I think I'm about done

[toonces3]

Ok, please feel free to insert tears wherever necessary.

I think I'm about done fellas and Betty.

I've been playing almost 18 months now.  Lately, I'm just not feeling the love, nor the point.

We all hear the phrase, "the game has changed, it's not the same as it was (fill in the time period)..."  But, having a whopping year and a half in, I really do feel like I sense a game change, and not all for the better.

First, I seem utterly unable to find a 'good fight' at least on a regular basis.

When I first joined, I fought in all the arenas.  I mostly enjoyed the late war MA.  I'm surprised in that I actually found quite a few 1v1's in the LW MA.  I don't know why.  Maybe it was the smaller maps.  Maybe it was a different player base.  Maybe (probably) it was just luck. 

But when the LW MA wasn't working, I always knew I could count on the AvA.

Second, my attitude to the AvA has definately evolved.  At first, I felt it should be an extension of the MA...another arena with MA play, but with historical maps and planesets.  The AvA has evolved alot since I first started.  Perhaps the peak, imo, was the country play with the tiny maps.  Talk about intense fights!  Base capture on a map 6 or 8 squares a side.  Uber sticks like Ded, Kong, Trukill, N7, Oldman, 1Duke1, Storch, and so on.  You want to fight, go grab your 109 or jug and stand the heck by.  But, even then, you could get the 1v1.  I learned more after getting shot down by N7 or Storch, and then having them meet me to re-engage again over and over until the lessons sunk in... and of course they called their squad buddies off during a fight.  But now we have what we have. 
I commend Shifty and crowd for doing their best.  Is it good or bad?  Well, it's different.  Last time I got in the AvA I got beat on like the MA, but with a much longer commute.

Third, so I have been trying the DA.  I admit, I'm a newcomer to the DA.  The only time I went in there, prior to the 'new' AvA, was on drunken Friday nights to go against a squaddie for kicks.  Lately, instead of dueling buddies, I've been hitting 'furball lake.'  Now don't get me wrong, furball lake is what it is.  I don't go wading in expecting everyone to stop what they're doing to fight me.  In fact, I use it as a way to get my SA up fast, or to just experiment:  how well does a K-4 handle low and outnumbered 1 v 3?
But, tonight for example, it was low numbers; yet folks fight like it means something.  Like that perk plane actually, you know, cost perks, or you got perks for a kill.  I mean, I chased some clown in his C-hog, till his buddy knocked me off.  Yeah, I knew his bud was back there.  I was so mad that this clown wouldn't fight, that I was pwning but couldn't hit his sloshy bum 600 yards out with my tater gun...and then, fight after fight, I'd get isolated with a guy to have his unseen, 6.0k+ countryman come in to whack me deep into a turning, scissoring fight, or the time I engaged the temp disadvantaged, maneuvered, ate up the angles, and then had his boy in the spit clear me off, and I flew off then augered in frustration...and then guys are landing and congratulating themselves for landing in the freaking dueling arena!  Like WHY?  Is HTC putting the top guy in the DA on the front page anytime soon? 

Finally, these big maps.  Ok, you can't please everyone all of the time.  But, c'mon man.  You got 80-150 guys on one of these maps and it's a freaking ghost town.  Tonight I actually found the 'high numbers' arena, got going a bit, and folks are banging down the FH and VH, to capture the base.  But, you know, you knock down all those hangars and, like, who are we supposed to fight?

So here I am.  18 months later on a Wednesday night and I am freaking bored.  I'm just not feeling it.  I suppose some of this is growing pains.  I'm not an expert.  But, I can hold my own with most folks on here for a few turns.  I can land kills in most planes.  If I have any real problem now, it's that I can't survive hugely outnumbered, and that I really need some time to hold my guns on someone to kill them; my gunnery needs work.  But if I can get a con isolated, I can give him a good fight for a bit.  But, I don't want to just survive.  I actually want to just fight.  I don't have alot of time to play in a given night.  I need to get on, get in some fights, and then go to bed.  So, lately I've been saying to hell with score or any other measure of success (except fun) and I've been upping whatever I feel like flying, finding that proverbial 'biggest red darbar' and then wading in at 6k.  And you know what?  I get 3 or 4 or every red con in the vicinity dogging my tail, and I'm just not good enough to win 3 v 1 yet.  And dying every sortie, while exciting, just isn't all that fun either.

