Remove "kill" messages.

[lunatic1]

Trees being too thick is one of the roots of why there are no more large scale suicidal spawn camps like in AH2. Your response about that helped me to take a look at what I was doing with the farmland tile in the Pacific tileset on my new terrain. Once I popped in a town, airfield, and GV spawn, it was obvious the trees were still too thick to have a good time with our GV's. So I blended in a pasture tile and opened up the GV combat space. You lunatic inspired me.

Heck, Violator is right about needing airfields closer together which is his single best idea. The majority of airfields on my new terrain are the minimum distance of 19 miles to keep people at each other versus gaining alt flying forever to dump on a furball with alt. That eventually bores players and they go somewhere else. It's a waste of a good evening always climbing just to have someone HO you a few times then run away.

You gents changed the subject to spawn camps, it gave me the inspiration to test if I had made my spawns poorly for GVers.

glad I could help.  and yes closer air field I think would help with alt monkeys. I love dogfighting but trying to climb to get alt on incoming in vaders is tiresome, most will say up from a different field, and I sometimes do but that is boring and tiresome as well. I up from a distant field get to 20k and they are at 25 to 30k, you can't win. I don't like high alt fighting. alt monkeys tend to pick and run. thankyou for listening or lol reading.

[Zoney]

glad I could help.  and yes closer air field I think would help with alt monkeys. I love dogfighting but trying to climb to get alt on incoming in vaders is tiresome, most will say up from a different field, and I sometimes do but that is boring and tiresome as well. I up from a distant field get to 20k and they are at 25 to 30k, you can't win. I don't like high alt fighting. alt monkeys tend to pick and run. thankyou for listening or lol reading.

I think you are wrong.

I am an unapologetic, un-repenting alt monkey.  I fly up high because that is what I like to do.  You can assume it's for all the reasons you like but in this case, please, take my word for it.  I Fly High Because I LIKE To.  I like the high alt fights I get occasionally.  I like thwarting high alt buffs.

I don't care how close you move the bases together.  I'm still going to do my Zoneysphere thing.  I would be willing to bet so will my fellow alt monkeys.  There are more of us that you think there are in my opinion.  I see the same guys, friendly or enemy, all the time.

Your logical conclusion is way off here if you think closer bases will bring me down.  What makes me descend is a target under me.  Period.  You push the bases closer, you push the fights lower, and it will just give me a bigger advantage.

I have no problem fighting on the deck, I'm just not going to start there.

Yep this is JUST a game, but I try to play it well and I am pretty damn sure that in RL, pilots started with as much alt as they could get and still be effective.

[DmonSlyr]

I think you are wrong.

I am an unapologetic, un-repenting alt monkey.  I fly up high because that is what I like to do.  You can assume it's for all the reasons you like but in this case, please, take my word for it.  I Fly High Because I LIKE To.  I like the high alt fights I get occasionally.  I like thwarting high alt buffs.

I don't care how close you move the bases together.  I'm still going to do my Zoneysphere thing.  I would be willing to bet so will my fellow alt monkeys.  There are more of us that you think there are in my opinion.  I see the same guys, friendly or enemy, all the time.

Your logical conclusion is way off here if you think closer bases will bring me down.  What makes me descend is a target under me.  Period.  You push the bases closer, you push the fights lower, and it will just give me a bigger advantage.

I have no problem fighting on the deck, I'm just not going to start there.

Yep this is JUST a game, but I try to play it well and I am pretty damn sure that in RL, pilots started with as much alt as they could get and still be effective.

Zoney, there is nothing wrong with taking the time to climb for alt and taking your sorties seriously. I do the same in some cases. But I don't believe a far lot like to have to fight guys like you all the time in 25K 152s. It's just not that exciting. Sure, we all could play like FSO and climb to 25K, but a lot of people just don't have the time for that in the MA every sortie. I don't think you will notice anything different. It will just make it easier for new guys to enjoy the fights and get back to the action a little more quickly. If players can roll and get back to the furball, it will help balance the fights rather than one team constantly hoarding a base after they shoot everyone down. It will make it more likely to roll to defend a base from a back field. If back bases are too far, it takes a while to get there, and often times, the base gets captured before you get there. It will reward players who do take the time to get alt. It will cause players to get in more turny planes and not 190Ds because they won't be so concerned about taking 20 minutes to get to a base and die so quickly. The faster planes shield from dieing quickly because they can run easily. Less running planes and more turny planes will bring better fights and overall better furballs. That is the difference between fighting in Jets and fighting in WW1 airplanes.   Shorter bases will not effect your type of flying but it will just create quicker action for most players which is what AH desperately needs. 

