Like RR was in AW. Worked there - RR always had a bigger population than FR.
- oldman
The problem with the RR and FR arenas in AW is that it did basically create two separate communities within AW and caused a lot of division. So much so that before AW4 was cancelled, Kesmai was planning on eliminating the RR arenas entirely in favor of a single main arena that was similar to Warbirds at the time, complete with Kesmai's version of WB's "EZ Mode".
Would an RR arena work in here? Sure, but at the cost of dividing up the community like it did in AW, with the majority playing in the RR arena due to its simplified flight model.
Yeah, which is why I said it needs to be playable (and easily playable) without other peripherals. I'd be quite confident it's a matter of not understanding the controls on that first login, not being able to figure out what to do, and leaving.
Wiley.
When AH launched at Steam and the posts and reviews on Steam came out, it gave a good indications as to what the barriers were for new players and why most would leave before their two week trial was up and why so little converted into subscription accounts. The main issue was the convoluted control setup, many came from Steam to AH from playing other games like WT and WoWP, with their simplified mouse controls and computer controlled aiming aids and the steepness of the learning curve that many could not over come with the two week trial.
Changing how bases are captured or introducing things like air starts isn't going to attract new players, they'll still leave as the Steam players did because the barriers that prevented Steam players from sticking around will still be in place.
What is needed is a revamp of how controllers are set up, making it easier for new players to set up their controllers and with less mouse clicks in the GUI to get to the controller set up. Right now, the process to set up the controllers is kind of complicated. A player has to ensure their controllers are calibrated in Windows, then each axis for the controllers have to be calibrated in game and then to finish it off, a player must calibrate their controllers a 3rd time in-game and then (usually through trial and error) scale their controller's output in-game and map the buttons. If veteran players think it's a PITA to set up controllers, imagine what a new player must think. It's enough for a new player to not even bother with the game if they have to go through such a complicated routine to set up their controllers.
Another thing that needs to go is the two week trial, it is just not sufficient enough for a new player to learn the ropes of the game and get over the learning curve. Sure, many years ago it was sufficient because the majority of us came from other flight sims like AW and WB and it was easy for us to get used to AH during the two week trial. With most of the new players having experience in arcade sims like WT and WoWP and the majority of those using only mouse+keyboard controls, the learning curve is much steeper for them than it was for many of us and the two weeks is just sufficient enough for them to get used to the game. That is why (coupled with the problems setting up the controllers) a lot of players didn't bother to stick around to finish off their free trial period and convert into a paying subscription.
