Promoting Aces High

[ALF]

I can say that while I find SimHQ a good read on some things, its a better aggregator than anything else....and yes, they seem completely ignorant to the huge success Aces High has become.  As I recall, theve, done 3+ articles running dozens of webpages, whining and moaning about consoles and the lack of good flight sims for the PC.  They go on and on about how they'd pay $75...$100 more for a top notch sim, and how much they love USAFs custom skins (that noone saw but the person using them)....and here we sit, thousands of players, paying $15 a month for the best flight sim, multiplayer or otherwise...and not a word.....the term clueless comes to mind.

I tend to listen to their articles at work (I aggregate them and convert them text to speech).....and the robitic voice I listen too counldnt be any more appropriate than those articles being refered too here.  They were talking about sims on consoles, and a few of the 'roundtable members' were talking about that as if I give a holy crap about the piece of hardware that delivers my game experience, that they should never review sims, on the consoles no matter how good they were.....geez, I know they arnt there now...but soon...
 

Heck, 5-10 years from now the PC will be a console for the most part.   The way processors and graphics cards are going, they will exceed standard monitor resolutions and refresh rates at insane levels of detail in the next decade.  It will become much like buying  an oven....you can have a few options, and some will do a slightly better job at one thing than another, but for the most part they will all cook your dinner/run your games.

Imagine how much easier it will be for Hitech to code for 2-5 platforms instead of 200-500 hundred

[Vudak]

Originally posted by jaxxo
exposure is everything..guys in my aviation class went nuts for some pos sim at fantasy of flight in florida....QUOTE]


I remember that sim! It was pretty cool how you all got your own "plane"...  They still run that thing?!

[GreenCloud]

RENO AIR RACES


If HTC wants some West Coast Exposure,


I will help.

[BTW]

If someone totaly new to air combat sims came to Aces High, where would they find the primer?

[BTW]

You talk about atracting new players. I've been playing AH for almost 2 years and have no success. Its not from lack of trying. I've asked, I've trained, da, 2 aquads, all that. There is NO buffer zone. There are no steps to follow. You
re either fodder or a player. There is NO learning curve to follow. Its a vulch mentality from day 1. Noobie- KILL HIM!

I don't know if I need a break or just quit. Ill decide undrunk.
There is no success for newbies in this game HT. Thats a problem I think and I doubt you will attract much fodder. This is an extension of people studying in steps since half time AW. Your learning curves were buffered with slow game advances. The new player will never stay the course here. Well maybe a few will. I don't think I am - and I aint that new. No measurable success in almost 2 years is a problem.

I know its a whine - done.

[Vudak]

Originally posted by BTW
You talk about atracting new players. I've been playing AH for almost 2 years and have no success. Its not from lack of trying. I've asked, I've trained, da, 2 aquads, all that. There is NO buffer zone. There are no steps to follow. You
re either fodder or a player. There is NO learning curve to follow. Its a vulch mentality from day 1. Noobie- KILL HIM!

I don't know if I need a break or just quit. Ill decide undrunk.
There is no success for newbies in this game HT. Thats a problem I think and I doubt you will attract much fodder. This is an extension of people studying in steps since half time AW. Your learning curves were buffered with slow game advances. The new player will never stay the course here. Well maybe a few will. I don't think I am - and I aint that new. No measurable success in almost 2 years is a problem.

I know its a whine - done.

Have you ever had someone sit in your plane as an observer for a few missions?  They might be able to point out some things to you...

No measurable success in 2 years and you've tried all that?  That's difficult to imagine...  Not trying to knock you here, but maybe you just haven't been presented the material in a fashion that you can understand/learn easily...  Many things about this game can appear daunting at first (well, forever  ) and people learn in different ways.

While we're at it, what is your measure of "success" that you do not feel you are obtaining?

[BTW]

>>While we're at it, what is your measure of "success" that you do not feel you are obtaining?<<

Having a reasonable shot at winning a fight.
When I first started playing chess, you competed against people ranked close to you. You weren't thrown into a room with masters/grandmasters and told to play.  In AH, new players are targets, fodder, and they pay to be fodder. They have no hope to enjoyably compete with others of their level without setting up an event of their own. Its like HTC doesn't really care - hey kill or be killed, its a cruel cruel world. Thats true, but I don't find it fun in a game. I do like competition - I don't trying to out fight grizzly bears.

