III./JG27 Server - Reports, Feedback, Issues

_79_dev · #1 10-03-2011, 12:46 AM

~S~

Great job mate, those missions looks fantastic, screenshots are really nice... TeamSpeak server would be nice addition for the server...

SNAFU · #2 10-03-2011, 10:33 AM

_79_dev, the screenshots are quite old now and we came a long way from that beginning. Unfortunately we are currently not in the position to provide a public TS3, maybe in the future. The missions you can load yourself in the menu are based on the daily reports mainly of the RAF diary but also on other sources. So due to the rather long range missions and the number of planes taking part (scaled down from the real numbers of course, but still around 30-40 planes clashing into each other at some points) the missions are not made for the solitary pilot and are rather suited for organized player groups. Getting bounced by a channel patrol (9 or 8 single engine fighters) or triggered intercept squadron is not always amusing for the single-online player.

We recently introduced a scoring system for the teams, based on shot down aircrafts, their types and destroyed ground units and their types. Together with side effects of the scoring (one team receives less planes, less experienced pilots) and the menu we plan to introduce a kind of "upgrade and order" system in which you can exchange points for new planes, an AI wingman or a whole squadron. (Your team will start with E1, He111P2, BF110c4, HurricaneDh5 and Spit1 and will advance to later planes, based on the scoring level of the team.) Someday in the future a kind of semi dynamically/historically campaigne is feasable, reaching from Kanalkampf (what we are currently working on, but have only 12 full-missions - each lasting 1 hour- so far) to later phases.

But currently I am trying to reactivate the penalty - system for leaving the plane in flight and try to make the channel patrols a little smarter.

We heavily depend on feedback and bug reports by players, due to the fact that I spend most of my sparetime, testing scripts, repairing and tinkering on missions to build up this system.

_79_dev · #3 10-04-2011, 10:27 PM

~S~

I like that idea with exchange of your points to aircraft or armament etc. So far I have't noticed major lags on the server even with plenty contacts and aaa around me, last time I was missing menu on the red side buy you know that already... I noticed plenty of ghost objects though...

SNAFU · #4 10-05-2011, 07:40 AM

Thanks for your feedback _79_dev.

I was able to find the bug in the custom menu yesterday and it should be fixed now for the red side. Yeahey, took me 3 days to find the problem and even had to bother Mr.C# alias FG28_Kodiak.

For the ghosts, well, I hope they find a new way for calculating the AI movements rather sooner than later, otherwise our approach for realism is not possible on the long term and we end up in small scale PvP one-man-shows too.
You can avoid the ghost experience by sticking to a mission from the start. If you f.e. start close to an AI group and keep them in sight range, they are constantly calculated and the lag is not there. Same if you fly CAP, you will experience less ghosts, if you stay in a certain area and give the game time to refresh all the AI movements. You will experience the most ghost`s if you change the area you are in fast and cover long distances and therefore cross a lot of AI routes. Worst is if you reach an area, where a large battle took place some time before and another human players were involved. Then you are likely to see all the dots the other human player saw the last time he/she was in around and where the AI were calculated the last time.

So for the time being I would recommend to stick with the mission goals, this should be the best way to give the system time to calculate and refresh the positions and therefore avoid ghosts. If you just entered and come into an ongoing battle, well,...

Due to the fact, that this is no problem for the host or in singleplayer I assume this is a problem with the netcode, which we can only avoid by not using AI at all (you see the same problem with AI tanks, ships, bicycles everthing). With worldwide 30 CoD players, online play would be limitied to the above mentioned unfortunatly.

PS: We are currently working to extend the system of mission control and implement smaller missions, also based on diaries of the days, just including small number or planes - typically recon-missions. Then you can choose in starting a squadron mission (for 6 or 8+ players each side) or small missions (2 players each side).