Mission Planner Tweaks

[Chilli]

I think that the mission planner is one tool that has great potential for adding more immersion.  Hopefully, this thread can help spark some interesting ideas to improve its usage.

Let's start with a two part question:  1)  What do you see are it's current weaknesses; and 2)  What do you think would improve its usefulness?

I will start:

1) Current weaknesses Information available to spies Planes can launch from hangars ENY disables flight Getting folks to join

2)  Improvements Don't show take off airfield or waypoints until after launch Remove hangar launch for aircraft Don't accept ENY planes when planning, once planned, consider plane launched so changes in ENY cannot affect launch Add auto spam text feature,  ... "Scramble Mission Easter Basket in 4 mins"

[Jayhawk]

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with this idea:

* I don't think changing that information is going to change spying habits.  I don't believe spying on missions happens that much, but all someone would have to do is wait for the mission to start, then alert those on the other side.

* The hanger option isn't used often, but I don't think the option should be taken away.  Some might want to use it as an option.

* ENY is constantly changing, this could wreak havoc for someone trying to plan a mission if they can't put a plane in at that moment.  The pre-launched plane would require a lot of tinkering so people wouldn't just plan a mission for themselves with a low ENY plane and continuously push back the time.

* No no no,  It's enough to hear the new guys shouting on country channel about their mission and how "no one wants to join".  This will just give them a louder voice and spam the text buffer.  Just because the mission is automatically posted, doesn't mean the creators won't continue to sell the mission themselves on country.  Also, some squads might want to throw together a mission just for the squad and don't want it announced.

 

[The Fugitive]

In AW we had a "briefing room" and who ever opened the briefing was in charge of the room. If you wanted into the mission you had to ask for access and then be allowed in. I understand that doing it this way maybe hurt some people's feelings ( I'm not wanted  ) but it was a good way to keep your mission secret. Our squad would allow other non-squad players in as long as they had someone to vouch for them.  Spies were easily found out and the player base would take care of them from then on 

The mission would be posted on a board that everyone could see with way points and all. Once launched you could bring up just your wing and points or all of them. It was a very immersive way to do it.  I'd love to see it set up like this again.

Having the ENY locked for the mission would get abused. If so saw that the eny was going up they would just post a bunch of missions to lock their plane of choice in and launch them at intervals. I think better planning of the missions using planes that won't be effected by ENY would be a better solution.

[Chilli]

Jayhawk,

Once a mission is launched, it stands much better odds at surviving even if busted by either spy or coincidental enemy pilot.  Anyway, it dismisses the premise that spies busted a mission, and helps to deter those that would possibly engage in counter intelligence.

The hangar option, has almost always been a noob mistake, or a glitch caused when altering a mission.  Don't ask me which, because I have seen it happen too many times with veteran mission makers.  Launching from the hangar adds realism, but I seriously doubt it is used on purpose in any mission.

If someone has that much time to tinker with their mission, just to defeat ENY, then I wonder what else they are tinkering with in the meanwhile.

One added text line in 60 seconds would really bother you that much?

Fine, to some degree I agree with your arguments.  That is why I started this thread to see what others would come up with.  Do you think the Mission Planner could be tweaked even a little?  What sort of things do you see as weaknesses and what kind of improvements would you like to see?

[Chilli]

Fugitive,

Man, when I was posting I was thinking about the briefing room that HTC had given us via update that included the Offline Mission Editor.    I just had no idea of how it could be implemented here.  I am excited about what you described.  I am not trying to promote it here, but I wouldn't object to it either.

Hmmm, back to the planner abusers.......  Still seems like a lot of tinkering just to defeat ENY.  Then I have no other solution for what I perceive as a major planning issue at the moment.... anyone else have ideas?

[falcon23]

Yea,as one of those veteran mission planners,I would like to see what fugi is speaking of..although he does not always agree with my mission flights ..

 eny is not a bother,it sucks if I am not paying attention,and has happeneed on more than a few occasions,but it  is ok.

 A change I would like to have is to be able to choose skins for gv's...I think I understand why this maybe cant happen,maybe it is because not everyone in game/mission has this skin loaded into their computer?????
 But I would like to see it implemented if possible..

 Back to the eny issue,I seem to recall someone recently asking about having eny for all in-game craft to be somehow implemented into the mission planner,that would be nice,although I have my missions broken up by ENY status,I think this would really be nice.I think my squaddies get tired of me asking whats eny for this or that plane..well,sometimes I do like to  change it up on the fly...

 The only other thing I think I have asked for in the past as far as planner is being able to kick someone..BUt really,if someone is going to be "SPYING" they will just wait until the mission ups...


  Bottom line to all I have said is that I LIKE fugitives idea..

[APDrone]

I have seen folks intentionally use the spawn from hangar feature.. especially if they wanted the squad to taxi down the tarmac to the runway.
Something about a string of planes taxiing along gives an added 'oomph' to the game.

I agree that it shouldn't be the default spawn point.

Skins should also be able to be selected.. However.. I do have a workaround.

You may or may not be aware that you can build, edit, and join missions while you're in flight.  If you join the mission, it won't pluck you out of the air and put you on the runway at launch time.

Just set your launch time some time way out in the future and folks already flying can join the mission.  This allows you to see who's in what flights ( especially useful when making bomber target assignments ) and make and modify waypoints as necessary.  The biggest drawback with this is that grey window right before the sun moves that won't let you start a mission the crosses over.

[Chilli]

In AW we had a "briefing room" and who ever opened the briefing was in charge of the room. If you wanted into the mission you had to ask for access and then be allowed in. I understand that doing it this way maybe hurt some people's feelings ( I'm not wanted  ) but it was a good way to keep your mission secret. Our squad would allow other non-squad players in as long as they had someone to vouch for them.  Spies were easily found out and the player base would take care of them from then on 

The mission would be posted on a board that everyone could see with way points and all. Once launched you could bring up just your wing and points or all of them. It was a very immersive way to do it.  I'd love to see it set up like this again.

Having the ENY locked for the mission would get abused. If so saw that the eny was going up they would just post a bunch of missions to lock their plane of choice in and launch them at intervals. I think better planning of the missions using planes that won't be effected by ENY would be a better solution.

I love the idea of incorporating the HTC briefing room into the mission planner.   I don't like hurting others' feelings.   So, same approach but with HTC twist; how about this:

• Add Officer's Club Option = Squad Missions
• This option opens any current missions posted by squad members
• Selecting Squad Mission = Opens up HTC briefing room with waypoints and fields listed on screen
• New Join Request/ Accept Option = allows non squad players access to squad missions posted ".joinmis playerID" also ".invitmis playerID" allows squad to invite others

As an added option, the current system is still available for those not in squads or just prefer the way it is. 

APDrone, you said it better the hangar should not be the default.

[Jayhawk]

Some good ideas in here.   I don't use the the mission planner much, if at all, and the 91st rarely uses it as well.  It would have it's advantages though, our load outs usually have to be repeated multiple times because a person is occupied at the time.  However, we often choose to keep it a squad mission and not a country mission.  A private mission would be nice, I do like the mission briefing room or O'club planning room for a mission. ThndrEGG has been asking for a squad only way points option for a while now, this would suffice or even be better for guys out of the squad joining in.

An idea for entry into a private mission:

A simple password set by the mission planner to join PLUS the ability to 'request' entry into the mission or 'invite' players into the mission.  That way us squad guys can jump into the mission with a password we all know and friends going along for the flight can get in easy enough.