New exclusive N17 versus Abatros mission idea

[imp]

Right then! Off to the mission editor to replace all the entente planes with n17s in all my missions!!! :D

:D

On a serious note, somebody was saying on teamspeak a few days ago that maybe the N17s could be balanced numerically, say 2 N17 for one german aircraft. Not sure if that would be fair, just throwing in some numbers to give an example. Maybe somebody more experienced can give better figures. There would be an issue with a less then full server of course, for example all 10 german slots versus a few N17. To help with balancing maybe the german contigent should be even furhter reduced to 6 or 8 to prevent a 10 alb vs 5 N17 situation.

Generally I would like to see more albatrosse (yes, this is the proper plural :p) in the missions, for example the rotary furball could have one of its missions with Alb III and V instead of the DVII and maybe even switch some of the N28 with N17s for good measure :)

Then I might actually consider buying the N17 ;)

[TX-Thunderbolt]

I really like the N17. It's endearing and quite fun (if challenging) to fly. It has one of the "strongest" DM's in the game too (in case you didn't know). It's just so outclassed performance-wise that most people refrain from using it. While the Alb DIII was a common foe for it, it's really so much better than the poor Noopy that it's not much of a fair fight. The only exception would be a pair of N17's with altitude over their adversary.

But as you've stated, imposing those kinds of controls would be quite difficult.

[imp]

You would probably have to turn global stats off to get people to fly the N17 :D Actually I was saying to squirrel the other day when he was flying one that there should be special badges for the N17 as long as it is all alone in the 1916 category, something like 5 15 30 50 online kills with it or something. Maybe you could make a suggestion to the developers incase you like the idea :)

[Sensenmann]

Unfortunately, I think my Albys vs Nieups mission has demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the Nieuport 17. I put it together with the assumption that, in proper numbers, the N17 might make a good account of itself.

The 10 N17s and 5 N28s facing off against 10 Albatros D.IIIs and 5 D.Vs has ended, more times than not, in favor of the Germans. Some of these rounds have been with no German losses.:o

The only time I have seen this go otherwise was a mission where I flew a D.III alone against four N28s (the other two Huns on at the time decided to go sight seeing ). I put up a good fight but ended up wounded and having to ditch after running out of fuel because of a leak. And I am not so sure it would have gone so badly if the N28 pilots wouldn't have been such chicken shits, and bellied up to the 17s! (you know who you are :joystick: )

The sad truth is the N17 is not really competitive in the current plane set. Even up against the D.III, which is supposed to be its counterpart, it fails miserably.

My current plans for the Albys vs Nieups mission is to replace 5 of the N17s with 5 more N28s. Perhaps that'll give the Entente a better chance of survival.

It would be nice to see a few more planes from around 1916 to get the N17 in the game. Until then it'll just be target practice for me.

...
Oh, and on a side note, if we got WWBrian to put some Albs (with their in-line engines) into the Rotary Furball missions it'll likely need a change in title. :p

[Masaq]

It was called Bloody April for a reason, folks! Noopy17 just wasn't good enough to beat the Alb3, and so they died. In big numbers....

[imp]

Yes but I prefer reasonably balanced multiplayer missions, I don't think we want to reenact the war :D From my observation regarding your mission Sensenmann the teams were usually balanced or even in favour of the germans so not suprising that the nieups got slaughtered in those encouters.
I suppose it would help if the server regulars actively went entente, hopefully with the next patch this will work out well. Maybe you could already reduce the german team by 2-3 D.IIIs? Of course this still does not fix the low-player-count problem. Still it's also a matter of who is flying, I played the mission as a german with 5 other albs vs 2 N28, one of them flown by thunderbolt, and I believe both N28s survived with TB scoring 3 kills, iirc ;) So what we need is that the good pilots take up the challenge and fly the N17 which is probably not a realistic goal when stats are involved :(
Maybe kills scored with the N17 also need to give alot more points on the leaderboard, maybe then people will fly it. I was looking around in the russian forums ealier using google translator and it seems they are thinking about giving each plane a specific score multiplier to reflect their different difficulties etc.

Regarding WWBrians mission, it has DVII and Se5a in it which don't have rotary engines either ;) Actually, switching the DVII and Alb III/V might be important to make it futureproof when the improved D.VIIs show up with 1.09

[Sensenmann]

The problem is, one on one against an Albatros D.III, it is outclassed. Even two or more against the one Alb, it is questionable how it will end. It would require some good communication and coordination between the N17 pilots to overcome the Albatros.

I would really like to see more of the N17 in missions, that is why I put Albys vs Nieups together. I wanted to have a mission where people would more or less be forced into flying it and maybe see that it has some merit. Despite its shortcomings, I dread a round in the Dolphin or Pfalz D.XII more than the N17.

It would be nice to see the N17bis with its 130 hp Clerget and/or perhaps the British service versions as some used an additional Lewis mounted on the upper wing (though this was detrimental to the performance, so it is kind of a trade off). With a little more horse power or fire power I am guessing we would see more people flying the 17.

Unfortunately NeoQB has a habit of giving us the lesser engines and planes with no idea if we will see the refined versions later on. I am hoping some day we will have all the variants at our finger tips.