a good idea is to have a core group of GTVA ships (all tagged invunerable) to repel waves of shivan attackers. by pressing some buttons the player (would be in a camera sort of mode) can jump in the fight and start killing stuff. Here is where you can have some sort of variation in weapons to show the player the new weapon types and effects (local SSM, fighter flak, ballistic primaries). It would also be a demo for the set-object-position-* sexps and also the player-ai stuff for sexps.
I kinda got this idea off the intro to C&C Generals
i figure the layout for the player switching would be like
---start processsing----
-toggle hud off
-start camera positions
-display help (what each wing and weapons type will do)
-once help is over check for keypess 1,2,3,4,5, (another button to repeat help)
switch(keypress)
{
case 1:
{
move player to alpha 1 (fighter wing, using fighter flak and custom corkscrews)
toggle hud on
move the old player ship (pegasus or something), far away and unable to get targeted.
}
case 2:
{
Beta wing (bombers with local SSM, and ballistic primaries)
//do other stuff
}
case 3:
{
Gamma wing (intercepters: fighter beams and custom electronics)
}
case 4:
{
Delta wing (heavy assault: a gun with Pspew, shots and FOF; custom electronics missile)
}
case 5:
{
return to camera mode
toggle hud off
revert old player ship back to AI control
move pegasus back into field of battle
}
}