Give me some "holy sh... did that just happen" ideas

[luthier]

We all know the drill. Read briefing. Take off. Follow waypoints. Engage target. Maneuver. Go home. Debrief.

I'm looking for some ideas to break up the monotony. Things that make you jump out of your seat. Things that immerse you in the game world. These can be based on historical events, or these can be your own ideas, as long as they're rooted in reality.

This means things that happen before the mission, during the mission, or after the mission. Interesting new mission types. Events. Features. These can be one-off events we may try to recreate during the mission, or more general ideas such as "it'd be cool if X did Y when Z".

And yes, while it'd be extremely cool if a variety of highly detailed civilian females with 20 types of historical clothing walked the Prince of Wales pier, and propwash of you Spitfire affected their skirts, and it'd be even cooler if the captain of the German schooner dropped his monocle when a flight of Blenheims appeared on the horizon, but let's try to keep in mind that we have limited development resources and a tight schedule.

I have lots of ideas of my own, but I'd like to keep them a secret. So I may be a little vague further down the thread when I see an idea I've already had or something new I'd like to use.

Also, please try to keep this thread constructive. Let's use it to offer new or add to existing ideas. Let's not turn it into a heated discussion of why you think a certain idea sucks.

[Foo'bar]

What I'd really like to see would be the following: after beeing briefed in a airfield barrack you'll jump into the back seat of a Kübelwagen already waiting outside, with a driver sitting front left. While you are beeing driven to your plane you are looking outside the car, watching the busy workers on the airfiled, passing hangars with wide open doors, hearing noise and the hammering from inside, seeing the planes standing inside wich are beeing worked on. Landed planes are being pulled into the hangar by tractors. While underway perhaps the driver is speaking to you, asking humble questions like "how are you today?" or "your plane has been repaired properly after your last flight." or something else.

Well, not even "just happened"... I just have visions

[Ctrl E]

Pierre Clostermann wrote a lot about how his squadron tried to avoid all known flak areas, not just the enemy's. the problem was the average soldier or sailor's aircraft recognition was so bad they'd shoot at anything, resulting in a lot of friendly fire incidents.

maybe you could model something similar? maybe even being accidentally bounced by friendly aircraft?

[JVM]

One of the very first idea which comes to my mind is to use extensively the ability to change weather during the mission, notably degradation of weather on the home run. In many cases the most challenging issue during a mission is to find back your airfield, and sometimes any airfield.
This being said it may not be that much of an issue in BoB per se, but more at its end and during later times when the increasing number of forays on the continent and degradation of weather conditions with fall and winter would lead to many harrowing returns to base...

[Codex]

I would like to have my mechanic yell and curse at me for not running my machine according to specs / his advice. I want him to give me tips on how to not over stress my plane.

It would also be great to have an interactive flight training school, you have to earn your wings before going into a campaign for example (of course this could be optional to the player). May be these training lessons could be user / custom made too by the community.

One idea I've often thought about is the player could be selected as a test pilot for new planes that are introduced in further add-ons. Why does a career always have to involve combat?

[13th Hsqn Protos]

Originally Posted by Codex

I would like to have my mechanic yell and curse at me for not running my machine according to specs / his advice.

Along this line, a forced RTB because of mechanical failure based on actual maintenance data for specific birds. Realistic takeoff and landing malfunctions would also be nice ....

Rescues were always nice .... can we get some good animations ?

[stu babes]

Originally Posted by JVM

One of the very first idea which comes to my mind is to use extensively the ability to change weather during the mission, notably degradation of weather on the home run. In many cases the most challenging issue during a mission is to find back your airfield, and sometimes any airfield.
This being said it may not be that much of an issue in BoB per se, but more at its end and during later times when the increasing number of forays on the continent and degradation of weather conditions with fall and winter would lead to many harrowing returns to base...

[SQB]

i think they are looking for more... do-able ideas, but nonetheless these suggestions are getting me hyped

erm, my thoughts?
Firstly, ALWAYS have non-violent missions before the flat out wars in campaigns (ie the fam flight in DCS black shark or the training flight in the '46 campaign for il21946).
During combat airfields could be taken, with tanks blocking the runway, but you are returning ammo empty and low on fuel, so you have to make a choice: divert (and risk running out of fuel), land anyway (and be captured) or ditch (and risk capture).
What you do in that mission gives 2 possible missions next (if you get captured, you aren't going to keep flying, but hey! you're alive!) and then after that the campaign is the same, its not a fully dynamic campaign, but a little surprise is awesome.

[mkubani]

Random floating debris, lifeboats, survivors, and oil slick on the water when the ship goes down. Something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YbdMQkw-ro

[luthier]

Originally Posted by Foo'bar

What I'd really like to see would be the following: after beeing briefed in a airfield barrack you'll jump into the back seat of a Kübelwagen already waiting outside, with a driver sitting front left. While you are beeing driven to your plane you are looking outside the car, watching the busy workers on the airfiled, passing hangars with wide open doors, hearing noise and the hammering from inside, seeing the planes standing inside wich are beeing worked on. Landed planes are being pulled into the hangar by tractors. While underway perhaps the driver is speaking to you, asking humble questions like "how are you today?" or "your plane has been repaired properly after your last flight." or something else.

Well, not even "just happened"... I just have visions

This would be really cool, but I'm afraid people don't fully realize the limitations. We don't have plane-level interiors for cars, you're not going to see you full bomber crew riding with you on the way to your He-111, and they're not going to be standing by the bomber waiting for you. We can't make the "exit the jeep and climb into the cockpit" animation.

I mean, it is really, really cool just to ride a little red convertible to your Spit, watch the driver steer and hear him make small talk, and have him meet you after the mission and drive you back to CP (or the toilet if you've been shot up), but then... It's never as simple as it seems.