S3 Series

Sunday Night June 21 8:30 EST

WarBirds is pleased and proud to announce the unveiling of a new gameplay format and score system to be run this Sunday!

Main arena settings with an automated ground war routine being run along with a new score system for a full load test by the community.

Event will run for 3 hours Sunday night.

=================
Here is how this Test Event will run!

Gameplay settings will be exactly the same as Main arena settings in airplane and vehicle use, radars, icon ranges etc.
The General will be running a routine that will respond to player’s attacks on airfields/towns/villages by spawning an automatic ground defense, maybe an automatic air defense AND automated random airstrike routines.
A player, or group of players can attack a field in the usual way, with airplanes bombing, strafing objects at a field. When ack positions go down the general will spawn a defensive antiaircraft routine consisting of SDK’s.
When all objects are down the field becomes “contestable” but it is not closed.
At that time the general will begin a forward deployment from nearest friendly field for GV’s to deploy within 1 to 2 miles from the field being attacked at random points.
The enemy can still spawn at his field.
Aircraft attacks, SDK’s are spawned for defense,
In the case of GV attacks on the field, a tank routine for field defense will be run by the General.
The next step for attackers is to kill the enemy defensive vehicles
When this is accomplished, the field becomes “contested” and is closed, but capturable by EITHER side.
At that time, the General will begin a forward deployment from nearest enemy field for opposing players to forward deploy in their GV’s to defend/recapture their field.
If NO players elect to attempt capture of the field, the general begins its own capture/recapture routines and chance then dictates who gets the field.
A player may influence this outcome by strafing/killing the enemies M5’s attempting capture, allowing his own sides routine to be successful.
None of this happens however, until a player initiates an attack on a field, responses are automatic after that and are all player generated based on player actions.
This is meant to be a full load player test of a beta gameplay system. Bugs noted etc. and posted on the forum for later dissection/discussion.

We welcome all of you to take part in this Sunday Event

It will be VERY busy and quite fun!

Salute!

SPINDZ and the CM Team

The above message is supposed to be going out in a mass e-mail.
If I may, I will attempt to elucidate a bit further on the above development as well as to another.
Sunday will be a full load test of the system which will reveal much. This feature can/will mean much to MA play but also has some very interesting concepts that may be very beneficial to s3 play.
There are many scenerio's played out in s3's that center around a major battle such as the Battle of the Bulge, Kursk, North Africa/Tobruk etc in which major ground battles are taking place. This last series in Sicily was one also.
Imagine if you can, a series like this where the ground battle does indeed run all by itself, with no humans but is influenced by air assets. the General does the field captures, some chance occurs of course if left alone but the ground war can be supported from the air in ground strikers killing capture routines from the enemy and supporting their own sides capture routines. At the end of the frame the field setup for the next frame is already set and results of the ground war are immediately apparent by end of frame. Of course this only applies to tactical series that we run, and may have little to do with strategic series that we run such as long buff runs to Berlin etc.
There are variables that can be programmed into these files that the general runs, such as, how well the drones shoot at enemy fliers, the number of drones that spawn as defense, the type of drones that spawn, the range between fields that attacks occur, the time they take to capture a field, the time they take between spawn/respawn and the distance away from field that they spawn.
Sunday night is designed to be a test of this system only and plans are to utilize this system in a couple of fun summer break frames scheduled fro July/august.
Another feature that we are hoping to test is what we call the m4 interface which can be incorporated into the same arena that fliers are using the regular Wb interface, however the m4 interface would allow humans to join the ground war if they wish ( or rather if Jabo wishes it) but also by adding buffs to the m4 interface vehicle availability the number of drones can be controlled ( up to 3 drones allowed) but the major feature in this is that the type of drone you take ( in buff or tank) can be varied, along with its individual bomblodout and while in flight, the human may transfer command of his vehicle/buff from drone to drone. What this means is that if your own airplane suffers great damage, the pilot may transfer himself to a undamaged drone and continue on the mission. This means that you still only get one life, but 1 or 2 or 3 airplanes...or tanks if we do human manned ground war things. My first thought is that this may be able to breath some new life into the buffing community. many other possibilities also present themselves and hopefully we can spend this summer testing these concepts out.
To explore them on your own.......You may test the ground War by itself in the Main Combined Arms PTO map.
YOu may test the m4 interface in the Combined Arms Ardennes map. There are several players already familiar with the setup, but I offer myself to any individual or squad to teach/train you in its use.
Been sharing these concepts etc with Juans donkey and we both are excited by the possibilities and looking forward to trying some of them out in tests such as we are doing Sunday Night.
Again, to repeat, we testing the ground War feature only this sunday with Reg Wb interface. Next test I hope to try the m4 interface for buffs.
thank you all for your time.
<S>

Sixteen Seasons was a terrific run! <S> to our Janitors.

Holy AI routines!

I hope the general is up to the task.

<S> to SPINDZ and the CM Team

wow... youre not giving any one a choice... eiter fly this event or dont fly at all... you cannot select any other arena ?

Felt the same way about my green beans I didn't want to eat as a child.
Really wanted full participation in this ground breaking test.
Thanks to all for participating...we learned a lot and so did many of the players.
<S>

Well worth the effort vslp and all others connected to this.
I felt it went surprisingly well overall. Interesting what can actually be done with the game.
<S>