-aircraft jumpseat position
-panorama view in ATC tower
-fly airship or yacht with a girl for holiday sightseeing
-photo wall in pilot club
-checklist before flight
-operational AAA gun
-fuel dump when airborne
-newspaper or aircraft flight manual reading during bomber flying
-signal flare before takeoff
-swim to float plane for rescue （perhaps after signal flare）
-parachute diving training
-lubricant oil maintenance
-fueling
......

Been thinking a bit about how one might make multi-crew aircraft more interesting. Especially with regards to the roles crew members should play. AI Flight Engineers should tell you when an engine is overheating. A navigator should man a turret if a gunner is killed or wounded. All crew should be given some awareness of the outside world and be able to report on it. Below is how I hope a mission in SoW might play out:


Inter-Service Communication & Crew Management and in SoW...


You are flying the latest mission in your Blenheim bomber's single-player dgen campaign.

It is September 1940.

You are with 53 Sqn based at Detling. You mission brief is to patrol a section of occupied coast on a line from Ostend to Zeebrugge, and on up to Middleburg.
On the Met screen (a handy innovation for SoW) you can see that there is expected to be 8/10th cloud all the way. Not bad, you tell yourself. Your orders are to return however if cloud cover is insufficient. 53 Squadron has taken a beating in the last few weeks. The Blenheims stand little chance against determined fighter attack, and on this mission you will be flying alone.

A look at the Nav-screen (another first for SoW) it shows the Navigator's suggested course for the patrol. Looks okay, but you move the return waypoint near Middleburg a little further West.
No need to tempt fate...

In the air, you see that the weather is much as the met boys predicted. Eight-tenths, down to about 3000ft. You cross the coast near Ramsgate, skimming in and out of the cloud base.
You key in your first instructions to the crew. This is done in a similar way to which you communicated to AI wingmen in the Il-2 series. Hitting the Tab key, you go to the Crew-All list
and select the command to instruct them to report on all Land-Sea-Air contacts. The AI crew's reaction time in searching if you choose a specific area to search (air, for example) is much faster
than all at the same time, but on this show you'll be needing a good lookout.

Far out into the Channel now. The AI navigator gives you a course correction. Steer one-one-oh. You look down at the compass. Must have wandered off a bit... You put on a bit of right rudder
and the nose of the Blenheim comes back around. "On course" says the Navigator approvingly. At almost the same moment, the wireless op/gunner suddenly calls out, "Ship to starboard!"

Where? You dip the wing and peer out through the cloud and mist. Can't see anything. The gunner's skill in identifying sea and land targets isn't the best. He is just a gunner after all, and his
experience level has been modelled appropriately. The AI navigator/bomb aimer however is more informative. "I see it" he says. "Bearing fifty" "Destroyer, one of ours!"

You look in the direction indicated. Ah, there it is. Very pretty. Still a ways off though. Might as well say hello...
Throttles forward, you sweep down with the intention of giving the Navy a damn good beat up. You are speeding towards the destroyer when suddenly the ships guns open up. A burst of AA appears to the right, and then suddenly another burst much, much closer, accompanied by the dry rattle of shrapnel. Oh, for F**k sake! You pull up and bank away from the destroyer. At the same time showing the roundels on the bottom of your wings. A few more shots, and the gunfire ceases. Ships in Sow have a likelyhood of aircraft recognition based on variables of distance, weather and angle.

Circling the destroyer at a more respectful distance, you see a light flashing from the bridge. "Ship is signalling..." reports the AI Wop/Gunner. "Message reads: Apologies. Be advised, enemy aircraft in the vicinity..." No future in that, you tell yourself. You hit the Tab key again and bring up the commands for your navigator, requesting a heading to target. Within moments you are back on course, climbing back up towards cloud cover. A moments consideration and you also change the crews lookout instructions. Telling them to concentrate on seeking threats from the air. Not a minute to soon either...

"Fighter, Fighter! Break right Break right!!" calls your gunner. As you throw the bomber into a steep bank, the rear gun begins to clatter . A dark shape booms over the top of your canopy and disappears into the cloud above. "Lost him..." says the gunner. Engines screaming, clawing for height, the first wisps of cloud sweep past...

================================================== =====

The inclusion of crew interactions and management is similar to what we have now in the way we instruct and deploy AI wingmen in Il-2. I think it would be a great boost to the immersion in SoW if these things can be expanded and added to the single and multi player experience. Their inclusion would have great potential in adding the soul that is badly missed in the genre.

