When I'm at work, I do a lot of thinking. Since I work a lot, I have a lot of thinking time. For the past few weeks I've been thinking of some features that AH2 should think about to improve the experience of the pilots and the overall theme and sensation of AH2.
1.) Change the icons.
- Now this may seem weird, but when you're flying and you see an icon pop up at 5k, you're going to know what you're facing. As you get closer you get the specific type of plane. This is a nice feature as you "identify" the plane when you're closer. But I'm thinking why not add more danger and excitement to it all? Why not at 5k the icon is ENMY. At 3k its the plane. At 1.5k its the specific plane type. This would make some people think twice of engaging an unknown type of plane or be curious enough to check it out.
2.) Get rid of the plane on the mini-map.
- Thats right, that plane that shows your specific location. Why not give the challenge of determining our location? The graphics in the game are up to par with visible groups of trees, mountains, town, etc, if our maps were detailed on the mini-map, knowing our location would be better. While it can be a huge pain, it can be intensely rewarding for finding your position with awareness and intelligence. Plus the excitement of being wounded, alone, and lost can really get your blood going.
3.) Wing contrails.
- When a plane is approaching a stall at an extreme angle, contrails on the edges of the wings would appear. This would improve the graphical quality of the game as well as give you the hint that your plane or your enemy's is stalling. This would also benefit new players as they'd be able to recognize the limits of the airplanes a lot easier.
4.) Roads that connect bases.
- Having roads or highways that connect to the bases would give a visual representation of the supply line as well as provide logical choke points and direction of GV's. It would make the GV's go faster as well as provide a way to read the map (as mentioned in number 2). Players looking to bomb or strafe supply runs would logically know where to look and where to hunt. Bases that are on islands would have convoys of merchant ships (with light AA, no puffy ack).
5.) Small, medium and large bases.
- While they have received a facelift and some extra guns, we can go further with them internally. As of right now, you can fly pretty much any plane from any where without trouble. Nice and all for allowing anyone to fly anything they want, but why not give it a small sense of realism? Small bases can only field the single-engined and small twin-engined bombers. Medium bases field everything up to medium-sized bombers as well as jets, and the large of course field all planes. This would encourage players to understand the importance of base defense as well as show the importance of defending larger bases as they field the heavy-hitting bombers. This wouldn't affect fighter-town/island as those bases are the large type, so everyone is happy.
6.) Tracer colors.
- This has always been brought up and I'm bringing it up as well. While the gold/yellow tracers are fine, why not add some variety and some dazzle to the gun rounds? Lighter caliber rounds would be yellow, heavier would range from blue to red, etc. There is historical fact backing up colored tracers and it would also help new players to recognize if their rounds are hitting from their heavier guns or not.
7.) Team points.
- AH2 is a MMO. Popular MMO's have a team or party system that spreads experience over the party for quests or enemies they've killed. Why not have AH2 use the same system? A group of pilots that "team" up could have perks spread out from kills, bomb runs etc. This would promote teamwork, bomber escorts, taking new players under their wing and of course stir up some camaraderie.
8.) Recognition and Pilots
- As of right now you can right-click a pilot's name and see his sorties, kills, etc. Why not take it further with a picture of the pilot? While it would require pictures to be "accepted" to avoid lewd and offensive pictures, it'd be nice to put a face to all the pilots. Stats would be followed such as plane recently flown, or accuracy. A medal and achievement system could also be implemented, with a medal for 5 fighter kills (would be called an "ace"), a "cannon fodder" award for being shot down the most, etc. These stats would reset of course for each tour.
9.) Increase the fuel burn a little bit.
- Heresey! Burn this man! No no no, just up it a little bit. The arena we fly in is hundreds times smaller than actual distance and scale. With most planes I've flown it seems that a full tank will take you pretty much everywhere without fear of running out of gas. Having an increased burn rate would really bring out the long-legged planes into base fights and increased use of drop tanks and gas conservation in flight.
10.) Plane fires.
- If our plane is on fire, usually it comes right out of tail. Some planes don't exactly have a clear view and most of the time we're not looking to see if we're on fire. Usually the fire is due to a gas tank hit or from the engine. Why not model it so that the player's view is reddened or darkened to give the illusion of smoke or fire?
Thats all my small brain was able to process at this point. Any flames? Questions? Concerns?
