Just an idea........... effort in mission planning....

[Dadsguns]

We all know that NOE missions are very easy to do and to execute, even with the current setup. There is no planning, preparation, timing, really no effort at all.  The game IMO allows alot of leeway in running these types of missions even now with little effort or risk to the mission.  All you simply have to do is post up something and the sheer numbers that join will easily take a base even now.

To bring in some risk of running a mission and to add that inherent risk of being caught, why not have something in place that will bring more effort involved in running a mission instead of grouping town killer pi-lets in a mission and steam rolling over a base with sheer numbers, no skill involved just sheer numbers there.  Missions are not the problem, its the size of the mission that is not proportional to the ability to mount a defense. 

Here is my idea......... For example. 

A system message would display if certain criteria is met that would indicate a massive horde mission......... (yet to be defined is being a horde) but you get the idea. 

If more than 2 lancs, 2 110's, (place any numeric value here of planes and types or combinations thereof) etc.  OR even if X amount of planes up from a field that it will cause a system message to indicate that an alert was issued for a possible attack or threat from said field.  Certainly we can play pretend on this one as if ground intelligence indicated a large force upping from a enemy field was intercepted and relayed to command. 

This would still allow them to horde a mission, however it would make it riskier for them to up en mass from the same location as they do now, just one massive blob of planes from a base................. rather it would force the mission to split up from several other bases to converge onto the field they plan to attack which would take some actual planning and preparation, and most of all timing instead of the thoughtless, no planning or strategic effort whatsoever way of doing it now. 

Adding the aspects of actually planning, preparing, and the timing of a mission and executing is the idea, not to simply man up a large amount of players that can easily take a base with their eyes closed and flood a field NOE. 

So if a mission rolls with X amount of players from a field: you get a warning (no effort).....

If you keep the mission small and from different fields: there is no warning (takes effort)....

Your thoughts?

[LLogann]

It is certainly reasonable my former CO, but I think it could be a coding nightmare to make it so the system can identify the difference between 20 people going back to a furball vs. those 20 cats going around the block to cap a base. 

 

[Dadsguns]

Not sure about the coding and how difficult it would be.
None of this of course would apply unless the cons stayed below the dar, it wont give their location but it would offer the defender an opportunity to counter the attack. 
Again, we are also talking of these very large noe missions where the odds are well in their favor no matter who can get up to defend in time.

 

[guncrasher]

Why do you think spies are for.  With the recession going on we cannot afford to lay off our spies.  So no to the wish.  But serously taking bases is a little hard now with   the big towns we have.


Semp

[SEseph]

This is not an HTC issue really. The player base needs to police itself in certain situations. NoE's are easy prey if you catch them, and most of them have that one moron who has no clue what "#&@^ GET *#&@ DOWN #&^#@" means until he's thrown the dar bar for half a sector. The game has many aspects, fighter jock, bomb****, million man jug raids, noe's, CV attacks blah blah blah, and it's like a real war. The enemy will exploit your weakest points. Very few NoE's are stopped by killing their fighters. They are stopped because someone kills the trailing goons (notice NoE's have gotten futher from launch base to target base since the dar fun). Why not stop them before they kill the town? We just don't watch for them in general. We all watch the dar bar when it's HUGE, or when we want to know where the fight is. Yet a smart enemy would not sit in your sight, so our job is simple. Don't sit in the enemy's sight if you're attacking, and if you're 'defending' then keep them IN sight. Might mean someone has to watch the dar more, or scout a bit, but it's on us now.

The only thing I would even think of asking for base defense would be a manned ack or two in town, but beyond that... this is our problem. We need to solve it.

 

[Spikes]

Old mission editor allowed for different bases at different times...

[falcon23]

Dont think it would work very well .....imagine the spam when more than so many of ANYTHING upped from a field..You do realize that it would have to be across the board dont you...

[Spikes]

Why do you think spies are for.  With the recession going on we cannot afford to lay off our spies.  So no to the wish.  But serously taking bases is a little hard now with   the big towns we have.


Semp

Yup and in a way it increased the horde mentality...how it used to be, you could handily take a base with a good group of 8-10 guys...but now with the different town and lowered dar it's almost a necessity to bring 20-30 guys as many sets of eyes are needed to look for buildings.

One would think the reason for all this was to stop NOE missions and in turn stop hording them, but IMO it did the exact opposite. Sure, NOE's are tougher, but even a 10 mile notice with no darbar and 30 dots is tough to defend against when said cons will be there in 45 seconds. It is then just a matter of carpet bombing the town, VH, whatever needs to be done.

[Dadsguns]

Just getting rid of the radar altogether would be alright with me, have it where everyone can see all cons, now that would cause a fight....   

[shiv]

Just getting rid of the radar altogether would be alright with me, have it where everyone can see all cons, now that would cause a fight....   

Can always go to DA lake.

[mbailey]

Ill preface this with i know nothing about coding but....

Maybe tie it in with the mission planner, when the mission launches, the "alert" could go up. If 20 people up from the same field that are not in the mission, no alert, but as soon as mission time is met and the clipboard popps on everyones screen (the one on how to score it fighter or attack) , the alert goes up.

Thinking outside the box Dadsguns....not a bad idea u have there   

[Lusche]

Maybe tie it in with the mission planner, when the mission launches, the "alert" could go up. If 20 people up from the same field that are not in the mission, no alert, but as soon as mission time is met and the clipboard popps on everyones screen (the one on how to score it fighter or attack) , the alert goes up.

Result: Only n00bs and squaker armchair generals will use the mission planner, while the usuals suspects (base grabbing horde squads) will simply do without it.
So it won't accomplish much beyond removing the mission planner as a tool from the game.

[RTHolmes]

any more than 10 planes NOE in a sector and all of them show up on darbar (not dot dar tho.)

[mbailey]

Result: Only n00bs and squaker armchair generals will use the mission planner, while the usuals suspects (base grabbing horde squads) will simply do without it.
So it won't accomplish much beyond removing the mission planner as a tool from the game.

Very true, good point 

[minke]

How bout radar only available at large fields?

You could even have radar replaced by the local civilian population, every home sector on a new map shows all contacts friend and foe. Even if you lose bases you still get intel from the civvies, would balance out gameplay when you are on the back foot.

If the mission planner got nerfed, tower missions would be the norm.