ENY

[SysError]

One of the older players once said something to the effect that the ENY idea was one of the best ideas HTC ever had - and as a result they had to balance the whole thing out by making it one the worst implemented ideas they ever had.  I sort of agree.   

When the subject comes up there is the "in flight" vs. "in tower" discussion.  or the "If you are a great stick in a sucky plane you'll nail a sucky stick in a great plane" thought.  Or some other variations.  Not the point I think.   I agree with the idea that from time to time sides get out of balance and if nothing was done the game would not be fun for players on the receiving sides.  (even though, often you have one side with a high number of players, one with low and the third with numbers that are not too far off from the "offending" side and thus in effect getting the real benefit from the ENY system).

But why apply ENY to a whole side?  Could it be applied to individual players on a given side during a unbalanced period of time?  Base it on player rank.

Or how about applying ENY to forward bases only.  OK  - you really want to fly that LA7?  Come in from 2+ sectors.

I do not know if these ideas could be coded in the HTC development environment - but that is a tech question that HTC could comment on. 







 

[kvuo75]

going from what I seem to remember hearing about game design philosophy, it's better to give people things than take away, so instead of penalizing the high team more aggressively by taking away more options, just reward the low # side more..


maybe by making the perk bonus modifier more aggressive, or adding another modifier based on local population.. lower the cost of perk planes, etc. if you are earning 10x the perks you normally would, and perk planes are half price, you might not care how outnumbered you are..  on the other hand, if you're earning 1 perk for 10 kills and 262's cost 400 perks, you might reconsider your loyalty to a chesspiece icon, or decide to leave the safety of the horde and branch out.

[bustr]

ENY came about back during AH1 when we didn't have the uncapturable bases. A number of rook squads decided to organize all of the rook squads on sunday nights into the Joint Squad Operations(JSO).

The first night it happened, 300 rooks suddenly took to the air with assignments and targets. They basically swamped knight and bishop lands inside of the first hour. This carried on for some time every sunday night. You couldn't defend against it. I suspect some logged off and others joined the rooks for the night. Chances are that by the 3rd sunday it happened, customers canceled their accounts. It was the first time I had ever seen Hitech change the game dramatically over night in response to something. We know how slow his is to do that, I will venture his bottom line was being impacted.

This was also when you could capture every field in a country and then uber rape the last remaining airfield while everyone from the raped country sat in the tower or fed themselves into the vulch nightmare.

Now we have ENY and uncapturable fields near the HQ. We had the 12 hour side switch rule back then and the uber ACM sticks. Who even with their uber rides of choice against uber rides, didn't seem to have the mojo to stop a real hoard of  players turning a country into Ft. Apache.

As players you are only the addicts begging the dealer to give you more for your dime. All while he's attempting to keep you from ODing and killing his business. It's funny, many addicts who OD and are saved by medical intervention. Don't learn their lesson and OD again. Addicts make lousy drug dealers and business decisions.

[caldera]

ENY came about back during AH1 when we didn't have the uncapturable bases. A number of rook squads decided to organize all of the rook squads on sunday nights into the Joint Squad Operations(JSO).

The first night it happened, 300 rooks suddenly took to the air with assignments and targets. They basically swamped knight and bishop lands inside of the first hour. This carried on for some time every sunday night. You couldn't defend against it. I suspect some logged off and others joined the rooks for the night. Chances are that by the 3rd sunday it happened, customers canceled their accounts. It was the first time I had ever seen Hitech change the game dramatically over night in response to something. We know how slow his is to do that, I will venture his bottom line was being impacted.

This was also when you could capture every field in a country and then uber rape the last remaining airfield while everyone from the raped country sat in the tower or fed themselves into the vulch nightmare.

Now we have ENY and uncapturable fields near the HQ. We had the 12 hour side switch rule back then and the uber ACM sticks. Who even with their uber rides of choice against uber rides, didn't seem to have the mojo to stop a real hoard of  players turning a country into Ft. Apache.

As players you are only the addicts begging the dealer to give you more for your dime. All while he's attempting to keep you from ODing and killing his business. It's funny, many addicts who OD and are saved by medical intervention. Don't learn their lesson and OD again. Addicts make lousy drug dealers and business decisions.

"You're talking a lot but you're not saying anything."



Aside from the history lesson, what exactly is the point you are trying to make? 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

ENY came about back during AH1 when we didn't have the uncapturable bases. A number of rook squads decided to organize all of the rook squads on sunday nights into the Joint Squad Operations(JSO).

The first night it happened, 300 rooks suddenly took to the air with assignments and targets. They basically swamped knight and bishop lands inside of the first hour. This carried on for some time every sunday night. You couldn't defend against it. I suspect some logged off and others joined the rooks for the night. Chances are that by the 3rd sunday it happened, customers canceled their accounts. It was the first time I had ever seen Hitech change the game dramatically over night in response to something. We know how slow his is to do that, I will venture his bottom line was being impacted.

This was also when you could capture every field in a country and then uber rape the last remaining airfield while everyone from the raped country sat in the tower or fed themselves into the vulch nightmare.

Now we have ENY and uncapturable fields near the HQ. We had the 12 hour side switch rule back then and the uber ACM sticks. Who even with their uber rides of choice against uber rides, didn't seem to have the mojo to stop a real hoard of  players turning a country into Ft. Apache.

