Comprendre le Random Server 72 AG

COMRADES!


We are happy to present our new mutual 72nd AirGroup's and -DED- Regiment's online-campaign project:

RANDOM EXPERT+

Main features:
Front line moving according to the results of played missions.

Dynamicaly adjusted planes-loadouts' 'prices' aimed at balancing the planeset (see 4. Economics below).
Statistics site reflecting the campaign's current situation, current planes' prices, pilots and squads ranking, awards as well as an option to register a squad.
Battle going on on the whole map area.

Randomly placed targets to make every mission interesting and unique.
Multitude of weather conditions and seasons.
Non-obligatory registration.

All planes including Battle of Stalingrad planes are available to fly. So don't worry if you have not bought that BoM licence-key yet you still can fly

1. Victory conditions.
The battle takes place on the 'Il-2: Battle of Moscow' map.

There are a number of 'Key Positions' (KPs) on the map. Capturing certain KPs is the objective of every mission and moves the front line:





The final objective of the campaign is 'to change the color of the map to the own color' meaning that the enemy should control no more than 4 KPs for at least 24 hours real time.

The time running in the campaign is the 'calendar time': one mission while running for two hours in real-time equals one day in the campaign time. The combat begins at 1st Sep. 1942 and runs until the 28th Feb. 1943. Thence a whole campaign runs for 3 autumn and 3 winter months. The half-a-year of the campaign equals approx. 20 days in real time.

If on the evening of the 28th Feb. 1943 neither of the sides has a substantial territorial advantage, then the victory is assigned to the side that has the majority of KPs under its control.



2. Front line movement.
Every campaign begins from a 'starting position' with both sides owning roughly a half of the map each:





On the campaign map or on the in-game flight map you will see a number of round map icons either with a cross or a star on them. Those icons signify Key Positions (KPs).

In every mission only four of the KPs are active – two per side. They can be distinguished among other KPs by the 'flame' symbol on top of their icons. The active KPs are mission objectives that can be 'captured' in order to move the front line. Note that inactive KPs cannot be captured.

To capture a active KP you need to destroy targets randomly placed by the mission generator in the 30-40 km area around the KP in question.

At the end of a mission captured KP's change color, the front line moves respectively to reflect the new situation. And finally four attack directions (arrows) are created in the FL vicinity. Two of these directions are generated randomly while the other two are created so as to generate a 'pincer movement' to try to 'encircle' several KPs or to try to eliminate (or to break out of for the other side) an already existing 'cauldron'.



3. Key Positions capture.
Every KP has the following targets 'attached' to it:

· 2 airfields — their connection to a KP is signified on the map by a heading line with the heading, range and approx. flight time stated next to it. 'Closing' and airfield counts as 2 points towards the respective KP capture (capture points).

· 2 vehicle columns – an armored column (6 units), the other column can be either truck or armored column with the 50/50 probability (8 units). Eliminating either of the two columns gives the side 1 capture point.

· 1 Artillery position having 13 units in it counts as 1 capture point.

· 1 Field warehouse of 70-90 objects should be destroyed to earn 1 capture point.

Normaly the side must earn 5 capture points to capture a KP. There are two targets independent of the KPs destroying which influence the above condition however:

1. An enemy HQ located either in the Moscow or Vyazma industrial zone. The HQ have two 'destroyed' states:

- Destroying 170 objects of it counts as 'partially destroyed' and counts as +1 capture point towards all the enemy KPs on the map.

- Destroying 250 objects of the HQ counts as 'completely destroyed' and in addition to the above reduces enemy's side planeset: the number of available YaK-1 and LaGG-3 or Bf.109F-4 and Bf.109G-2 (obviously side depending) is reduced to 10 for the whole side and all premium planes become unavailable (La-5, YaK-1b, P40 / Fw.190A-3, MC.202). rest of the planeset is unaffected.

2. Concealed armored group of 50 vehicles. It is the side's 'attack reserve' and is located somewhere on the 'base' of an attack arrow on the map. Loosing this group severely complicates capturing of the corresponding KP for the ground troops and you will require one more capture point than usual to get this KP. The vehicles in the group are static and are intended to be destroyed by carried not internal weapons (that is rockets, bombs etc. rather than on-board guns). To destroy the column you will need to destroy 40 vehicles.





