[dflion]

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