Sorry for coming into this discussion late. I'm sure somebody's already discussed this, but I can't find it in the 13 pages this topic's got since January. So, some questions and concerns....
In the
14 Mar 03 SimHQ interview, HT said squads as we know them today and have known them forever in the past won't exist in the ToD arena. I also saw mention of player avatars having rank and forming a chain of command based on this rank, and writing evaluations of their troops after missions, which would affect the ability of the troops to pick up rank themselves. Is that about the gist of it?
If so, I have some serious reservations about that whole concept. I've been in my squad for all of its 9-yr existence. Our internal chain of command is very important to us--it's basically the glue that's held us together this long. I'm sure the same is true for all squads. But now, it seems that AH2 is dead set on destroying the whole community of squads that's been part of flightsim life since the early days of AW. No squads per se at all in ToD, and command positions distributed on the basis of ToD rank, so that squaddies get scattered out working for total strangers. What's the point of having a squad any more? I mean, doing that once or twice a year in a scenario is one thing, but when that's the everyday thing, the whole squad concept becomes meaningless.
Please tell me that ain't so. Please tell me there's some guarantee that squaddies can continue flying together under their own squad chain of command. Please tell me that the other squads, which over the years have either become steadfast allies or Hated Enemas, will remain as recognizable entities carrying on their fueds in the ToD arena.
Also, please tell me we're all not condemned to endlessly suffering under the command of those have no life outside of AH. You know the type: those who get rank in the current MA simply by putting in countless hours. This is bad enough in the MA when all that happens is some clueless, lifeless, talent-challenged-but-points-heavy schmuck snatches away command of a TG without so much as a by-your-leave. But if such people are always going to be your FL, GL, or whatever, simply because they fly a lot more than you do, that's seriously going to suck.
Please tell me there's a way for folks who, due to real life, only have time to fly once or twice a week, to play meaningful roles in the ToD arena. I mean, a lot of our best pilots and leaders are in that situation. By the time they learned how to do that well, they'd gotten old and had families and jobs and such things.
And what's this about leaders writing evals on their troops? Where are the checks and balances in that? How do you prevent personal animosities, petty jealousies, the misunderstandings inherent in internet communications, and just plain personality clashes from turning that into a complete mess? Especially if your boss is only your boss because he flew more in the last few weeks than you did, but you've been flying 6 or 8 years longer than he has in total? How do you prevent abuses of power from totally destroying the fun for the troops who get shafted on the evals, and thus never get rank themselves?
We all know the flightsim community has always been a long, loud clash of egos. That's part of the fun, because heretofore it's always been harmless. It had no effect on how you played the game, except for the pursuit of personal vendettas in combat. Rant and flame each other on the boards, but you didn't have to work for the guy and his opinions had no effect on the structure of the game. But translate this normal fligthsim community "love" into a situation where the guy with more rank can basically hold the other guy down, and I predict you'll have guys canceling their accounts in droves.
For many years, I've wanted more historical basis for the arena. I was really looking forward to AW doing something like the ToD Arena, just before that died. But I always envisioned this in terms of doing it with my same old squaddies, so we could enjoy it together. We'd be the same squad as always, using our internal chain of command and all, just doing it in a different environment.
To me, and my squaddies, it's our esprit de corps that's important, more than the game we happen to be playing. If it comes down to a choice of having either the historical arena or the whole squad experience (my squad, and the community of friendly and nme squads), I'll keep the squad system without hesitation. Which is too bad, because I'd really like to do this ToD thing otherwise.
