Stress Test Works! Are You Level 5 or Below, Then Read This!

[docattak]

Thanks for the Stress Test guys - it really works! I am totally stressed out, and in such a short time. I've logged in 10 times now since Saturday and found no French Air missions and had to log off again. Is this what I have a year's subscription for?

Yes, all of you level 5 and below guys, who have paid your subs, you will no longer be allowed to create a mission - even when there are none there for you! You will have to get someone else to do it for you, if there is anyone around - if there isn't then you can't play this game you have paid for. If there is, and the objective is cancelled or the pressure moves elsewhere you will have to go and pester someone to set up another mission for you. I feel really sorry for those of you, like me, who have created missions for a long time to help the gameplay flow and direct noobs to the right areas. Your 'privileges' have been withdrawn. This will especially hit the Air Forces and the Navies who are often very lowly populated at certain times of the day.

I started here in 2004, got to level 9 in axis army, left for a while, came back and got 5 of those back (no problem there), started flying RAF and now moved to French Air Force where I'm currently level 5, just!

After years of posting missions, most recently in FAF, I now do a lot of flying in UK daytime - or at least I did. I used to post missions when, as usual there were none and several pilots would start flying. There are still no missions usually in the morning or early afternoon and now, thanks to the wonderful new settings only level 6 can create a mission.

Thanks you guys - I will only come back to see if there is a mission posted to the spot I think needs help so many times then I'll pack it in because I'm fed up already. Level 3 seems to allow time for a player to understand how the game works and to set sensible missions. Those who abuse the system could be reported and banned from this 'privilege' - why are you punishing many of your player base?

I really should add, thanks for the rest of the updates and all of the hard work - as an ex-games developer I know the hard graft that can go into changing or adding even the smallest thing in a very large game - but please sort out the situation I've outlined above

Edited November 14, 2011 by docattak

[actrade]

Thanks for the Stress Test guys - it really works! I am totally stressed out, and in such a short time. I've logged in 10 times now since Saturday and found no French Air missions and had to log off again. Is this what I have a year's subscription for?

Yes, all of you level 5 and below guys, who have paid your subs, you will no longer be allowed to create a mission - even when there are none there for you! You will have to get someone else to do it for you, if there is anyone around - if there isn't then you can't play this game you have paid for. If there is, and the objective is cancelled or the pressure moves elsewhere you will have to go and pester someone to set up another mission for you. I feel really sorry for those of you, like me, who have created missions for a long time to help the gameplay flow and direct noobs to the right areas. Your 'privileges' have been withdrawn. This will especially hit the Air Forces and the Navies who are often very lowly populated and certain times of the day.

I started here in 2004, got to level 9 in axis army, left for a while, came back and got 5 of those back (no problem there), started flying RAF and now moved to French Air Force where I'm currently level 5, just!

After years of posting missions, most recently in FAF, I now do a lot of flying in UK daytime - or at least I did. I used to post missions when, as usual there were none and several pilots would start flying. There are still no missions usually in the morning or early afternoon and now, thanks to the wonderful new settings only level 6 can create a mission.

Thanks you guys - I will only come back to see if there is a mission posted to the spot I think needs help so many times then I'll pack it in because I'm fed up already. Level 3 seems to allow time for a player to understand how the game works and to set sensible missions. Those who abuse the system could be reported and banned from this 'privilege' - why are you punishing many of your player base?

After looking past the sarcasm, the OP makes a good point. In a game that is 10 years old that quite honestly, needs bodies, why do we even bother with ranks unlocking the ability to use weapons/post missions? I see the detriments of ranking up exceeding the benefits at this stage of the game's life cycle. See my thread in the barracks about Personal Spawn Limits as an alternative to ranking up. Cheers.

[rwkeen]

This bug fix probably effects the naval game the most, followed by things like French airfore during low pop times.

Back when the way missions where created changed and the rank requirement to post one was added we had musg larger player base, and may where year 1 vets who already had this rank. Add to that teh HC players who got given the rank when they joined, it was never really an issue to get missions.

As the playerbase has decreased over the years and many of the vets have left there are times of day when finding people with the rank to post is almost impossible.

Given the rank bug has existed for at least 15 months and doesn't seam to have caused any issues with the way the game plays, then maybe its worth considering removing rank restrictions on posting, or at least to drop them to say rank 3.

If they stay at rank 6 then all it will lead to is the return of "bridge ranking" in the airforce & navy, which was always the most lame thing in the entire game!

So please Rats, can you reconsider this.

!S MW.

[docattak]

I'll use this as a bump!

