Phase 4

[Cameljockey 3]

Just to demonstrate my previous post here are the normal cockpit view and the cockpit view after zooming.

[Balalaika 0]

Hi, first of all I'd like to congratulate all the hardworking soulds who made this sim possible - I would like to add my own thank you so much, it is truly brilliant to the already large pile of Gratz messages.

 

Things I would love to see, and supporting other peoples suggestions:

 

1) Wind/Clouds affecting AI. Always has been the bugbear of campaign flight for me, having to break off from my flight and take the long and very low route to a target cos there's just this real beautiful, but incredibly deadly, cloud formation straight ahead.

 

2) Customise your plane a little with some preset decals and colour schemes, and be able to save it for future selection.

 

3) A list of your flight mates at mission end, BEFORE claims form pops up, or move claims form to the side. I have now a large stack of scrap paper with dozens and dozens of names at my side. It often takes me longer to write down who i'm flying with than the mission itself, lol. An exageration, sure, but you know what I mean?

 

4) Not fussed about a more detailed map - at least we can see airfields on it and gain SOME sense of where we are, which is all the info I'd expect to have if I was in a real plane and not sat comfy in front of my PC. But if you can make a hi-res game map, that doesn't take an age to load when pressing M, great, but it seems like hard work.

 

5) A hammer or something to ATTEMPT unjam guns.

 

6) an inflight display of fuel mixture settings that appears when you bring up the other HUD aids.

 

7) An 'escape from P.O.W. camp minigame'! - lol, just joking :))

 

8) you can ignore all of the above. If the only thing vers 4 brings is easily accessible multiplayer - that'll do! I would pay you £10 GBP per month to subscribe and support a MP server. Of course this would be optional, and ppl could use the current SP and MP way of doing things, but a one click access to a server that checks and downloads all you need for a specific mission would be great. Inbuilt VOIP and leaderboards would be cool. BTW I am not suggesting we turn this into ROF at all!!!!! note the word optional!

[andqui 1]

I had a thread about this a while back, and there's one thing that I forgot that I want to add.

 

The way that two-seaters behave needs to be looked at a little bit- they never use their front guns. Two seaters should be perfectly willing to dogfight other two seaters. If a Strutter meets a flight of Roland's, they should have at eachother, trying to maneuver under and behind eachother. As it is now, two-seaters are considered "bombers" and have no interest in fighting back. But even if a fighter passes in front of a two-seater, that two-seater should at least try and get a quick shot off with the front gun.

 

This kind of ties into the AI disengage issue- the two-seaters need their own criteria of when to break off and when to keep fighting.

-If a group of two-seaters is bounced from above by enemy fighters, they should first form a defensive circle during the initial attack and then try to dive away to their own lines.

-If a group of two-seaters is bounced by a lone fighter or maybe two lone fighters, they should get closer together and use their combined gunner's firepower.

-If a group of two-seaters meets another group of two-seaters, then they should have at it, and start attacking eachother.

- ABOVE ALL- if the player flight leader orders his two-seater wingmen to attack an aircraft, they should actually attack it, and not just fly around aimlessly. Kind of like in Il2- if you're flying some Stukas, your wingmen act as bombers and stay on course- but if you tell them to attack a plane, they do their best to maneuver and attack it.

 

If anyone thinks of any other situations or can correct me on some of the above, feel free to do so.

 

Now I realize this must be extremely hard to code, and that there are many different situations where a flight would act differently, etc. But if P4 and the addon packs feature more and more two-seaters and early war operations, these issues will become much more important. As it is now, any two-seater except for the Brisfit is a death trap because the AI is utterly incompetent at using them, leaving the player alone.

 

thanks

[Creaghorn 10]

I had a thread about this a while back, and there's one thing that I forgot that I want to add.

 

The way that two-seaters behave needs to be looked at a little bit- they never use their front guns. Two seaters should be perfectly willing to dogfight other two seaters. If a Strutter meets a flight of Roland's, they should have at eachother, trying to maneuver under and behind eachother. As it is now, two-seaters are considered "bombers" and have no interest in fighting back. But even if a fighter passes in front of a two-seater, that two-seater should at least try and get a quick shot off with the front gun.

