First I have to say it's nice to see so many new options and all the possibilities that these should open to us mission builders, good.

Now the not-so-good thing about the GUI:
it is terrible, really - it would have looked cool in 1995 but 15 years have passed since then.

I really would like to give feedback that could bring some improvements with a little work but this really needs to be rewritten from scratch in my opinion!
I'll try anyway:
- try to use toolbars, for example for the selection of the displayed objects, no one wants to navigate to a submenu 15 times in a row to show what is really needed on screen at that moment
- same could go for types of planes or nationalities
- try to minimize the number of objects you can select from a list - if the number of items exceeds a couple of dozen the list become unusable - order the items using some criteria is not sufficient, sorry
- try to minimize the interactions with the windows and instead focus on the GUI items themselves, for example to insert a waypoint between two existing ones you could simply double click on the first waypoint
- allow multi selection of items and allow all permitted operations that are generic and disable the ones which are specific (e.g. if you multi select two flights you could change their altitude at the same time but not their callsign which must be unique)
- allow smart operations on multi selected items via context menus (the menus that usually pop up when you click right mouse button) no need for big space consuming windows all the time - for example you could multi select a number of flights and then via context menu decide to scale their altitude by 500 m / 1000 m / 2000 m and so on
- provide two (or more) mode of operations, for example a basic one and an advanced one - when sketching a mission I'd like only the most important parameters to be shown saving precious screen estate, when refining the mission I'd take care about the details (e.g. weathering) - let me concentrate on what's important at that moment
- use the native File dialogs for god's sake! no need to see that 15 year old file selection dialog where I can't even create a directory!
- add undo/redo, of course for multiple operations
- again on item selection: have you thought about trees? in some cases they allow a much easier navigation compared to flat lists
- use dockable panels instead of windows, really, it's 2010 - GUI toolkits have made huge progresses in the last 15 years

I could go on for hours...
Sorry Oleg but this GUI can't be fixed easily, it really would need a major redesign to be in par with the quality of your simulation (which we all assume here will be the new state of the art).

Writing a new GUI of that complexity could easily require a couple of person years and I don't think you would want or could afford to do that now.

So one last request: please leave the game open as much as possible for external mission creation and interaction.
Document the format used for the mission (that shouldn't be too expensive), you'll save the community the long time it would take to understand otherwise and maybe we could come up with something more modern that could complement this new FMB.

And thanks if you've read my whole post :)

Will I have to go to flight school to play this game?

Very interesting maps and accompanying tools!

I have never used a FMB, and perhaps never will, since life is far too busy for me to spend more time than I already can on WW2 flight sims.
But, it's interesting to see the scope of the SoW BoB chapter, at least, and to see the operational field that we will have to start with.

I'm glad that the mission builders seem to be pleased and look forward to (hopefully) what they can share with us eventually.

Thanks for this update.

i think this will be very great game so many options thanks

Seconded. I hope there are plans for a more intuitive way of finding these types of object.

Nice to see the map will be so big. :)

hurricane maybe?
 

I just want to know one thing. With the weather slider will it be possible to set up a class 5 hurricane in the channel maybe a couple of tornados on the side.:grin:

I think you're referring to the 'weathering' slider, which isn't to do with weather, but connected to the amount of 'wear and tear' on the aircraft.

If you meant this as a joke, I apologise!:grin:

Here's my ingenious idea: a "Mission Randomizer", nothing too complicated, just enough to give the player a little surprize. It would take an existing single-player mission, and moves parameters automatically, so enemy waypoints, height and direction are changed slightly. Also optionally changes enemy formation size bigger or smaller by user selected percentage amount.

Copyright 2010 BaronWastelan, no rights reserved :)

Ahem!... I think you mean 'thirded'!:)

*The final name will be STORM OF WAR Cliff of Dover? Or Battle Of Britain?

*mmm, i believe that the airfield need have is own logo for the task or operation. Bombers, CAS, GAI, interceptors, destroyers.

*a hurricane, never do a mission made to land ing German airfield

*When we do a checkpoint, we will have some tool for know the autonomy of the airplane to know if we can return to the base or not?

*I want to see some Bf 109 or Bf 110 shooting that 20mm cannons bullets and see the smoke. Pleeeeeease

*In every place I read that Korea or Afrika will be the 2 series. For me, I don’t like Korea, I like Afrika or Battle For Moscow. I want my Bf 109 F-4

ivagiglie:
While agreeing with most of your comments, I hope you realise that the GUI is not your standard windows GUI, but a DirectX GUI which is as much workload as the game itself, to develop.

Integrating this into the 3D environment of the map making, is a mission. Not to mention simplifying it for the 'lowest common denominator'.

Oleg at the moment is streaks ahead of the competition, and as we've all discovered..... it is difficult at first, but it's easiest in the long run.
:grin:

Learning curve
 

Well, I figure after a few months I will perhaps know what I'm doing....
Na...that's dreaming.
Extensive settings!......good thing I have been saving up for all these years for a new computer.:grin:

Dissapointed.

Sure, there's lot's of great new functionality that those that mastered the current FMB will love.

I'm sure it'll produce great missions. But it's still the FMB! It's just been modded a bit.

And that's the problem, while being undoubtedably powerfull, the IL-2 FMB is a sucky program with a horrible interface and lousy documentation.

Yes, dedicated users can do wonders with it, just as they can in Unix apps.

But if that was enough in the 21 century there'd be no ipad.

I hope the rest of the game interface is better than this.

Nothing in this week's update makes the mission building functions more accessable or welcoming.

That, coupled with rumours of static campaigns only; will severely limit SOW's replayability in my view.

A modern game should be able to generate it's own content (dynamic campaigns!), and content generation should not be this complex at the lower levels.

It seems DCG will still be the way to go, which is sad after so much time in development.

I have built missions and campaigns for close to 10 years and helped develop mission builder tools/programs.

The FMB is improved a great deal from what I see. The sort functions alone will save hours of time building missions.

I suggest you take your negative banter to another forums. I doubt seriously it will be any better accepted elsewhere.

I have build countless complex missions for my squad over 7 years. The IL2 FMB is one of the best mission builders I have found in any game and very easy to use once you get the hang of it. I am excited about all the new possibilities and I am happy everything what was good in it stays.

This is the problem exactly, you (and Nausicaa) are experienced mission builders and no doubt this update is like early Xmas for you. For those of us who are just getting into mission building or who have only dabbled, the FMB of IL-2 (let alone this new mission builder with all the added functionality) has a very steep learning curve. I look at this update and see the power of this new mission builder as added potential so far on the horizon for me that I doubt I'll ever really get there. We haven't actually seen Battle of Britain yet so I can't comment on what sort of tutorials or documentation will be present but I will say that Seeker is spot on about the quality of the interface and documentation of the current IL-2 mission builder. Quite plainly, it stinks for first-timers.

I haven't seen the rumors about the lack of dynamic campaigns in BoB but the existence of the dynamic campaigns has helped mitigate the FMB learning curve in IL-2 for many of us. The efforts of community members such as yourselves also helps with this. Thanks :). Seeker raises a valid concern about BoB's replayability for mission building newbs, should the rumors prove accurate. Perhaps 1C should hire Lowengrin if there is a problem. If the rumor is true, it could turn off a large and potentially lucrative gamer segment that is needed to generate the revenue for all the expansions you and I wish for in BoB's engine.

