Help fund the Strike Fighters 2 Windows 10 update!

[MigBuster 2,884]

Help fund the Strike Fighters 2 Windows 10 update!

Strike Fighters 2 is a series of popular PC games we released back in 2008 (over 11 years ago!). It was a unique series of inter-connected light/casual flight simulation games set in the Cold War. Despite its age, it's still being enjoyed by many users, thanks largely to its huge and active mod community.

The games were originally designed on (then brand new) Windows Vista, but over the years, new Windows versions have came and gone (Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and finally 10), the hardware has evolved at dizzying speed, and internet security and privacy have become major concerns. With all these changes, some people are reporting issues running our old games on newer machines.

We'd love to be able to update the series to the latest Windows and Direct X version. But we're a very small independent company with very limited resources, and we do not currently have the funds to do this. And this is where you can help!

$25,000 USD is the minimum we need to cover the cost of development and testing. At this level funding, the update will simply be Windows 10/DirectX 12 update with no other fixes, enhancement or improvement.

Of course, any funding we get above and beyond the $25K amount would be used to further enhance and improve the series. Our users have asked for Oculus VR support, air-to-air refueling, and many other features. These all cost time and money, a lot of it unfortunately, so they'll need to be prioritized. We'll put the decisions about which additional features to work on to vote among the contributors. So by funding this and becoming a contributor, you're not only helping us with the funding, you'll also have a say in which direction to go with the update.

We estimate it'll take 2 months of development and testing for the update to be completed. So if we can get started by mid-September, we should be able to release the basic update by this November before Thanksgiving. (Any features from additional contributions will of course take longer)

We'd like to thank our fantastic community, especially the mods community who continue to put out amazing work to improve our games for everyone. We couldn't do this without the community support. Thank you!

 

Contribute here:

https://fundrazr.com/31YZNe?ref=ab_A4B60kVy3KOA4B60kVy3KO

 

 

Answers to some questions asked online:

Q. What happens if the funding goal isn't met?

A. Not everything will be lost even if we don't make the funding goal. We do plan on securing the amount we're short by through other means (loans) and still get the Windows 10 update done at a later time (probably early next year). If we have to go this route however, the update will have to be a paid update and not free to everyone so we can at least recover part of the cost. It'll be free to only those who contributed to this and those who purchased the SF2 Complete Edition.

Please note that this campaign is set as "Keep it all", meaning we keep all the contributions even if the funding goal isn't met.

Q. Can we add <xyz> features and fix <abc> bugs?

A. We'd love to be able to do everything everyone is asking for, but unfortunately, all these take a lot of time and money. If you're expecting our games to have all the features from other AAA-quality games, then you'll be disappointed. Those games costs 10+ (some over 100+) million budget, and there is simply no way we can even come close to that with $100-500K budget we usually spend on our games. If this crowd funding makes more than the funding goal, we'll have the contributors vote and decide on which features we should spend that extra amount on.

Q. Are you going to continue to support the game?

A. We wish we could continue to support the game forever, but again, these things takes a lot of money, and we simply can not afford to keep supporting old games for years and decades. This crowd funding goal is enough to pay for just 2 months of operation. In order for us to continue to support the game year after year, we need the community to continue to buy our games (and not just play them) year after year.

Q. Isn't it better to do Strike Fighters 3?

A. We'd love to be able to do SF3, but we're not ready to commit that much time and money to a new PC game at this point (we still haven't paid off the development cost of SF2NA). A completely new game would take us at least 5 years and cost us at at least 2 million. Plus, everyone expect post-release support for 10-20 additional years, easily doubling the cost. We just don't think we'll be able to raise that amount needed based on numbers we have. We'd love to be proven wrong on this, if this fund raising goes way better than expected, we can re-consider this in the future.

Thank you!

 

 

Update on result from TK

 

Quote

Thanks for all your support!

We were hoping to get this funded so we can release the Windows 10 update this year, but sadly, we didn't reach the funding goal. Luckily, not all is lost since this is a "Keep it all" campaign, the amount raised will be used to partially fund the update early next year.

