Hello
First of all, DCS BS is an awesome game, all creds to ED.
Awaiting the A-10 and the patch, I would like to make a suggestion.
What about having a Campaign creation competition? Everyone can participate, and the task is simple; create the best campaign under some preset rules/conditions, and the winner (top 3) wins a prize. The exact rules of the competition would of course have to be set by ED, here are som suggestions though:
Rules and conditions:
First, the preset conditions, where the number of mission should be set (5?), the overall difficulty (Medium?), number of AI vehicles (to make it playable on most systems) and so on. Mission should be for Single Player.
The campaign is evaluated in three "parts" that are equally important:
Playability:
How well does it play? Any hick-ups? Is it any fun at all?
AI:
How well does the AI work? Is there any strange things happening, vehicles driving into each other, traffic jams etc. Also, can you fly over enemies without them engaging you and so on.
Ambience:
How well does the creator capture the "right feeling" with a nice briefing/background information/radio traffic and so on.
You could also instate a fourth part, Realism, but then, who are we to judge this?
Winner:
The winner would be appointed here on the forum by a vote. Of course this will be very arbitrary and subjective, but on the other hand, the same rules applies for all. To prevent people from cheating (for example registering many nicks to be able to vote many times), the prize(s) should be very... humble (who would go through a lot of fuzz just to win a 40 $ prize?).
Prizes (suggestion):
1:st prize: A copy of the A-10, and the hardback of the Flight manual for both the A-10 and the KA-50.
2:nd prize: A copy of the A-10.
3:rd prize: A copy of the Flight manual for either the A-10 or the BS.
If there is many campaigns participating, well, it will be up to the Campaign creator to promote his own campaign, with briefings/pictures from the campaign here on the forum. Perhaps not all campaigns will be flown in the competition, but if we could get some disc space from ED, well, they would have several downloadable campaigns for those who are interested for the future.
I'm sure my idea has many problems, that needs to be solved, but I think this could improve the interest for the game, since playing your own missions feels like... cheating, since you know it all. I also think it is a cheap way for ED to increase the life-length of the BS, meaning that there will not be ten posts every week on "When will the A-10 ber released?"
So, I'm up for a fight in Mission Editor/Campaign Builder. Are you?