It was not negative banter but concerns raised in good faith ( I'd be lying if I said I didn't share them).

Cheers,

Fafnir_6

Another one for my ignore list, don't worry Red, your in good company.

Here's the thing though, Mate. The guys who will actually put the time into building good solid missions (and more than one or two) will take the time to learn how to use this interface. It really isn't that hard if you take some time to seek out the resources. I'll grant that better tutorial info from 1c would be nice, but the simple fact is that most of the user made content for some time will be from the "old hands" anyway. Just my $.02.

Useful Features
 

Hi Oleg,

A lot of great new features; looking really good. These features would be nice:

- File | Open opens at the last opened directory.
- The Object window remains opened after running the game from the FMB then returning to the FMB.
- Map icons show the direction of the runways.
- Waypoints show heading angle and altitude when selected. This would help a lot with writing briefings.
- A waypoint route can be summarised in text, again for briefings. Kind of like SOW's version of "Get Directions" in Google Maps, lol.
- A print option from the Briefing screen.
- As mentioned by others, at least the ability to add images to briefings (for 'recon' and 'intel' photos). Being able to add video would be a nice extra, but photos would be a huge improvement over just text.
- Biggest Request: Please remain open to feedback after release and budget time to add further features in the future! Thank you!!

Other Things
- Weathering and Fuel would be faster to enter as specific numbers rather than fiddling around with a slider control; or use both.
- "View a list of all objects in the mission." would read better as "View Mission Objects".
- Does 'Delete All' have a confirmation step?! Two? ;-)

Thanks for reading,


Flying Nutcase

*sigh*

Use imagination.

I've been flying BoB since 2005.

P.S. The answer is that it probably is more difficult than you think. Oleg's team is busy building the sim (while Oleg is handling PR - which he is very good at - and collecting information). Basically, avoid expecting too much - Oleg didn't have to post any updates.

Many have addressed points that I also would, so I won't repeat them. However, looking at the weather options, one old IL2 issue comes to mind. I hope it is already addressed. Bomb sight bubble: the ability to reset it on a key press (maybe auto in easy settings). With moving air masses, high level drops will suffer loss in precision, if bubble can't be reset.

Looking that Script label I wonder if we'll be finally able to program failures in the mission.

In a script language, things such:

- 2 minutes after take off, engine spits oil and dies.

- 5 minutes after engine start, mag 1 fails

etc...

thanks for the updates
té mais
tityus

Just thought of a couple more questions.
Are the sliders for options like Destruction Tool and Brush size labelled so that we can understand what moving it left or right actually means.

Also, with features like Sleep for ships, labelling the boxes in which you input the time would be helpful so we know if it's hours and minutes, minutes and seconds, etc.

Personally I think the existing FMB arrangement is great as is. At least with this one, current builders will be able to produce content rapidly. If it was wholly new, everyone would be lost.

Oleg thanks for the free flight/sightseeing option.

The FMB looks very good, with a considerable amount of new options. I found IL-2's FMB easy to use and quite intuitive without having to read much of the documentation. If your stuck a quick post on the forums will get you all the answers you need.

Feedback on new FMB
 

Thanks Oleg for this ‘part release’ on the new FMB,
I have just done a comparison with the old IL-2 FMB and very thankfully you have made only minimal changes – why change an excellent tool that helped give the IL-2 flight sim its very long life. I know some members have criticised the old interface and look of the FMB, I don’t think this matters. As long as the mission builders can quickly pick up the new FMB and make some great missions quickly, using some of the new options.

1. The Mission Description screen is basically the same with the addition of some new folders – I am very happy with this.
2. The map is excellent, including Normandy with more inland French airfields.
3. Placing waypoints are basically the same as IL-2, though I am interested in the ‘In-betweening’ tick boxes and what they mean? ‘Interpolate’ means to ‘insert’ – altitude, speed etc?
4. On the ‘View a list of Objects in the mission’ can you delete airfields that are not being used in the mission build to reduce the map megabyte count and help the ‘frame rate’?
5. The above question leads to another question – are all the airfields already created with buildings, hangars, AA guns, static aircraft and vehicles etc?
6. How does the screen ‘edit’, ‘view’, ‘name’ work and how does ‘Spline RoadRunway Concrete 20m’ work in the FMB?
7. The object ‘aircraft’ screen is very exciting to see – you obviously are holding back some more aircraft for the release, or later release.
8. In the Object ‘Group Properties’ screen you have added four flights to a squadron which is excellent. New boxes are ‘Formation’, Call-Sign’, aircraft weights, Ammo belts (type), Detonators (length of time), Weathering and ‘Spawn parked’. Could you explain ‘Spawn parked’ in more detail?
9. The ‘Player, skill, skin’ screen has some very good new options, Weathering, Briefing, Left nose art, Right nose art, Tactical number, Serial number and A, B and C band colours. Also a ‘Crew’ button to switch from player to crew.
10. What is missing from your pics is the ‘Mission Description’ screen – ‘Mission name’, Short’, Full description. I hope you can create a mission description, say on a lap-top computer and transfer it easily into the mission description area, without opening up the full fight-sim?

I hope this feedback is helpful. The Hurricane mission on the map is a ‘bit of a worry’ – taking-off from Fairfield (I think) and landing at Montdidier (I think) in occupied France, though there are no ‘front line markers’ down the Channel!

DFLion

Thanks for the update Oleg.

A simple question, about a very useful possible feature:
Can you create randomly filled maps?
In case you don't understand what I mean, let me explain.
What about going into an FMB's special section and choosing:
- Coordinates of the map to be used
- Borders
- Types and numbers of ground units per side
- Press "create" and an Autofiller create a ready to use template
- Then, if possible, just move with mouse some units if you want and enjoy the mission :)

It may sound difficult, but it shouldn't and it will be very useful IMHO.

The advantages are obvious and above all it is the simplicity and the time saving, which is of tremendous importance for many people.

Main "problem" is that engine of random placement of units should have a way to bypass the problem of placing units in areas where they can't be, i.e. a tank in the sea (lol), but this can have many solutions and you know it well.
Additional orders, such as placement of artillery behind and tanks in front (for the shake of logical placement of forces), could be added as well, and still all technical problems can be solved.

So, Oleg, what do you think of this?

One of the wisest descisions ever made in Flight Sim history was keeping the format of the Il2 mission builder. I'm so glad to finally see the SOW version, and even more happy to see the the many additions, improvments and integration with SOW capabilities.

With the largest base of Combat Flight Sim mission builders in the world - it would have been a waste to change the basic struture of the FMB.

Anyone who is even marginally proficient in Il2 FMB (thousands), who have developed missions for every other combat flight sim, knows the pain and inefficiency of the other systems.

For the most part, I've flown multi-player in all its forms for the last 7 years or so. However, many times I've taken a break from MP to fly the many incredible, artisan crafted single player campaigns. Two that come to mind were made by Icefire for the Tempest which were so enjoyable, I actually flew them more than once.

Il2 created a guild of mission builders, skinners and movie makers that I never thought possible. As the sim matured, the talent grew. Keeping the familiar GUI and basic system will bring many of that talent to SOW.

Great move!

S!