 

This kind of ties into the AI disengage issue- the two-seaters need their own criteria of when to break off and when to keep fighting.

-If a group of two-seaters is bounced from above by enemy fighters, they should first form a defensive circle during the initial attack and then try to dive away to their own lines.

-If a group of two-seaters is bounced by a lone fighter or maybe two lone fighters, they should get closer together and use their combined gunner's firepower.

-If a group of two-seaters meets another group of two-seaters, then they should have at it, and start attacking eachother.

- ABOVE ALL- if the player flight leader orders his two-seater wingmen to attack an aircraft, they should actually attack it, and not just fly around aimlessly. Kind of like in Il2- if you're flying some Stukas, your wingmen act as bombers and stay on course- but if you tell them to attack a plane, they do their best to maneuver and attack it.

 

If anyone thinks of any other situations or can correct me on some of the above, feel free to do so.

 

Now I realize this must be extremely hard to code, and that there are many different situations where a flight would act differently, etc. But if P4 and the addon packs feature more and more two-seaters and early war operations, these issues will become much more important. As it is now, any two-seater except for the Brisfit is a death trap because the AI is utterly incompetent at using them, leaving the player alone.

 

thanks

 

i agree. two seaters don't need to act agressively like bristol fighters, but more evasive they could be. right now they only fly straight. they should look to do their job, but when there is a fight, they should fight or at least try not to be fodder. in real (better) two seaters were the tougher opponents and a lot of the famous aces lost their lifes because of two seaters.

[Kelly Mo 0]

Yay, here's a whole agglomeration of previous quotes, suggestions, and personal preferences...

 

My personal requests:

* Moraines?!?! I was wondering where all the shooting enemies were in late 1915, playing as a German. All I find are Strutters and RE2c's that float around until you can bring them down. (Or do I have a setting out of whack?) I also tried joining a French legion in early 1916, but the Moraines were listed as unavailable. (Could ya fix that? Like... either don't show me a squad at a specified time if the plane isn't availble, or make that plane available?) I think that's the only plane I actually miss.

* I've read that it's actually a CFS3 issue, but can we get the balloon claims adjusted? As far as I know, shooting down a balloon (with some sort of verification, of course) was a kill. Surely there's got to be something Microsoft did that can be fubar'd... ?

* Enemy planes landing after being shot (maybe just in visual aspect). I've shot down a number of various enemies throughout my various lifetimes. I've often noticed some drift downwards as though to land (and one even actually "landed" for a short while, which was very odd and concerned me, causing me to swoop back around), but eventually end up esploding. I know I can sometimes pull my damaged craft down to land, but I've yet to see an enemy do the same. (From what I have noticed as well, these 'downings' count as kill claims, so I don't know if they just blow up because I can then count them as a tally mark?) Or maybe better yet... allow for "downing" of pilots, both friendly and enemy? Just a bit of graphics tweaking, I'd think... but honestly, I don't know jack about it.

 

4) Can the in-game map "pop-up window" at least resemble the terrain a bit more so we can navigate by some terrain features, such as rivers, cities, roads, etc.? Currently the popup map is kinda abstract, except for providing the basic orientation and location.

Yeah, that.

 

2) I REALLY hope the ambience can be returned for the AA artillery/archie/ack-ack. While it certainly was too accurate before, resulting in poor game balance, it is basically emasculated now to the point where the bursts are going off literally miles away from their target.

But 2) concerns me a bit - should not be that way - can we get some consensus on this?

You're right. AA was a joke for a majority of the war. Later on (and waaaaay later on... in a not-so-distant future I still haven't reached) it was apparently more "realistic" (e.g. threatening) at lower altitudes.

 

Both will be payware - in terms of 1) we are not sure exactly what form the packs will take nor the cost but yes payware.

Can we purchase this for download? I'm not into the whole patience-while-waiting-for-mail thing. :D

And perhaps can P4 perhaps be an upgradeable feature if someone previously owned P3?

