After 9 years...

[Steve]

nah an old S3A viking nose picker here.......they decomissioned our squad may of last year, but they still flying a few of them S3B viking versions around here for a lil while longer ...... I was last stationed out of Cecilfield back in the 80's......Good Times  Good Times       

I have a high school buddy who flew off carriers in the late 80's... vikings I think.

[bozon]

(note: I am not playing the game currently for lack of proper "equipment")
In my eyes, the gameplay started to deteriorate when the game became too diverse and lost its focus. It now spans 6 years in equipment - these are wartime years, so similar to dog years it is more like 42 normal years. Instead of total focus on fighters/attackers, it now features bomber formations and tanks. There are also scores that are a technicality - meaning, you can adapt and refine a score orientated play style, that has little to do with the rest of what is going on in the arena - high score does not mean you are a very good <insert category> or even that you "helped your country" in any way. It is just a score that means you know how to score.

None of the above is bad. However, all of it together means that this game looses it defining character. A "game for all" sounds really good in theory, but I don't believe so in practice. The reality is that it also requires much compromise. A wide base community looses its individuals overlap of interests and in the arena, people have harder time finding their likes in the crowd.

Splitting into several arenas with different rule sets will not cut it as experiments show. There is a population instability problem - populated arenas attract more people which just makes them even more populated. There are critical numbers that need to be maintained in order for an arena to be fun. People would rather log into the populated arena and play a rule set less to their liking (but it is not like they hate the other arena) than log into their favorite one and wait for someone else to log in so they have someone to play with.

The "old" guys liked the old game - it was clearly about fighters and dogfights. Bombers and GV were a minor sideshow. Without scores, the only focus was on the quality of dogfights. Even landgrab was more of an excuse to start a furball and attract enemy fighters - often a squadron attacking a base would face another squadron coming to defend/win it back. Since the attack was all jabo fighters it would lead to great fights, instead of crashing a lanc formation into a driving GV storming the base. Of course it also means that the game appealed to a MUCH smaller community.

HT's vision of the CT, the way I understand it, could have offered some interesting solution. When you sign up for a specific role (fighter, bomber etc), it would keep you in a coherent frame and match you with your likes. The others are just background. It is a segregation in a way, but in a large community it may not be a bad thing. This however will remain in theory it seems.

I have no clear solution. It seems to me that AH has several games, using the same infrastructure and cyber space colliding into each other. Perhaps the way to make it better is to make a much more drastic split that arena rule sets - make it more like several games: different forums, different feel, different gameplay altogether that would cater to different styles without compromise. Instead of scattering incomplete planset/gv set over the entire war period and fronts, concentrate on a more complete sets of more focused time and place. I doubt HTC would experiment with such a thing.

[mechanic]

With all these quality people and solid opinions it is hard to imagine there is space for all these tards we are discussing...

Perhaps the real problem is not to do with the game at all, perhaps the real problems here is the divide between forum users, or those involved with the on-going community VS those who just play the game and dont get involved with this rubbish. I rekon there to be a good 35% of the AH2 game playing population who have never read this website at all or communicated with people in the game.

[Anaxogoras]

I rekon there to be a good 35% of the AH2 game playing population who have never read this website at all or communicated with people in the game.

I'd say closer to 90% of the player base has never visited the forums.

[NHawk]

I'd say closer to 90% of the player base has never visited the forums.

Umm...go higher.

People on the forums don't realize just how much of a minority they are.

[Lusche]

Umm...go higher.

People on the forums don't realize just how much of a minority they are.

But.. but... aren't the forums the core game? And that "sim" thing just a free goody, for the sole purpose of instigating BBS fights and providing an online chatroom?

[mechanic]

the % i thought was not forum non-users but people who have never read this website, having found the game through an external link (like myself for the first 6 months), and do not communicate more than a few words a year in the arena.

[BnZs]

and do not communicate more than a few words a year in the arena.

There is something to be said for the man who has nothing to say and can not be induced into saying it.

Yesterday, I got pretty annoyed at an occurrence or two. I guess I could jump on the "the game is going to sh**t bandwagon, but I dunno. One thing I've (seemingly) noticed in the, what, 2 years maybe, I've been here, is that getting a HO/FQ snapshot tossed at you when passing another fighter has gone from 50% to 90%. And some are apparently getting enough practice to get fairly accurate at it. 

Fact is though, I can still open up the map, look for a red bar, and find all the enemy planes I can handle (and more!) 90% of the time.

[mechanic]

fine philosophy and most agreeable in squeaker season

[bongaroo]

I know it will be a good fight if we make a head on merge and the opponent doesn't open up with his guns.  Otherwise I'm already missing a wing from the lucky shot or the dweeb is watching (or not if his SA sucks) in amazement as ACMs land me square on his six for the kill.

The poor fellows who move around in groups of no less than 10 and start spraying at 1000yds at every merge are missing more than 3/4's of what makes this game so good.

[Patches1]

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat ."

This is my favorite quote, from my favorite President...Teddy Roosevelt...and I believe it encompasses all of the players in Aces High whether they are long term Veterans of early flight sims, or the very Newest player driving his, or her, GV towards the nearest undefended town...this quote applies.

Each of us fights our own fight, in our own way, and HT has given us the medium in which we each may choose how we fight. No map, no arena, no score changes, will ever change an individual's interest in how he, or she, compares himself, or herself against another in Combat.

patches

[shreck]

I know it will be a good fight if we make a head on merge and the opponent doesn't open up with his guns.  Otherwise I'm already missing a wing from the lucky shot or the dweeb is watching (or not if his SA sucks) in amazement as ACMs land me square on his six for the kill.

The poor fellows who move around in groups of no less than 10 and start spraying at 1000yds at every merge are missing more than 3/4's of what makes this game so good.

As I have said before,---> it is almost always the vets who pull off the successful HO shots!! NOOBS have neither the experience or skill to pull it off consistantly,. Lucky at times---> "yes" but it truely is not difficult to avoid a HO from a new guy, The vet is the one who has the fine control and experience to pull off, what they would call a "high deflection shot" that most of us relate as a HO--> LOL. Quite frankly being HOd by noobs has never bothered me, as this is just the natural path of the very steep learning curve of this game!   ( high deflection shot)<-------- honestly

[A8TOOL]

Planes you can expect to get Ho'ed by

190's 98%
Temp
109

I hate 190's because of this and running from 15k to the deck

[bongaroo]

As I have said before,---> it is almost always the vets who pull off the successful HO shots!! NOOBS have neither the experience or skill to pull it off consistantly,. Lucky at times---> "yes" but it truely is not difficult to avoid a HO from a new guy, The vet is the one who has the fine control and experience to pull off, what they would call a "high deflection shot" that most of us relate as a HO--> LOL. Quite frankly being HOd by noobs has never bothered me, as this is just the natural path of the very steep learning curve of this game!   ( high deflection shot)<-------- honestly

If we are past the first clean merge and than they get guns on me thats different and probably is a high deflection crossing shot.

As I've asked before what do you consider a "vet"?

I've never had anyone that I would consider a veteran of the game open up his guns as we approach HO for the first merge.  Maybe we need to decide on a definition of "veteran of aces high".

[BnZs]

Planes you can expect to get Ho'ed by

190's 98%
Temp
109

I hate 190's because of this and running from 15k to the deck

I haven't experienced this as a problem from most 109s or 190D9s. A8s....well what do you expect? Typhies too.

The oddest thing is the number of Ponies that will try to HO anything.