Gunny

https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/For...erSIG-2010.jpg

Oops, I did not express myself clearly yesterday.

I think that one of the major roles of offline play is for a simmer to practise aerial gunnery, and adding those manoeuvres in the Action menu can expand this role :smile:.

In online dogfight, you often approach and attack an enemy fighter that is currently engaging a friendly of yours, and, for example, doing a tight horizontal or oblique turn towards your friendly. Also, the enemy is not aware of your approach and therefore continues the tight turn without any change. You then fire at an opponent busy fighting with someone else. This situation is particularly common when your tactics is hit-and-run or boom-and-zoom in a hot air combat. But you need good gunnery to attack such a target successfuly with only one pass, gunnery that lets you fire precisely at the enemy with high speed and from any angle.

So to create such single-player missions with the suggested new "Action" options will be a help for the simmer to practise gunnery against specific aerobatic manouvres. But we need to let the AI perform those manoeuvres repeatedly, without being influenced by the player's presence. :)

Well, it is just a small idea that might be worth listening to. Thanks a lot Mr Maddox for reading it! :grin:

http://uploadpic.org/storage/origina...3f2jl94sek.jpg

Yes, it is for triggers.

Maybe just a bit. Its a tool, not the game, even it ios integrated in the game. It should looks like a tool really.

I put only these things that I think is important and these that I want. I can't do only things that you personally ask.

And I don't really "must do" it every week.

Lets you'll try to ask the same from other companies. For example Microsoft. I will be very interested what the aswer you will get. May be you would try?

And finally, you may see, that for most here this update was really interesting... If you don't use FMB for making the sim even more intersting that it is in basis, then you simply don't understand the importance of the FMB. This tool makes the game even more interesting and allow many users to get new scenarios, campaigns, single missions, to invite then to play online your friends in the new scenario you did, etc ... Just try to think about it.

Experience of Il-2 show that this tool was one of the most important features of the sim. And here I just show the new tool, that in comparison to Il-2 FMB has a lot more new features. that was implemented by the great accumulation of users suggestions from around the world in years.

This feature is one of the main features that lacks many other games of one season life.

Just try to think about it a bit wider....

This update is one of the most important comparing to such as the first video even shown....

PS. Without such a tool there probably wasn't possible a lot of the mods in Il-2...

hi oleg!!!!

Can you give us some trigers examples?

thanks!!!!

LOL you tell him O. M.

Hi everybody,
Thanks for the great update!
But I'd like to second what ivagiglie said. The major reason why I didn't use the IL2 mission builder much over all these years was the interface.

I know that right now all development effort is on much more important things but I think it would be worth to re-think the GUI.

I've been working as a software architect for 20 years now and in most of my projects the GUI was or is one of the key elements that are very important.
The way I would go, would be Qt4. Qt4 is a set of C++ libraries that are available for windows, linux, Mac and even embedded platforms. They include everything to make highly ergonomic and modern GUI applications with just a few lines of code.

If you provided some kind of front-end library in C++ for all the functionalities of the FMB, we (the community) would be able to give you a hand or even develop a standalone application that has all that ergonomic appeal and bells and whistles that would make the FMB an even more outstanding tool.

cheers,
Schallmoser

Looks like a fairly good selection of options so far

I know this is WIP.

Will we have option to set damage on aircraft?

Spelling mistake
 

Hi Oleg

In the fourth picture - showing airfield names.

You have "Sounthend" listed - firstly a spelling mistake - should be Southend (aka "London by the Sea" :grin:).

Secondly, it was called Rochford during the BoB period.

Will we get the pier - because I do love to be beside the seaside. :cool:

Regards

Andrew

Fafnir, the most difficult thing in IL2 FMB is understanding the interface. But just sit down an afternoon with a good cup and coffee and go through great tutorials like Flying Nutcase's excellent site: http://www.il2-fullmissionbuilder.com/trains.php
...and I promise before the day is over you got it under your knee. Once you got that you'll see how very logic and simple it really is. I am confident that the basic philosophy of the FMB will stay the same in SOW, with added options, or interface commands for stuff that previously only existed in key board shortcuts (like the "rotate group" command I saw in the shortcuts in the screenshots I guess).
Trust me.....learning to fly your plane properly in the sim is a thousand times harder than the FMB. ;-)

With the trigger,

Could that be added to an airbase that normally will remain asleep when the 'planned'route is followed so that if you are offcourse that there will be a scramble?

Trains with AAA that keeps silent even the ac are in range till it's too late?

With triggers i'm just thinking of running the track for ships convoys etc, so the delay doesn't need to be calculated on the mission time itself..if you want to make another turn into the holding and gather area.

A few years ago I found that full mission builder site mentioned above and never looked back.
As I explored further I asked even more questions at the many IL2 mission builder forums on how to address other specific issues.. you'll find the majority have all the answers you need and some very helpful people.
Next it was making sure I had to research all the technical data required like climbing/cruising/max speeds etc to make missions accurate, followed by historical info on a particular battle.. I tell you, it became a way of life for me plus enhanced my knowledge on WWII aviation.
Jump in and give it a go, its great fun, sometimes frustrating, but extremely rewarding!

Some great ideas



Yes, actually the FMB is very easy to use and understand, it just takes a huge amount of time to put a campaign together. I've managed to make 5 campaigns in about 3 years..

With research, building and playtesting a campaign a figure of about 100-150 hours of work goes into building my campaigns, this doesn't include the time spent on custom skins by skinners helping me.

The thing that wastes the most time is searching and placing objects, ie- to make airfields and towns look ' lived in ' if there was a randomiser as suggested else where that could populate places this would save many hours!

Some other button or command that said " place 30 German bombers in X formation here " would be another great idea.

I wonder if we'll be able to place custom sounds and images into a mission?


Waiting for Oleg to come online and give us some more info!

Hi Oleg,
can we group Objects together and save this group to disk for later use?

..and it would be great if one could copy/paste thouse object groups.
And rotate them (like often possible in vector drawing programs) once placed on map.

Crystal clear Thor, i thought it was about fighters. :)

Oleg - Does this mean there will be a scripting language available in SoW for mission programmability? If so, that's really great news and will allow much more complex scenarios.

Long, long ago, you promised the SoW:BoB would include AI information flow from the Observer Corps (used inland where radar didn't work) to Sector Control Rooms, is that still true and are these events able to be used as triggers?

Thanks for the update,

56RAF_phoenix

For all those that don't remember, it was confirmed long ago by Luthier that we will be able to add images to the briefings.
Can't tell about videos though! :)

Wow! Loads of great settings in there.
Thanks for this informative look into the mission builder.

you can shows us how is the improvement to make different enemy route and this are aleatory at the moment of flight.

For example: make different options of chckpoint for bombers and when we die and want to play again the same mission, we have a surprise, is not the same that the last we flight.
that could be nice. the surprise element. jeje

Chris,

I cannot wait till you get your hands on this, even if it isn't "our" favorite theater, your abilities will really shine with these new tools. Heck, even my little single missions will become even more alive.

Cheers,

Terry


P.S. Triggers. *Insert drool smilie here*

Благодарю Вас
 

Oleg;
I'm hoping my title says "thank you" (I used an online translator).

