In the current game, taxing your aircraft in full cockpit mode really hinders your view. I know that there is going to be 6DOF implemented which will help, but are there going to be other things to help like AI ground crew on your wing or maybe a small box in the corner showing a view in front?

The short answer is learn taxi like the real guys do it. Yeah leaning out would help but the real answer is Tail draggers zig zag on the taxi way

I know what your saying, but its still a game we are playing and aircrew on wings giving directions was common I thought.

Did you see the flash advert about Leipzig on the top right corner of the page? No SoW...

I'm starting to lose my hopes...

I was going to say exactly that... But I do have faith in SoW. Maybe we just need to wait more time. But hey!! enjoy 1946!!

2 weeks so im told.

Lol, sigh!
It is impossible to release a product that is in it's pre-alpha stage of development in two weeks??? Who did you get your information from :grin:
The rotter was toying with your emotions.
Oh it was me... Well it goes to show even the greatest minds can be wrong :grin:
My own theory goes something like this...
It has been delayed because of Open GL 3. DirectX 10 and you can add any other reason here __________________.
The moral of this little ditty is as they say in the SA Army "Hurry up and wait!"
It will arrive on Monday, and this is based on statistical research that most new games are delivered instore on Mondays. Now pick a week, month or year to add to this conclusion and you have a 99% chance of being wrong.

lol :grin::grin:

I hope this is the correct thread.

A couple suggestions for OLEG for the SOW:

1) In the FMB I would like to see the Player flight NOT be assigned to waypoints. The player flight should be able to do things ON-THE-FLY and not be constrained to flying over specific waypoints precisely in order to advance to the next waypoint. The player should receive orders like an actual briefing and fly according to the briefing to target areas. This could be done with event areas where the player is given a heading, and can receive additional heading information from ADF, or other comms.

2) The AI would fly by waypoints as usual, but it would be nice to have the ability to have alternate waypoints for AI resulting from triggers.

3) It would be a great tool to have Translucent Canopy/cockpit frame rails to offset the fact we have no peripheral vision ability. I'm not talking about NO frame rails. I talking about the regular frame rails are visible, but the player can see through the rails. The floor side panels, instruments, back headrest all would be opague. THe player could not see through those things he could not normally see through, just canopy frame rails.

I say translucent, because even with 6 DOF when you move your head side to side it is not possible to get the same visual effect as a real person gets because of stereoscopic peripheral vision. I would certainly prefer this arrangement over the HUD, which is totally "StarWars".

This would not take way from the fliight experience, because flying the late model P-51, P-47 and several other planes with fulll clear canopies is available now and isn't a CHEAT.

IMO, the big frame rails that are constantly in your way visually don't add to immersion. If you just look at the screen with the big frame rails in front of you it is common to have less than 30% visual. One of my friends that plays other war games said, "That is so stupid looking at the screen and not being able to see what your doing". I agree with him.

So, maybe a switch to Translucent canopy frame rails, a switch to canopy frame rails... this shouldn't be any problem at the programming level to provide. I can make translucent frame rails in photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc. for MSFT CFS2 cockpits and it's hardly any work at all.

Thanks for all the work you've done.

I have heard that SOW was cancelled.

Yes a lot of online gaming stores are advertising it has canceled. My friend here in the uk buys for a chain of gaming stores and he too believes this now to be vaporware simply because the guys he deals with at UBI have either never heard of SOW or those that have say it has been cancelled. He isn't a fan of flight sims and i have told him about this website and UBI's involvement but he keeps repeating what hes been told.

If SOW was cancelled then 4.09 would have been released by now and we would be playing IL2 1947 already :grin:
The fact that we are not indicates that development on SOW is clearly going ahead as planned.
Obviously Oleg's plan includes keeping you and me in the dark.
Live with it :(.

@ UKTree I am assuming your friends in Ubisoft are high level and not just company reps... Reps notoriously are always the last to know.
They normally only get told stuff when items are close to going gold as they need to prepare/predict customer demand etc.
Until then they are busy selling other Ubisoft products and have very little interest in projects a years or so from completion. :grin:

I would worry if top sites like IGN and Gamespy/Gamespot start saying it is cancelled.

