EW/MW/LW

[SB]

i used to fly relaxed realism europe there all the time. was fght6 in there.

it seemed to work well, but we have the fact that aw went away. why did that happen? was it their way of operating, or did it only happen because they got bought out?

EA bough Kesmai. At first it looked as if that would be a great boon for a couple of games (AirWarrior and Battletech). Turns out they were not interested in developing these games, it was the server code they were really after. If the games didn't have the potential to be the next EverQuest they axed them.

SB

[Anaxogoras]

If I was to decide, I would kill Bishops, Knights and Rooks chess-pieces and set it up an all Axis vs Allies thing. I would introduce maps according to the time flow and, when simultaneous, I would put them sequencially, until the end of the "war". I would eliminate the aberration of scoring. I would fill the gaps in the planeset. I would make rare birds expensively perked. I would shut down EW, MW and AvA. I would keep LWMA, one only, free for all, 24/7 Titanic Tuesday. I would keep TA. I would shut down DA. I would keep SEA. And WW1 arena. I would, when I could, create a Korean War arena, but not a priority.

People will go where there is more people. Or they go to where you push them to go. Having a choice, or the sensation of choice, is good for business. Force-feed your costumers is not good marketing.

When you say you would keep the LWMA, is it the same as the Axis-Allies scheme you mention above?  When they tried an Axis-Allies main arena in Warbirds it didn't work out so well, for a number of reasons, partly because of a lack of heavy bombers on the axis side.  The biggest issue was that the two sides began to vilify each other to a far greater extent than chess pieces would ever allow.  There was very little side switching.  The dedicated allied crowd were convinced that the axis pilots were a bunch of Nazi apologists, while the axis crowd was convinced that the allied pilots only wanted an episode from Dogfights, i.e. target practice.  If that weren't bad enough, it still wasn't historical because you had Yaks alongside P-51s and A6Ms alongside 109s.

Over all, I'm with you on the main arena being a waste of time.  Still, I do fear a repeat of what happened in Warbirds when they went axis-allies full time.  It might be that the only way to prevent such a disaster would be to force people to switch sides from time to time, and that's never going to fly.

[sparow]

When you say you would keep the LWMA, is it the same as the Axis-Allies scheme you mention above? 

Sorry, didn't explained myself correctly, you're right. I would keep LW MA just as it is today, wouldn't change a bolt...

EW, MW, AvA and DA were the ones to merge in a single historical, rolling planeset, Theater of Operations after Theather of Operations, full 1939 to 1945 WW2.

I would still keep TA and SEA1 and SEA2. But I would confine the community into 2 big arenas, basically. Maybe I'm wrong, I usually do...

Didn't knew that had happened in Warbirds... I left WB 10 years ago to AH1. Got a bit extreme, hey?!...

[doomed]

i would just like to see real maps in all the arenas. what gives anyways with the "pizza" map etc etc how comes no historic maps at least.

[Lusche]

i would just like to see real maps in all the arenas. what gives anyways with the "pizza" map etc etc how comes no historic maps at least.

How "real" or "historic" do you want to have the map? Real distances?

And the most important thing you have to take into account when creating a MA map is play balance. Not always easy to take a "real" map layout and have no country put at a disadvantage.

But you should take a look at the maps in AvA and SEA...

[The Fugitive]

i would just like to see real maps in all the arenas. what gives anyways with the "pizza" map etc etc how comes no historic maps at least.

because this is a game. A real map would have one team always at some disadvantage, sometimes a huge disadvantage, and where would the fun be in that? That's why the maps look like evenly spaced maps. A ap that doesn't present even side would not be allowed as a MA map, thought the senarios and AvA maps are not as strict.

[CAP1]

Sorry, didn't explained myself correctly, you're right. I would keep LW MA just as it is today, wouldn't change a bolt...

EW, MW, AvA and DA were the ones to merge in a single historical, rolling planeset, Theater of Operations after Theather of Operations, full 1939 to 1945 WW2.

I would still keep TA and SEA1 and SEA2. But I would confine the community into 2 big arenas, basically. Maybe I'm wrong, I usually do...

