What Ever Happened to NOE??

[Fulcrum]

I miss the vDudes.  They were fun to kill....(alt/NOE) horde or no (alt/NOE) horde.  And their "crappy HO attempt / run like  " ACM tactics were so cute! 

[JUGgler]

I do miss the "9 pound hammer" NOE mission...especially the "alamo" missions deep into enemy territory. Pure brute force taking a base.

Would be nice to see some of those missions again.

PS - I once flew a goon 5 sectors to take a base only to find I dropped vehicle supplies...Just the comedy that ensued was worth it.

   Yes, these deep incursions sometimes created an awesome struggle for a considerable amount of time.

I can remember many times that some guy had "while eating dinner" would fly a goon half way across the map and land just outside radar range of a base, then get a few squadies or volunteers to fly NOE all the way to give a try at a capture. These type of captures never included more than 4-5 folks. It was funny when it succeeded, which was quite often. I use to "when on the map" would just watch the map for a few minutes to see if dar would pop periodically. If it did it was usually cause someone in a long NOE mission got bored and started barrel rolling or something silly like that, exposing the area the NOE was in. Up I would go to be the SPOILER    Fun stuff!

 Sometimes the NOE was a horde but I would say most of the time it was just a squad or a hand full of bored guys looking for something different to do!

The radar and dar changes did nothing but rob small #s of players from "risking" a little to "gain" a base.!

Sad


JUGgler

[bustr]

Thanks JUGgler you got to the heart of it.

Much of the action was many small groups of friends across the map. But, because they had some way to hide their activity they felt emboldened to take the risk. Not everyone wants to up into the wall of red and lay their bits on the line. Same goes in any other multi player game with combat and risk. The 80% won't stay around if they don't have an avenue to avoid the Uber Killers and enjoy the game at their own level. If they can find that, then they will accept the risk of being found out and defended against.

Then they just play WhackAmole and try for another base. But, they are staying with the game and creating activity. Just not stupidly feeding themselves to the lazy arrogant 20% who don't want to fly more than a single sector to club their easy mode baby seals. Being skilled at ACM and a member of the 20% does not mean you are brighter than the 80% who accept they don't have your skills but, can avoid you while taking your bases away from you. I've spent over a decade listening to the 20% howl in a whiny rage over the sneaky 80% taking away all of their fields instead of saddling up like men and meeting them face to face and dying like good little tards. I've also listened to the occasional voice over those years warn them that if they succeeded in getting the game changed to force everyone out in the open to fight like hmmm "men??". They would watch a decline in numbers.

I flew the C47 six sectors NOE once for one of Grizz's deep base takes and popped up from NOE right in the middle of the last tiny group of friendlies holding off the red defense hoard. My troops got in because no one expected an enemy C47 to suddenly popup out of nowhere. The rest of the night was a Ft. Apache fun ride kill fest for our side because we had a field deep inside of the enemy lines. It only worked because of the old radar minimums. And because of them we generated an incredible night of fun for both sides in the fight. The game had a lot more of that before radar was changed to suit the 20%.

[Brooke]

You guys know that there is a documentary on why there are no more NOE raids, right?

It is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE17BAfekuQ

[icepac]

Freebirds did one near rook strats last night.

Had they waited until my imminent death while deacking the field, they would have had a better time of driving tanks to the strats.

[earl1937]

On the water maps they are still pretty popular. Getting un-skilled players to follow terrain is pretty tough add that into the "spiez" blowing missions most don't bother anyone. On the maps with a lot a shore line bases you will see many NOE's.

Yes they are boring because nobody puts any effort into running "good" missions any more. Maybe with the lack of skill it's more like herding cats than it is running a mission. Good missions involve more than "everyone grab your hvy plane of choice, first four guys in hit the FH's, next two hit the VH and everyone else hit the town." Good missions need things to capture the interest of players be it historical, or something that may be a bit out there, but just might work.

