Idea for a new mod...

[FastCargo 412]

Guys,

 

I want to do a new mod for the TW series.

 

There would only be one or 2 aircraft.

 

Most targets would simply be balloons.

 

There would be no campaigns.

 

Probably no crashes.

 

Simple targeting, no HUD text, no comm.

 

Aircraft skin choices would be limited to color.

 

Multiplayer would be dogfight only.

 

Menu options would be limited to keep within these boundries.

 

 

 

Sounds like something only a young child would like, right?

 

 

 

You would be correct.

 

 

For those who don't know, my older son has mild autism. He loves aircraft, one of the first words he's spoken has been 'airplane'.

 

I'm going to do a mod just for him, and for any other children with similar issues and interests. What I want to know is what ideas do you all have.

 

Things that need to be done include 'decontenting' the sim to remove most of the military stuff (mainly just limit menu options). Remove all voice work.

 

Most of this stuff I can do on my own.

 

 

If anyone wants to help, you're more than welcome to.

 

For anyone with ideas, post them here. Keep it simple (remember the target audience/user).

 

For those who might be thinking about doing something in poor taste on this board...I would very strongly advise against it.

 

FC

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,557]

This sounds like a very good inovating idea, my 2 cents are, the FM has to be as easy as possible, you have to create such a mod with the eyes of a dreamer. How often do you crash into hills or the ground only cause you are watching your plane fly around. It has to be so easy and colourfull that you can handle it like a 5 year old dreamer. (this happen sometimes to me :-P) Really like your idea and If I can help let me know!

[Silverbolt 104]

I have no idea how to help( i hope some thing pop up during it's develpment), but i like the idea!

 

as blackbird said, colorfull things are very needed

Edited February 26, 2009 by Silverbolt

[+X RAY 83]

I think about a "What if plane" let your son draw it and you keep it alive!

I think that would be great for you both!

Or inspire it to his favourite aircraft!

Third option is when the Bone will be ready,do it a simple version for him,like the B-1R,is a project,more AAM's and more fun for him,add multiple gunpods and you do his mighty fortress,the same of his dad!

I'm very close to You FC,and to anibody have this kind of problems,generated against their will,that's nobody's fault!

My Dad came back today from hospital after one month of complete isolation for a spinal transplant,doctor says that he must stay in hospital for 2 months,after only one every parameter is set to normal,It's like a little miracle!

The force of his mind can torn mountains in two!

I know that these problems are different,your son is healty and he's simply SPECIAL!

[+Jarhead1 27]

Hey FC, I know how u feel, but I have it times two, I have twin daughters and both have mild autism, or the doctors say they are on the spectrum, if u know what I am talking about. I think its a great idea and when they get older I am gonna see if they would like to play it too since they seem to like to watch daddy fly on the computer.

[Guest toad2]

Noseart for the chosen aircraft. Ya know, something else he likes, maybe. Loading screen tunes might be kinda neat, too.

 

New screenies for the different menus. You start the game and boom, it has his name and stuff.

Edited February 26, 2009 by toad2

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,557]

X rays idea about "let your son design a plane" is very good, don`t know much about autism, or the different degrees, but that`s a damn nice idea. New Terrain texture and lets make it in a slightly comic style..

[+wilco 11]

Not sure if that's overkill, but what about some different, child friendly, effects? I'm thinking of comic style muzzle flashes, trails of bubbles and stuff.

[+SkippyBing 8]

FC,

 

If you need any help modelling stuff I'd be more than happy to knock some stuff up for you, just let me know what you need.

[+Hinchinbrooke 36]

About three years ago, I made a model based on Lego's Star Wars Snow Fighter (I think that's it) for my son to fly in the TW series........

 

I don't know if that fits the bill, but I'd be more than willing to donate it.

[Viper6 3]

FC, Jarhead 1 god bless men like you!

[+Jarhead1 27]

Viper thanks man, but not me, God bless my daughters, they are the ones that are gonna have to deal with this the rest of their lives. They are strong children, and I am sure FC agrees with me on this point. I feel bad my daughters arent going to be able to have a "normal" life per se.

[Wrench 9,850]

That cheesy "Fighter Bowl" terrain I did might be just the ticket ... there's not much there, and what AAA exists is easily removed from the targets ini.

 

There's even a big smily face built right into the terrain...

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[kct 5]

Question about mission choices. Instant action OR single mission? Instant action would send the kid right into the fight...and I don't know if we got the option to strike balloons in instant action.

 

As for aircraft, one Blue and one Red, possibly?

 

By the way, I'll just say this. It is a very noble thing to do, and perhaps we can use this mod as some kind of teaching tool or something. Your children should be proud to have a dad like you.

Edited February 27, 2009 by kct

[+NeverEnough 78]

First, I think this is a really great idea. A plane which would be perfect for what FC outlined would be Bunyap's beautiful P-26A Peashooter. It looks like something from a Thomas the Tank story, CA-Stary modeled a really nice basic cockpit for it, and Wrench has a number of very colorful skins available for it. It is a basic seat of the pants plane, with a FM like a hummingbird. Visibility around you is terrific for sightseeing, and it has fixed landing gear.

 

The internet tends to lend itself to a pretty one dimensional view of the individuals who cross paths. This forum certainly provides alot more insights into the lives of its members.

 

I guess maybe that aspect is what keeps drawing me back here.

[Viper6 3]

Viper thanks man, but not me, God bless my daughters, they are the ones that are gonna have to deal with this the rest of their lives. They are strong children, and I am sure FC agrees with me on this point. I feel bad my daughters arent going to be able to have a "normal" life per se.

With dads like you and FC your kids will know the TRUE meaning of love.

[Wrench 9,850]

Good catch on the instant action idea!!!

