Can’t even force myself to login.

[Wiley]

If i left AHIII there would be a vast void in everyones hearts

For at least ten minutes, then we'd move on.

Wiley.

[waystin2]

Here you go, very applicable to this discussion.


Becoming Involved vs. Not Subscribing (0 days - 2 months)
At this stage, the new player decides to learn the game, or get frustrated with the learning curve and quit.

Win The War vs. Learn to Fight (2 months - 8 months)
At this time, the newer player joins a squadron and decides which path his gameplay will be; either winning the war or concentrating on the fight. This choice depends greatly on the squadron the individual joins.

Popularity vs. One of Many (8 months - 3 years)
During this period the player seeks to gain notoriety or becomes one of the masses (voluntarily or not). Note that some never leave this stage.

Stagnation vs. Action (3 years - 7 years)
At this period the player leaves the game in boredom or branches out in the game to keep interest alive. Some even attempt to give back to the game to keep the interest alive.

Frustration vs. Acceptance (7 years +)
During this period the player decides that the new crop of players or tactics are the worst thing to happen to the game in a very long time. They lash out against any new idea or concept and often leave the game for several months at a time, vowing never to return. With few exceptions, they always return to the game eventually.

Never taken a break since 2007. I chose to subscribe and learn the game, joined a squad about 6 months later, I fight, I blow stuff up, I take bases, winning the war is cool if it happens but not the overriding purpose for me.  Taking a base with no resistance is meaningless to me, lifting to get into a dogfight for the sake of getting into a dogfight is just as meaningless to me.  Now fighting over possession of a field or trying to wrest a field from a determined enemy that is what it's about.  The chaos of an all out scrap air, land and sea is where it is at in AH III.  I have branched out in the game but it is usually in service to my Squad.  The last step may happen eventually, but at 10+ years I am not there yet.  I do credit my friends-those idiot Pigs for keeping me coming back.  Truth is I pay my $15 bucks a month for the entertainment they provide, the game is a fun backdrop.

See you up there,

Way

[bustr]

but its all the junk they added to these maps that have folks not having the same spark they had a year and a half ago, and I'm one of them.

Please help me understand "junk", opposed to: Hitech is a meenie and poo on him.

I can't change what is in the terrain editor and what I'm required to do to a Melee arena terrain to have it accepted for rotation. That's Hitech and he needs in most cases years of arguments while watching the community to decide on those kinds of changes from what I've observed. I have some control over how I create land, apply objects, orient things and paint the land.

The last terrain Oceania was a large scale experiment in doing that to the micro terrain around many feilds. I'm building a new terrain with a radically different topography now. If you need a break, give yourself a rest. These terrains take months to produce to the visual quality I did Oceania and you can see many streams running next to where a field will be placed. I'm considering placing the town for some on the other side of the stream and the same with two or three spawns leaving bridges as choke points. When I get to that stage and have to create the micro combat terrain for GVs around each field on the map, I've learned new lessons from Oceania once again about tank combat. The terrain editor has limitations while I have to follow some rules for the Melee arena to ensure balance anywhere I setup combat. I cannot change previous terrains once they are in rotation so I have to take my lessons and build a new terrain.


I'm working up the techniques and painting style to produce the new topographical features for this next project. I had a friend who was a potter who let me work with him, this is no different than creating a clay Bas-relief panel like you see in Rome. I know how Michelangelo feels now. Each of those squares is 1milex1mile and I create every square mile of this 10x10 terrain and paint it. So if you are burnt out with the game right now and unhappy, take a break while I get this monstrosity finished. I'm stuck here alone with it until it goes into rotation. Weeeeeeeeee......

Pssst......Don't tell Wasytin but, I build these things so everyone can romp across the terrain breaking things like a pig because we have so much fun following Waystin around....oink....

[8thJinx]

Bring the magic back, cause the eye candy isn't doing it.

The eye candy is at least two orders of magnitude better in AH3, imho.  But also imho, the 'magic' was the terrain you drove through in AH2, not the air you flew through.  And the magic is not lost.  It merely hasn't been brought out into the sunshine yet.  Great potential exists.  Please be patient.  A bunch of people are actively talking about this stuff, adding features and objects, trying out new software, working kinks out.  I am 100% confident that the magic will be back, Dundee.

[waystin2]

Please help me understand "junk", opposed to: Hitech is a meenie and poo on him.

I can't change what is in the terrain editor and what I'm required to do to a Melee arena terrain to have it accepted for rotation. That's Hitech and he needs in most cases years of arguments while watching the community to decide on those kinds of changes from what I've observed. I have some control over how I create land, apply objects, orient things and paint the land.