Today's players are too tied up in the "end game" be it grab a base or win the war. Eventually they either quit (most of them it seems) or they advance and figure out the "journey" to that end game is far more satisfying. Fighting the battles is more important than whether you win or lose it ... tho I prefer to win   Running good missions takes a lot of time in the planning and keeping a reign on the cats you have along.  Mugz, Taz, Ripsnort, and a few other use to the "go to guys" when ever they logged on it was "Make a mission!" and they rarely got any peace until they did.

Guess you haven't flown in any of my missions!

[Babalonian]

I don't want it reverted, but I think 100-dot and 800-sector would be a nice experiment.

NOEs aren't extinct, but we've gone from 50 a night to 5 in the LWMAs.  And when was the last time these recent NOEs wasn't run over the glass oceans?... NOEs just don't get run anymore over land.  (and this really ticks me off - HiTech said the reason for the chagne was to promote more or a challenge involved with the missions  - instead the change made them super rare and when they do happen still seem to only challenge the pilots skill at useing auto-pilot over the water.  At least before we would see them attempted over land, and on non-flat maps without auto-pilot!)

[JUGgler]

I don't want it reverted, but I think 100-dot and 800-sector would be a nice experiment.

NOEs aren't extinct, but we've gone from 50 a night to 5 in the LWMAs.  And when was the last time these recent NOEs wasn't run over the glass oceans?... NOEs just don't get run anymore over land.  (and this really ticks me off - HiTech said the reason for the chagne was to promote more or a challenge involved with the missions  - instead the change made them super rare and when they do happen still seem to only challenge the pilots skill at useing auto-pilot over the water.  At least before we would see them attempted over land, and on non-flat maps without auto-pilot!)

Hmm, well put radar and dar back where it was and disable auto pilot for any plane under 500' 


HAHA, imagine the whiiiiiiiiiines 


JUGgler

[Aspen]

You guys know that there is a documentary on why there are no more NOE raids, right?

It is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE17BAfekuQ

I usually don't finish those, but I was laughing out loud at this one.

[Brooke]

I usually don't finish those, but I was laughing out loud at this one.

The guy who made it is a master.  It is truly a gem! 

[icepac]

Flew 10 sectors noe over hilly terrain to drop HQ..........and RTB for safe landing.

[titanic3]

I think radar's detection altitude should get lower as the con get closer to the base. (Making up numbers here) So for example, radar ring max radius is 20 miles. At 20 miles, fly lower than 1K and you won't appear on radar. At 15 miles, you won't appear if under 500 ft. At 10 miles, you won't appear if under 250 ft. And at 5 miles, radar detects everything, even on the deck. That should give about 1-2 minute of prior warning to up for defenders.

[Gman]

I miss those Grizz deep strike missions.  The whole point of them was to take a base that was deep in enemy territory in order to spawn a great air to air fight, and it always worked IMO.  In fact, some of the best furballs I can remember came out of those deep strike raids that were NOE. 

I wouldn't mind seeing an adjustment to the radar alt detection limits to bring these types of things back, it would only bring back a good dimension of gameplay, and it sort of does something for everybody - the base takers like the long range low alt mission part of it, and the furballers like the ensuing furball that happens at the base once it's taken.  Yep, the more I think about it, the more these types of missions kept me online and interested.

[nooby52]

You want to see some NOE flying? Come to FSO.  It never fails but when VF-17 is tasked with escorting bombers to a target the person in charge of them decides they should go NOE...and they usually meet with horrendous results. 

[The Fugitive]

I miss those Grizz deep strike missions.  The whole point of them was to take a base that was deep in enemy territory in order to spawn a great air to air fight, and it always worked IMO.  In fact, some of the best furballs I can remember came out of those deep strike raids that were NOE. 

I wouldn't mind seeing an adjustment to the radar alt detection limits to bring these types of things back, it would only bring back a good dimension of gameplay, and it sort of does something for everybody - the base takers like the long range low alt mission part of it, and the furballers like the ensuing furball that happens at the base once it's taken.  Yep, the more I think about it, the more these types of missions kept me online and interested.

What you need to bring back first is a reason to defend. If no one defends you can go and take as many bases as you want deep in enemy territory. The opposition is only working to capture bases faster than you can. They have very little interest in "fighting" for a base.