Disregard the negative jerks like Redwan and Seeker. They'll never be satisfied and are probably console gamers anyway (sarcasm intended LOL). ;)

The FMB looks great, lots of options. Yes it may take some time to learn how to use it but that's the price for having a great game like this. I love the IL2 FMB and it looks like you've added so much more to this next iteration of flight sim.

I won't ask the standard "what about X? Can you change Y?" It's a bit late in the process to be still asking for this type of stuff. :roll:

I'm sure you know from experience you will never please everybody but you will definitely please enough!

All the best.

Looks like great news!

Although I have rather little experience with the FMB I immediately spotted some features that I was missing in the Il-2 FMB and some I didn't even know I might miss :grin:
(The interpolate alt/spd options haven`t been around in Il-2, or have they?, +weathering, +weather conditions, +apparently much more precise fuel/loadout options, +,+,+)

What intrigued me most, however, was the ammo belt option - can you tell us to what degree it will be possible to manipulate this as mission builder/player?

In any case: thanks a lot for the update, Oleg! :grin:

Hiya Terry!

Yes, triggers. Maybe even better than triggers, if we can run scripts when a certain event happens. I don't want to wish too hard but I'm already wondering if the scripts might do what I think they might do- imagine instead of just a trigger that spawns X number of planes when the player flies over point A, a script that runs, changing AI behavior based on where your flight went, and possibly triggering other scripts. If it's like I hope it is, this just scratches the tip of the proverbial iceberg! Fingers crossed :grin:

Since I took the plunge with UP, I have been finding myself looking at the lower Burma map and...then closing it before I start an adaptation of WSBS. But I have been working on my last set of skins for the 2nd Sqdn AVG. I just can't seem to get the time to wrap it up. I only have three or four planes left. I only took two years...is that bad? ;)

Most mission builders are probably like myself... very excited about this update.

The scripting ability is very important.

I recall trying to build missions campaigns using Pokryskinin air tactics in 1943 flying the P39. I could not do it because all flights would attack en masse. Pokryskinin's tactic was to maintain aircraft in altitude tiers until the air combat advanced. The upper altitude flights would incrementally drop into the combat with greater E onto the 109s and 190s destroying them with the P39 cannon.

This is just one example of course. The AI performance package should have some scripting options as well, to create tactical encounters.

The ability to arrange objects then group and store them as files would be a great help. Groups that would allow including objects with waypoints and other data would make mission building much more efficient. A further help would be to have timing you could set for certain objects within groups of objects at one time. Example : If you are setting delay time and direction for Flak guns at one time for all flak guns.

It would be a great help to have explosions and and other such objects on waypoints so you could build battles in process as you fly into combat areas.

Very important to have navigation ability for player to fly without having to follow waypoints. No matter if AI aircraft fly waypoints. Player flight should not be restricted to flight paths or altitudes. Autopilot for player should be determined with individual player settings on-the-fly.

Most programming tools developed for IL2 were just text editor tools that worked with the *.mis files. The QMT is a good example.

I can go on for pages and pages like many other mission builders.

One thing that would be awesome... to know the FMB will get periodic updates to further facilitate mission builders as new patches and addons are made available.

Thanks Oleg, I'm printing out all the screenshots and carefully studying them to get a more thorough understanding. Oleg there are some excellent mission builders who have posted this thread. It is good to see them here responding to your update.

we've had how many months of action porn shots? good to see the guts of teh game imo, and the thing that gives the majority of players (off-liners) a reason to play the game and promote it to others. having played some fine scripted campaigns, where there were events that you could tell were a bit of a skilful compromise on what they really wanted the game to do...

this is a great update.
the fmb in il2 takes a bit of getting used to, but frankly compared to other games mission builders it is a piece of cake. i could use the fmb within a couple of hours of fiddling to create passable bomber stream intercepts. the things that will be very useful is being able to state a formation and number of planes, such as the luftwaffe vee, and plonk it on the map, then have it change course without a tonne of carefulm tinkering.

also, speed variations with altitude - whilst realistic, it does make for a bit of complication when setting large bomber formations that vary a lot in altitude from highest to lowest - will this still be in effect, or will speed be settable at some kind of universal, regardless of altitude, value? or will that be utterly irrelevant as you can, say, set a b17 box with so many aircraft as a single unit?

You can customize airplane!Cool!
Also,the FMB looks quite the same of IL2.The classic design.

What those white airplanes in circles mean?

The way I look at that is that the (single player) player should be able to change waypoints for his/her own aircraft/flight while the mission is in progress.

In fact, that's a wish for general single player play, not mission building.

Probably the stand alone would be a great mistake. :) Like did it some others in the past. Also you will need to write so many other tools that to display the map, in 2D and 3D, all 3D objects and its options, change the features that render the engine, etc then you should be able to make BoB 3D engine. Don't you think so? :):):)

And if you can't use so simple in use tool..... just because you are thinking that it should have other interface and even didn't try to read instruction... translating your words why you didn't use it ever...

Who understand architecture of Il-2 builder begin to think by other way.... If my 6 year old son can use it easy, then i'm "sure" something wrong :):):) ..... When my older son (he was 10 years old) begun to use FMB, he also didn't read any instructions, but after a couple of hours try, he did the first his mission. The only one thing that I was need to say him - use button Ctrl...

The goal to keep the Il-2 looking new builder is that to get involved in mission building right from the release day a lot of people who was able to make it with Il-2 in the past. This is the most fast way to invite the other wide auditory of players to new missions and features right from the beginning... Ist it the right way?

If to speak about other way looking colors etc... then proably it may happens.

I know a lot of people photographers, that can't learn simple Canon's Digital Photo Professional program... I really learned it for 30 min...
I know the people who make really great photos, but can't learn simplest program Adobe Lightroom to make theri photos even more greater looking...
I know a lot of people who know well Adobe Photoshot, but can't use very simple for understanding Adobe Camera Raw module integrated in Photoshop.

In all these cases the problem is not in interface, but in understanding of process, sequence and principles.

And finally I did in the past the poll to keep ot not to keep the interface of Il-2 FMB...

I don't remember now exact digit, but more than 90 or 95% said to keep.

And we did it, adding a lot more features.

How it looks and how it works - it is too different thing.


PS. You may do a lot more nice buttons, including popup help(which sorry we can't produce with the small team for every feature of FMB), etc, but probably you can't make the other archtectiure of the FMB that is using BoB 3D engine. Trust me.


PS2. I know another one guy who was speaking many times that he is great specialist in Interface... I found then other... and many other people think the same now about him.... comparing with the old design that was...

i'm glad the GUI is the same.

for those who are familiar with the il2 FMB such as myself, it will make the transition very easy, and it seems as though my wish list for the FMB is complete, so i am very happy.

for those who are complaining about the GUI of the il2 FMB, and its difficulties, you obviously haven't bothered to spend more than 10 mins on it and gave up, its very easy to use if you can be bothered to spend a couple of hours learning it, and is far easier than other mission building stuff I've used.

A funkier GUI won't change the fact that you will still have to take some time to learn how to use it....

Agree.
Some has nice picture but don't give any real fun as the result...

Pinnacle Studio has simplest for understanding interface... But can't be even comparable in quality of output to Adobe Premier Pro...

