Friday 2010-02-25 Development update:Interview by Grégory Lemasson/Discussion Thread

[MikkOwl]

Originally Posted by zapatista

your saying there that there is only 2 states possible for a ww2 pilot in relation to oxygen supply
a) perfectly normal and healthy
b) "far to late" (presumably instant near death state, or death itself)

I think he means that the signs are difficult to notice at all, in particular (and this is important) because the judgement is impaired, like with drunk people. Therefore there are signs, but when very quickly stepping into these conditions, the signs are probably easier for others to notice than for yourself. People with 'altitude poisoning' can do crazy things and don't realize what is really happening. But yes, I agree with you that there's not only two states, there's other things that we could and should notice. But these should not be so obviously apparent when just cruising that we always see directly what is happening.

Originally Posted by zapatista

so how do you "model" the pilot smelling the fuel in the cockpit ?

Try to think beyond just 'smell'. How do humans react to strong fumes? Especially in your example of it splashing around.

If I was a designer for Maddox Games, I would:

1. Make the eyes mist (vision become foggy).
2. Coughing (sound effect & movement of the viewscreen matching the cough attacks).

And more things maybe, depending on what was appropriate. I think you will agree that these two points would be clearly noticable, even in a dogfight, just like it would be clearly noticable to the real pilot. It is true that we still don't smell it, and that is a disadvantage. But the other multiple signs are clear for anyone to understand that nasty fumes are in the air.

EDIT: (Sorry for editing, I just realized I had more I could reply to)

so to SIMULATE the experience of the pilot it would be helpfull to get some additional clues, and this can take many forms and is really what the discussion should be about
1) simple "oxygen status" msg flash on screen ?
2) having the oxygen dial "light up brighter" so that with an initial glance at your instruments you get increased awareness of the important one
3) etc ... etc... many ways to do it

Good ideas. The on-screen message is appropriate if other proper signs are not there, or the user does not have good enough hardware to see the signs/instruments properly. Or if they just feel like having it obvious because of whatever reason.

The oxygen dial lighting up brighter is a great idea if the user does not quite have the hardware (you know, like need to zoom a lot to be able to read the instruments, while others with bigger better monitors and graphics cards can see it without much zoom), but still doesn't want the helmet mounted display message telling him that there is an O2 problem. Because then he can just look casually at the meter, if TRYING to check it, and see easier that it is not normal. Really great idea actually. I support it 100% as an option.