 

Would there be a way to get a personal aircraft to carry through the war with you, like in old Red Baron? In the French squads, they eventually swap over to the Spad VII, but in many instances I'd like to keep the N.17 as my own plane.

I second that. Could we possibly have a "personal" plane, if we perhaps reach a certain level (either through rank or kill or whatever)? Also the few request for personal paintings... that'd be really awesome too, although I have no idea how to even paint your own squad.

 

Just to demonstrate my previous post here are the normal cockpit view and the cockpit view after zooming.

I'm so going to be stalking my flight mates now!

 

5) A hammer or something to ATTEMPT unjam guns.

I'm dreading my first jam... so yeah, that sounds great! (Reminds me of my roadbiking forums... they say those with the clip/clipless pedals fall into one of two categories: those who have fallen, and those who will. I'm not looking forward to my first humiliation.)

...

 

7) An 'escape from P.O.W. camp minigame'! - lol, just joking :))

 

The way that two-seaters behave needs to be looked at a little bit- they never use their front guns. Two seaters should be perfectly willing to dogfight other two seaters. If a Strutter meets a flight of Roland's, they should have at eachother, trying to maneuver under and behind eachother. As it is now, two-seaters are considered "bombers" and have no interest in fighting back. But even if a fighter passes in front of a two-seater, that two-seater should at least try and get a quick shot off with the front gun.

That's a righteous amen. Get them boys to shoot forward. <grammar nazi>And, get them peoples to understand that "each other" is two separate words...</grammar nazi>

 

Honestly, I just came from playing Phase 2, so this version is currently still awesome, aside from slight weird oddities.

[Hellshade 110]

1) Wind/Clouds affecting AI. Always has been the bugbear of campaign flight for me, having to break off from my flight and take the long and very low route to a target cos there's just this real beautiful, but incredibly deadly, cloud formation straight ahead.

 

3) A list of your flight mates at mission end, BEFORE claims form pops up, or move claims form to the side. I have now a large stack of scrap paper with dozens and dozens of names at my side. It often takes me longer to write down who i'm flying with than the mission itself, lol. An exageration, sure, but you know what I mean?

 

5) A hammer or something to ATTEMPT unjam guns.

 

8) you can ignore all of the above. If the only thing vers 4 brings is easily accessible multiplayer - that'll do! I would pay you £10 GBP per month to subscribe and support a MP server. Of course this would be optional, and ppl could use the current SP and MP way of doing things, but a one click access to a server that checks and downloads all you need for a specific mission would be great. Inbuilt VOIP and leaderboards would be cool. BTW I am not suggesting we turn this into ROF at all!!!!! note the word optional!

 

Those are all excellent suggestions. I'll 2nd all of those and try to come up with a reasonable list of my own. Honestly though, I have plenty of faith that I will love whatever you guys come up with for P4.

 

/salute

Hellshade

[Rick Rawlings 137]

Most of what I would like to see is just tweaking of things that already exist but may need to be fine-tuned!

 

 

1. Shared kills to reduce kill stealing.

 

2. Allied Lone Wolf missions should be over enemy lines, like German Lone Wolf Missions are now.

 

3. Add your own Lone Wolf Missions to your daily flights once you are an ace.

 

4. Personal Plane once you are an ace.

 

5. Expand Kill Claim sheet to cover every flight with pull downs to report on what happened during the flight. Be able to claim kills whenever you want, not just when the campaign "knows" you got one, this will aid with the suspense. Also have it in either a handwritten or typeface font, to increase immersion.

 

6. Scheduled leave/morale tours/meet the Kaiser to break up the flying schedule as happened in the real war.

 

7. Increase witness list to include ground and balloon observers.

 

8. Occaisional maintence problems with planes.

 

9. Have aces friggin die when you shoot them down. (chance to live on crash, just like the player) Have it show up in the paper a few days later.

 

10. More correlation between what happens in the air and what the duty board says in terms of who in your squad lives and dies.

 

11. More info on the war than just the newspaper. Letters from home, perhaps? Just some polish to make it look more like a "big game" release.