Everyone who contributed will get a confirmation e-mail next week, with access code to Third Wire Online Store where you can get your Windows 10 update free when it becomes available. If you've purchased from our store in the past and used different e-mail to contribute, please let us know so we can merge the account together.

We'll keep everyone here updated on our progress. Thank you!

 

[MigBuster 2,884]

Now is your big chance to contribute people - yep it's time to put up or say goodbye.........

 

 

[jeanba 1,920]

I participated

[+Gunrunner 314]

Let's see, considering the history of similar initiatives, the absence of an actual list of fixes and features planned and a keep-it-all financing model...

We'll see in, somewhat appropriately, two weeks.

[jeanba 1,920]

1 minute ago, Gunrunner said:

Let's see, considering the history of similar initiatives, the absence of an actual list of fixes and features planned and a keep-it-all financing model...

We'll see in, somewhat appropriately, two weeks.

Yes, but I am hyped

[+Trotski 936]

25 grand ? we can raise that kind of moolah amongst us ? 

 

[+Gunrunner 314]

Let's see, the way the fundraising is setup TK expects to raise at least $25k in 2 weeks, and keep the money if that goal is not reached, without having to provide anything in return... Even if I still had the funds set aside for when TK finally stopped being an ass, under these conditions... nope.

[MigBuster 2,884]

10 minutes ago, Gunrunner said:

Let's see, the way the fundraising is setup TK expects to raise at least $25k in 2 weeks, and keep the money if that goal is not reached, without having to provide anything in return... Even if I still had the funds set aside for when TK finally stopped being an ass, under these conditions... nope.

Will see if I can get an answer on the intention of this because some will have pledged thinking they don't lose unless the 25K is raised.

 

[+Gunrunner 314]

7 minutes ago, MigBuster said:

Will see if I can get an answer on the intention of this because some will have pledged thinking they don't lose unless the 25K is raised.

 

Yeah, I might misinterprete the conditions of the site, as might have TK when setting it up, I wasn't suggesting he is out to scam the community, just that the site doesn't seem to work the way we've grown accustomed to with other crowd-funding sites.

To me (from clicking on "Keep it all" on the campaign page)

Quote

Keep it all campaign : The campaign keeps the money raised regardless of the amount or how long it takes.

plus (from the How it works page)

Quote

Chose the Keep It-All option to access funds immediately or choose the All Or Nothing to charge supporters only after you reach your goal.

plus the fact it's a tool for fundraisers, not crowdfunding

plus (from the Terms of Service)

Quote

If your Campaign uses the All Or Nothing (“AON”) payment model, you only receive the net Contributions if you have reached or exceeded your Campaign Goal.

If your campaign uses the Keep It All (“KIA”) payment model, you always keep the money you raise. It doesn’t matter how much you raise or how long it takes.

It all suggests my interpretation is correct.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Gunrunner

[+Trotski 936]

So let me get this right, TK, who has said in the past, has no interest or intention to develop, or update SF/FE any further, now expects us to fund an upgrade of a sim we have all already bought, and he has stated he isnt gonna fix...............I smell a rat in the Galley somewhere here, Tk has already had the money from us for the sim, its expansions, and the DLC's but now he wants more of our money, for something that should be a matter of course , you wouldn't pay any other game or sim extra dosh for an upgrade, if it wa a whole new DLC, then I sort of can see the point and the logic, but to fund a disintrested, and dare I say it greedy developer for fixing what should have already been fixed is a bit beyond the pale  in my opinion, or is it just my cynical and twisted mind  ? 

[MigBuster 2,884]

Baseline offer looks to be to rewrite the game and support it running on Windows 10 - so on the table is leave it at 2013 status or update it. He may have had a lot of requests and yes is clearly not interested in continuing the game otherwise. (Phone games are easier to support)

There is no ow nus on the developer to change or fix anything regarding Win 10 because it has never been supported on that.

