I can't be in there all the time to direct players.
I will be preloading pickup missions to kick off starting around 8:00 or 9:00 pm est.
This is the format you will see when you click on pickup missions.
Pay attention to the current arena time and the mission start time. You can also look through them and see what planes are available and their load outs, but reading the briefing for that mission is the most important thing. The briefing location is listed in the mission name.
The first 2 characters in the mission name you can ignore. they are simply identifiers for me to know which missions are which A=Allies X=Axis. You will only see the missions that are loaded for your country.
The rest of the mission name is important because it tells you where to go to read the briefing for that mission.
Some briefings will be held on rear bases and the missions do not necessarily launch from the base that contains the briefing.
IMPORTANTOnce you join a mission, you must wait in the tower for it to start and you will spawn automatically. It doesn't matter which tower you wait in, but if you take another flight you will be removed from the mission. Go ahead check out the missions, read the briefing but don't join one too early before you are ready to wait for the mission to start.
When the mission launches, you will first be asked whether to score the mission as fighter or attack. This is not particularly important because we currently have no logging program to gather stats for our weekly setups, but if you are flying a bomber or fighter in a strafing or bombing role, you can score it as attack for the monthly scores if you have an interest in that sort of thing.
There will be 2 or 3 missions per side and they will be designed to get the opposing sides into the same general areas. If you spot bandits, it's up to you whether to continue the mission or divert to engage the contacts.
The missions are just starting points to instruct and direct players to the features of this terrain.