Random death

[AOB]

I was thinking ..... I have been playing Wings of Glory for the past 10 years with some friends on a Tuesday night. The basic idea is to take 3 manoeuvre cards in the planning stage and then move your planes according to the cards you picked. When a plane comes within one ruler length of an enemy then you can shoot at them providing they are in your firing arc. The plane hit take a damage card that has a number starting from zero (the most common card) to 10 depending on the damage deck used, or a symbol on it. Each plane type has a point value that is decremented by whatever is on the damage card until it reaches zero and is "killed". Some of the damage cards can show fire, smoke, explosions, rudder damage and gun jams. Each of these special damage cards have an impact on the game.

After playing this for 10 years you would think that the veteran players would absolutely wipe the floor with any new comers who would lack the skill and experience to be competitive. It does not work that way because of the randomness of the damage card draws. A veteran might inflict zero damage points on his newbie opponent whereas he could inflict an explosion card on the vet that would instantly put the vet out of the game.

I am thinking that this is what is missing from our combat sims. A vet will rarely be beaten and the outcome of combat is so often predictable. I am not speaking as a vet here, I am not good online fighter combat pilot, and I am happy to drive a C47 or Ju52 around the maps or perhaps do a bombing mission if required. So what do you guys think? Do we need a random factor or two added to our games to make them more attractive to new players?

[Lusche]

There are a lot of random factors in the MA on a higher level.
You may be a top ace vet of AH, but then you have this white knuckle fight with an enemy where you slowly gain the upper hand, and suddenly a totally randomly a new guy with a red icon comes along, dives and kills your low alt and low E plane.

[The Fugitive]

Nope, why take a good game and dumb it down? If you cant take the time to learn and practice the game as it is why are you bothering to play it?

Its like saying bowling is hard one ball at a time, lets connect two balls together and roll it like a dumb bell. The bowler who has spent years to learn to consistently bowl strikes is no longer an advantage, but you have now changed the game, it is no longer "bowling".

I have played this game for years and will NEVER be a great fighter pilot. I have my moments and that is what keeps me coming back. I still read about fighting, I still film all my fights, and still watch all my films. At 62 years old I dont have the eye site nor the reflexes most of the other players have, but I wouldnt to have any "randomness" thrown into the fights.

Randomness in the game is another story. I'd love to see all the bases labeled on the map as an "airfield", a "vehicle base" and a "port". Each time the map comes up each field is "randomly" populated with either a small, medium, or large field and the rotation of each field is also randomly placed. Something like this would help to make the game more interesting. Each time its a bit different and scouts would now be an important factor.

The game gets "boring" if a player doesnt try different aspects of the game. Sure you might suck in a fighter, but you might not suck so much in a different fighter, or maybe one of the GVs works for you, or long range bombing might fill your time, or maybe low level bombing runs as a gunship is more your speed. Todays "gamers" dont research games any more other than seeing if there are any cheat codes. Im sure there are players that have been hear months and still dont know a third of the things available to do in the game.

The game doesnt need to be dumbed down to make it more attractive to new players the game needs more exposure be it web pages updated daily, social media update hourly, and youtubers broadcasting different aspects of the game. This would "show" more of whats available so when a player gets tired of being vulched 20 times in a row he KNOWS there are some other options.

This game is a great game, why do people seem to want to make it something it isnt?

[Meatwad]

I was thinking ..... I have been playing Wings of Glory for the past 10 years with some friends on a Tuesday night. The basic idea is to take 3 manoeuvre cards in the planning stage and then move your planes according to the cards you picked. When a plane comes within one ruler length of an enemy then you can shoot at them providing they are in your firing arc. The plane hit take a damage card that has a number starting from zero (the most common card) to 10 depending on the damage deck used, or a symbol on it. Each plane type has a point value that is decremented by whatever is on the damage card until it reaches zero and is "killed". Some of the damage cards can show fire, smoke, explosions, rudder damage and gun jams. Each of these special damage cards have an impact on the game.

After playing this for 10 years you would think that the veteran players would absolutely wipe the floor with any new comers who would lack the skill and experience to be competitive. It does not work that way because of the randomness of the damage card draws. A veteran might inflict zero damage points on his newbie opponent whereas he could inflict an explosion card on the vet that would instantly put the vet out of the game.

I am thinking that this is what is missing from our combat sims. A vet will rarely be beaten and the outcome of combat is so often predictable. I am not speaking as a vet here, I am not good online fighter combat pilot, and I am happy to drive a C47 or Ju52 around the maps or perhaps do a bombing mission if required. So what do you guys think? Do we need a random factor or two added to our games to make them more attractive to new players?

No. Someone needs to learn to play the game, not get easy mode handed to them because they are too lazy or dont have the attention span to learn.

I just started a new game and constantly was killed by everyone else. You know what I did? I learned to pay attention to my surroundings and not rush in blindly. Then I got better and can get kills from LEARNING

[svaalbar]

If I was HiTech, I'd pay various Twitch.tv streamers to play sponsored streams of the game.

We'd get a huge influx of new players.

One problem with new players is the game is challenging to learn and start. My brother had to hold my hand the first few times. I remember when I landed a b17 (not even on the runway) i was happy, because 3-4 times even with my brother trying to give me help, I crashed and died.

I try to help new players when I see them, but learning the text chat buffers from Country, Help channel, etc.

Players can always also look up info (ie: educate themselves) but we should still try to reach out to new usernames.

[Shuffler]

Games have winners and losers. Not everyone gets a participation trophy. Practice and get better.

[hazmatt]

Games have winners and losers. Not everyone gets a participation trophy. Practice and get better.

Could always vulch! 

[Shuffler]

Could always vulch! 

LOL in the last 2 or 3 weeks I played for about 10 to 15 minutes..... I was vulched. Oh well I could have taken off any other field except the other front where the same was happening.

I went back to RDR2 for a couple of hours.

[fuzeman]

With all due respect Lusche, I think the AH vet still wins that one, especially if that guy is new-new, new to AH and new to flight sims. I think I’m not really for this type of randomness.
KOTH is having issues with TOC attendance and some want more invitations awarded, and we did add some new categories to earn one, but I do not want to water it down too much.

Seems I can’t post without mentioning KOTH