This led to the unfortunate fact that if I won the mission but my wingman survived, the defense value of the hex would go UP, not down. We ISC became quite adept at getting our AI wingmen killed before the end of the mission.
AHA!
So that's where Maverick learned to fly!
BTW: the map was 100 x 100 hexes. 10,000 in total!
Once everyone figured out the Kzin/Mirak might actually win, they all turned on us! Sheesh, can you imagine the insult if we had. If I recall correctly, every server after that which had the same setup, everyone seemed to want to hit the Kzin right off the bat. Stop us before we got started.
Now why would they want to do that? (scratches head)
The main attraction for me WAS the fact that you never knew what you were getting when you pulled a mission. You had to be able to fly anything with little or no preperation at all. No preset games with equal footing, you had to master everything and fly against all odds and situations. I guess that debate still rages.
Still they was the first ones (there were 3 of them all told, gook outlined the third) that truly came close to "Hundreds of online opponents". The most I ever saw online simultaneously were 106.
Everything after that was a lot more organized, but for pure chaotic power-shifting pandemonium, you couldn't beat those servers.