The last terrain Oceania was a large scale experiment in doing that to the micro terrain around many feilds. I'm building a new terrain with a radically different topography now. If you need a break, give yourself a rest. These terrains take months to produce to the visual quality I did Oceania and you can see many streams running next to where a field will be placed. I'm considering placing the town for some on the other side of the stream and the same with two or three spawns leaving bridges as choke points. When I get to that stage and have to create the micro combat terrain for GVs around each field on the map, I've learned new lessons from Oceania once again about tank combat. The terrain editor has limitations while I have to follow some rules for the Melee arena to ensure balance anywhere I setup combat. I cannot change previous terrains once they are in rotation so I have to take my lessons and build a new terrain.


I'm working up the techniques and painting style to produce the new topographical features for this next project. I had a friend who was a potter who let me work with him, this is no different than creating a clay Bas-relief panel like you see in Rome. I know how Michelangelo feels now. Each of those squares is 1milex1mile and I create every square mile of this 10x10 terrain and paint it. So if you are burnt out with the game right now and unhappy, take a break while I get this monstrosity finished. I'm stuck here alone with it until it goes into rotation. Weeeeeeeeee......

Pssst......Don't tell Wasytin but, I build these things so everyone can romp across the terrain breaking things like a pig because we have so much fun following Waystin around....oink....

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Gentlemen your first glimpses of what we the Pigs have dubbed the Facehugger map. 

[JunkyII]

Gentlemen your first glimpses of what we the Pigs have dubbed the Facehugger map.

I wonder if anyone will get the reference without a picture 

[waystin2]

I wonder if anyone will get the reference without a picture 

In space no one can hear you scream...

[bustr]

You see what I have to put up with....Being a pig is one big party no matter who's living room we bust into and clean out the refrigerator and all the booze. Ooopsies, I mean country we burst into and lately no one has very good booze and all the refrigerators have been empty. Hey Waystin remind me why we leave those really old smelly boxes of Jester's chocolates in their barracks under their pillows. I mean the dang things smell like someones cat got PO'd those chocolates are so old........

You don't think anyone ever opens those things??

[madrid311]

I find that time away and watching dogfights on the history channel gets the juices following. I play early morning pac time and there are only joker's taking bases and I die a lot f m not careful. I am going to try a different time and see what happens, but yeah after a few sorties I'm done. I really liked the staged missions we did in the ma I'm ah2. It was fun and seemed to make sense. Now there are no missions, I would try fso but I'm not really good enough. I love this game but it's getting easier t oko not play. I might try a few other games as well. I don't know but I understand what your feeling. Peace

[Kanth]

You should, when i came back after not flying for 13 years, i could barely get the plane off the ground and still 412th took me in and let me fly FSO with them. I was lucky not to get completely lost.  Really FSO is about having fun with a team, not about individual merits.

I'd really encourage you to get in there, it's one of, if not the best thing about Aces High. 

worst case scenario show up a little early and let everyone know you need a squad.  Best case work it out with a CO beforehand. I would recommend the 412th.

I would try fso but I'm not really good enough.

[popeye]

Had one of those Adrenaline Rush fights last night that makes me forget the slow times.  This game can be a real hoot!   

[madrid311]

Thanks kanth, I'll see what I can do. It's just a little embarrassing being the noob. When I first started I wore the badge proudly. Now after a few years I should know better. This game is like golf. You never know what's going to happen after the first nine holes. Lol.

[Nefarious]

Thanks kanth, I'll see what I can do. It's just a little embarrassing being the noob. When I first started I wore the badge proudly. Now after a few years I should know better. This game is like golf. You never know what's going to happen after the first nine holes. Lol.

PM me if you're interested.

[bustr]

Now there are no missions, I would try fso but I'm not really good enough.

FSO is not about being good enough. It's one of the few times you will fly with a group of players following a plan and carrying out orders as a team. They also have a vested interest in covering your 6 and surviving. Many flight leaders will tell you if you are in trouble, put your nose down and hit the deck. Landing safely counts towards your country's score. The environment eliminates lone wolves and rewards team work. Still, we all get caught at times by a superior force showing up higher and wiped out or, given a bomber assignment that is a one way trip. At that point it's about how you suck it up and deliver what you can. It's more like the real life realism many complain the MA is not.

If your squad is not a regular in FSO, check with Waystin to see if he has an open spot so you can fly with us POTW on a Friday night. We party in the tower, on the way to the first red guy, then it's pure business until we win or get stomped. There is always the next Friday night to get payback.

[Delirium]

It's more like the real life realism many complain the MA is not.

Scenarios are closer to realism than FSOs are due to so much inter-squadron competition (real or imagined) during FSOs. My last FSO I was told by other squadrons that "they are here to rack up scores and friendlies get in the way". Maybe that environment has changed, but it soured my opinion very quickly and I have not been back.

Please note, the 412 was NOT the squadron in question and the squadron that was involved did not survive Skuzzy's ban-hammer.