Edited November 14, 2011 by docattak

[DOC]

There was always a rank restriction for mission posting, which for some time now, was unfortunately broken. With all the work to rebuild the back-end so we could deploy a totally redesigned host, this bug got squashed, so those who could post missions that actually shouldn't have been able to, are likely to not undertsand that they were never supposed to have that ability in the first place.

Unfortunate, yes. We'll be monitoring this to see if it actually helps hinders the bigger picture.

[docattak]

Hi DOC

Thanks for replying.

Unfortunate yes but in the current climate of low numbers (ie. the last year at least) it is unplayable for large parts of the UK day for both the navy and the french air force and probably more. Surely you don't expect clients to pay a yearly subscription, log on and then have to go away because of this, because that it what has happened to me around 10 times in two and a half days!

The reason seems to have been 'too many missions' - that might have been the case years ago but now when I am on these arreas are empty. That cannot be right. If the bug had been removed a year ago and left like that then I think that the game would be dead by now.

When I set up a mission, usually the only one, several pilots appear as if from nowhere - they fly and then the axis pilots respond - you can't tell me that this was to the detriment of the game - so why should you want to stop it happening. Sorry, this makes no sense at all - the armies may be well populated, I don't know, and at USA night-time the Air Forces may be well populated but what about the rest of us. In the UK daytime this game is almost dead - the flying certainly is. This game needs to include all time zones in a workable manner or it can't exist. It is rapidly heading towards large periods of empty/almost empty time - why not try to stop this by helping people who play in other timezones and other countries to have a playable game? It is no longer hugely populated at all times so your original criteria for restricted mission creation is no longer relevant - in fact it is now detrimental to the game.

I'm paying to have a game that cannot be played as it should be at the times that are best for me. Sorry this needs an urgent re-think because defies any logic. We are the smaller picture but we still count. The more people turn up and find no missions the more will drift away - I want this game to be successful.

Your comment "We'll be monitoring this to see if it actually helps hinders the bigger picture" seems to say 'don't hold your breath - this isn't going to happen any time soon' - sorry it should be happening now and it should be getting a lot of thought now rather than wait and see. What do we do in the meantime? I, for one, will not carry on logging in day after day to find no playable game - especially when the solution is so simple.

Thanks for your time

Edited November 15, 2011 by docattak

[docattak]

This is a polite request to reply to the points I have made. A statement along the lines of that's how it was intended to be so we'll leave and reassess later does not do this situation justice. Sorry to be a pain but I think this warrants an answer to those points. You had a 15 month trial with the rank removed - please tell me what disasters happened in that time due to this. The minorities had some missions - that must be good - what bad things have occured - there must have been some to change it back again. Perhaps it's time for a compromise and allow Level 3 or 4 or higher to create missions. You do not state why you object to this. Please, please, please tell me what your objections are. You just expect me, and others, to accept this without any valid reasons. It seems that only good can come from e.g. setting it to Level 3 and only bad from moving it to Level 6 which is what has just happened. Please convince me otherwise - I'm a very reasonable guy.

Thanks

Docattak

(member since 2004)

Edited November 15, 2011 by docattak

[DOC]

The subject is under review

[docattak]

Many thanks for that.

If it helps your deliberations, think about new/trial european players coming onto the server during the daytime and seeing no missions - increasing the european playerbase needs to have missions visible and available during their daytime. Most of the Scandinavian and Australian players who used to play this game dring European daytime have gone. Seriously, this is quite a desperate situation. If the game effectively closes down during the european daytime then we have a real problem. This is probably the most important thing facing the game at the moment. Anything that helps to improve that situation must surely be welcome.

Edited November 15, 2011 by docattak

[Vampress]

it was NEVER a problem except for awhile in Navy due to an extreme shortage of players with rank...but NOW navy almost always has plenty with rank on.

all you have to do is ASK someone to post a mission for you...

its just how it was done and still is done for people without rank...you spam channel and find someone to do it

RANK has it priveleges...it would be a SHAME to lose something like the thrill of ranking up and being able to post that first mission when its so rediculously easy to find people that would post missions for you untill you have your own rank.

trust me...many enjoy the REWARD portion of online gaming and this game has few things for rewards to help keep people playing(and if they play long enough to attain that rank...maybe they will learn the game and enjoy sticking around after they have gotten it)

catering to the instant crowd is a mistake...at least for this game

Edited November 15, 2011 by Vampress

[docattak]

Sorry to disagree - Air is totally different to Navy and Army in that the focus moves rapidly from one objective to another very quickly. First one objective needs cover as 109s are straffing the attacking troops at one location, these may be cleared sometimes in a matter of minutes and the attention goes elsewhere. Particularly when the server is almost empty as it frequently is in UK daytime Mon to Fri, axis planes may appear at one obj and then 10 minutes later they switch to elsewhere. The missions needed regularly changing which becomes pain for both me and anyone I ask - always assuming that there is anyone who can create a mission - believe me very frequently there is no-one who can create a mission. So what do I do - log off and have no game to play.