IGN say:
Exclusively on PC
Release Date: December 30, 2008
MSRP: $49.99
April 1, 2008
Unreleased

Gamespot say:
Genre: WWII Flight Sim
Release Date: Q1 2009

and Gamespy:
Published by Ubisoft
Release Date: Q4 2008

Yeah he is high level Bobb but it is more than likely that he is talking to Reps at the other end, he hasn't asked the question just because of me, he told me he has had a lot of inquiries in store about SOW because of the release dates that have been banded about on other gaming sites. A lot of people thought it was already out. His opinion is that from the response he has had that the game is dead. I dont personally subscribe to that but it does show that the communication on this product is poor at all levels, or that the software is still a low priority because of the stage of development.

Or they could be keeping security tight on this one... :)

Or they could be holding off on promotion because they want to see what features and specs will make the initial release (time compromises, budget compromises, ect...)

So let me see.. SOW was canceled. Is IL-2:Birds of Prey taking BoB's place? ..or id I miss something.

Not as far as we know or as far as Oleg is concerned.

No - different game, nothing to do with Oleg and Co.'s BoB

No more than the rest of us :)

We are all in the dark here, everything is speculation unless it comes from Oleg or Luthier as far as I am concerned and they have made it quite clear that it is not cancelled and that they are hard at work on their projects i.e "SOW:BoB" for Oleg and "Project Galba" (Korea Game) for Luthier

LOL Thanks Shifter. I've bounced all over the web the last couple of days looking for something solid. I appreciate the reply. I wasn't going to read through all 112 pages of this thread to find my answer. I did read through about 8 or 10.

It seems that Birds of Prey is for the X-Box. and that's out Q1 or 09.

Ok, so I'll wait with the rest of ya. lol

Thx Oleg and your crew for hard work all these years. (despite community whining griping and arguing! ;))

Oleg are you still in the country?

What country? You have a choice of four.

what kind of logic is that ?

if we havnt heard anything about BoB, and oleg and Co cant be bothered to do 2 hrs work to finalize the 4.09 patch in a 12 month period, i'd say its more likely they closed the office and all went home.

problem Zap is that it will take more than 2 hours they need to rebuild the server side and recompile all the new mods added, if they include those.

In the il2 it is impossible to fly on bombers with full crew in most popular dogfight mode online. And even in coop missions gunners takes connection slots which can be used by other pilots...

Is it possible to implement in BoB proxy-type connection for gunners, like this:

PILOT_PC as proxy for GUNNER_PC connect scheme

GUNNER_PC________PILOT_PC____________________GAME SERVER
GUNNER_PC________///.........................//////////////
GUNNER_PC________//........................./ Other PILOTS, with any number of gunners onboard
GUJNNR_PC________/........................./ gunners dont take gameserver slots
........................................../
GUNNER_PC________PILOT_PC________________/
GUNNER_PC________///
GUNNER_PC________//
GUJNNR_PC________/

So B-25 with full gunner crew will take only one slot on server, with same traffic as fighter with single pilot.

This will also exclude GUNNER_PC connection problems from server handling, only PILOT_PC, as gunner proxy, will try to reestablish connection.

Such proxy type connection for gunners can greatly reduce load on gameserver, and would allow to use manned gunners on bombers in any type of gamemodes, without the risk to overload server, and free more slots for pilots.

Also such proxy-type GUNNER_PC connection, makes possible to create free flightsim demo version, with limited ability to join only as gunners onboard of a friend bomber -- owner of full version, without costly control devices and overloading gameserver.

Such full online experience can encourage much more ppl to buy full version of flightsim, and helps online flightsim community to grow even larger.

Oleg sir, are you still in any of those countries? Oleg sir, do you have a publisher for SOW? Oleg sir, is the BOB: SOW actually a dead project?