Windows 7 is now also pretty much dead as support ends for most in 2020.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

[DEVIL11 31]

Admin Edit:

Stay on the fucking topic -- this is too damn important.

take those off-topic questions to the main forums.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Wrench
improper

[+Trotski 936]

22 minutes ago, MigBuster said:

Baseline offer looks to be to rewrite the game and support it running on Windows 10 - so on the table is leave it at 2013 status or update it. He may have had a lot of requests and yes is clearly not interested in continuing the game otherwise. (Phone games are easier to support)

There is no ow nus on the developer to change or fix anything regarding Win 10 because it has never been supported on that.

Windows 7 is now also pretty much dead as support ends for most in 2020.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

OK, so what you are saying, is that, those of us who have been with the Sim from its inception, and who purchased the original game , Strike fighters project one, an all the expansions, also who bought First eagles Mk1 , and then when the sim was not supported in win 7 had to re purchase the whole damn shooting match AGAIN , along with FE 2 , are now looking at for the third time, purchasing ( albeit by private funding ) the whole clusterfuck again......shady dealings if you ask me, TK is a dick ( sorry if that offends anyones sensibilities ) who is not interested in the sim, but wont release source code etc to allow this community to develop the game ourselves,???? I would rather put money into a project run by the good folk of Combat Sim, and the Gods know there is enough talent on here to do this, than line the pockets of a profiteering wanker, who has just seen an opportunity to take the piss for the third time, and who is to say he will ( if indeed he does ) update the sim to modern standards..........Call me a cynic, but I am very wary of this, and although I would love nothing more than to update and improve SF/FE I trust TK as much as I would trust a Ferengi with the family jewels !!! 

[+russouk2004 6,958]

Considering he resold all the SF2 stuff for 100 Dollars...you who bought it have paid twice for some games....how much did TK make then?...will he add THAT to this update fund?.....maybe he could put donations towards payment off future products if any..

TK needs to state what exactly WILL 100% be in the update he is advertising. then maybe people will donate...me for one...im sceptical that it will be anything I want....(not much)   lol

A2A refuel...

Better RADAR as some have said....

Future proof DX support(nasty old shaders etc)

Sounds like in FS series..

Update the exporters for 3ds max...

not worried about a\c etc as we can make what we want.

empty promises dont do it for me.

I

[+streakeagle 871]

"$25,000 USD is the minimum we need to cover the cost of development and testing. At this level funding, the update will simply be Windows 10/DirectX 12 update with no other fixes, enhancement or improvement."

2 months is a fair (perhaps even optimistic) estimate for the specified work.

$25,000 for two months (8 x 40-hour weeks: $78/hour) is a fair, maybe even cheap price for a programmer with his knowledge and experience. Have you ever priced programmers? In the controls industry, you typically pay $100 to $200 per hour for a contracted controls programmer / engineer to edit existing code. Just hiring electricians to pull wire, etc. is $80 to $100 per hour. Keep in mind, that is not his take home pay, there are expenses. In TK's case, he is a one man company, so that pay gets divided into things like retirement, healthcare, business expenses, etc.

TK has made it pretty clear that there is nothing that can't be done if the money is right. But there are no specific guarantees about where any excess money would go. So, it would not be prudent to exceed the $25,000 requested. He should have provided funding gates for the options he was willing to do in the order he was willing to commit to them... things like air-to-air refueling, VR, etc. 

TK has set a pretty low bar on what to expect and made it clear what the projected timeline is expected to be. Now it is up to the SF2 fans to pony up or shut up. If you ever want to see SF2 progress, this baseline project is the first step. If SF2 fans won't fund this, there will be no other updates/improvements.

If there were just 5,000 fans donating $5, this bill would be covered. But the active SF2 community is probably much smaller than that and of those there probably aren't enough people willing to pay to even get this small update done.

Edited September 7, 2019 by streakeagle

[+JonathanRL 974]

I have questions.

1: I have run Windows 10 for a while and do not experience problems with SF2. Are there any here who do?

2: 25 Large for a compatibility update seems like a lot of money. All the other features appears to be if he gets more than that.

