Leatherneck Newsletter

[MigBuster 2,884]

Dear All,

First off – I'd like to sincerely apologize on the behalf of the team for the issues experienced by a significant amount of you with the rollout of the 1.2.15 patch. 
Something seems to have gone awry in the patching process that requires many of you to repair your DCS install to make the MiG-21 function properly. We are unsure what is causing this. Some other issues, such as the main landing gear slightly sinking into the ground do not occur on our local development builds. We are investigating the cause for these discrepancies and hope to correct them as soon as possible.

Some major bugs we are tracking include the ASP, various instances of avionics errors, steering difficulties (note, that steering will be far more difficult now as the implementation has been changed to be realistic, but the current situation might be exacerbated by the sinking of main landing gear) and more. 
We'll keep you updated on our progress and also note what is intentional/correct behaviour, and what is not.



In our previous monthly update we noted that we hope to ship all backer rewards in February; but while we've made significant progress on this front, we have shifted production runs to allow for shipments in late March. 

Likewise, as noted previously, we have combined several backer rewards into bigger, more useful, and better crafted items. 
These include for example printed manuals, T-Shirts, other printed artwork. We think you will be very happy with the level we've been able to attain. 
These items will be presented shortly, so we can receive your input and hold off until mostly everyone is satisfied.



In our last newsletter, we mentioned significant growth of our team and the establishment of a new, permanent, studio in Swinoujscie, Poland. 
While our new studio is not quite yet operational; it is complete and in its' initial transitory phase. 
We're extremely excited to be able to grow and increase our production output, as it allows me to tease you all with secretive new content on a far more frequent basis.

Growing the development team requires us to revise our internal thinking and workflow quite considerably. 
As the team and both our old and new aircraft and theatres grow in size and complexity, our current, tight-knit form of communication and task delegation is rapidly becoming obsolete. Thus, significant effort has been made throughout January and February to convert to and more effectively use project management tools and also revamp our workflow. While this may sound (oh, who are we kidding, it is) completely uninteresting, the take-away is that we are able to significantly enhance our effectiveness and thus content creation speed.

Basically: We're going corporate. Expect more evil in LNS modules from now on. 

In the last newsletter we also noted that we had already expanded the team considerably, and I can now take the time to proudly introduce you to our new team members. We feel incredibly lucky to be able to work with more individuals who share our passion, drive and commitment. Without further ado; please welcome 
Christoffer Wärnbring 
Teodor Frost 
Andreas Sandin 
Anders Karlsson. 

Our Team section on our site has been updated accordingly; and features some snippets of information about the new cannon fod...er, team members.
HERE: http://www.leatherneck-sim.com/team/



Aircraft development during the past two months has been progressing at a fantastic rate. 
Just like our changes in project management and task delegation, we too have been making big changes in the nitty gritty of our development process.

The MiG-21 was an isolated product with a very specific codebase. To more efficiently move forward, we have spent a lot of time restructuring our projects and code itself, now adhering to a more general framework. 
This will allow us to more quickly prototype new aircraft and to get into the real meat of avionics and FM coding, as well as increase efficiency of started projects and code-porting. 
We have also written several internal tools which will help to enhance these benefits.

We are working in parallel on our three advanced aircraft projects; but that isn't quite the whole story. 
In addition to these main, flyable aircraft modules, we are investing a lot of hard work into the creation of auxiliary components, such as: Tanks, Ships, AI Only Aircraft and much more. 
These items are heavily related to our theatre development plans, and represent one of our most ambitious undertakings. 

All three of our aircraft have necessitated the need to develop new, internal technologies that we did not need for the MiG-21. Some of these have been more challenging than others-- and some will probably genuinely make your jaw drop. 
By developing these difficult features, we are later able to adapt them to new aircraft, and thus shorten our development times even further. 
Examples of complexity include e.g. Ground Radar, AI Systems, and more.

Currently, we hope to release two aircraft during the course of 2015. As usual, everything is subject to change, but as we become more experienced, we are able to better gauge our progress and remaining workload. 
The aforementioned project management and structure changes play a part in this as well. All indications point to two Leatherneck releases this year. 
I do not think you will be disappointed in the aircraft on offer.

That just leaves the elephant in the room.

The answer is Monday. 

We will announce one of our new, advanced modules on Monday. Apologies to those of you who have spent half the night up mashing your F5 key, but we need the extra day to facilitate the creation of our announcement materials. 
For those of you with sharpened pitchforks; there are free sausages in the fridge and I see you've already started a sizeable fire. Just grab a seat until Monday.



The primary purpose of the establishment of our new, permanent studio is theatre development and everything therein. 
Theatre development requires a vast amount of content, especially if the theatre is set in a location or era not related to any currently available and developed location. 
While our theatre development plans are still in the early phases, considerable progress is being made. I just used the word theatre a lot.

In particular, we have been conducting a lot of research on various topics. E.g. how to utilize various tools to enhance lower fidelity DEM data, or various texture baking techniques and how hand-sculpted terrain assets can be integrated into a DEM base. By leveraging the power of EDGE, we can follow in Eagle's footsteps and try to really push the boundaries.

While plans may change, we currently hope to bundle two small theatres for free with both of the aircraft we're planning to release this year. 
Both theatres are significantly different from each other and will require the construction of a lot of content that can be re-used down the line.

In closing;

Thanks for sticking with us, we appreciate it more than we could ever convey.
We're constantly looking to improve, but we're only human. We do try our best.

The next monthly update will be before the middle of March – to compensate you for your long wait.
By then, it'll be a whole different conversation. 

Sincerely,
Leatherneck Simulations

__________________
/Nicholas Dackard

Artist & Evil Corporate Overlord
Leatherneck Simulations

[Do335 382]

Well, they've announced the Cat. There goes the neighbourhood. :D

[JediMaster 451]

The A and the B. I'm partial to some decent engines, myself.

[Do335 382]

Same. Although I'm not partial to DCS, this one becomes tempting.

 

The question is... who will be my backseater.

[+Dave 2,322]

Same. Although I'm not partial to DCS, this one becomes tempting.

 

The question is... who will be my backseater.

 

Can't be Goose...he's dead....