Sorry, so if I understand you correctly the difference then would be that your argument would be miraculously overcome by it being a "posted" arena choice is going to change peoples minds in this regard? I don't get how that changes the numbers in the WW1, EW, MW, or AvA and SEA arenas (minus FSO and scenarios for the most part) today? Look how successful these others have been. There are thread after thread of advertising, "come to the AvA, this day in such and such," etc... Because they are "sanctioned" HTC arenas means they are just as populated as a potential "custom" GV only arena might be well populated, because as I see things, no matter how many people on here who have suggested in any given number of posts trying to coerce, shame, motivate, or legislate/dictate people to use those arenas has truly been effective. My opinion on the matter is that the majority of people prefer to use the arena which allows them the highest chance of using their vehicle of choice in an environment where there are the most people because of the potential for more opportunities to find a fight and be among friends and near other potential support whether it is to play the furball game or win the war style of play or what have you. Now, those who do not like to be molested while they do those things in game likely tend to use the less populated arenas as their chances of being unmolested or vigorously opposed is part of the allure, so a custom GV arena would allow for that just as easily as a dedicated one would. Now, as an example, my plane of choice currently is a early MW plane, though when I fly in the MW now and then it has tended to be people avoiding having to fight me. It is bad enough in LW that porkers avoid fighting and simply pork until they are shot down by ack or some fighter is disheartening enough. But LW offers the best chance I get to find a fight now more often than then. Getting to fight against more potentially superior ac than mine is also much more fun to me on those few times I am successful in the fight. I like the challenge, myself, of trying to survive in that environment. So, I do not see how your dismissal out of hand of using a custom arena being less likely to encourage using a GV only arena as being any different than the current situation regarding the less populated "official" arenas, that's all I getting at.
Sorry, it's early for me and the game has started so I am a bit too tired to proof read, so the gist might be not be expressed very well.
Geez, you have a lot in there. On the main point:
1) Fighting GVs against AC is not a challenge, but is instead an exercise in frustration, and if you try it for awhile you will see why. The disparity in capability is just too great. It is not at all similar to fighting a P40 versus a La7.
2) I think that GV-safe playing areas (either a separate arena, or mods to existing game play in existing arenas, all in the interest of minimal AC interference) would be popular, as evidenced by the new Crater MA TT usage. Such areas are frequently absent in the current setup, for various reasons.
3) I think that custom arenas would be much less effective in attracting the maximum number of GVers, because arena visibility would be inadequate and there is no effective way to advertise them. In contrast, if when you log in you see “LW, MW, EW, GV Arena”, those problems are eliminated. (Actually, GV Arena should be at the top of the list ...).
4) However, instead of a separate GV arena, I would still prefer to use the normal maps, but with game-play modifications to make portions of the map GV-safe (per above), at all times and under all map conditions.
MH