What would you like to get in P4?

[RAF_Louvert]

.

 

Excellent requests everyone, and I would agree with them all. Of course, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. But it is fun to wish.

 

Olham, I think I would prefer to use the map as reference for ground installation confirmation of kills, (assuming we did have a better in-game version). If it were set up so that you could enter something along the lines of this in your claims form: "EA crashed 3 miles SSE of Saint-Mihiel near Allied gun position. Request confirmation from ground units in this sector." This would keep the immersion factor high. And since we are wishing here anyway, another fun thought would be if we could actually drive out to a crash site that is on the friendly side of the mud and grab a souvenir as well as get out confirmation, just as it was done in the war.

 

.

[Olham]

Yes, that would be so much better - no need for Labels check. Good idea, Lou - and might be possible to build.

[themightysrc]

Whilst I've already had my say, here's a little more to be going on with.

 

I would very much appreciate a claim form that is in full screen editor format. It drives me mad inputting the details onto a single line - surely this is doable?

 

Appropos of another recent thread here, spotting missions for two seaters with a real spotting mechanism and feedback from the ground guns would be marvellous, as would some way of doing photo reconaissance, although I guess the latter is a step too far.

 

Can we have more detailed and meaningful maps (yes, I know...)?

 

"Orders from on high" - ie, forced transfers, either to other units or back to Paris/London/Berlin should be considered - they make up what I consider to be an essential element of the game. Let's face it: if you fly DiD in campaign, you will (unrealistically) fly 2-3-4 missions per day, practically every day, in a sky swarming (unrealistically) with vast numbers of enemy aircraft. That's not knocking OFF or the devs, let me emphasise - what I'm saying is that, for most pilots in most periods of the war, intense and intensive activity was very much the exception, rather than the rule. If it's Operation Michael or the Battle of Cambrai, well, yes, unleash the dogs of war as the missions, losses and kills rack up, but outside of those, no, let's have more realistic lives for our pilots - perhaps with the option in Workshop to knock the levels up to kamikaze for those people who want the 'zing!' factor of skies full of enemy aircraft on every flight. And, let us not forget, pilots actually did get rostered home on a regular basis to prevent the very burnout that is - falsely - axiomatic from writings about the air war. Transfers, I guess, are a well known 'would like', so I won't dwell on that

 

I'd be delighted to see a screen that told you that ops were scrubbed before you get to the weather information screen, allowing my alter ego more time in his little digital bed, and tying loosely into that, I'd love the mission briefing map to be detailed for the areas overflown - but I guess that would come with better, ie, non-CFS3, maps.

 

It's odd really. The more I think about what I'd like to see, the more I can find, and yet the more I appreciate the depth of devotion and effort that Pol, Winder, Shred and everyone else has put into OFF. A couple of years ago, I resurrected RB3D, simply because it filled such a need in me, and I toyed with FE and found it wanting. I came to OFF with trepidation, and the sense that nothing, but nothing, could be better than RB3D, patched to the hilt.

 

And, here I am now, in absolute awe of what OBD have done with the red haired child of combat flight sims, and yet wishing, urging, them on to do more.

 

I've read elsewhere that combat flight sim gamers are probably the most hypercritical and ungrateful audience in all of gamerdom: I can believe it. But as I look at OFF, I see something that is a work of unparalleled historic beauty and authenticity; genuinely a work of devotion, love and dedication.

 

Whatever P4 brings, I will be waiting to purchase, install, fly and appreciate it.

 

Cheers,

Si

 

PS - just don't pork the DR1...

[Olham]

Hey, Widowmaker - what did you pay the other 8 guys for their vote on the Snipe?

[Hasse Wind]

Hey, Widowmaker - what did you pay the other 8 guys for their vote on the Snipe?

 

He's probably created several different user accounts here so that he can vote multiple times.

[Olham]

Trust him to undertake any possible or impossible action to get his Snipe!

What he doesn't know: I've offered Winder 1.000 bucks, if he creates Snipes for me -

the birds though! And they'll fly around on Widowmaker's airfield and disturb the

flying business there. Mmuahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!!!!

[Dej]

Si's post has made me think about the unrealistic (arguably, 'cos offensives made pretty intense demands on the air service) levels of combat we experience in this sim

 

This may happen already, I've not observed. Plus, it's hard enough to keep a pilot alive that this may be over the top.

 

But, I wonder if aught could be done with the fatigue parameter such that if you fly too many missions without a break, e.g. leave, or a posting to quieter sectors, your pilot becomes more vulnerable, so you'd have to be more cautious in combat and might have the occasional random accident on landing or take off.

 

One of the parameters British_eh proposes switching to as part of various Survival in the Air settings through the course of the War is Death on Dice Roll instead of Dead is Dead, and if increasing fatigue weighted the former more toward the latter might that not add more immersion?

