Ladies and Gents,
As the objectives are submitted tonight, I thought I'd take a minute to explain some of the various issues that will face us this month, in order to hopefully head off some of the eventual questions.
1) Fuel Burn is 1.5 Yes, I know this will cause gnashing of teeth, especially for the Russians. This map is very condensed, and as a result, distances between fields and objectives will not be more than 75 miles or so. That being said, I intend for fuel planning to be a part of the equation for the CICs. Yes, I know the Germans get drop tanks while the Yak and La-5FN don't.
2) Strange Strats This is an older map, and has not been updated in a while. Easyscor has a gorgeous new version waiting to be assembled for use, but unfortunately, it hasn't been made operational yet; I had hoped it would. Regardless, there are some strats that will be on the map in strange positions, and out of synch with the base ownership scheme. It can't be helped and has been minimized as much as possible. I don't think these strat locations will be in play, but if, for some random chance, they are, CICs should simply be aware that its unintentional, and unavoidable. Try to plan away from them if necessary.
3) Ceiling Almost the entirety of the Eastern Front air war was a tactical, low altitude affair. To reflect this, there will be a strong downdraft at 20,000 feet. Notice that this downdraft is not an invisible barrier and that you can penetrate that altitude, if only for a moment, until the winds drive you back below.
4) Icon Limits Given the condensed nature of the map, we are limited with respect to takeoff fields and objectives. Everything is going to be squeezed a bit, and there will be large numbers of friendlies taking off at each field, and fewer objectives than usual. There is a strong chance that we will be pushing the new limit of 64 active icons being displayed in some instances for all three frames. I usually try and make sure that there's no chance that we have trouble with this, but again, it was tough to design a setup that wasn't going to run this risk. The good news is that there is the potential of some epic, large, running battles involving dozens of planes. I hope this limitation evolves as a positive characteristic, without the frustration that "disappearing" icons can create. Regardless, players be forewarned.
5) Objectives Again, given the geometry of the map, there are some limitations to how the objectives will play. I will have to reuse some objectives depending on their location and time/distance planning. Again, the good part about this is that most of the objectives will be in closer proximity to each other, so that the follow-on furballing should be lively around the middle of the map. CICs, please don't take advantage of this to fabricate "pain train" missions--comply with the one objective, one mission rule.
6) Map The old Hungary map is not available as a download. It will be enabled periodically this coming week as the SEA I arena schedule allows. Please make sure you go grab the map in the SEA during the week if you want to practice before the frame. An updated planning map will be provided to both sides with the frame objectives.
That's about it. Please confine any discussion of the setup to this thread...
Thanks,
Stoney
