TL; DR (if you're not Altus) :-)
60% of voted decided that we should[remove it]. 48 players expressed their opinion! It is a big part of the active part of our community. Thus, the suggestion was considered, added, given a try, voted and eventually reverted by the most democratic way - a secret ballot ... The fair voting took place, and its results are univocal no matter if you like it or not.
This is bullshit. Yes, 60% of our mostly-VIP forum community voted to revert it
in January, but really, that's just 10 people. You also have a number of people who don't give a shit, who didn't vote. Also, that vote was just all-or-nothing- there was no compromise. It was no restrictions vs. complete restrictions. It's not a reasonable poll because there aren't choices. You're ignoring the more recent poll that allowed flying, in which I've already discussed this, which is ironic considering that you're complaining about bringing up old things. You're bringing up old voting stats from an obviously flawed and outdated poll to attempt to support your point, which is at best, careless, and at worst, dishonest.
So, why in the world do you keep bringing this topic back? Normally, the topics which duplicate the same suggestion posted in the past are getting instantly locked. Only this subject is tolerated to be discussed again, and again, and again, and again. Of course, I understand it, and I also think that my suggestions are reasonable and useful for this server - yet I find this situation to be deeply wrong and unfair. Explain me, please, why do you act so.
I have said this before, but I think if there were no restrictions to begin with, no one would have a problem with the President flying at all. This is a gradual process. After the first trial, many people realized that it actually didn't ruin the server to have the President flying himself. Now, I would hope that people are possibly more open to the idea of letting him fly without so many bullshit restrictions. The dumb suggestions that keep coming up and getting locked are most often fundamentally incompatible with the gamemode. This suggestion is totally compatible with the gamemode, it just comes down to people realizing that it's not the end of the world and can in fact improve the game. Frankly, the comparison is insulting and misleading.
As for me, the only reason air camping topics are not getting locked instantly is the way YoMama elaborates them. When the AwesomeProFaka2006 posts "Let's give everyone miniguns!!!!!" and YoMama posts another essay, I think the admin's hand trembles to lock the latter topic ... Anyways, if there are clearly absurd suggestions such as enabling deagle driveby, the administrators, wearing the role of judges (because - who else then?), blocks them.
Again, these topics are not black-and-white absurd suggestions and I take offense at your implication that they are. What happened to "pointing at YoMama as a reason...is silly"? I shouldn't have to elaborate them. In an ideal world, I wouldn't have to keep repeating the same shit over and over to people with little experience in the air who have little grounds for what they're talking about- I hope I'm not causing offense.
...you are saying that terros are against it so president can not do it?
Not the terrors, but the community.
If we speak about fairness, shouldn't the players make decision about their gaming server, where they spend their free time and have fun, on their own, not in the name of some abstract and dubious idea of SoLoD's vision about what is the best for the server? Clarify this too, please. Now, back to the topic.
I've never heard complaints from a protecting perspective that I can remember. If you want to talk about fairness, talk about how the polls for any major decisions in the server are on the English-only forums, frequented mainly by VIPs. If you really cared about fairness, the polls would be in multiple languages and in-game. I tried to get people in-game to vote in favor of the President flying, but I continually ran into the language barrier. As an example, I couldn't get DILMA_BR to vote, even though he loves flying.
The administration listens to people's opinions. It's not our CIS countries you and I are living in.
Don't take this the wrong way, but it actually is sort of like the CIS countries. There's nothing wrong with the administration or discussions on the forums regarding important decisions, except that the majority of the people who have a hand in making the decisions are VIPs and all of them are on the language-exclusive forums. It's an unintentional and well-meaning oligarchy. I hope I'm not minimizing the pain that anyone goes through in countries like this when I say this, but my point is that it's not a 100% representative forum.
I'll basically repeat myself. YoMama is right: the legal status of 'aircamping', or 'Area 69 camping', or 'NRG whoring' is purely a matter of agreement between the players and the administration. If we take hacking forbiddance as a ius deorum, any sort of camping proscription is surely a ius hominum. The timer and the inaccessibility of rustlers for the president are here because the community wanted it.
No, they aren't here entirely because the community wanted them. The timer was here because Tenshi put it in and it carried over, and I don't know where the inaccessibility of planes came from (probably also Tenshi, because he didn't like it and I don't remember a suggestion on it, which were only, in the end, decided by him anyway), but it's also here because it carried over. They remain because people who don't know better have grown to see them as necessary, for some reason. As we've seen so far, actually having less restrictions has lead some of those people to wonder why they're there in the first place and change their views somewhat.
