Hello all, this is the official Teaser for Support Your Local Aerodrome: Skies of Retribution. In this thread I'll brief on some of the coming story and changes to the event. Please note, not everything is in a finalized state at this time.
-The Rise of Black Channel
You guessed it from the teaser, the next event and main storyline will take place in the Baronies. More will be revealed during the coming full trailer. But there will be two alliance groups and a total of 4 factions directly involved. Old foes from the first Aerodrome will return and new ones will arise. Alliances will be tested.
-Weekly Commander
This is in response to one of the major features players wanted with the first Aerodrome. Teams being able to more strategically control the event for their factions. Sadly it isn't exactly what they wanted. Simply because when considering those requests, also had to consider complaints and arguments that would arise. Just was a large risk of that. But I didn't give up on the idea of figuring something out so teams could control the event.
What Weekly Commander entails is a team being named the commander for a week of matches. They then decide certain perks which can either buff their faction or hinder the opposing faction. These are all controllable via scorekeeping and organization. The goal will be to let as many teams as possible experience the feature. There will be a cooldown on feature usage so weeks don't constantly turn into repeats of each other.
These may or may not be utilized by spending resource points. This is being debated right now.
-Gametypes
Along with CP, the event will be prototyping a VIP gametype. This is currently in development. VIP matches will be fast paced cat & mouse battles that will hopefully encourage new tactics and tricks to be employed by both sides. Those defending the VIP and those hunting the VIP.
TDM will be making an appearance but the prime focus will be on CP and VIP gametypes.
-Time Frame
Event will run on Saturdays 4pm EDT from November 1st to December 13th. This is a 7 week event.
Why 7? There will be 6 regular event story weeks and one final battle event day.
Week 1 will not have a weekly commander so as to allow teams to see the events in their vanilla form. Week 2-6 will have commander system enabled. Week 7...thinking about that still.
-Prizes
TBA...hopefully know more as time goes. I'm hoping for a similar badge setup but as it looked to be a bit problematic...may take other ideas. Questions about last Aerodrome badges please shoot to Muse. There should have been badges for factions but I've only seen one in game right now. I'll see about bringing this up too in future discussions.
-Final words
This is an event of prototypes. Attempting new gametypes which aren't in game as well as new perk systems which haven't been attempted. Past participants have been brought into the development of this and will be kept appraised. They'll get first look at anything new. But we'll be likely getting things finalized by October. From then on, hoping for a solid month for signups before the event itself.
If you are a small clan, do not worry, we'll work on ways to bring you into the 3v3 fun. In fact single and double ship signups will be encouraged if you cannot field a full trio. Will you run at a weekness vs teams that are organized and loaded with a full three ships? That is entirely up to you. Last Aerodrome we saw Merc teams manage rather well against full clan teams. Remember, Aerodrome is not so much about individual performance as it is faction performance. Being 3v3 opens up more possibilities for running builds that wouldn't work in 2v2 but work in 3v3. So don't be afraid.