ENY disablements

[Zanth]

Originally posted by Swager
Westy,

Nice ideas!

I very seldom fly the high ENY aircraft, so the new patch wont bother me.

I only get bothered when my country's back is up against the wall and all I see are enemy LA7s, N1K2s, and Spits above me.  That's when I log off.

There should be no PERKS for a reset.  Just the fact that a country got the reset should be reward enough.

Now if perk points could be traded in for ballcaps, shirts, coffee mugs, then it would be worth something to me.

Make sense to me - it worked in Air Warrior, worked in Warbirds, don't know why it wouldn't work here too.  Sometimes I am not sure that the perk award doesn't imbalance things all by itself.  The focus is better left on the journey (the quality of the fight) than the destination (the reset).  When that gets backwards is when the gameplay becomes a mess.

[Shane]

originally posted by drediock
But then again Im not a "me" person I dont fly just for myself but for my country which is just an extended version of my team.
And as the saying goes "there is no "I" in "T-E-A-M"

But there is a "me" in "T-E-A-M". so i'm a little confused now.

[Crashy]

Originally posted by DoKGonZo

Oh ... PS ... Dux is building the SE Asia terrain as we speak ... from Mandalay to Singapore to Saigon. So Rangoon should get announced before month's end.

(hijack)

Ohhhh...this is great news. I was checking out Rangoon on your site a couple days ago. Sounds awesome (as usual).

(/hijack)

[Alpo]

Originally posted by Westy

The problem was (is!) intentional suiciders who auger within seconds of releasing. And heavy bombers doing the Stuka thing.

IMO part of the "fix" should effect those who auger or ALT F4 within XXX seconds (I think 5-10 after release is plenty) of dropping thier ordinance.

Along with this were suggestions on limiting the angle for release (heavy bombers diving), setting an arming altitude/timer so that the simpleton auger-nuts had to release higher (less accurate).

I like this thought... while I don't think a lot of the kamakazis are intentional, it's a learning curve that can easily be enforced by not rewarding them with destroying the structure and then piling into the ground.  The system tracks damage to the plane anyway, if that damage is not greater than a certain percentage and the plane crashes within the time window, no structure damage.



There is already a distance fuse of sorts on bombs... don't recall the distance but anything to get rid of dive bombing Lancasters would be much appreciated!  

Originally posted by SlapShot

Now, if changes are introduced, like the ones that Dok has mentioned, which would require some real devestation in order to capture a base, once the captured front line base (in enemy territory) is completely regened, then all planes are available again. In otherwords, add field regen to ENY disablement.

This would then introduce the need to fly supplies (C-47/M3 groups) into these captured bases to try and get the field healed to get the ENY planes faster. Just like we use to do to get the fuel back up at a captured-porked base.

What about changing what the troops actually do when a base is captured.  Right now they go into the maproom with their little satchel charges and blow it up... if they were to destroy the base itself (no change to the code or graphics, just kill all of the hangers when maproom is destroyed... would make for some cool simultaneous explosions )  This forces the "horde" that just grabbed the base to actually land, hit the rearm pad, and take off again in order to move to the next base unless C47s/M3s are on station with supplies to build up the base as SlapShot said.    I think it would slow down the flow somewhat giving the defending country a chance at repelling the next strike.

An insightful observation from Drediock

Also I think the bombers should be exempt from the current system. And being on the receiving end of the horde on MANY occasions It is my honest opinion that the bombers aren't the primary problem, More of a minor inconvenience then anything even at worst.

Hmmm... I "may" have said this before    YES YES YES...

[DoKGonZo]

If you provide more bonuses for being in missions, then you don't need the arena reset perks. These two things combined (providing the EZ-Mission interface so it's not "work" to take control of the rabble) could have a dramatic effect.

And I'll add one more "feature" to EZ-Mission ... have a switch that makes it "Squad Only Notification" and auto-informs everyone on your squad channel that the mission is posted. So if your crew is RTB, you can prepare the next sortie while you're landing and everyone can join once inside and then your squad is off on their next mission right away. Non-members may join in, but so what? Squads turn around pretty quick on the ground so odds are it'll be mostly your crew. Have the Squad-Only notification show up as a flag on the mission list, so non-members get the hint they should ask if it's OK to join the mission.


