Euro and US time AvA staged mission test

[jimson]

Tomorrow, Tuesday at 3pm est (8pm London) and again at 8pm est. We will be testing a staged mission in AvA.

It will be a Battle of Britain mission.

Come give it a try if you have time.

Come 5-10 minutes early to have time to auto download the updated avachanl terrain.

To join the mission, just go to Staged missions-Populate mission. Click on your name and then double click the slot you want to fly.

[Easyscor]

The terrain is 10.3 MB

[Oldman731]

Tomorrow, Tuesday at 3pm est (8pm London) and again at 8pm est. We will be testing a staged mission in AvA.

*waves hand frantically from the back of the room*

"Excuse me, Mr. Jimson!  Excuse me!  Can you tell us, please, what a 'staged mission' is?"

- oldman

[jimson]

*waves hand frantically from the back of the room*

"Excuse me, Mr. Jimson!  Excuse me!  Can you tell us, please, what a 'staged mission' is?"

- oldman

A staged mission, sometimes referred to as a CoOp mission in other games, is a designed mission that will fly with AI pilots regardless of player participation. There are a number of  slots available where humans can join, choosing the side and aircraft they prefer. Unclaimed slots will be flown by AI.

Players may end up flying with and against a mixture of real pilots and AI.

They can contain mission briefings, in game prompts and text messages, and such features as flight warps to immediately move flights to altitude over distances that would be very boring to fly manually.

The missions last 20-30 minutes total with the combat completed in the first 10 or 15.

Missions may be joined in progress, if there are any slots available, but if joined too late, it is possible to miss all the action.

The cool thing about such missions in AvA is the fog of war, not knowing if the plane you are about to engage is AI or human.

Intercepting bombers is especially dangerous as the AI bomber gunners are brutally effective.

[MrKrabs]

And I rip my hair out every time I think about that 5% of the total AH user know about the wonders of staged missions....

[jimson]

And I rip my hair out every time I think about that 5% of the total AH user know about the wonders of staged missions....

That's where we come in. Until we have in AvA, the ability to have a stack of staged missions pre-loaded to automatically launch every hour, I intend to make Tuesday AvA mission day with a couple run in European prime time and a couple run in US prime time. Tomorrow is a test of that concept.

[Easyscor]

For those who remember Combat Theater, Staged Missions are a derivative of the AI component. Some of us flew against them in the Beta version.

[jimson]

For those who remember Combat Theater, Staged Missions are a derivative of the AI component. Some of us flew against them in the Beta version.

I think Easy is referring to Combat Tour/Tour of Duty.

[jimson]

Instructions will also be detailed in the arena message of the day.

[Easyscor]

I think Easy is referring to Combat Tour/Tour of Duty.

Opps! That's right, Combat Tour. The Staged Missions were part of Combat Tour.

Now they're built by the AvA Staff or members of the AvA Development Group and run in the AvA arena.

Pretty cool.

[SirNuke]

And I rip my hair out every time I think about that 5% of the total AH user know about the wonders of staged missions....

like many others these features are well hidden and you need a degree in CAD to understand how to use them

can't wait to try it out, thanks for taking the time spent to design all this stuff

[jimson]

This the arena message that will appear.

      BATTLE OF BRITAIN   

******STAGED MISSION INSTRUCTIONS******

1. CLICK ON STAGED MISSIONS

2. CLICK ON POPULATE

You should see a screen with your in game name on the left
side and a number of planes listed on the right.

To join mission click to highlite your in game name
and then double click on the slot you want to fly. Your
name should then appear with a checkmark in either the
AXIS or ALLIED column and also next to the plane slot you
have chosen.

3. WAIT FOR BRIEFING (if there is one) AND MISSION
TO START

If you only see a blank populate screen, the system is
still sending you the mission. Wait a few seconds,
exit the screen and then try again.

4. If the join in progress box is checked, you may be
able to join the mission after it is started.

Just click on your name and a plane slot as above.
Be prepared to spawn in flight and have your throttle
open.

5. If you are eliminated, you may be able to rejoin
mission if open slots remain. To do this, return to the
populate screen, click your name in the AXIS or ALLIED
column, click unassign and repeat the above instructions.

6. You may need to reduce your speed considerably,
sometimes even half throttle to stay with the AI group.
Of course you can also circle to rejoin them. Depending
on the mission design this may not be critical because
there may be a warp  to the combat segment that will put
you in postion from wherever you happen to be.

7. The route you should be flying is shown in red on your
clipboard map.

*THANKS FOR PLAYING IN THE AXIS vs ALLIES ARENA*

[wpeters]

Do we need to Download the staged mission from somewhere

[jimson]

Do we need to Download the staged mission from somewhere

No, you will get it automatically.

[jimson]

We had some fun with it today. Had a couple strange things happen, but overall not bad. Thanks to all who played. Will run again tonight 8pm est