Of course he is :grin:

As for Ubisoft they are no longer the publishers of the game.
This has been estabilshed by countless threads and the total lack of any denial fom any 1C Official/Admin.
I doubt the project is dead but then I cannot prove anything else either :grin:

would like ask Oleg;

will all planes have compressibility/critical mach/aileron reversal etc addressed?

will SOW have a 'points' system, and if so, will it be customisable for server/game host?

Bobb4 is correct.

I am now publisher of SoW.

That is a fact, because there is no instant protest from 1C or admins.

I am also ruler of the world. This has been established in many threads as no world-admin has protested. The silence from all other wanna-be-world-leaders over the last years also confirms that, so there can't be any doubts left.


@ Daiichidoku

You forgot the word "again" in "would like ask Oleg"

Well I have to say you are doing a sh*te job then! Release some updates for Gods sake!
What the hells wrong with you? Are you insane? We want news Feurfalke!
;)

Nah.

I have 243 Screenshots and the finished game on my PC. Maybe I'll release a short movie before christmas, if I find the time, or I give Oleg the permission to do so. Poor guy - he drops me 2 emails per day, asking me to publish the news that BoB was finished 6 month ago, but I just don't let him. That's just so much fun.

And currently I'm just enjoying to read the forums and read comments about people who really, really are not going to buy my game.

And when I release that movie, they'll give their firstborn just to fly for 5 minutes. LOL

Good for you Feurfalke ,you tell the ungrateful rats who have the temerity to ask for updates!
It is good isn't it,I only tried the early alpha version with Oleg and Ilya at Birmingham,but I reckon with a bit of work it will be nearly as good as il2 modded.

Well, the modded IL2 is better, of course - well, at least the bunch of guys I pay on this forum will keep telling you. You got the mods, I'll keep the game. ;)

You know, as long as Oleg hoped to release the game officially, he had to ban the mods, of course, but now I have the game and everybody else is enjoying the mods, there's no need for that any longer.

You're happy, I am happy, so what?

In SOW, how will muzzle flash be represented? Will it be more realistic? It seems that how it is represented in game now is a bit exagerated (too much like a flame thrower). From period gun footage (or even modern high caliber gun fire footage) it would seem that yes, there is sometimes visible flames, but really they are much more subtle in real life, and in daylight are mostly just puffs of smoke.

Also will the tracer contrail be a bit more realistic (or the graphics more detailed) as well?

You should get a reply within the next 2 weeks.

Some questions here:

Will be possible to de-rate engines (as a future example, i was thinking about limit Me109G to 1.3ata until oct 43) as advanced option/server admin command?

Can you explain something about CEM?

About skins, will be available a metal finish (reflection maps?)?

Tell us about online modes, some type of Aces High like arena would be cool.

S!

AFAIK planes will have both bump (normal) maps and specular maps as well. Somewhere I've read about it.

Everything still is fine. Simply summer and I took finally vacation... Usually they were too short in the past or wasn't in principle.

See the last development update:

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...8512#post48512

Right

Oleg, could you please tell me if the Sunderland is a flyable aircraft or AI. Many thanks for the update!

AI, But we are making as well these AI model the same quality as flyable. And we will offer tools for advanced third party developer that to make any plane flyable without us...

So I expect that there will be many flyables later after the intial release... and BoB will be growing even more than Il-2 series :)

Well the fact that the propellers are 3D shows that the level of detail that will be included into AI planes is above the normal things developers do and that flyable aircraft from these models should be quite quick.

Also will these be free addons or are small payments expected to be involved?

Awesome news and the detail of the pictures is just stunning.

The soft shadowing looks stunning real and I'm amazed how much work you and your team put into the models. Looking at that, I don't dare to think about the level of detail you will put into the rest of the game, to meet the photorealistic standard you put up with that.

Just wow. :shock:

New engine / Final release
 

Oleg,

You are speaking about a "new engine".
What do you mean with this?
Starting all over again with all objects?


"the final release…. Which isn’t soon really…. "

So we have to wait for September 2009 ???

Don't panic. SoW is the new engine. ;)

But even if the models were all completely finished, you'd still have to make all the effects, put it together and make it a full game, with GUI and all that.

