Official Fulqrum Publishing forum - Give me some "holy sh... did that just happen" ideas

Some good suggestions from people. Although I've noticed there has been not further indication that any of this has been noted by the devs. :(

I've been thinking about different roles that a player could have in online and offline play. It sometimes seems that Maddox Games does not think very deeply about other objectives beyond pew-pew/bang-crump. Hopefully this is a false impression though!

Below is how I hope a different type of objective might play out:

Art/Obs in SoW

May 1940, Somewhere (online) in France...

You log into a game and see that a mission is well under way. Ignoring the usual choices of fighter and bombers, you choose a Storch to fly from a forward airfield. Today you will be spotting for the Feldartillerie...

Artillery Observation is one of the most lucrative roles in SoW online play, but also one of the most risky. The number of points earned from directing a successful barrage can be astronomical. However it requires the player to loiter in a known area for extended periods, inviting attack from opposing flights. Other players are merciless when they find an observation plane in the combat area, and will stop at nothing to bring them down. Their points for destroying you are higher than average. Likewise, your points deducted for being brought down are also well above the norm.

As you pass over the artillery position, you can see that only one out of the six guns are firing. Good! Those are just ranging shots. It means that this battery hasn't been directed onto target yet.

Circling the guns, you hit the Tab key and open the text menu in a way very similar to the old Il-2. There are new options in there and special categories dedicated to different roles and mission objectives. The Tab key, 1 then 8 and you are in the Mission Selection sub-category. The defaults are simple fighter & bomber roles, with others such as recon, nightfighter etc. to choose from. You select option #5 - Artillery Observation. At once the HUD menu text turns from blue to black, signifying the change of role. The Tab menu now features mission specific options that allow you to direct the artillery onto their target. Doing this in proximity to this particular artillery unit will bind your commands to it. Other players will be doing likewise with other positions along the front line.

Some time later and you arrive over the designated target - a railway marshalling yard packed with rolling stock. You come in for a close look, but bank away almost immediately as a spray of light AAA is directed towards you. The place seems unharmed. Indeed, you can see the ranging shots from the artillery gun sending up huge clods of earth near a canal almost a mile to the east. Keeping just out of range and throttling back to conserve your engine (you may need every ounce of power later on) you get to work....

The trick is to orientate yourself in relation to the artillery battery and the target. Then to feed corrections to the gun and "walk" the ranging shots onto the target. Once this is done, you can call on the whole battery to bring down the Ten Minutes of Hate that will annihilate it.

Sounds simple? Trouble is, the artillery isn't perfectly accurate. You need to give an incremental correction (via the Tab menu) and wait to observe a few shots to deduce the average result. Once done, you can move the fire further up/down/left/right in the manner of a grid. Don't try to move it too far at once though, or the fire can wander way off the mark. Patience is the key, but it's not easy when you also need to keep out of range of the defences, watch for enemy fighters and avoid collecting a tree in the face.

Several minutes later and you are still working hard. You've walked the shells in a wavering line right into the fields just behind the rail yard. One more correction should do it...

Amazing you haven't been intercepted yet. Respawning players must have seen your position marked on the situation map (another first for SoW). Even now, there must be several enemy fighters speeding for your position. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you get "that feeling".
You've worn out you welcome here and your luck won't last much longer.

The next shell lands on the station house, carrying away a corner of the wall and a section of roof. A second shell lands on the tracks between two goods wagons. That's it! You've got them now. Hitting the Tab key again, you put in the commands to call down the fire from the entire battery.

There are three little specks approaching low on the horizon. As you turn away and make a run for home, the entire marshalling yard seems to rise into the air. A stream of Target Destroyed messages are scrolling down the right hand side of the screen. A good job. If you can get back to base safely, you'll make a real killing today...