Friday Update, June 08, 2012

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Redroach

ah, 100 octane, finally!

otherwise: what blackdog said, plus: The Blenheim IV NEEDS a level stabilizer, even if not historically correct, plus some sight device to look straight forward, for longer-range target identification (perhaps the periscope thingy to the right of the bombsight in the blen's bombardier seat actually did exactly this in RL?)

P.S.: I told you I would be appeased by having Radio commands! I can live with some flaws, but that was essential! (could use some more work, though)

For the Blenheim and every other bomber that doesn't have an autopilot, i was thinking of a "command the pilot" mode that would simulate the real procedure. I would also extend this to all existing bombers to simulate the fact that any pilot could be guided through the bomb run by the bombardier.

The way i see it working:

1) Switch to bombardier's seat.

2) Activate "command" mode (new keybinding)

3) The AI keeps the plane level. Up till now it's like a level stabilizer.

4) From this point on the similarities with level stab end. The player uses the same keybindings that are used to command left/right turns from the luftwaffe autopilots, but these have a different effect in "command" mode.

5) Every time the player taps these keys, the AI that is flying the plane is starting a gentle turn to the left/right.

6) Unlike the autopilot function (where the AP turns until the gyro heading matches the requested one), in command mode the turn continues until the bombardier explicitly tells the pilot to level off. This can be done by tapping the keys in the opposite direction: if you told the AI to steer left, pressing the key to steer right will level the plane off, and so on.

7) There would be a slight delay in matching commands to aircraft actions to simulate the time needed for the pilot to react (just like it happens with the AP to simulate their gyro-driven nature)


Such a function would not only solve the current problem, but also efficiently simulate the real thing and whatever gains and disadvantages exist in talking the pilot through the bomb run.

+
no need to use autopilots even in aircraft that have them
aircraft with no autopilots can level bomb with some precision even if only one human player is crewing them

-
less precise than autopilots due to the need to issue "level off" commands



If you guys like this idea, by all means add it as a suggested feature to the bugtracker.

Originally Posted by Stealth_Eagle

Blackdog, good summery of bomber issues. A couple that I have for the Br. 20 (A lovely aircraft that isn't really appreciated by most): if you switch positions while starting your engines online, sometimes a mysterious autopilot will take over, looking down the bombsite will occasionally freeze the game, and the altitude adjustment for the Br. 20 only shows increasing in incriments of 100 despite it being otherwise. Another small feature that I would like to request is more fuzes for the Italian bombs so we can also to low level ship bombing as well.


Thanks for the awesome update BlackSix, hopefully all goes well and can't wait for the sequel to be more formally announced.

Originally Posted by JG53Frankyboy

indeed, a Bf110C-4/N would be nice to have. Lets hope that the two existing 110s will get their MG-FF/M at least....

Thank you both for replying with extra information (duh, i totally forgot about the MG-FF/M on the 110s! it's already in the sim because E-4s have it, so it would be no biggie to add it)

I think that maybe we should open a thread only for bomber/twin-engined aircraft issues to generate some buzz. Many of these are small details that seem to be simple mismatch errors when typing the code (to the tune of replacing "left" with "right" or "true" with "false"), especially the control reversal bugs and instruments or equipment that are already present in the sim and work in one plane but not in another.

If they are quick and simple fixes like that, getting the attention of the dev team with a separate thread might help us get faster results, maybe even squeeze a couple of fixes into the upcoming test patch.

I encourage everyone with experience in bombers to post in such a thread in the main forum section (so that we also don't have to derail this one ), create one and get going. I will manage and/or collate information during the weekend, i can sticky it for a couple of days to get some attention and once it's up and running, i can move it to an appropriate sub-forum. But in any case, what we need is pilots to report in with their findings about:

the sim's bombers in general (doesn't have to be multi-engined, the stuka qualifies too)

twin-engined aircraft

So, we are essentially looking at all bombers plus the dual-role 110.