Buzzsaw Map - Yes or No?

[Shuffler]

No matter what it's called, the game appeals to different people for different reasons. I love the strategy aspect of the game, and bombers and GVs are essential in that regard.  If you're playing mostly to find and duel other fighter pilots, more power to you. But if that's all there was to AH, you'd have a much smaller pool of people from whom to find a fight.

Would be interesting to see the percentage that flew as compared to the gvers when the game was in it's prime... numbers wise. Compared to now.

It seemed there were mostly flyers back then. I may be wrong, but it seemed as such. If so... could that be one of the reasons for a loss of numbers?

Maybe Mr. Numbers Are Us could chime in with a chart or two. 

[Lusche]

Would be interesting to see the percentage that flew as compared to the gvers when the game was in it's prime... numbers wise. Compared to now.

A quick one before I go to bed:

I assume by prime you mean most players - the years with most hours played in the LW arenas were 2007/2008.
Time spend in fighter mode 49%, attack mode 14%, bomber 16%, vehicle 21% in 2007. 46% fighter 16% attack 16% bomber 23% vehicle in 2008.
Last year: Time in fighter mode 40%, attack 15%, bomber 19%, vehicle 26%.

[Mano]

I like it. I mostly GV.

You can spawn into several enemy strats and as soon as it starts flashing.....the gv's come a running.
Love it. 

The only downside......never get any Scotty kills with my M-8 when that map is up.   

 

 

[scott66]

I like it. I mostly GV.

You can spawn into several enemy strats and as soon as it starts flashing.....the gv's come a running.
Love it. 

The only downside......never get any Scotty kills with my M-8 when that map is up.   

 

unless you're up in a plane that is true lol

[Vraciu]

No matter what it's called, the game appeals to different people for different reasons. I love the strategy aspect of the game, and bombers and GVs are essential in that regard.  If you're playing mostly to find and duel other fighter pilots, more power to you. But if that's all there was to AH, you'd have a much smaller pool of people from whom to find a fight.

The percentage of the pool that's GV-only is of no use to me because I like dogfighting.    Glad to have them and all, but...

GVs may help pay the bills but I doubt the game would be less successful had it stuck to planes-only.    Others have argued that GVs have hurt the air combat aspect.  YMMV. 

[Zoney]

Just as an example or two.............taking away GV's from the game could possibly mean we could lose players like Wizzy and Vilkas.  Both of these gentlemen brought a whole lot to this game.  It would be a loss to our community .

I'm as guilty as anyone of expressing my disdain for GV's in the past.  I've learned since those days though.  It's pretty easy not to interact with them if you are flying a plane.  It is very very seldom you will get sniped unless you are vulching a base.

[JunkyII]

Just as an example or two.............taking away GV's from the game could possibly mean we could lose players like Wizzy and Vilkas.  Both of these gentlemen brought a whole lot to this game.  It would be a loss to our community .

I'm as guilty as anyone of expressing my disdain for GV's in the past.  I've learned since those days though.  It's pretty easy not to interact with them if you are flying a plane.  It is very very seldom you will get sniped unless you are vulching a base.

There is nothing wrong with GVs in Aces High...I just think a lot of people who GV or bomb think that suggestions by the fighter jocks are just good for fighters and bad for everything which is just not the case. Example(here I go again) nerfing M3 resupply of town...it doesn't negatively effect Tanker gameplay...it slows down the ability so for strictly base takers but just gives them more incentive to up a tank, whirl or plane to defend a field...but most of the people who disagree with me on that say that it's fine...which it isn't with how many people agree with me it just doesn't effect you but the change really wouldn't effect you either.

A lot of the community sees a suggestion as a terrible thing that shouldn't ever be brought up which is a toxic mindset to have for a game.

[Zoney]

FYI, I agree with you 100% on this Junky.

Normally I think you're an idiot however.  (I keed I keed)


OINK!

[Wiley]

Those numbers of Lusche's fascinate me because my perception when I log in outside primetime is more often than not, I can see enough bardar for at maximum 6 enemies in the air at the moment spread out across both fronts, with a heated GV battle or two usually somewhere.

I wonder if it's a matter of at primetime, there's a surge of players that mostly do aircraft so over a period of a few hours, there are many, many aircraft man hours being flown due to the population spike.  Perhaps the GV population is not as high, but either tends to be more in off hours or it's just more steady over the course of the day?

I think the other thing at play is there needs to be a critical mass of opponents to engage for people to feel there's "enough enemies".  If I am looking for a fight, all I ask at bare minimum is for a 5 or more enemies to be operating in an area.  At primetime, I can usually find that.  Outside primetime, I quite often can't and wind up running down singletons.  Different people have different thresholds for "enough enemies".  For some, it's 0.

When there's 300 enemies on the map, there's generally enough aircraft in the air to find a fight no matter what.

