Randomize Starting Placements On Air Combat Map

[TheTuninator]

I know there's a big update planned for air combat, but I've been thinking about this a bit and figured I might as well offer some suggestions

Currently, most air combats play out pretty much the same way due to the spawn placement of combatants. You're either on a stern chase of a fleeing scout, or flying head-on into a couple of UFOs at a time. As there's very little room to maneuver, you pretty much always do the same thing; this is very different from ground combat, where even combats on the exact same alpha map can play out completely differently due to differing spawn locations for aliens and the crashed UFO.

I propose that air combat have a semi-randomized spawn placement as well, to simulate the chaotic nature of an actual "furball" and allow players some room to maneuver their fighters to gain advantage. In order to minimize the chances of one of your $300,000 fighters getting a horrible spawn and getting blown up right off the bat, this could take the form of just placement at any point along the player's and alien's map edge, like so:

(Red represents the player spawn, green represents the UFO. Bit counter-intuitive, sorry)

Thoughts?

[anotherdevil]

while I agree there seems to be a need for this, your suggestion would make it awfully easy for them to run away/retreat off the map =p

[TheTuninator]

I honestly wouldn't mind getting screwed over by random placement so a UFO could run away every now and then if it ensured that the actual combat engagements, which will be far more common, would be more varied; however, I hear what you're saying. Maybe a different/preset spawn if the UFO is just trying to run, as that would represent the interceptors just overhauling it from the stern instead of breaking formation for a dogfight.

[anotherdevil]

AFAIK UFOs run if outgunned badly, so yeah that could work. Perhaps just a random assortment of starting positions (but in the map like they are now), that can be cycled through (by the game) but have all sides roughly as far apart each time, so that very rarely are 2 air combat engagements ever the same?

[Chris]

The placement won't be random in the next air combat update, it'll be dependent on the relative positions of the craft and their headings on the Geoscape. Which should add some more tactics to it...