[Forgottenfighter]

86) 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

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.

87) 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 ???

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.

8 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.
1. 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.

2. 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?

3. 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
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.

4. 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?

5. 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?

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

89) 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?

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.

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

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

91) 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.

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.

92) Oleg has made one statement that didn't turn out true for the Il-2 series (but which will eventually be realised in Bob). So, his statement about always delivering is almost 100% correct. On the other hand Luthier predict two or three features that didn't turn out, and thus, is about half as reliable as Oleg but still more reliable than 99% of us. Furthermore, Luthier never stated that he will always deliver on what he says.

Finally, to my knowledge, he never said he would give us lots of updates & really soon & that they would fulfil all our wildest fantasys & that these updates would include a flyable demo &... All that he said was that he would try to improve communications and keep in touch with the community.

My recommendation: Find something else to do. There are plenty of things out there including people & trees & books &...

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.

93) 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

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

94) 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?

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.

95) 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?

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.

96) 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 ?

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...

97) I'd like to ask if you are able to provide the ability to save the game in-flight.
It isn't really possible to get the most out of the games with the type of lifestyles most of us lead. Not without sacrificing work and family.

Being able to fly a six-hour bomber sortie for example, in real time but spread out over a couple of sessions would be a great thing for the single player experience. We wouldn't be slaves to the short-hop missions or the time-skip key. If players could share and exchange save points too... Well, you can imagine the possibilities.

I was asking about this feature our developers. It isn't promised, but maybe. Simly now we need to save even more data than in Il-2... and in Il-2 it was way more than in any shooter.

9 I already posted a few, but I of course got another one or two:

Will SoW have an ingame VoiceOverIP-included? It would be really cool to combine these functionalities with the simulation of the radio-system.

Also an ingame-server-browser or at least one, that is distributed with the game would be really helpful. Has this been considered, yet?

Voice telephone? However in Il-2 the user interface for this features wasn't good.
Yes we plan. Because it is really good for the recording of tracks

We plan to make some browser. But probably it will be separate program from which you will be able to star the sim with automatic connection to selected server.
We had such things in the past in our previous (before Il-2) games.

But this program will be not the program that will replace others, that works fine with Il-2.
It will be in additional, if user prefer.

99) Oleg I have seen that models of planes and vehicles have hinges that can be manipulated. Is this also a feature that the player will be allowed to use? Like opening hatches on a tankturret or opening the cockpit of a fighterplane?
And will this feature also be applied to human figures? So the player will be able to position the arms and such of the body?

From the beginning we are making all things openable... I dopn't know how many of these features will go in final reelase... but as with Il-2 this means we will modify the code that to use the BASE input at initial development. With the release we will have AA-guns controlbale by player... this is intersting for Online, but it will also works in a single missions, if you only like to create such.

And as I told... the code will be partially open in terms of modification with the use out of normal fixed parameters and code servers...

In time I think we may see even U-boat controlable The water is transparent in engine.

100) I have some questions regarding the multiplayer:

Will it be possible to change the inflight briefing during the game and will it be possible to paint the flightroute and mark objects on the map?
If so it would be helpfull to add an option to send that customized map to all other squad members during the game.
I also wonder if there is a chance to display own jpg's on the briefing screen (like air recon, notes or tactical maps).
Will the player be able to conquer airports and does that influence the support or reinforcements?

I do have some more questions regarding the mission editor:

Is there any chance of changing the ingame maps, to add markings or notes visible to other players?
I'd like to add a video to the briefing to present the map in the old fashioned "wochenschau" style will that be possible?
And last but not least, is there some sort of trigger so that a sound file (like a radio message) will be played when the player activates the trigger?

I can't say yes to all your questions. Recon maps we would like to make and it is in plan. However I don't know if it will be in release. The format of brief is HTML... so theoretically there is possible to use recon map and send to others across the map. But it will depending of many factors, so I can't tell you 100% yes.

As for the capture airfield.... we plan several online modes in additional to what we had in Il-2... Also can't say you final features


As for changes of map... don't know yet all features that will go in final. You know I never promise when I'm not sure, if you are NSU that I know...