3: Have TK considered alternate methods such as releasing on GoG.com, Humble Store, Epic Steam or Steam?

4: Have TK considered to lower the price of his products? One game still costs as much as a DCS Module on sale?

I would be happy to donate if it meant SF2 got a significant update with a clear list of features. But now it all seems far too vague.

[Stratos 3,188]

That's why I ask, shall we as a whole community ask TK to forget the Win10 update and use the money to fix bugs and add features?

[Stratos 3,188]

Sf2 community Discord

https://discord.gg/6tVaEwx

[MigBuster 2,884]

12 hours ago, trotski00 said:

OK, so what you are saying, is that, those of us who have been with the Sim from its inception, and who purchased the original game , Strike fighters project one, an all the expansions, also who bought First eagles Mk1 , and then when the sim was not supported in win 7 had to re purchase the whole damn shooting match AGAIN , along with FE 2 , are now looking at for the third time, purchasing ( albeit by private funding ) the whole .......................

 

I'm saying what he is currently doing.

Back around 2006 we did get free updates and features but today he is acting under a different (or actual) business model - so I don't expect any feelings of morality towards customers - especially loyal ones!

 

  

[ilwzwb 26]

Anyway,this is an opportunity to bring SF2 back,and I support it.That is the hope anyway,it looks naive,but its always good to have hope.MAKE SF2 GREAT AGAIN!!!

[MigBuster 2,884]

6 hours ago, JonathanRL said:

I have questions.

1: I have run Windows 10 for a while and do not experience problems with SF2. Are there any here who do?

2: 25 Large for a compatibility update seems like a lot of money. All the other features appears to be if he gets more than that.

3: Have TK considered alternate methods such as releasing on GoG.com, Humble Store, Epic Steam or Steam?

4: Have TK considered to lower the price of his products? One game still costs as much as a DCS Module on sale?

I would be happy to donate if it meant SF2 got a significant update with a clear list of features. But now it all seems far too vague.

1. Several have although seems to be more to do with NVIDIA drivers. The point is if a Win 10 update or GFX driver update gets a significant change and it wont run on Win 10 - then no more Win 10.

So yes you can get round this by having an old Win 7 PC (no network required) or even some VMs might work but would expect player base to dwindle right down.

2. See Streakeagles post regarding Fiscal reality.

3. If you look back there must have been a ton of requests for TK to do something like this - TK knows they exist but has no interest in doing it for whatever reason (loss of some control could be one)

4. Not comparable to a DCS module - you get a ton of objects and flyable aircraft, CW era specific AI, Terrain, campaigns for a dynamic campaign engine (some historical) - there currently is no alternative to whole package. Older gfx engine and lack of VR would suggest lower prices - although without Win 7 support as well - remains to be seen. But yes he can charge what he likes. 

 

[ilwzwb 26]

By the way,did you guys remember the interview of 《flying under the radar》?TK at that time was somewhat idealistic ,so he didn't make a lot of money,but as an independent developer,he has a real life.So affter some "failures" in business,he began to become more realistic and made those decisions.We can't always expect him to be like he was 10 years ago.

[MigBuster 2,884]

1 hour ago, ilwzwb said:

《flying under the radar》

Of course:

 

Monday, December 25, 2006

 

Tsuyoshi Kawahito's bookshelf in his small West Lake Hills office tells his story. Books on game design and computer programming sit next to books on aviation history. Military strategy books rest near white binders filled with pilot manuals. And near the bottom sits the telltale yellow of "Small Business for Dummies."

Kawahito, 38, runs Third Wire Productions, a one-man game development studio in Austin that makes flight simulator combat games. His latest game, released this month and available online, is called "First Eagles: The Great Air War 1918."

Tsuyoshi Kawahito spends months at libraries, in museums and on the Internet researching the planes he uses in his flight simulator games, such as these from his newest creation, 'First Eagles: The Great Air War 1918,' a World War I game. "That is a niche market within a niche market," said Chris Sherman, who used to run the annual Austin Game Conference. "It's very tough." Third Wire typifies the under-the-radar game development businesses that flourish in gaming cities. Kawahito is unusual for surviving this long on his own in an industry that is tough for newcomes to crack.

