Will TOD be harder than AH?

[Wotan]

HT has answered some of these questions previously.

He said no AI fighters but AI will fill out things like the bomber formations and maybe ground vehicles.

There's been no indication of that changing, even with Pyro's post here.

hubsonfire,

There's been plenty of discussion about ToD just prior to the release of Ah2. There has even been an interview or 2 by either Pyro or HTC.

RTStigma is just making it up as he goes. There was no talk about commanding formations of AI etc...

What has been said is that ToD will be a mission based arena with mission running on a time table (15 min IIRC).

There will be no main style 'base capture'.

There will be a roll playing element in that your avatar progresses in rank based on mission success.

There will be some sort point system. For example mission success = XX points

Kills maybe figured via some sort of multiple (unsure) with mission success.

Deaths will mean a loss of points/rank.

All players will start out as 'trainees'. If you die a lot or lose all your rank/points you must redo the training portion.

There was talk about the higher rank leading the missions ands ome sort of player evaluation. IIRC the players in the mission will rate the leaders performance so if you end up with some tard playing Napoleon or some one who is completely clueless  there's some recourse.


The first theater talked about was WETO (8th AF etc..).

I don't recall most of what was talked aboput but you might be able to find the old posts via a search of the forum. I not going to bother because even if you find those posts mpst what was talked about wasn't final and I am sure much of that information is now out of date.

A lot of stuff was 'talked about' but instead of just making it up we will see when it gets here...

[TexMurphy]

Originally posted by Delirium
I can hope for runs to Rabaul in my P38, with professional and respectable gents flying around and against me, but I won't hold my breath.

I personally cant wait to fly historical sorties on your wing. Ive wanted to fly with you for a long time, ever since Jumpgate, and I think ToD is gonna be a setup that will be very enjoyable for both you and your squadies as well as us Synergians.

Tex

[DipStick]

2 years.

[Westy]

In relation to what Delerium said I personaly hope there is no common channel nor any other built in means for a player on one side to contact one on another - other than offline or on the webboard..

 I'm also hoping HTC will have an open beta so those who played Air Warrior back in 1998 can share thierr experiences, good and bad, with the under-developed "auto-scenarios."   The gaming experience which sounds very similar to TOD and which Jonathan Baron and crew began developing in AW until it's support from up above was axed.

 I realize TOD is not using anything from that game but I hope the same kind of gameplay problems which went unthought of during development, and went unfixed, are worked through before it's too late (ie: can't "code that now" kind of thing)  
 The problems uncovered during the early day of the AW auto-scenarios essentially permitted a very small percentage of the players to literally destroy the experience for the rest.  

 And I sincerely hope TOD doesn't accidentally follow the same path.

[SELECTOR]

Deleted for flame.

[A_Clown]

All of us hundreds, if not thousands of former players to fine tune our systems and equipment for optimum performance settings, and other large learning curves.

[Donzo]

1,209,600 seconds

[Kweassa]

I think any difficulty would be from people trying to fly with each other as a group.

 It's pretty easy to get high scores by flying lonewolf, ignoring others, no obligation towards duty, and being the highest plane around.

 But what happens if you have to try and fly with people that are less skilled than you, and have to stick around and help them, instead of run away everytime you smell "bad situation"?

 The better skilled pilots would be somewhat "chained" under burdens they have to bear, compared to the free MA.

 Perhaps for the lesser skilled pilots, the ToD might actually be more easier, since they can be guaranteed regular cooperative flying to a certain degree.

 They don't have to kill every enemy to get scores - all they have to do is help the entire squad/flight complete its mission, and get out of there ASAP. Not to mention the better skilled pilots acting as flight leaders would issue orders which would be helpful to their survival.

 
 All in all, I think it should be pretty interesting.. especially how people can react under a chain of command.

 Golly, imagine a scenario where an average skilled guy is the flight leader, and a vocal expert pilot is assigned as a wingman. He feels the orders are winpy and timid, and wants to engage enemy planes more, instead of retreat.

 Is he gonna obey orders, or not?

That should certainly be interesting to watch

[Westy]

" Is he gonna obey orders, or not?"

  IMO it will be a problem sometimes.

  Another example of where there could be a problem?

  How about a gamer who leads a group to take on a mission to fly B-24's to knock out a manufacturing plant deep in enemy territory. While the mission orders call for them to fly at an altitude of 25K he/they decide to game-the-game so they forego way points and skirt the esdges of the arena map or be simply make a beeline for the target at just 2k alt.  Not with just the intent of bypassing the system provided detection indicators but specifically to evade the players on the other side.

 It will be interesting to see if or what latitude HTC will let players have with thier mission orders. While at the same time providing the restraints to keep them from turning TOD into a clown circus.

[Wotan]

There was some discussion of players in the mission giving an 'evaluation' of the mission leader and vice versa.

Clearly there will be Napoleon wannabe tards snapping out ridiculous orders. Even with the missions being primary though if the mission leaders or if your 'mission mates' sucks arse you can still ignore him/them and work on completing the mission.

I remember one event (Midway I think) when my squad mates and I just said F'it after an hour and augured and logged rather then follow idiots around. Just don't let the rank and role playing crap get in the way of the most important thing, fun...

One thing you will see is numerous accusations against other players 'malingering' and hanging back while the others 'do all the work'. This is one you will see often on the board...

[Raptor]

and what about formation lag. At times Ill form up on someone and they see me at d150 when I see them at d50.
Will someone write out a bad report because so and so wasnt in formation tight enough?
Or if one person in the flight decides just to be a jerk and gives everyone a bad report because they do not like the other pilots or just some kid thinking it is funny.

[Kazaa]

whats TOD

[Westy]

Since the search function on this webboard requires more than three characters to work it's useless to try and find old topics on TOD.

 Essentially all the player base knows about is based on some sparse postings by the HTC crew and this interview from quite a while ago:

http://www.simhq.com/_air/air_059a.html

[JB66]

I don't mean any disrespect...but from what I have read, it sounds like TOD is going to be kind of like Microsofts Fighter Ace.  The rank system was based on kills etc...and they used AI in the buff formations.  From what I remember, their buff gunner AI was leathal.  (sp)

But the mission aspect is new, and I think that will lead to the overall sucess of TOD.

[slimm50]

Originally posted by MOIL
I see your two weeks, call on your three days and raise ya two lunch hours and a bathroom break.

Sandman:
"No more airborne Quake"
We don't know that ?

Fold.