As players you are only the addicts begging the dealer to give you more for your dime. All while he's attempting to keep you from ODing and killing his business. It's funny, many addicts who OD and are saved by medical intervention. Don't learn their lesson and OD again. Addicts make lousy drug dealers and business decisions.

JSO was a knee jerk reaction to literally years of bishknit rolling. I remember a time when I couldn't log on with more than 2-3 fields left and vulched to death.

[bustr]

Demanding Hitech allow you the player to dictate how the game shall be run will kill the game.

As players you are only the addicts begging the dealer to give you more for your dime. All while he's attempting to keep you from ODing and killing his business. It's funny, many addicts who OD and are saved by medical intervention. Don't learn their lesson and OD again. Addicts make lousy drug dealers and business decisions.

[ink]

Demanding Hitech allow you the player to dictate how the game shall be run will kill the game.

As players you are only the addicts begging the dealer to give you more for your dime. All while he's attempting to keep you from ODing and killing his business. It's funny, many addicts who OD and are saved by medical intervention. Don't learn their lesson and OD again. Addicts make lousy drug dealers and business decisions.

dude...smack yourself in the back of the head..you are stuck.

[bustr]

AH triggers a pituitary reward response like all combat computer games. Loud sounds, flashing colors, and highly stressful situations trigger a self medication reward response. Frustration is tolerated differently by each player. Frustration is not as rewarding pituitary wise as success. So individual players demand specific changes to the game to give them more of the positive pituitary reward response. Very often change for change's sake trying to get themselves back to that lost high before they built up a tolerance, becoming intolerant of their lack of a fix. 

Players are addicted to their daily fix. Addicts don't make very good business decisions but, all of them know how to make their own fix better in the short run. Just ask any addict how their dealer can make their fix better. So ergo that will make it better for anyone else addicted since another addict will agree, more of what they want is better the way they want it.

Addicts don't make very good business decisions or they would be dealers.

Consumers are not invested in the health of the manufacturer or supplier. That's why the customer is not always right when it comes to non essential consumption and recreational substances.

[Tinkles]

AH triggers a pituitary reward response like all combat computer games. Loud sounds, flashing colors, and highly stressful situations trigger a self medication reward response. Frustration is tolerated differently by each player. Frustration is not as rewarding pituitary wise as success. So individual players demand specific changes to the game to give them more of the positive pituitary reward response. Very often change for change's sake trying to get themselves back to that lost high before they built up a tolerance, becoming intolerant of their lack of a fix. 

Players are addicted to their daily fix. Addicts don't make very good business decisions but, all of them know how to make their own fix better in the short run. Just ask any addict how their dealer can make their fix better. So ergo that will make it better for anyone else addicted since another addict will agree, more of what they want is better the way they want it.

Addicts don't make very good business decisions or they would be dealers.

Consumers are not invested in the health of the manufacturer or supplier. That's why the customer is not always right when it comes to non essential consumption and recreational substances.

In other words, messing with the ENY could have a backlash that doesn't effect us in the same way it would HiTech.  For us it would be less players to have fun with, for him it's less customers . Since we aren't in his boat we can't really see the overall picture, and since he doesn't openly discuss on-going things, we don't know what is planned ahead. 

Is this pretty much what you are saying, Bustr?   

[SysError]

Players are addicted to their daily fix. Addicts don't make very good business decisions but, all of them know how to make their own fix better in the short run. Just ask any addict how their dealer can make their fix better. So ergo that will make it better for anyone else addicted since another addict will agree, more of what they want is better the way they want it.

You maybe right or not.  But the addicts will keep coming back whether you add new planes, have a non-reliable DAR bar indication component or even add an Achievement system.  They will keep coming back.  Until they die.

As stated before, as much of a pain as it is, experienced players will, for the most part, up what works for them during periods of high ENY.  The focus should, in part, be on leveling the environment for newbies.   We need new blood to stay in the game.  The more I think about it an ENY system based on player rank makes a lot of sense.   

Does anyone else have a real idea on how to address the problem of unbalanced sides?

[Tank-Ace]

That would work if score were tied to skill. But that relationship is VERY tenuous at best.


Many of the super low scores are very timid, not very good.

[68ZooM]

Problem is alot of players stay in there 5-7-10 eny planes, that's all they will Fly. I find the higher eny planes are alot more Fun and make you a better stick hands down. When the eny gets high and they can't fly there ride they get pissed off, here's a tip for you guys learn higher eny planes 

[Tank-Ace]

I think pissing those guys off is empirically and inherently good. And HTC could record the whines over Vox, and post the funniest and most ignorant to the front page, so that we might laugh at their pitiful existence  .



Seriously though, if someone is unwilling to fly anything but their EZ mode plane or switch sides, do we really want them here? I'd say the average fights would improve with their loss.

[caldera]

Seriously though, if someone is unwilling to fly anything but their EZ mode plane or switch sides, do we really want them here? I'd say the average fights would improve with their loss.

Being that the ones you are referring to constitute a large portion of the player base, how much longer would the game last?   

Punishment won't work.  Incentives to try other planes, stand a much better chance.

[BluBerry]

Seriously though, if someone is unwilling to fly anything but their EZ mode plane or switch sides, do we really want them here? I'd say the average fights would improve with their loss.

Because an outdated game struggling to survive is going to eliminate players in order to make your experience better and thus save the game? Good luck.