Video in gif or flash player format probably will be possible in a brif. I don't know which type of HTML we will use in final. You know there is going the new version of HTML in future... Proabbly we will stay with the current for a long time. So if to make everything manually for single missions - then you probably may use all features of current HTML version . If automatic - then just limited amount of features... However the engine of campaign (doesn''t matter single or online) will be open for modifications. Or even someone may developm completely own. We will give access to that item of code for modifications that will not damage the fair online gameplay.

You will be able to put on the map trigger with sound message with the defined radius of action.

101) 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...

I can't say... Its relative thing of the player-pilot experience. My guys and me can shoot any AI fighter enemy...
Stall, black outs, redouts was a limit for AI even in Il-2. Simply they are robots and calculate it way faster than you.

102) I can't say... Its relative thing of the player-pilot experience. My guys and me can shoot any AI fighter enemy...
Stall, black outs, redouts was a limit for AI even in Il-2. Simply they are robots and calculate it way faster than you.

Probably the right name for AI would be predictable calculation with 100% precise.

In BoB we will have more complex AI behaviour that will be more "humanized".

However before Il-2 there was no one sim with "humanized" aircraft AI like in Il-2...

103) Can you give us a hint about the airborne radar? I remember a previous statement, where you stated this will be possible in SoW, but you were not sure wether this will be in the initial release. Looking at the antennas on the Beaufighter, has the decision been made in the meanwhile?

Airborne radars (onboard) will be only on AI aircraft with the release.
We don't plan to model with the first release night fighers. Too much work for the too small effect in gamplay. The first thing is important that will be economicallyy right in development.

However I do think in future if the BoB will be successful, then we may work over such things as well. As well as third party developers.

104) I can shoot them down too. What I mean is, the AI can execute maneuvers that would send my plane crashing down. The 180 degree instant turns...and I mean instant, is one example.

Never saw myself AI instant turns that I can't repeat myself going by their trajectory.

However it is explained as well above about their precise.

Some time AI with level of Novice also crashes in a stall in dogfight...

105) 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.

YES. in BoB such situation shouldn't be possible. As well as fo other AI objects with AI gunners (guns cannons, etc)

106) 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'?

We plan some speech of gunners and thier notices for pilot

107) 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 ).

The online protocol of BoB is completely new and different to Il-2, so I would say yes... that would eb absolutley sepearate seats.

10 1) will there be "terrain masking" in BoB ?
- "terrain masking" means that AI aircraft and enemy radar can not see through mountains and ground obstacles if they are blocking "line of sight" . so for ex if we fly a german aircraft very low over england (say 30 meters altitude) then the english radar will not see us, and similarly when i fly behind a mountain then the radar and AI aircraft on the other side of the mountain will not see me.
(you answered the question for clouds now blocking AI aircraft vision, but you have not answered it for mountains and hills blocking radar and AI visibility)

2) will there be civilian road and rail traffic in BoB ?
- right now in il2 when you see a truck or car on the road it is always military (even the bicycles), same with the trains they are always a military target. if we have some civilian road traffic (few buses and cars maybe doing a programmed "loop" journey) and trains in england (and they existed in ww2 period) then points could be deducted for destroying innocent civilian objects, and that means we need to correctly identify a target before engaging it, not just shoot at anything that moves !

3) will there be AI traffic and activity at the airfields we fly from ?
- microsoft flightsim X already has this, there is refueling trucks, baggage trolleys, other trucks and shunt vehicles driving around the airfield, giving it an "alive" impression
- you mentioned you will have ambulances and fire trucks maybe rushing to a crashed aircraft, but can we have some active vehicles like refueling trucks, ammo trucks, tea truck, jeeps with pilots, base commander in jeep on inspection tour, etc type activity ? (could be switched on/off in options for low end pc not wasting resources)
- can we have similar friendly AI activity in the sky ? in real life there was not just fighter planes and bombers flying in the sky, there was supply planes, transport planes, replacement aircraft etc. can we have some of that activity in the sky and at our airfields ? for ex AI flying in new replacement aircrafts for the squadron, and maybe supply aircraft bringing in parts and supplies, or new pilots etc.. that means other planes will be landing and taking of at our airfield, and flying in the skies near our airfields.
- adding that type of simple activity can make a big difference in bringing the BoB world alive, instead of flying in an empty world like we have in il2 right now.

