Any game could do this. But I'm not aware of any but AH that do.
Neither do I. Not in the sense you mean.
In DCS an lot of Squads will run internal Scenario-lites on a private server kinda like mini-FSO. The will create a MP mission\scenario and all play through it together as a scheduled event.
It's probably a lot easier to herd cats internally in a large squad than opening it up to rando's. It's one of the value added things a squad offers is putting on those internal events.
A lot of people try DCS and think there is no MP activity. There are two main issues.
1. I bet they are not running the latest open beta version. 99.99% of populated servers run the OB. If you aren't running it, you only see a small percentage of the servers that no one goes on.
2. A lot of the activity is private internal squad scenarios. That is just part of their DNA because all the servers are currently player run.
I believe most of what you said DCS has or it can be built with scripting or will eventually be added by ED. There is custom scoring you can setup. I don't know about custom hardness. It think that would be against their high fidelity fetish. They want a given weapon to have the documented effect that it was intended and documented to have. I understand the value but that would probably be theirs view.
I know custom controllable dynamics weather is coming. I don't remember being able to change weather mid mission in AH. That could have interesting uses.
I've worked a good bit over the years with AH arena configs and weather files and the mission editor etc. I have some insight. I don't know there would be any special problems at least doing basic scenarios. AH didn't have everything day one either.
The scripting layer is an order of magnitude more powerful than anything I saw in the AH ME. Most of the simulation engine is exposed to code you can write in Lua. And there are very powerful abstracted frameworks players have built on top of that to give even more powerful flexibility and ease of use. The one I have been learning is called, MOOSE.
https://flightcontrol-master.github.io/MOOSE_DOCS/Documentation/index.htmlThe main problem is the cultural tradition. DCS started as mainly SP focused and has added MP. AH was always MP focused. And Hitech has has 20 or so years head-start on catering to Scenarios. So DCS is still learning about the MP world.
However as DCS is shifting to making MP a first class citizen of their design priorities, I suspect you will start to see them develop those traditions. I believe they have or players could add the support. They will develop the experience of running scenarios of increasing complexity. The squad I'm in already does simple ones.
The two main roadblocks I see are:
1. The cadre of experienced CM's, the tradition of Scenarios that need to be inoculated into their community.
2. The fact there is not concept of player created maps. That one I don't see changing.
Player created maps are a double edged sword. It add flexibility, but it also ends up pretty low resolution and kinda has a blocky look like it was made with legos. DCS maps can't be user created, but are vastly higher resolution and detail. I understand the advantage of the AH approach, but I think that is lost on potential customers. What they see is the terrain doesn't look as nice. That is part of what turns potential players off. I'm not suggesting changing that though.
But AH Scenarios have had to make substitutions on airframes and maps too. So you do what you can with what you got.
I hope as other sims develop Scenario traditions they don't fall into the trap that is can only be an actual historical event and the idea of what-if scenarios are verboten. I think that is unnecessarily limiting and ends up with a set of scenarios that get run over and over and over again over 20 years. I think you should unlock your designers creativity and allow both. I can see a both historical and what-if Scenarios being enjoyable. But that is a YP not a MP.
I would be amazed if CP didn't implement what was necessary to run scenarios. I'll at least be adding my gad-fly suggestions in their discord community as they develop.
But yes, the AH scenarios are currently without equal. I could give a hang if the 3-chess-piece Melee drops dead. But I hope AH is around for years to come mainly as a beacon to show the rest of the combat sim community what Scenarios can be and challenge them to a higher standard.
No matter how much you love AH, it will end someday. All things end. I hate to break it to the fan bois, but Hitech is a mortal human, not a demi-god. If Hitech is a demi-god then certainly his players are mortal and not many new ones are added to make up the lifespan attrition. Someday AH will end.
I hope before that day the DNA of Scenarios have propagated to the rest of the sim world like it did from previous games to Aces High. It is a unique simming experience that shouldn't be lost because one single company disappears. For the same reason it would have been a loss it the tradition had died with Air Warrior.
$0.02 I'm not trying to get in a joystick measuring contest, but just trying to answer your question and explain why I don't think there is a fundamental roadblock to producing some level of structured Scenarios on something with the flexibility of DCS. And I'll be lobbying from day one to add Scenario support as a core design goal from day one to CP.
BTW, Feel free to further express your thoughts, but this is all I have to add to this topic of scenarios in other sims. There is no benefit in me adding more in this forum. I only expanded further because your did and I didn't want to be rude and ignore you. Feel free to PM me sometime if yo want to discuss it further or find me on a neutral forum like Hoggit and we can have a long form discussion. I always enjoy our interaction.
