The Feel of the Arena

[AKDejaVu]

Right, but the limit isn't 64 planes total inside the program... but only 64 planes can be displayed on each users FE at any one time.
So it all depends on how many different planes YOU see, right?

Wulfie.. the specs aren't set by how much you see, but rather what you might see.  Once again.. there is a limit for a reason.

AKDejaVu

[AKSWulfe]

Okay, see what you mean.
-SW

[Hangtime]

Hey guys, thanks for the viewpoints... nice to be able to look inside the other guys cockpit and see what he's seeing.

It's kinda neat... about a year and a half back, the P51D ruled the roost, and as the flight models developed there were some pretty spectacular nights in the MA for the old pony.

And some pretty spectacular howls on the BBS about it too. Hehehhehhee

Nowadays; it's a ho-hum also ran plane; a fair number of planes are available to counter either it's speed or turning ability, can out gun it, can out dive it; can out accelerate it, or ALL of the above and only a P38 has a more feeble tail...

And I don't give a damn about what the other guys flying, and when the jets come I still won't give a damn. (except for that damn paper mache tail) It's still my ride.   Staying alive in it is harder these days, but that's ok... flying it against more comepent adverarys in more competent planes is also a heluva lotta fun. THATS what the MA is about, I think.. match your skills and your choice aginst the other guys.

Why does Mitsu rule inna Zeke? How come Festabria is death to all comers in a POS P38?? What makes Mathman so hard to kill in his F6F? How come Kbman chops all comers down in his F4U-1D? What makes 'ol Frenchy so scary in that damn ugly-assed Jug?? How come FDski can make a Spitfire do amazing things at Warp7? Who in hell gifted Hblair with eyes in the back of his head and a 109g10?? (gonna kill that guy one day... i jus KNOW it!!) How come Zigrat's so good in EVERYTHING?

Theres dozens of more examples... many more guys that succesfully continue to get kills and dominate airspace in 'second rate' airplanes in the current planest in the current MA..  Why??

Skill... SA, familiarity, dedication, drugs.... whatever.   Point is; the MA is a place where anything, flown by anybody at any time will come your way.. can you survive?[/i]

RPS the uber pilots.. it makes just about as much sense to me as an RPS for planes IN THE MA [/i]

Gents; we're all part of the food-chain in the MA, on any given day; RPS or not, yer gonna be food for the person or plane a lil higher up the chain... that's just reality... if you fly your early war bird right, you ain't any more or less of a target for a Tempest or an LA7 or Mitsu in that Zeke than I am in a pony. Frankly; I'd rather die in the pony; but that's just me.  

Thanks again for all the well considered input on this...

[BlauK]

Some want to fly early war planes against reasonable enemies, some other want to be able to grab their late war favorite every time they fly... a solution to this was discussed earlier:

Limit planes by fields! ... not by days of the Tour.

Early war fields have only early war planes. Mid war fields have early and mid war planes. Late war fields have all planes available.

Late war planes would be most likely available until the reset. They can attack the enemy from the sides of their sectors or fli a bit longer to attack early areas.

If this is too harsh for some, make the late war planes available at mid war but slightly perked (5-10 points) and more perked at early war fields (10-20 points). Thus mid war planes would be 5-10 perks at early war fields.

The fields positions on the exaple map below would need to be adjusted!!! It is just an example of the idea.

Some of u were strongly against this kind of ideas... why??? This does not take away your liberties but it would give a lot of possibilities and variation!


     

ps. The original idea of this area solution was not mine... just been trying to develope it further into a solution that would satisfy most of those who are against any RPS.

[ 07-30-2001: Message edited by: BlauK ]

[lazs1]

Yep... that is the solution... 40K mountins for seperation.   I have never seen why this wouldn't work.   Thanks for the map blauk it is pretty much the way I would do it if I had any talent for it.

It would work just as well if every slice of the "pie" were and era... early, mid and late.. slice size could be adjusted acccording to preference/popularity.

Too much choice for most posters tho I bet.   Not a good map if you have to force people to fly with you or you can only compete in an arena that your plane is untouchable in.
lazs

[ 07-30-2001: Message edited by: lazs1 ]

[Yeager]

Well no one would be dumb enough to throw their declawed popsiclecat into a cage with a pissed off hungry tiger.  So it is with early warplanes in an arena filled with late warplanes.

