Too Many Planes?

[Stephen]

Andrew mentioned that there are already too many planes in the game and I agree in principle, although I would state it differently... we don't have too many airplanes, we have to many airplane CATEGORIES.

A wide variety of airplanes is, IMHO, great fun. But when you have a pilot on your roster that has no hope of flying another random mission for five years then its really a waste of time. The a/c categories need to be broadened to include more airplanes per pilot personality, then we wouldn't have to dread flying aircraft in the knowledge that its a "wasted" mission and our pilot will never achieve anything.

My suggestion is MORE airplanes, FEWER airplane categories/groupings.

[albpilot]

You know, ever since I started I've used a grouping system someone (Bart maybe?) gave me that allows a pilot in mulitple planes. I have kept it to be consistant, and it's really not that bad when you look at the groupings. There is some oddball stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else, like French seaplane fighter group, but overall most every pilot I have can fly different platforms.

[AP]

OK yeah i agree the number of planes is OK but its the pilots that need to be groupped. Since there are so many new players in MN we have given them the option to just fly 'nationality' pilots for the first six missions, that way they can build a pilot and be a bit more competitive with the veterans. There will definately need to be better/more groupings in the new edition! Add that to the list

[Stephen]

That's not really a bad idea (six nationality missions for rookies). Sometimes I feel like we forget the younger players and we do so at the risk of the game. That's also why I've always supported giving out the Iron Cross II Class for scoring one kill or suriving five missions, or something like that. Its no big deal to we who have been gaming for decades, but to a new player its a good thing and an accomplishment.

I think we have TOO MANY a/c groupings as it is. I believe we need fewer a/c groupings and larger a/c groupings to allow pilots to fly a wider variety of planes. I don't advocate allowing a pilot to fly twenty different planes or anything, but some of the real oddball once-in-a-lifetime airplanes should be combined into a single grouping so that the pilot has a chance to progress and actually fly again some day.

[Stephen]

BTW, I think it was Aristotle who said "Do or do not; there is no try."

[albpilot]

admin said:

That's not really a bad idea (six nationality missions for rookies). Sometimes I feel like we forget the younger players and we do so at the risk of the game. That's also why I've always supported giving out the Iron Cross II Class for scoring one kill or suriving five missions, or something like that. Its no big deal to we who have been gaming for decades, but to a new player its a good thing and an accomplishment.

I think we have TOO MANY a/c groupings as it is. I believe we need fewer a/c groupings and larger a/c groupings to allow pilots to fly a wider variety of planes. I don't advocate allowing a pilot to fly twenty different planes or anything, but some of the real oddball once-in-a-lifetime airplanes should be combined into a single grouping so that the pilot has a chance to progress and actually fly again some day.

Then you may want to look again at the groupings I use. There are, for example, on the German side:

7 groupings for pilots in fighters. That's it. It covers every single fighter I've ever seen mentioned in 6 years of playing. With just 7 fighter pilots I could fly every German fighter in the game. That seems to fit what you've just described.

[KevinR]

Rick if you would be so kind as to email this pilot grouping you use to me I would greatly appreciate it. I may use it.

[albpilot]

I'll try to email that to you this weekend Kevin.