There was a recent topic regarding Combat Tour a week ago. It would be good to discuss the possibility of bringing some sort of CT directly into the Main Arena.
We have three countries at war with each other, two countries may stay exactly the same as they are now. But the third one may be converted into the Combat Tour country. That means that the people who will join this country will play the game in “Combat Tour” style while the other people from the other countries will play the game in old good “Main Arena” style.
What does Combat Tour (CT) style means?
CT people start each tour with a very limited numbers of available planes / GVs. It will be a very hard and challenging start - For example:
Fighters: P40B
Bombers: D3A1, B5A2
Transport: C47
GVs: LVTs, M3, SdKfz 251, M16, and may be T-34-76
The scoring system should work completely different for those people (in CT country). They should gain points for completing successful missions. So, for example if the mission was to capture the field and the field was captured, the people who participated in this mission and survived got lots of points and the people who died/got captured – got some points. If the mission was not successful the people who survived got nothing and the people who died lost some points. This will make people to play smart if the want to achieve some success.
After several successful missions when the person got enough score points he will be promoted to a new rank and new planes will become available for him to fly.
For example after several successful bombing missions in D3A or B5N the Ju87 becomes available following by SBD, TBM, two-engine bombers, and so on. For the fighter pilot the next planes after P40B could be Hurricane I, Spit I and bf109E, following by A6M2, I-16, Brewster etc. The same story should be with GVs. These planes/GVs “trees” must be thought out well.
You may say it is insane to put so much effort to get just Ju87 while the other people from two other countries can immediately fly B17s, Lancs etc. The people who play CT will be sitting ducks for people from the other two countries who fly the later war planes. I agree that there would not be enough people from current Main Arena, who would like to play CT this way. That is why HTC may consider the way of bringing a new blood: make it possible to the people with free accounts to play CT on Main Arena. From the first look it seems quite unfair that some people will pay to play and some will play for free, but the people who pay will have all the benefits they have now and the people who fly for free will be strictly limited to a few early war planes being always hunted and the only way for them to turn the tables is to stay very well organized. It is not a secret that the huge number of people has already played AH for more or less long time and for some reasons has cancelled their accounts. I suppose many of these people would like to return back if they see changes in gameplay and at least give it a new try even it will be quite challenging setup. A big group of new people would also take a chance to play for free even in handicapped conditions. Probably many people from IL-2 will give it a try, as they used to buy a box game and play for free on small arenas, they may consider to try mass multiplayer for free as well and if they like it may be they will end up subscribing to pay for play accounts. Obviously the more people will give it a try – the more will become pay to play customers eventually. CT will be like a start up platform – after several tours CT people will think they may be better to pay for play and fly whatever they want, becoming a hunters
It will work much better than free H2H (which actually didn’t work well) as H2H people flew whatever they liked and furballed as long as they wanted without a craving to become a subscribed customer just do the same things in MA.
Of course some people will play CT for free for a long time if they find a way to get somewhat success in CT tours playing smart and organized – which would be also a good benefit for Main Arena. The more populated and organized the Main Arena is – the more action, targets an fun for everybody.
CT would be better than RPS (rolling plane set) which was introduced in WarBirds quite ago. RPS means that day after day “historical” time moves slowly and new planes become available in particular time, though you can not accelerate this process and you do not need to put any efforts to get new planes just to wait until they become available. This conception doesn't make a lot of sense in MA and quickly becomes boring. CT means the better you try – the better and quicker results you get. Everything depends on you and your teammates.
The early war/middle war planes will become a main weapon for CT people (especially in the beginning of CT tour). These birds will never be a hangar queens anymore in MA. Modelling of the new early war planes will be highly appreciated.
CT will not be a “historical” tour, but Main Arena has never been a historical place for WWII flight simulation. To be able to play historical missions in Special Events arenas CT people who play with free accounts will have to subscribe and become a pay to play customers.