I have to admit, the first thing I thanked the gods for when I saw this update was the fact that the man has kept the FMB very close to the original.. that will make the transition for people like me to leap straight in and virtualy create missions from day one, even without learning all the new features.
The thing I would like to ask is that will there be some sort of pdf or booklet on release to directly explain all the new features?.. Thanks in advance!

Don't know if that has been asked before Oleg, but is still possible to zoom into the map and switch automatically to in game rendered view? I loved that in IL2.

I don't think "the player" should ever fly waypoints and the player AI flight should receive directions ON-THE-FLY from the player. The player should always be able to do ON-THE-FLY changes as a real pilot and direct flight mates and other flights he is leader.

I realize this could create some issues, especially if the pilot is flying in where the flight leader is AI. IMO, the player should take command and be incharge of all flights from the start. My reasoning... the player pilot has a brain.

The AI have to have waypoints/alternative waypoints and have to be restricted, since they can't think.

As I recall, when I first started with IL2 I flew some campaigns and worked my way up in rank. I can tell you most of the time it was a nightmare, because the AI flight leaders did so many dumb things often it might take a mission refly a half dozen times to advance.

I gave up on all flights where AI commanded flights within the first week of flying the IL2.

My discussion about this in FMB may not seem applicable, but the FMB maybe a best place to define this in the programming for the SOW.

-----------------------

The FMB GUI is fine, and it won't require as much time to learn how to use improved FMB.

Exactly

The interface is good; simple yet functional... ever seen lightwave's interface?
compared to that this interface is easy to use, like it should be, and it has always worked like a dream for me in IL-2. :)
See, some people want instant stuff, like the ready-made generation, well...
sometimes it requires some work, some effort to learn something, which makes the FMB even more interesting. It looks bad? Oh, it doesn't imho... and who cares? it works, after all. :mrgreen:

Oh, that was really nice indeed

I hope the sort options for the objects database is very complete.

That may be the case, but since I cannot see the sort options I mention this.

It is very tedious to find and select relative objects in scans of the large databases.

Working efficiently with the databases of objects in FMB should be priority.

-------------------

It is good you have enlarged the scroll blocks on the sides of the FMB map pages.

Those little scroll blocks in the IL2 have often been difficult to use because of the small size.

@Oleg,

1) will the 4 plane per flight limit still apply as in il2?

2) if so, will we be able to clone flights such as in 3rd party apps such as Shift E's Quick Mission Tuner, or is this what the 'group properties' is for?

Actually, the QMT is an editor of the *.mis files with pre-sets and uses IL2 objects databases items that are selectable within the QMT. The ability to work and edit the *.mis (ini type files) would definitely be an improvement. This could all be done through the FMB of course.

Shift E has done an excellent job of keeping up with database items in the addons and patches of IL2.

Dear Oleg,

Could I respectfully ask you not to waste your time on trying to justify yourself to people that are obtuse regarding a feature because you have limited time and there are many very valid and interesting questions asked that I would love to see answered :)

As a mission builder myself, I concur with a number of the other questions raised but here's a few things not mentioned:

1. Does the new FMB allow the use of AI in dogfight mode maps? Indeed, does co-op and dogfight now share features as can be achieved with mods in il2 today? In IL2 AI was fixed to co-op but this function was modded with considerable success. This is important because if one were flying a BoB map online I would like to face a large formation on it's way to bomb England, not sporadic pairs of bombers on their way to individual targets. There are other immersive advantages.

2. Would we have the ability to limit the supply of aircraft and their loadouts at airfields? Land damaged and be destroyed and the aircraft is removed from the pool since it is taken for repair
3. Can we group items together? When I set up AAA at an airfield I like to surround it with sandbagging and ammo boxes, perhaps a truck and men. This takes a lot of time - I would like to select all these items as a group, perhaps even save them as a custom object name 'AAA post' and then place and align them on the airfield at once.
4. Can we group squadrons into formations as one, then have a method to split them to different targets? I am referring to multiple squadrons of mixed types into gaggles of aircraft. Formations in the BOB often arrived as one large group then split off in different directions to their targets when over England. In FMB getting multiple flights to meet up is very hard to manage.
5. Will the AI have the sense to stop following their leader if he gets damaged and starts to lose position? Presently one only needs to hit up the leader and the rest are happy to die with him
6. Are their other maps or can this one be extended? Britain was bombed all over during the BoB, eg the Bristol based factories at Filton and Coventry in the Blitz are obvious examples.
7. When assigning escort duties for fighters can you simplify the method? Presently you have to set a target for each flight - very painful
8. Can we create our own custom columns or formations which we can save as a new object/item/template? This would be a useful feature for longer term campaigns
9. How will the points system work? Can we assign custom points values in the mission? 100 per engine and rewarding players who run off and land per kill is pretty basic and doesn't help make good missions in online squadron competition fighting such as USL (www.uslglobal.com). Please feel free check out their scoring system which makes for more realistic combat scenarios.

Others have asked my other questions, particularly about waypoint timings and groupings - many thanks if you can find time for these.
~S~

From what i see on the group properties of a flight. Will it be possible to put flyable aircraft as stationary objects on an airfield?
Let me explain, i'm not talking about stationary objects with simplified damage modell like we have on IL-2, but put on the airfield the true aircraft that will work as a target.
This way we can use on airfield bombing missions stationary aircrafts with the complete damage model and they will get realistic damage, and we leave the stationary objects aircraft for use for scenery effects only and saving at the same time resources. But when an airfield will get bombed, we can have a more realistic behaviour to damage from the aircrafts, not just the simplified hit point system.

Hope it is clear what i'm trying to say. :)

umm, not sure if your mixing up mission mate with QMT maybe. Missionmate certainly does use presets.

Maybe you can use presets in QMT, but i use QMT to tweak co-ops a lot, and one of the functions I use alot, is to clone an existing set of waypoints from within any .mis file that you've loaded in, and are working on.

so if theres already a flight of 4 bombers, in the mission, i can just clone that flight, select vertical and horizontal offset, and hey presto, i can have 12 bombers in that formation, within that mission.

Hi Oleg,
thank you for answering my post. I really did not want to say that the old or new FMB was not good. It is the ergonomics I was talking about.
Things like when you open for example the object window to modify plane settings then you go fly the mission and come back to FMB it would be nice to see tha same window with the same size at the same position. :)

Another great feature would be to be able to register macros to do repeating tasks. for example:
1.select a flight
2.<hit start macro button>
3.set certain army, altitude loadout and other settings.
4.<hit stop macro button> FMB asks you for the name to register the macro under.
then you can select another flight and apply the same macro. This could save a lot of time.

Concerning the rendering in 2D and 3D, this could be done by your library for example in form of an ActiveX control that has its COM interface to control the functionalities from within QT. QT would only invoke well defined functions to create objects, delete them, controll zooming, panning etc. but all the real work would be done by your engine.

Anyways I did not intend to criticize your work but just give my thoughts. I'll be happy with whatever you decide :grin:

cheers
Schallmoser

on fmb

I remember being a little surprised and underwhelmed by the starkness of the il2 fmb gui when I first used it - in comparison to the slickness of the rest of the product. But as I started to use it and learned how it worked my opinion changed. It really did what it had to do pretty well. 'Functional' is maybe the right word.