They have an alpha now, so we're on the way, but it doesn't mean we're close, yet.



Patience.


Doesn't matter if it will be this year or next year - it will be awesome and it's better to not rush it out of the door.

Cockpit Self-Shadowing... thanks Oleg, I wans´t sure if your team will incorporate this feature. Amazing Stuka details... very GREAT work

:arrow:Hello Oleg , just wanted to say , the update of the flight models is about what I expected , what Has impressed me though is the new texture of the grass , if this is an indication of the new map to come , I cant wait , I know from what youve said theres a long way to go , but still ... I cant wait.:grin:

Thanks for the update Oleg!

SoW
 

Hi all,

I'm impressed. In fact, I'm more impressed than someone who is exceedingly impressed!

The aircraft put any other sim to shame.

The vehicles and 88 are superb.

And as a bonus we have confirmation that all is well with the development of SoW.


Oleg for President !!

Thanks for the update Oleg :)

Oleg, is the Flight Model finished for BoB, or still a work in progress "Beta" stage? Can you update us on the status of 4.09m final ? Thanks

Dear Oleg
In the past you have refered to multi-manned positions in at least the Tigermoth trainer and if I am not mistaken the bombers as well.
That I still hope holds true. My question is will your fellow crew members be modeled.
IE if I am the pilot of a J88 will I be able to see an animated rendering of my front gunner as in the current H111 or will I be flying an empty plane as is the current state of affairs.
As you seem to have entered the early Alpha stage I was wondering if you have any idea what sort of system will be needed to get the best out of SOW?
Without giving too much away, is there anything in the sim that will truly rock our socks-off. By this I mean, either something us simmers have never seen before or something that is of a standard so high other developers will spend years catching up :grin:
And by this I do not mean the graphics, as they are already out of this world I am refering to any snippet of news about the actual sim.
Your ground models seem almost online of war-ish capable and I am sure a ground war and air war could be seemlessly created, would this be possible?

Lastly will the player have the opportunity to strategically direct the air war in say an improved BOB2 type interface in single player or will their role be restricted to only flying within a dynamic environment?:grin:

http://www.theghostfiles.org/ any comment on release date quoted on this site. The guy claims to have actually spoken to Oleg???

Yes, he was spoken to me. However I told that it is my hope, if everything will going Ok without any serious development technical problems. :)

Well, I guess that no one here will be upset if it ends up in Q4 2009 -as long as it get's released. Anyway - it's better to know what your goal is than dreaming of Q1 2009 that some of us have done ;) IL2-1946 still has a lot to give. Pushing my luck a bit here - is i possible that we get the final 4.09 patch this year?

/Mazex

This temporary made texture is for tools. In the sim the grass is 3D and moving due the wind.

In General finished. But we didn't tune for each aircraft well yet.

4.09 still don't know when. My guys really to busy that to switch back to Il-2 even for some time.

New engine means the absolutely new 3D engine, ground fhysics and flight coding, AI and even how it looks in general.... Simply everything....
There is only experinece of Il-2 development behind, but the 90+% of code is completely new. The other 10% also with changes.

1. It isn't finally decided. We have some part of code ready for animation of pilots and crew, but it will depends how much time we will have that to spend our resources for that. Can't say in 100% yes. If there will be no room for that work we will drop it for the next title release of SoW series.

2. Even at Beta isn't possible to define finally required sys. specs. For the best out of BoB probably there will be no such PC on the market at release... like it was with the first release of Il-2.... However eve without best out it will looks superb. Simply we should think about future becasue we plan for SoW series long life, not less than for Il-2 sries, if not more. We plan to make series that will cover agin Il-2 modelled battles as well as some never modelled in any game...

3. I hope everythng :) from the general graphics to the gameplay, from Ai to the FM, from the sky to the ground... as well as never seen before some of gameplay features, like it was offered with the first Il-2.... At the time of Il-2 release there were some many features that was release in a game for the first time in world in princile. Many others copied ideas from Il-2...

