Where's WWI going from here?

[sluggish]

I may shorten the Icon range in WW1. Full time radar exist so enemy / friendly ID is not a problem. The only reason I would change is simply to clutter the screen. I was thinking about the 2K range.

HiTech

Dude!  Thanx for participating in the discussion!  I would also suggest reducing local vox range in WW1.  We're packing A LOT more planes into A LOT smaller spaces.  Many times we have people stepping all over each other just due to sheer numbers.  If these jokers want to talk to each other from across the map they can take a private vox channel.

[Toad]

I say turn the tables on THEM!  The penalty for letting the enemy get too close to your base is that it runs the risk of getting temporarily flattened.  To protect your base, you have to push out and defend forward.  Keep the enemy at bay so your buddies can get up and back into the fight.  That gives both teams the motivation to at least meet in the middle.  It would remove the idea of "hey guys, lets fall back to the base ack and let them come to us!"

IMHO,
Wab

And this is where we don't have common ground. 

Motivation.

Trying to devise game mechanisms to force players that don't relish the fight to get into the fight never really work IMO.

OTOH, there's no point in playing if all you do is fly around.

Imagine this Wab: What if no one pursues to the field? What if everyone stayed within a mile or two of the trench line on the map that divides the two "countries"?  Where would the fights be then? If all the action was over that middle trench line, how long would a player stay in the ack at his home field?

It's the old deal from early AH where you let the guy get up, get some alt and get some speed so he could have a reasonable chance at successfully engaging rather than getting slaughtered over and over again. In pursuit of score, that ethic has pretty much disappeared from AH. That ethic makes for better gameplay though.

To me, the 'cheese' for the mouse is the fight itself. If a particular mouse doesn't like 'cheese' you can try electric shocks to move him through the maze but now instead of joyfully going to something, he's just trying to avoid unpleasantness and will try other methods to avoid same. The latter doesn't make for much of a game; see the WW2 MA.

IMO.

[CptTrips]

"The penalty for letting the enemy get too close to your base is that it runs the risk of getting
temporarily flattened.  To protect your base, you have to push out and defend forward."

Ahhh.   Just like the WWII "main arenas" now! 

Sorry but <gack!> that is *exactly* why I stopped flying AH years ago, waited too many blue
moons in vain for CT but now relish and appreciate the new WWI set up. The Ma turned into
a "war winnuh's" sandbox. As soon as penalties are introduced to force a change in my
preference of play or provides others "incentives" to ruin it for me I'll be gone just as fast
again. and so wi,l many others. Not talking for them but witness the testicle-free MA arenas
now. It's a romper room of light speed, augernauts, milkrunners and fight-avoiders all trying
to pummel inanimate pixels so they can "win the war"


 Westy

Westy,

I don't see how you can have "Win deh War" if you can't capture bases.   I'd say there is nothing more "testicle-free" and "fight-avoiding" than circling in impenetrable ack.

IMHO,
Wab
 

[Westy]

 Cause in my memory of AH last was most base capturing being done with a
pork-horde that first neutered an undefended base with augernauts "piloting"
heavy fighters and then finishing the facilities off with dive bombing Lancasters.

 Inpenetrable ack intended to do "something" will be circumnavigated somehow
by some rat who, given the new tools and penalties to "drive" game play in a
certain way,  will work incessantly to "game' his way around the "system"

 Like cock roaches,  these types of players, who want to disrupt the game play
of others or purposefully avoid player-to-player interaction. *will* find a way to
do it.  When that happens (just like the WW2 arenas with combat avoiding,
pork-n-run augernauts and dive bombing heavies) it'll be like a dinner bell
calling all the other winnuhs to the arena.  

 Don't get me wrong. I would love to take on bombers, straffe trenches or
pop barrage balloons. I loved Red Baron in it's day and the whole concept of
what HiTech's CT was supposed to be. But I love dog fighting most and any
kind of penalty that prevents that (imo) just plain sucks.  Give someone points
or a reward of some kindfor doing something like bombing a railyard in an
active combat area. Just don't let their actions penalize anyone else's
enjoyment at all though.
 

[PFactorDave]

I don't see how you can have "Win deh War" if you can't capture bases.   I'd say there is nothing more "testicle-free" and "fight-avoiding" than circling in impenetrable ack.


 

Except perhaps vulching defenseless planes as they try to take off...  Which seems to be the end result of what you are asking for Wab.

[CptTrips]

Imagine this Wab: What if no one pursues to the field? What if everyone stayed within a mile or two of the trench line on the map that divides the two "countries"?  Where would the fights be then? If all the action was over that middle trench line, how long would a player stay in the ack at his home field?

It's the old deal from early AH where you let the guy get up, get some alt and get some speed so he could have a reasonable chance at successfully engaging rather than getting slaughtered over and over again. In pursuit of score, that ethic has pretty much disappeared from AH. That ethic makes for better gameplay though.

I would prefer the fight out in the middle instead of having to fly all the way to their base.  However, I've seen cases where the other team refuses to leave their field ack and come to the middle, even with even numbers.

In those situations, all I'm asking for is the ability to go get them.  If I have to fly all the way to their field, I want the ability the level the damn thing into dust in punishment for making me have to fly so far. 

,
Wab

[CptTrips]

Except perhaps vulching defenseless planes as they try to take off...  Which seems to be the end result of what you are asking for Wab.

But of course all they have to do to stop that is meet me at the halfway point and kill me before I can get to their base.  Simple enough.

,
Wab

[Yeager]

Nah, Ive seen times when the reds held the high ground too near the green base to make it worth taking off.  As soon as the greens get out of the ack safety net they get pounced on by 3:1 odds.  At least having that space directly over the field to grab altitude safely gives the greens some sanctuary to enter a fight on equal or favorable terms since the reds tend to fly back towards the middle area once they see a fight coming their way. 

[CptTrips]

Nah, Ive seen times when the reds held the high ground too near the green base to make it worth taking off.  As soon as the greens get out of the ack safety net they get pounced on by 3:1 odds.  At least having that space directly over the field to grab altitude safely gives the greens some sanctuary to enter a fight on equal or favorable terms since the reds tend to fly back towards the middle area once they see a fight coming their way.  

OK, well, we can't agree on everything.  

But I'm not seeing too many objections to:

3 field DA-Furball-Lake type configuration (not necessarily on high cliffs),

reasonably spaced so all three teams can mix it up in the same airspace,

Puffy white clouds around 2-3k to play cat and mouse in.

Maybe some kind of icon tweaks.

I'll take what I can get  ,
Wab

[Toad]

I'd say there is nothing more "testicle-free" and "fight-avoiding" than circling in impenetrable ack.

IMHO,
Wab

I'd say there is nothing more boring for the player doing it than circling in impenetrable ack. Eventually they come out and fight or land/log.

[Toad]

But of course all they have to do to stop that is meet me at the halfway point and kill me before I can get to their base.  Simple enough.

,
Wab

All YOU have to do is stop and wait at the halfway point and they most likely come out there and try to do so. Simple enough.

 

[Toad]

OK, well, we can't agree on everything. 

But I'm not seeing too many objections to:

3 field DA-Furball-Lake type configuration (not necessarily on high cliffs),

reasonably spaced so all three teams can mix it up in the same airspace,

Puffy white clouds around 2-3k to play cat and mouse in.

I'll take what I can get  ,
Wab

Certainly worth a shot in one of the WW1 arenas. Not a lake though; rolling terrain, trees, buildings, rivers, bridges to fly under (remember The Blue Max?).

[CptTrips]

Certainly worth a shot in one of the WW1 arenas. Not a lake though; rolling terrain, trees, buildings, rivers, bridges to fly under (remember The Blue Max?).

Fully agree. I hate the water at FB lake.  Often too hard to tell where the surface is.  Don't ask me how I know that. 

Wab

[Yeager]

3 field DA-Furball-Lake type configuration (not necessarily on high cliffs),
====
Personally I prefer the option of starting a fight from more than one field.  Sometimes I like upping  alone from one of the unused fields and heading over to another red unused field and seeing what sort of reaction I can get from the reds.  Having a DA style feel to WW1 is NOT what I want to see happen in the ww1 arenas.

reasonably spaced so all three teams can mix it up in the same airspace,
====
I think we already have this....I dunno

Puffy white clouds around 2-3k to play cat and mouse in.
====
I prefer the bright clear days and far as Im concerned HT could freeze the sun at high noon forever.
some puffy clouds would be fine though.

I'll take what I can get
====
Always take what you can get

[CptTrips]

Personally I prefer the option of starting a fight from more than one field.  Sometimes I like upping  alone from one of the unused fields and heading over to another red unused field and seeing what sort of reaction I can get from the reds. 

I agree with that.  In an earlier post I suggested have several of these 3 field clusters scattered on a single map.  Spaced far enough apart that they don't cross over, but the map is small enough you can look at all the clusters simultaneously to see where you want to go.  You could just move over to one of the low populated field cluster and see if someone will join you. 

I personally don't see all three teams mixing it up in the main fights.  No-mans-land seems a bit too far to pull the fight there.  Its seems to me to be almost purely a series of 2 sided wars. YMMV.


Wab