I'm not sure what's left.  I think I'm about done.  I have 900 perks in fighters.  I keep holding onto those, like they're my nest egg.  I keep telling myself that before I leave, I'm gonna burn those bad boys up.  All that work; I'm not giving them back to HTC for free. 

I suppose if y'all see me upping 262's, that means the end is at hand.

I see alot of folks with years in this game.  I keep wondering, "how?"  I don't really have an interest in another online game like Eve or Everquest or Warhammer.  Yet, I'm not feeling the hook to keep me here either. 

I suppose this warrants as a generic whine.  I hope at least my whine ranked well.

<S>
Toonces

[Rich46yo]

Take some time off from the game. Dont quit on a whim, lose all those perks, and then decide you cant live without it.

Im not as enthused as I was either, and I have about the same time in the game as you. I still enjoy it but dont log the hours I used to. Some evenings I'll turn off the puter and just watch TV instead..
Im a little put off but what I see as more gamey play too. Its hard finding 1 on 1s that are allowed to play out and theres to much gangbanging, either or, in the MAs. Now that schools back in Mon thru Fri. gameplay during the day is much improved but thats also the time of day Im at work too.

Dont speak of "ends". Playing the game is only part of it all. A bigger part is the people you meet and fly with.

Take some time off. Your just suffering from a bit of burnout for awhile.

[The Fugitive]

Maybe you have hit a stages. Your stuck in a rut. You keep doing the same things, including the same moves over and over and still ain't getting any where. If you fly as Toonces3 I checked your score, and you suck  Just kidding, but your right, your aim needs work, and you die alot.

Set some time aside to work with the trainers. If your not having any fun in the other arenas any way, it won't be a waste of time. They can help you get over that hump and move on the the next stage where your aim is a bit better, you look to kill 5 before RTBin, you survive long enough to kill off a couple in odd numbered engagements and so on.

If your bored with what your doing, change what your doin 

[NHawk]

This, like any other game is only as good as you make it.

What I mean by that is if you aren't happy with what you're doing...change something. I use to fly every plane available, every tour and that was fine for a while. Then I started flying one and only one plane per tour. Now I've got it narrowed down to where I almost always fly the same plane. Sound boring? Not really. It allows me to know the plane inside out. When I get bored with that I'll pick another plane and fly it exclusively.

Also, you might consider getting involved with other aspects of the game. In my case, it's terrains. When I just don't feel like flying I work on a terrain or two. And when I am flying/gv'ing I'm paying close attention to how every map plays and the comments from the players actually in the game (The forums are far from a majority concensus despite what posters think). Almost every day I come out of the game with some mental note about the terrains that I can apply to a new terrain.

There are other areas you might want to look in to. You'd be surprised how they can spark a new interest in the game.

[CAP1]

Ok, please feel free to insert tears wherever necessary.

I think I'm about done fellas and Betty.

I've been playing almost 18 months now.  Lately, I'm just not feeling the love, nor the point.

We all hear the phrase, "the game has changed, it's not the same as it was (fill in the time period)..."  But, having a whopping year and a half in, I really do feel like I sense a game change, and not all for the better.

First, I seem utterly unable to find a 'good fight' at least on a regular basis.NOT tring to be mean, but every time i've come across you, you have always been up in the outter atmosphere. no good fights up there.

When I first joined, I fought in all the arenas.  I mostly enjoyed the late war MA.  I'm surprised in that I actually found quite a few 1v1's in the LW MA.  I don't know why.  Maybe it was the smaller maps.  Maybe it was a different player base.  Maybe (probably) it was just luck. 
try MW. there's almost alwas good fights in there. there are some landgrabbers in there, but that only makes for more fun fights. i spent an hour and a half last night helping defend a vbase, which kept bringing 1 or 2 at a time in, making for some nice dogfights.
But when the LW MA wasn't working, I always knew I could count on the AvA.

Second, my attitude to the AvA has definately evolved.  At first, I felt it should be an extension of the MA...another arena with MA play, but with historical maps and planesets.  The AvA has evolved alot since I first started.  Perhaps the peak, imo, was the country play with the tiny maps.  Talk about intense fights!  Base capture on a map 6 or 8 squares a side.  Uber sticks like Ded, Kong, Trukill, N7, Oldman, 1Duke1, Storch, and so on.  You want to fight, go grab your 109 or jug and stand the heck by.  But, even then, you could get the 1v1.  I learned more after getting shot down by N7 or Storch, and then having them meet me to re-engage again over and over until the lessons sunk in... and of course they called their squad buddies off during a fight.  But now we have what we have. 
I commend Shifty and crowd for doing their best.  Is it good or bad?  Well, it's different.  Last time I got in the AvA I got beat on like the MA, but with a much longer commute.