Players play this game in totally different conditions depending on the personna and the time zone. I would love to fly for the French under the conditions you appear to have but very frequently I can't - so just to keep some perks for those with rank do you honestly think I should just switch off and keep paying for non-use. I love this game and want to play it - current conditions do not allow this.

Finally, please respond, do you think I should be put in a position where I frequently cannot play just to allow for perks for the highly ranked? I've been in this game since 2004 apart from one break - at uk daytimes it has changed beyond recognition and the game needs to change to allow for that.

Cheers

Docattak

[actrade]

Again, at this stage of the game's life cycle, BODIES are the most important item. ANYTHING that brings bodies to the game is good, anything that drives them away is bad.

[GOPHUR]

Doc attack, what are your other air ranks?

Do you think having rank sharing go all the way to the top rank for sidebased branch personas would be good instead of stopping it at 5?

How long does it take you to get to rank 6?

[docattak]

Hi GOPHER

I am Level 6 in the Axis Air Force

and Level 5 (+28%) just in the British and in the French (+29%)

At the times I would prefer to fly usually there are not many opponents but they tend to be vets who are online all day, looking for someone to fly allied so they then log in and fly (which I approve of, by the way). As a result I get wiped out frequently - so scoring 10 points in a couple of hours against these guys is a success. I still need 702 !!!

I've heard that if I guard I get 1 pt per minute in the Army - but not sure whether that's true. If it is then the Air Force seems a lot harder

Why am I so poor? When playing axis army seriously (lost a lot of rank when left for a while, but no problem there) I flew for a break and knew nothing about it. Now I've come back and have found a great squad who fly French - one of them has taken me under his wing and has spent a vast amount of time training me up - I spend hours looking at my FRAPPS vids sorting out what went wrong etc. and it is just starting to make a lot of sense. Hence my initial boiled-over frustration at the difficulty in finding/creating a mission. I'm determined to become a useful pilot no matter what it takes.

Do I think that rank sharing going all the way to the top rank for sidebased branch personas would be good instead of stopping it at 5? It's a nice thought and would solve all of my problems but it is the inherent problem to the game that worries me, so, probably not, but I do think that reaching a certain rank in any area shows you know what the game is all about and have served your time. So even if you enter the navy with no rank you are still a seasoned player and should set missions etc. - but you should still be at the bottom from a game ranking point of view - you need help for one thing - people help noobs. My rank/stats etc. don't bother me at all - just my access to the things in the game. I was a colonel in the axis army under Eldoc from 2004 - yes it was nice to get there but the rank insignia in the missions was enough reward. If the only way forward is to pass ranks across then fair enough but if I join the navy I think I should be able to set missions as an experienced player but should still show as a noob when on a navy mission! In other words, once a mission creator always a mission creator. What level that should start at is another question. Personally I think that it should be part of the training and by Level 3 you know what the game is about - below that could be disastrous as people don't know what they are doing when they start out. Any spoilers could be docked rank and everyone can get involved after a reasonable time in the game. I can see why level 6 came about and would have agreed at the time - it was a good reward and there were plenty of players setting missions - but now that in areas of the game at certain times there is often none I think that what was a reward needs to become part of the game for everyone, once their probation has been served e.g. Level 3.

Too much info as usual

Edited November 15, 2011 by docattak

[docattak]

Hi GOPHER

Here's a second response to your reply - I think I misunderstood you question "Do you think having rank sharing go all the way to the top rank for sidebased branch personas would be good instead of stopping it at 5?"

If you mean if you are level 7 in French Army then you should be level 7 in any army, axis or allied then yes I agree - these skills are transferable from one air force to another etc. In real life if a soldier was seconded into another army he kept his rank.

As a further idea, shouldn't points gained in any army go tpwards your 'general' army total and 'general' army rank i.e. only one army rank, one navy rank and one air force rank. This would have the advantage of encouraging players to balance the map by swapping to the side that is under-populated because their points would be added to their total - their rank would be carried across etc. They would be much more likely to swap sides to balance it up. Also, if they had the rank to create missions in one army then they could swap over if unbalanced and still be able to function in the same way that they had earned.

You could even just have a career total from all countries and types to enable mission creation - then someone who like to play everything is not penalised - all his points count towards the total necessary but he has one army rank, one navy rank and one air force rank.