First, I don't really find airborne skirmishes funny and interesting. They seem to be pretty straightword, they rather demand some mechanical skill than cunning or tactics: as YoMama said himself, the rustler can only be countered with another rustler or a shamal with onboard shooters (the last doesn't sound realistic, imho). Of course, I don't judge only from my own, unprofessional experience; I watched a lot of SAMP dogfight videos before posting this. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy flying, and, as many of you have seen, I fly a lot during my games. But dogfights... Sometimes I engage equally skilled opponents, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I can't say I enjoy such fights. It reminds me of duels or dbduels. It can be exciting sometimes, but interesting? For sure, no. YoMama might remember our conversations with him before the aforementioned January update. I was unsure if I would like to see presidents flying rustlers back in the days; I was unsure during the testing month as well. But now, looking from retrospective, I know that I wouldn't like to see the presidents aircamping again. This reason is the most subjective (the others are kinda subjective too) and I apologise if I offended anyone by posting it, but, well, it is a part of my perception of this game, what can I do?
The fact that you say that no cunning or tactics are involved is indicative of your level of knowledge. People on a plane can be very dangerous- there's no way to escape a sight apart from getting behind things. Shamal-shooters cannot be ignored. YouTube videos on dogfighting are mainly made by people who have no idea what they're doing. I am rarely impressed by them. If the person never uses their rudder to turn, ignore the video because they have no idea what they're doing. If the person never looks around with the camera, ignore the video. This cuts out almost all of them. You don't decide whether you like something by watching videos of people who suck. It's like watching some kids trip over a football then deciding that football must be boring and based purely on mechanics. There used to be many pilots in this server who would easily beat you and make a flying President extremely exciting, even though they were average. Now, many of the players don't fly at all because they don't have to, so not enough people have the skill to make it interesting. Lagcomp has also made vehicles less attractive compared to stupid fights on foot, which has guided people away from flying. I think that this will change as people fly more, but it's not going to happen with a timer scaring people off.
Second, considering the typical situation on the server when most of the regulars tend to have peace with each other, shooting down the regular president would really be complicated. YoMama, an experienced pilot, stated that it is hard for him to defend even from two mediocre enemy rustler pilots. Now I clearly imagine the ruslters of Mia and me fighting a dozen of the regulars' rustlers. Even if we two were YoMamas, I am sorry, I am unwilling to experience it.
I said that it's hard to defend against two people when you're alone, but it's not hard to shoot someone down if you want to, even while they're trying to get you- you just have to use
tactics to fly above them, dive on the President, and take him out while ignoring the security. I can't often stop people from shooting another person down if they know how to pull it off or I'm caught off-guard. Also, the whole idea of a dozen people flying after you is once again, indicative of your lack of knowledge. Have you ever been in a large group of people while flying? In a less than a minute of packing together to chase you, many of them will have crashed into each other due to lack of skill or lag. It's not like being on the ground. Also, you and Mia would probably be able to shoot down most of those people without a hitch before they could even start to give you damage. You have far better chances than with those 12 regulars in Area 69 with the entrance blocked by a car, which happens every day.
So, the determining factor if the president succeeds in air camping or not would be the numbers of the attacking and protecting team. Thus, a VIP clan member would mostly win and a newbie would lose even if he is a good and smart pilot...it would mostly depend on the number of your protection team which would ensure your successful takeoff and staying in the air...
Again, not to be offensive, but you're putting your word against mine and that of others who fly more often and have more skill at it. While yes, you can have an opinion, which is better informed?
Third, as for me, the compromiss is already reached. The president is allowed to fly any aircraft except rustlers and hydra. If you want to fly as a president, you are welcome. The aircamping timer should be there to make the president descend from the Heavens at least once in a while. Yes, I also don't want to climb to the uttermost height with my rustlers only to shoot the president who decided to survive by circling around up there for 15 minutes. I don't think that armour should be reduced while air camping. You don't have to rush to the health spawns in order to refill: you can use a vending machine which are present on every map but one.
If the President decides to circle for 15 minutes, then he's probably not going to last 15 minutes, timer or not. The timer doesn't even prevent that or make it easier to kill him. As I said earlier, it's petty, not effective at accomplishing its stated goal, disproportionately punishes people who have little to no skill in planes, and its "goal" was dubious to begin with. However, if you really cared about compromise, you would be backing my suggestion, which is that the penalty is only enforced at higher altitudes. That makes people who need a psychological warm blanket of a bullshit timer happy, and lets the people who actually know what they're doing still have their fun, since they wouldn't be flying around at high altitudes anyway most of the time.