I think the fmb is a bit like the engine and transmission of a car: in comparison to the shiny bodywork and plush upholstered interior it's not particularly pretty, but it's tucked away out of sight of the casual driver / user so it doesn't have to be. I think the new SOW fmb will still feel a bit like 'diving under the bonnet' ('hood' for U.S. readers ;) )

It could no doubt be made to look slightly more 'contemporary' (Windows 7 rather than Win 95 style text boxes, etc) fairly easily, but i'm pleased to recognise the overall feel that I'm used to in il2.

Some comments on the new features:

weathering on the slider is good - presumably we can then choose to keep it off if desired (thought that some of the skinners might prefer to have complete control of this aspect of their skins? - though will that work in the campaign ??)

filtering on the objects / aircraft is welcome

#passes on the Waypoint tab I suspect will be useful

having radio silence as an option suggests that the game will do a very realistic job of simulating limited defensive awareness and allowing the possibility of surprise attacks? I suppose that if radar is being accurately modelled then this needs to be done too. Raises the possibility of some interesting bombing missions - low level, under the radar, strict RT silence!

the ability to set initial formation in the fmb is much needed. As others have asked, I'd be interested in knowing what features are available for controlling large squadron-level and bigger formations as one group?

Look forward to hearing more about the weather and scripting options :)

Very exciting update for FMB builder's
 

Some very good observations on your post nearmiss. With the 'scripting trigger point' option you will be able to make much more precise missions that simulate historical situations. It looks like there will be much better control of the AI aircraft.

The ability to arrange and group objects and store them as one collective file would be a great time saver. For example a complete airfield, target area or a large bomber formation with waypoints. Timing is also a major issue in IL-2 mission building - trying to co-ordinate everything to arrive at the same point of time. It also looks like this problem has been addressed in the new FMB.

Independent navigation without following waypoints would be another excellent option with voice command 'trigger points'.

The 'scramble', 'idle', 'Script Spawn C' tick boxes in the 'Group properties' tab most likely answers 'FlatSpinMan's' question on taxi and take-off from dispersed positions.

Anyway the main thing is that very thankfully Oleg has kept the FMB format basically the same, with some very exciting additions. Hopefully he will be able to give us all some more detail without giving too much away?

DFLion

beautiful update Mr Maddox.

with these few shots you demonstrate rather clearly the quantum leap forward you have achieved over the Il2 FMB.

mission builders should be extremely giddy about these few 'maps' haha

as to the the few who do not yet realize the importance of the features and capabilities of this new tool - just relax - the people who do understand it will be providing you with hours of incredibly imersive action with it, soon after SoW is released! be sure...

I can see already how some of these features will benefit future SoW releases (Pacific Theater nudge nudge) so as to provide a far more seamless progression through all phases of WWII in the air.

One word: "triggers"

Hurray!

First of all, thanks for the weekly update. I'm not a mission builder, but i'm a mission flyer and the better the editor is, the more enjoyable the missions we get from our talented community members are going to be. So, thanks for improving the FMB for all of us.

With that being said, let me go on to a couple of specific points...

Actually you raise a very important point. Since we've been told we'll have accurate systems modelling and that the same rules will aply to the AI (that is, they won't be invulnerable to overheat anymore), there could be cases where flights couldn't reach the waypoints without breaking their engines.

For example, a flight of fighters might be able of a 350mph airspeed but only for brief periods of time (like war emergency power settings), with their sustainable airspeed being much lower. Or, they might be unable to reach higher speeds until burning some fuel and getting lighter.

Throwing the indicated-to-true airspeed conversions and ground speed calculations into the mix could get interesting, as they depend heavily on weather conditions (which are adjustable and also possible to dynamically change).

So, in order to ensure a flight overflying a waypoint at a specified time the mission editor would have to:

1) Calculate the needed ground speed (GS).

2) Reference the GS value with the weather conditions set for the mission and extrapolate the corresponding IAS value the aircraft would need to fly.

3) Check the needed IAS value for the specified leg of the flightplan against the aircraft specifications and operating limits.

I'm not a mission builder but this is very interesting, especially if you consider the possibility of some randomness in the way the weather evolves. For example if you have built a mission that relies on some closely orchestrated attacks and/or depends highly on keeping to the schedule, an occurence as simple as a change in wind direction and strength could make the mission goal very easy to achieve (ie, the flight reaches their target area with time to spare), dangerous or even totally unattainable.

For instance think about this scenarion in a future add-on, due to strong head winds the train carrying the enemy generals has departed when the mosquitos reach the target area and now they have to split up and look for it by following the railway lines. Certainly not a welcome event when a quick "one pass and away" mission turns into having to prolong the amount of time you will be flying low inside enemy airspace.


Very nice of you to bring this up. I still remember when i flew my first mission in B17:the mighty 8th (the sequel to the original) back in the day and the reason is just that feature. Having to fly steadily and sedately into an already well developed flak barrage in order to maintain bomb aiming accuracy was one of the most memorable events of all my simulated careers.

Cool! Thanks for the link :). My point in this thread is that this sort of tutorial should have been included with IL-2 (perhaps not in the original release but certainly in a later patch). Here's hoping this sort of tutorial will show up integrated with BoB either in the initial release or in some future update.

Cheers and thanks again :)

Fafnir_6

The FMB should be more "available" to new players or players with less time to study it thoroughly.

IL-2 FMB had many many limitations that were bypass by experienced builders only or even with external tools.

BoB shouldn't have this. BoB should have an explosion of new missions created by as many players as possible. And this is not possible with a FMB that looks like the insides of a nuclear bomb.

Let me make a comparison,

First 3ds max versions were pretty capable in pro's hands... but a lot of creativity was held off by it's hard interface. Once the interface had became more intuitive a lot of new creations had appear from the hands of people that normally would do nothing in the first versions.

FMB should have more appealing interface... those old WIN95 style windows can be changed in few minutes by an artist so they look more 2010 and not like a "oops... this looks dangerous, let's close it".
FMB should have a lot of buttons visible for quick access and not the necessity to click 2-3 menus and tick cryptic options. Contextual pop up menus, buttons, etc.

Take a look at modern game sandbox editors... many are a pleasure to work with and inspire creativity... sure a craw bar can beat nails in the head like a modern colorful rubberized handle hammer... but the kid that would help you normally is just not attracted by the job.

A good starting point would be a merge between DCS "FMB" and IL-2 FMB.

Roger that Lancelot, thanks for the confirmation. Awesome news.

Glad they've been useful. :-) Whatever doesn't come in the Storm of War manual will soon be covered by the community, and a book will rarely better video to demonstrate how-to instructions IMHO, especially for beginners.


Flying Nutcase

Thanks for another nice update - very interesting and a welcome change from "yet another burning plane" :)

I'm also curious about the scripting possibilities, i.e. how much the behaviour of objects can be influenced and what triggers there are. Would be great to have fine control over the AI through the mission files through scripts. But I guess we'll all find out soon.

As for the interface, there is a certain complexity in mission making you cannot design away, but for sure the Il2 editor did have some drawbacks (no copy and paste, no filtering of lists etc.). It looks like at least some of those issues have been taken care of, and as long as that is the case I couldn't care less about how slick the interface looks.

A lot of valid points by zaelu, a man who knows what he's talking about.

I won't say more, because these screenshot don't tell us everything and maybe the release product is something different than what we think at this moment.

But yes, I think that all of us who've created missions in FMB know its problems and hope to see them solved in BoB.

