I flew in Orange a couple hours last night. Some good, some bad.
1. The concept of only being able to capture certain bases is a good idea. The way it was in the test, though, you could only capture two per team (at the intersections of the countries). Thus, EVERYBODY was at those three points on the map. It takes the idea of strategizing, smaller groups doing missions, etc. away from the game play...it is "Might Wins"...whoever has the most and best takes the field. The Rooks (was one last night) just started a bulldozing drive (wooohooo) and took base after base down the line...it took the creativity and looking-over-your-shoulder out of the whole thing.
2. It makes the game play linear, like playing a game with levels... win level 1 and you can go to level 2, etc. (not very good idea)
I think the focus concept would work very well, getting more players into combat on large maps, and also be more realistic, if you could capture only bases within XX distance from the borders of the countries or the nearest base. Thus, you still concentrate on only a few enemy bases (but not just one) because they are the only bases close enough to take.
Then from THAT newly won base, you can take the next bases that are close enough (within the distance range). That would be more like what occurs in a real war.
It also leaves the actual strategies up to the members flying, not the administration of the game. If the team wants to take two of the three and leave one alone, they can. If they want to spread out, they can. If they want to take one base with vehicles and one with planes, they can. It would leave more open to the players, while still focusing the play to a few bases (as I'm understand the goal was).
vizwhiz