What are we gonna do to make this work?

[Joc]

Ummm,Where do I start?   I reckon all of us have lots of ideas,views/opinions on how we would all like to see the CT,so maybe we can all put em forward now so we can get a fair idea of what we all want here.
 Personally speaking,Id like to see the name of the CT CHANGED,when I played in the MA,just as I logged into the MA Id see the CT and always thought to myself 'sounds like a duelling arena or something' the name didnt really tell me anything about it,and I think this is vital for bringing more guys into it.
 How about 'WW2 Arena' or 'WW2 Historic Arena'? something that says to guys that are into this kinda setup 'This is for me'
 Setup,I really appreciate what the staff are doing,and are making a lot of effort in making it as interesting as possible,but maybe keeping it as simple as possible is the best thing to do?.
 Again speaking for myself,all I want in a WW2 arena is a good large map,how about,instead of having years of the war,rotate a map every week,say Europe 1 week,desert the next,Pacific the week after that and Russia after that,with ALL the planes availabe appropiate to that map,(maybe make B17 and Lanc perk planes along with Arado and 262 etc)this would give everyone the maximum amount of fun and freedom to plan missions  or whatever thay wanted to.
 These are just my views and thoughts,Im sure you lot have plenty of you own so lets hear em!!!
 Like quite a few of ya I brought my squad here from MA believing this arena has the chance to be THE best arena in AH,Im dedicated to it,as you are,so lets hear your ideas  

[K West]

One idea I had is to rename the CT on the arena selection page by the setup name. While "Combat Arena" looks good, "Baltic Besieged," fpr example,  sounds even  better imo.

Westy

[Sabre]

I'm personally pushing the name "Combat Environment Arena" or CEA as a new name.  It goes well with the SEA, don't you think?

[Greg Stelmack]

Originally posted by Sabre:
I'm personally pushing the name "Combat Environment Arena" or CEA as a new name.  It goes well with the SEA, don't you think?

While it goes well with SEA, that makes it seem like it's an occasional event rather than ongoing. I like using the name of the current setup (Baltic Besieged or whatever), or something more descriptive like "Historical Arena" or "Rooks vs. Bishops" or something similar. And maybe "Main Arena" needs to be renamed as that connotes the primary place for people to congregate. How about "Anything Goes Arena" and "Historical Arena" for the two names?

[oboe]

Did AW have this type of arena?  In WB, I think it was called the Historical Arena (how quickly I forget - we all just referred to it as the "HA").

If a name change is to help, I think it should be something that has immediate recognition, like Historic Arena, etc.  Just MHO, but I don't think we should start from square one again and try to build recognition for a brand new acronym.

For the CT to be successful and interesting, I think it'll have to support rotating theaters.  Late-war NW Europe and mid-to-late war Eastern Europe are represented pretty well now.  The mid-war Mediterranean Theater could probably use a P-38H or J, the Stuka, the Me110, P-39 and P-40.   Maybe a B-25 and an Italian SM-79 or 84 to really fill it out.

The most overlooked theater (for Axis aircraft) is definitely the PTO.  Even with the addition of the Ki67, the Japanese planeset is too small to make an interesting PTO setting.  For example, there are no Japanese carrier-based attack aircraft in the game.   We need those, plus the Ki.84,
and a twin-engine ground attack aircraft like the Ki.102.   I think one key to getting people to fly on the Axis side is lots of interesting a/c choices, and we need more of these for the Pacific Theater.

[Oldman731]

Originally posted by oboe:
Did AW have this type of arena?

AW had "Axis v. Allies" in both Full Realism and Relaxed Realism.  I never flew any of the RR arenas, but I had the impression that there was a reasonably large group of dedicated people who flew A v. A in RR.  In FR it was a dismal failure, much to my chagrin.  I never could figure out why, but my best guess was that people just could not be pried away from their favorite late-war hot rod fighters.  Also, I am told that the squadron rules in AW made it difficult to switch sides.

I am hopeful that AH will be different. Certainly the initial showing is far better than it was in AW.

- Oldman

[popeye]

IMO, the feature that really separates the CT from the MA is the specific situation setup, and goal set for each side to accomplish to "win the war".  I would  choose a name that advertises that feature:  "Campain Objective Arena", "Combat Mission Arena", or some such.  This will attract the strat freaks, who won't mind a limited plane set and limited icons/dar.

