Perk Point System Suggestion

[Airscrew]

All this talk the last few days about the perk points got me thinking some.  This is my first online flight sim so I dont have much experience in this area and I dont know what other online flights sims do or dont do, and I dont know whats been tried and given up because it didnt work.

After joining AH almost 3 months ago I finally earned enough perks points to fly the Tempest. (I used up a lot flying the Chog) I have flown the Tempest in the training arena and I like it alot.  I also fly the Typhoon in the MA frequently. (They are very similar planes)  Any way I got my points and decided to take the risk and fly the Tempest on a ground attack on a field.
I have to say that was very intense for me because I didnt want to lose my "ride".  I knew that if I got shot down, or crashed it would probably take me another month to earn enough perks to fly it again.  So I made my attack runs and killed two aa guns and one plane before I got hit suffering a fuel leak and damage to one of the elevators.  You better believe I hurried my happly little butt back to base before I crashed.  But still it was great.  There was tension,  would I make it or would I crash and lose my plane and perk points.

I think thats whats missing in AH, No risks.
Except for the perk planes you are not risking anything when you take off.  If, for example, you suicide bomb the cv you dont lose anything, you just respawn and get back to the fight.  

Here is my opinion and suggestions to add some risk.
1.  Perk all aircraft and vehicles except for few, like C47, M3, P47, C202, etc, say a basic plane set.
all the others have a graduated scale starting at say 5 points based on the planes abilities.
2.  Give all players a set number of perk points, at the beginning of a tour, say 500.  Lose a plane, lose the perk value.  On the other hand if you are sucessful and rtb you should be rewarded with equal value perk points you just risked, example say Spit 9 is perked at 10 points, when you rtb you get 10 + regular perk points for any damage you did.  If you rtb with damage then we could have a damage multipler.  Its definitly harder to land a plane if its missing pieces parts so there should be some reward for bringing the damaged bird back.  If you use up all your perk points then you can only fly the basic plane set.  
3.  Let Squadrons members exchange perk points, but set a limit.  Also set a limit on total perk points, a use or lose system.
4. Reset the perk points at the start of a new tour.  

I realize this may not be perfect and I dont intend it to be.  It would take time to find a balance between starting perk points, awarded perk points and such.  There needs to some risk with combat and right now there is none.  If a B17 or B26 was perked at 50 points then its not likly someone will carbomb or make a kamikazie attack on a cv.
This is just a very basic idea and there are probably things I didnt think of.  
Complaining about problems never solved a thing,  Ideas and action solve problems.

[ 09-21-2001: Message edited by: AirScrew ]

[Tac]

Better to just give players 200 perk points at the start of each tour IF they dont have 200 perks.

Those who have more dont get any.

Thats enough for anyone to fly the perked planes a couple of times and gain their own perkies.

[Airscrew]

Thats one idea, but it doesnt balance at least IMO.  I risked 70 perk points so I could fly the Tempest, and when I landed I earned something like 0.34 perk points.  Why take the risk?  The Tempest has a slight advantage over the Typhoon in manuverablity and speed but not enough to risk 70 perk points and maybe fly it once or twice.  I'm probably a below average pilot compared to some of you guys but I'm slowly improving, with 120 kills to 165 deaths.  And in our squadron's main ride, the Spit 9 I'm 43 to 77.  Most nights I provide convenient target practice for Bish and Knit pilots.  So although I would like to fly the Tempest because its slight advantages might improve my surviveablity in the MA, I dont because its not a matter of if I'll lose it but when.

[AcId]

I do agree that a greater sense of risk followed with a greater sense of accomplishment with a dash of reward is absolutley what we need. It is my opinion that your idea could be a step in the right direction, but leaving so few un-perked planes would T-off quite a few people, even with a 'perk donation'. HTC may not be willing to take that kind of risk. Some definite tweaking of what already have is way overdue IMHO. Some prices are a bit too high and I would think they could phase in a plane or 2 to the perk program at low costs.

[discod]

While it seems like a good idea I think it will just cause an uprising similar or worse than the constant whining about the F4U1-C before it was perked.

I agree that having a bit more risk makes the fights more fun but perking all the planes will cause so much contention that it will overpower any increased fun.  So many people already get real mad when they get shot down I can't imagine how much worse it will be if they loose perks every time on top of being shot down and then they are stuck flying the 202.


Besides, any time your looking for a real challenge just go fly a 202 or a 205.  
I earned enough perk points in 2 sorties in the 205 to fly the Tempest.

[Fester']

tempest is too rare in the MA.

when 262 is added it will be more rare

[Karnak]

I see maybe 2 Tempest per Tour, 1 each of the Ta152H-1 and Ar234B.  I don't pay attention to how many F4U-1Cs I encounter, not many though.

Currently the three original perks are so rare that for all intents and purposes they are not present in the game.

When one does show up it has to fight desparately for its life because every enemy con goes for it like there is no tommorrow. This makes flying them even less desirable.

[Fester']

this means that the tempest and ar234 are too expensive.

most people dont fly perk planes simply because of the attention they draw.

most people who have enough perks to fly the perk planes but choose not to do so because they find the difficulty of being hunted is not worth the marginal performance advantages.

I seen about 4 tempests this tour.
killed one of em without much problem because they loose their e so fast when they go vertical.

other tempests i saw were in a cloud of red icons with almost no oposition around.


so the key remains to lower the price of the tempest and ar234 to a level that sees them used in normal operations in the MA but not abused the way the chog was.

as evidenced by the chog the price can be quite low.

because no matter how cheap it is it is a perk plane and it will be targetted by all enemy aircraft that can get to it just like the chog is.


30 points for a tempest
30 for ar234
30 for ta152 (same as is now. no one flies it cuz it sucks. not cuz of the price)