[Zoney]

Violator.

You maybe misunderstand.

I agree that moving bases closer together will affect the lower alt furballers.  Possibly effect them in a positive way.

My point was closer bases, lower fights, quicker engagements, will not affect alt monkeys.

[DmonSlyr]

Violator.

You maybe misunderstand.

I agree that moving bases closer together will affect the lower alt furballers.  Possibly effect them in a positive way.

My point was closer bases, lower fights, quicker engagements, will not affect alt monkeys.

Okay I agree with that premise, but I just hope there will be less of them. 

[Vinkman]

If a tree falls in the woods....


 

[Ramesis]

As a BNZ... isn't it normal to have an alt advantage?

[Krusty]

Bases too close to each other only leads to steamrolling, which is vastly more skill-less and braindead than actually putting effort into it. At 350mph you can cross 20 miles in 3 and a half minutes. That's no time to notice, organize, react, and defend a field. You can suicide pork a field 10 times before anything respawns and take it with the lamest-duck tactics you can think of. That was the worst side of the MA even back when we had much higher numbers. The dweebery.

You have to balance against the bigger picture, not your own personalized preferences for dog fighting. The map is for everyone, not just you.

Consider these and many other facts if you choose to design a terrain. There are some maps that are just bad to play on and nobody likes them for that reason.

Edit: P.S. the 2x fuel burn multiplier in the MA already compresses the battlefield intentionally to make people fly lower and shorter missions to nearby bases. That's why we have 2x burn in MA.

[Zoney]

Krusty, well said.

[bustr]

10 years ago placing bases 1-1.5 sectors from each other was the answer to an arena dominated by 300-500 players a night who traveled in mega hoards. Today with maybe 200 a few times a week, closer bases keeps the lower numbers engaged in "activity". I tested that theory with my first terrain BowlMA by mixing a maximum distance of one 1 sector bases and minimum distance bases of 19 miles starting in the center working out. It keeps people engaged because they don't fly forever just do die in a few seconds. And they can get back sooner before players scatter on to other things. Furballs and other initiatives these days tend to have a shorter life span with our lower average numbers.

You get the numbers back up to what they were 10 years ago, I'll start building terrains to thwart mega hoards. Until then, I've been listening to players on the ground talk about the game. I had two years of it up close and personal being part of the closed alpha testing when we had to get up to our noses in all of it all the way to go live day 1 for AH3. Then I listened to them as they got their first taste of AH3 when some of the AH2 terrains built during the mega hoard days were converted to AH3. Mega hoard stopping designs made playing on the terrains a big show stopper and bored people to death trying to get our small numbers together and stay there to fight.

So 19 miles will keep people at each other who want quicker action while the alt monkeys will just spiral up before hiding at alt over the activity. I made sure to make enough waterways between islands 1 sector for the sensibilities of the old school players who want to fly forever to a fight. The game has changed with time which dictates how to design a terrain to keep people engaged in activity for their $14.95. "Most want more activity" and less traveling to the fight now days.

[Krusty]

Edit: Ahhhh, never mind. Not worth it to get in a debate right here.

[bustr]

Build a terrain based on your superior knowledge of what customers want, submit it, we will play on it for a while, and then we can debate. I'm currently documenting my terrain in the terrain editor forum so everyone can see what I'm doing and learned from my first AH3 terrain BowlMa. It's one thing to throw around opinions, it's another to put them to a test with real customers.

[perdue3]

Sounds like someone never lands kills to me.

-1 for sure.

[JimmyC]

landed 9 yesterday...
i felt quite cool...
my mrs even showed some special kinda ting....
she loves a fighter jock



nice

[Randy1]

landed 9 yesterday...
i felt quite cool...

Was that when you were vulching planes as they spawned out on the runway after the field had been deacked?