I've only used the Mission Planner a couple of times, but my squad uses it constantly. I've got a couple of suggestions that might make it more useful (or maybe just more cool).
Here goes:
When adding plane groups to a mission, allow a callsign to be added. That way you could call your bombers "Thunder", Fighters CAP "Eagle", or whatever you want. Then allow a small blurb of instructions to be added to a specific airplane group or maybe to an individual aircraft in a group.
Example:
Create 4 airplane groups, 4 P-51 for CAP, 3 Lancs for Hangers, 2 B-26's for Ack, and a goon. Add ammo/bombload as normal. But the addition would allow you to add a Callsign for each group.
4 P-51 = Eagle
3 Lancs = Thunder
2 B-26's = Hammer
1 Goon = PaddyWagon
Now add an area where you can type in instructions to each group. For instance for Eagle group you might type in :
"CAP field and watch NW for cons from field A##"
for Thunder you could add "Attack Hangers"
Then, also allow individual messages to be added to specific planes in a group. Since there should be 3 Lancs, they would logically be Thunder 1, Thunder 2, and Thunder 3. Give a sentance to add to each, again an example, Thunder 1 "Hit West Hangers", Thunder 2 "Hit East Hangers", Thunder 3 "Hit VH". You could even put something in for the goon PaddyWagon 1 "Wait SE of field for call to come in".
Again, it would not be necessary to enter any of this, and it should probably be savable as template information for attack profiles you have saved (as I believe you can do currently).
Finally, 30 seconds before the flight is to take off, a clipboard would come up telling you your callsign in the order that you joined a group. I.e. if I was the second person to accept a Lanc assignment then I'd be Thunder 2. I would get a clipboard something in the format of:
Thunder 2
Attack Hangers
Hit East Hangers.
It would sure stop or limit the ongoing discussion over the mission radio trying to assign targets while enroute to the target. The channel gets totally plugged up with people asking what they should do/bomb/attack. The clipboard would be like a warning that the mission is leaving in 30 seconds (though it would only pop up if you were on the ground and ready to jump into your plane) and give you time to read details rather than just waiting to get airborne and clogging up rw and the mission channel trying to sort it all out. Plus, when the clipboard popped up you could yell, "30 secounds to lift off, hurry up and auger"
Just some ideas,
-Soda
The ASSASSINS
