So a mission planner gets things going...
"OK guys we're gonna go NOE to A-XX. Grab yer 110's and let's head out."
"Oh wait, we can only have nine guys because any more and the building hardness increases."
"Sorry Melvin, you can't come."
Totally gaming the game is what I predict if this sort of thing comes to fruition.
...and that is whats wrong with the game.... the players that look at it like this.
How much fun are NOEs? Sure the first 15 or 20 might be fun, but after 50, 100, 200? Doesn't it get boring? If I join a mission and those are the "orders" I'm out before it leave the tower, let alone the ground.
You get out of this what you put in it. If you always do the same thing over and over again it gets boring, and you get "burnt out". If you make lame simple mission that challenge no one then thats what you going to have lame boring missions. If you fight every plane the same way most of your fights are going to end the same way. That goes for the noobs as well as the hot sticks. If your in a 109-K4 and come up against a pony and you do the same maneuvers you do every time you run into a pony it's going to get boring, even if your winning it !
No one looks to challenge themselves any more. Everyone looks for the easy way out....how boring!
So if the community doesn't wish to change the "game" will continue to stagnate. More and more players will become bored....err burnt out and take a break. Some will come back, others will move on. HTC on the other hand could create changes that force the community to change, and they have at other times. They will again. I know, my rose colored glasses are what lead me, but if I'm so wrong why were there need for changes before? We always had NOEs but it was until recently that HTC changed the radar to make it harder to run them and there by cutting the number of NOE mission drastically.
Yes there were complaints about hordes and poor game play in the old days, but it is not as rampant as it is now. I've been playing this game for over 10 years, never took a break. I may not put in the hours I use to but I'm still here. Always looking for that next good fight. The other night it was a running battle between me in B24s and Snuggie in a 110. We went over a number of sectors and he was careful and finally got all 3 of my buffs. I hit him a few times but his angle in and out made it really hard to land any good ones. It was a blast!
I'm a fighter guy, but was in a buff because I didn't want to be in the horde and had gotten tired of fighting against a horde, so I changed it up. Doing the same thing over and over isn't going to cut it. Todays players spend most of their time doing the same thing over and over.... kinda like all those xbox games. A,A,up,up, down, B,B pick up the gold and do the same thing to the next guy. It's that mentality that cause people to ask for the same things over and over.... we need more eye candy, why? because they are bored looking at the old stuff while they hit A,A,up,up, down, B,B We need new planes, why because they are bored augering the one they fly now. and the best one of all, we need new maps WHY? Your NOE mission will work the same as on the old maps!
If we accept the fact that the game is a "combat" game then the only thing that will keep the game going is COMBAT. If the players have to be forced into combat so be it. Other wise HTC might as well just make a mission launcher, you pick a side to be on, and the mission launches. You complete your mission objective and win points if you don't you get nothing. Turn the game in to a planned action based game like all the others. Wow, that sounds like fun, anyone up for a quest?