4. With the release of BoB there will be player controlable AA-guns. Even in sigle play if you like to create such a mission... This feature at first will show the features of our new game-sim engine... as well as it could be direction of parallel development or third party development... At lease I can say that the quality of ground modeling is with the idea in mind to use it for the future interesting features of the gameplay... so smart answer....:)

5. There will be possible two types of campaing.... One is dynamic with the possibility of managment in a squad and higher. But there will be no feature of High command that could change everything in a war.. Dynamic campaign will be more or less close to history.
The other campaing mode - it is a sequence of single missions, that possible to make very precise from historical point of view. I can't say right now will be such fully developed by us campaign inside the sim with the release, but at least it is possible. as well as there will be some amount of historical single missions right with the release. Anyway we again will offer more than any other developer of flight sims in that item...
Also the campaign systems will be open for thirs party modifications or even for inclusion of own ENGINE of campaign. This will be ture for both sinlge and online gameplay campaigns.

We simply learned all requests of users for some years of Il-2 life... The best that we can do - will be there.

Hope I gave some info for the brain here :)

muzzle flash... Video and especially film camera can't register on their 24 (and in WWII often 10 to 16) frams per second many of light changes that happens when the gun fires... As well as the specific of sencitivity of film and its dynamic rage that can't registed fire as we can see in real life.
So in Il-2 it was done in the last versions more real than you think...
And I haven't seen yet in a sim more real tracers... If you mean color - they are all by a tracer specifications docs of WWII shells/bullets for each country that we modelled.

At night the fire/flash leight of 20 mm cannon could be even more than 2 meters...
At day it is the same but visible less and even more less on the film (in short words).
At flight it depending of speed... But anyway it is present. The differences of leight we plan to model in flight and on the ground, at day and at night.
The difference at the day/night time was done in Il-2 for the for the first time in the world in game industry. Try yourself to check it....

This is a question for some interview..... I will keep this info the the magazines :):):)

I only can say you right now... that yes we will have sometime free add-ons with new features, like it was with Il-2.
But other info - till the right time. Everything will be fine :)

See my answers above. I'm sure we are still Ok :)

I see that now...thank you for that...you are alive....best wishes to you and the team in your current project....we will wait like we always did (from the IL2 demo)...for good things...and girls

1+2) Waypoints are neccessary. Another spech that they should be defined in briffing... and as well as dynamically changed waypoint due to command using radar data for exaple. Triggers will be.

3. No.... transparency of frae details will make visible other things... construction fuselase, engine, etc... Simply we model it by another way than others in arcade games or the games that say that they are simulators of ground battle but the models there ar far from what we say now is most realistic for the current period.
Also on the sceen you see by two eyes. So the comparison with steroscopic view in life and like you mean by one eye isn't right. We simply will have more complex movement of the neck-head-body of the pilot than in Il-2.

Currently Luthier and his team is more busy with BoB (help for us in development of some parts) than with Korea. There are many things that we usually order on the other side... in this case we ordered some of the planes to be finished by them as well as 3D models of ships and some other.

Korea can't moves forward without us. Simply becasue it is based on SoW series engine.

Campaigns in SOW
 

5. There will be possible two types of campaing.... One is dynamic with the possibility of managment in a squad and higher. But there will be no feature of High command that could change everything in a war.. Dynamic campaign will be more or less close to history.
The other campaing mode - it is a sequence of single missions, that possible to make very precise from historical point of view. I can't say right now will be such fully developed by us campaign inside the sim with the release, but at least it is possible. as well as there will be some amount of historical single missions right with the release. Anyway we again will offer more than any other developer of flight sims in that item...
Also the campaign systems will be open for thirs party modifications or even for inclusion of own ENGINE of campaign. This will be ture for both sinlge and online gameplay campaigns.

We simply learned all requests of users for some years of Il-2 life... The best that we can do - will be there.

Hope I gave some info for the brain here

Good to hear from you Oleg (the Boss) - my brain is working overtime. I am very pleased to see that you are continuing the ability to create historic campaigns - I have enjoyed doing the WWII historical research to create a campaign from close to actual events and re-living what you have read (so many times) in the IL2 flight simulator - it looks like it will get a whole lot better in SOW - BOB.
Can't wait until the release, especially seeing all the new aircraft and third party campaign engine. To you and your very devoted teams, keep up the very excellent work, it will be more than worth the wait.
DFLion

Thanks :)

Barricaded fields?
 

