Fun as watching grass grow

[Vraciu]

No glzsqd, no.  It's the end of the world when there is eny.  Didn't you know this?

Yes, because dogfighting against weaker opponents (or none at all) is great for skill-building and really livens up the arena. 

[Arlo]

About ENY and stubbornness ....

Some people require pictures .... some like them ..... some don't (I think Snailman knows what I'm talkin' `bout).

Here is a color coded chart of all the fighters in AH arranged by ENY (low to high). Find your favorite ride and see where along the totem pole it sits. ENY lops off planes starting at the top. Having an alternate favorite, further down the totem pole, may serve you well if you are dead-set against switching chess pieces .... ever.



If you are so in love with one particular plane at the top end of the totem pole then you (and your squaddies) may do well exemplifying why there's an ENY to begin with and switch sides.

How to switch sides:







Regarding low numbers of players and what the community, individually and as a whole, can do about that:

Ok, no pictures here, you'll have to read and think. The 'can do' is simple, actually.

1. Patience. Logging on for anywhere from sixty seconds to ten minutes then logging off in a huff isn't helping you or anyone else. AH (like AW) has never been a quick game of checkers. It requires ..... patience (in the MA - moreso in events). Study the map. Even with the HQ down you can check roster, read buffer, etc. If you're in a squad (which I wholly encourage) then either be their point man or put your heads together and figure something out. And yes, jumping to another chesspiece *gasp* may be part of a good plan.

2. Events. Events? Yes events. Scheduled, planned events. Not your thing? Too bad. You'll have numbers, your HQ will be up. Well, now, it may be more challenging. You probably won't be in an arena that has the same settings as the MA. You will be expected to follow the rules and probably some orders. But if more players got addicted to events and also flew the MA (a lot of players refuse to do both) maybe - just maybe - you won't succumb to the above lack of patience/attention deficit problem.

3. Do you like this game or not? Do you know of anyone you like that might? Um, tell them ... and (just as important, if not moreso) .... help them if they give it a try. You got friends that already play, right? Introduce. If you have friends who succumbed to the patience thing or are acting all 'everything always sucks so I quit' like - help them get over that and get them back in the game. If you don't want to, then you're a major part of the problem.

4. Don't hang out in the forum peeing all over the floor and saying 'the problem is the game', making excuses about your behavior, rationalizing why you quit to everyone and trying to get them to, as well. That's not part of a productive discussion and certainly isn't helping anyone else who may enjoy being part of the community and trying to help the game thrive. And don't try to pretend it's unfair to your freedom of speech or something. This is HT's forum like it's HT's game. He wants it to be successful and fun probably more than you do (quite frankly, if you're trying to encourage other players to cancel their sub, then it's obvious). Any other game forum on the web wouldn't put up with that. So either show a little appreciation and bond productively, for a change, or take it somewhere else.

[Lusche]

Charts! In colour! 

[The Fugitive]

ENY was NOT designed to encourage switching sides to balance the teams. If it was we wouldn't have a 12 hour side switching rule. The 12 hour rule encourages people to NOT switch side so is the exact opposite of what you say ENY is about.

ENY is use to remove the better equipment for the team that has the numerical advantage.

More players with crappy equipment = less players with good equipment.

[glzsqd]

great post Arlo

[Arlo]

ENY was NOT designed to encourage switching sides to balance the teams. If it was we wouldn't have a 12 hour side switching rule. The 12 hour rule encourages people to NOT switch side so is the exact opposite of what you say ENY is about.

ENY is use to remove the better equipment for the team that has the numerical advantage.

More players with crappy equipment = less players with good equipment.

ENY is a balancing feature, period. Whether players choose to change sides or fight with inferior planes is up to them. If HT didn't want to allow side switching you wouldn't have a 12 hour limitation, you would have no o-club to switch in.

[Arlo]

great post Arlo

Thank you, sir. 

[Skyyr]

The problem with ENY is that it's directly tied to overall plane performance, instead of overall plane effectiveness/efficiency. Some may think it's balanced for the larger side to be limited to 25 ENY planes in a 5 vs 12 scenario. However, put someone like myself on the team of "5" and I can effectively engage half or more of the team because I have access to planes that greatly outperform theirs. It would be a slaughter.

ENY does the opposite of side-balancing; it encourages the average player to log off, be slaughtered, or spend a disproportionate amount of time climbing to offset the lack of plane performance, resulting in less overall action and therefore less gameplay for all involved sides.

[Arlo]

The problem with ENY is that it's directly tied to overall plane performance. Some may think it's balanced for the larger side to be limited to 25 ENY planes in a 5 vs 12 scenario. However, put someone like myself on the team of "5" and I can effectively engage half or more of the team because I have access to planes that greatly outperform theirs. It would be a slaughter.

ENY does the opposite of side-balancing; it encourages the average player to log off, be slaughtered, or spend a disproportionate amount of time climbing to offset the lack of plane performance, resulting in less overall action and therefore less gameplay for all involved sides.

How come you couldn't arrive at a conclusion that it makes a side with a numbers advantage have to continue the fight with lower performing aircraft or shed players to another side that has access to higher performing aircraft (which is exactly what it does and was designed to do)? What's with inventing some sort of odd conspiracy theory or attempting to make a fault out of design instead of behavior? You do know that Dale has been both a player and developer in this genre for years, right?

[Volron]

You forgot the list bombers Arlo.  The other part of the complaint is that one cannot take a base when eny is high.

[Arlo]

You forgot the list bombers Arlo.  The other part of the complaint is that one cannot take a base when eny is high.

ENY makes rolling bases harder? But ... but ... the design.

No, I didn't forget. More than one player has posted that their concern is fighter on fighter action. 

[glzsqd]

the Difference in performance is not that great from 5-25 eny fighters.  Hell even at its worst anyone can still fly one of the best low altitude fighters in the game, the LA5.

[Skyyr]

How come you couldn't arrive at a conclusion that it makes a side with a numbers advantage have to continue the fight with lower performing aircraft or shed players to another side that has access to higher performing aircraft (which is exactly what it does and was designed to do)? What's with inventing some sort of odd conspiracy theory or attempting to make a fault out of design instead of behavior? You do know that Dale has been both a player and developer in this genre for years, right?

Conspiracy theory? Faulting the game design? Project your fallacies elsewhere.

Take for example, the P-51. The P-51D is 5 ENY, but it fails to perform at the same air-to-air level that other 5 ENY aircraft do. It's ENY is set at a flat 5 because it is capable of ground attack and decent air-to-air performance. Take away ground attack and it's a 10, maybe 15 ENY aircraft; current ENY system does not address an aircraft's effectiveness in different roles.

So in other words, ENY is a flat rating for a multi-aspect game mechanic. By nature, it's not going to accurately balance air-to-air combat or air-to-ground combat, because it doesn't discriminate separately.

It's not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of logic. Players who approach ACM (and by extension, Aces High) with regard to Strategic Dominance gaming theory (as I do) will find such a system VERY easy to abuse for advantage... and I commonly do. It's the nature of ACM when practiced in a textbook definition.

[Vraciu]

Well said Fugitive and Skyyr. 

[Arlo]

Well that went from strange to bizarre fast. You think the 51d's ENY is unfair. :LOL