Perk Planes: a better idea

[flakbait]

Originally posted on the A/C-Vehicles board by me in response to another post on this subject. I hauled it here to get some opinions:

I got a better idea.

Pyro said "Perk Planes" would be bought using points; this creates a problem we all know. Best pilots can fly Me 163s, 262s, Ta-152 H-Os, etc... while the rest of us get stuck in P-40Bs and Hurricane Mk Is.

Now you try to get on an RPS system; most everybody knows the RPS idea is flawed itself. One guy is gonna get mad because he can't fly a Tempest. Why? He was sleeping or at work when that hour came around.

How about this: planes in limited numbers.
No joke. Say at bomber fields you can have up to 10 of each "perk plane" available at any given time. If the factory gets blasted, you're down to 5 of each. Now the limit of 10 per bomber field relies on what field you started from. So if you change from a bomber field to a forward field, you are down to 1 or 2 "perk planes" there.

Example: Rip and company lift off from A1 in 10 Ta-152 H-Os ready to blast some bombers. No one else can fly a Ta-152 H-O until they get back, shot down, or bail.

You could take this a step further by limiting the respawn time of the plane limit. So if Rip and 4 others get blasted and lose 5 of those Ta-152s, it'd be another hour before the limit is back up to 10.

Whattaya think?

Flakbait

[HaHa]

I posted around 4 threads on this matter a couple of months ago. HTC said they didn't feel that implementing it would be worthwhile. Honestly I think it would be really good - right now AH has the "engine" they just need the reason to drive the "engine".

[mx22]

Allocating total number of planes just doesn't worth it. With such a limited number of super planes available, you'll see people constantly pressing fly button until you succeed in getting plane of your choice.
A better way would be to allocate lets say 20 "super planes" to a player. With each death in a super planes, number would decrease until it hits 0 and player won't be able to fly perk planes. Now to make things more interesting, player can get new 20 planes as his kill mark reaches 100 in one tour or something. (BTw, by 20 planes I mean not 20 of each plane, but rather 20 of all perk planes).

mx22

[LLv34_Camouflage]

 

Originally posted by mx22:
A better way would be to allocate lets say 20 "super planes" to a player.
....
(BTw, by 20 planes I mean not 20 of each plane, but rather 20 of all perk planes).

Combine this with the possibility to get the plane type you want, it would be good.  I prefer german iron, you see.  

Camo


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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
 www.muodos.fi/LLv34

Brewster into AH!

"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."

[mx22]

No way Camo

I think it will be better to just give player those 20 uber planes of HIS choice. No need to limit to something like 1 Me262, 5 FW190D, 5 SpitXIV and etc. This has 2 advantages, first of all since you don't fly anything but German, you'll get more chances to fly FW190D and Me262. Another advantage is that there will be less whiners saying that having bigger number of such and such plane is unfair.
And about playability - well if you have 20 planes and 100 kills to achive to extend you "perk license", can you manage this? This is 5:1 k/d ratio and I know for sure I'm not gonna be the person who flies only perk planes even for that simple fact   Hats of to all those who will manage to achieve this - they will indeed deserve to fly planes of their choice.

mx22

[Karnak]

REPOST:

How about each player gets one perk plane per day. That is, if I logon on December 12th I can grab a Meteor and have some fun. Then, if things go as they normally do, I get shot down. Now I can't take another Meteor (or Ta152, A7M2 Reppu or F8F Bearcat) until December 13th. If I happen to be on during the date shift, say from the 14th to the 15th, I could burn both days perk rides in one session, but then I won't have a perk plane when I log in after work on the 15th I would not have a perk plane available. Somebody who was good might be able to go for an entire session with that plane. For example, Mitsu logs on and grabs a A7M2 and flys until out of ammo, then returns and lands to be rearmed. Once rearmed he continues to use the A7M2. If he doesn't get shot down, then he can have the perk for his entire session. Perhaps it could be done so that if he was not shot down by the time he logged off, the A7M2 would be available when he logged back in, and would remain so until destroyed. If that would not unfairly favorable to the good pilots.
If one perk plane per day is too many, then perhaps it could be one perk plane per every two days or every week. Whatever would cause the perk planes to be as rare/common as HTC wants them to be for balance sake.

This system would allow everybody the chance to fly the perk planes once in a while regardless of skill at racking up points. It wouldn't encourage players to fly in ultra-conservative mode (not helping fellow countrymen because it involves risk, for example) to protect scores in order to get perks because perks would not be based on score.

Sisu
-Karnak

[Karnak]

REPOST:

A different take on my idea from above would be to tie the perk vehicle to the sortie time that the player has. So for every 5, 10, 20, 40 hours or whatever amount of time meets the balance requirements, a player has spent in a vehicle (transport, tank, bomber, fighter, ect) that player would get access to a perk plane.
This modification would mean that everybody would get the same ratio of perk planes. My previous suggestion might favor players who don't have time to play that much, players such as myself. It wouldn't be fair if each day that I logged in to fly a single sortie, that I could always take a Meteor, Me262 or P-80 while somebody like RAM would have to fly non-perks most of the time. Under my new suggestion, RAM would get perks more often because he puts in more time than I do.

