Solution for the low numbers???

[b4o2s9s]

I will be thoroughly noobly after almost a year off. I so look forward to it.

Haha for sure. Only a couple flights in for my first time in years, and I'm feeling the pain

[twistedtechmike]

Tried again tonight in the MA with 125 folks online. Felt the whole time like there were less than 10. Me, personally, the maps are way too large. A 6x6 sector count would be awesome with the number of folks online.

[100Coogn]

Tried again tonight in the MA with 125 folks online. Felt the whole time like there were less than 10. Me, personally, the maps are way too large. A 6x6 sector count would be awesome with the number of folks online.

-1
That's barely enough room to get my bombers to alt. 
Not everybody furballs all the time.

Coogan

[Ciaphas]

-1
That's barely enough room to get my bombers to alt. 
Not everybody furballs all the time.

Coogan

Depends on the route you take to climb.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[100Coogn]

Depends on the route you take to climb.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With a map that small I'd be doing a tight spiral climb.  Not interested.

Coogan

[Arlo]

Tried again tonight in the MA with 125 folks online. Felt the whole time like there were less than 10. Me, personally, the maps are way too large. A 6x6 sector count would be awesome with the number of folks online.

I'm always somewhat amazed at players who don't have the ability to dogfight each other because 'the map's too big.' The fronts are the fronts and bases are scattered across them. It's not like there are three bases stuck in corners. Players could find each other if almost any effort was applied, whatsoever. Now, if you have 125 players, most of whom are dedicated to hiding from each other, I could see the rare one that was looking for a fight get a bit frustrated.

[1stpar3]

I'm always somewhat amazed at players who don't have the ability to dogfight each other because 'the map's too big.' The fronts are the fronts and bases are scattered across them. It's not like there are three bases stuck in corners. Players could find each other if almost any effort was applied, whatsoever. Now, if you have 125 players, most of whom are dedicated to hiding from each other, I could see the rare one that was looking for a fight get a bit frustrated.

You make a good point,Arlo. That being said, and PLEASE dont take this as a slight or argument, but I believe its been a while since you played? IMO,the biggest reason there are less numerous "air" fights,  is because its about a 60-40 split GV/FIGHTER sorties lately. Even with the GV DAR many seem to loathe(ironic really). Thats the thing on Bish side anyway. Seems more attacks are initiated by mass GV runs instead of the Jabo, NOE or coordinated Bomber shut down with Jabo clean up. Leads to less aircraft available, even in an attack situation. So with 40 players and 10 AFK in tower and 4 gvs attacking one base and 5 more at another, with bombers hitting strats or porking.....doesnt leave many available to furball with. Thats just my opinion,Pretty sure some one will argue the point, but thats my .02cents   I have NO PROBLEM finding fights but I have only known life in AH this way. I am not as set in my ways/still fun for me

[Winger1]

I really feel like the game needs a good offline mode where you can fly against AI aircraft. New players need to fly against bots with different difficulty levels to practice. The biggest challenge in getting kills is hitting the target and the bots circling above your base in the offline practice aren't nearly the same thing as hitting someone who is flipping and sliding around. The only time you ever get that practice is when you fly against people in the main arena with long wait times between fights, very limited ammo and you are usually flying against seasoned veterans; it makes learning good gunnery and ACM nearly impossible. I mean seriously, how much of your time in the arena is actually spent shooting at enemy planes? You need repetition with unlimited ammo on maneuvering AI aircraft. Period.

Long wait times between shooting opportunities and jumping straight to flying against veterans is THE reason the learning curve is so steep. Being able to spawn in a dogfight with skilled bots over and over and over again whenever you want would be a godsend.

Imagine the boost to a new (or old) player's confidence and sense of fun if you could retreat to a safe offline dogfight match against AI planes set to easy and feel like a badass for once? As it is, the only time you ever get to engage anyone in a dogfight is in the online arena. Sometimes it feels good to pop in another flight sim with single player and shoot down some planes without the high competition of online gameplay. Then, when your confidence is up, you can jump back in.

Aces High just doesn't feel like a complete game without single player. Single player is where everyone is supposed to start.

[1stpar3]

+1 DCS incorporates exactly this situation! Their learning curve is a lot bigger...without their training missions  I never would have purchased the first module 

[Winger1]

+1 DCS incorporates exactly this situation! Their learning curve is a lot bigger...without their training missions  I never would have purchased the first module 

Training missions are a good idea but I really feel like the importance of good old-fashioned, build-your-own matches cannot be overstated. Janes WW2 fighters, Combat Flight Simulator 2 and IL2 1946 are all super fun to play just for s**ts and giggles. Not everything needs to be training for the online arena, sometimes fighting the computer is fun too. I think making a FUN offline component is really the key to attracting new players.

Just mix and matching different planes and seeing them in your cross-hairs with unlimited ammo is not only fun but it's that repetition that will make you good enough to throw down in the online arena. Eventually, you're able to judge lead correctly and you aren't a deer in the headlights thinking "I hardly ever get somebody in my sights! Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw-" dead.