When there's 30, not so much.

A lot of the community sees a suggestion as a terrible thing that shouldn't ever be brought up which is a toxic mindset to have for a game.

I also agree with you on the M3s, Junky, but "suggestion"?  That's a bit of an understatement.  You've been harping on it for a long time pretty hard.  Just saying.

Kind of sounds like the kids, "Can we have a pool dad?  Can we have a pool dad?  Can we have a pool dad?" expecting them to give in eventually just through sheer repetition.

Wiley.

[DmonSlyr]

A quick one before I go to bed:

I assume by prime you mean most players - the years with most hours played in the LW arenas were 2007/2008.
Time spend in fighter mode 49%, attack mode 14%, bomber 16%, vehicle 21% in 2007. 46% fighter 16% attack 16% bomber 23% vehicle in 2008.
Last year: Time in fighter mode 40%, attack 15%, bomber 19%, vehicle 26%.

This pretty much confirms my arguement that the fighter action has been slowing and dieing, therefore the game slowed down and caused a chain reaction in fighters leaving. Once the fighters come back, the game will become more exciting again. This has to do with maps, base distance, squad participation, strat issues, no fast play arena that's fun (DA furball map suckage) and personal issues, but I believe that the slow down in fighter action has caused the loss of #s and excitement in the arenas.

[Lusche]

but I believe that the slow down in fighter action has caused the loss of #s and excitement in the arenas.

Or it's a result of sinking overall numbers and not the cause of it? As in when the population is low and little actual fight going on, a player is more likely to hop in a tank, a bomber or a heavy attacker to smash some objects than going into fighter mode and fly circles until more people log on.
But then, fighter mode usage has been going down slowly almost since the beginning. And yet numbers went way up over the years. (Early 2001: 60% hours in fighter mode, about 2400 players with min 1 kill or death - early 2008 46%, about 6600 pilots with min 1kill or death)
Correlation or causalty - often difficult to tell. We had been there before...


And a general word on loss of excitement - Those of us who had been here for many years have to keep in mind the "been there, done that" effect. Even if numbers and gameplay would get back to the 2006 level, I would never get back the same level of excitement I had 10 years ago. Because I have seen it all. It would basically need a new game for getting back excitement like that.

[Lusche]

I wonder if it's a matter of at primetime, there's a surge of players that mostly do aircraft so over a period of a few hours, there are many, many aircraft man hours being flown due to the population spike.  Perhaps the GV population is not as high, but either tends to be more in off hours or it's just more steady over the course of the day?

Off hours are also sneaking hours. Partly because you can, partly because there's often little actual fighting to be found. And the main way of the sneak is the vehicle...
(With sinking player numbers, the number of basecaptures per hour as well as the number of captures per player went up a lot)

[Wiley]

Off hours are also sneaking hours. Partly because you can, partly because there's often little actual fighting to be found. And the main way of the sneak is the vehicle...
(With sinking player numbers, the number of basecaptures per hour as well as the number of captures per player went up a lot)

Makes sense.

Wiley.

[TheBug]

A lot of the community sees a suggestion as a terrible thing that shouldn't ever be brought up which is a toxic mindset to have for a game.

Why do you seek acceptance of your suggestions from the community when they have no power to either implement or deny them?  Not bashing your ideas, just trying to understand your process.

[bustr]

A single M3 with base supplies has as much single finger salute power over a base capture as the bomber boxes that wiped out the town in a single pass minutes earlier. During prime time with numbers, your base capture efforts deserve the single finger salute if members of your effort want everyone else but themselves to help shut down the ability to get supplies to the town.

During off prime time with very few people to help in a base capture, the M3 becomes as powerful as a tigerII in it's ability to dictate on the battle field. So a single lone greifer can follow you around and single finger salute your time invested efforts into one giant FooYouuuu with a single finger salute on the "drop supplies button". For the greifer, loosing an M3 costs nothing and there is an unlimited supply in the hanger. For a limited number of players trying to capture a field, there are many duties and minor details a field capture requires attention to. The greifer by choosing an M3 versus a fighter or GV from the local hanger is being smart and safe in his own mind. While being a spineless coward in the minds of the players trying to capture the field at a time of the day very few opportunists exist to slaughter defenders. 

I believe this is the gist of what originally happened to Junky on a number of occasions during off prime hours. It's like that historical period in Japan when any low born rice farmer with a muzzle loader could slaughter a samurai on the battle field with a single finger salute. And the samurai complained in about the same manner Junky does with reverent concern for the spirit of their martial culture being at stake. And they called for the banning of firearms and restrictions on what the lowly rice farmers could do on the battle field. A quality and purity argument versus numbers right up until Tokugawa Ieyasu won sekigahara with massed single finger salutes against the quality and purity of the martial way samurai.