Oleg, quick question: Will you model barricaded fields in SoW? As you may know, the home guard and farmers barricaded their fields so that luftwaffe pilots couldn't land their aircraft in case of an invasion. Unfortunately this proved to be rather annoying for RAF pilots who wished to do a forced landing, but were met by large wooden obstacles, and tree trunks!

Any thoughts?

Regards,
P

Hi Oleg,

For your next sim. Is it possible to introduce some physics characteristics for the pilot ??? :idea:

When you create your character for playing a campaign a number of characs are rolled.

Such as :

eyes sharpness bonus or malus to spotting (being able to see the enemy farther, being able to recover from sun blindness quicker)
Physical strength bonus or malus to shake the stick (less strenght and you'll have difficulty to keep turning fight for long time, with more muscles being able to manoeuver at hight speed better)
specials aptitudes such as great stamina (offering a better resistance to wounds) or a better support of g turn and black out

I know it can be considerde too RPG but as an option can be fun. With a option like this there's even more diferences between to pilots flying the same plane.

Historicaly the great aces are special, physically, mentally or have specific technics to diferentiate them from the others.

P.S. excuse me for my bad english:lol:

Hi Oleg, you may have read here several discussions regarding Ubisoft, i have spoke to Ubisoft in the UK and they have very little knowledge of SOW and are adamant that they are not the publishers, its not that important on the scale of things but it does seem strange that they are proclaiming that they are not and will not be involved. Can you shed any light on this?

Many thanks

Tracer?
 

Oleg, in Il-2 Sturmokik 1946, the tracer for the .30 cals on the hurricanes and early spit models is very unrealistic IMHO. The colour is correct as you've mentioned, but if you watch gun-camera videos from the Battle of Britain, the spitfires and hurricanes have smoke on the tracer, like on the Bf-109 models in Il-2.

Any thoughts?

Regards,
Philip

Ubisoft is a large company. As I know in Ubi Uk all guys new. And the old that even know me personally were moved in the main office or in another companies. Another one thing - I was in UK Ubisoft office almost 3 years ago... Yes we are working "too" long, but we all would like to get really good thing. And... date of release on different sites of BoB was many time anounced... But I knew it only when it was published there.... Officially BoB was never anounced when it will be released. Usually just hope when... and almost always - TBD.
What I can say really - we are working hard... and BoB will be done doesn't matter of anything in possible future :)

It depending of type of bullets. In Il-2 we don't model all of possible amounts. We select just one of possible for certain type of wepon on that or another aircraft.
So you may see in color films from different theatres even for one type of weapon very different type of tracers, also that was changed some time several times during the war.

Waypoints in SOW
 

1+2) Waypoints are neccessary. Another spech that they should be defined in briffing... and as well as dynamically changed waypoint due to command using radar data for exaple. Triggers will be.

Oleg, could you give us a little more detail here, if possible?. example - will a radar vector give you the ability to change a waypoint in-flight?

DFLion

Thanks for that Oleg, like you say it doesn't matter on the scale of things its just a little annoying to see some online sites taking pre-order payments when they have no real information or confirmed release dates.

Thanks for shedding some light on this, and good luck with the project.

Slovakia Winter Map
 

I know your situation is very resource driven to fall back to the final 4.09, though after seeing the Slovakia Winter map I am feeling very sad for that development team - what about the community 'chippimg in' for some overtime payment?

DFLion

We model all structure of HQ that receive information from the Radar and give then commands to ground AA-artillery, to planes, etc. and if you recieve this information in Air then you should redirect your flight according given info. We try to model it with the precise of that time... so it will be not so precise like in modern time. You even may miss the target by altitude or so... like it was in reality, reading recalls of British pilots.

German radars will work by other way. They used it for another purpose.

I din't say it is canceled isn't it?

