Thought for future expansions: Release Chronologically

[Voyager]

I was thinking about Il-2 and its expansion packs, and the post Cliffs of Dover future, and it strikes me that it might be worthwhile to do the expansion packs for Cod in more ore less Chronological order, especially focusing on significant changes in the airwar.

I see several advantages, and some weaknesses.

The first major advantage is aircraft facetime. Online, most people fly the best planes they can get, which means the older models get left on the shelf. Most of the crap planes were at one point cutting edge, or state of the art, so by moving through them in chronological order, most planes will be the best at some point in time. This also means that most players would get new toys to play with every major expansion pack.

The drawback of this is that some popular aircraft don't show up until very late. For example, the first P-51A's don't show up until early 1943, the P-47C first gets in in April of '43, and the Merlin Mustangs aren't there until 1944.

That said, it still seems to me that there would be a big bang for the buck for every new aircraft added, since most would have their day in the sun.

The second advantage I could see would be story continuity. You can do the entire arc of the war in continuous, but manageable pieces. Midway is more important if you spent the last three packs on the retreat, and you've already had two carriers shot out from under you. Likewise the reversal from the German Offensive in the BoB, to trying to defend against the bomber offensive that followed their defeat, and the progression from intercepting lightly armed and armoured bombers to the later flying tanks with escort fighters everywhere.

If they want to push the storytelling of the campaigns, I think having that continuity between expansion packs would be a big thing.

I also think it would reduce the plane fatigue factor, but I think that falls under the "new toys" I mentioned above.

Any thoughts?

Harry Voyager