My new suggestion seems fairer to me.

Sisu
-Karnak

[Tac]

Instead of getting so complicated, why not simplify?

Every player gets one perk plane of each type per 12 hours.

What I mean is, I would have ONE (1) perk plane of each type I could fly. If I fly the me-262 and get killed, I wont be able to fly it again for 12 hours!

That way every player gets the chance to fly them and if that player loses his plane, then that player, along with all the other players, will not get to fly that perk plane for 12 hours.

IMHO, this system would be a LOT better.  

[Lephturn]

I like the X number of "Perk" points per player per tour idea.  DO NOT tie it to your "logged in" time.  This is a flat-rate game... I could log in all day at work and do nothing just to rack up "points" so I could fly perk planes every day.  Too complicated to manage.

Everybody gets X flights per tour.  The really good pile-its can stretch their 20 out a long time if they use the re-arming pads.  Guys the fly for more time just get better at it and can make their planes last longer.

Oh, and let the player choose which perk planes he/she wants to fly.  If you want to fly the Me262 20 times or try each perk plane several times instead it should be your choice.


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Lephturn - Chief Trainer
A member of The Flying Pigs  http://www.flyingpigs.com
 

"My P-47 is a pretty good ship, she took a round coming 'cross the Channel last trip.
Just thinking 'bout my baby and lettin' her rip, always got me through so far."
 - Steve Earl

[This message has been edited by Lephturn (edited 07-17-2000).]

[Doug Riech]

My vote is with Lephturns school-o-thought
                       AKelfy =)

[qts]

I'm going to repost a suggestion I made some time ago:

Pitting a late-war plane against an early war one is manifestly unfair, so why not score it as such?

I originally suggested a very gradual slide, but how about making the slide much more severe? EG if your plane is > 2 years newer than the other's, you get a minimal score?

[Titanium]

Hello,
      Just a thought.....
Imagine the first day you came into AH ? (as what seems a fair amount of guys in AH came from WB maybe they grasped the flight model quick) but for me it was a bit of a shock at first to get off the runway, Now imagine this....... A new guy comes into the room for his first ever fly   and guess what happens ??? he gets off (maybe after several attempts) only to find these so called Perk Planes are in the room and he is not elligable to fly them ?  Now imagine this... He sticks with it and gets killed by these planes then finds out he can't fly them ?  What do you think he will do ?? Well to my mind he may (i stress the word May) consider quitting and never comming back as he (or she (for any ladies that may/be in AH)) may feel that this kind of perk is a bit too much to understand and bear

Just a thought as i say

I personally know of two guys that have tried AH then heard about these so called perk planes and then said they won't be back due to a have and have not system that may be put into place   and these guys were from another online plane sim
I myself can only see the most determined people sticking around from comming into the game and learning it and then carrying on through to be able to fly the perk planes, I realise the pricing has something to do with keeping the determined kinda person in AH but to me perk planes won't bring any more players into the room, After all the more people in the more HTC make money wise and the more full it is the more fun it is to be had by all

Bear this in mind too..... which planes do you fly as individuals ? two three four   how many ? and which ones ? how many does the next guy fly ? what type ?
My point is we all tend to fly different planes that differ from the next guy, Thus making perk planes available to all wouldn't neccesarily mean that all will fly them
As i say just my thoughts on perks

Lol now here's a radical idea !!! all the higher scoring pilots aren't allowed perk planes cause they great in the rest !!! so let us lesser mortals have em    he he j/k

Have Fun

Sorry for rambling on

He he

Tit
 
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[This message has been edited by Titanium (edited 07-19-2000).]

[StSanta]

Here's the solution:

Abolish the perk plane idea and leave it up to companies like Blizzard and ID software to deal with fantasy.

HTC's wish to do something that hasn't been done is very admirable, but the perk plane system has no place in a WWII sim, I think. Instead, they can focus on enlargening the battlefield in various ways.

StSanta
JG54 "Grünherz"
President of DTTPS
Death To The Perk System

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StSanta
JG54 "Grünherz"

[iculus]

I'm with StSanta and Titanium

IC

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Doesn't bother me, depends how it's done, but I definitly always like the "carrot/Donkey" relationship. If there is a medal, I want it. If there is a special plane rare to fly I want it. When I came into Ah I saw those 3-4 kill runs and I could barely land. Well I loved the chalenge and now I'm having those 3-4 kill flights.

I believe it depends on the individuals. I understand people may get discouraged by AH learning curve or seing others fly planes they "not good enought" to fly yet. But as far as I'm concerned, I love any chalenge and from this motivation raises an interest toward the game who voids borredom.

I'm also aware that a bad perk system may ruin the gaming/fun of the MA.