Yes, I saw it several times and noticed about it Ubisoft in the past.

Hello Oleg,

thanks for the update, and congratulations on the absolutely superb aircraft and vehicles.

I have three questions:

1) It was said a long time ago that AI would not be able to look "behind" means that their vision is limited by actual cockpit. Is this still planned?

2) It was said also long time ago that AI will not be able to look through clouds, or less good looking at night. Is this still planned?

I think both those things can revolutionize offline playing. For example, diving in clouds for escape, was, as you know, first thing to do for lonely bomber for example.

and

3) do you already know how much % of a city, like London f.ex will be "generic" buildings, and how much historic (real) buildings? Do you plan to match more or less actual street layout ?

Thanks and lots of courage for your project. I have 3D/Design company myself, I probably know what you life is. :)

Thanks---

1. Confirmed
2. Confirmed no "radars" across the clouds
3. We will have several very precise copies London building, but other things - most generic... But from above the streets, etc will looks close to the map of 1940 that we have.
To make a full copy of London would take large time... it is impossible... or possible if we will drop the main thing of simulator... :)

Thanks for the update and the consistent clarification of many things that have been on many people's minds.

Things look VERY promising from where I'm sitting.

:)

*Ahem!* Mr Maddox has mail ;)

Just registered myself to come say that keep up the good work Oleg and the whole team. Thank you also for the update and taking time to answer the questions.

:) :)

I know.

Simply haven't time yet to answer you.

yOUR SIGNS WE DON'T USE YET, BECASUE THERE ISN'T THE MECHNISM YET TO PLACE IN THE RIGHT POSITION. So we used the "old" skin that was done for the check how it looks/ This skin is done long time ago. Before you sent me materials

Oleg,
Thanks for the updates.

One question....Will the AI still be able to make those impossible maneuvers like they do now? I mean the instant flips, turns, etc... It gets very annoying. I hope they will behave more realistically, and be subject to stalls, blackouts, redouts, etc...

Thanks again.
Monty

Thanks
 

Oleg, thankyou for taking the time to answer my question about tracers, and everyone elses question-we are truly thankful.

One thing though, have you considered modelliing barricaded fields (in england) as these were very common in fields in south east england during the BoB, as the threat of a german invasion lingered.

regards,
Philip.

Thanks for the update Oleg :-)

I just have a few questions for you regarding the modablity of the game.

I'm a 3D modeler myself and was wondering if it will be possible to model say a french car or a french town house and then include them in the game? If so how will this be done?

Regards

Henrik

Thanks for all those informations and even more for taking the time to answer all our questions!

Considering the detail we see in the screenshots, I bet something like sharing skins online is getting a bit harder with BoB. Is it still planned to have such a system?

On the other hand, looking at my netcache-folder, there are many custom-made nosearts and squadron-insigna. Knowing that many planes from all sides had such personal markings, wouldn't it be an option to support the noseart-concept for all planes and make them work independently from skin-downloading?


Besides that, it was repeatedly asked, wether airborne radar and radio-navigation will be implemented. I remember a statement where you said SoW will be capable of simulating both systems, but looking at the Beaufighter, it would be interesting, if this will be included in the initial release, too?

Again, thanks for taking the time to post so many interesting news for us!

Roger. Oh and your capslock is stuck ;) :mrgreen:

After Oleg shaved off his moustache, I lost hope that we will have Adolf Galland correctly modelled...

Thank you for the time answering our questions sir.

I have a couple of my own questions too - speaking from a bomber pilot's view, will AI gunners now take into account friendly bombers flying in formation? In IL2 when we do formation flying online, often there is a friendly kill from one of our bombers in the formation.

You mentioned that gunners will differ from one to another by their skill level, but will they also interact more with the pilot, something like 'bandit 5 o'clock, coming in'?


Also will it be possible to hop into someone elses bomber on DF servers to take copilot seat, or at least a gunner position? No matter if this option will be for coops only, it will help a lot in training pilots how to fly formation and not to mention different formation positions which in IL2 are impossible to fly since we can't use copilot's seat (I know Ju88, He111 and RAF bombers had a single pilot, but this may be a good reference for the future :)).