 

12. Uncouple career pilot from QC. Be able to fly for both sides in any plane in QC without having to swap pilots.

 

13. Balloons count as kills on non-ballon missions, but up the AA cover around them considerably.

 

14. 2 seaters evade.

 

15. A.I. can't see through clouds, lower detection ranges

 

16. A.I decide when to initiate and disengage from combat in a more self-preserving manner. Should be more inconclusive fights than there are now.

 

16. A.I. Gun jams/ run out of ammo (May happen already, I always fly against the Germans, so who knows?)

 

17. More visible damage.

 

18. Reload Lewis gun works.

 

19. Massive overhaul of clunky GUI.

 

20. Bombers!

 

21. Parachutes for late war German pilots.

 

22. Parachuting observers for balloons.

 

23. Mission Recorder!

 

24. Mouse look

 

25. 3D model viewer for planes and equipment.

 

26. Capture enemy pilots alive on crashes. There should be some notification of the fate of your enemies if they land in friendly territory. There could even be some visual of this like in IL-2 Sturmovik when you bail out of your plane on the ground and run a short distance and drop to the ground.

 

27. A little more fanfare for medals received and promotions granted.

 

28. Ability to pick flights (from a drop down menu, maybe?) when squadron commander.

 

I'm sure there are other things that will come to mind but that's enough for now

 

RR

 

 

edit:

*uggh! Remebered one!* 29. Revisit Spad XIII and Eindecker flight models :)

Edited June 12, 2009 by Rick Rawlings

[Madmatt 0]

Seems like most of the stuff I would like to see is mentioned above, but let me just briefly list them out, so the developers know each items relative interest.

 

* Better Post Mission Review system The current Mission Review is EXTREMELY slow and all but useless if either the player or AI strafes any ground targets since you have to click through HUNDREDS of nearly identical entries in the log. Perhaps a filter could be added to limit what is displayed and I would also like to see a Mission Review Export function that could output the full mission log into a raw text format for review out of game. I would also like to see the info presented be improved to show pilotnames instead of the games internal ID #'s which are meaningless to the player.

 

* Better In-Game Map. Seems many people agree that the existing map is useless for precise navigation as its impossible to see any real geographic features.

 

* Improved AI that accounts for changes in combat situation. For example, I have noticed that enemy flights that have ground attack missions will essentially IGNORE me and focus on their ground attack/airbase strafing tasks even as I begin to shoot them down one at a time. The AI should give up or at least delay this task and make sure they don't get shot down by me and my squadmates.

 

* Improved integration between mission results and campaign progression. What I mean by this is that while playing in a mission we all have shot down historical aces, seen our squadmates shot down and inflicted and sustained various levels of damage to and from the enemy yet once the mission is over, none of this seems to affect the *world* at large.

 

I also don't agree with the developers stance on shooting down historical aces. I think that the player SHOULD be able to kill or incapacitate aces and that if they are rendered dead, then they should be DEAD. It makes no sense to say that since they are HISTORICAL, they should only die on their real dates. Just playing in the campaign as a player keeps the time progression from truly being 100% historical so why not allow this slight RPG gameplay element and allow the player to affect the world around them in a real way?

 

This should also be extended so that if I see various squadmates shot down, then they SHOULD really be shot down and the mission debrief needs to reflect that, instead of the somewhat random OFF Manager results that are reported now. I would also like to see enemy damage/friendly represented in subsequent missions. That way, if on a single day for instance, 12 enemy planes from a single squadron are shot down in-game, they shouldn't be back up to full strength the very next day. This would require much better database to gameplay integration but would really make this a full dynamic campaign as opposed to it's currently implemented and somewhat constrained nature.

 

* Allow custom skins for the player that are not copied by the entire flight.

 

* Better Multiplayer integration including ability to play MP campaigns (which can be done even now, but official support would be ideal). Obviously myself and others have really been pushing MP over the past few weeks and it would be incredible if OBD could look into enhancing MP gameplay somewhat (and perhaps look into why MP in Windows 7 doesn't work!).

