Another strat idea. A possible Hitech?

[aircat]

 1: I noted it as a "TEST" plane... not a newly assigned plane.

 2: this wasnt only points gathered from a single mission but made the story plot come together.

 3: even IF they was on a longer term to fly once shot down the planes would then be gone as that pilot and plane would be dead, so you might have them one mission or if you fly good you have it for the next 15 - 20 missions.

[Hans]

Jmccaul, well....yes....we would need ready rooms and nobody could fly untill the leader says "Ok guys, briefing is over," hits a button on his GUI labeled "fly mission".  This briefing room/map room should probably have at least a map for the leader to draw the wapoints on for everyone to see and discuss.

But, I wouldn't want to force this sort of thing on others if thats what they do not want to do.  If you land or get shot down, then you ought to be able to get right back into the action if you wish.  No waiting.

My first post was intentionally left at the most basic of descriptions.  I figured since I am not one of Hitech's and Pyro's employees that laying out a highly detailed and intricate plan for an ingame mission system wouldn't be necessary.  You have to sell the idea first, the rest comes latter.

Hans.

[Lugnut]

Heres how I would do it... (strictly voluntary of course)

Colonel Otto (Host) controls planning of missions for each country. He establishes missions plans for bombing, escort, JABO, recon, sweep, cap, intercept, etc. They are done on a timed basis, that is run every so many minutes. You go into the ready room and sign up for an open slot for a paticular mission. Mission details are given covering plan overview, waypoints, planes, load outs, other participants, intelligence data, etc.. Once your ssignned up, the host will send you a private message 5 minutes before OTR to report to final briefing, where you can see who other pilots are and establish wing assignments, comms, etc.

This way, no one sits around waiting. You can do solo fly till its time to RTB for final briefing. Final briefing is ready room environment with map board showing waypoints, altitudes, and flight leader assignments.

Other bonus is that since Colonel Otto is host, he has complete knowledge of all country actions. Therefore, a bombing mission by one country to field 5 is likely to generate an intercept mission request by the defending country's Colonel Otto. Of course the option could exist where someone can take the initiative to post there own missions to the planning board, for folks to sign up for.

Missions could a maximum and minimum number of participants, based upon type.

AAR review could tie points to achievement of mission objectives, number of losses/victories, etc. and make it a bit more immersive than the jump in your plane and go scenario.

I had posted this idea a couple of times moons ago to the WB community when Pyro was at the helm. Dunno if they ever reviewed it or not, but my guess is they have no interest in putting a framework around the MA, rather, leaving it to the masses to elevate it above a Quake fragfest. IMO if you just try to recreate WsB arena structure again, your going to be in a much tougher competetive position to win their player base, without having some differentiating gameplay advantage. Continuosly running Host generated Scenario Lights (to steal a term) are the way to go, I think. Heres hoping.

Thoughts, suggestions, thumbs down?

Lugnut

[This message has been edited by Lugnut (edited 10-18-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Lugnut (edited 10-18-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Lugnut (edited 10-18-1999).]

[Wolverine]

Jumping in late here, but here's my two cents.

Are we talking strat here or a way to get a coordinated mission together?

Strat is more like:

• You you bomb a munitions factory and all of a sudden there are no more 30mm shells available for load out.
• You hit the fuel supply for bases 20, 21, and 22 and all of a sudden there's only 25% and 50% fuel load outs available at those bases.
• Etc etc etc...

There HAS to be an in-arena effect for each target in order for there to be a reaction from the other side.

You see it in AW with the spit factories.  When one of those was about to get hit by a coordinated attack, you'd see swarms of defenders headed to intercept.  No one wanted to loose their spitfires.

I remember some great missions where we cut of a bases supply in coordination with a buff raid on the forward bases.  The enemy couldn't get supplies to rebuild the bases and in turn got pushed back while we took the front line.  They ended up having to put CAP up over the factories to keep them alive and then we started getting HUGE escorted buff missions in there.  It was REALLY wild.  Targets start to mean something.

In my opinion, it was THE best thing about Air Warrior.

I have only one request for Aces High.  I hope they REALLY put forth MASSIVE effort to enable a REALLY nice stratigic net for the arena.  I cannot stress how much it adds to the arena play.  Almost more so than the flight model and gunnery (example: Air Warrior).

I pray.

------------------
Wolverine [wlvrn]
 http://www.wlvrn.com

33rd Strike Group
 http://www.33rd.org

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."

[jmccaul]

   Wolverine - your dead right the title of the thread is misleading I didn't really think about it when I wrote it. Reasonably intricate strat (not just capture fields is essential as without it you are severly limited in mission objectives)


       Hans - I am not talking about ready rooms in general I am talking about a ready room which would only allow players to take off once the room is full which would be in place on every other field or so. Do you think a 5 minute wait or taking off from another field when you die would be that unbearable? Do you think the fact it will place a number of people together physically ready to take off would not increase the formation flying and therefore would be a worthy price to pay?


   Lugnet - I suppose this would come under the heading thoughts (with relation to original idea)
    The idea is completely transparent and people only have to sign up if they want. It would certainly go some way to organising players so they would fly more missions which is what I would like to see. People gets points for the mission. Players have to sign up unlike ready rooms people won't feel I'm here now so I might as well fly with the other guys so perhaps there wouldn't quite as many people flying together as there would be with ready rooms ( but ready rooms do force the player more and as such aren't completely transparent - a good or bad thing ?) Saying that the missions themselves would be more organised. Takes the planning away from the players which some won't like (though in return you get more co-ordinated, realistic and varied missions and enemy counter missions) The choice of missions would bring more variety but the rooms will fill up much slower so you could wait much longer for your mission to come round (albeit you can fly in the meanwhile) I don't really think you would save that much time with as players will be early and late returning and the specific players must fill slots not just anyone. The biggest problem would be trying to program it in the game due to it's complexity.
   Summary -  I think both ideas would benefit the arena and would produce slightly different behaviour but with a general trend towards team flying. Which would work better (if at all?) I don't know only through testing and tweaking would you find out certainly both have advantages and disadvantages. I will say Ready rooms which I have suggested are such a simple idea which I am pretty sure could be coded in a day (if full fly enabled else fly disabled) the other ideas - mission planners and lugnets automated systems could be added as evolution's to a simple ready room system to further enhance arena play. All in all I think that's a thumbs up lugnet.

 

[roblex]

What is the advantage of forcing someone to wait 5 minutes when you can just shout out over the radio that you want to put together a strike mission that leaves from a certain field in 5 minutes ?

The sort of person that is willing to wait 5 minutes for a co-ordinated strike will respond to a radio call and sit in the tower while it is put together, the majority will not want to wait.  Maybe you need a looser structure ie the ability to put together a plan and 'Post' it for volunteers. For example :- You go to the mission planning room and start a mission plan called '5 bomber strike with fighter escort'. You specify how many of each plane and post it. When someone enters the tower or ops room whatever, they see a list of Pending Missions and notice that there is a mission about to launch that has 4 out of 5 bombers so he clicks on it to see more detail then clicks on the bomber box and you now have the planes you need and you call for launch. Obviously you have the option to call attention to your mission over the radio and to launch early if you dont think you can get the numbers but the key point is that every non-flying pilot gets to see that you are planning a mission and can look at the details and join in if he wishes. Nobody gets frustrated at being forced to join a mission but everyone gets to see what the choices are and can join or go it alone.