And last question - how much more complex will be using the bombsight compared to IL2? The biggest lack of automation release in IL2 for me is that it can't be used for online formation bombing because everyone will hit area behind the leader, no matter how close they fly in the formation.


For example in B-17II The Mighty Eighth, old game by Microprose, Norden bombsight had a small red light on the bombsight which would light up second or two before the sight would release the bombs - is it possible to model something like that in SoW (not sure what historical reference here is, to my understanding Loffte bombsights used by Luftwaffe were very similar to Norden)? :)



Thor

Will you buggers leave Oleg alone so he can go work on it please :)

Write this copy of message to pf@1c.ru
I will answer you there.

I too would like Thors questions answered especially the co-pilot help in the bomber as Thor will probably tell you. :)

If I understand Oleg's reply correctly, then we should be pleased to see that the team is attempting to model the imprecision of radar at the time of the Battle of Britain. Hopefully they will find a way of moving what could be called a 'floating' waypoint on our flight maps - though I hope that the maps will be somewhat different from the knee-pad version used in Forgotten Battles. This particular battlefield was much more local than the vast Russian steppe or the emptiness of the Pacific. Vectoring by radio was the rule of the day, based on the calculations (and inspired guesses) of the plotters at Fighter Command HQ.

Oleg, thank you for your answers. Much appreciated.

Oleg,

Thank you for the details and replies (and also for taking a deserved vacation).

One little question: Tactics involving larger co-ordinated formations were popular in air war that took place on the Western front. In particular I am think of things like German and British squadrons avoiding combat and attempting to outclimb each other and gain a group advantage before attacking (or entire formations suddenly breaking off and retreating).

Has there been any thought to an "flight leader" AI that could give orders to more than one aircraft?

Best wishes,

-Avimimus

Muzzle Flashes
 

Here is a zip file you can DL to view an Archive Film of the P-51 Muzzle Flash. As you will see, the flash and smoke extend a few feet, and it's daylight.

"http://theghostfiles.org/maddox/p51MuzzleFlash.zip"

GF

The estimated release date of B.O.B. will save me from building a new PC. By Sep '09, there will be new Mobo's, CPU's, Video Cards... Judging by the detail of B.O.B., current hardware may not survive.

P4 3.4Mhz
X1950Pro
2GB Corsair PC3200 Dual Chnl

Woaa, Oleg had a field day here :D

Thanks Oleg, you rock.

Well, I've fired thousands of 7.62 rounds with the M240 which should be rather equivalent to the .303:s in the Spitfires and Hurricanes. Just as Oleg says - the actual size of a muzzle flash from an MG is very hard to capture on film. On an M240 it feels like it is 50-70 cm long and 20-30 cm wide. It looks a LOT larger than it does "in the movies"... When you fire blanks it gets even worse - it's like a giant fireball in front of the M240...

It is however very hard to capture these on film... We tried it a lot but it does not look nearly as "cool" on a video as it does IRL :) I'm sure that everyone that has fired a real MG can chime in on this.

EDIT - another thing, the MG:s in many fighter planes during WWII did not have effective flash suppressors from what I know. That ought to add quite a lot to the muzzle flash intensity...

/Mazex

I think the Sims are awesome in many ways and from what I am reading here, they are about to get better.

I just have 1 suggestion in regards to the Career aspect, more Decorations.

It seems many sims stick to the same basic 5 Medals to earn, granted IL-2 has covered many more Countries then any other sim and that's great but what I would like to see (someday) are Ribbons for achievements, not just for valor.

I might be asking to much for a view of Pilots wearing the decorations like MicroProse did in F-117a (aka F-19) Stealth Fighter way back in 1988.

I figure medals are ok for Aerial Victories, but what about longevity of the career, or ground attacks?

Even Campaign Ribbons after completing say 10 or 20 Missions in 1 campaign would be nice.

Russia, Germany, United States and other Countries had a lot of decorations back in WW2.

Since just about everything on BoB SOW will be new, will this to be expanded upon?