Third, so I have been trying the DA.  I admit, I'm a newcomer to the DA.  The only time I went in there, prior to the 'new' AvA, was on drunken Friday nights to go against a squaddie for kicks.  Lately, instead of dueling buddies, I've been hitting 'furball lake.'  Now don't get me wrong, furball lake is what it is.  I don't go wading in expecting everyone to stop what they're doing to fight me.  In fact, I use it as a way to get my SA up fast, or to just experiment:  how well does a K-4 handle low and outnumbered 1 v 3?
But, tonight for example, it was low numbers; yet folks fight like it means something.  Like that perk plane actually, you know, cost perks, or you got perks for a kill.  I mean, I chased some clown in his C-hog, till his buddy knocked me off.  Yeah, I knew his bud was back there.  I was so mad that this clown wouldn't fight, that I was pwning but couldn't hit his sloshy bum 600 yards out with my tater gun...and then, fight after fight, I'd get isolated with a guy to have his unseen, 6.0k+ countryman come in to whack me deep into a turning, scissoring fight, or the time I engaged the temp disadvantaged, maneuvered, ate up the angles, and then had his boy in the spit clear me off, and I flew off then augered in frustration...and then guys are landing and congratulating themselves for landing in the freaking dueling arena!  Like WHY?  Is HTC putting the top guy in the DA on the front page anytime soon? 

haven't been to DA anytime recently, but if you came into a fight from higher up, then i figure these guys are gonna run, and try to set ya up. there may also be the possibility that a few in there are guys that used to just play the 8player free.

Finally, these big maps.  Ok, you can't please everyone all of the time.  But, c'mon man.  You got 80-150 guys on one of these maps and it's a freaking ghost town.  Tonight I actually found the 'high numbers' arena, got going a bit, and folks are banging down the FH and VH, to capture the base.  But, you know, you knock down all those hangars and, like, who are we supposed to fight?

with that many people, just get together with a couple guys, and pick an enemy base. start leveling it. take your time. sooner or later, they'll mass and you'll have a very nice furball on your hands

So here I am.  18 months later on a Wednesday night and I am freaking bored.  I'm just not feeling it.  I suppose some of this is growing pains.  I'm not an expert.  But, I can hold my own with most folks on here for a few turns.  I can land kills in most planes.  If I have any real problem now, it's that I can't survive hugely outnumbered, and that I really need some time to hold my guns on someone to kill them; my gunnery needs work.  But if I can get a con isolated, I can give him a good fight for a bit.  But, I don't want to just survive.  I actually want to just fight.  I don't have alot of time to play in a given night.  I need to get on, get in some fights, and then go to bed.  So, lately I've been saying to hell with score or any other measure of success (except fun) and I've been upping whatever I feel like flying, finding that proverbial 'biggest red darbar' and then wading in at 6k.  And you know what?  I get 3 or 4 or every red con in the vicinity dogging my tail, and I'm just not good enough to win 3 v 1 yet.  And dying every sortie, while exciting, just isn't all that fun either.fly with a wingman. even the odds.

I'm not sure what's left.  I think I'm about done.  I have 900 perks in fighters.  I keep holding onto those, like they're my nest egg.  I keep telling myself that before I leave, I'm gonna burn those bad boys up.  All that work; I'm not giving them back to HTC for free. 

I suppose if y'all see me upping 262's, that means the end is at hand.

I see alot of folks with years in this game.  I keep wondering, "how?"  I don't really have an interest in another online game like Eve or Everquest or Warhammer.  Yet, I'm not feeling the hook to keep me here either. 

I suppose this warrants as a generic whine.  I hope at least my whine ranked well.

<S>
Toonces

[Anaxogoras]

Any perception that the game or player behavior has changed in a year and a half is false.  Players in competitive online flight sims have exhibited the same dweeby behavior for decades.  Why do you think they wrote the "Book of Dweeb" in the Warbirds community 10+ years ago?  The only thing that's changed is you.

