Hitec,
Issue: Seeking out good fights is complicated by side changing rules and ENY.
Discussion: My squad mates and I gravitate to wherever they may be a fight. The trouble is, they are mostly a group of no good european soccer hooligans. So, I log on a bit later than they do, or vice versa, look for the low numbers or the fight, switch to that side, and start playing. If they already logged in and changed to a side, which may have been low earlier, we are set to fly on a low fight side or apart. This is particularly important to me when it comes to GV fighting because the good fights seem to take place independent of what is going on in the air (I love GVrs in this game <S>). So, if there is a good GV fight, I gravitate there as well.
In the MA there are huge groups which ban together and do quite well, capturing bases, and winning the war. I do not see the issue with that, for some that is indeed the point of the game. On the ENY point, ENY is based on numbers of players in the arena, not in flight. So, if you are the country that looks like you are going to win the war, dudes just stay logged on in the hopes of some free chicken, despite the fact that they are not contributing. If they are not contributing to the fight, then how can they hinder other players?
The game dynamic is way too fluid to keep the current 12 hour side changing in effect. Any suggestion that guys are spying, etc... is just the rage rant of someone who does not really understand the game. It would seem that the only people who care about side changing are groups of ruffians like myself, who just look for a good fight and could really care less about winning the war. You lose a guy like me if I cant change to where the fight is, I log. Granted, we pay you a flat rate, but my "happiness index" drops when I log.
Recommendation: Change the ENY rate to aircraft in flight. It would be even sexier if it were based say on zones. So, when a field does have the Horde show up, they are in low ammo count slower planes, to give the defenders a chance of whittling them down. On the side changing rule, maybe instead of a hour based change, a you can change sides three times in a 24 hour period. This amounts to 8 hours, but if you do not change it to hour based and make it times based, you might see the MA balance out a bit more than it tends to be. There will be plenty of rants below on how folks can "just see it" goon is about to land and some guy changes sides and shoots the goon down just to be a dick. Oh well... call them out. The community has a real good way of sorting out who the bananas are and they get crammed into a corner after a while.