Once again, don't get me wrong. Flying itself is fun and awesome. You are right, YoMama, the fifth ocean, the third dimension should be widely used. I just don't want to spend entire rounds there without seeing the ground. After all, I don't want to give the president such option.
You agree with me that the air should be used, so why are you against a suggestion that will let new players experience it without being scared off by the timer? It's been allowed for a while now, and I don't think I've seen a round like one you claim will occur. You like to point out logical fallacies, but you are ignoring
this one along with most of the people who are against this, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.
The funny thing is the amount of "presi air campers" on that month. I guess it is gonna surprise you, but that amount was not x10 times bigger than before. Actually, it was pretty close to average number from the previous month, and previous.
Not x10, but it was noticeably higher.
Generally, the president is [flying] in the air if he wants it or thinks that it's gonna save him.
I fly because it's fun; most of the time it's more dangerous. I think everyone but the new players knows that flying isn't a magical escape pod. Again, show me how much flying has increased, because I don't remember much of an increase apart from noobs and a few regulars. More importantly, show me how more people flying is in any way bad for the gamemode.
Do you wanna tell me about decisions? There should be only ONE player in the game with a choise. Choise of how the round will be played. And do you know who is it? It is president. Because it is ptp.
Fine - give him a minigun then. Who is the president? He is a player like me and you, not a superior metaphysical omniscient entity. The community decides how the game should be played, and the administration implements it... I am a common player, such as you are, and my opinion has exactly the same weight as yours.
His point is that the entire gamemode revolves around the President's decisions- if he decides to camp in Area 69, then people following the gamemode will be trying to get into Area 69. If he decides to stunt, then people will be following him on his stunts, etc. People having to follow the President into the air is a logical continuation.
TL;DR:Try taking a view from my perspective (even though it gives away a few of my NRG tricks).
Here's me trying to fly as the President with competent people who can easily stop me. I deliberately flew as much as I reasonably could as a demonstration. You'll note that I lose more than half my health just taking off, and can kinda avoid Bobo alone by following him, but then he figures out how to counter that tactic and I start taking hits. It wouldn't have taken much longer for him to shoot me down with his new
tactic. Once you and Mia show up, I have no hope. I was quickly shot down, and had to go back to NRGs, because, if I really want to win, I don't do stupid things like flying with competent people after me. Had I been in a Rustler, I probably would have been in the process of shooting Bobo down (because he actually knows what he's doing it would have taken some time) and you would have easily screwed me over with or without a sniper. After I crash land and you inexplicably ditch your plane that you could have shot at me from, I have no trouble escaping you when you're
right fucking next to me on an NRG with a sniper. I get back into a plane later, and Bobo comes after me again with snipers on his wings,
cunningly using a
tactic that doesn't allow me to follow him like I did earlier. My only effective choices are to try to escape (impossible) or take him down quickly, which I try to do by ramming him (very risky). If I were in a Rustler, I would have done the same thing. I fail the ram, but I get an NRG and everything is quite easy again. My video ends, before I crash, with basically everyone ignoring me. You can see on the map when I check it; they're all fucking around elsewhere on the ground. It looks like you're busy killing civilians all the way across the map. It seems apparent that the problem is more that people aren't playing the gamemode than that the President can fly. It also seems like flying isn't all that easy if you're a yellow blip on the radar.
the rustler can only be countered with another rustler or a shamal with onboard shooters (the last doesn't sound realistic, imho) ... shooting down the regular president would really be complicated. YoMama, an experienced pilot, stated that it is hard for him to defend even from two mediocre enemy rustler pilots. Now I clearly imagine the ruslters of Mia and me fighting a dozen of the regulars' rustlers. Even if we two were YoMamas, I am sorry, I am unwilling to experience it.
Shamals are harder to shoot down than Rustlers, and they did it without me even being able to damage them. I wouldn't have been able to stop them anyway, but you can see that I messed up my
tactics in the beginning of the video by being too low to defend against them in any meaningful way.
It's worth noting that both of these episodes happened on the same day within an hour of each other. My overall point with these videos is that the main problem that you see comes from people ignoring the gamemode, not from anything the President is doing. If all the terrorists had been with Bobo chasing me, I wouldn't have been able to even get off the ground. In the second video, the terrorists who were following the gamemode actually tried and used good tactics to easily kill the President, even with me following them. They had to commit to playing the gamemode. You can't go off and do whatever shit you want to do, then expect to be able to kill the President whenever you want to. You have to continue to follow him and not let up, then it doesn't matter what he does, he's going to have a hard time. If you don't try, it's going to be the same whether he's in the air or not.