I’ve been thinking more about some of the past experiments I’ve put into Revolution since I started it. There are some very popular features that have been well received:

• UI Enhancer + Albatross AWACS
• Fog of war
• HUD fuel usage and other elements
• RWR
• TV missile HUD enhancements
• HUD waypoints
• Needlefish “Radar”
• Helicopter landings tools/interface

And some extras that are popular:

• Tactical operations
• Carrier Laser VLS
• Resupply+
• Island / Ship name sets

But there are some features that I don’t think get used much, ones that I also tend not to play with much.

• Electronic Warfare
• Strategic bombing

Given that I myself really use either of the above it is worth considering removing them. One earlier optional feature that was part of 1.2/1.3 was crude modeling of RADAR cross sections, I removed this during 1.4 and it was complex and didn’t really make anything more fun or make for a better game. I also removed some early work that modeled aircraft max takeoff weights.

Now that I look back, EW, Strategic bombing, Radar cross sections, max payloads are all ideas that came about because of one reason.

MANTAS

We’re taking about it again and again. We are seeing a pattern a lot in PvP games with experienced crews. Where the team that can build a strike wing of Mantas and give them bombs is almost unstoppable. Or is it really the Manta’s performance and survivability that is the only or biggest issue?

Meta

I can’t myself do a lot about making it easier to defend against manta strikes, Geometa and others are looking at that. But perhaps I can do something to make the “rush to mantas” meta strategy more of a possible option than the only option.

In all of the PvP games I can remember over about the last year, they all start with three important considerations, all related to the random map you start with.

• Where is the aircraft island
• Where is the heavy munitions island
• Where is the nearest enemy

These then flow into a few different kinds of game (I’m especially thinking of this for the 4-team PvP FFA games)

Enemy close	Our air island is far away	Enemy far away
Strike enemy carrier first?	Prevent enemy air island capture?	do PvE to build up
Go defensive?	Rush to nearest air island?	Scout for enemy as soon as able
Go offensive air?		Evade detection
		Send out strike forces

If the enemy is close, you are faced with several choices of how you want to slug it out, any of them is good, they are balanced choices. If the enemy is far away, you get a much more strategic game, you have to hunt down your enemy all while trying to remain hard to find, PvE and economy become important. Often this results in sneaky special operations, attacks on barges, recon scouts, placing of island defences. There is a lot of gameplay on maps where you all have some breathing room and uncertainty.

The proximity of air islands has a huge impact on the kind of game your crew is presented with though. If your crew has significantly easier access to airframes than your nearest enemy, you have a significant advantage that they probably cannot counter.

A while back I created the “Mystery Islands” mod. That hides the island production (and blueprints) until you have scouted each island yourself. I think this would have a big impact on these early pre-launch discussions of teams, not least because you won’t be able to tell what island types are near to your enemy (Or even which island they start at). I think this will help, but there is still the problem that if you are lucky enough to end up near to an air island, you’ll find this out quickly, and then you’ll take advantage of it early too. While you won’t quite know what your opposition has to start with, you’ll be able to fly over to them and find out either quickly with a manta or without worrying about loss of an albatross because you can replace it. I think maybe there needs to be one more element.