Originally Posted by SNAFU
Well, Life is always a trade-off and so is playing this game. But in my opinion, the focus of the development should lie on the sandbox and the tools, enabling the community to provide the needs of the players - singleplayer and multiplayer. And with the new system, in which AI controlled aircrafts are more or less the backbone of the theatre, the issues to be worked out, are easy to find. Therefore I would not sperate MP here - SP there, I would focus on the common intersection of both elements.
In 1946 there were little chances to experience tactical engagements of player groups, acting as a team as you would guess a wing or "staffel" would have done in real. Those experience were mostly restricted to coop-online-wars like AFW, VOW, SEOW and the like. AI was an integral part of this immersion, simply because you cannot fill a server with enough minded players. But that was also the setback of the system. You had to wait for the players to join and get ready and if you only have one hour sparetime to play, you don´t want to spent this hour in the lobby, waiting for the ranks to fill. Now, we have the possibility to fill a map, with randomly happening missions and I believe and I am going to test, if it is possible to build a map and missions in a way, that the lone wolf pilot, taking off to shoot something will not find his satisfaction on that server. I am gathering information at the moment, to rebuilt the english channel outfit of german and british airfields, with the correct squadrons and airplanes for time frames I set to monthes as a trade-off. So there is a map for May, June, July, August and September, on which the palyers can only take off from airfields with the plane of the squadron which was actually operating from this airfield in that time frame. I found out that it is not easy to get accurate data for the planes which were flown at the accurate time, but as I said, there must be trade offs. One problem which I am facing is, that acutally bomber airfields are not even available on the current map. The next step would be to design realistic submissions for this maps, which reflect the everyday life of a fighter/bomber pilot that days in the given constrains. And so AI is here again the backbone of the happening. The goal is to provide a server, which enables virtual squads to operate and train in a surrounding, in which flights have to be planned, lead and navigated as closly as possible to what is necessary to give the best immersion into the time simulated. Due to the wide spread theatre, the long flight times and the nature of the missions. it should be unlikely to meet a lone wolf player just looking for the next trigger action. This is what I and my squadmates are aiming at and want to realize some day. I expect such a server design to lead to a rather rarely visited server, but our main focus will lie on the chance for virtual squads to have a ground for organized flights and training with or against other virtual squads, without having to wait for coops to fill.
I also like the airquake severs for some occasionally fun-action, but I simply missed in 1946 a FR server, orientating on historically circumstances on which groups could experience an inch of immersion without having to build a coop mission, and now we have the chance to integrate coop-like missions into a server with randomized enviromental hazards, which is great and just needs to be optimized. The rest, dynamic, static campaigns for SP, Career mode etc. can be provided by the community I am sure, the developer should focus and the frame work, tools and stability.
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