And I agree that players should be given some reasonable perk balance when they open their account. Starting with 0 and seeing all these guys with 1000's is kind of demoralizing. And if you're learning, don't fly much, or just aren't an ace you see the odds of ever getting hundreds of perks as pretty slim. So why play smart?

If the ENY disabler were tied back to perks, that would be a good time to credit everyone with 250 or 500 or whatever.


Having perks exchangable for cash-value items has legal ramifications.

[Nwbie]

Idea one
How bout this?
Once a field is captured, all fields within the ajoining 4 sectors, or whatever on the coastal field, are uncapturable or require more troops for a certain time set? say 1 hour? Seems to me that defense of these fields would in real war aspects would have a higher resistance factor anyway.. this would hamper the roll over affect when the numbers are out of whack..
The plane limit thing didnt bother me so far, I like to try different models anyway, not that I am any good in any 1 plane, last night couldn't take a p51-d, so I tried the p51-b, and got 4 kills my first flight, I landed, let out my breath, laffed and logged, I wasn't gonna ruin that feeling lol

It's just an intardnet game, if you limit yourself to only flying one model, I think you are cheating yourself anyway
my 2 cents

NwBie

[SlapShot]

Originally posted by DoKGonZo
If you provide more bonuses for being in missions, then you don't need the arena reset perks. These two things combined (providing the EZ-Mission interface so it's not "work" to take control of the rabble) could have a dramatic effect.

And I'll add one more "feature" to EZ-Mission ... have a switch that makes it "Squad Only Notification" and auto-informs everyone on your squad channel that the mission is posted. So if your crew is RTB, you can prepare the next sortie while you're landing and everyone can join once inside and then your squad is off on their next mission right away. Non-members may join in, but so what? Squads turn around pretty quick on the ground so odds are it'll be mostly your crew. Have the Squad-Only notification show up as a flag on the mission list, so non-members get the hint they should ask if it's OK to join the mission.


And I agree that players should be given some reasonable perk balance when they open their account. Starting with 0 and seeing all these guys with 1000's is kind of demoralizing. And if you're learning, don't fly much, or just aren't an ace you see the odds of ever getting hundreds of perks as pretty slim. So why play smart?

If the ENY disabler were tied back to perks, that would be a good time to credit everyone with 250 or 500 or whatever.


Having perks exchangable for cash-value items has legal ramifications.

Granted that perks are the only reward system that we have, but we shouldn't get too perk-happy here. Perks are the balancing agent for the "monster" rides, and this balance needs to be maintained.

Now ... if you want to get perk-happy, then you are walking down the road to assigning perks to every (well almost every) plane in the hanger and then adjusting the monsters accordingly ... nothing wrong with that either, but to some it will go over like the ENY disabler.

Not trying to be a smart-arse here, but I don't think that a newbie would have any clue as to how many perks I have. I don't know how many perks you have and I wouldn't unless you told me what you have, so I don't think that they are that demoralized. For me, starting at 0, only represented a personal challange to me to earn perks.

[DoKGonZo]

Originally posted by SlapShot
Granted that perks are the only reward system that we have, but we shouldn't get too perk-happy here. Perks are the balancing agent for the "monster" rides, and this balance needs to be maintained.
...

And in that same spirit, if we have a rolling plane set where jets were only available from fields near HQ, you wouldn't need perks at all.

[DoKGonZo]

Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
I see interest in this thread already starting to wane. That's too bad, it really is.

I notice we haven't had any response from anyone from HTC in a couple of pages or so. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they are just busy, since Hitech is supposedly making adjustments to the arena today.

...

I think you're misreading things. HT already put in 5 or 6 host-level changes today. You just gotta tune your expectations with HT's MTBC (mean time between coading) frequency.

Also, don't confuse "quick fix" with "band aid." Some seemingly simple modifications can have dramatic long-term effects on gameplay.


I'll use my tank-busting example again. How many times a night do you see 20 cannon-armed fighters circling 10 Osties at a field? The fighters are waiting for someone to launch a plane so they can vultch it. The Osties are waiting for someone to launch a plane so the can shoot whoever comes down to vultch it. No one wants to launch a plane. And save for people arriving on the conveyor belt with bombs, the Osties can pretty much sit there all they want.