Of course, we all know (and maybe Oleg and team use this advantage) that there are a lot of people who would spend hundreds of hours in FMB or developing 3rd party tools, in order to bypass original FMB's problems.

All in all, even if we only get the same 10+ years old FMB, there will be people willing to spend their time for the good of the community.

But, closing as started, we have to wait because these assumptions are based in a few screenshots and not a detailed analysis of new (hopefully) FMB.

I think from reading Oleg's comments that any changes will be minor - colours and (maybe) the style of windows. The basic structure of the fmb will remain as shown - for reasons given already - familiarity and ease of adaptation for people experienced in il2 fmb.

I think also, that a change of gui to something very slick and modern looking will not reduce the unavoidable complexity that arises from having so many different variables to control - the underlying wealth of detail and options will still be overwhelming to some. A gui change is not a panacea. Probably more useful would be better documentation on how to use it.

Also, I personally don't want to wait another 6 months for the gui to be rebuilt from scratch.

A note on briefings

We have always needed a more structured approach to creating briefing documents. Having pre-sets on drop down entry selectors for time of day, weather, etc. Having a dedicated block for Mission ID, Mission description
In other words we need an efficient way to create briefings that have several consistent possible values, along with a lengthly description.

Combat briefings should be formatted wiht basic criteria to all missions, with a text box for elaborating on the description of the mission. Each mission briefing always requires specific information that pretty well applies to all mission briefings. A large text entry box could complete the briefing package,

This is an important issue. Any mission builder can tell you just how time consuming and tedious it becomes after spending so much time actually building each mission... then having to create briefing decriptions.

I see the briefing mentioned in the GUI, but I don't really know how far that goes or just what it means.

All it would basically require is a text editor with some pre-sets and a large text box to create consistent briefing documents.

I'm with the guys who like the minimal changes to the GUI. It's really not all that hard to use the system in IL2 once you have built a few missions with it. It looks like SOW will be a real step up, remember guys, a familiar GUI does not necessarily mean familiar problems. Half of the trouble I've ever had was getting the AI to behave, and that really isn't an FMB problem anyway. It looks to me like a lot of the rest have been addressed. I'm looking forward to cut 'n paste, and it looks like we'll have a lot more interaction with the AI through the FMB (and I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll be smart enough to follow the instructions.

So far I like what I see, but please, please Oleg make sure we can see a description of the objects, and not just a number. I would also like to have infinitely nestable folders for missions, and not just a couple levels like we have in IL2. (as a matter of fact it would be nice if we could build our own folder structure for the objects and such)

Yeah, It would be nice if the FMB just threw the basic info into the quick brief for us like no. of planes, basic types, etc. then we can always elaborate if we want.

Yeah, I gave up writing long and interesting briefings for the Co-op crowd 'cos hardly anyone reads them! ;)

Personally it's gratifying to see the shape of the new FMB is not radically different from the IL2 original. Learning the new settings and applying them onto a well-known framework will be better than trying to learn a whole new system, and I hope to be writing missions quite early on.
Another point is that I expect to still be flying FB after Storm of War commences - specifically 4.10 and UP - which is another good reason to have a similar FMB setup.

Thanks for this exciting update,

Brando

Hi Oleg,

Nice updare... Speaking about interface, I have a simple request to facilitate navigation: in the minimap when flying, or before takeoff one should be able to draw lines between waypoints with mouse click and draw, getting distances and headings. simple yet very useful.

Cheers,
Insuber

S! Guys,

I like the fact that the FMB is not far off from the IL2 MB, reason being that yes it is a very easy MB to learn and not so technical. I fly Rise Of Flight as well and there MB is very complicated to learn but still very good.

So that fact the learning curve is not going to be so steep is a good thing IMO so well done Oleg and keep up the good work.

Merry Christmas Oleg to you and your family and your team.

O_Smiladon

Hello Oleg, thank you for the surprise you gave us for these weekends.

There are some ideas and concerns I would like to share with you and readers.

1. It would be so nice to have few options to save .mis file in both ways, binary and in plain text. Encrypted binary .mis file with password that even the host can not be able to look up into the mission waypoint, aircraft types, directions, qty and e.t.c..
2. It would be so nice if the briefings would be in UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding. BBCodes would be also nice to see…
3. As I can see the waypoint displays only # of the route. (See pic. #shot_20101203_155528 copy.jpg) would be nice to see an interpolated speed and altitude of the group and/or single aircraft(s). Desired to see the speed in Km/h or mph or feet for airborn, naval and ground units (I am sorry, but in Il2 speed in meters per sec. looks useless).
4. The editable text line console below the map would be amazing and highly desirable. By placing any unit on the map would put a text line in the console.
5. Version, author, revisions, and dates tags inside plain text of the .mis file highly desirable.
6. It seems that the left scroller has been inherited from il2. Can you please to assign Map’s zoom in/out functions for the mouse scroll wheel? Shift + Mouse Rectangle drag is also highly desirable.
7. I know that the map at certain zoom levels (usually after 65%) displays as 3d map. It would be so nice to have export to .png file highly zoom able detailed map.
8. Can we able to select and save export/import the group of the objects? Let say I have to put few trees, few ground units, some static units and few human figurines. I want to save this scene and export as named preset in order to use this preset in future. Or it would be so nice to have a repository for the convenience all of FMB developers in order to have the possibility export and import these presets.
9. Is it possible to introduce the script code language inside missions? If Bf109-E3 in range [1Km..5Km] and qty <= 4 then spawn(type:Spitfire5, qty:4, skills:veteran, action:intercept) else lookup(AAGun, 4, veteran)
10. Is it possible to make a recon mission for the AI recon aircraft with possibility to take b/w photo shots and then insert these photo snap shots in to other missions?

Oleg, wish you the best to you and your team.

Oleg, if possible.

Allow beta release of limited version of SOW to a few competent mission builder enthusiasts. It could be a very limited beta that is just FMB with SOW data to work with.

You could save alot of time. I know there are some MB who have been building missions for close to 10 years who would be pleased to help.

You could get some very good input from the people who know the finer points and issues of mission building using the IL2 FMB and 3rd party FMB tools.

This would allow you to get some very excellent information about the FMB tool you plan to release. It would provide you information you really need as far as the capabilities of the FMB usage from people who have years of experience with it.

I'm sure you could count on IL2 MB users to pitch in help.

FMB very cool and powerful, lot's of time involved, and much testing. It certainly will be more of a pleasure with the new refinements, can't wait.:grin:


Getting an "Error message" after a placement if in conflict, would be awesome

Oleg, if other 3rd party volunteers make the texts for pop-up help bubbles, do you think someone on your team could put them into the FMB? - That would be a great "division of labour".

Sorry you spent so much time responding to a provocateur, but well, your choice...

Oleg, just dropping in to say it looks fantastic... I hate to wish my life away, but this looks FANTASTIC!~

Ok, I have to say I am disappointed to see that the 12. Group area is not part of the map.

I know it is necessary to draw a line somewhere, but still, the whole battle is incomplete without part played by 12. Group.

Hi Oleg,

Are we close to knowing what computer specs we will need to run SOW? I'm close to building a machine and would like to know.

Many thanks and keep up the great work. it's all very exciting.

