OK, we will start from the basic premise that I PERSONALLY want to see more variety in the Main Arena. I already know some don't want that and they are free to hold their own opinion. This will be a long post, and I will hope to include something for everyone in it (kinda like one of those "porkbarrel" things in Congress).
A way that I see to enforce a little more variety in the MA, and "turn back the clock" a little to make the MA more mid war instead of late war, is a sort of perk system. The basic idea is that each "country" (I.E. U.S.A, U.K., Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia- NOT Rook, Knight, and Bishop
) gets a certain number of planes. The early versions of these planes, or in some cases the less formidable versions, will remain UNPERKED. The number of perk points you GET from them will vary upon how lethal they are in the arena, against other planes. This will be decided (and changed routinely) by looking at the total kills vs. total deaths each plane had for the tour, and perhaps balanced somewhat by how common the plane was flown (need to have a way to count sorties for this part, which I assume HTC does).
Anyways, I would propose (for the fighters at least)- 4 "tiers" of values. The first tier is of course the unperked planes. These cost nothing to fly. The second tier will have a cost of between 1 and 5 points. The third tier will have a cost of between 6 and 10, and the fourth tier will have a cost of between 11 and 20. Yes, I realize this would bring the Tempest down to 20 points. No, I have not thought of a way to combat the fact that everyone and their mom in the MA has 1k perks for fighters alone, and some much more than that, so there will be a LOT of tempests flying around for the first few months.
Anyway, next part of the plan is the amount of perk points you would be awarded for succesfully shooting down enemy planes. I would recommend no real changes to this system for the first couple of tiers, but in the 3rd or 4th tiers the number of perks gained will not recoup the number of perks lost if you do not land the plane.
Without further blathering, let me present how I would recommend the plane set to be organized.
First Tier- Unperked planes.
A6M5* (* denote please read bottom)
109F4
C202
190A8*
190F8*
Ki-61*
La-5
P-38L*
P-47D*
P-51B
Seafire
Spit.V
Yak-9T*
F4U1-D*
F6F*
Second Tier - Cost of 1 to 5 points
109G2
109G6
C205*
190A5*
P47D*
SpitMkIX*
P-51D*
Yak-9U
Third Tier - cost of 6 to 10 points.*
P51 - A later model than the D.
P-47 - A later model than the D.
SpitMk??- A good Spit*
109G10
109K4
190D9
N1K2
La-7
F7F or F8F ? - these may belong in tier 4.
Tier 4- cost of 11 to 20 points.
Ta-152 (I think this should be in 3)
Tempest
SpitMk???- a really top of the line Spit
Jet Fighters.
Let me reiterate that the planes in tiers 3 and 4 will not earn many perkies. You will have to fly many many good sorties to recoup the losses of perk points that you will get by crashing the plane. I'd say possibly the planes in tier 3 or 4 will earn maybe 1 perk point every 10 kills or so. However, once you "run out", you can hop back in an unperked plane and get them back fairly quickly.
Anyways, on to my notes. Or my little ****'s.
For the First Tier-
I'd like to get an earlier version of the Zero, and put it in the first tier. The A6M5 would then go to the second tier. I'd also like to get earlier versions of all the planes. For instance, the F3F and F4F, then the F6F could be moved to the 2nd tier, along with the F4U-1D. Same goes for the Ki-61- I'd like to get an earlier Imperial Japanese Army plane, and move the Ki-61 to the second tier. Same goes for the P-38- maybe a J version for the first tier, and the L for the 2nd tier. Same for the Yak9T, and La5- I'd like to get some early war Russian planes in, and move those up. The 190A8 and F8 I put in the first tier because they are NOT as good at air to air as the 190A5 is. Since that is the primary focus of the game, I think it would be right to organize it that way. I honestly don't KNOW which of the P-47s to put where, I don't know enough about them to know where they fit in with the other planes.
Second Tier
Yes, it is embarassing putting the C205 here, as a perked plane. The P51D would either be on the top end of Tier 2 or on the bottom end of Tier 3.
Third Tier
This starts getting hypothetical here. I'd like to see a new and improved Spit go here, to calm the masses of Spit fans that are calling for one. I personally think the MkIX is pretty formidable, but it is obviously not as good as the N1K2 or the LA7. Fans of the RAF deserve to have a plane in all of the brackets to. I'd also recommend adding a later version of a P51, a P47, and the 109K4. The 109G10 would also either be at the top of Tier 2 or the bottom of Tier 3, while the K4 would be towards the top of Tier 3. I am not to sure about the performance of the F8F (or F7F)- they would be placed in either Tier 3 or 4 depending on what their performance merited.
Tier 4
This is pretty self explanatory. I think the Ta-152 would be at the bottom of the scale, with the Tempest at the top. As new planes come into Tier 4, these values would be adjusted.
Anyways, thats just about it for me! I think this system WOULD lead to more variety in the MA, even if people were just flying planes of the lower tiers to earn points for the upper tiers. I also think that planes from all the eras would be fairly represented, with the early war planes being outclassed by the late war planes, but not risking as much pointwise. Please share your comments, and even suggestions on different planes or how to improve upon this "idea". I know that HTC won't use it, but it is fun to kick around anyway, and it is even more fun when I have lots of peoples opinions on it.
[ 08-01-2001: Message edited by: Urchin ]
