Message text (I'll post that both on Forum and ML)
An issue about careers (and campaigns).
Good ideas happen in the shower, i'll tell you. 
Please note that by "career" I mean the experience advancement, with all skill gain etc., of pilots, while by "campaign" I mean streaks of games played by the same pilots, whit deaths, new models introductione and careers taking effect during the campaign.
One big problem about careers and campaigns is syncronization with the overall activity of the player. IOW, if I'm playing game #G, and I'm shot down, score kills, score points, wich effects I have on my other present or future games?
Another one is accumulation: if I keep piling up experience points (XP from now on), when will my total be reset to zero if I get killed? In the very moment it happens or at the end of the game in wich it happens?
And, last but not least, if I play in games G and H, and something happens in game G (either a death or a new skill), will I change halfway through also in game H? Unlikely, but how will I otherwise keep track of all my different status in all my different games?
Solution #1: give skills to _aircrafts_ instead of _pilots_.
OOP speaking, XP total and skills are properties of a pilot. But, as we saw, pilots can change indipendently of the games they're in, because of other parallel games. But aircrafts don't.
So, when I join a game I give my aircraft (AC from now on) my skills, and it will be coeherent with its starting status indipendently of what happens to me in other games. As there's a record for each different AC in each different game, we already have where to put different "pilots" in different games, non need to touch the "real" pilot record.
There's another side advantage with this solution. There can be scenarios with preset skills. E.g. the famous "Snipe hunt" or "Voss last flight" can be setup with the lonely AC charged with skills, and the other ones (almost) bare of. More realistic, accurate and... fun! (I have a dream: a 9 vs. 1 scenario. "Roland at Roncisval", if you please.). Or skills can be used to make unbalanced scenarios more fair.
So far to keep track of a pilot's "parallel lives", but what about the total kills and XP?
Solution #2: use a kill/XP _ratio_ instead of a total.
Normally, a pilot builds up kills and XP until he's shot down, at wich point his scores are reset to 0 and he has to start again from scratch. Nothing wrong with it, except that I can meet, say, Falconfab on game G as a Ubermensch of many skills, and on game H as a greenhorn unable to tail. A little schizo-paranoid, IMVHO. 
Another drawback is that the system needs to keep track for every single pilot not only of kills and deaths, but also of kills-from-last-death. Talking about concurrent access to the record by different games (even at "game over" only), sounds messy, doesn't it?
Now, let's immagine that the kills total of a pilot is calculated from is kills/death ratio instead. E.g. Gugliandalf has right now 128 kills and 41 deaths, for a ratio of 3.12. Let's then say that my score is 3 kills and 3.12 * 25 = 78 XP. The XP total depends also on turns flown, but more on this later. So far, I'm just an experienced pilot without any skill. (BTW, let's say that 0 deaths is computed as 1 death, no "divide by 0" errors ).
Now take the total of games _played_ and divide it again by the total of deaths. Our friend Gugliandalf has 332 games under his belt, that would make 332 / 41 = 8.09. Now let's say that an average game counts 12 moves (it's probably a wrong guess, but let's take it for good as it nicely is half a kill score), that would give me 8.09 * 12 = 97 XP, for a grand total of 175 XP.
So, at the end, Gugliandalf has 3 kills, 175 XP and one skill of his choice. Not an ace, but not to be taken too easily too.
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Q: Wich skill does he have?
A: That's an interesting point. It seems to me that there are three ways to handle the topic:
1. wichever he chooses when he gets the score. That would be the most immediate solution, but there are two drawbacks: the need to keep track of the skill chosen (remember solution #1?), and that some skills are useless on some aircraft (e.g. "Maneuver" is almost useless on a Fokker Dr.1, while "Stability" is useless on a S.E.5a, and both are on a Snipe); that would almost lead to pilots choosing the same "all-purpose" abilities each time. I foresight a lot of "Die roll" abilities... 
2. wichever he chooses when he joins a game. This solves the problem of keeping tracks of skills in the pilot record. OTOH it complicates the game joining routine.  It's also the most desiderable from the pilot's POW.
3. a random different one every time he joins a game. It may seem odd at first, but IMO this is the more nice (and fun) option. You can get "cheated" in getting "Stability" with a Fokker D.VII, but it gives the most uncertainity about who are you facing. In "weighted" scenarios (in wich you give skills to one side to balance AC drawbacks) it solves the problem of "wich" skill.
The real difference, after all, is between "Here's Gugliandalf: he's got Deflection" (#1), "Here's Gugliandalf: with the Dr.1 he usually chooses Stability" (#2) and "Here's Gugliandalf: wich skill(s) will he ave in this particular game?" (#3). YMMV, but I like #3 the best. And also: when Gugliandalf, on a loosing streak, _drops_ a skill, wich one will he drop? The problem arises only with #1.
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Q: But that makes XP advancing very very slow, and becoming an ace almost impossible!
A: What's wrong with it? It is also more realistic, IMHO. OTOH, there could be a "reset" option, so one can choose to start again from scratch, hoping for better luck next time. (BTW, it can be already done by creating a new login).
OTOH, I think that it would create a "virtuose loop", making easier to rise the higher (and better) you are.
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Q: What about newbies? Without enemy tailing and restricted they'll never get to experienced.
A: I wouldn't be sure about it, but two solutions would be:
1. Make carrers/skills an option, e.g. only for "advanced" games.
2. State that until your 5th (or 10th or whatever) game you're always at 50 XP.
OTOH, it has two very good effects on newbies training:
1. They have to prefer N-vs-N games instead of 1-vs-1 (unless the other one is also a newbie). That would minimize newbie bashing. And also...
2. they have to learn teamwork and squadron tactics, to look at teammates's tails and to take it in to account. >
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All in all, the most important factor is that pilot experience and skills can be calculated on the spot, without need to record, and are handled nicely and indipendently on every single game.
I threw the gauntlet, now Sirs (and Webmasters), it's up to you to take the challenge.
Have fun
--
Gugliandalf
"It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase." |
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