Oleg Maddox's Room #1

[dflion]

The attention to detail is fantastic. Thanks for this update Oleg. Radar was certainly a critical part of the British defence system during the BOB - are you also working on the much larger British Radar towers located along the coastline?

Keep up the good work - we are all patiently waiting for the release of BOB.

DFLion

[Feuerfalke]

Originally Posted by dflion

The attention to detail is fantastic. Thanks for this update Oleg. Radar was certainly a critical part of the British defence system during the BOB - are you also working on the much larger British Radar towers located along the coastline?

Keep up the good work - we are all patiently waiting for the release of BOB.

DFLion

You mean like this:

http://img207.imageshack.us/my.php?image=046ti.jpg
(SOW:BOB from 2005)

Or these?


(IIRC from 1946 DVD)

Or this?

(Another early shot)

Nah, I'd expect they'll simply drop it.

[zapatista]

Oleg,

thx for providing another update ! having the various radar/searchlight/AA-guns components all linked together to be in working effective order is a great idea, knocking out one element of the chain then makes the whole unit dysfunctional until the broken unit is replaced X amount of time later (i hope the X time delay will vary depending on the type of parts/components damaged)

can you plz answer this question:

i hope your idea is taken one logical step further in the dynamic campaign !

in the dynamic campaign we should be able to disrupt/block the supply chain to airfields and frontline troops as well, so that new munitions and replacement parts (new search lights, generators, fuel, aircraft parts etc..) are not being replaced instantly by "magic" like it is now in il2.

in the BoB dynamic campaign any new supplies and fuel etc (including new search lights if they have been completely destroyed) needs to be first re-supplied to that location by road or rail (or air), before they can become functional again. obviously minor structural damage (electricity lines, ammunition for an AA gun etc) only need a simple X time delay for minor repair, but if a whole searchlight is bombed, it should mean a new searchlight needs to be transported to that location, if all bridges and railway tracks to that sector are destroyed, then it should mean no new searchlight will re-appear at that location till these roads/bridges/railway-lines are repaired (taking Z time for ex).

iirc in mig alley you could disrupt the enemy supply lines by destroying bridges, railway lines, truck convoys etc, and it took the enemy X amount of time to repair/rebuilt them. if you kept them disrupted/damaged (by bombing a specific bridge one per day, or hitting truck convoys every night on the same road),then eventually the front line troops started to run out of munitions and it weakened their fighting strength, just as it did during the korean war in real life when the supply lines were deliberately targeted by the UN.

in your flightsim this should mean we can block the resupply of fuel and parts replacement aircraft being available) to a frontline airfield, and force the enemy to only start using other airfields. this is exactly relevant to BoB, where the germans by mistake (on orders of goering), stopped attacking repeatedly the english bases in the south of england, and switch to attacking cities instead, hence allowing the brittish some "breathing space" to recover and repair their southern most bases in england (which is what allowed them to win BoB eventually)

this is how a dynamic campaign should work, i hope it will be done like this in BoB

[III/JG11_Tiger]

Zapatista, most of what you want is available now if you use the scorched earth campaign engine

[Robert]

Radar, shmadar...... I'm waiting for the carrot mod. ;o)

Thanks for the update Oleg and crew. I still maintain we're in a great time to be a flight simmer.

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by III/JG11_Tiger

Zapatista, most of what you want is available now if you use the scorched earth campaign engine

no it doesnt, because in scorched earth
1) it does not occur in real time while the server is running
2) the scorched earth system is still "scripted missions" that are planned one at a time by human intervention, and it is then played one mission at a time as a coop server.

what we need in a true dynamic campaign engine (similar to the old mig alley, or the falcon 4 engine), where the "in game world" is proceeding over a number of weeks according to its own inbuilt scenario (and if left undisturbed or without human intervention will arrive at its pre-scripted conclusion). but small scale interventions by humans interacting with that virtual world should have a direct effect in real time, presuming their intervention is on a significant enough scale to be relevant (eg destroying the complete fuel storage area at an airfield, versus just destroying one part of it) . we should be able to directly affect what is happening in the game in real time, for ex
- destroying fuel storage at an airfield means for X amount of time no fuel is available from that field
- destroying a bridge means trains supplies cant reach their destination untill that bridge is repaired in X time
- replacement aircraft for a squadron at an airfield are flown in at semi regular intervals by AI, shooting down those replacement aircraft reduces new aircraft availability at that airfield
- whatever aircraft (new, or being repaired etc..) that are available at an airfield should actually be visible at that airfield (in hangers out of sight, or out in the open etc..), destroying aircraft on the ground should then mean those aircraft destroyed are not available anymore for X amount of time (till replacements arrive, or damaged ones are repaired after X amount of time). ie people who spawn at that airfield can only choose an aircraft if it is actually available there.

those are fairly simple elements of a dynamic campaign that make the world you fly in "come alive", actions have consequences and directly affect what happens in the game. adding some factors like that while the game is being designed is important, adding them later will be much harder. it doesnt need to take much computing power either, it can be done in a fairly basic way if needed.

mig alley and falcon 4 are each about 10 years old now, yet those types of dynamic campaigns still set the benchmark. it should in 2009 be possible to have a basic version like that integrated in BoB. oleg is obviously thinking in that general direction, because his last post refers to some of those integration factors, hence my question.

ps: the question was directed at Oleg, if you want to discuss it start a separate thread

[Flyby]

I did search, but I haven't found anything relevant, so I'll ask Oleg about AI pilots this way: If in building a mission I assign Stukas to bomb a convoy, and the lead AI Stuka sinks a targeted transport ship, will the other Stukas of the flight break off and target other ships in the convoy? I noticed in IL2 if I assign a flight of Kamikaze planes to attack a ship, and the first plane sinks that ship the other planes tend to mill around instead of attacking other ships in the area. Anyone?
thanks!
Flyby out

[csThor]

zapatista

Unfortunately one reason why campaign engines as Falcon4 and MiGAlley/BoB are still considered state of the art is that they broke their creators's backs. Falcon4 bancrupted Microprose (and didn't work properly for a long time) and the same can be said about Rowan. Such engines - done correctly, which is the key phrase here - cost a lot of time and manpower to develop. And these "commodities" are the rarest in nowadays game development industry. Unfortunately ...