Historical sandbox maps (free roam)

[Foe_Hammer]

This is a thread discussing the idea of adding free roam maps that are loosely based off of major historical conflicts.
It would essentially be a test map where players choose whatever vehicles or aircraft they want and use against A.I in a historical setting. The A.I would respawn the same way they do in test maps and engage the player and friendly A.I. The A.I units would be based off of vehicles that saw heavy used during each conflict. No rewards should be rewarded to players. The map would simply be a new way for players to test their vehicles. A few examples:

Soviet-Afghan war
Location: Afghanistan (already in game)
Enemies:

Spoiler

Technicals
Captured armored vehicles
Infantry with stinger MANDPADS, RPGS, and machine guns

Images:

Spoiler

Falklands war
Location: Falkland Islands (already in game)
Enemies:

Spoiler

Panhard AML (armored car)
LVTP-7 (APC)
Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard (strike aircraft)
A-4 Skyhawk (Attacker)
Mirage III (Fighter)
ARA 25 de Mayo (carrier)
Canberra PR.9 (bomber)
Infantry with MANPADS, machine guns recoilless rifles, and unguided anti-tank weapons.

Images:

Spoiler

U.S war in Vietnam
Location: Vietnam (Already in game)
Enemies:

Spoiler

Ilyushin Il-28 (bomber)
Mig-21s (fighter)
Mig-19 (fighter)
PT-76 (Light amphibious tank)
Type-59 (MBT)
BTR-60 (IFV)
Flak AA
Soviet SAMs
Infantry with Strela MAPADS, 9M14 Malyutka ATGMS, machine guns, and RPP-2/7s

Images:

Spoiler

U.S-Iraq war
Location: Kuwait
Images:

Spoiler

Enemies:

Spoiler

Soviet T series tanks (T-55 - T-72) (MBT)
Various BTRs) (IFV)
BMP-1/2 (APCs)
Mig-23 (fighter)
SU-24 (Strike aircraft)
Mirage F-1(fighter)
Soviet SPAA and SAMs
Flak AA
Infantry with MANPADS, guided ATGMs, machine guns, and recoilless rifles

Bonus:

• If it were multiplayer like custom battles
• Scripted enemy helicopters that fly to and from locations

Are there any other maps you would like to see? Do you think a sandbox map would be fun?

[LeChance]

While I can see where these ideas could be fun and entertaining(to some, but maybe not all)
there would seem to be some basic drawbacks that would most likely hold back this type of development.

First of all, this sounds very much like what players were wanting/hoping for with the early announcement of WWM. Larger, open world type maps for more “realistic” campaigns
and territorial acquisition. Pretty much what all military conflicts have been based on
throughout history.

Things to consider:
Larger maps require a lot more assets, infrastructure and server demands.
Can the game even handle these types of things and still perform well enough to make
these types of battles even work? (I have no idea, but it would seem to be a concern)

How many players are we talking about?? 64+ or what?
Having a lot of players on such large maps would seem to be required, otherwise
everyone would be spending the majority of their time just moving around trying to
locate something to shoot at.
The more modern vehicles that can cover more ground in a lot less time, perhaps
not so much of an issue, but . . . for the older slower vehicles, this will be problematic.
And might even make the use of a great portion of the game’s vehicles just not feasible
in these scenarios.

And then you come down to how do the players “get paid”??
For much longer matches as these would surely be(don’t call me Shirley) it would
be very difficult to “compensate” players properly for their time and effort.

Example: The use of boosters in some Sim battles, set on a timer
That all would need to be worked out as well.

And in the end, one last thing to think about . . . how will Gaijin “profit” from all this.
They will need to generate revenue somehow, and taking large numbers of players out
of the Random Battles queue could lengthen wait times for all that, which is not
something Gaijin wants at all.

I am not trying to be a “naysayer” or contrarian, just being pragmatic.
Many things to consider and points of view to look at things from.

I have often thought large scale battles of this type might work for a “weekend” thing,
similar to how Naval EC is done. And even charging a small GE sum to enter as a possible
way to “finance” the whole thing might work too. Say pay 25 - 50 GEs for a “24 hour”
pass/ticket, 100 - 150 for the entire weekend maybe. Give players options so
they can participate according to their real life schedules.

So . . . can Gaijin even make something like this work?
Will it be worth the time and effort required for Gaijin to develop something like this?
Even if you can get a yes to those two questions there is one more . .
Can you get enough players to play(and prolly pay) to make it work without
adversely effecting the regular game play queues?

For now, we have Infantry going thru this very process it seems . .
I guess we should see how this goes and try to kick up more interest in what you are proposing.

Variety is a good thing, adding more to WT would also seem to be a good thing.
Even if it is a little “tricky” . . … might be worthwhile in the long run
At any rate, it will take time . . .

Good Luck

[Foe_Hammer]

The matchmaking wouldn’t be too much of an issue. It’s not a competitive setting. It’s more of an option for tests maps that allows players to mess around an LARP in a historical setting. It doesn’t need a dedicated server and wouldn’t suffer from queue times and server demands. Player count wouldn’t matter but would be set by the person who created the “match” and be capped at a reasonable number. The map sized wouldn’t be any larger than the test maps or air maps we have now. The ground battles would be akin to what we already see in air sim battles. They are static and just exchange fire. A lot of the assets required are already present in the game with the exception of technical trucks (just attach a gun to one of the prop trucks from ground maps), infantry, and the Kuwait map. Ground vehicles would spawn closer to ground combat to compensate for the distance that ground vehicles have to cover. As for profit, it wouldn’t provide much. Maybe players would grind more so they could use their favorite vehicles in the appropriate setting. A-10s in Iraq, Hueys and cobras in Vietnam, or Harriers in the Falklands for example. It would be more of a QoL thing than something for profit and it wouldn’t take much effort.