4) will destroying objects/buildings at an airfield affect the availability of resources at that airfield ?
- for ex if all the fuel dumps at an airfield are bombed it should take X amount of time before fuel is again available at that airfield (new supply needs to be transported to the airfield), during that X time delay there should be no fuel (or ammo for ex) available at that airfield. same principle if all aircraft stationary on that airfield are destroyed by an enemy bombing raid, then we should not be able to magically spawn a brand new aircraft from that location (or hit refly and get a new aircraft) for X amount of time (new aircraft need to be flown in , or damaged aircraft need time to be repaired with spare parts). same if a runway is bombed, the bomb craters should remain taxi/landing/takeoff obstacles for X amount of time till the runway is repaired (you can still use the part of the runway that is not damaged)
- in practice this means that we can gradually shut down an enemy airfield, and force their aircraft to use a more rear located airfield (so it forces the enemy to waste more flying time to reach the frontline)

5) will you correct and improve the "distant object visibility" problem we currently have in il2 ? ie seeing distant LoD models correctly as you would see the the same object (plane/truck/tank) from the same distance with the naked eye in real life
- this is not a problem in il2 when you look at a distant aircraft against the open sky because it is a black (or dark grey) object that is seen against a uniform light blue sky background, but there is a MAJOR problem looking for a small LoD model against the textures of the terrain background, it blends in to much.
- for ex right now in il2 when you fly your aircraft at 1500 meters altitude and you look down to scan the ground for objects, you can not see/locate/track an enemy truck or tank that is standing in an open field or is located on an open road (as you can in real life see it, and historical ww2 pilot reports available), but instead in il2 you need to fly at 500 meters altitude to be able to see it (using the 30 FoV zoom function is not the solution, because it creates tunnel vision and you can only scan a very small narrow part of the ground at a time, and loosing all your peripheral vision it makes you very vulnerable to fly like that). this is because the il2 LoD model blends in to much with the terrain textures (with pc grafix it is a flat 2 dimensional LoD model blending in with the colors of the flat 2 dimensional terrain textures, but in real life it is a 3 dimensional solid object that stands out much more)
- will you compensate for this pc grafix problem in BoB and make distant LoD models stand out more so they are correctly visible ? you mentioned we will have more LoD models in BoB, instead of the 3 currently used in il2, but i am asking about making the LoD model stand out more so it is correctly visible and we can see those objects like tank/truck/planes from the exact same distance as we can see them in real life !

1. Yes. Will be another technology, but means the same. The polar pattern of radars we try to model as close to real things as it possible. Of course with some approximations, but anyway close.

2. It is possible. Probably we will minimize it in release, becasue of hit to resources, but in general Buses already now can travel by their own trajectory in a city and make stops as well cars will try to find place for parking in a end "waypoint". It is working already. Just would repeat the amount of such action probably we will need to minimize due to resource eater feature. But for Editor we will offere to use it for enduser to modify scenery, etc...

3. See above. Yes we plan some life on airfields. But the main goal of course still will be the air battles

4. Yes. Also we are currently working over "real" 3D craters of bomb hits on the ground.. that will destroy the usability of airfields for some time (real time for repair of runway or the time that defined in tunings of mission or on server)

5. The resolution of detials and LODs is way higher than in lL-2. How far we we will see the type of the object... I can't say right now. All will depends of the all final resource-eaters....
In Il-2 once we did halfransparent dot for the groun objects that to make some ability to see it from longer distance... howver users dislike this system and preffered to go back as it was.
It isn't definitiopn of the LOD only. It is definition of the screen resolution, and power of a system on which we will run BoB in fuuture in a middle settings.
Also due to online gamplay we will need to make it absolutely identical to medium system for the fair gameplay. Its a rule... Or the player with more power PC and greate resolution of the monitor you would be named as a cheater.... We already have great experience in that and many items of gameplay when we need to go for some middle level of details on middle to high power game machines...

109) Can players join coops after mission start?

Can if there is free place. One of selected in a special menu AI will be replaced by new player.

110) As you say ground AA guns will be playable, Will AA guns on naval/merchant ships be playable as well?