 

* In addition to picking a country, squadron and date to play in for new pilots, include a new "Famous Air Campaigns" listing which would help players find very active squadrons and battles to fly during. While many of us know the best times to fly for maximum activity, not every player of this game is a WWI scholar and this 'predefined listing' would help people find really great campaigns and squads to fly in. For example, there could be a listing for "Bloody April" that includes the key Jastas and Allied Squads during late 1917 March-Early May period of time and near the Arras region. Basically, this would just be a filter that would help people to locate some of the big battle campaigns that the game already features.

 

* Allow AI to be affected by wind/clouds

 

* Implement a better fix to the "killer-cloud" situation

 

* Make the rockets behave more like WWI era rockets and less like 2.75 inch FFAR Hydras. ;)

 

* Include Random Engine Failures/Degradation

 

* Allow Player Pilot Transfers to different squadrons.

 

* Add accurate depiction of Artillery Spotting Procedures for observation aircraft (would probably require game engine code changes which are not possible though). I don't know of any other WWI game that has ever tried to accurately model the various plane (or balloon)-to-battery procedures and practices but I think it would be cool to be able to do this.

 

* More active groundwar. While there is plenty of arty action and troops and equipment on the move, I have never actually witnessed any *attacks* as it were across the front. These types of units always seem to either be in static positions or away from the front and I am not aware of them really ever engaging one another as it were.

 

* Fix friendly AAA shooting down their own balloons. Seems to occur a lot and probably related to accuracy changes that have gone into the AAA code recently to make them less precise.

 

* New planes (well of course, we all want that) but would at least like to see the holes in the campaign filled so that all squads as depicted are playable for all dates.

 

* Be able to have squads with mixed aircraft (been working on this in the mission editor, and it is possible as is, but not for the player flight apparently)

 

* Allow Larger flights than 8 aircraft. Again, easy to do by editing mission files manually (Editor only allows max of eight planes but you can add them yourself) but would be cool to see the OFF Manager create campaign missions with larger flights when accurate.

 

* Allow a player to remain with their plane for as long as they wish when they die or are shot down as they can when they play a mission with the CFS3MP.exe module or in Multiplay (basically as it was in Phase 2).

 

There are probably other gameplay items I am forgetting but that's certainly enough for now.

 

Madmatt

Edited June 12, 2009 by Madmatt

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

* Better Post Mission Review system The current Mission Review is EXTREMELY slow and all but useless if either the player or AI strafes any ground targets since you have to click through HUNDREDS of nearly identical entries in the log. Perhaps a filter could be added to limit what is displayed and I would also like to see a Mission Review Export function that could output the full mission log into a raw text format for review out of game. I would also like to see the info presented be improved to show pilotnames instead of the games internal ID #'s which are meaningless to the player.

 

* Better In-Game Map. Seems many people agree that the existing map is useless for precise navigation as its impossible to see any real geographic features.

 

* Allow AI to be affected by wind/clouds

 

* Implement a better fix to the "killer-cloud" situation

 

* Make the rockets behave more like WWI era rockets and less like 2.75 inch FFAR Hydras. ;)

 

* Include Random Engine Failures/Degradation

 

* Allow Player Pilot Transfers to different squadrons.

 

+ + + For all of the above.

 

* More active groundwar. While there is plenty of arty action and troops and equipment on the move, I have never actually witnessed any *attacks* as it were across the front. These types of units always seem to either be in static positions or away from the front and I am not aware of them really ever engaging one another as it were.

A BIG + + + + + to this!

 

Everyone else has made some excellent suggestions that I also agree with. Two more suggestions I would like to see implemented into the game: 1) Colored flares for signaling. Probably hard to implement, but would add a tremendous amount of immersion into the game. 2) AI that land properly without crashing when undamaged. Also, a fix to the AI landing and failing to stop until they run into trees or another obstacle and exploding into a fireball! Don't these idiots know how to turn off their engine?

[Duce Lewis 3]

Great ideas all!