Airfields: every KP has two active airfields attached so there is altogether 8 active airfields per mission that are signified by a rectancular 'plane' icon. The airfields that will be attached to a KP are selected by the server taking FL position into consideration amongst the closest to the KP.

Such airfields are available for take-off and can be 'closed' for 40 minutes by destroying buildings, objects and static planes on them – approximately 70 objects according to the in-game statistics. Closing an airfield (you need to close it just once) gives 2 KP capture point to your side.

4. Economics.
To balance the gameplay the server has a 'market economy' system implemented. Planes and their corresponding weapon load-outs have 'prices' valuated in 'players' credits'. A price in credits for a certain plane-loadout combination increases as the plane-loadout becomes more popular on the server (more people fly it) and decreases for the less popular planes-loadouts. Combat effectiveness of the particular plane is also taken into consideration when the price is calculated.

When you first enter the server you gain 1000 credits.

As you fly, shoot down enemy planes, bomb enemy position etc. you gain credits. If you somehow lose you plane you lose credits. Specifically it works this way:

Before you take off in your chosen plane the server will try to take a 'deposit' amount from your credits equaling the price of the plane you have chosen. If you do not have the necessary amount the server will warn you and deny you a take-off. If you persist and still take off, you will be kicked from the server shortly after you are airborne. So pay attention to the server's in-game chat messages!

The current 'prices' list is available on the statistics' site under the 'PAYLOADS' slider on the left side of the page.

When your flight is anyhow finished the server calculates how many credits you gained in-flight which are then added to your account and what part of the 'deposit' should be deducded depending on whether you have landed, ditched crashed, etc. (see below) before returning the deposit to your account.

Maximum amount of credits a singleton player can have is 10000.

Our project is integrated with the =FB=Vaal & =FB=Isay statistics project and so when you join a squad on the server's statistics site you will immediately gain access to the squad's communal account. The squad's credits account accumulate all the points gained by its pilots and the cap on the max amount of credits the account can hold is increased proportionally to the number of pilots in the squad. When leaving the squad the pilot leaves his credits in the squad account.

Note that supply missions to increase your credits previously available are currently disabled.



Earning and loosing credits as the result of a flight:

If player has exited to the briefing:

1. Player didn't take-off – no credits gained or lost

2. Safely landed on an active friendly airfield – all credits gained in flight are counted towards the credits account.

3. Hard landing on an active airfield, landing with engine broken or any other landing with (or causing) damage considered 'fatal' by the game (indicated by 99% or more damage on the statistics page): 50% of the plane price is deduced from the deposit. The credits gained in flight are not reduced.
4. Ditching on the own territory without engine or any other 'fatal' damage (see above) resulting in 'Ditched' in-game status: (50% + plane damage %) * plane price is deduced from the deposit and the credits gained in flight are reduced by half.
5. Ditching on the own territory with (or causing) 'fatal' damage ('Crashed' status): deposit is not returned and the credits gained in flight is reduced by 70%.

6. Bailed out

- over own territory: deposit not returned and credits gained are reduced by 85%.

- captured: deposit not returned, credits gained are reduced by 90%
7. Ditched and captured – deposit not returned credits gained are reduced by 90%
8. Death — deposit not returned credits gained are reduced by 95%.



If the mission ended before and the player has not exited to the briefing:

Same as above.

Mission ended in-flight: no credits lost, credits gained are added to the account in full.



5. Server messages in the in-game chat.

There are two types of messages that you should pay attention for:

1. If you do not have enough credits to fly the plane you have chosen you will see one of the following messages in in-game chat depending whether you are a singleton pilot or a squad member:
WARNING <nickname> take-off is FORBIDDEN for you! Not enough credits for the selected plane. Your current credits is <personal_credits>.
WARNING <nickname> take-off is FORBIDDEN for you! Not enough squad's credits for the selected plane. Your squad current credits is <personal_credits>.

2. If all is ok the server will send one of the following depending on whether you are in a squad or not:
<nickname> you have <personal_credits> credits. Current plane price is <plane_price>.
<nickname> your squad's credits is <squad_credits>. Current plane price is <plane_price>.