Anyway, it does open up some workable ideas which seem promising - the game would entice players to have more variation and get involved in more things as well as keeping it more balanced population-wise.

Hope that all helps in some way.

Cheers

Docattak

Edited November 16, 2011 by docattak

[rwkeen]

Thanks for reconsidering this.

Rank requirements for accessing better equipment makes sense, and gives you a goal to work towards.

But rank to be able to post a missions seems a bit odd these days.

Personally I'd like to see no restriction on being able to post missions. In fact, how to create a mission is actually one of the more important things a new player needs to be trained to do!

Anyway, given how busy you are with all the other 1.34 stuff, thanks for taking the time to discuss this.

!S MW.

[Tigger6]

The HC in general have ranks in all branches. This is sometimes done by rotating them through the branches where they don't have sufficient rank so they gain mission posting capability. The purpose of this is that they should be able to start missions when someone requests it.

That being said, gaining rank 6 in the airforce is hard. Very hard.

Bombing bridges you can rank up faster, but to rank up as a pure fighter- I have 359 kills to 21 deaths in the axis airforce (a completely green player would probably need more than 1000 missions to get equivalent amount of points) and I can't post missions (I think). So maybe the requirements should be dropped somewhere to rank 3, which is when you still feel that rank matters.

Note that I'm pretty sure it's easier to rank up to Lt. Col in the army than rank 6 in the Airforce, unless you are already a decent pilot to begin with.

[uglyboy]

I agree in airforce or navy you should have mission posting rights at rank 3 ( if you're navy rank 3 you are allowed to sail with a destroyer yet you cant do missions? ) but i would keep the rank 5 for army, lots of people already there making mission, i never had the need to go alone making a mission somewhere else, also gives you some kind of meaning to rank in itself, rather then just " look at my cool icon you noobs". You can achieve rank 3 in airforce in little more than 3 hours ( that's what i did anyway and you can ask anyone about my flying skills i just suck at it) or be aware when some, usually HC make a grunt mission from airforce flag i've seen this a lot of times and it's usually good capping points, same for navy.

[docattak]

One reason change is needed : take my case.

Level 10 in axis army (was higher but left game and came back)

Level 6 in axis air force

Been posting missions for many years.

Decided to move to allied and can't post a mission.

I haven't suddenly lost the ability to set missions to sensible/needed places.

Level should be transmitted across to all countries i.e. same flying rank in every country, same army rank, same navy rank - so you have 3 ranks, 1 air force, one army, one navy. All army points scored got to your army rank etc. So if you like army stuff then which ever side you decide to play today, your points get added to your army total. If axis is under-populated and you usually play allied army then you cam go axis army to help balance the map and any points scored are still added to your army rank.

That leaves only the decision as to what is needed to post missions. See Tigger's post earlier in this topic about the difficulty difference between an inexperienced fighter pilot starting to play here and an inexperienced army player. Also, why should a player who likes to swap between army, air force and navy regularly take forever before being able to post missions - simply take the total of a player's army, air force and navy points and base it on that - then all that counts is experience and success. This would prevent players feeling that they have to stay in, say, allied army, every time they play or else they almost cannot ever get to post a mission.

Edited November 18, 2011 by docattak

[docattak]

Hi GOPHUR

You asked for information a while back and this has gone to page 5 so I'm bumping it back so you get the info. Only need to look at my post above this one if you are in a hurry - some helpful stuff earlier if you have time.

Please post to let me know you've seen this - I appreciate that the world has gone crazy for you guys atm and other problems are far bigger than this for the whole population, even though this is making it almost impossible for me

[fxmmauser]

I really don't think there should be a rank for missions.

A noob cant really post missions because it already quite hidden you have to be inside a brigade and not in mission screen, you have to change to the map section on top of the screen then you have to find the icon where you do the mission since it's not a label button like "create mission" its very unlikely for a new player to create a mission.

I can understand why some missions need rank but I cant understand why posting defense missions on cps or FBs need rank.

I'm all for server static defensive missions this means in every brigade there would be a mission for every cp,fb and ab. A player would spawn and would become the leader automatically if he despawned and no1 else was there the server would regain leadership.

For those that think the current system is ok they surely don't play this game, I play often in the past and I still do and at multiple times of the day there are never enough missions and usually there is a lack of them to a state it impacts negatively the game.

When a side high rank players and mission creators leave the campaign because they are losing even if there is still much content for a player to experience like killing the overpop side he can't because of no missions or lack of them in a timely manner, having this rank lock for missions also make camping cps/abs and fbs easier and hurts greatly gameplay and financial this game.

So it's my understanding that no rank for defensive missions and rank 4 for attacking missions will improve gameplay and fun.

FXM