In a perfect world, according to game design, what do you think would be the preferred routine in aces high? How was the game designed to be played, what was their vision? What was the ultimate idea of the creators? I think it would replicate and mimic the elements and factors of the Second World War as close as possible. First of all, everyone would be in a squad, no lone wolfs. Second, every squad would run organized missions only, no upping solo or scattered (unless you are going to rendezvous with your squad or unit). A mission is always comprised of one of several types, or a mixture of the following:
*Bombing Mission (NOE, Strat Run, Town, Airfield, High Alt, Low Alt, Medium, Heavy, etc.)
*Escort Mission (NOE, Short, or Long Range Fighters, drop tanks, targets of opportunity, etc.)
*Scramble (Fighters taking off in unison to guard and defend an area under attack)
*Bomber Intercept (High Altitude Fighters approaching a location of known enemy bombers)
*Fighter Sweep / Patrol (Hunting for enemy fighters/bombers in an area they are thought to be)
*Intel / Recon / Surveillance (scouting for GV’s, carrier/airbase positions/layout, investigating dar bar)
*Air-to-Ground Attacks (fields, town, ack, troops, GV’s, trains, convoys, ships, barges, CV’s, strafe, vulch)
*Cargo Runs (resupplying fields, GV’s, Strats, or capturing a town with escort pilots)
*GV Runs (all of the above combined; supply, patrol, attack, defend, ambush, surface-to-air, recon)
In order to complete these missions, we need an effective coordination of ALL units, fighters, attack aircraft, bombers, cargo planes, reconnaissance, fleets, paratroopers, and ground vehicles.
The way you get this done is by organizing multiple squads to work together on various missions, and ultimately, the big picture. We would delegate someone to coordinate the entire theater of war for each country, or possibly have an aces high employee commanding 24/7, and following his orders/waypoints/objectives. Participation could reward participants in various ways. You need a country general centrally planning and organizing the flow of troops, resources, ordnance, fighters, and target smashing. Someone for each country coordinating the flow of the war much like a general would have. Think of the Commander in the Battlefield Series. He selects squads and assigns them a waypoint with an objective, and it is constantly changing. He then gives orders to units to attack/defend different areas. The commander coordinates supply drops, radar scanning, airstrikes, etc.
You would have a hierarchy and chain of command. You would have
nation leader (e.g. Knights General) who is responsible for the entire nation’s operation. He gives vague orders to his
theater of operations commanders (Major/Colonel) who are responsible for large sector groups of the map and certain squads dedicated to that geographical region (sector group). That commander then gives more specific orders to
squad leaders (Captains/Lieutenants) who then post and run missions. You may even break it down a step further to split a single mission into 2 units, each with their own leader. I think this type of organization would make the game more fun, competitive, organized, and realistic.
The General or Colonel could also give DIRECT orders for specialty missions such as intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, and relaying key information which helps them make decisions and give orders. These specialty missions would locate ground vehicles, locate carrier positions, drop supplies and troops, spot large enemy formations, and relay positions of airfields for bomber runs so they can run a successful briefing and know exactly what direction they need to hit the field from. They could cause diversions and trick the enemy into thinking we’re hitting northern airfields, when in reality we are sending 50 B-17’s to hit their HQ, City, and other Strats! 20 different squads, running 20 different independent missions, to 5 different targets, without coordinating or communicating with each other is not the way to win a war.
This wish is for an Aces High Hierarchy and Chain of Command to produce a more realistic, organized, main arena based on missions, waypoints, and known objectives. It is to have eyes and ears on the ground and in the air, to gather intelligence and relay it to commanders for pre-mission planning. Instead of 10 squads hitting 1 base, we can have 10 squads hit 5 bases while defending 5 others. Instead of 1 man attacking a B-17 formation, we can have 2 squadrons intercepting while 2 squadrons are waiting to scramble at locations thought to be in danger. We can defend bases that were recently taken instead of capturing the airfield, and then neglecting it and fighting elsewhere. We can hit 3 strat targets, while taking bases in the North and South simultaneously. Most importantly, we can better coordinate our offense so we don’t halfway take 6 bases without completing because the goons were 30 minutes behind the bombers and de-ackers, and then the guns came back when the goon got there. All that wasted manpower and time. We can coordinate an HQ hit 15 minutes after the city is decimated instead of whacking the HQ, having it come back online in 20 minutes, then hitting the city; again causing another waste in time and manpower.
You could implement some of the other ideas I have read on this forum with this idea, such as down times for pilots. If you bail, you wait x amount of time, killed, you wait z amount of time, etc. Or, if you are killed during a mission, you can sit in a timed spawn pool which requires x amount of dead pilots in order to re-up in a current mission where THE MOST MANPOWER IS NEEDED. Not necessarily the mission you were originally in. This way, the spawn pool guarantees that you do not up alone. Any pilot dead within 30 seconds will be given the opportunity to respawn together. Something like that. This could be implemented in ANY WAY, this is not the main point of my original topic. Maybe after you die, you can just get scooped up in another mission that is about to takeoff, or jump into a gunner position on a bomber flown by someone in your squad, or rejoin them with other, recently-killed, squad members. Whatever!!
As said in a previous post, In general, this thread speaks to have rewards that create an incentive for organized actions in a realistic, goal-oriented manner. Nobody is looking for a re-write of the game code, just an adjustment to "guide" players into more avenues of game play. Remember, we like to think of Aces High as a sim, not a game. A niche crowd, not arcade gamers like War Thunder. Lets coordinate and mix bombers, GV’s, attack planes, and fighters together, which is what WW2 Air Combat was all about. Fighting, Bombing, Dive-Bombing, and Taking Land with Troops.
I WANT TO SEE MORE MISSIONS, ORGANIZATION, TEAMWORK, STRATEGY, COORDINATION, COMMUNICATION, AND CENTRAL PLANNING!
Hierarchy, Chain of Command Looks Like:
