I may be off my rocker on this but to me this sort of thing represents the ultimate arena if it works out. I think whats important in here are the numbers. That means that this arena my be deficient at certain hours. A more realistic arena would shed alot of light on the planes in new ways. Also that the main difference in the CT and the MA was that the CT allowed only certain plane sets then beyond that its different but kinda like MA in that you take off and have free will to cause havoc. If there was this new arena that was mission/historically based where you cant just take off whenever you want and you had to pick a mission (scripted or planned by players or yourself currently online) then you set the stage for very realistic engagements. Hey if your mission happen to catch an enemy group rolling, vulch city for you but only till all were ded, no free respawning. Perhaps a wildcard sort of a feature should be incorporated where you cud just takeoff whenever you wanted but only a certain amount of times within time frame or something. though that would be very risky since you would probably run into a gaggle or formation of enemy fighters with goal. Good air comanders would create good missions that would find the enemy and find some action. Leave it primarily to players to generate missions. The less numbers required on missions, the more likely others will join it (min 2 sorties per mission) and secondary to the scripted default missions that are more "big picture" strategy oriented or even customizable. In the end, I feel that the numbers in arena, method of engagement, and new personal reward system for gameplay is what will make this "ultimate realism" arena work out. Thats how it was in real life, mission based. Thats where all the stories come from, missions. And thats why it wouldnt be generic and would be worth something more and is more gratifying I guess. Also a side affect is that newbies would be able to fly along with veterans on these missions rather than flying as loners being chopped up by veteran hunters in the MA.
This is how things get started... Good or bad. I hope it turns out good.
