Civilians?

[kendo65]

Don't want to get involved in what has become a very personal dispute, but thought i'd try to give my perspective on these issues. At the risk of being accused of 'copping out' I can see merit in both your arguments.

Zapatista, I don't think any of us would say that we don't want a 'living, breathing world' to fly over and interact with in SOW, and you are right that Oleg has told us that civilian traffic (buses, cars, etc) is modelled and will be included. This is definitely something that I have little doubt will play a big part in the future of this sim. I wonder though how much will be available and usable in the initial release?

This is where I think Andy makes a good point - the word is 'resources' - both in Maddox Games development time AND in PC processing power.

We are already aware that Oleg is aiming for a release later this year and that many crucial aspects of the game remain to be tuned and added. This means that of necessity some of the desirable but non-essential extras will be pushed back for inclusion after initial release. The best examples of 'desirable but non-essential' would be things like wildlife in the fields, civilian traffic, animated civilians (farmers, pedestrians, kids playing in the back yard, etc).

The issue of PC processing power is key here too. There will not be much point in developing and including all the features of this world if no-one has a powerful enough PC to actually enable and run it.

I think given this the most realistic result in BOB will be that some minimal amount of civilian traffic, wildlife, etc will be available for use. I fear though that attempts to make heavy use of it while simultaneously having decent-sized air battles will result in low frame-rates (similar to il2 over cities).

However, one thing that I'm sure will be ruled out for the foreseeable future is the possibility of continuing the game on the ground after the pilot has bailed out. The big difficulty here is in developing realistic AI to control all of the vast number of possible interactions between a downed pilot and his environment. It is not enough having cars with open-able doors or pedestrians that follow pre-programmed routes along designated paths. That kind of 'dumb' modelled world is perfectly believable from a plane at 2000 feet, but when you are standing next to the pedestrian or when you attempt to eject a passing motorist from his car - think of all the possible interactions that will have to be modelled to make it seem real....!

The only alternative I can see to this (initially) would be having your downed pilot in an unpopulated, dead environment - not very rewarding and not very realistic.