Originally posted by daddog:
Not that I would beg, borrow, or steal, but I am all ears.
As others have said, I always used to enjoy the Warnights. They were seen as a sort of stepping-stone to scenarios, where players could get a taste of something with a bit of an objective rather than the usual arena play. It got them used to playing as a team in what was always a two-sided event. In an attempt to get players to be a bit more careful and used to the idea of a single-life event, lives were usually limited to 3-5; however, there was a regeneration period which meant that, providing you did not die
too often, you could still in play throughout the two-hour event. If you did have a run of bad luck and use up your lives, dead pilots were allowed to go as gunners while their next life was regenerating, so still had an active part t play.
Warnights also gave an opportunity for trying different effects which could be used in a scenario, but coulnd't really be tried in a normal 'melee' arena. Conditions like 'simulated' poor visibility, where icons only showed up when they were within about 1 or 2K made some warnights quite an unusual experience! An enemy suddenly appearing on your 6 out of the simulated 'fog' made for some exciting moments. Of course, we had to ignore the fact that AW always had a clear blue sky, and the sun always shone brightly (strangely high in the North East sky! <g> )
I particularly enjoyed the Staff v Players Warnights we occasionally held, especially during the time I was staff. I remember one occasion, LW bumped up the buff tuff and gunner leathality and the object was for the players to find and kill him in his bomber - which he had me gunning...
That was hilarious!
Of course, I also enjoyed the full-blown scenarios! I hooked on those from the very first time I ventured into an Events arena as a walk-on, and ended up as a gunner in Greas's 'Kate o Doom'
Not sure I did any good, and have a feeling that a kill I thought I had got hadn't registered as one because it was a 'friendly' Ooops! (I noticed later that the person I thought I had got was on our side and was reported on the AAR as 'shot down in a friendly fire incident!
) Anyway, that event got me hooked on scenarios and I participated in every one I could after that (time-zones permitting!)
The whole scenario experience was like nothing else, from arriving into the arena, changing country if necessary, finding our way to the Briefing rooms, starting a briefing if doing GL or joining one if not, sitting in the Briefing room, looking at the map, studying the waypoints, zooming in on the targets (as a Bomber pilot, I always went for the buff rides <g> ), and agreeing on who should hit what, making back-up arrangements, explaining to the newbie that we can't go just yet, getting people to change their handles - without leaving the Briefing Room to change it in OC! - explaining what the plan was, taking notes, assigning a TAC channel, repeating to newbie that we have to wait for the GO, making sure everyone was included in the group and could see the waypoints, finally getting dismissed to the airfield, telling newbie not to change his fuel from 100% to 15% in the B17, launching to the runway, being buzzed by another newbie who decides a runway full of friendly B17s are juicy targets for him, hearing a restless gunner 'testing his guns', and taking out the plane behind, seeing requests for unauthorised players to auger or be ejected, finally getting into the air (well, maybe after a mass arena-wide dump! LOL) and proceeding to target, being attacked, surviving, bombing target, rtbing, being attacked again, sometimes fatally, or making it back home and landing, debriefing.... all these made scenario-playing such memorable experiences for me, which I hope will continue in here...
LOL, this has ended up a bit long - but you did ask!