Sure with the release will be only ground AA-guns of some more or less similar by power types for both sides for the fair gameplay online. Later - we will see. The code will aloow much more than Il-2 code. And even more

111) 1. You've mentioned earlier that SOW series will be open for 3rd party add on makers and that they can implement a more detailed simulation of an aircrafts operating procedures than the default planes will feature. (realistic start up procedures etc.)
Can you say us what level of detail will be possible, what subsystems can actually be simulated?

2. Especially will it be possible to switch between different fuel tanks, which was very important in some aircraft like the P-51?

3. I've read in an old interview that AI crew members in BOB can panic and just fire around wildly. Is such an feature also planned for AI flak gunners? Something like crewmen abandoning their guns when under fire, so that you can use historic tactics to suppress the enemy AAA with strafing runs.

4. Will it be possible for the user to edit the available loadouts for each plane in any way or will there be a fixed predefined set like in Il-2?

1. Can't say at the moment. I only can say that in each cokpit we model we make all switches operable in 3D models. But not operable in the intial code. As I told it is for "masochists"

2. To switch different fuel tanks should be possible in intial release.

3. Not everything. Partially panic, but close to very historic types of attach - yes.

4. Probably. It will depending of the final GUI complexity. I can say that we now can change the load of the bullet/shell belts, but it will be anyway in a way of some amount of standard sets. And special effiency of each shell/bullet type will play more greater role than in Il-2.

112) 1 Damage of coolant lines; coolant leaks: will it be modeled? (yes/no, however detailed answer is welcome too).
2 Reversal of controls; wing twist;

1. Yes. More detailed when will be ready.

2. If you mean the problem on ailerons of Spitfire before and including initial series of MK V due to rodation of the wing relatively aileron - Yes we plan it. Wing twist - visually separate of each console - not.

113) 1. Will be possible to set in the planes random or pre-defined malfunctions?? For example, when in an online war the aicrafts get worn and as a result of this, the failure percent increases.

2. How complex is going to be the procedure of starting the engines? (you said earlier that it might be more complex)

3. Will it have more realistic effects on starvation of engine, and mixture control??
How will the engine handle the flaps? Will it follow the historical procedures of every model or will it have 2 or 3 levels of predefined angle flaps?

4. How will the monitor resolution and "points of aircraft" (contacts at distance) work?? Today lot of people don´t use high resolution because they "don't see the contacts"...

5. Can we get out of the planes and walk? (At least, in the start of the mission)


6. Will be more data written in eventlog.lst?? It´s very useful to create dynamic campaings.

1. It will be defined by a code. Player can't define it except the feature to swich it off in difficulty settings (as well as on a server).

2. Maybe a bit more complex, but maybe anyway by one button. It is still diputable in our team. But sure we wiill not copy rweal procedures for each aircraft. Fist becasue it is tioo much time eater in development. Second, becasue if to do, then to do it really correct, but not like others WWII sims developer declare that they have it realistic. Enough to compare with real manual the item "preparing for fligth(take off, or so)"...
The main thing is that most active people will play online our sim and opnly periodically - single play. In online gameplay the procedure for real starting engine will limit very much gameplay, so we MUST go there fro compromises with reality. The only real starting procedure will reduce interest for the gameplay very much... as well as some other real features (like real ACTUAL time of refueling and reloading) - then you will get German or Russian plane ready more quiker than British or US.... This will damage the online gameplay be sure...

3. Yes. A bit. Becasue we model more precise fuel consumption due to different input, than in Il-2.

4. This I already answered above in other answers.

5. No. But in a code it is possible alreay now. see my other answers.

6. We have completely new online protocol. More for sure.

114) May we NOT include these two things in SOW BOB

1. Elevator Trim on a slider facility or any quick trim change. Also flaps on a slider if not historically correct eg Spit ( by the way I mostly fly the spit)

2. Sonic radar. when plane you are attacking can hear you from a long way away and evade.

These two game "exploits" harm online play in my opinion

I know you are busy , but I think we are all very pleased you are able to spend some time here, thank you.

1. Initially in Il-2 it was possible, but then a lot players that haven't such sliders on their home controller begun to sign a song that they are cheaters... That to make fair gameplay we did protection in a code for this feature that to make for all the speed of changes equal.

