Host Change Thurs 10/19

[SlapShot]

Originally posted by Overlag



EW: 8
MW: 12
LW1: 120 (and full)
LW2: 10

thats my problem. I dont care where the population is, i just want to be with it.

i DONT fly LW planes, i dont have "if i cant beat them, join them" attitude.

read again...... I DONT CARE WHERE I FLY, i just want to fly with people. I joined MW as soon as i realised it was the biggest arena to fly in, and ive been there for almost 4 hours, and guess how many cons ive seen:

[size=8]0[/size]

OK ... so I don't get it ...   ... wouldn't be the first time ... my apologies.

EW:16
MW:18
LW1:120
LW2:42

All things change in time.

[Traveler]

Originally posted by SlapShot
I'll take a stab at ... mind you this is only my viewpoint.

Back in AH1, there was a time that when 240 people were online ... that was huge.

Now for arguments sake, lets say that the arena was balanced at 80 players per country.

Now ... when the Knights ran missions you would get around, on an average, 10-20 people in the mission. That group in no way could march across a map with ease ... they may capture a few bases, but once the word was out ... others on the opposing teams put up an opposition and it only really required around 10 people to do it and to get 10 people to put up an opposition was not a hard thing to do. That was a "mission".

When the MA raised the limit to 750 people, we were seeing countries with a populations larger than all the people logged into the older MA of AH1. With that, coordinated attacks (missions) in this arena could contain between 50 or more people and I have seen attack groups numbering close to 100 as the original 50 began the "roll". Now this is "herding" and it is extremely hard to get enough people together (diversity on what people want to do while online is the limiting factor here) to stop the "herd"/"horde" or whatever you want to call it.

Now where ever the "herd" went, no matter how others tried to cull the herd, for all intents and purposes, it was futile ... and I would surmise that many people were very unhappy with that and I would also surmise that HT and Co. saw that the 2 weekers were dropping like flies ... not good for HTC.

Bringing the arena numbers back to a number where critical mass (herds) cannot control the whole arena is what they are trying to accomplish ... IMHO.

My squad was back in the AH1 days as well and love when any nme takes most of their resouces to "hord" as you say, "Big Mission" is what I say, because they leave a lot of bases undeffended to capture.  you don't have to oppose the  "hord" to take advantage.  But I respect your viewpoint, however, as you stated it is your viewpoint and I'm interested in how HiTech will address my question.

[Overlag]

Originally posted by Donzo
WOW!

It's amazing that you came up with that response.  

Nowhere in Overlag's post did I see anything that suggested he was upset because his "favorite arena is not populated enough for him to enjoy".

On top of that you assume he has a favorite arena and it is the LW arena.

Talk about jumping to conclusions....

exactly, this is what slap does, and he insults people on the way, trying to get them to snap again, making the whole thing worse...

Im trying to get the point across properly now and suggesting things to hitech, instead of whining like a baby like last night, however slap keeps coming up with trash talk to try and set people off again.... but however since hes mod (i cant ignore him cos hes a mod?) he gets away with it.

[SlapShot]

Originally posted by Overlag
exactly, this is what slap does, and he insults people on the way, trying to get them to snap again, making the whole thing worse...

Im trying to get the point across properly now and suggesting things to hitech, instead of whining like a baby like last night, however slap keeps coming up with trash talk to try and set people off again.... but however since hes mod (i cant ignore him cos hes a mod?) he gets away with it.

See my above post.

[Traveler]

Originally posted by kamilyun
1. HT/Pyro has clearly stated that by HTC's proprietary metrics, customers were either not signing up after 2 weeks, or were canceling subscriptions

2.  They attributed this to stagnant gameplay in the MA and the attitude or "feeling" a new player gets in HUGE arenas.

3.  They decided to change this...which means...less people per arena.  Period.

I guess they did a follow up survey to determine why the two week newbees were not subscribing .  I wonder if pricing was part of that servey?

[Overlag]

Originally posted by SlapShot
OK ... so I don't get it ...   ... wouldn't be the first time ... my apologies.

EW:16
MW:18
LW1:120
LW2:42

All things change in time.

yeah, because its getting to prime time.. of corse its "improving"

the game was a 24hour game, it is not right now.


so, Hitech.... maybe tweak the caps to 60 first? not 120?

ie 60-120-180-240-300 instead of 120-180-etc?

i think the same should happen for EW and MW too

[Clutz]

Originally posted by kamilyun
1. HT/Pyro has clearly stated that by HTC's proprietary metrics, customers were either not signing up after 2 weeks, or were canceling subscriptions

2.  They attributed this to stagnant gameplay in the MA and the attitude or "feeling" a new player gets in HUGE arenas.

3.  They decided to change this...which means...less people per arena.  Period.

I think it comes down to having the game set up for the little guy, like me, or have the game set up so big huge squads can obliterate at will.  Both are good, but I am starting to think these two different ideas of fun are somewhat incompatible. I guess???