[ 01-08-2002: Message edited by: popeye ]

[CRASH]

Sounds like another air force euphamism to me, only means anything to an air force guy  I think WWII arena is probably the best name anyone's come up with for actually doing what a name's intended to do.  Describe the environment and draw people in.  Sorry Sabre, not picking on you personally, but I think this is a perfect example of what it shouldn't be named.  It needs something that sells, and at this point in history, wwii sells  

CRASH

 

Originally posted by Sabre:
I'm personally pushing the name "Combat Environment Arena" or CEA as a new name.  It goes well with the SEA, don't you think?

[Sabre]

No offense taken .  HA doesn't work for me simply because it was a WB thing.  WWII arena isn't IMNSHO descriptive enough of what we're trying to recreate here.  How about "Theatre of Operation Arena?" TOA.

[oboe]

WWII Campaign Arena?

[Joc]

Dont forget that if we are talking about a possible name change,it isnt for us that are already playing in there,its to bring OTHERS in,I still think short and simple is best,how about 'WWII Battle Arena'? If we're going to concentrate on various battles,then this may be a good choice?

[Geeesy]

Well I played 2 years WB, so please don't blame me if i compare AH too much with WB, but well its hard to lay off old habits.

What I'm really missing in this whole great game are more planes, for special more early war planes like P40's, P39's, Spitfire MkI, 109E, 110's and so on. In WB we had a rolling plane set (rps), with changing availability of the planes during the time of 3-4 weeks. On the german server the newer planes came slowly from far beyond the frontline to the center airfields while bomber could only be taken from main fields at the edge of the map and some mediums, which brought up some interesting tactical components into the whole game. I would really enjoy it if it would be possible to bring up some rps in the CT with the existing aircrafts, maybe by changing the perk value of the planes by time, until they get free (not all of course). For example at the beginning each side starts with somewhat of 2 or 3 planes, but all free. The next day there could come up some newer planes to each side but they cost up to 10 perks. The next time some other newer planes come, so the one of the day before drop in value to 5 perks while the newest still cost 10, and so on until there are the F4U's and the Me262 for 20 perk points and next day all starting right from the beginning with only 2 or 3 planes for each side. Well this whole idea would bring quite a lot of work for the CM staff or whatever they are called here like, but somehow the CM's in WB liked their work.  

Anyways I love the CT and I hope it will develope and become more popular like the WW2 Arena in WB, so the MA will die out.  

P.S.:
Ah and if you are thinking about a change of name I would also like more a name like WW2 Combat Arena or that way. It was only a lucky shot for me that I encountered what the CT was about.

[ 01-08-2002: Message edited by: Geeesy ]

[Shroom]

<S>
   How About the Historic Reinactment Theater
 

 Also I think that to make it just that wee bit more challenging Maybe the CM's could Implement <on future Maps> Field Cities that are laid out differently. So say make 5 differently sets of towns and sporadicaly place them adjoined to fields, just to stuff us Bomber pilots up a bit  

<S> Shroom

[lazs1]

rename it the "main arena" and close down the real main arena forever.   If you do that you should get upwards to 100 players a nite.
lazs

[Drano]

I think what happened to AW's version is that we not only had the axis vs allies arena in FR with a historical planeset, we also had the fighter town arena with a full planeset(just fighters). And that's not counting the regular main "melee" arena. Prolly that we had maybe one arena too many given the number of players at the time.

I was never much for the main arena in AW unless it was a squad thingy. I usually hung out in FT where the flyin time between fights--which is what I come for--is generally a lot less. Same thing holds true here so I've been hangin out in CT. The crowd and fights are very much like our FT or AvA arena was. Its been a lot of fun. Hope it lasts. If it doesn't I'm sure there'll be some alternative to the MA. The numbers here are just exploding of late--which is a good thing. But unlike AW's situation in its later days we're in a position where we were prolly an arena short. So I figure something like this will be around for a while yet.

             Drano

 

Originally posted by Oldman:


AW had "Axis v. Allies" in both Full Realism and Relaxed Realism.  I never flew any of the RR arenas, but I had the impression that there was a reasonably large group of dedicated people who flew A v. A in RR.  In FR it was a dismal failure, much to my chagrin.  I never could figure out why, but my best guess was that people just could not be pried away from their favorite late-war hot rod fighters.  Also, I am told that the squadron rules in AW made it difficult to switch sides.

I am hopeful that AH will be different. Certainly the initial showing is far better than it was in AW.

- Oldman