Steve wrote:

You know the guys, the guys that "live for the fight" and then curse at you for not giving up whatever advantage you developed to fight them evenly... Part of the MA environment and combat is the events that occur before the merge. Positioning, load out, angle, timing, plane choice.  All this is part of the combat sequence that the "Live for the fight" guys fail to see as part of the equation.

And the mystical 1vs1 duel that you're failing to find is largely caused by impatience and a desire not to see the main arena as the big complicated symphony that it is.

[Major Biggles]

toonces, you'll find it is probably you that has changed. you'll be a far better pilot and more experienced in how the game works, so your standards for what constitutes a good fight will have changed. don't worry, it happens to all of us

it's a burn period, but i promise after you learn to relax about it you start having more fun than ever. go for the areas where there's a load of guys and have a mad furball like normal, and you will soon realise that it creates great opportunities for 1 v 1 fights.

perhaps i can't talk, i haven't played in about 6 months, been away and now i get back my PC's dead and i haven't got round to fixing it... so perhaps the game has changed, but i assure you everyone gets that feeling after 1-2 years, but it soon passes. stick with it

[Saurdaukar]

Any perception that the game or player behavior has changed in a year and a half is false.  Players in competitive online flight sims have exhibited the same dweeby behavior for decades. 

Disagree.

[1cajun]

I'm sorry to hear that Toonces.  Of all the fights I've had in this game, I still remember the 3 we had 1v1 in the AvA one night.
Without a doubt the best fights I have ever had.   

[VonMessa]

Are you gonna sell your equipment on E-bay, or in the classifieds in your local paper?

I could use some b/u equipment.

[Max]

Keep the 262 parked on the ground and take a month or two, or three off. I suspect you'll want to resume play before 90 days pss by. As a few have said, your burnout isn't so unusual.

Frankly, I don't think the game was ever about, or meant to be about 1v1's. In the 7 yrs I've been playing AH, I've probably had about 20 really good toss and tumble smackdowns...the kind that raise your blood pressure about 20%  

I dunno if you're in a squad. If you are, grab a squaddie and head to the DA for some 1v1's. There's a lot of great sticks who are always willing to duke out a few fights in the DA...Dedalos and Skyrock come to mind.

Keep your account alive, go smell the roses for a few weeks and we'll cya back soon  

[Bucky73]

[Oldman731]

You keep doing the same things, including the same moves over and over and still ain't getting any where. If you fly as Toonces3 I checked your score, and you suck  Just kidding, but your right, your aim needs work, and you die alot.

Toonces' flying is just fine; as we all know, the stats are a poor indicator - if they're any indicator at all - of pilot skill.  He picked up on ACM very quickly.  I don't think he's complaining about any perceived inability to get kills, he's complaining about the process itself.

Toonces, dude, many of us have been flying AW, Warbirds and/or AH since the mid 1990s (and some longer than that!).  Over that sort of time span you do see broad changes in the quality of the combat, probably because the player base changes, sometimes as a result of game structure.  I sense that right now both of these factors are in play.  More, it seems to me that there has been a noticeable change over the past five or six years in the value that most players place on individual dogfighting skills.  I make no judgment call on this - the game supports all kinds of play - but it does mean that what once was a majority is now a diminishing minority.  The AvA is a prime example of this.  Up through the end of 2007, when the new War setups started, you could get some of the very best small-numbers air combat fights there - but you could also fly around by yourself for an hour and no one else would come into the arena (ask me how I know this).  Probably the dedicated DA people have similar stories to tell about the period before HTC put the lake thing in there.  The War has brought the AvA numbers up, and it is now possible to get a fight on nights when there would have been no fights at all.

I digress.  The important thing, so far as I'm concerned, is that even though you don't get as many good fights as you once did, you won't get ANY air combat fights if you put on tights and play World of Warcraft or one of those other elf games.  Stick with us, and do what you can to teach others that there is still glory to be found in individual fights against skilled opponents.

- oldman

[whiteman]

I hit a brick wall 7 months ago then got sick and didn't play for almost a month solid. The break was nice and when i came back i just did a bit of every thing. I enjoy myself much more now and take what ever the map and numbers offer.

[Delirium]

I agree with Toonces, 100%.

Now, we have hordes leveling/caping/vulching bases while a sector away the other side does the same thing to another undefended base.

Gavagai, I hate to say it but you are dead wrong.