 

Here's my wishlist

1) I agree on the Claims Form

We should be able to claim any amout we want however incorrect

Also it would be nice to be ble to claim ballons on any mission not just Ballon Busters

 

2) Create a fixed zoom for the in-game map

Short missions like scrambles are so zoomed in it's useless

Not needed for navigation but when shot-up it'd be nice to know where the nearest airfield is

 

3) Add rail lines and railroad traffic to the game ...sorry, I know this is a biggie

 

4) Add some Good Luck variability to Strike missions

Currently, all crates, oil drums are evenly spaced out for minimum damage risk

It would be nice to catch them unloading a train with crates all stacked at railside before dispersment

Or maybe a lazy corporal who hasn't done his dispersing job very well

Kinda like the Amercan Divebombers arriving over the Japanese Fleet at Midway with no fighter protection ...woohoo!

 

5) Revise the FM Options

Beginner (For newbies)

Realistic (for the DiD guys)

Enhanced (like P2, for guys who like wild aerobatics)

 

6) Gothas, Handley Pages, Zepplins, Salmson, and the Nieuport 28

 

7) Have the skinners create options for modifying the default AC for each squadron

Stripes/Patterns (Wing Nose Tail, Fus), Symbols (Skull, Coat of Arms, Letters), Wheel Color & Patterns

Player would be able to add more features as he advances in the squad

Germans would have a lot of options, Brits very little

Plane would look very much like a period crate

 

Great to have a real opportunity to make suggestions

Thanks,

[Hellshade 110]

I changed my mind. I'm not going to add anything because after reading all of the suggestions, all I really want to do is just send a pizza, 12 pack of beer and a bottle of advil to the Devs. I'm sure whatever you are able to put into P4 will be fantastic, but thanks for taking everyone ideas into consideration. Let me know when I can pre-order.

 

/salute

Hellshade

[+Polovski 460]

Ok that covers P4 to P10 then LOL.

 

We will not be changeling from a historical sim to "a player changes the war" sim that would need a large change to how databases work. You can shoot an ace down but he crash lands and escapes to die when he dies, otherwise those trillion stats and skins we gather will be sitting doing nothing. No point reading that MVR got 80 when you shot him down on 2.

 

BTW coloured flares are already there. Look at the optional loadout on many craft ..choose aircraft that can use them in a loadout like Strutter, DH2, DFW, Biff etc.

[angles1100 0]

Great thread guys and yes P4 is on the go at the moment.

 

But 2) concerns me a bit - should not be that way - can we get some consensus on this?

 

Ta

 

WM

 

P4 Cool beans :)

Will P4 still be built on cfs3 ?

 

cheers

[rabu 9]

I'd love to see the Zep added back in.. remember it fondly in phase I, but it isn't that big a deal.

 

My biggest peave, that I would love to see fixed, is the in cloud death wind. It's a real problem, because if you follow a leader in bad weather, the AI seem to be able to fly right through these clouds, but if you dare to follow, you are likely to get thrown down to the ground with little chance of gaining control.

 

I also don't like the sudden ending when you are shot down or killed.. would like to see my plane falling and crashing, that is a lot more exciting then suddenly being thrown back to the game interface with the announcent that you are dead, or what ever.

 

I also still refuse to believe that there isn't some way of improving the ingame map resolution.

 

What I would love to see added, that I think adds so much to the feeling of being there, are animated arms and legs in the cockpit.. a few of the planes have it, like the Nieuport 11 and I think it adds a lot to the game. Also some animation of the pilots from out side view would add a lot to the reality, if that is even possible, but it isn't as impressive as the in pit view.

[prattrat 0]

My most passionate request would be an overhaul of the Quick Combat functionality. I use QC quite a lot (or, rather, would LIKE to use it quite a lot -- I find it so irritating that I give up), and would love to see the following shortcomings addressed:

 

1) Completely de-couple QC from the Campaign. QC should be for when you don't have time to go on a Campaign mission, or don't want to risk killing a Campaign pilot, or want to practice certain combat tactics over and over again, or simply want to shoot at something for a few minutes with abandon.

 

2) Don't use campaign pilots. Use a default pilot that you only have to set preferences for once, that the game will remember until you change them again. Even if you die in the QC, the game will retain the default for the next mission, without having to go through the rigamarole of naming, picking a squad, etc.... Give the option of picking a pilot from either side directly in the GUI.

