Friday 2011-02-04 Dev. update and Discussion

[HFC_Dolphin]

Ilya, one more question please:
I once kindly asked Oleg to have a view of the airport and our plane's position when we get into the mission. Something like a fly-by/helicopter view, where we see where we are and where should we go to get into take off position.

Are you going to offer this or something like that?

Thank you!

[klem]

Originally Posted by luthier

We always held the opinion that complex start-up procedures are a waste of our time.

I can understand that in a combat sim. It would add to the whole immersion, you can't just click and fly, but if you want to go 'hard core' it could be done

Originally Posted by luthier

All the hotspots in our cockpit work. All the controls are animated. You can set fuel cock levers and work the priming pump and flick the magnetos and all. Do that if you like, or don't. We feel that most people will only try that once, if at all.

I assume that means they click but don't do anything?

Originally Posted by luthier

The systems we do model are crucial however. Watching the gauges and controlling mixture, prop pitch and radiator is essential. Our office is obviously filled with Il-2 online veterans, and for a while we could only play online with Complex Engine Management disabled completely. We could barely fly the Spitfire, and the 109 not at all. We fly with CEM on now, but we still to this day fly with Overheating disabled because damn it is hard!

Well if it is more sophisticated than IL-2's "oh, overheat, close the throttle" then it is going to be interesting. It requires watching in the A2A model even just flying from A to B although its easy enough once you get it settled down in a cruise. Combat would be very different.

By the way the A2A actually models engine wear against the use and abuse it gets (and gear etc) and it is carried over to the next flight unless you repair it. I can imagine it would add a big new dimension to fighting in the aircraft.

thanks Luthier

[Defender]

Originally Posted by HFC_Dolphin

I guess you do understand that developing team most probably has specific plans for the expansions and pretty well knows what will add or not.
And of course they're not a bunch of renegades wandering in unknown territory. They actually know their job and what it takes to do it.
Therefore, most probably they do know if they plan to add features that will stress today's systems, or more specific, they know that they won't be adding technology that might come in the next 1 or 2 years, since they already have lots to get from today's technology.

So, what I kindly request is a reassurance that there are no plans of changing the game engine that much so that in 3 years we're going to need a brand new system or a major upgrade.
And this is a consideration of many people who don't have huge budget available for this game.

I hope now is clearer to you sir. Thank you!

I understand that part of your question, it's just all very esoteric is all. I understand you want to run the game as best you can, but it's going to be hard for them to give accurate advice (especially advice that's going to cost you a few hundred/thousand dollars) at this point. If that advice is somehow inaccurate and it's directly influenced a purchase of a brand new gaming rig...that blame will surely be directed at them. Features that are dropped developers get flamed for so if they say something to influence a $900 upgrade they'll get flamed for sure.

They're not going to redesign the entire engine in 3 years most likely, they'll continue to improve it over time and most likely add accents that help with the ageing process. Optimization and FPS tweaks will come as well so it will be a gradual process as it has been in the past with most sims. High system specs hurt sales, so ultimately it's in their best interests to work within the medium.

Anyway that's my common sense, again I'm sorry if I sounded disrespectful...I of course have NO idea what they're planning heheh.

I have always found it best to make big money making decisions around my own preferences rather than what people tell me I guess.

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by luthier

We always held the opinion that complex start-up procedures are a waste of our time.

Everyone else does them as gimmicks. What you see is just a simple sequence of "press button A to press button B to press button C to press button D to enable pressing Start Engine." They don't model the individual systems involved. Neither do we, and we don't want to pretend that we do. We don't do gimmicks.

All the hotspots in our cockpit work. All the controls are animated. You can set fuel cock levers and work the priming pump and flick the magnetos and all. Do that if you like, or don't. We feel that most people will only try that once, if at all.

The systems we do model are crucial however. Watching the gauges and controlling mixture, prop pitch and radiator is essential. Our office is obviously filled with Il-2 online veterans, and for a while we could only play online with Complex Engine Management disabled completely. We could barely fly the Spitfire, and the 109 not at all. We fly with CEM on now, but we still to this day fly with Overheating disabled because damn it is hard!

This is very good news to me...I guess that I am a simulator at hart. And want to experience a little of what they did way back then. Its perfect for an off line experience, meeting the challenge will be very rewarding for me. A lot like other sims, car racing for example, you gotta make the right decisions at the right time.

[addman]

Luthier/Oleg, we have seen some snippets of the tigermoth training mission already. I presume there will also be some kind of a engine startup/management tutorial for us that are not aero mechanics/engineers? Much obliged

[major_setback]

Originally Posted by domian

Did you have read all the comments in this thread???

Luthier explained, that there is no complex start procedure! I am sure, thats the same, as in IL2. One button to start, possibility to change pitch an mixture and finally the engine cooling.

I think it will be somewhere between the two:

Luthier: All the hotspots in our cockpit work. All the controls are animated. You can set fuel cock levers and work the priming pump and flick the magnetos and all. Do that if you like, or don't. We feel that most people will only try that once, if at all.

The systems we do model are crucial however. Watching the gauges and controlling mixture, prop pitch and radiator is essential. Our office is obviously filled with Il-2 online veterans, and for a while we could only play online with Complex Engine Management disabled completely. We could barely fly the Spitfire, and the 109 not at all. We fly with CEM on now, but we still to this day fly with Overheating disabled because damn it is hard!

[Heliocon]

I would love to see a proper video/trailer/footage, that is really needed. But I think this conversation and communication has settled my mind very much from its previous worry. I think this is exactly what the community wanted and need, thanks Luthier!

As for the smoke vortexes, isnt it a similar mechanic to water physics/movement which is in alot of games, direct compute could hack it (it was made for that type of simulation).

[Chivas]

Thanks Luthier for the very informative posts.

I wonder if the LOD of objects (buildings) will be about the same as IL-2? The pop up buildings are an immersion killer, but I understand that its sometimes necessary for fps issues. Will there be a user option to increase the LOD distance. In IL-2 right now a high end system can get many hundreds of frames per second, so it would be a nice option to have, when the new IL-2 series goes forward and people have strong enough systems.

[Necrobaron]

I love the screenies of the new and weathered 109. What does "Physical Weathering" entail?

[brando]

Originally Posted by addman

Luthier/Oleg, we have seen some snippets of the tigermoth training mission already. I presume there will also be some kind of a engine startup/management tutorial for us that are not aero mechanics/engineers? Much obliged

Not too much for the Tiger Moth pilot beyond simple cockpit procedure. The prop is rotated by the ground crew