Autobalancer configured and enabled. Its configuration feature appeared in patch 2.006.



It has 2 rules: ratio and difference between teams aircrafts count.

We configured ratio = 3 and difference = 16. So it should be next examples to understand clearly:



9 aircrafts on the server: could be up to 6 v 3, but 7 v 2 could not.

16 aircrafts on the server: could be up to 12 v 4, but 13 v 3 could not.

20 aircrafts on the server: could be up to 15 v 5, but 16 v 4 could not.

33 aircrafts on the server: could be up to 24 v 9, but 25 v 8 could not. (this is about a border, when difference starts working)

40 aircrafts on the server: could be up to v 16, but 25 v 15 could not.

80 aircrafts on the server: could be up to 48 v 32, but 49 v 31 could not.

84 aircrafts on the server: could be up to 49 v 35, but 50 v 34 could not.

Latest changes:

Dropzone now gives +1 to KP capture for 30 troops landed and once again +1 for next 50 troops landed (80 at all). Works once for one KP.
New fighters price calculation method. Fighters price now calculated from base value defined as: (horse powers at nominal/fight mode) * (maximum speed at low alt) / 3000. Data taken from the game.
For all aircraft types: default weapons payload now less affected by economics.

Server commander had been updated.
We have two innovation from the beginning of Campaign #4:

Stalingrad Map, as a New Year gift ;)
Aircrafts are now available by periods. Available aircraft park will grow each next period.

Period’s list:
1st period, “Moscow” map: September 1941, available crafts: Il-2 mod. 1941, I-16 type 24, Bf109 E-7, Bf-110 E-2
2nd period, “Moscow” map: October 1941, all previous crafts are available plus Ju-88 a-4 and Pe-2 series 35
3rd period, “Moscow” map: November 1941, all previous crafts are available plus Bf109 F-2 and MiG-3 series 24
4th period, “Moscow” map: December 1941, all previous crafts are available plus MC.202 ser. VII and P-40E-1
5th period, “Stalingrad” map: May 1942, all BoM crafts are available plus following craft from BoS: Ju-87 d-3, He-111 h-6, Il-2 mod. 1942 and Pe-2 series 87
6th period, “Stalingrad” map: June 1942, all previous crafts are available plus Bf109 F-4, LaGG-3 series 29
7th period, “Stalingrad” map: July and August 1942, all previous crafts are available plus Bf109 G-2, Yak-1 series 69
8th period, “Stalingrad” map: September and October 1942, all previous crafts are available plus FW-190 A-3, La-5 series 8
9th period, “Stalingrad” map: November and December 1942, January 1943, all previous crafts are available plus Bf109 G-4, Yak-1B series 127

Will be 398 missions in total.

Campaign #4 has now begun!

Updates, tweaks and innovations:

Managing programme (“commander”) was learned to work with a Stalingrad map
Log assembling optimized to report each commander’s iteration. From now report updates with new log entries as they occur.
Generator has been optimized: re-generation of non-essential auxiliary elements removed.
Commander operation has been optimized: communication with Dserver has been removed in case it’s is not needed any more (delayed mission processing).
Front-line and Zone of Influence generation error fixed
89 airfields at Stalingrad map with a new unique decoration.
Changed method of targets’ placement. Decreased probability (but not excluded) of accumulation.

Specific mission changes:

6 capture points needed to capture KP.
All targets in except of huge airborne troops (80 troopers) now gives +1 capture point.
Supply trains added, that reborns in 15 minutes after being destroyed. Destroying of 5 trains gives +1 capture point to all enemy KPs.
Added far static fields for bombers (Tatsinskaya and Stupino) – they cannot be closed, but destroying of their decorations counts as destroying HQ objects, located at the same locations (Tatsinskaya and Stupino). Locator beacons are situated at these airfields. There is no fighters and AA at these fields.
Slightly increased the quantity of objects needed to close “Armored Group” target, as server counts not only tanks but decorations also.
Course and distance legends removed from lines that bind own KPs and Airfields.
Huge smokes over Stalingrad (removed already because of server performance issues).