Thoughts about P4

[Hellshade 110]

I mentioned before as a joke if we made the sim format you C: drive if you died once it might give you a small taste :) and help the kill numbers ;)

 

Let's hope that's not a feature included in P4, ok? I'm going to vote 'no'.

 

Hellshade

[+Polovski 460]

Lol Hellshade yeah bags I am not testing it too!

[Gous 0]

I mentioned before as a joke if we made the sim format your C: drive if you died once it might give you a small taste of fear and help the kill numbers

 

I like this. I really do!

[tranquillo 10]

As a newbie who wasn't around for P1 & 2, I'm hoping that P4 will install over P3 without having the apparent hassle involved in uninstalling it first? As for the rest I'm sold already.

[+Polovski 460]

We can't guarantee it will overwrite / upgrade P3 and work fine at this stage - some people mod their P3 for example. But as always we will look at all the possibilities.

[themightysrc 5]

Hi Pol,

 

Seeing as you're here: can you tell us early doors whether P4 will be DVD only or downloadable, and also, will it include all previous work - ie, P3 plus HitR as standard?

 

Cheers,

Si

[Hellshade 110]

Hi Pol,

 

Seeing as you're here: can you tell us early doors whether P4 will be DVD only or downloadable, and also, will it include all previous work - ie, P3 plus HitR as standard?

 

Cheers,

Si

 

 

All we know for sure is that it will be a highly modified version of the Legos: Star Wars engine. Should be good.

 

Hellshade

[+Polovski 460]

Si, we haven't decided on all the details yet as we are still making new things as we speak. However if we do include all previous P3 files it's going to be even bigger of course which leans towards DVD or 2 DVDs or 3 or 238

[Morris 2]

Pol,

 

Make it as big as you can please.

 

Cheers

 

m

[Von Paulus 8]

Please, make it also available for download.

Edited June 2, 2010 by Von Paulus

[Hasse Wind 46]

It would be great if P4 had all the aircraft we now have in P3, and even some new ones, especially 2-seaters.

 

Speaking of 2-seaters, lately I've been flying them more than fighters. I would like to see the behaviour of escort fighters improved so that they stay more with the 2-seaters they are supposed to escort and not abandon them so easily and go chasing after enemy planes that pose no immediate danger to the 2-seaters. I know coordinating escorts was difficult in WW1 (and it wasn't easy in WW2 either, but much easier than during WW1), but when they are present with the bombers, it would be nice to see them act more like true escorts. It isn't such a major problem when flying a bomber such as the DFW, which is capable of climbing so quickly and flying so high that it can usually evade attacking enemies even without escorts, but slow and clumsy 2-seaters, the worst of which is the BE2, are extremely vulnerable (as they should) without their escorts. In WW1, 2-seaters were often used to escort other 2-seaters, so this is also something that I'd like to see much more in P4.

[Morris 2]

HW,

 

i think that OBD should scrap all the 2-seaters from P4. They only take up air space and are easy targets.

 

[Hasse Wind 46]

HW,

 

i think that OBD should scrap all the 2-seaters from P4. They only take up air space and are easy targets.

 

 

But how would you then earn your PLM? If there weren't any defenseless, helpless victims around, you'd actually have to face enemies who fight back, and you wouldn't want that, now would you?

 

(Yeah, the 2-seater AI could in some cases need some improvements, but I believe that is already being worked for P4. And some of them do put up a good fight, like the Rolands for example.)

[carrick58 23]

I agree with Hasse wind, more 2 Seaters for Recon and easy kills. Just AI flown would be cool, it would be more like what WWI was like in the Air.

[DukeIronHand 8]

I must say these ideas and suggestions are getting me kind of excited imagining there implementation in P4.

 

Hopefully they will make it to the new version. Are hopes and expectations setting the bar too high?

[Blackadder33 1]

I just wanted to say a big thank you to Pol & the dev team for making Phase 3 and HitR! Fast hassle-free overseas delivery too and no hidden charges, it's one of the best things I ever bought!

 

Now about P4...

 

I used to tinker with the Film Replay utility for hours in Rowan's 'Dawn Patrol' sim/interactive book... and still do sometimes running it in DosBox! So, maybe we could have something like this?