2. In Il-2 the sound engine was designed for HiEnd sound cards. It was so different sounding on Hi End and on regular cards.... On simple motherboard cards of some producers the panning was so simple, that we was unable to control it or regulate the distance... and some people begun to use it... In BoB we will have completely new sound engine that will not depending of type of sound card. We simply did own panning code, etc...

Also how to limit the ability of player to make louder his speakers... still don't know This will be the only one limit I know in a new sim...

115) is it possible to visually show the angle of the propeller? I refer to the possibility of altering the propeller pitch and see it in real time like some MsFS aircrafts.

Yes it is. To see it well will be possible when the propeller isn't rotating. I rotation to see it hard, but possible, because we have fair "blur" disk of the propeller when rotating.

116) I'd like to ask if SoW will feature bailing out in first-person perspective?

The current style of Il-2 and previous sims is for the "camera" to jump to an external perspective - right at the moment of greatest immersion. It tends to destroy the atmosphere more than a bit. As I'm planning on getting shot down a lot, it's something very important to me!

technically in engine it is possible, but I don't think we will have work time for such "small" features before we will release the sim.

117) 1) Will features like 'F6' be server controlable now? Meaning that we can have servers with externals on but no external padlock?

2) Will gunners now feel the effect of G-forces? IMHO, in IL2 the most unrealistic thing related to how gunners work is their resistance to G-forces. And this goes specificaly for tail gunners which can accuratly aim at you even if their plane is pulling extreme G's.

3) How will gun positions and bomber stations work in SoW? If the bombardier is on the bomb run - will he also be able to man the nose gun or will nose gun remain silent if you attack a bomber who is close to releasing his bombs? Another example are waist gunners - in He-111 to my knowledge only one person operated both waist gunners. If bomber is being attacked from 3 and 9 o'clock will only one gun fire?

4) Will gunners scan the horizon for enemy planes or will guns and turrets be in their default position at all times when no enemies are nearby?

Edit:

I thought of one more.

5) Will control surface movements be visible on other planes than just player's in online DF servers and tracks?

Edit 2:

Just thought of three more questions about ship modeling:

6) How will ships behave when heavily damaged / sinking? Will it be different from IL2 when they sink in a matter of seconds after being destroyed or will they sink by flooding or heavy damage (especialy if in stormy weather)? What about small (example: landing crafts or RAF rescue speedboats...) - will strafing be accompanied by an explosion to tell us that they are destroyed or will it be possible to model them like I asked above (just strafe them and they sink slowly, so we don't allways get that explosion which tells us that they are destroyed)?

7) In relation to the above questions, will ships have weak points - for example if hit in ammo magazine to cause fatal damage and if hit in other not vital areas to make them withstand more damage/hits?

9) Any chance for lifeboats / survivors in the sea after large ships sink? (I know it's maybe a long shot but...)

1. Will ask my guys to do not forget it
2. Will
3. question is done too early (as many others from other guys)
4. These turrerts that has two positions for fire and the speedy flight will work as it should. It is done with actual time animations.
5. will but on close distances.
6. Way more complex than in Il-2. As for the rescue.. we plan special aircraft for that in missions. Boats - maybe, maybe not. To wait boat will be too hard so great time... Not too interesting for the gameplay.
7. Weak points will be. But not the ammo belts of MGs of ships
9. I think no. Becasue at first we are doing flight sim, then we are thinking what is most important to develope for ther other things that have their own sequence of importance.

11 Oleg. I was wondering if there could be anti submarine missions?

May be... in time. In principle possible.

119) Will it be possible to overlay scans of real maps so that these can be used as a guide when creating the terrain model, laying out roads, rail, towns, woods, waterways etc?

Will it be possible to import satellite height data (SRTM Data) to create the initial terrain model?

Will it be possible to automatically fill ground textures with buildings and objects, based on standard templates? If so can the standard templates be edited by the map maker?

Will there be any fixed limits on the size of map which can be created?

Will it be possible to copy and paste groups of objects in a map?

Will it be possible to copy and paste groups of objects from one map to another map.

Automatic aligning and spacing of objects?