[Hellshade]

No, I think Winder will be cruel and create Snipes that just sit in the hangers on the airfields (as static scenery) like they are being worked on, but can never be pulled out and flown. That way they could say they put them in the game.

 

Hellshade

[Herr Prop-Wasche]

Miscellaneous wishes for P4:

 

1) Ability to transfer

2) Two week leave

3) Injuries that take longer than just a few days to heal

4) Ambulances

 

and...

 

Little green men!

[Winston DoRight]

Miscellaneous wishes for P4:

 

1) Ability to transfer

2) Two week leave

3) Injuries that take longer than just a few days to heal

4) Ambulances

 

and...

 

Little green men!

Ambulances are already in the game. Just not programmed into any single player missions that I've seen. In MP I use them to receive the wounded that we bring back from our rescue missions.

[Rickitycrate]

AI only Snipes.

[Hellshade]

Hey, Widowmaker - what did you pay the other 8 guys for their vote on the Snipe?

 

No. We all just didn't want to hear about Snipes missing for the next 4 years after P4 is released.

I still say they should just put Snipes in the hangers as part of static scenery but not put them in the game as AI or flyable.

 

Hellshade

[rabu]

Thanks, Olham, great poll. Interesting how many of us think alike about wanting 1916, Moraine Bullet, recon planes, etc.

[Olham]

Yes, I think, the majority of OFF simmers really wants next, what makes most sense / what's missing badly.

If early war planes would be more, we would fly more in 1915 and 1916.

If missing planes would come, which were used by several squadrons or Jasta for some noticable time,

some squadrons, Escadrilles or Jasta could get equipped and would be "flyable", which right now don't

have the aircraft and are therefor missing.

So I assume or hope, that we will have an even wider choice in P4, than we do already have now.

That will make this sim even so much more attractive, and give the simmer an even bigger choice, where

to join next. A dream, that might come true...

Edited September 3, 2010 by Olham

[Smithy26]

I would like to see two things :

1. Squad mates who don't shoot through you when you are on the tail of an enemy. (I've never been shot down, but seriously damaged several times)

2. Squad mates who don't attack obviously crippled aircraft falling to earth that you have shot down, and therefore stealing your kills.

 

These things happen to me on a regular basis. I have actually had my wingman dive down on a tumbling enemy aircraft, falling for thousands of feet straight down, to get a burst in and preventing my kills. Very annoying!!

Edited September 12, 2010 by Smithy26

[Olham]

I ditto that.

 

You could, as long as we don't have this, press "return" if you want them to stop fighting.

But that will stop all of them from attacking enemy craft.

[themightysrc]

I can't remember if I've already posted this, and, naturally, I'm far too lazy to check back, so here goes:

 

Please can we have a full screen or windowed editor to enter details of claims? The single line editor we currently have is really not what's needed, and it makes the entering of details rather more onerous than it should be.

[Herr Prop-Wasche]

Speaking again of claims and the need to list a witness: If we are unable to get a drop-down list of available squadmates, it would still help if the devs could make the claims window movable, so we could move it out of the way of the roster screen that sits underneath in order to read the names of our squadmates and type one of their names into the claims form.

[Hasse Wind]

I agree with all the previous comments about streamlining the claims business. I'd love to see such improvements in P4, and I think they are much easier to implement than many of the crazily ambitious things we are asking for.

[Olham]

Would be definitely better, Herr Prop Wasche, that's true. My tip for the time, until we get that:

I have bought myself a red and black China notebook, in which I write down all my squadmate names with numbers in front.#

For each sortie, I now only need to note the numbers of my wingmen.

I use that notebook also for notes about the fights, the locations, times, enemy types and numbers, and markings.

[Hasse Wind]

I have a system almost similar to yours, Olham. The problem is the huge number of casualties my units always suffer, which means that I must keep constantly updating the list. I guess I'm a dangerous man to have in squadron. That's why I wouldn't mind to see my computer take care of such things - isn't that why the bloody things were invented in the first place, to make life easier for humans, to perform tasks which are too bothersome or impossible for us?

[Olham]

Yes, of course, Hasse Wind. And if the claims thing would be made a little more useable, it could be far more attractive.

Names of wingmen/witnesses should be in there already, cause your witnesses would know, who they are.

The player should only identify the planes himself, and make notes of markings, places and times.

 

I remember, that Winder once asked for German claims from players. I dare to believe - or hope - that he is

about to make an "intelligent claim process", which really recognises your details and compares them with

the facts to a certain extent. Wouldn't that be phantastic?

[Olham]

Just thought of another thing that could perhaps be changed for P4 - maybe it was already asked:

 

could the ammunition be made "historical" - in other words: tracers no earlier than they appeared?