 

3) Retain mission settings until changed. Right now, if you pick a skin for the enemy craft, it reverts back to the default skin every time you get sent back to the GUI. It's a huge time waster to have to search for the same skin in the extensive dropdown menu for every mission.

 

4) Allow weather overrides. Right now there are seasonal overrides, but quite often (I think because of the Campaign date interaction) the game gets stuck in a rain or snow mode, and no matter what I do to the seasonal or time of day settings, I can't escape the lousy weather, which really kills my frame rates.

 

5) Allow the CFS3 feature of simply picking "Refly" at the conclusion of the combat, without actually exiting the mission. This is a very convenient feature, especially if you like all of the settings and just want to keep practicing the same tactic over and over quickly. I have tried the "CFS3 QC" button from Workshop, but it doesn't seem to behave the same way as the stock CFS3 does in this regard.

 

Other than this aspect, I think it's a great sim.

 

As far as new planes go, I'm still partial to wanting some more of the later craft, like the Snipe, even though they didn't really have much of an impact on the war. The rush of dogfighting in this sim with the better maneuverability and higher speed of the advanced planes would be hard to beat. I've followed the previous forum discussions on reasons for not including the Nieuport 28, but even though it was already outclassed and obsolete when it was introduced, its absence in the sim really leaves a big hole in the American campaign experience.

 

Finally, I think the wind effects can be dialed way up. I never notice myself really needing to correct for wind while navigating, or fighting a really wicked crosswind in my takeoffs or approaches to landing, but I know these kites would have been tossed around pretty easily in RL. It would be reasonable to expect that the wind would have changed between takeoff and landing on a Campaign mission, so that you would really need to fly over the field to check the direction of the wind every time before setting up for a landing, or risk being overcome by the crosswind component. I never can spot the windsock from the air.

[Rick Rawlings 137]

We will not be changeling from a historical sim to "a player changes the war" sim that would need a large change to how databases work. You can shoot an ace down but he crash lands and escapes to die when he dies, otherwise those trillion stats and skins we gather will be sitting doing nothing. No point reading that MVR got 80 when you shot him down on 2.

 

 

This seems silly. MVR did not "change the war" so shooting him down early would not "change the war". Many aces are now listed as Historical Squadron Members with N/A for there stats, anyway, so I am not sure how that would change much. Just list them as KIA, mention it in the papers and move on. As it is now, shooting the same guy down a couple of times and watching him explode on impact each time (on your side of the lines, no less!) only to show up again two missions later is a much greater drag on immersion.

 

RR

[+Winder 32]

I'd love to see the Zep added back in.. remember it fondly in phase I, but it isn't that big a deal.

 

My biggest peave, that I would love to see fixed, is the in cloud death wind. It's a real problem, because if you follow a leader in bad weather, the AI seem to be able to fly right through these clouds, but if you dare to follow, you are likely to get thrown down to the ground with little chance of gaining control.

 

I also don't like the sudden ending when you are shot down or killed.. would like to see my plane falling and crashing, that is a lot more exciting then suddenly being thrown back to the game interface with the announcent that you are dead, or what ever.

 

I also still refuse to believe that there isn't some way of improving the ingame map resolution.

 

What I would love to see added, that I think adds so much to the feeling of being there, are animated arms and legs in the cockpit.. a few of the planes have it, like the Nieuport 11 and I think it adds a lot to the game. Also some animation of the pilots from out side view would add a lot to the reality, if that is even possible, but it isn't as impressive as the in pit view.

 

The ingame map res can be increased very easily Rabu but it will eat your vid memory faster than you would like!

 

Currently the map is 3.3Mb - you can do the math on improving it by say 4x res and ideally it needs 8x res....

 

WM

[Creaghorn 10]

what also would be great is a doppler effect on extern engine sound, and just for immersion, the visual reload on spandaus, like it is already with the lewis. what also might be improved is the effects when crashing. i don't think a plane is exploding every time on impact. it should just crash and get deformed, but without those yellow neon surround blast.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

ukw,

 

not sure if its the same on my system as yours, but there are some really nice wind effect sounds,,,you just cant hear them over your engine..

