Two scales of play for Squadron-based play

[Ludomeister]

Here's an idea I've been mulling around. One of the things I like about the old Achtung Spitfire and Over the Reich was that there were two scales of play: operational and tactical. The operational map was very simplistic - just a single plane moving over a pre-plotted line that simulated the out and back course of a squadron's flight route. From time to time you'd spot enemy planes; sometimes they spotted you first. Based on DRM's hidden in the game engine (but available for all to see who also bought the boardgames you would end up either jumping the enemy, getting jumped yourself, or sometimes you'd be in a fairly neutral position. If you had the superior position you'd be given the option to attack the enemy or just keep flying on. If you got jumped the enemy would be *right behind your butt* and you were in for a sling full of lead.

Update to the new DiF: for Squadron based play you'd have all your guys in the Squadron online, as would the opposing side. You'd be given a pre-flight map showing the course you were to follow for the day's patrol. Following acceptance you'd see a graphic (updated to today's standard) of a map of war-torn Europe with the plot lines drawn on it. Plane sprites would be flying the route and the same sorts of DRM's would take place when two squadrons converged. But of course when the play went into the tactical mode you'd be playing DiF.

This would allow something I'd really like to see implemented in this game: true multiplayer capability. So far the online game has mimiced the card game fairly consistently. But when I play an online game I want it to be truly multiplayer: not just one on one! The proposal I offer would help move the game engine in that direction.

Finally, I also like the various proposals to further differentiate the planes in the game (the attempt to model cannons, for example). This was something that the card game could only take so far before it got bogged down in too much detail. But the computer game can handle this sort of thing quite nicely.

Okay, <soapbox> off </soapbox>

Ludo

[Guest Mike]

Have a heart for the guys who have to code it - they've also got to get paid for their efforts somehow!!

[bartbert]

We have had internal discussions about how we could put the player pilots into a larger campaign context that is somewhat similar to what Ludo proposed.

The general idea was that there would be some campaign, such as the Battle of Britain, that would run for perhaps a couple of weeks.

During that period, the system would randomly generate missions appropriate to the campaign, and players who were currently logged into the Lobby might see a system generated message show up in the chat window such as, "Incoming German bombers targeting London factories! Scramble two fighter squadrons!"

Players could then choose to join this system generated mission with either German or British pilots. The aircraft would be pre-determined, and the pilots might have to meet certain conditions (we haven't really thought this through completely).

The mission would be resolved one way or the other. Either by the players who joined the game, or if nobody joined the game, then the AI would play both sides and determine a victor. Then some kind of campaign map would be updated to indicate the progress of the campaign based on the outcome of each battle.

After a certain time period, or maybe after a certain number of battles, the campaign would end, and victory would be declared based on points, or targets destroyed, or something. Then a new campaign would start up.

You guys will definitely be seeing the enhancement for differentiating aircraft based on armament before too long. Dan feels that it still needs more testing at this point to make sure we haven't thrown the balance way out of whack, but it's getting there.

[Sixxkiller]

Ludo,

Excellent post.