Question about multiple changes for HTC

[Brenjen]

I have been reading the FT & TT ideas & the complaints about the loose cannons alliance/diaper raids & have come to the conclusion people are just getting bored & are starting to turn on each other in verbal exchanges because of it. I am new to Aces High; I've only been here a year & a half (EST.) & I see boredom becoming an issue with me. I don't want to step on anyones toes or argue, I just want to toss out a couple ideas & see if they are do-able or would even be considered.

 #1 - would it be possible to make seasons in the M.A. with a random weather generator in keeping with the season? Foul wheather would impede bombing but the furballers could still go above or around it giving chances for different types of play that would change at random,  e.g. If it were spring there would be a greater chance of rain/storms - winter, ice & snow & all of the "bad wheather" could last fifteen minutes or a couple hours. But not so long as to ruin someones bomber fun for an entire day or more. It would increase the variations for use with all types of vehicles.

 #2 - would it be possible to revamp the maps, since new ones are difficult to make & slow in coming, Remove the yellow map-room location marker from the clip-board map & place the map-rooms in somewhat unpredictable locations e.g. sometimes on the airbase & sometimes in the town but not always in exactly the same spot on every base or in every town. Without the yellow dot on the clipboard map as a guide & not knowing exactly where the maproom was would force the country to use scouts in advance of an attack. The map-rooms would have to be in the town or on the base & not out in the middle of nowhere of course.

 #3 - re-work the towns so they have different layouts at different bases & aren't all the exact same "cookie-cutter" design. This would help to make the map-rooms harder to locate & give the ground guys something new to work through. The players could be given the option of colored smoke or a flare as a marker to mark the location of the maproom maybe?...just a thought but as some of the gv's have the smoke option I suppose it could be left out & then both forces could use the smoke - one to mark the maproom for taking & the defense could mark a different spot to confuse it. That's a way tweaking the change could be used to enhance the play without really changing the game in a significant way.

 #4 - re-work the base designs in a like manner as the towns. Make some with areas for the gv's to get cover - camo overhead & earthworks for defense from other vehicles & maybe some anti-tank gun emplacements like the shore batts & ack guns that can be manned for a little diversity. e.g. some air bases without paved strips would only allow light aircraft/fighters to take-off during bad weather. That's another example of how this could be tweaked for added realism.

 I have a few other ideas, but I know this is already getting long in the tooth. Do any of these ideas sound interesting or feasible? Or is it just me?

[hubsonfire]

Keep in mind that the folks who post on the BBS represent only a small fraction of the player base, and also that burnout, or just plane boredom, is going to be more commonplace among those who've played for years, as opposed to the relatively newer players, in their first weeks/months/etc.

Those of us (us meaning the community as a whole) who've been around long enough to tire of some of the game's mechanics are a bit of an anamoly, in that no one really expected us (or at least so many of us) to stick around this long.

Anyway, back on topic.

I'm not so sure about 1 and 2, as there are a lot of folks who don't play a great deal, or just log in for that hour or 2 in an evening they can spare, and factors such as weather would limit their ability to just log in, shoot stuff for a bit, and log off. Random placements of maprooms and towns and such gets to be a PITA, especially for the newer players (who we need to stay, so that we're guaranteed more targets). I, too, had thought some variety in that area would be fun and different, until I flew on the Frac map.

I like #3, in so far as giving towns a varied appearance, but I think, unless they were just picked at random when the map loaded, that this wouldn't work with the current tiles setup. AFAIK, a town is a town, and a city is a city, as far as the terrain setup is concerned. I don't think there's support for different objects to fill the same role.

I like #4 as well. The Karelia map those Finn lunatics put up is amazing in that regard. The atypical field layouts are interesting, the overall appearance of the terrain is stunning, IMO, and contribute to the overall feeling of immersion. However, I was completely and utterly lost most of the time, constantly checking the maps to see what was what. While it looks cool, it'd probably drive a lot of noobs insane were a setup like that to find it's way into the MA.

[Brenjen]

I'm not so sure about 1 and 2, as there are a lot of folks who don't play a great deal, or just log in for that hour or 2 in an evening they can spare, and factors such as weather would limit their ability to just log in, shoot stuff for a bit, and log off. Random placements of maprooms and towns and such gets to be a PITA, especially for the newer players (who we need to stay, so that we're guaranteed more targets).

 I agree with part of that; the wheather hampering the guys with little time to spare. I knew this when I posted but not being a code writer...but also knowing there is a way to make things appear "random" without actually being "random" ( I.E. specific triggers for such events ) maybe the effect on this group of players could be limited? I know there is no catch all - win/win situation where everyone gets everything they want with no compromise or downside.

 As to the other part; I was thinking the same thing with the new players, but with the thought that it might - A: either force them into the TA before coming into the MA or B: cause a lot more questions to be asked in the MA by confused new players. Either could be the outcome with "B" being the more likely scenario to play out, but then again another slight tweak that wouldn't alter the over-all flow of the game would be to require new players to first visit the TA for a set amount of time ( two hours - four maybe ) before being given the option for the main arena & have a tutorial set-up for them to get the "feel" of the game first.  As for the P.I.T.A. for seasoned vets...that's sort of the idea, except I would have called it a "challenge" instead, I am certain they would get the knack all too quickly & be knocking down the bases at the same rate as they do now.

 Glad to see someone was interested enough to read it   Hubs Thanks for the input.

[Krusty]

One reason all the airfields and objects are the same is because the game has to keep track of all of them all the time. It has to compute them over and over and over and over again, and by having them all the same it can load one instance into memory and then use that instance.

Karelia, as a map, looks good, but kills almost everybody's FPS, even those with higher-end systems, because it has so many custom objects.

[Brenjen]

If the towns & bases are placed as a tile, it seems that there could be a set of three or four "stock" town designs to drop in place. Wouldn't it be the same as putting a V-base on a map & changing it to an airfield? They are placed as tiles aren't they? I'm not trying to be a smart oscar I don't really know how it works for AHII terrain.

 Karelia only gave my system a 10 fps hit, & that was my old Dell desktop. I like that map too, I wish we had that or something similar in the M.A. It was the neatest map in AHII in my opinion.

[Kev367th]

Problem isn't custom objects as such -

1) Guys making them have to include LOD's (levels of detail)
2) Remember to remove all redundant or hidden polygons.

E.g.
I took a freeware Blackhawk for MSFS 2004 and by the time I took out all the redundant or hidden polys, I got it down from 8000+ polys to a little over 4000.
Then added various parts and turned it into a Seahawk, still at around 4500 polys.