I love flying these airplanes, but spending more time looking for action than actually being in the action is slowly driving me away from the game...
That's the double-edged sword of sandbox type gameplay. What you wind up having to deal with on any given sortie depends heavily on your opposition. If all everybody does is up a horde and try to smash and grab a poorly defended base, they're either going to get sick of smashing and grabbing poorly defended bases, or they're going to get sick of trying to stop the horde.
A few times a night, I see a committed attack met by a reasonably committed defense force. That's when the game gets good. Too often though, one side or the other gets wiped and gives up.
People are free to do what they like. Sometimes it produces excellent gameplay, most of the time it produces little thought out hording. Personally I like the potential for unpredictability a sandbox affords. You never know what that bardar is going to be made up of until you get to it. Unfortunately, it's more and more made up of a gaggle of late war planes looking to isolate and gang you to death.
To give people their guaranteed action, it would have to be more along the lines of the other round-based games. Matched sides, everybody takes off at the same time, and whatnot. The problem I have with that is it is no less repetetive, everybody's funneled into doing the same thing over and over and over again. You're just guaranteed a crowd.
Also doing exactly the same things in th MA for 10years may be playing a part. Games need to renew themselves to keep being interresting...
Do anything for 10 years and it's going to get repetitive.
The problem I see is the majority of gamers look for the easiest way to accomplish their goal and then do that over and over and over again until they win. Horde rolling is the prime example of this. It makes for repetitive gameplay on all sides, and can result in boredom on all sides.
I've been playing here about 3 years now, 3 years or so before that in the other sim. I'm finding my thoughts gradually sliding over toward the crotchety 'nobody fights, everybody runs or gangs' grumpiness more and more often lately. From what I've seen, this seems to be one of the stages people go through in the game. Not quite sure if or when I'll hit 'excessive whining about it', but be prepared people.
I think with games like this, people just eventually burn out. Bombing, when you distill it down is really pretty much climbing to alt and pushing a button at the right time. Occasionally you get to shoot at a bandit. I don't understand how people can do it for years. Fighter on fighter is much more involved (to me), but eventually when the vast majority of your opponents are reacting the same way every time, and it's no fun, it can get boring too.
No matter what, a flight sim is pretty much doing the same thing over and over again. Strip away all the alleged 'strategies' and people around you, and you're left with either trying to shoot something, or drop a bomb on something. Over and over and over.
Wiley.
