Wiley, you have given me some great fights over the years and I respect you for it. I guess I am having a hard time making my point. The game dynamic has not changed, frankly since air warrior. I have changed. I like a 1 v 1, prefer a 2-3 v 1, but a 20 to 1 is unmanageable.
I enjoy fighting.
I think someone who's way smarter than me could probably pretty much chart something like the 12 stages of AH for people who play the game to get better at it. Starting from HO dweeb and ending at frustrated longtime player quitting. I know for me I have found myself getting more aggressive over the last year or so where I used to stay a lot higher and a lot faster in a red mob. I seem to be rocketing toward the stage where I feel frustrated because I "can't find anything other than run dweebs and hordes" when I play lately. I generally just find myself looking for a horde to go after when I play.
I am fundamentally an idealist. Regardless of the things I have seen and experienced in my life, and believe me they are very broad and very interesting, I still believe that folks should try to better themselves, at anything they do. This game has so much more to offer, to those willing to invest some time in refining their skills, and the personal reward is, well for me, high. If I could go from HOing mossie pilot, to loving the challenge of earning a guys 6, what can't everyone. All goes back to basic human nature.
I agree with what you're saying for myself, the bolded part in particular. Unfortunately that's not the viewpoint of a lot of people. I could probably best be described as cynical, although I do give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove me wrong.
I believe it stems mostly from people playing other games and bringing that kind of gameplay here. Take something like Counterstrike or Battlefield or CoD or any of the shooters. I used to play Counterstrike a fair bit, but I never really got above 'cannon fodder that maybe occasionally kills something.' Could be I'm just not wired right in the head for twitch gaming, I don't know. But when I'd play games like that, I could generally find some way to affect my team positively, sometimes only by being the first one around the corner to catch the first volley of bullets.
My point is, I completely sucked at those games, but found a way to make some kind of contribution to my side and/or get some kills for myself now and again. That's what I pretty much see happening with a good deal of people in this game.
It hit me one day when I upped from the next field over trying to get back to the horde that was rolling our bases. I saw a few friendlies taking off around the same time I was, but they weren't grabbing they were just getting a couple K of alt and headed direct to the fight. I realized it looked exactly like what I used to do in FPS's. Respawn and McBain my way back into the middle of things without any thought to strategy or improving my situation. Death was a foregone conclusion, why not get back into it as quickly as possible?
They may not be able to take on a top 20% dogfighter in a straight up 1v1, but they can pile on and give him another bandit to think about, or they can pick him if he zooms at the wrong time (which I maintain is his fault).
The reality is they're probably not really looking at improving their side's situation, but rather just looking for kills. The behavior ultimately winds up being pretty similar.
Again, on the fence. Not looking for attention or to be talked one way or the other, just airing some personal stuff to the community to see whether or not I am off kilter or if other seasoned players are getting just as fed up as I am. I go to the wishlist thread and see tons of seemingly simple things that could be done to restore some of the game challenges; non of those changes are ever implemented. The game frankly seems to cater to a console player, rather then a sim player and that fundamental mental difference is what is driving me away from the game.
I don't really see the game catering toward console players, although it wouldn't be terribly hard to make a case for the GV changes that removed the manual transmission and changed radically how that gameplay works.
I see it more as the players are given a sandbox and make of it what they will. If gameplay to a person in previous games involves basically being one of the drones in a human wave attack, that's how they're going to approach this one as well.
The fundamental problem is, we have unlimited resources in this game and more force gets things done better. That's why we get hordes. Limiting resources or some of the more artificial anti-horde suggestions puts your gameplay at the mercy of how your friendlies play as well as your enemies, and that IMO makes for too many possible frustrating situations for a lot of people.
Just how I see it.
My biggest issue with the hordes is that to fight them, I am pretty much forced into air frames and flying styles that I don't really enjoy.
I'm fortunate in that I happen to enjoy the Jugs, and they do a passable job of dealing with a horde until I burn off all my E. I do feel bad for the guys that like to TnB when they're fighting outnumbered though. Once I drop below 250mph in a crowd, I have basically committed to and accepted that my eventual death is inevitable and am trying to take a few with me.
Wiley.
