Having been a CM and now an arena moderator (CT Team), I have just a little clue of how difficult a task HTC faces in trying to please such a diverse crowd as this community. The idea expressed above of having a small section of the MA terrain set aside for the furball crowd is an interesting concept, but I have a sneaky suspicion that that section of the terrain would be relatively void of players (as the Dueling arena has been). My opinion (and it’s just that) is that both camps can’t really exist without the other (pretty “Zen,” eh?
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With few exceptions, furballs start when one or more pilots head to an enemy base with the idea of capturing it. The strat-players are in effect the catalysts that spawn those furballs some love so much. They are the grain of sand at the center of the giant snowball. I don’t know which group is the majority (furballers or strat-guys), let alone how big that majority is. I do know at the core of my being that unless AH manages to strike a balance to keep both these often fractious groups happy and in the arena, the game will wither and die. Like the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome or the NFL of today, there has to be a point to the contest besides simple personal glory. Imagine what would happen to professional sports if it were suddenly decided to do away with score keeping and team rankings? Likewise, without a significant number of players who want to have an exiting fight (without necessarily being concerned about the overall progress of the war), there would not be sufficient counter-force to challenge the strat-crowd. Just as purposeless furballing eventually becomes boring, so to does milk-running against undefended bases and strat targets. Successfully pulling off a surprise capture in a crowded arena can be fulfilling…doing it at 0300 when there are no enemies to fool or surprise is meaningless to me.
You have to ask yourself, if base capture and strat are unnecessary, why have they been a part of every successful on-line flight sim to date? Why have strategic elements been a core feature of every successful off-line flight sim to date? Aces High is not about dog fighting (again, my opinion); it’s about WWII air combat, which runs the gambit from strategic bombing and defense to ground-attack, to (yes, even) dog fighting. It also throws in some ground and naval elements, because they are a large part of why those WWII air forces existed. Indeed, the only reason air forces exist at all is because of the desire for or threat of strategic attack (or to support ground or naval forced engaged in strategic attack or defense).
All this leads me to the conclusion that the current strategic system (the heart of this game, if you support my musings above) is currently flawed and unfulfilling. Unless it is given greater impact on “the War” in the MA, the MA itself will not hold the interests of a majority of the community for any great length of time. As such, I find many of the suggestions made by Eskimo and others above to be worthy of serious consideration.
Sabre
CT Team
P.S. Regarding the suggestion made about separating the big-guns from the CV fleet, that is exactly the set up right now in the CT. There are CV fleets without cruisers and cruiser fleets without CVs; the CV fleets can’t spawn LVTs but the cruiser fleets can. It should be interesting to see how it plays out.
