- Yes
- No
Every air mode has two problems:
- Bombers are vulnerable and an easy target.
- Interceptors and other planes prefer to go to the center and test their luck.
Thats why we can’t have any interesting mission progression mechanic with ground targets and such, even in Nuclear Thunder we see that most people don’t care about new ground targets mission logic improvements and prefer to go to the center over and over again.
I want to suggest a “bomber cover” mechanic that will economically shape people’s playstyle into a more cooperative one:
-
When you fly within 2 km of a teammate’s bomber you earn bomber cover “points” that are linked to a specific bomber you cover.
-
When a bomber gets a reward for bombing - player that have bomber cover points linked to him get a reward correspondingly to amount of points they have. (A reward for time spent defending a bomber)
-
When you shoot enemy planes, you get an additional reward according to bomber cover points you have. (As if you were defending a bomber from an enemy)
-
When a bomber get destroyed by an enemy - all points linked to him disappear. (You failed bomber cover, so you lose all points that were linked to him)
-
When a bomber crashes without any interference from an enemy - all points linked to him remain intact. (Bomber player can’t ruin your game and spend your time by leaving the vehicle after a bomber run)
-
When an enemy kills a bomber, the enemy get a reward for all points linked to said bomber. (This encourages a hunt for valuable and covered bombers, rather than lone and easy target ones)
-
At the end of the match you get a small reward according to bomber cover points you have (So players are encouraged to defend bombers til the end to make sure they are alive)
What will it improve?
-
Interceptor players will be encouraged to follow and defend ally bomber players rather than going to the center and testing luck in a massive “ffa-battle” there.
-
Bomber players will get a natural cover from teammates to counter enemy “hunters”
-
Enemies will be encouraged to seek valuable covered targets to get their points by destroying them, rather than hunting lone bombers.
-
Bombers could even fly in groups to get bomber cover points, even if they can’t bomb the target together - they will get a reward from each other’s bombing run and defend each other with turrets. There also will be less anti-teammate behaviour at the start of a match when players can’t divide all points to every bomber in the team, as cooperation will be more valuable than trying to bomb everything alone.
What if (Edge cases):
Q: I am an interceptor, I flew around the friendly bomber, but he missed all the ground targets and no enemy was around so I don’t have a defence reward. Am I doomed to get nothing for this match?
A: You will get a small reward for every bomber cover point you have at the end of a match if your teammate lives. You also don’t have to “defend” your teammate for the whole match, if you see that no one is interested in him - you can go defend another player or go hunt enemies, your bomber cover points will be intact and still contribute to your reward for shooting down enemies even if you are not close to your bomber. The only thing is required - the bomber should be alive.
Q: Won’t this encourage bot-behaviour of people flying in groups at the edge of a map?
A: The reward from the points alone, without any enemy shot down or a ground target destroyed, at the end of a match will be pretty small. While also, these kind of groups will be valuable targets for enemy interceptors, because even if they will shoot down only one of them - they will get a big reward for all the points they had linked.
Q: What if players will still choose to fly to the center and die in a ffa fight there?
A: The reward can be fine-tuned, so that it will encourage more players to at least defend their ally bombers a little, get points and fly away to “use them”, shooting enemy planes elsewhere.