In Austin, there are about 50 computer and video game development companies. It is a shaky industry; game studios frequently shut down because of lack of funding. Given the odds, Third Wire stands out for being able to establish a solid revenue stream.

Kawahito's games may sound obscure, but they have a devoted audience. Played by aviation enthusiasts and history buffs, his main clients are 25- to 40-year-old males, older than most computer gamers. He once got an e-mail from a 62-year-old asking to be a beta tester for his game.

But he has never had a true hit. His most popular games sold about 100,000 copies worldwide. He's a gamer more than a businessman, and he is shy about promoting himself. He doesn't disclose revenue, but his games sell for about $30.

Flight simulation games bring in about $22.3 million each year, according to consumer market researcher NPD Group. Microsoft Corp.'s "Flight Simulator" is by far the most popular, consistently ranking in the top 20 of best-selling computer games.

The overall PC games market is a $1 billion market. About $11 billion are spent each year on video and portable games.

 

A FOLLOWING OF FLIGHT FANATICS

Kawahito's games are available through online stores and retail outlets such as Gamestop and Best Buy. His latest game is using a new online distribution model, which allows Kawahito to tap into a much larger worldwide market.

He is more concerned about making fun games than ones that make him a lot of money. The company recently became profitable after years of being in the red.

"If I make a game that is fun to play, then I am happy," Kawahito said.

Called TK by his friends, Kawahito has a cadre of devoted fans, including one influential computer gaming guru: Alex Aguila.

Aguila is one of the founders of Miami-based Alienware Corp., which manufactures high-end gaming computers that cost $800 to $6,000. Alienware was recently bought by Round Rock-based Dell Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Aguila helped fund "First Eagles" because he wanted to play a flight simulation game based on World War I. It is designed to emulate the air battles over France.

He gushes about Kawahito, saying he has revolutionized the flight simulation market. He said Kawahito builds games that allow players to add on to them. Players can create their own planes, maps and missions.

"TK is a genius," Aguila said. "He is one of the most important developers in flight sim history."

Other gamers say they appreciate the simplicity of Kawahito's games.

"There aren't many bells and whistles and everything," said 47-year-old Rusty Casteele, a truck driver from Virginia, "just really good graphics that cater to the Average Joe."

Casteele is a huge fan of Kawahito's games. For years he has tracked every game Kawahito has made, buying each one.

"I loved 'Wings Over Vietnam.' I grew up in that era," Casteele said. "So when I put in that game, I can fly the F-4 Phantom that I watched on TV growing up. I can fly the F-15 Eagle that I watched on the news shows when Desert Storm was going on. I can fly those missions you saw on TV or heard about."

 

INTERESTS TO INDUSTRY GURU

Kawahito was born in Japan and moved to Los Angeles when he was 12.

For a long time, he wanted to become a pilot, but his bad vision got in the way of that.

"I knew I liked things that moved," Kawahito said. "Trains, cars, spaceships."

In college, he planned on being an aircraft designer, so he majored in aerospace engineering and got his master's degree in the same subject from the University of Texas in 1996. Like many college students, he wanted to stay in Austin. His first job out of college was at Origin Systems, a groundbreaking Austin gaming company.

"I sent them my résumé and told them I thought I would be good at this," Kawahito said. "I know games; I played them all throughout college. And I know aircraft."

At the time, Austin-based Origin was working on several different flight simulator games. After working there a year, he moved to another studio in Baltimore to work on a different flight simulation game. That was when the genre started losing its popularity and many game publishers pulled their projects.

"Everyone was getting out of the business, but I saw an opportunity," Kawahito said.

"It was a niche market I thought I could capture and cater to."

He moved back to Austin and started his own business in 1999.

 

HIGH PRODUCTIVITY, LOW BUDGET

It wasn't easy at first.