The "solution" of using tier one fields for early planes and tier 3 fields for late planes seperated by vast mountain ranges is no solution at all.  Just another burp in a long list of equally anemic hyperbolic possibilities.  There are few solutions that will please more than 49% of the customer base and this aint one of em.  

I do admit hwoever to being very intrigued trying to guess just how HTC will get themselves out of this fix.  And a fix it really is.

HTC should have started at the beginning of the era and worked forward.  The community could have grown into the progression naturally and community solutions based on community experience would have been far more equitable for most everyone in the end, I am sure.  

As it is, sooner or later we will have to confront the the need to level load the planeset one way or another.  Be it by having a terribly exaggerated perk system, plane-restricted fields or a RPS.

RPS is most assuredly out of the question. HTC has shown a healthy bent on avoiding  simple comparrisons with their now estranged elder child.  RPS is over there now, it wont be introduced here.  Trust me on this one.  Plane restricted fields are possible but the idea is unattractive and unimaginative.  More like a bubble gum quick fix for a leaky radiator. An exaggerated perk system is most likely simply because it promotes Pyros perk system and would be an attraction for many to try to survive amongst the tigers in their puny little popsiclecats.  The rest would care less because the 51Ds, N1Ks and G10s are left unhindered.

Yeager

[ 07-30-2001: Message edited by: Yeager ]

[lazs1]

yeager... i agree that HTC have gotten themselves into a mess that they will need to find a solution for... later planes added make the arena even faster and early war planes can't be added in the current arena.

where we heartily disagree is that the "area" arena won't work.   The area arena is about choice and parity... nothing more.   My guess is that most people will choose an airfield in the mid war area most of the time but that people will still go to where the numbers are.  people may fly 1 sortie in the mid war area and find that nothing fun is happening so (by looking at the map) they will decide that "boy that sure looks like a good fite at A5 in the early war area" and..... click, they are there..  Or they may have hours to spend or be on some kinda streak fetish and simply click on the late war area..   they could try every single area alternately... All planes would be available to them all the time and all planes would be in an environment that was fair and allowed that plane to compete with it's peers.

it is really nothing different than the curent system that allows us to choose the field that best matchs what we want to do except that we are able to choose era as well as field.   If all you ever want to fly is mustangs then you need never leave the late war "area" fields.   your choice.  each "area" would have more like minded people in it than the current arena does.
lazs

[BlauK]

no no     No separating mountains. It is nice to have an occasional late war plane wander into the early war area  

The area solution would just cut down the amount late war adversaries for early war planes.. not prohibit it completely. If they want to fly all the way to the center from the outer rim, let them   Much more bitter for them when they get shot down.. just as when one gets shot down in a perk plane.

This area solution is a very soft approach, nothing much drastic from what MA is at present. Still it would offer new situations!

I really hope that HTC will consider this!!!

[Hajo]

My two cents worth.  Air Warrior has already undergone what AH is experiencing now.  They added an Axis vs. Allies Arena.  The terrain was the english channel basically.  Aircraft that were used, if I remember correctly were, SpitV, FW190A3, BF109F, BF110, P-40, and of course I believe the Ju-88 and B-17.  My memory might be off here, but listed above is what I recall.  Some played there, but the numbers I recall were only good during certain hours of the day.  So if one lived in a time zone that didn't align when the numbers were good in Axis vs. Allies Arena, he didn't fully get the chance to compete, and was somewhat dismayed that he didn't have the opportunity when numbers were above 8 or 10.

RPS.  I don't like them......I left Air Warrior full realism because of them.  Monthly the terrain would change from ETO to PAC.  And with the Map change so did the planesets.  Never liked PAC planes of any country.  And I always felt more comfortable seeing "terra firma" beneath me then an open expanse of blue textured water.  Then again, this is just my humble opinion.  But an opinion that I believe a great many others might share.

[lazs1]

blauk... some have said the same as you.. that they wouldn't mind seeing later planes in earlier areas if they were rare and the wussy had to fly for 30 minutes or so to get there before he got shot down.

There are even more cool possibilities with an "area" arena..   Each "area' could have terrain that suited it..  Imagine that the early war area had for instance, the old canyon world where twisting and turning through the canyons would be a blast.   Late war could be a desert since you shouldn't really care about the terrain at 25k anyway.

anyhow... I think it is a fairly simple and... fair solution for the problems of adding new planes without the stigma of an RPS
lazs