Why the Hordes?

[bj229r]

Most of the hordes have nothing to do with base capture and everything to do with individuals looking to join the biggest fight.

If there's a HUGE green blob over an nmy base, and little to no red....they're not joining watermelon but a vulchfest, and they've made a conscious decision to do that, over other areas on the map where actual human-on-human interaction in the skies might result

[kvuo75]

(Image removed from quote.)
about 10 more planes not pictured.
Everybody does this. Rooks, Bish and Knits!!

need more troops? LOL what is that 4 goons in one picture?


I like the carpet of lanc bombs that didn't hit a thing.. 

[Lusche]

 We all probably did the same thing when we were new.

In my first few weeks (started as a Bish by the way, who at that time were having numbers the big way) , I wasn't even aware that I was hording. After that I didn't mind being part of the horde, because I didn't have the skills yet to survive in a severely disadvantaged numerical situation. And I guess most player are like me: I don't really mind getting killed, but having more deaths than kills is simply no fun for me. Also I wanted to help my country, which in most cases meant capping the base so that the goons can come in.
Only when I became better I started to leave the green cloud more and more. Not for any honor or balance reasons, but just for the fact that I was limiting my kill opportunities. Too few targets & too little competition. Then I became mainly a defender, and that means looking for the NOE or the biggest red dar you can find most of the time. (Which doesn't mean I'm never a part of a vulching horde over your field anymore )

[IrishOne]

Thought you quit?
Your 2 weeks isnt up yet.

lol was just thinking the exact same thing

[68ZooM]

Hordes the other Pink Meat 

[jolly22]

A horde isn't a horde....It's a MISSION. They flew missions in WW2 if im not mistaken. 1 person can't take a base. I often ask people if anyone wants to take a base with me, It's possible to take one with only 5-6 people. But anyways, I asked and sometimes get about 20-25 people. So it's not a horde to be mean, It's a tactic to take a base, sometimes by accident 

[mechanic]

I can see this, but more often than not if you check out the guys you find in these hordes most couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. I think it's more along the line of the lemmings than it is furballers looking for a furball. Again I think it's up to the MPs and "leaders" of these squads to lead. If they are just the first lemming in the line, they are not leading.

I totaly agree with your leadership ethics there.

But I don't think I agree with the first part about paper bags or lemmings. A natural horde* will almost always have players of all skill levels in it.

The bit I think I fail to see the relevance of the most is the fact that the players skill level depicts what they are allowed to do in the game.

Furballing (or indeed, any aspect of the game) is for everyone. There is no skill requirement or fighting style requirement to be allowed to furball. Not being able to fight out of a wet paper bag is no reason to do anything but fly the game how you like. So I fail to see what you expect the 'skilless' to do about the horde issue. Leadership is a far better way of dictating how the MA gameplay works. I like your point there.

*natural horde -  a horde that forms without someone posting a mission for base capture.

[EagleDNY]

The reason we have hordes like that is that a large portion of the AH player base would actually like to fly in a group and have some goals.  Do I think that the horde attracts newbies and players with less experience?  Yes, of course it does - and I don't think that is a bad thing.  Online games are about INTERACTION - if people want to fly in an endless air-spawning instant furball, they might as well go get a playstation.  The more friends you make, the more squads you fly missions with, the more likely it is that you might actually stay around beyond two weeks.

The horde now seems to meander about randomly.  Why?  Perhaps because the maps have NO strategic points that need to be guarded / actually mean anything.  In the past, when you had maps with strategic zone bases, I thought that the action picked up quite nicely as you got near to taking one.  

The solution to what to do vs a horde is the same as it ever was - just pork the troops at all the bases they can use to support their advance.  It doesn't take a lot of guys to do it, and it takes guys away from the horde if they have to continually resupply.

[NCLawman]

Before I get into the substance of the OP, let me add that all three sides horde/gang/pick/vulch.  We are all 3 equally guilty.

Fugi...    I completely and totally agree with your assessment.  I also wish there was a way to correct the matter, but it is not a matter of the game. As you hinted in the post, it is a matter of mentality.  The problem with that is.. it is not easy to change a group mentality.  The process of "Groupthink" unfortunately causes a group of people to do and act in a way that they may not otherwise (readers digest version).  Couple that with the anonymity of the internet and ...  viola hordes, poor sportsmanship, and bad game play.

