I thought there might be some WWI fans here that might be interesting in what I’ve been working on. It is a bit of a Frankenstein project.
It started as a personal offline project last Oct I was building so I would have something cool to fly in with my VR, and I wanted it to be WWI and populated with AI targets using the Offline Staged Mission technology.
After working with Hitech to troubleshoot various AI/mission issues (and some silly screw ups on my part
) and explaining what I was trying to do, he suggested it might be something I could host in the Mission Arena so other people could enjoy it too. After thinking it though, I realized that what would be REALLY fun it to set something up a little different than the traditional Mission Arena format.
What I wanted to try is an AI populated arena you could spawn in, pick a country, pick a field and just take-off and head to the front and look for trouble. I wanted the player to be able to interact with the arena just like the MA; without having to wait around for a scheduled mission to start.
The missions are actually being run by the AI. Constant, overlapping, repeating patterns. Players don’t join in these AI only missions. These missions are hidden from players. They exist to provide the arena background activity, but not just flying in circles. Aerodrome activity, patrols of the front, balloon defense, recon patrols behind the lines fighter sweeps, dogfights over the front. There will be an entire war going on 24/7 that a player can jump into any time they want and find constant action. US time, EU time, Asia time. It’s always there and the war is always going on full throttle.
This isn’t intended to be a full arena. There is no functioning strat. Bases are not capturable. Think of it as a WWI themed, AI-populated, Shooting gallery/playground.
The AI missions operate between pairs of bases. A1-A2, A3-A4, A5-A6, etc. The AI difficulty is designed to increase for each pair of bases as you move South along the front. For instance, A1-A2 would be the easy-mode AI. A13-A14 is where the Terminators fly.
A15-A18 are separated away from AI activity and are reserved for Humans only furball area.
A19-A22 are separated further and are reserved for eventually adding player joinable scheduled Staged Missions.
This isn’t a scenario. The aerodrome placements are not necessarily actual historical locations. The front line is roughly based on the 1918 British sector. The aerodrome placements are purely for gameplay purposes. The aerodrome are closer to the front than historical for minimal time-to-action flight. The AI missions are operating at altitudes lower than what would be historical. However the AI dives to the deck the second the fight starts anyway and the lower altitudes means less time spent climbing. Balloons are a just hacks to provide targets. I am currently planning on configuring with 2x ammo and 0.5 fuel burn. Once you are over the front, I want you to have plenty of fun.
Anyway, that is what I have been working on. That is my goal. It is a bit different approach than what the Mission Arena was originally designed for. Hitech had to make a few tweaks to allow for this (some of which was already planned for WO:P), but it is an experiment worth trying. It’s still a work in progress and it is something new so there are some teething pains. I hope to get something usable by end of May. Even if not all the content is finished I think there would be value in getting it opened for people to have fun with while I continue adding missions.
But, like I said, there are still some glitches we are working through right now. Probably my fault some how.
Hitech has been awesomely flexible on what he would allow me to try, and has provided critical assistance and even provided me some feature tweaks to make this even possible. However, I suspect he thinks I’m a little bit crazy.
And frankly, I have been wondering what I got myself into.
Here is a little vid I put together from some of my test films.
I'll be finished someday,
CptTrips