Didn't knew that had happened in Warbirds... I left WB 10 years ago to AH1. Got a bit extreme, hey?!...

we don't need to touch ew or mw. they;'re fine.

[Anaxogoras]

Didn't knew that had happened in Warbirds... I left WB 10 years ago to AH1. Got a bit extreme, hey?!...

I also stopped flying around the Fall of '99, and took a peek at WB3 in '02, and didn't like what I saw.  The community was tearing itself apart over the axis/allies main arena.  From what I hear the concept was axed not long afterward.  Great idea, but without an adequately mature player base to implement it....

[BaldEagl]

we don't need to touch ew or mw. they;'re fine.

Really?  You think the ghost town that is EW with a squad of base takers that won't fight is OK?  OK.

[CAP1]

Really?  You think the ghost town that is EW with a squad of base takers that won't fight is OK?  OK.

it's their money. let em do what they want with it. it keeps em from polluting out other arenas too.

[Simba]

"If I was to decide, I would kill Bishops, Knights and Rooks chess-pieces and set it up an all Axis vs Allies thing."

Good idea. Especially if history could be slightly re-written to provide the Axis with the same strategic bombing capability as the Allies: reliable Ju290, He177, with maybe one of the whacky 'Luftwaffe 1946' multi-jet bombers to add fun to the mix, plus a four-engined ride for the Nipponese.

Talking of history, Sparow - whatever happened to the Warbirds Tangmere Wing? The first online squadron I ever flew with was 249 (Gold Coast), when Ramjet was the skipper; switched to Duxford Wing when I discovered the hard way that RJ wasn't nearly as good a leader as he was an individual fighter.

Cheers!



 

[druski85]

it's their money. let em do what they want with it.

I just suddenly had a flash to those obnoxious ads for J G Wentworth.    Looootsss of people yelling out windows. 

[CAP1]

I just suddenly had a flash to those obnoxious ads for J G Wentworth.    Looootsss of people yelling out windows. 

 


seriously though...........there's lots of fun fights to be had in mw. if so many like the ew plane set(as a lot say) then all it takes is a "hey guys, anyone up for some fights in ew?"

[sparow]

"If I was to decide, I would kill Bishops, Knights and Rooks chess-pieces and set it up an all Axis vs Allies thing."

Good idea. Especially if history could be slightly re-written to provide the Axis with the same strategic bombing capability as the Allies: reliable Ju290, He177, with maybe one of the whacky 'Luftwaffe 1946' multi-jet bombers to add fun to the mix, plus a four-engined ride for the Nipponese.

Talking of history, Sparow - whatever happened to the Warbirds Tangmere Wing? The first online squadron I ever flew with was 249 (Gold Coast), when Ramjet was the skipper; switched to Duxford Wing when I discovered the hard way that RJ wasn't nearly as good a leader as he was an individual fighter.

Cheers!

Simba,

Sorry, won´t bite. Your first sentence is ridiculous. Ask Goering. The second one reveals laziness, distraction or both. Ask yourself. Oh, btw, what happened to Duxford Wing?...

Cheers,

[BaldEagl]

Thanks to all who posted ideas.  I 'm glad to see this has been at least a civil discussion to this point.

I was just thinking about game mechanics.  In the early part of the war the German Blitzkrieg was the predominant effort, followed by the arial warfare of the Battle of Britan, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and eventually the American strategic bombing of Germany.  It seems there could be a somewhat logical sequence followed in AH, emphasising the ground war in EW, air to air combat and attack bombing in MW and strategic bombing in LW.  Not to lose any of these areas in any arena but maybe the scoring mechanisms could be modified for each arena adding emphasis to these specific areas to follow the progression of the war.  I know there were a lot of other events I didn't mention but for me at least, these were predominant.

Something along these lines would help make each arena unique without the need to restrict the plane/GV sets any more than they are.  It's kind of funny that the current arenas already do reflect this to a degree.  A little extra well thought out push in each of these areas might be interesting.

Anyway, just another thought.