Combat tour inside the arena - a new concept

[bozon]

I certainly hope they do. Parts of this are well thought out and well worth implementing.

Thanks, I hope they do too.
I was thinking about HTC's statement about halting the work on CT. They said something about implementing elements from CT into the arenas and I wondered what they meant by that. I don't even know what they had working, I was not in the alpha test.

If the AI system is in good condition this can be incorporated into the above suggested system. If not "enough" missions are generated by the players, the server can generate AI missions. The right type for those would be more of strategic nature than tactical. For example: escorted bombing runs on cities and factories, Resupply missions (cargo transport to damaged bases), etc. If not "enough" defenders join the counter-mission as defense, they can be supplemented by AI defenders CAPing the target. Heck, have regular patrols of AI planes over front bases, HQ, constant minimal CAP over the CV etc.

[DarkCrow]

  I really love this idea. I was 1 who was really looking forward to CT for more structured and disciplined style gameplay and realistic stats and scoring. This is, in my opinion, a brilliant way to bring this to the MA.

[Chilli]

  I like it also.  DarkCrow, you were 1 of many.    I sure hope they are listening, willing and able to give something like this a shot.  I hadn't given it much thought before, but launching a mission where you can also choose the skin would be awesome.

[Serenity]

My only complaint is the automatic counter-mission. Perhaps, rather than giving the enemy the target base, there will be a mission generated within a target 4-sectors.

[B3YT]

hmm the counter mission would only appear after the attack mission was airborne and would just use the dar bars as it is now. That way the defenders don't know what base is being attacked and have to do CAPS (Combat Air PATROLS) that cover say 3 to 4 sectors as they had to IRL. How does that sound?

[bozon]

My only complaint is the automatic counter-mission. Perhaps, rather than giving the enemy the target base, there will be a mission generated within a target 4-sectors.

This is just a skeleton idea. Some details I put in just for illustration - exactly what intel do the sides get is a matter for fine turning and will highly depend on the entire design. Sending the defenders out in the dark to find a few incoming planes out of ~100 planes from the specific chess piece that fly about is not good.

The arena background chaos and other missions flying at the same time will create enough fog-of-war so the defenders will not easily pinpoint the attackers in this haystack. Milkruns are not good game-play. For a good game, you WANT the missions to collide - much like the design in the special events. The challenge for the defenders is to manage it before the attack is made. The challenge for the attackers is to delay this till after the attack run and survive it. We know this very well from the special events: A mission without contact at all = boring for both sides.

[bozon]

A bump by another suggestion:
The formulas for mission based scoring system should be kept hidden from the players. A hidden and elaborate score calculation prevents min-max players from creating "cookie cutter" missions. They only need to know what they are awarded (or loose) points for in a non-numeric manner.

A bit of fog over the score calculation leaves some room for diversity.