 

I've edited many of them for my WW2 installs ... it's super easy to do and takes only a few minutes. You can choose any terrain you like, with a quick edit of either the options or singlemission ini (forget which right off the top of my head)

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[FastCargo 412]

Guys, thanks for all the inputs so far.

 

As far as having a child with autism, Jarhead hit it exactly on the nose. Our job as parents is simple...'man up' and take care of them...they are the ones who have to live with the challenges that being on the spectrum brings. It's what any good parent does, take care of their kids as best they can to prepare them for the world.

 

Anyway, the trick is to try to find that balance between cool airplane stuff and being 'too kiddy' (ie Barney with wings).

 

Notes so far from what I've been able to glean here:

 

1) I hadn't even thought about effects...I guess being on fire wouldn't exactly be kid friendly. I may start with no effects at all until I get a better idea of what to do here (confetti?).

2) I had planned on 2 or 4 aircraft (basically, a small and large aircraft, with a red side and blue side for each) and one destroyable ground object (blimps with a letter on the side). I figured to keep the airfields/cities stock. No ground to air weapons would be available (SAMs, AAA). The type of aircrafts I haven't decided yet...I like the lego idea or the Peashooter...but I keep seeing a T-38 and F-14 (hey, I have boys ya know...).

3) Aircraft themselves would only be armed with internal guns. The only mission the aircraft could do would be reconnaissance. That way, weapons and mission goals are greatly simplified.

4) I figured the selectable buttons from the main menu would be Instant Action, Single Mission, Options (parents only button!), Pilot Info. The nice thing about Single Mission mode is having the choice for the flyer to be a different color or amount of wingmen...

5) I've been debating if a true cockpit view would be preferred or not. There is a way to make an 'cockpit' view that looks like something you would see in an arcade...with a gunsight and seeing your entire aircraft.

6) I like the idea of custom nose art. I'm trying to figure out how to make it easy to edit nose art (ie I don't want parents to have to navigate multiple nested directories). Also, editing TGA files is a bit of a pain needing a third party program...vs if it was a bitmap, every one has MS Paint and can figure it out. Can decals be bitmaps?

7) Wrench, I was thinking exactly about that terrain you mentioned...though I'm kind of partial to the AmericanNW terrain too...

 

Please, keep the ideas and offers coming!

 

Honestly, I think the modeling and terrain will be pretty straight forward. The harder part will be the menus and trying to decontent the sim...

 

FC

[Wrench 9,850]

Decals have to be tgas. Nose arts are nothing, man!!! I've made hundreds (literlery!!!) Once you've done a few dozen, they become pertty easy.

 

For "The Bowl", I can always try to add a few more mountains and/or valleys -- it's harder than I thought to do, but not too bad. I could even (shudder!!!) retile to more green-ish looking, what with all those custom 'grass' tiles I made for the Texas (ASW) rebuild.

It's too bad we can't really do water falls....

 

Let me know what I can do to help

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Back when I was in the FB, I made the smoothest mission.

 

I setup a ring of maybe 100 German observation balloon launchers in a valley surrounded by the steep forested Kuban mountains (south east Kuban map). That was the best immersive map in the early FB days.

 

I setup a Russian AA piece that, under AI control, would fire against the balloon launchers. As each one got destroyed, the balloon would begin to slowly rise into the air forever.

 

Player aircraft took off a mountain top (no airfield) and you fly down to the valley and start popping balloons. Rocket armed I-153 was alot of fun, then use the MGs.

 

Best was TB-3, where you fly around and switch to various open gunner cockpits and pop balloons with a small MG. The TB-3 was slow enough that you had to pop balloons as fast as possible, because the balloons will eventually rise above your ability to climb the airplane. The fun mission got a good reception among people who downloaded it. One fella/fellatte poasted that his/her daughter loved the mission.

[GASCAN39 7]

What about the "Air Battleships" you know, the turtel, shark, eagle. Can't remember where those can be found.... Maybe to cheesy and unairplane like (Though I must admit, I tooled around in all of them a few times!)

[+X RAY 83]

I've thinked up trough all the morning,and i've found 3 possible aircraft:

1 F-80 or T-33 (if your son wants to fly with his dad on the back)

2 F-84E

3 F-9 Panther

 

Painted in a plain pale smooth colour to result charm to see

 

Why?

Because they have eyecatching and very smooth unagrressive shapes,remember early childhood handworks like cutting paper with rounded scissors and put parts together to have a plane.

 

Sky wil be set as clear or with spare clouds

Terrain will be one of First eagles ones in spring or summertime-with castles and more green

Balloons will be a great idea for targets

FX -ask Stary for them-can be a re-edit of his explosions to simulate soap bubbles

 

Just only ideas,modern planes have too aggressive and sharp lines for a child,maybe 5th gen fighters,but early jets are better!

[scouserlad13 0]

Maybe have a combination of WW2 aircraft and modern aircraft, but have the flight model set to easy for the WW2 aircraft, then they handle extremely easy. I think your idea is a very inspiering (i think thats how you spell it, im not very good when it comes to spelling) but anyway, if you need a hand with anything, such as mission designing i am willing to help. Also, let your son choose their favorite cartoon character, then add it to the nose as nose art. If i was a kid, that would be really cool to see my favorite character on the front of a plane.

Edited February 27, 2009 by scouserlad13

[+Jarhead1 27]

LOL, in other words Spongebob and Dora as nose art for my daughters.

[kct 5]

Just only ideas,modern planes have too aggressive and sharp lines for a child,maybe 5th gen fighters,but early jets are better!

 

True, but then again, kids these days usually connect to modern aircraft much more easier. Back in the 90s most young boys with an interest in aircraft would definitely mention the Tomcat as one of their favourites.