Wars in ED have a disease: they're bland and boring. They lack context. They lack involvement. They lack excitement. There is no victory, there is no defeat. Just an endless, self-respawining battle for nothing, in the middle of nowhere, where one can arrive, choose the red shirts of the blue shirts like a sunday neighbourhood soccer match, and off you go farm some bonds, until you fall asleep or run out of ammo.... zzzzzzzz rroooOOONC!
But I'm not here to rant, I'm here to suggest. This is how I imagine a war even I who care very little for combat in its current form would be glad to take part.
You arrive at a system at war, and land at a station. There is a UI section, like the mission board or the passenger lounge, called "War Room". You sign up as a mercenary for a faction at war. You can abandon the war if you want, but you cannot change sides in that specific war until it ends. After signing up as a merc, in the War Room a plethora of war missions becomes available, each with a military objective to be accomplished (or not). Those could assume 2 main forms:
1 - Military Targets. Attack and destroy enemy ground installations like starports, factories, depots, warehouses, SRV convoys, headquarters, army bases, industrial facilities, etc, or space based targets like enemy outposts, ship convoys, large battleships, etc. Those military objectives can be protected by AA guns, missiles, ships, etc. No need to have those facilities be persistent, just spawn them for the mission like any other mission / USS etc.
2 - All the things in (1), but on the defending side. Protect installations / bases / starports / factories / convoys / etc from enemy attacks and avoid their destruction.
Bonus: other forms of non-combat war gameplay can be made available, like supply drops, troop transport and deployement, emergency evac, etc etc. Also, taking part in wars will give massive rep boost to your faction (and rank boost to the faction associated superpower if any), while massively reducing your rep with the enemy faction (and rank with its associated superpower if any).
I want to descent into a planet, fly 50 meters from the ground, appear from behind a mountain at full speed and rain hell on some heavily defended enemy installation, with AA gun shells exploding around me. Watch enemy ships trying to take off while my wingmates bomb them, get hit by flak, watch wingmen get hit by missiles, turning into a stream of high speed smoke and crash into the ground. Fly away on a limping ship back to base, with buildings collapsing in flames behind me.
Having NPC wingmen would be paramount to make it feel like a military mission / bombing run, etc. If human wingmen could also join even better.
I could do most of this stuff and more (including wingmen, some even with interaction and order) on my Commodore Amiga twenty five years ago in several sims like Wing Commander, Gunship 2000, Knights of the Sky, F15 Strike Eagle, Combat Air Patrol, Birds of Prey, and many more. There is no excuse whatsoever to not be able to do something like this in 2017.
But I'm not here to rant, I'm here to suggest. This is how I imagine a war even I who care very little for combat in its current form would be glad to take part.
You arrive at a system at war, and land at a station. There is a UI section, like the mission board or the passenger lounge, called "War Room". You sign up as a mercenary for a faction at war. You can abandon the war if you want, but you cannot change sides in that specific war until it ends. After signing up as a merc, in the War Room a plethora of war missions becomes available, each with a military objective to be accomplished (or not). Those could assume 2 main forms:
1 - Military Targets. Attack and destroy enemy ground installations like starports, factories, depots, warehouses, SRV convoys, headquarters, army bases, industrial facilities, etc, or space based targets like enemy outposts, ship convoys, large battleships, etc. Those military objectives can be protected by AA guns, missiles, ships, etc. No need to have those facilities be persistent, just spawn them for the mission like any other mission / USS etc.
2 - All the things in (1), but on the defending side. Protect installations / bases / starports / factories / convoys / etc from enemy attacks and avoid their destruction.
Bonus: other forms of non-combat war gameplay can be made available, like supply drops, troop transport and deployement, emergency evac, etc etc. Also, taking part in wars will give massive rep boost to your faction (and rank boost to the faction associated superpower if any), while massively reducing your rep with the enemy faction (and rank with its associated superpower if any).
I want to descent into a planet, fly 50 meters from the ground, appear from behind a mountain at full speed and rain hell on some heavily defended enemy installation, with AA gun shells exploding around me. Watch enemy ships trying to take off while my wingmates bomb them, get hit by flak, watch wingmen get hit by missiles, turning into a stream of high speed smoke and crash into the ground. Fly away on a limping ship back to base, with buildings collapsing in flames behind me.
Having NPC wingmen would be paramount to make it feel like a military mission / bombing run, etc. If human wingmen could also join even better.
I could do most of this stuff and more (including wingmen, some even with interaction and order) on my Commodore Amiga twenty five years ago in several sims like Wing Commander, Gunship 2000, Knights of the Sky, F15 Strike Eagle, Combat Air Patrol, Birds of Prey, and many more. There is no excuse whatsoever to not be able to do something like this in 2017.
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