 years :angel:
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But so do others... I think I had 0 stars three times int he past 2 years
I turned mine off, so even if I had some, no one would see them.
- oldman
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I turned mine off, so even if I had some, no one would see them.
- oldman
Pretty sure it only hides them from yourself...others will still see what you have.
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I turned mine off, so even if I had some, no one would see them.
- oldman
How do we do that?
Coogan
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Burn and Learn ... we all went through it.
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If the OP didnt blow them out of the sky after the first merge EVERYTIME maybe they would hang around more than 3 flights.
Obviously you're unsure who you're merging with until the first pass. I was exagerating the typical experience. Some MPA players are purely out for score and will just take a set of duels with a noob as a gift.
I always try to help, usually they don't respond at all, I think they haven't even figured out comms yet.
a vet knowing a players is a newbie could be come a great ambassador for the game by slowing down, giving the newb your six and letting them get off a few shots. A few wins and that start getting hooked, a few more and they start learning and before you know it they asking questions and taking their lumps like the rest of us did.
I've do this a lot, even posted about doing it a few months ago. At least two new players from other flight sims I've spent an hour with each. Unfortunately not been back either.
I'm getting a general if-you-can't-stand-the-heat theme emerging here. While I agree to some extent I think the MPA is a bit Chinese restaurant gas-burner level of heat. Frankly, haven't seen a lot of those posting in the MPA either :)
Insofar as the non US primetime I'm just reporting my experiences as first contact for a lot of players. Perhaps the can't-stand-the-heat thing is not very fashionable these days. The danger to conservative approaches is when the environment changes. You end up with one chef cooking for himself in what was once a busy restaurant.
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MPA?
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Right now there is no visual cue that we can use to identify an new player, yes the name is unfamiliar but I don't know everybody. If there was a way to identify them maybe we could be able to offer friendly advice.
well you could use that age old concept of trying to talk to them.
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Normally they don't have any stars on their name.
HiTech
and their rank is 0 or no star and rank is very high 1200's or higher
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don't be such snobs with the new players-talk to them. yesterday there was a new guy trying to take off in his plane from the Home hanger, he kept crashing into trees, I told him twice not to launch from there but he didn't listen-he tried a couple more times crashed logged off he gone.
some of these players won't listen even when they ask for help.
and they come in on help channel punching letters like it's some kind code they think they supposed to use.
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MPA?
Match Play Arena noobs! :mad: Right, you're all banned :old:
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ohhh hell no locking a player in the Match Player arena might was well shoot them in the head. that would be like putting in a isolation cell in prison, oh man I'm getting closterfobic just thinking about it.. no don't do it to them.
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Insofar as the non US primetime I'm just reporting my experiences as first contact for a lot of players. Perhaps the can't-stand-the-heat thing is not very fashionable these days. The danger to conservative approaches is when the environment changes. You end up with one chef cooking for himself in what was once a busy restaurant.
If I read right, you're essentially talking about guiding people through some kind of "start here, then progress to here, then you're ready for this thing, etc etc" type of experience as a newb.
I just don't think it's a great idea. Some people are going to want match play at first, some will want to melee. Some may head straight for the TA. Restricting them from doing any of it is going to put them off.
Games with a learning curve are harsh at the beginning. The only help for that is to make information easily available.
Look at any other multiplayer PvP game, like say Counterstrike or PUBG or Elite Dangerous. You're going to run into difficult situations against people who have way more experience and skill than you have. That is part of the game. There is no way to avoid it. If you have a "newb arena" all that does is defer the seal clubbing until they leave the newb arena (likely having learned bad habits going against only other newbs) and go to the "real" arena.
Wiley.
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Have you ever fought HiTech in a Ki84 in the MPA? Well, being a long way from a newb..... :ahand I discovered a few things soon afterwards. :joystick: After a couple of quick reversals and deadeye shots to my pony pilot's oversized blockhead, he started offering advice.
That same attitude exists with most that I have flown against there. Now, if a newb wanted to join an organized tournament, then all the fuzzy wuzzy stuff is not expected.
I conclude that it is possibly the best place to get some merge and survive tactics in hand. I have yet to have a multiple wingman matchplay yet. Now, that should get hairy!
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Right now there is no visual cue that we can use to identify an new player, yes the name is unfamiliar but I don't know everybody. If there was a way to identify them maybe we could be able to offer friendly advice.
The initial merge used to be a good indicator to me about the skill of my opponent. If they did the same thing at the merge I did, then I knew they were a noob. :aok
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That is what the offline practice is for....to many just start playing.... I practiced for a long time before I got into the arena and the spent most of my time shooting at planes with flakpanzers and m16s. real pilots and gunners shot skeet.
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The initial merge used to be a good indicator to me about the skill of my opponent. If they did the same thing at the merge I did, then I knew they were a noob. :aok
:rofl Same here. :rofl
Coogan
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Well it seems my views are unfashionable so I shan't press the point.
Instructions are now unclear (insert appropriate stick duck in a toaster joke here) regarding whether I should club all baby seals like Ted Bundy on a liberty cap-fuelled crowbar rampage in the Ladies Dormitory of Texas State University or be a decent guy and try and help and encourage new players.
Can't have both, I can also make them wish they'd spent 6 hours in the TA, please advise :banana:
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Not enthused about forcing people into the TA. In my 10-plus years of playing this game I have NEVER ONCE found anyone in the TA interested in practicing anything with me (including using the radio to communicate said desires). FWIW.
MH