 

ut oh,,,,,,,,damn,,,went to open off manger to look thru the sound settings and off is infected,,,,,and my av found the same trojan in my fraps.exe...so guess this thing is on the move...

 

anyways,,,i think if you move your effects sound slider way up,,,and then turn your engine off in flight,,you will hear the wind sounds i hear..they are actully pretty cool..

 

Cool!!...Thanks SD..will check that out!!!

[Test Pilot 0]

what also would be great is a doppler effect on extern engine sound, and just for immersion, the visual reload on spandaus, like it is already with the lewis. what also might be improved is the effects when crashing. i don't think a plane is exploding every time on impact. it should just crash and get deformed, but without those yellow neon surround blast.

 

Yes, a less explosive crash would be very nice.

[Dimus 0]

I admit to not contributing much to this forum for quite some time, although I loosely follow it. This thread is a good chance to add a comment.

 

It is great to see a P4 being though of. All the comments so far have covered most if not all of the SP/campaign aspects. Is there any possibility in improving the only really weak point of this sim, the MP performance? I guess though that the CFS3 legacy is where any such effort will stumble upon.

 

More fluid and bug free MP play would really boost up OFF imho.

[Rickitycrate 10]

And so I wonder and almost hate to bring it up, but... what game engine might you be using for P4? I love BH&H! I thank the dev's everyday that I have it and no one can take it away. It's mine for good. I treasure it. All you guys have good points for improvement and inclusion. Seems to me CFS3 is just not up to what we might want. The devs have worked miracles for us thus far. A new game engine and losing the CFS3 stigma seems to be something to hope for, as long as it runs on my machine, that is there, 2 cents for ya.

[+Polovski 460]

This seems silly. MVR did not "change the war" so shooting him down early would not "change the war". Many aces are now listed as Historical Squadron Members with N/A for there stats, anyway, so I am not sure how that would change much. Just list them as KIA, mention it in the papers and move on. As it is now, shooting the same guy down a couple of times and watching him explode on impact each time (on your side of the lines, no less!) only to show up again two missions later is a much greater drag on immersion.

 

RR

 

I disagree MvR changed the whole face of the war from propaganda side alone. At that time, rumour was king, knowing a red devil flew the skies who never lost would shake fear in a young raw pilot. If the greatest ace of WW1 was dead after 1 kill I'd call that changing history and the war. Now it's a fantasy and not historical. But yes you are not a young pilot, you have access to the web and TV etc etc .. ;)

 

Yes it's another way of doing it, and it could be done but I'd rather spend dev time making other things. Maybe a way to do both who knows but it would need some serious work to change things.

[Guest Barnstorm]

Since I fly by map and compass and since the in-flight map can not be up-graded to mirror the briefing room map, I would like to have the compass headings of the mission- takeoffs, turns, way points, etc. This would make it easier to follow and add realism to the missions.

 

Also, a more detailed (within reason) weather report (wind speed/direction) at take off, so we could somehow give the flight leader decision making ability over direction of takeoff for the flight.

[rabu 9]

I disagree MvR changed the whole face of the war from propaganda side alone. At that time, rumour was king, knowing a red devil flew the skies who never lost would shake fear in a young raw pilot. If the greatest ace of WW1 was dead after 1 kill I'd call that changing history and the war. Now it's a fantasy and not historical. But yes you are not a young pilot, you have access to the web and TV etc etc .. ;)

 

Yes it's another way of doing it, and it could be done but I'd rather spend dev time making other things. Maybe a way to do both who knows but it would need some serious work to change things.

 

How about a different solution to the Ace killed before his time problem? How about just making the Ace invincible till his historical death date.. any way to do that? So if you ran into one of them and got in a battle, even if you were to hit his target boxes, he wouldn't crash or die, maybe only get injured or crippled, but survive? And, if some one wants to test fly against a ace to see if they can beat him, we could set it up with a special QC with a list of most well known aces to fly against.