Post Malta discussion of ways to improve scenarios

[Loddar]

My suggestion for AH

Make the Main arena (it's a strategic arena with WW2 flight influence some people describe) from the rumblers kill arena (kill, kill, perk points, perk points) to a arena where players get interested for Squadops, TOD or scenarios. Change the gameplay in that way and the numbers will go higher in scenarios and the players understand the situation in the scenario game play. I think most don't know and they play the same kamikaze style in scenarios which is even deadly for that side because of "life limitations".

[DoKGonZo]

Originally posted by Krusty
I must add:

$10-$15 entry fee?? What is this, a LAN party? Event patches? Amazon.com gift cards? I don't want/need either, so why not let me join without any fee?

You already have to pay AH sub to get in. I don't see any reason to further charge folks. You want to INCREASE participation, not drive folks away, which is exactly what this would do.

There is a risk of people having the same reaction as you have. But, consider the following:

- An entry fee makes it more likely that the people who sign up wll STAY with the event all the way through. The attrition rate of pilots from week to week slows things down and detracts from the event. Obviously the entry fee would have to be in proportion to the length of the event as well.

- People do seem to want the patches, souvenirs, and prizes. Is it right that a small (small ... hell ... microscopic) subset of the community is footing the bill?

- As I recall the player community is pretty much forbidden to go out and get sponsors for events because it is, afterall, HTC's product. This would be the normal avenue to have prizes and so on underwritten, but that is closed off.

An alternative would be to just put up a PayPal link on the event's homepage and ask for donations. I feel that prizes and more visible recognition would provide something that the MA is totally lacking. It would be a reason for people to stop toolshedding for a few nights a month and fly a scenario.

     -DoK

[Guppy35]

Originally posted by Brooke
Originally from Delirium:


4. Kills- except for when I fly with Guppy in a scenario  , I don't care if I get kills, so long as the group I am flying with has fun.

__________________
Delirium
 

LOL how'd I get dragged into this?  Just because I miss every shot, and then you fly in behind me and kill em.......

Then again it always works that way doesn't it?  Kinda like the other night when we both landed and I had 0 kills and you had 9 from picking em off my tail again and again and again.....

Same as you've done in every scenario we've ever flown

No words of wisdom on AH scenarios since I work weekends and haven't had a chance to fly one yet.

[Valkyrie]

Can we stop talking about Malta. It was fighter vs fighter action with very little significance. Lets move on and start an American Heavy Bomber Camp and get people back into scenarios. Thats how its done. Speciality stuff is fun but with only a few carriers involved or lesser known fights your going to continue to lose participation. Or go back to a common theme like BOB except try a German sea born invaison say July of 1940. We have barges and ships. Its would be a huge air battle with either side having a destinict possiblity of victory.



Vlkyrie1

[Joker312]

I always have thought that scenerios are the best that flight sims have to offer. I especially love the 1 death and done aspect.

The ammount of time and effort put in by the people that take command positions as well as the scenerio designers is huge and I for one am very gratefull for their efforts.

Sometimes things dont work out that well but its not for a lack of effort.

The only problem is there needs to be more:)

If you feel you need to charge a resonable fee, its good with me.

Keep up the good work guys, my hats off to all who make these scenerios possible.

[FiLtH]

Back in AW..special events were..special. In AH there are so many going on, between snapshots and other things, that when a main event comes, its kind of watered down...not as special. Maybe less of the other stuff would help?

[Valkyrie]

What is needed is a large recuitment. This should be done by getting together a good team and running something in the ETO ie 8th Air Force old style scenario, or a new 9th Air Force Campaign. An ad campaign in the lead up such as MOTD and Hitech front page ad for sign up would help. The way I  seee it we are losing flight and group leaders / not training new ones and they are the ones that make these event happen.


Vlkyrie1

[CAV]

Back in AW..special events were..special. In AH there are so many going on, between snapshots and other things, that when a main event comes, its kind of watered down...not as special. Maybe less of the other stuff would help?

I have to say this true... In AW I looked forword to the scenerios. The MA was just a place to have alittle fun, but largely it was place to practice what little skill I had for the scenerios, so i wouldn't look like a noob. The other thing miss from AW was the scenerio practice... they was just as fun the event itseft many times. By the time frame 1 came around I knew the guys in my scenerio Sqdn's just as good, if not better than the MA sqdn I was flying with. And this helped the turnouts for all the frames, the guys you was flying with stopped being just "that name that flies one of the other colors" and became a friend! This is what made for me, the AW community so great we stayed friends after the  event.  So when you got shot down in the MA you would see lots of.... Nice kill... on the open channel. Because many times the guy you just killed or got killed by was a freind from a scenerio.

