Ok so whats next?

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

I'm no mission maker, but a fully realized New Guinea campaign would get me flying offline, which as you know I don't do by and large.

The air war in New Guinea is one of the most overlooked, yet critically important campaigns in the entire Pacifc war. It was a grueling campaign that went on for 2 years or so. It tested the mettle of man and machine in a way that no 2 or 3 day carrier operation ever did, and it gutted the Imperial Japanese Army Flying Corps. It robbed them of their best and most experienced pilots and crews. It saw the operational introduction of their first "modern" army fighter, the Ki-61, which forced the US Army to allocate P 38s to New Guinea instead of other areas where their long range was needed as well.

And from my personal interest perspective, it was in many ways the "shining hour" of P 40 operations in WW2. The Curtiss Hawks served from the beginning till the end of the New Guinea Campaign with the USAAF and the ANZAC air forces, first primarily as a fighter then later it's capabilities as a very competent fighter bomber shown through.

Also it would mean someone would have to make a P40 N model for the sim... Hint, hint.

Updated P-40s would be very cool The P-40N, plus New Guinea, gives tons of options.

[Kittle]

One of the main reasons I fly Aces High 2 (not that often now that 4.11 is out) is to fly the P-40N and F. The option of cutting her down to 4 MGs is a nice touch, cutting a little weight. I have always liked the look of the N canopy past the N-5 model IIRC. I fully fleshed out 'Kittybomber' would be nice too. P-40 was such an important aircraft in WWII, yet so underrated.

[IceFire]

All this has gotten me started on a Blacksheep Corsair campaign. One way or another I'm going to put something interesting together for the Solomon Islands map. Been thinking about this for a while so this is perfect

[Tanyrhiew]

Hi,

After a period of 4 or so years without Il-2 on my HDD, 4.11 persuaded me to re-install to see the TD's work. Good Job!

After such a long time away, I'm a bit dissapointed that all these fantastic changes, i.e. aircraft, objects, navigation beacons etc are so hard to enjoy as they are not integrated into existing campaigns (old broken dgen) and therefore not accessable without a lot of work from the player who must integrate them themselves (adding 4.11 payloads is PITA to il2dcg is a PITA).

Basically offline, Il-2 is still at the same low level it was at when FB was released. I feel that the time has come for a rationalisation of the way the changes, additions and improvements is presented:

Some form of associated TD addon campaign pack using either il2dcg or the new dgen is needed so that the improvements through the work of TD are highlighted and show what Il-2 has become to best effect. With the developments that Lowengrin has done to il2dcg over the years since I last used it (timelines to control the flow of a campaign, MDS integration) and the new dgen that is in development, the tools already exist to make offline hugely enjoyable and accessable to a new or returning player without a huge amount of work on their part, i.e. trawling through campaigns on mission4today, downloading Enjoyr patches to make them compatible etc.

[csThor]

Originally Posted by Tanyrhiew

Hi,

After a period of 4 or so years without Il-2 on my HDD, 4.11 persuaded me to re-install to see the TD's work. Good Job!

After such a long time away, I'm a bit dissapointed that all these fantastic changes, i.e. aircraft, objects, navigation beacons etc are so hard to enjoy as they are not integrated into existing campaigns (old broken dgen) and therefore not accessable without a lot of work from the player who must integrate them themselves (adding 4.11 payloads is PITA to il2dcg is a PITA).

Basically offline, Il-2 is still at the same low level it was at when FB was released. I feel that the time has come for a rationalisation of the way the changes, additions and improvements is presented:

Some form of associated TD addon campaign pack using either il2dcg or the new dgen is needed so that the improvements through the work of TD are highlighted and show what Il-2 has become to best effect. With the developments that Lowengrin has done to il2dcg over the years since I last used it (timelines to control the flow of a campaign, MDS integration) and the new dgen that is in development, the tools already exist to make offline hugely enjoyable and accessable to a new or returning player without a huge amount of work on their part, i.e. trawling through campaigns on mission4today, downloading Enjoyr patches to make them compatible etc.

Well ... TD is a team of freelancers, people who devote their spare time into something and not professionals who are getting paid for their work. A project as you propose is, IMO, out of TD's scope and capabilities simply for the size of it. The old DGen is a static entity no longer up to the latest changes in Il-2 and the "new DGen" is in its infancy (and nobody can really say what will come out of it). DCG is an entirely external development and I don't see a reason to change this ...

As far as I can see it TD's coding capacities are already devoted to further AI work and other things, so there are simply no capacities left for such an ambitious project.

[Tanyrhiew]

Understandable!

Perhaps a second group of volunteers can be formed to help. Anyone interested?

My preference would be to base it on il2dcg as its the more flexible system (dgen replacement, ngen, mds), well documented (Tailspin did some sterling work there) . All it needs (!) is road, rail networks for the new larger MTO, Solomons maps and other new maps, new or editing of existing camapigns to take into account new aircraft, vehicles/objects and link them together to offer campaigns for the different nationalities.

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by Tanyrhiew

Understandable!

Perhaps a second group of volunteers can be formed to help. Anyone interested?

My preference would be to base it on il2dcg as its the more flexible system (dgen replacement, ngen, mds), well documented (Tailspin did some sterling work there) . All it needs (!) is road, rail networks for the new larger MTO, Solomons maps and other new maps, new or editing of existing camapigns to take into account new aircraft, vehicles/objects and link them together to offer campaigns for the different nationalities.

There is someone working on an update to the DCG I think... others would know more than I. If those people work with TD to integrate the new features better then I'm sure that sort of thing could be really valuable.

Although time has been tight... I've been doing my best to work on some new missions and campaigns to go along with the newer features. You'll note that both 4.10 and 4.11 shipped with a small selection of new single missions to include at least a few features and new aircraft for people to experience. There was also (not done by me) a new campaign for the Fokker D.XXI.

It's a huge amount of effort to piece all of these things together and obviously there is a delay time for the community and TD to catch up and make the new materials work for players.

[addman]

1. Flyable TBD
2. Flyable TBD
3. eeehhrr...flyable TBD

.......pretty please!

[Kittle]

Yeah, it is a bit of a tease to see and be able to shoot down the TBD and Ki-45, but you can't fly em stock. I guess maybe getting older, and having twin 18 month old daughters plus 5 and 7 yr old step sons, really takes the punch out of my WEP if you know what I mean. I just don't have the energy to mod the game anymore. What time I do have, I spend playing, it would take close to two full days worth of playing time to remember the stuff I have to do, get the files, do the stuff, mess it up at least once, then finally get it right. All to drop crappy torpedoes from the TBD (awesome, but I digress....) I am content to wait for the next patch, loving what I have.

[Monguse]

Patience ....