 

Yes, I know we have Fraps and I use it, but I think you know what I mean. Of course, sometimes it would be useful to view our flights in slo-mo detail back in the hangar after a flight. From the perspective of any aircraft or ground object, at any angle, at any time. Something like in Rise of Flight or Falcon's 'black box' tacts system.

 

Not to mention the fantastic movies we could be making if we had this. Or just to record our missions for posterity.

 

I know it's a legacy CFS3 issue... so I might just be wishful thinking here...

 

Just letting you know I'm loving Phase 3 + HitR and that would be my ONE wish for P4.

 

Best wishes and all the best to you!

[Hellshade 110]

Not sure if it's possible, but one thing I'd really love to do in P4 is attack an enemy airfield while the planes are literally taking off to defend it. Strafe the planes as they are headed down the runway and just as they are lifting off. A sort of "reverse scramble" mission, as it were. Again, not sureif it's possible but that would certainly be awesome to turn a plane into a fireball just as it was getting airborn.

 

Hellshade

[Barkhorn1x 14]

Not sure if it's possible, but one thing I'd really love to do in P4 is attack an enemy airfield while the planes are literally taking off to defend it. Strafe the planes as they are headed down the runway and just as they are lifting off. A sort of "reverse scramble" mission, as it were. Again, not sureif it's possible but that would certainly be awesome to turn a plane into a fireball just as it was getting airborn.

 

Hellshade

 

Hmmm...this would depend on whether enemy a/c start the mission in the air or start on the ground. And, if they start on the ground, do all a/c start at the same time or can it be staggered?

 

OK - here is a suggested improvement:

 

Cut down on the number of waypoints included in a mission. Each campaign mission has about 10 waypoints and half of these are little more than stooging around your own base. Cut those out and the missions will go a bit quicker and smoother.

[+Polovski 460]

There are technical reasons why there are that many waypoints at your base. They are used for the AI and you to built up altitude required by the mission. Otherwise you'll never get to the mission altitude without them you will take off and directly head out over the lines at 1-3k which is fairly unheard of, especially if you are based close, and later the year the higher they flew.

 

Try turning down the mission altitude in Workshop.

[Bandy 3]

Cut down on the number of waypoints included in a mission. Each campaign mission has about 10 waypoints and half of these are little more than stooging around your own base. Cut those out and the missions will go a bit quicker and smoother.

 

I agree with you, there are too many lousy loops around the home field. The only way you can get around it is to fast forward, or lead the flight yourself and ignore the waypoints. Either way you miss something. Fast forward is not an ideal solution as it is intrusive to real game play, and ignoring the way points means the enemy always have the height advantage. That sucks.

[Barkhorn1x 14]

There are technical reasons why there are that many waypoints at your base. They are used for the AI and you to built up altitude required by the mission. Otherwise you'll never get to the mission altitude without them you will take off and directly head out over the lines at 1-3k which is fairly unheard of, especially if you are based close, and later the year the higher they flew.

 

Try turning down the mission altitude in Workshop.

 

 

Understood. But what effect will turning down the altitude have on enemy a/c? Will they be correspondigly lower as well - or will I become a sitting duck for enemy a/c to swoop down upon?

[+Polovski 460]

Well the option is called "Player flight altitude". AI missions will be at various heights as always, I can't remember if the AI height is also lowered at all - don't think so, but WM would have to comment if he sees.

 

Maybe fly a few missions and check the general heights in the mission file each time? You can always warp through those points anyway until you start to head out on the mission co-ord if you don't want to fly them. It's not a immersion killer as you are already skipping the climbing part of "being there" ;)

 

Yes higher craft can come down and kill you, rule #1 in WW1 combat ;) but if you fly Brit there's nearly always someone above you anyway.

[Barkhorn1x 14]

Understood. I will check it out.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

[Waldemar Kurtz 1]

if we could have "town nation ###" changed into the historical name for that location... that would be nice.

 

(I think that troop positions and balloons probably change over time-- but towns remain static throughout the war, right?)

[+Polovski 460]

Sometimes the small things take a lot of work oddly much more than seems obvious. Mind you saying that everything does ;)

We will try to do the best we can anyway, but nothing is certain to be done depends on how much time goes by too.