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Just my 352 cents............
I read with interest zinhawk and pappys nicely done and well thought out suggestions and meeting reports. Very nice.
Having been there and done that is both wonderful and terrible, one is either jaded or believes old data is still relevant or that you know things that you may not (speaking of me here).
Like computing these things tend to show/cause what I would call bottlenecks. Prime example would be that RAM used to be a bottleneck, then the hard drive was, then the SSD showed the interface was, then the interface is now 3 times faster and the SSD is becoming a bottleneck again.
In this case when one looks at it and starts to do good, then things like scoring or rank or TODs become the bottleneck. And, having been there and done that and seen it blow away like dust (specifically, scoring and rank etc) one would believe that keeping things as stupid simple as possible is the way......... for now.
Equate (not exact) the arena to an S3 "Like" state. (One would not want exact as it will be just another S3 all the time, so no surprises in THE S3. --I like surprises-- Planes should be available, one should understand the benefits of doing an S3 ride against vastly superior aircraft for long periods, etc etc)
No passwords. (this is not the S3)
No Rank restrictions. (do we do this in S3?) (besides if/when time comes this has been covered over and over and good ideas are already out there for rank changes and restrictions, just NOT NOW)
All Guns/Cannons everywhere the same. Bombs and hardness are a different matter as history has shown. (otherwise I will test and still know that at D1 all weapons work...
, nothing different I just stick it in your eye and pull the trigger)
Its an arena. Its for practice. Just BETTER practice. NOT specific practice, it is too non-inclusive of pilots who want to up their game. More difficult practice tends to not be attractive to poor actors. Be inclusive but know that the general poor actors will find their kind of "fun" difficult to produce in such a place.
Basically the idea should be to create as we go, too much thought and restrictions etc etc have tended in the past to destroy or bore to death from within (mostly showing itself in the persons most involved quitting or disappearing in a black hole somewhere never to be seen again.................you guys have no idea how special the current "Kill myself for no pay and get crap and rotten eggs thrown at my head for it" team is.............. it is near miraculous)
(and while I'm speaking miracles , how the heck does Jabo, Roan, Pheonix do it? it is still good, fresh, pretty tasty, they probably know more about hard work no pay bad fruit thrown at ya than anyone I know)
So really what I am saying (and currently seeing) with the 4th just saying "hey we are going to be here" is that I have had more fun and enjoyment already........ just because of the company that is there. The natural in state restrictions in the arena do much of the rest. As always numbers (targets) are the first requirement.The the company is very good.
Random thoughts with 352 cents
Juice