Why is this so? Because there's no plane which can reliably kill Osties in the numbers needed to counter the spawn rate. Even a B26 or A20 isn't a sure thing because of the lack of a tactical bomb site - so take a P51 or P38 and maybe get one or two at best before joining the circus at 5K.

If the Hurri IID and Sturmi had their guns armor rating increased - even at the expense of anti-air HE capability - you'd start to see the field capture package have one or two tank busters. Partly because it helps the team, and partly because once you're proficient at low level attacks in it you can get nice multi-kill missions against GV's.

So now the GV syndrome at fields lasts only a few minutes, and that forces people to launch from the next nearest field and reclaim the airspace. What I've noticed currently is that only once the VH is down do people launch from adjacent fields to retake the airspace.

Again - a "quick fix" which could affect gameplay at a much deeper level. And then maybe 6 or 9 months down the road, you can tune the armor piercing value back a little if you want to let GV's have a little more freedom (right now it's nuts because they don't need any fighter cover at all).

[SlapShot]

I am taking this silence from HT in the vein that he just had a requirements session and has left the conference room to go ponder more deeply on the information, and work out in his mind how they would play into the grand scheme of things ... present and future.

As Dok mentioned, he already has taking some actions. All those actions were, I believe, a result of the discussion that we had here in this thread, with the exception of the release of the OZKansas map.

Some of the more complex suggestions made in this thread will require more thought on his part.

[hitech]

Sunday night; First sunday with new balance system, had the highest attendance since AHII was released. Don't belive your premiss holds water.


HiTEch

[DoKGonZo]

Originally posted by hitech
Sunday night; First sunday with new balance system, had the highest attendance since AHII was released. Don't belive your premiss holds water.

If it was a Rook landslide again, then I suspect a lot of people showed up just to make sure that The Horde happened regardless of the ENY.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Originally posted by hitech
Sunday night; First sunday with new balance system, had the highest attendance since AHII was released. Don't belive your premiss holds water.


HiTEch

Maybe, maybe not. Yes, attendance was high. That is good. I agree.

The question was, why was attendance higher. Was it because the outnumbered sides felt they had a chance and gameplay was actually better, or was it because of something else.

Anyway, as I've said before, it's your world, the rest of us just pay $15 a month to rent a small piece of it. I'll just withold further comment.

[Grizzly]

Originally posted by hitech
BTW Doc had a proposal to eliminate suicide runs, went over like a lead ballon. It was a delayed kill on the targetes, somthing like 20 secs. Then you had to be still living after the delay for the target to be damaged.

HiTech

One thing that concerns me about the delay kill is that it might look a little lame to have a target blow up 20 seconds after it was hit. But I have a suggestion. Instead of a kill delay, prevent the pilot from upping from the same field if he gets killed withing 20 seconds after drop (or if he augers should this be possible).

The idea is to simulate death to prevent a rinse and repeat, which encourages suiciders. How realistic is that?

[Grizzly]

Originally posted by hitech
Pyro and I this morning were  kicking around the idea of making 2 changes.

The way the reset  system works is that once a country is down to a set # of air fields the war ends.

Was thinking of raising this number to between 4 or 6, or posibly a % of the original fields.

I have a suggestion here HiTech. When the reset get near, the two top teams start fighting each other over the loser. They'll virtually stop their attacks on the loser until one of them gets enough lead to ensure a win. This can go on all night, leaving the loser to languish without fighting space.

I suggest randomizing the number of bases for reset so neither contender can know when it will take place.

continued by hitech
2nd would then also change field capture (no specifics) but the changes would make it a lot harder to capture a field.

One we didn't discuse but I have been thinking about, is moving towns farther away from the fields. This would promote more fighting and less vulching when trying to capture a field.
HiTech

Some towns are already too far from the field to be easily defended. Some are closer to the enemy spawn point than our VH. Could you consider giving us spawn points at our own towns? And how about placing a couple field guns there.

I suspect if you move the town most vulchers will never see it.