We all heard that most new players don't even last the free trial. I can understand this - they log in, look at the map, don't understand what is going on, what they need to do or should do to "help their team". If they fly to a target field and don't get slaughtered on the way, they do not know what to hit and why it is not destroyed when they drop a 500 lbs bomb on it.
What we are missing is the equivalent of a pick up group (PUG) of other games. This function used to be filled (sort of...) by what we now call "pickup missions" - and they are extinct. In a community of veterans, those who wish to organize anything do it within their squadron, or not at all. A new player is left out of this action. Pickup missions are a great opportunity for a new player to fly in a group (so they do not get slaughtered right away), have a purpose, be guided to the purpose by the mission leader, and most of all - get free social intercation, so the AH experience is not so lonely anymore.
We need a strong incentive for missions driven gameplay and the structure to make it inviting to the new player. Long long time ago, I proposed something in that spirit
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,256300.msg3168700.html#msg3168700I think HTC should reconsider something along these lines in order to bring back pickup missions for the sake of new player retention. The key aspects I think are:
1. A scoring system for mission leaders - score based on mission outcome. Hype this, reward the tour leader, put their names in gold and award them with HTC merchandise (or a free month ...gasp...). These are the ones that create the experience for the other players.
2. A system for creating missions with objectives - We have a mission planner that sort of works, that is a start. The mission should include a declared objective (attack a field, attack a factory, capture a field, fighter sweep). The score for the leader will be counted only on mission objectives (target field objects destroyed, factory damage inflicted, field captured by a mission participant, planes shot down).
3. A system for auto-creation of counter missions - This one is completely optional, but I think it is good gameplay. Milkruns are bad, and attacking meaningless and easy to reach targets for score is bad gameplay. We WANT the forces to collide and this is why we plan scenarios the way we do. A mission that is launched should create a scramble mission on the other side (giving a proper head start to the attackers). The number of participants in scramble should be limited by the number of participants in the attack mission. This of course does not prevent anyone from taking off without a mission and defending like they do now, just like it does not prevent anyone from taking off within being a member of the attack mission and fly with it - just like they can do now. The counter mission is a good way to measure the difficulty, so give the leader score a bonus if there were many opposing players in the counter mission.
4. Recruiting participants - Once a mission is posted, anyone who likes to be notified can get a small flashing messege at the corner saying "mission available" or something like that (default on for noobs). Heck, that "base under attack" meaningless voice message can be turned in "scramble scramble!" call for paricipation in a counter mission. Make the "pickup mission" option in the menu flash. When you join, ask whether to tune your vox to the mission channel so noob do not have to do anything to set up. To prevent abuse for leader scores, require a mission to have at least 4 participants in order to launch.
5. Scoring for participants - to attract them, create a scoring system for mission participants (perk bonus also?). You get a score for mission objectives or shooting down the scramble mission planes (or the attacking planes for the scramble mission). Only partial score for destroying other targets.
There's a lot more that can be said and the basic idea can be developed far far more (see the link above for example) and even include things like system generated missions and AI, but this is the jist of it. The main point is that aside from the scores, there is very little that needs to be added to the game to make this happen. This does not affect any flight or graphics or core game mechanics. The whole thing runs parallel to the free sandbox of the main arena. No one is forced to start missions and no one has to participate. If you ignore the missions system, the whole thing will look like a normal rare organized attack on a field and you can takeoff with any plane from any field to assist or counter it.
The PUG-like aspect is really important and I think it is missing from this game.