I wish I had the answer, because, I used to love playing the game (of course if I had a cure for "groupthink" I would be making a heck of a lot more money than I am now AND  I would be on FoxNews promoting my many published books  ).  The game is steadily growing to be more frustrating than entertaining.  Due to the excess hordes, I have found myself very often looking only for good defense opportunities rather than flying to the nmy base hoping to get a vulch without killshooting myself.  

To make matters worse, I become the 'victim' of the horde as one of the few defenders -- I can live with that -- but when I am upping and manage to avoid the vulch, these same hordes, have the idiots who now have the NUMERICAL advantage, ALTITUDE advantage, INITIATIVE to choose when to engage, SPEED/ENERGY advantage, and how do they use these advantages?   They turn the 110s directly at you begin spraying cannon lead at anything moving.  

In adding to Fugi's poser, please explain to me HOW -- when holding all the advantages - it is fun or enhancing gameplay to up a 6 cannon bird and HO everything in site?  I can live with getting killed. (I admit, like Lusche, I like to have more kills than deaths, but so be it.) But why is it fun to joust with a 110?  What point does that prove?  It has become such 'normal' game play, that when called out on this HO, the players have their standard "it take two to HO" or "if you don't like it, don't up" responses.  Even skilled players are quick to throw out these excuses for lame play?  

I am convinced this is relevant to Fugi's original question, in that the HORDES have become so overwhelming that guys are in such a hurry to get a kill before the other 30 (bish/knit/rook) dive in and get it, they are turning straight in and forcing a HO engagement.  They are so afraid of losing the kill to someone else, or losing the fight, that they refuse to ACTUALLY engage a fight.  They have to rush the HO just to HOPE for a kill.  IT IS WEAK, AND IT IS DESTROYING THE FUN OF THE GAME.  

I wish I had the answer to solve these problems, but I don't.  There has to be a mentality change in the way PLAYERS react.  I don't think this is something that HTC can correct for us.  It must come from within ourselves -- the problem is getting 4000+ people to agree on anything is impossible.  

[grizz441]

In adding to Fugi's poser, please explain to me HOW -- when holding all the advantages - it is fun or enhancing gameplay to up a 6 cannon bird and HO everything in site?

Easy, it's their $15 bucks and they enjoy doing it.  Their enjoyment enhances their gameplay.

[NCLawman]

The horde now seems to meander about randomly.  Why?  Perhaps because the maps have NO strategic points that need to be guarded / actually mean anything.  In the past, when you had maps with strategic zone bases, I thought that the action picked up quite nicely as you got near to taking one.  

The solution to what to do vs a horde is the same as it ever was - just pork the troops at all the bases they can use to support their advance.  It doesn't take a lot of guys to do it, and it takes guys away from the horde if they have to continually resupply.

Eagle... while I do not disagree with much of what you said, I do disagree that simply porking troops will solve the problem.  It will reduce the horde from rolling bases, but the horde and the horde mentality still remain.  Many times (admittedly NOT ALL) the horde is NOT trying to capture.  They just horde over an enemy base looking to get as many vulch-picks as their bird has ammo and then fly home for atta-boys (like there is some awarded skill for shooting planes on the runway).

[lyric1]

It's the weekend.

[NCLawman]

Easy, it's their $15 bucks and they enjoy doing it.  Their enjoyment enhances their gameplay.

So you are saying that jousting with the 110 is acceptable game play?  Forget all the ACM.  Everyone should just up the strongest cannons they can find and fly straight at each other?  

My response....   how much more fun would they have if they DIDN'T HO the first pass, use a few turns or even choose a proper engagement and shoot the person in the back -  like good gentlemen!  

<salute>

[grizz441]

So you are saying that jousting with the 110 is acceptable game play?  Forget all the ACM.  Everyone should just up the strongest cannons they can find and fly straight at each other?  

My response....   how much more fun would they have if they DIDN'T HO the first pass, use a few turns or even choose a proper engagement and shoot the person in the back -  like good gentlemen!  

<salute>

I'm saying obviously it must be fun for them otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

[Becinhu]

Looks like those troops are over the airfield. It's not a base take, someone hung a disco ball in the tower. All the drunks jumped out to go dance.