;)

One thing I sometimes found immersion killing in IL2 was the lack of an obvious sense that you had touched down. Would be great if there was much more feedback that

A) made it clear you had landed
B) gave a sense of how well you had landed.

This feedback would come via sound and be anything from a real thud and bounce to a gentle kiss and be accompanied by a POV movement rangeing from a slight nod to a head forced into your lap for a real monster cock up......

I hope the guys understand what British weather's really like! :) Admittedly summer 1940 was one of the hottest on record, but that's not really saying much. :) I mean, even just from Douglas Bader's Wikipedia page:
"On 11 July 1940 Bader scored his first kill with his new squadron. The weather was bad, the cloud base was down to just 600 feet while drizzle and mist covered most of the sky. Forward visibility was down to just 2,000 yards. Bader was alone on patrol, and was soon directed toward an enemy aircraft flying north up the Nolfolk coast. Spotting the aircraft at 600 yards through the mist, Bader recognised it as a Dornier Do 17."
This was July 1940 and the weather was true to British form. :rolleyes:

Quite.

It's warmer than would be expected from the latitude, and damp, both due to the sea.

- Well, on IL-2 we have damge to the airframe and some instruments of the cockpit. But for example we never have damge to the windshield. It would look cool if the windshield gets perforated when you are bounced by and aircraft. But it must no be random, it must happen if the trajectory of the bullet or cannon shell intercept the windshield but not your head.
In other words, see the impact of bullets and cannon shels to the cockpit and windshield, when they really hapen. If you get hit on your head you are dead and see nothing, but if you ar not hit, seeing the windshield explode (from the front, side or above), for example, would be frightening and cool.
Of course with that it must come that you increase drag, very loud wind sound, and all the problems that come with a broken windshield.
Also, the damage to the windshield should be according to the caliber and ammunition type that hit it.

Some of the fun things we have done in our missions:-
i) Minimum height attacks (Sneaking accross the lines - where mission fails if you are above a set height)
ii) Scramble on airfield attack (Would be better if you started near/in the hangers rather than on the flight line)
iii) Shadow the enemy strike - calling in the rest of your fighter wing for a co-ordinated attack once they arrive.
iv) Waiting "oncall" and then call in the ground attacks based on coloured smoke/FO directions.

We generally use "human observation" to see if people have failed (flown too high/been spotted etc)

Paul

In AI topic, I would like to see REAL german tactics. I mean tactics of escorts. On first two months it was very liked by fighter pilots because they could fly above escorted bombers and then dive on attackers. But tactics were changed due to bomber losses and they had to stay in formation with the same speed as bombers had and couldn't break before Tommy attack. That was very frustrating.

This remind me, that Bob its the perfect example of why it would be great, and realistic, to start on the hangar and have to run to the aircraft, climb, taxi and take off, when an air attack aproaching.
If its impossible, well, at least like themink said, start near the hangar and taxi to the runaway or take off field. :)

A few ideas that popped into my head;

How about being able to hit objects like trees, light telephone/ electric cables, without causing a crash, and arriving home with branches and cables stuck on your plane ( I think this one has already been mentioned earlier, but I like the idea ).

Birds are going to be modeled ( seagulls at least ). If their landing gear has been modeled ;-) then you could have a flock of them on the ground ( or in trees if other birds are available ) that would be startled by a low flying plane and they would all take off in unison. A bird strike could be an obvious option here, but not necessarily, as the sight of a flock of birds taking flight would be pretty neat in itself.

I read somewhere a while ago that cows were also going to be in BoB. As with the birds, a low flying plane passing over a herd of cattle in a field would probably cause a mini stampede. A nice little bit of eye candy while flying, but imagine then arriving back at base and in the debriefing screen having the base adjutant inform you that Farmer Brown has just been on the phone complaining that his cows have gone off their milking :-)

If you bale out successfully, what if it was possible for your parachute to get caught up in trees, roofs, church spires etc, leaving you dangling till the mission ends. :evil:

I've never personally seen this phenomenon, but I believe it can be seen on planes in storm clouds...... St Elmo's Fire. That could be quite spooky.

All these suggestions would never be missed if they weren't in the game, but they could add a little more to the immersion if they were.