He dug into his savings to start Third Wire, funding his own game, "Strike Fighters," which took him three years to release.

After two years, Kawahito's savings dwindled, and he subsisted on ramen noodles and McDonald's 99-cent hamburgers and by skipping oil changes for his 1998 Toyota Celica.

"I think that is why my car broke down," Kawahito said. "I didn't have enough money for an oil change, and then it stopped working. I started riding the bus."

But that phase didn't last long after his first games found a following. Publishers started funding his next projects, and Kawahito got a cut of the sales of each game.

He's not rolling in dough, however. He rents an apartment in town. He replaced his Toyota Celica with a Toyota 4Runner. His office is bare-bones, with three small rooms and a reception area with no receptionist, only a twinkling Christmas tree to greet visitors.

This month, his office is empty as he plans his next project. He let all of his temporary workers go because he didn't need them anymore.

Kawahito is able to survive by churning out games faster than most developers do. He puts out a new game about every six months.

"What he was able to do with such little funding is unbelievable," Aguila said. "Most developers would charge millions of dollars. He did it on a very small budget."

Kawahito said his secret is creating a main engine that he uses to program his games. That way, he doesn't have to re-create an engine every time.

He does months of research in libraries, museums and online, digging for history books and photos of old aircraft, and tries to re-create them as accurately as possible.

Thanks to his degrees in aerospace engineering, he understands how to build an aircraft.

He occasionally asks for outside help from pilots but gets most of his data for his games from his research.

When he's ready to start creating a game, Kawahito hires a temporary team of three game developers. Six months later, they have a game.

He doesn't think much about his business beyond his next project. But he has dreams of expanding beyond flight simulation games, maybe developing a war strategy game. Or perhaps even space combat.

"Or if I continue to just do this, that would be great," he said.

Source: statesman.com

https://www.wingsofhonour.com/firsteagles/articles/html_woh_firsteagles_articles_flying-under-the-radar_statesman.en.html

[MigBuster 2,884]

Or what about

Tsuyoshi Kawahito is one of the most famous sim designers. We owe him products such as Jane's Longbow II or, more recently, Microprose's European Air War (EAW). Now he has built up his own company, Third Wire production, and presents Project 1, a simulation centered around a forgotten period of the air military history, the Vietnam and Kippour era. Fighters Anthology, Chuck Yeager's air combat and, of course, Israeli Air Force are the only games that ever talked about this dark time, which is now the point of this new simulation. His creator has accepted to answer our questions.

Check-Six: First, thanks for answering our questions Mr Kawahito.

Tsuyoshi Kawahito: You’re welcome.

1) C6: Im curious about your long way since EAW. Can you tell us more about your way from MPS's 1998 last golden age to this current Third Wire time?

TK: I’m afraid there isn’t much to tell... I left MPS at the end of 1998 to join a small technology start-up company. After about 4 months there, I started my own company, Third Wire Productions, to work on my own games.
2) C6: Can you tell us about the process that has lead P1 to such a choice of period and theater?

TK: We wanted to do a simulation title that has “built-in” appeal to both casual and hard-core simmers, ie, a game that can appeal to everyone without having to set all the options to “easy”. We felt that a jet sim without complex modern avionics achieves that goal – you can just jump right in and mix it up with the MiGs without having to spend months reading the manual first. 

3) C6: Can we have some additionnal informations about the campaign engine? Do you expect it to be closer to LB2 or EAW's one for instance? 

TK: It’s a lot closer to EAW than LB2 since Project 1 is an aircraft sim and not a helicopter sim. LB2 maps were tactical in size (50km x 50km), and you moved from one map to another as you progressed through your campaign. Project 1 campaign will take place in a single large map (1000km x 1000km), very similar to EAW campaign. And while missions in LB2 were all focused on ground action – the helicopter modelled in that game was basically a dedicated close-support platform, the missions in Project 1 will have player assigned to strategic targets as well as ground targets.

4) C6: And what about the ground war during this campaign? What importance will the ground battlefield take in the curse of war?