As far as attendance maybe some weeknight scenerios? Get players out of MA and into the events. If they try it they may like it... I did. I know it is nice to have times that are good for Euros and yanks. But odds are the Euros will find a way to fly.... but each night we have 500+ Yanks playing. Most of them have no clue about scenerio's. Those guys think AH is about what is going on in the MA.... Most of us who have been around a few years have always known the best thing about online flight sims was.... The scenerio's!

We just have to get all those guys zooming around the MA to think the same way.

CAVALRY

[Schutt]

I am looking forward to the next scenario... is there anything in planing?

With the current plane set i can imagine its hard to set something up since any mid or early war scenario has difficulties to use historically accurate plane setups and, at the same time, have considerable equally strong planes. If the planes on one side seem to have a slight disadvantage the majority of scenario pilots chooses the other side, which makes it hard to design a number advantage for the side with the weaker setup.

[SIM]

I was going to ignore this, but just cant manage it.
 Any idea of charging a so called "entry fee" for events strikes me as ridiculous! The whole idea of building and running scenarios/FSO's/Snapshots etc. is to offer folks the chance live a moment in history and to answer the questions under the "what if?" column. The entire operation is set up for the pleasure of the users in hopes of having more participation. Therefore it would seem to me that the CM Team will be working harder to improve not only the physical appeal of a battle, but the TOTAL immersion for the participant thereby increasing overall participation.
 One other note here, some people just enjoy using their imagination when building a scenario, are you going to charge for that participation also?
 For one, I think the idea of an "entry fee" should be absolutely thrown out here and now.
 Ludicrous, and a few other terms come to mind along those lines.


SIM

[ROC]

Scenarios will not be charged for.  We do this for the community.  Players will be able to get patches and such as some members of the community will take it upon themselves to handle the details as has been done quite cleanly in the past.

The single Biggest way to "improve" scenarios is this.  ATTEND.  We have a scenario team that is growing and taking on some new talent.  There are some good things planned, and we are starting to see some progress in the new maps.  All this takes time, and we are over the hump.

Attendance is what sets the priority though.  As events fall off in attendance, less drive and enthusiasm by the designers is inevitable.  Not many people want to invest their free time spending months putting an event together and have it attended by half the planned for pilots.   Granted, Scenario DESIGN has a great deal to do with this, but we also need input from the players as to what they are interested in so that we can produce events you will attend.

Having said that, the start of the year has produced a new scenario team.  I have been involved in scenarios in some capacity for the past 10 years.  I have just been named the new Lead CM for Scenarios.  My goal is to design events from the memories of the great ones I've held leadership roles in, such as BoB, Pearl Harbor, Ploesti, Coral Sea and the like.  

Culero, a good friend and long time Scenario junkie is on the Scenario Team.

We have just accepted Brooke into the Scenario Team.

I have extened invitations to several other long time Scenario Bred players who can only bring the Best to the game.

I expect good things from these guys, and I expect the players to rely on nail biting, white knuckeld Scenarios in the upcoming year.

But Charge for this?  Not on my watch, we do Scenarios because it's the Only way to truly get the best out of this game.  Its because we Want to, charging for events means we Have to, and you never get the best that way.

[Roscoroo]

I still cant speal senario  .... but there fun all the same ..

[ROC]

Rosco,

check post in Ghosts forum



(No, not the one where I try to teach you how to spell Scenario)

[Roscoroo]

grg  oops rgr ... left ya a =ghostly= message .

[Westy]

"to "improve" scenarios ..... ATTEND."


 Would love to!

 Since 2001 I have not been able to though as they've been midday, weekend only affairs.

 Between that and the overall stagnation of AH, IMO most players who were eager to participate in scenarios joined the historical-gameplay exodus to games like WWIIO and Il2. Each of which offer far better immersion and on a 7x24 schedule to boot.

  IMO only HTC can make AH appeal to ex-players or new ones who are looking for historical gameplay (re: Combat Tour).   About the only thing the CM team could do is schedule scenario frames other than "in the middle of the day on weekends."

  Yet I think even that move may be too late. IMO the pool of scenario minded players just isn't in AH anymore.

 Good luck though!

Westy