[Pursuivant]

Continuing the wishlist:

Miscellaneous New Missions

High Altitude Photo Recon - Player must fly straight and level at a specific altitude while taking pictures.

The initial point for the photo recon run, the end point, and the altitude must be set in the FMB.

Player gets points for flying the correct flight path starting from one point on the map to the other. The mission fails if the player's plane is at the wrong altitude or doesn't fly straight and level while taking photos.

No new effects or objects are needed, although new loadouts would be needed for aerial cameras mounted in suitable planes.

The existing screenshot key could be modified to create photo recon pictures (with camera angle pointing straight down from the camera aircraft's belly and a black and white photo filter added).

A new post-mission debriefing option would be needed to that the player could see the photos taken on his mission.

Low Altitude Oblique Photo Recon - Player must circle a specific point on the map, or fly past it at a certain angle and altitude. Cameras are smaller, so resolution isn't as good, requiring the player to get closer to the target.

Similar game mechanics to High Altitude Photo Recon, except that cameras are mounted so that the lens points left or right rather than straight down.

Pathfinder Mission - Simulates operations to drop flares, smoke bombs, or incendiaries, either to mark a target zone for the main bomber stream during night bombing missions, or to mark a drop zone for a paratroop or cargo drop.

The target zone must be set within the FMB, possibly using something like Front Markers.

The player gets points for dropping specified ordinance within the target zone, and possibly points for each friendly plane which subsequently drops bombs, cargo or paratroops in the zone.

High Altitude Area Bombing - Player must drop ordinance within a designated drop zone while flying straight and level.

The target zone must be set within the FMB, as described for Pathfinder missions.

The player gets points for dropping his ordinance within the target zone, possibly with bonus points if he hits exactly in the center of the zone. He might lose points for dropping ordinance outside the zone (simulating hitting friendly troops or non-military targets). The usual points accrue if the player actually destroys objects within the zone.

Incendiary Bombing - The player must drop incendiary bombs within a designated drop zone.

This mission is identical to Area/Carpet Bombing missions, except that it requires special incendiary loadouts for the relevant aircraft. Incendiary bombs would also need new game mechanics/coding in order to work properly.

Low Altitude Area Bombing - Identical to High Altitude Area Bombing, but planes use dive bombing or glide bombing to drop bombs and/or rockets within a zone.

New Objects Needed

Various flares, as described in previous posts.

Smoke bombs - for the nations that used them. Basically, bombs with contact fuses which produce a smoke effect when they exploded. Smoke effect size should depend on bomb size.

Incendiary bombs - for nations that used them. Special bombs which produce a fire effect when they hit the ground (or sometime afterwards if they have a delay fuse). After a set amount of burn time, they set fires in wooden buildings and other flammable objects. Treat this as a destruction effect which only triggers if a certain object overlaps the incendiary's location for a sufficiently long period of time.

"Trigger" boxes - a very simple object with a "panzer rating" and "destruction effect" which can be placed inside a building object in the FMB. When it is destroyed, it triggers some special effect - such as an explosion, fire, or smoke - and possibly gives the player points. These could simulate buildings used as ammo and fuel dumps, as well as strategic targets. "Friendly" trigger boxes make the player lose points if they're destroyed. These represent non-military targets, or targets which must be left intact.

Larger and more varied smoke effects - to simulate effects of smoke bombs, marker shells, fires, and previous bombing. These could be placeable objects within the FMB. Different sizes (huge, large, medium, small, very small) and colors are needed (white, gray, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple).

Larger and more varied fire effects - to simulate the effects of incendiaries, napalm, forest fires, firestorms, etc. These could be placeable objects within the FMB.

It might also be possible to create "2-D" smoke and fire effects over cities which are similar to the current forests. That is, they're nothing but textured 2-D "sheets" - possibly with very simple animated textures - until the player aircraft gets quite close, at which point they turn into sprite-producing effects.