Are there any stats to prove that fighters are not the most popular in the game anymore? I don't know that what you arre implying is actually the best idea.
I also think that changing the game toward a more tank and ground oriented game, won't help the #s because there is too much other competition for that type of gameplay. I'm not saying Hitech shouldn't work to make it as good as it could be. But shutting out the players that once made the furballs vast and the aircombat exciting, will only lead to more players logging off or canceling in boredom.
I agree with a lot of what Junky wrote except the score part. I don't think field gun scores really matter. I also do think the map does make a big difference. Other than that, I think he made some great points regarding that the fighter aspect to the game has not been "helped" and the maps have not been modeled to create better fights. That's just my opinion. I like some of the current maps, but I'd really like to see more condensed maps being created so that flying times are a bit shorter between bases. It would make a HUGE difference.
I also agree with the whole M3 thing. It's just a tease when you are trying to capture a base and it's a non stop cat and mouse game with no real combat action involved.
The more you see people racing to manned guns and getting cheap kills, or racing to hop in tanks instead of fighters, the game just staggers and the fights slowly die. Again, this happens because people don't see enemy tanks on the map, which causes the perception that there are no fights on the map. That is not what I want to see. I think Hitech has a great model and game for air combat. I don't want that part to diminish. Brining back the fighter aspect to the game would bring a lot of customers back and bring new players who just enjoy open map air combat. It would make the fights look bigger on the maps thus bringing more and more people to the fight, regardless of the type of game play they want to utilize. I've always thought tanks should be used as support for the fighters and not vice versa, if the game changes to a fighters supporting tank type game, I don't think the #s will increase and I think you will continue to see staggering fights.
Thats the point tho, your looking at it from a "fighters" point of view. You see the fighter guys leaving, you see the lack of fights, you see the players running to ack, jumping in guns or GVs and so on.
Look at from the base grabbers point of view. There are plenty of missions, luckily most are NOE so they are quicker. Grabbing bases is fun and much easier to do with a big group of players. Better chance of you making it in as there are more targets for those sharks that seem to show up. Gv spawns are not to far so if they get shot down, it is easier to avoid those sharks when your in a GV
The them there is nothing wrong with the game other than there seems to be too many sharks, but luckily they seem to be quitting..... cant wait until they are all gone! They are happy with a couple hundred players and most of them sucking in fighters because for them to play, less fighters make it easier.
My argument would be look at numbers in the MA long ago vs where they are today...there were more furballers and more profit coming in from what we could tell by general late war numbers. From the people I personally interact with, it's the air combat guys who have been leaving from the game when they used to have way more then just 30% of the player base. I understand your logic but is Aces High really going to compete with world of tanks for a tank simulator? No the maps are too big to add that sort of detail to the ground game. They can however compete with War Thunder because of the flight model and IL2 because they overall WW2 combat simulation is better(they may have a more real flight model but for a lot that's not the only thing they are looking for....that's based off what I was told from people playing il2, never tested it's flight model because I'm not sure Id run that game well.)
Yes 10 years ago we had more fighter/furballers, we also didn't have buffs or GVs for awhile either. As those other things were added, players expanded what they played in, new player joined up just for the GVs.
Can AH3 compete with all those other flight games and tank games? Sure, why not? I think what AH3 has far out shines those other games in the "FULLNESS" of what is provided.
Personally I'd like to see more fighters that fight. I hope for the day when that part of the game comes back around again as Im sure it will. Back in the old day when we had all those furballs I was a very poor player. Atleast now if they were to come back I might be ok at it
I also look forward to missions that have more of a plan than "grab the fastest cannon bird that can carry a bomb, run NOE and every one hit the FH and VH"
The point is that HTC isnt going to change anything to push people back into fighters. Many players are here to just GV, or run NOE and drop FH and VHs. It is what they are paying their $15 for. How long would you guys be playing the game if the rule was you had to run 2 buff missions for every fighter you took up? Not long I suspect because you don't like running buffs. Thats ok, but don't expect GV guys to be happy being forced to fly fighters either.
It is what it is.
