So much communication, so little understanding.
I don't lament the fact that people are organized at porking fuel or that they can pork fuel at all.
The point is, that like the addition of the H-bomb, the game is simply unbalanced in the strategic aspect at present.
One person can knock fuel down for an excessive period (hours possibly? depending on the "zone" state and other stuff) in a relatively short period (15-20 minutes?). To restore the fuel a mere 25%.. to bring it from 25% to 50%... then takes the other side an HOUR or more of resupply.
The upshot is that the planes with smaller fuel tanks or poor fuel efficiency (or both) become basically useless. The later war aircraft become the de facto aircraft of choice simply because they have longer range. And for a guy that is tired of seeing P-51's Beet1e, surely you see the implication.
Let them pork fuel. Let the fly what they like. Let the suicide auger. Let them fly the sacred missions, let them win the glorious war. Good on them, I say.
Allow me to repeat that, since you think I've changed my stance:
Let them pork fuel. Let the fly what they like. Let the suicide auger. Let them fly the sacred missions, let them win the glorious war. Good on them, I say.
Just give me a reasonable chance to do what I'd like to do. Fly and fight other aircraft. I'm willing to even fly an (ugh) resupply sortie or two.
But an hour's worth of my playing time just to get fuel up to a usable level for the early planeset (the ones I prefer) is asking a bit much. Don't you agree?
Ah, you don't agree. You think it's fine that the damage of a 15 minute sortie should take an hour + to repair. Even though this impacts the early war planes that add variety to the MA, you prefer to allow this imbalance to promote the greater use and overabundance of the P-51 type aircraft that you already complain about.
Further, since it's now clear that just about NO ONE will bother to fly 7 goon sorties to build fuel back up 25%, it's obvious that in actual gameplay, dropping fuel to 25% is a condition that exists until the enemy captures that base. So, a 15-10 minute sortie can easily have an all night effect. Especially when one guy can knock it down again in two passes at a small field by investing 15 -20 minutes of his playing time.
As far as defending against it, well, it's your play time, use it as you like. You want to orbit over a field all night and try to catch them in their dives, go ahead.
I've reached a point where I'll field-hop looking for good fights until none are available. Then if I still have time available it's off to the DA or the CT.
I guess I view the fight-killing strateegery like I do "night". When the sun goes down, I go somewhere else. When the MA is devoid of the opportunity to get in some good fights in the early part of the plane set, I go somewhere else.
I agree with some of what you've said. However, you left out the part where the shift away from "the fight" and the trend towards "deeper strategy" to "win the war" have taken the game.
Yeah, we've had a change in the player base to some extent. But more importantly, we've had a change in why people play, as Batz pointed out very succinctly.
You think heavily structuring gameplay would solve this problem. Well, you'll get to test that hypothesis in the TOD I'd think. That will have maximum structure.
I still don't favor it in the least in the MA. IMO, it will never work, nor would it be desirable. So I remain consistent in my views.
IMO, what needs to be done is to again focust the MA on what an aircombat game is supposed to be about... air combat. The focus on "winning the war" is what brought us to the sorry state of the MA right now.
What good are perk points? I don't use them. Well, I did give away 2000 perks worth of kills the other night while talking on the phone. A field was getting vultched and I kept upping 262's and sitting on the end of the runway. I lost about 10-12 of them while watching 5 guys auger as they tried to race to the kill.
I really enjoyed watching that. It's the best use for perks I've found so far.
The fight's the thing. Until that becomes the focus of the MA, you're going to have all the behaviors of which you (and a lot of other folks) are so bloody tired.
No rules, no structure will change it as long as "winning the war" is the reason to play. Reward "winning the war" and you'll get more of the same behavior... or worse.
Reward "winning the fight" and you'll get more and better air combat. Tough to do, but there it is.