Will it be possible for rivers/bridges to be above sea level. On IL-2 maps the water surfaces and bridges are all at zero level.

Will it be possible to create more complex rail systems including rail sidings, rail junctions, embankments, cuttings, more realistic looking bridges (without approach ramps), tunnels, rail over road bridges, road over rail bridges?

Will it be possible to make steps in a river, to create waterfalls, river weirs, lock systems, enclosed harbours etc.

Will the sea be tidal with more land exposed at low tide?

Will you be able to crop out part of a large map to easily create a small custom map for online use.

Will you be able to extend the boundaries of an existing map to cover a larger geographical area?

You would like to know to much and too early.
Right now I would say that most of requested by you features are used for internal tools.
For the end user some of them will be removed due to many commercial reasons.

100% answer can be done for the size of map. For the end users it will be limited in size. Because the great size map will will keep only for us, as a developrs of the next after BoB new sim or/nad map + objects addons on a payware basis.
So in general enduser will be able to make own maps say for online gameplay in proportions like it is done for Il-2.

120) Hi Oleg, I have a question for you, why the planes in Il2-sturmovik not represent the real velocity???? for example: one FW-190d9, in the war have a max velocity of 730 km/h at 11.000 meters, in the game this is not true, and the Ta 152c have to low performance on all altitudes, why???
Sorry for mi english, but i speak spanish, and my vocabulary suck. Salute

Sure that real D9 wasn't able to reach 730 km/h
Ta-152c - I hope you don't read indicator speed that to get image of real speed with which aircraft is flying. Compare indicator speed in cockpit and in the mode without cockpit. Without cockpit the speed is real. In cockpit - indicated. Please read in internet or books what is real speed(TAS) and indicated(IAS)

121) the editor map is good for create any situation of war.
but the texture for map not satellite photo but synt immage.
and another difficult problem for the map is creation of mesh terrain the mountain and the valley not real to reality.
Example i want create the island Sicily how many create the vulcan ETNA?
How do I create the equal reliefs of the ground to those of the reality?
i think this is EDITOR MAP for game tipe the SIM CITY or another GAME.
but this is WW2 simulator this is a serius game.
for the serius game takes the serius map editor.
i loock Oleg Maddox like create synt file.
Example in il-2 sturmovik the sound not real but synthetic.
this map editor is synthetic immage.

If you only want you can create the map with sattelite precise and with the limits that gives you the grid of tools.
But you can't load directly the dot matrix (raster) image into the tools. You will need to work with it to the standards of tools... to create layers of altitudes, etc...

Nothing comon here with the SIM CITY

Another way if you want to create new quick map that is siutable for the new scenery of online gameplay... then our tools will give you ability to make it very fast and easy and looking like real surface with only features that we offer in standard set... However even in this case you can make own textures and to add it in tools that to work with them and use in new map.

122) For most people even a generic panel is a huge investment, not to mention a complete cockpit mock up where every switch and lever sits on the right place.

And why should a clickable VC prevent anybody from mapping any function he desires to the keyboard or other externals? You can still play any flightsim just with the keyboard alone despite probably all simmers have at least a joystick.

Joystick is a _must be_ device for the flight sim. In all other cases with the other devices the FM must be simplified and it will be in BoB for the possibility to play with gamepad for example. Except special flight sim devices like bomber control column wheels, etc... But it is another story...

Notice: However if you are playing with gamepade or other similar device and then connect the online server where all other plays with the joystics (settings on the server) then you automatically will get the switch to normal FM... and possibly will be not able to play with others on the same level of aircraft control, like with at least Joystick.

my personal opinion as well as all pilots that I know and was asking specially for this item, all tell that clickable cockpit by the mouse is Ok for the the civil aircraft (say such funtctions like levers, wheels, etc), but anyway it isn't even comparable to the real life precise of hand movement... Say, pedals also clickable?
Mapping on the device or even keyboard is more close to real life than to make all things clickbale/moveable by the mouse. Especially in military aircraft....
Some reealtive sample: I would be glad to see how some will be control aircraft by the joyistick and then by the mouse simultaniosly clicking on the fire button on the control column in 3D cockpit. This sample I give only as realtive. But it is easy to understand in comparison...