Favorites
 

Hi Oleg,

Another thing that would be really useful would be Favorites for each list. For example, an object could be marked as a 'favorite' and it would appear above the full list, with other favorites.

Most people use the same objects repeatedly. This would be a real time-saver.


Flying Nutcase

The new sort ability is excellent, but we need filters as well.

Filters for Country,squadron ID,etc,

examples:

1. Squadrons should only show for respective country

2. Skins should show only for respective squadron they apply


The better the filters and sorts the more efficient it will be to build missions.

Filters can be applied with third party *.mis text editor like the QMT.
Filtering *.mis files after the misson is built and saved is a workaround for something better done inside the FMB.

Further to Nearmiss' 'A note on briefings'
 

Name (8) We arrive at Siverskaya
Short Flying in very bad weather we arrive at our new base at Siverskaya, just as a Soviet bomber attack is in progress\n
Description Date: 31st July 1941\nTime: 0915\nWeather:Rain/Snow\nCloud Height: 1000m\nLocation: Iyhvi-ahtme\n\nWe had quite a tussle last week with some Migs over Narva with two Friedrichs being shot down, luckily both pilots surviving, one with minor injuries.\n\nThis morning Hannes Trautloft announced to the Gruppe that we would be flying to Siverskaya, sixty kilometres south of Leningrad.\nHe had already inspected this airfield and had found nearly all the buildings intact \u2013 the Russians had left in such a hurry!\nTrautloft went on to say that he would make Siverskaya our main base for the attack on Leningrad.\n\nThe weather was very bad with heavy rain showers sweeping in from the Gulf of Finland, several aircraft had already bogged in the large mud pools forming on the airfield.\n\nSelect skin: Bf-109F-2_vomHofe_JG54_Blan.bmp (markings on)\n

Following ‘nearmiss’s’ previous discussion on ‘Mission briefing’s’, I have shown above, one of my mission briefing text’s created in the old FMB.
To save time, I have leant over the years, by ‘cutting and pasting’ a mission briefing from the FMB, you can use it as a template to create a series of new mission briefing’s, outside the FMB using your laptop. This lets you carry out research on your mission’s more easily while watching TV etc. you don’t have to open up the flight sim and type them in.

I always leave the heading’s information, ‘Name’, ‘Short’, ‘Description’ etc. changing these when I have imported the mission text back into the FMB. Writing the mission text is easy, including the ‘\n’ and ‘\n\n’ for new sentences and paragraphs.

You can see from the above, that anything written, or placed into the FMB automatically, creates and corrects in its own language. With the new FMB, this feature will be much more powerful, creating ‘script written’ trigger points most probably using key words.

I will be very interested in seeing how you will set-up your airfield position prior to taxying and take-off and how the AI aircraft will behave around you. I noticed there is a ‘script spawn C’ tick box which hopefully will be linked to your mission briefing text?

DFLion

This was one of my issues with the FMB... It would be great if the objects were categorized.. even if it was just like.. building_01-Building_300 or whatever.. but something that would make them easier to find...

The complexity of the FMB is also one of it's strong suits.. considering what was available for mission building in 2001 when it was released it is quite powerful.. and since we don't really yet know how all this will be implemented.. why get negative at all about it at all.. It really isnt that hard.. it just seems that way.. Had I continued to make missions using it I am sure that by now I'd be able to whip them up in no time.. as it is though I forgot most of what I knew..LOL.. but thanks to FN it wont be hard.. The last time I used the FMB there was a similar tutorial on a site called Sturmovik Technica..


That was always my major issue as to why I didn't use it more.. but it was definitely the kind of tool that if I had applied more time to it I would have gotten better at it.. but even with the limited use got out of it I could see how powerful it was.. I just used Mission Mate for most of the missions I wound up making so it was almost a moot issue for me.. but the FMB is a great tool.. very powerful and I can only imagine it getting better since with the release of upcoming patches for IL2 and the FMB enhancements coming, that the FMB in SOW will be better in every way than the one in IL2..

Exactly.. and that would be the case regardless to how similar or dissimilar from the IL2 one it is.. I think that t is good to keep the continuity in the look of the sim anyway.. The sim itself, the flying etc will speak volumes... but it is good to keep much of the interface either the same or similar to IL2..

Oleg.. will there be a separate QMB or will there just be one MB that is scalable to either setting up quick missions or full scale missions...? Like say by clicking QM it would just eliminate many of the options ion the FMB.. but the interface would be basically the same.. unlike the differences between the FMB & QMB in IL2.

Creating a 'theoretical' mission in the new FMB
 

1. Select Campaign folder and create the first mission file.

2. Click-on the ‘Edit’ tab and select ‘Weather Map’ to select weather type. Then select ‘Battle Area’ (to edit objects in the object tick-box listed in 11 Group area) and ‘Armies’ type (Red/English). Select ‘Languages’ (English) and then select ‘Briefings’ to create your first Mission briefing. Finally select ‘Script’ to set specific ‘trigger points’?

3. Click on ‘View’ tab to set-up the display filter. Tick the following: - aircraft, armour, vehicles, train, ship, buildings, static cameras, front markers, show AI actors, show spawn areas, show weather front, show time, show army ‘Red’. Then select Icon size and tick smooth ship path (ships travelling in curves instead of angles?), toggle battle area, show grid, animate camera, fit objects, mission parameters.
Select Landscape options (lighting effect?), Select Mission objects (from list?), ‘Snap’ to look at, Rotate as group, select layers, ‘or’ Undo ‘above’ stack?

4. Click on ‘Object browser’ and view airfield objects list to delete those airfields not in ‘Battle area’? Or enhance airfields in use with new objects.

5. Click on “Object browser’ and view Aircraft to select ‘Aircraft type’.

6. In the ‘Object browser’ select ‘Group properties’ tab to set-up ‘Country’ (United Kingdom), ‘Mission type’ (Fighter), Squadron No., how many Flights in squadron, Formation (type), select squadron ‘Call Sign’, select ‘Weapon set’, slide fuel slider to select fuel %, Check automatically calculated aircraft weight, select ammo belt type, ordinance detonator timing, pilot skill, use slider to create weathering %, select briefing type, tick ‘parachute tick box’, tick ‘scramble’ tick box.

7. In the ‘Object browser’ select the waypoint tab to create mission waypoints, altitude ‘0’, speed ‘0’, action (take-off, etc.etc), type ‘auto’, # passes ‘auto’, (before returning to original track?), radio silence box ticked.

8. Within the waypoint area, go to ‘Inbetweening’. Select waypoints 0-14, select ‘before’ current waypoint and tick ‘interpolate altitude’, ‘interpolate speed’ and ‘carry over type’, tick boxes. Press the ‘Create’ button. I am presuming that these actions will synchronise the waypoint timings of Allied and Axis waypoints to meet at the right time? (Hopefully?)

9. In the ‘Object browser’ select ‘Pilot #1’ tab, tick player tick box, select ‘skill’ (Ace), select skin type, slide ‘weathering %’ slider, select ‘briefing type’, select left noseart, select right noseart, select aircraft tactical number, select aircraft serial number, select band colour, either A,B or C (set colours or custom colours), tick ‘show markings’ box and finally hide 3D view of aircraft.

Looking good, though there is some ‘guess work’ in some areas?

DFLion