[FESS67]

only 24 on at moment  5:50 Aussie time.  Big map for 24 people

[pembquist]

I would second and third the single player feature. The germ of it exists in the staged mission system but the interface/ease of use just isn't there. What would be nice is if an arena like the match play when it had mountains existed that allowed a player or three to fly against a designated number and type of airplane without the time limit but with the airspawn.

I never had any luck with the AH2 mission editor, does a mission editor still exist and work?

[The Fugitive]

You make a good point,Arlo. That being said, and PLEASE dont take this as a slight or argument, but I believe its been a while since you played? IMO,the biggest reason there are less numerous "air" fights,  is because its about a 60-40 split GV/FIGHTER sorties lately. Even with the GV DAR many seem to loathe(ironic really). Thats the thing on Bish side anyway. Seems more attacks are initiated by mass GV runs instead of the Jabo, NOE or coordinated Bomber shut down with Jabo clean up. Leads to less aircraft available, even in an attack situation. So with 40 players and 10 AFK in tower and 4 gvs attacking one base and 5 more at another, with bombers hitting strats or porking.....doesnt leave many available to furball with. Thats just my opinion,Pretty sure some one will argue the point, but thats my .02cents   I have NO PROBLEM finding fights but I have only known life in AH this way. I am not as set in my ways/still fun for me

That is the one thing I hate about the GV dar we have. A square pops up, the town starts flashing and you could have any where from 1 to 20 GVs moving in. As a fighter guy I may call out the dar, but I dont have the time to investigate. Next thing you know another base is gone and no fight happening. I wish HTC would have just added another dar BAR that grew like the ones we have now for GVs. It still would have alerted players to a GV, and would have given more info as to whether it was an attack or a camper.

Then there are the "fights" we do get. As seen in the picture below we have a nice little fight going around 5k. Not only do a number of guys show up, they come in at 12-17k in spits. How much of an advantage do you need?



I flew 3 flights last night.

First was a guy who ran to ack so I left and started fighting 2 guys higher than me. After a couple passes the LA came back with alt instead of his ack  3 on 1 i turned toward help. As I got a guy for help, they got 2 or more for help on there side. So the gang forms.

Second flight I had a guy in an LA try to HO me 4 times, 5th time I HOed him, I win..... big deal.

Third flight was the picture above, but minutes later it was 3 to 1 odds, most with stupid alt. Double dar against not even a full dar for our guys..... and no fights on the other fronts for the Knights.

What is it with players today? The kill is ALL important and the "HOW" of getting that kill doesnt matter. Hide in hordes, or run away so you dont die! "ALERT" "It's a game and NOBODY really DIES!". The idea is to learn and develop a skill to be able to FIGHT your way out of a paper bag and not run/hide from everyone.

Until the player mentality changes the game play we have now is what we are going to be stuck with. Players can help change this but will they? In last night scenario, all those spits coming in at high alt could see the dar they had. Instead of ADDING to it they could have attacked a different base/front, but no they added to the problem instead of being a solution. Why jump in an F4U4 with a couple buddies to do nothing but pick and run at an already unbalanced? fight, Yet you see it often enough. When game play imbalances FINALLY get to HTC they make drastic changes NOEs stopped due to rad changes, HQ drops stopped due to rebuild times, long range artillery stopped due to .target removal. What will change if they deem that "pickers/horders/runners" are driving away the new guys? 

Training missions are a good idea but I really feel like the importance of good old-fashioned, build-your-own matches cannot be overstated. Janes WW2 fighters, Combat Flight Simulator 2 and IL2 1946 are all super fun to play just for s**ts and giggles. Not everything needs to be training for the online arena, sometimes fighting the computer is fun too. I think making a FUN offline component is really the key to attracting new players.

Just mix and matching different planes and seeing them in your cross-hairs with unlimited ammo is not only fun but it's that repetition that will make you good enough to throw down in the online arena. Eventually, you're able to judge lead correctly and you aren't a deer in the headlights thinking "I hardly ever get somebody in my sights! Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw-" dead.

Winger1, there are a number of "Staged Missions" where you can setup an arena and fly a mission profile against maneuvering AI planes. Check them out in this thread. http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/board,410.0.html

[100Coogn]

I would second and third the single player feature. The germ of it exists in the staged mission system but the interface/ease of use just isn't there. What would be nice is if an arena like the match play when it had mountains existed that allowed a player or three to fly against a designated number and type of airplane without the time limit but with the airspawn.

I never had any luck with the AH2 mission editor, does a mission editor still exist and work?

I used to love building offline missions, but it seemed that every time there was an update to the game the editor would break.
Once AHIII was released, all of my AHII would no longer work.  So I'm sure that others like me just gave up building them.
The offline missions can take quite a lot of time to make, but the end result was usually worth it.

Coogan

[nrshida]

What is it with players today? The kill is ALL important and the "HOW" of getting that kill doesnt matter.

The score doesn't register quality or method.