Originally posted by Widewing
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There are several things that I have advocated for several years.
1) Place a perk value on bombs [>500lbs].....snip.....
2) Recognize that various types of bombs were required for various targets. ....snip.....
3) Add some difficulty to bombsight calibration and some sort of randomizer .....snip.....
4) Bombers designed for level bombing should only have bombs released by the bombardier......snip......
5) Harden barracks and ordnance bunkers. ......snip.....
6) Harden both unmanned and manned AA....snip.....
My regards,
Widewing
This would be a great system if all players were experienced. However, I suspect it wouldnt work from a AH
business standpoint because of the critical role bombers play in maintaining addiction as newer guys develop.
I've been in online flight sims for less than 3 years, and I had near absent ACM skill prior to AH2. I've thought about HOW my abilities moved forward, and I've seen MANY others follow the same path. I'd bet that most players move through these developmental stages as AH'ers:
1)The "this is REALLY cool" stage. New guys try everything, and though they die alot they figure its because they're learning. They have no idea how hard it will be, but they keep trying and dying cause they can see it'll be a blast.
2)Try hard at fighters, dies all the time, looks for something else to do. Often finds can survive in bombers or GVs more easily, and can sometimes contribute to battles and bases that way. Keeps upping fighters, but dies more often than kills. Avoids balanced sectors because SA is still weak, and cant be sure why keeps dying.
3) Gets pretty good at bombers or GVs, enough so that may decide to stay with them for "career." Some keep trying fighters, and gradually learn the skills needed to stay alive and get kills.
4)Respectable fighter skills, but not a contender in tight ACM situations or 1v1s. Evasives and concepts still need work.
5) An established fighter jock who is now ready to learn the finer points. Sensei says that those who receive black belt are mature enough to realize that they are just beginning to learn their art -- and same here.
I firmly believe that bombers help players stay in the game, while they're learning the full range of what AH offers.
If bombers are made less accessible or less effective, many new guys will drop out of the retention stream and be lost to AH.This is all a long way to say that while Widewing's ideas would work well for the pool of moderately skilled players, I dont think they could work well for HTC. AH2 needs a continued stream of new players, and ANY step that reduces retention is a BAD idea for all of us too.
On further consideration,
I think the best measures may be MOIL's suggested increase in AA defenses on bases. Making low level porking suicidal BEFORE the strats go down will require a change in tactics -- use bombs and release @1k alt to stay clear, use medium bombers to strat or even high alt ones. With stronger ack defenses, the hardnesses wouldnt need to change, because the ack alone would shift the balance adequately.
Best of all, from a retention standpoint, it would let lower skilled players get even more involved in the game -- they'd be able to pork as well as anyone, and would be more likely to have the needed patience for higher approaches.