It just seems no thought was ever put into how to have new players enjoy some competition, and have a reasonable chance. It just strikes me as a vulch mentality from day 1.

Objectively is see two set of people leaving- the aces whose hard fights are few and far in between (how long will 15 kill messages have you paying 15 bucks a month?), and the strugglers who achieve no success.

Were the aces grouped together, and the strugglers grouped together, both might stay with a sense of competition.

I dunno - maybe I'm just burned out. But I see 2 weaknesses in AH - documentation, and creative competition. Thats just my opinion and not a put down. Obviously its very fun to at least 500 people a night.

[BTW]

>>Have you ever had someone sit in your plane as an observer for a few missions? They might be able to point out some things to you...
<<

About a year ago I used to post films in the training area for people to tell me what I was doing wrong or right.

The thing they posted the most was nose bounce. Got a new stick ($75) less bounce, but still there. There's this thing the game does when the pipper is on target and its like skating on a marble. I don't know if its combat trim or stick problems or exagerated Z scale in 3d. But its like skating on a marble.

Got another stick ($90) which allows you to lessen the sensativity at the middle. The pipper is close to the targewt point and the stick is less sensative. Still, its like skating on a marble. You put the pipper on and it slides right off.

I dunno if its combat trim or just something in the game.
It impesses me as exagerated perspective or Z buffer.

[Deth7]

Originally posted by BTW
Well here's an idea (perhaps a bad one)..

Make Aces High the last game in a difficult progression of games. Take the same game engine and dumb down the flight model and create a few quake type games - maybe even space ships. Once they get bored with that, they might take the next step and play AH.

or if it existed:rolleyes:  the next step fer the AH guys would be migs and sabres:eek:

[culero]

MiGs must die. Evil they are! Me hates them!

culero

[GreenCloud]

I think if they had a setup at the Reno Air Races..They would defnlty get soem new customers and alot of exposure



Hell..I woudl of never found any of thsi stuff ...except an ex girlfriends sister told her soem friend of heres was playing a game called ..."Air Warrior"...

Ya..I lgged on thru AOL..arghhhhhh and played for 1.99$ an hour..omfg...her credit crad bill was thru the roof..



2 or more computer rigs setup..Along with an LCD projector..so crowds walking by could see it..and defnlty a LARGE Audio Sysytem..I mean..who the HELL Doesnt Like the sound of rotary engines sparking up...Oh ya..who doesn tliek the sound of machine guns!!??

I did trade shows for many years..If you have a great product..+ a great display..You will defnlty attract people..Especially peopel who love Avaition

[Furball]

Originally posted by GreenCloud
Oh ya..who doesn tliek the sound of machine guns!!??
 

ummm... the person being shot at?

[Brooke]

I keep wondering if a good promotion would be for an Aces High setup at flight museums.

At the Museum of Flight in Seattle, there is a whole portion of the building devoted to WWII fighters, with the aircraft, documentaries running, writeups, historical artifacts, info on various great aces, etc.

I've often wondered how great it would be for there to be several computers networked, with Aces High running, with documenation set up so that museum attendees could fly and fight in the various aircraft.

Maybe one of these days I'll ask the museum if they'd be interested in that if someone or some group put up some money for it.  I would think they'd love it.  They should have such a setup at the National Air and Space Museum, too.

[Roscoroo]

Originally posted by Brooke
I keep wondering if a good promotion would be for an Aces High setup at flight museums.

At the Museum of Flight in Seattle, there is a whole portion of the building devoted to WWII fighters, with the aircraft, documentaries running, writeups, historical artifacts, info on various great aces, etc.

I've often wondered how great it would be for there to be several computers networked, with Aces High running, with documenation set up so that museum attendees could fly and fight in the various aircraft.
 

Instead of a puter set up ... what about a advertisement type collage of pics , or a repeating dvd / tv setup showing the best films of ah ??? that would be alot cheaper

[Brooke]

I don't think a flight museum would go for that, as it's just promotion.  They might if they got some sort of cut, but that would take more effort than it is worth to negotiate, I suspect.

If their visitors get something out of it that draws them to the museum, though, something educational, such as seeing what it's like to fly one of the planes, that might have an angle that is attractive.  Of course, they would probably only like it if someone fronted the money for the computers; but maybe one computer would be enough.

Hmm.  I might check into it at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.