As far as campaigns, IF the sim is written to allow great freedom of 3rd party generators THEN the limits will be wide.

Why do it?
For more years than many realize there have been online wars played out in one fashion or other. I got into it in late 1998 and it was old tradition then. And the tradition has gotten better all the time. The big thing wished for is things to be smoother and more automatic, and we've gotten more and more of that too. But there has so far been a limit that requires work-arounds.

Whatever a company makes into the sim has a necessary time and money budget limit. And when that is locked as your choice then no matter how good it is at least so far you still have to do the extra by hand as it were.

IL2 has broken out of that to some good degree but still there are the limits of control and communications between the sim/game and the generators.
There is also the limit of the between-flying reports, the briefing and debriefing formats imposed by IL2 and nothing allowed to be presented directly by the generators which campaign or not, we want the pictures, video, music and whatever else can be imagined and coded to be.

Red Baron gave us a lot but the community can do more and better.

IF the sim can be subordinate to the generator instead of the other way around then these things can flower, can become.

What I mean?

The sim starts with generator already running as a task and through sockets the two communicate. The sim reliquishes the screen and inputs and only runs when the generator tells it to. The generator should be able to present brief/debrief however it wants including starting up your web browser and feeding it html for example. The generator should be able to open chat if the maker wants to be able to have players meet in a squad room or lobby, before or after or without brief and/or debrief. If choosing planes is part of the online sim/game then the generator should be able to command that to happen prior to the flying part and still retain control.

The generator should be able to introduce players and AI into the flying part, blending what is now coop and df -- offline is just the same with only one player and no net communication is all. As such the generator might run a very long time IF the maker decides and players want it so.

The big upshot is that as different generators are made available then everyone can run the game how they want to suit themselves, their friends and enemies as there are generators to suit which by request and community work can be made without concern for finishing on time to release the sim/game... the lifespan of the sim increases as does the ability for GT to produce and sell addons should the publisher get the act of selling those smoothed out.

Of course the sim/game needs to come with a default generator/control program but really the code is ALREADY in IL2 and maybe in such a form as well except I don't see DF able to run AI's or COOPs able to introduce new elements not in the mission file. The basics are there but the structure does not allow it... perhaps it is a matter of allocations of AI they must be present at start but really possible if the space can be pre-allocated empty (generator tells flying part to make room for 12 AI planes and 12 AI ground objects) and then causes the slots to be assigned, emptied, given missions, change orders as well as being able to read status on command. Generator can this way provide high level intelligence to the AI's.

What else? Generator should be able to post messages to the chat log that selected (including all) players will read.

So people can have simple missions to astounding wars and between even though GT only needs to provide no more than IL2 series has at present if only the access and control is left open, not locked away.

Cheating possible but everyone who can see the program will know just as the squad community already knows enough people who can be trusted to do the work in honorable ways. Word gets out and around and I think the community CAN police itself effectively by not using bad generators.
Oh, #ell, the people who want such things can also use them and who knows but maybe the result could be desireable if it gives methods for say --- a campaign that fits itself to the player better. You want to play a certain role or even a story then just maybe it will take what some consider to cheat in the technique... I know for certain that some will want it to cheat in ways to make the game HARDER!

Enough for now. Take Care.


Neal