[jtdragon]

. HT/Pyro has clearly stated that by HTC's proprietary metrics, customers were either not signing up after 2 weeks


Will make a stab at this, could it have been that alot of them wanted a game they could learn in a hour. they would sign in without reading anything or going to the training area then we would be trying to fight and answer questions from 4 or 5 of then at one time, how do you start engine, what fires my gun, how do I drop bombs. Some of the young people don't understand that this is a hard game to learn to play and they did not want to take the time to do it. It was weeks before I had my first kill in a aircraft. I like the EA for the needies, slow pace where they can learn after beging in the training area for a day.

This is not the only reason for them to leave but I think it played a big part.

[SlapShot]

Originally posted by jtdragon
. HT/Pyro has clearly stated that by HTC's proprietary metrics, customers were either not signing up after 2 weeks


Will make a stab at this, could it have been that alot of them wanted a game they could learn in a hour. they would sign in without reading anything or going to the training area then we would be trying to fight and answer questions from 4 or 5 of then at one time, how do you start engine, what fires my gun, how do I drop bombs. Some of the young people don't understand that this is a hard game to learn to play and they did not want to take the time to do it. It was weeks before I had my first kill in a aircraft. I like the EA for the needies, slow pace where they can learn after beging in the training area for a day.

This is not the only reason for them to leave but I think it played a big part.

The reasons stated above have always been and will always be a constant in Aces High ... it is not new and I am sure that HTC knows that they will lose 2 weekers to what you have pointed out, but I don't think that the changes we see now are attributed to that.

[Eagler]

it must be me
but I find it only takes about 5 sticks per side with bases not too far apart for all the AH fun I need for an hour or two distraction from the daily grind ...

[reacher15]

"I do not realy care what type (i.e EW MW LW) of arena you wish to fly in."  

I think i figured that out when i saw that new map. i liked the lack of everything.  no topography was a stroke of genius.
I like the new changes...it's right in there with my lack of personality and creativity.

....and i don"t care either.

[Traveler]

Originally posted by jtdragon
. HT/Pyro has clearly stated that by HTC's proprietary metrics, customers were either not signing up after 2 weeks


Will make a stab at this, could it have been that alot of them wanted a game they could learn in a hour. they would sign in without reading anything or going to the training area then we would be trying to fight and answer questions from 4 or 5 of then at one time, how do you start engine, what fires my gun, how do I drop bombs. Some of the young people don't understand that this is a hard game to learn to play and they did not want to take the time to do it. It was weeks before I had my first kill in a aircraft. I like the EA for the needies, slow pace where they can learn after beging in the training area for a day.

This is not the only reason for them to leave but I think it played a big part.

Also a review of little Bobby's Computer cost, Internet bill plus AH bill , headset and Joystick expense has Dad laying out over a $180. for just this one game on an annual basis and I'm sure that little Bobby is playing other online games.  

As for older members leaving, I wonder what the actual count was when AHII replaced AHI,  Most of the grips at that time was the need to upgrade computer equipment.  I know I left for a short time while I waited for the new gaming machine to be built and arrive.

Despite what politicians would have you believe the economy is not that rosy for the workforce in the US.  Corporation are doing well, because they are cutting costs(cutting high paid US workers)  and making a larger profit(employing non US workforce).    For some it has come down to Bobby has lunch money for school or AH.  $15.00 a month doesn't sound like much but it's a lot to a guy without a job.

It appears that Aces High will be trying to draw new customers to it's established customer base through  advertising.  That's how business grows and business need to grow in order to remain profitable.

[scottydawg]

Originally posted by jtdragon
. HT/Pyro has clearly stated that by HTC's proprietary metrics, customers were either not signing up after 2 weeks


Will make a stab at this, could it have been that alot of them wanted a game they could learn in a hour. they would sign in without reading anything or going to the training area then we would be trying to fight and answer questions from 4 or 5 of then at one time, how do you start engine, what fires my gun, how do I drop bombs. Some of the young people don't understand that this is a hard game to learn to play and they did not want to take the time to do it. It was weeks before I had my first kill in a aircraft. I like the EA for the needies, slow pace where they can learn after beging in the training area for a day.

This is not the only reason for them to leave but I think it played a big part.

With all due respect, I think you're wrong. I don't think that the recent changes have anything to do with the 'learning curve'.  I mean, I haven't noticed anything that makes the game's learning curve any less steep... have you?  I think the changes are addressing issues with the game's culture specifically, and the herd mentality HT has described previously.

I doubt this game will ever be for casual gamers, it has something of a niche appeal.  It's totally different than arcadey games, however CT might be leaning to the RP side with the career aspect, as well as making the learning curve more linear, as opposed to spending a couple weeks in the TA and then heading into the MA to get your butt kicked for 6 months. Now THAT can be discouraging, and the only things I see that ameliorates it are squads and people who take newbies 'under their wing'.  That seemed to be sorely lacking in the old MA.

As for the learning curve, the training corps is doing a great job with the training site, but I think it actually reinforces the impression that there is a (some would say) daunting amount of 'homework' you need to do in order to do well in the game.

[Clutz]

Originally posted by Eagler
it must be me
but I find it only takes about 5 sticks per side with bases not too far apart for all the AH fun I need for an hour or two distraction from the daily grind ...

Me too!   But, I need anywhere from 4 to 6 hours distraction.

[airspro]

the game is a vehicle for relationships

Yep well said NB

I found some really nice friends online , hope to make more .