TK: The ground war is handled at two levels: strategic and tactical. Between the player missions, army units are moved at strategic level based on their strength, supply level, moral conditions, and their overall objectives. Any combat at this level is resolved using an abstract system. Once in the mission, any army units in contact will actually engage in tactical battle – tanks will maneuver to capture their objectives and engage against defending tanks, artillery will lob indirect fire at enemy positions, etc. The player’s action can affect the result of ground war directly and indirectly. The player might be assigned to a close-support mission for any ground battle, in which case his action can have a direct impact on the outcome of the battle. And, at the end of each mission, the player’s mission result will be used as a modifier when resolving strategic combats, so the player can affect indirectly how the other friendly forces are doing.

5) C6: What will be the 3D engine performance? Do you expect it to equal the current benchmarks (with sims such as Il2?). Do you have further details about it and the computer we will need to run P1?

TK: Well, it depends on how you’re defining “performance”. Our engine is designed to run well on today’s mid-range machines, and most of the screenshots you see on our website are taken on a PIII-650 with GeForce 2 MX.

6) C6: Many people here are very worried about P1's level of realism. When you declare that "it will match 90% of pilot's needs", it does make some of us even more perplexed... Can you tell us more exactly what is the level you expect to reach? Will it be closer to an USAF/IAF-like than a hardcore flight sim?

TK: Project 1 is designed as a relaxed-realism survey sim, so we are not out to create a hyper-realistic simulation that only hard-core flight simmers can get into. But at the same time, we didn’t want to do a simplistic arcade game either, so what we hope to create is a game with good balance between realism and playability, a game that is fun and exciting to play for everyone. 

7) C6: Have you any further detail about how the IR missiles will behave in the simulation? How do you expect to simulate the targeting and homing sequences?

TK: Targeting sequence for IR missile is the same as in real life – you aim it using your gunsight. You have to manoeuver to bring your target into the gunsight, and if there is enough heat signatures off the target for the IR seeker to see (ie, you have to be aimed at the rear-aspect of the target), then the missile will lock on. The only indication will be the volume of the growl.

8) C6: And what about comms? Will they be, at least, as evolved than EAW, F4 or Il2 ones for instance?

TK: The game will feature a basic comm interface to control wingman and other flight members, as well as requesting help and directions from TACC (Tactical Air Control Center).

9) C6: How will you simulate the Radar Intercept Officer aboard two-seated planes such as the F4? Will you let players use the backseat too? Will it be possible for two people to fly in the same Phantom in multiplayer?

TK: No, we are not planning to model any back seat in the initial release.

10) C6: Talking about multiplayer, do you get any informations about multiplay modes planned in P1?

TK: Our plan is to have two basic multiplayer modes: Dogfight and Co-op missions. Dogfight mode is just a quick head-to-head combat where you just try to shoot anyone else down, whereas Co-op mission mode is where you fly a single mission toward assigned objective.

11) C6: Have you any news to give us about the Lologramme's Mirage III possible integration?

TK: His Mirage III is looking great. We've designed the game so it is very easy to add new skin, new aircraft, new map, new campaign, etc. Adding new aircraft, for example, is just matter of creating a new folder in the aircraft subdirectory, drop your data files in there. Next time the game starts up, it'll automatically be recognized and integrated into the gameplay.

12) C6: Finally, in your opinion, can you tell us about THE point that would make P1 more attractive that another jet sim? What do you think is P1's main, special "thing" that other sims do not have?

TK: Well, I think this is a very exciting period of aviation history, one that haven’t really been covered by any other sims recently.

C6: Thanks!

from: www.checksix-fr.com Tuesday 16 July 2002

[+gerwin 451]

Good news in itself,

So I have read the two topics on this fund raiser, and the comments at the fundrazr.com. I understand the term 'Keep it all' campaign. But AFAIK such a campaign requires TK to state what happens when the goal is not reached? Worst case the money is then used to fund mobile rubbish instead? It is not comfortable to make a decision when I lack the info that I need...