New Mission Ideas Wishlist

[RPS69]

Originally Posted by Spudkopf

I seem to remember in the early days using QMB and tooling around in the newly added Ju87 and attacking Russian convoys, I recall noting that if a convoy had started to cross a bridge and if I could hit just one end of that bride then the rest of the convoy would stall on the bridge and its approaches, providing me with some easy to re-locate sitting ducks that I could then take out at my leisure, as long as I made the neutralisation of the AA vehicle bringing up the rear as a priority I could then attack the rest of the column unmolested.

Not done that for a long time and so do not know if the behaviour still exists but maybe this could be a trick to stop vehicles mid object?

On this subject, you may note that at some time after the destroyed vehicle is bumped more than once by the still operative ones, the destroyed one just disappears. Same as a plane that finished it's taxiing.

[RPS69]

Really nice post Pursuivant.

[P-38L]

Hello DT
As I am always very grateful to you.

Currently we have more powerful computers. Computers capable of supporting more graphic load and keep good frame rates.

The idea is to have life on land. Speaking of life, I mean vehicular traffic in cities, roads and paths. Trains also give you an excellent choice of realism. To schedule something, not necessarily tell the vehicle via a single pattern. But the vehicle can go back and constantly throughout the mission. Also give a range in the case of cities, so that the vehicle is constantly moving in the city. Trains can have the same characteristic, for which could be two train stations and would make a round trip. At night the vehicles could turn on the lights to move and trains could blow his bell when driven on the railroads.

I know that many people will say that being wartime vehicles not circulated and thus not go on their lights. But it is not always the case because sometimes the pleasure of flying on land and appreciate "life" in it, would be great. Besides being a period of war, life can not stagnate and this should continue.

There will always be a negative person to every new idea, always see a "but".

Thank you DT.

[Marabekm]

For supply missions:
Whichever airfield you want to get supplied, set a primary recon objective over it and check the block that's says you have to land to meet objective. Also set a protect objective over your cargo planes.

For rescue missions at see using float planes:
Japanese or American only currently. Set your guys being rescued in the water. The pilots are located under the stationary ships section. Again set a primary recon objective. Use the slider to minimize the radius, and make sure landing block is checked. Then set your float plane to land inside the recon objective radius.
No I think there is a way to make the pilots disappear after a set amount of time, but I am not sure. So if you could get timing right, then float plane would land, then a few minutes later the pilots object would disappear (simulating the rescued crew aboard) take-off and return home.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Marabekm

For supply missions:
Whichever airfield you want to get supplied, set a primary recon objective over it and check the block that's says you have to land to meet objective. Also set a protect objective over your cargo planes.

That's a good work-around, but it doesn't take the unloading sequence into account after you land.

My wish-list idea for supply missions would allow you to land and have cargo "units" within the plane removed at a set time rate, removing mass from the plane. That way, you could then take off unloaded, and you'd get points for each unit of cargo unloaded rather than just for landing. That allows for "round trip" supply missions, or even multiple supply sorties within a single game mission.

Since the rate of cargo/passenger loading/unloading could be set in the FMB, to make missions more fun you could set the rates to x100 faster than realistic, allowing you to unload or load cargo almost instantly, so you spend less time on the ground.

Originally Posted by Marabekm

For rescue missions at see using float planes:
Japanese or American only currently. Set your guys being rescued in the water. The pilots are located under the stationary ships section. Again set a primary recon objective. Use the slider to minimize the radius, and make sure landing block is checked. Then set your float plane to land inside the recon objective radius.

This is also a clever work-around, but again it doesn't take loading times and mass changes into account, nor does it take into the account that you've got passengers aboard.

Originally Posted by Marabekm

No I think there is a way to make the pilots disappear after a set amount of time, but I am not sure. So if you could get timing right, then float plane would land, then a few minutes later the pilots object would disappear (simulating the rescued crew aboard) take-off and return home.

Or, turn it around: if you don't get to your objective in time, it "disappears" and the mission fails. Realistically, what that means is that the people you were supposed to be rescuing got captured or died at sea. Time until mission failure (i.e., object vanishes) could be set in FMB.

[Pursuivant]

One More "Rescue" Mission Idea

Capture the Flag - First unit to get within X distance (set in FMB) of a specific objective "loads" the object and makes it disappear from the map. That unit gets points for "loading" the object and possibly ends the scenario if the "sudden death" option is in play.

* The list of possible "capturing" units can be set in the FMB - ship, ground unit, airplane, type of airplane, etc. Likewise, "capturing" conditions can be set - loading times, distance to flag, etc. Landing might be required for aircraft "rescuers."

* Destruction Option: The "flag" is destroyed if the unit carrying it is destroyed, or if it is attacked. One or both sides lose points if this occurs.

* Goal Option: Capturing unit only gets points if the "flag" is moved to a certain location after it is captured. For an aircraft, landing might be required. If it is in play, the "sudden death" option doesn't take effect until the capturing unit reaches the goal area.

* "Hand-Off" Option: Capturing unit can transfer the "flag" to another friendly unit. If no friendly unit is within range the "flag" is just unloaded and can be captured by any other unit. This would require a key binding to "unload" the item. The list of "capturing" units can be set in the FMB, as can the conditions required for "hand off" (landing required, distance between units, etc.)

* Obvious Flag Option: The unit carrying the flag becomes obvious to some or all of the other units on the map.

* Recapture Option: The "flag" object is loaded aboard the "rescuer" unit and moves with it. If that unit is destroyed, the "flag" object reappears next to the wreck and can be "captured" by another suitable unit. Conditions which destroy the "flag" can be set in FMB (e.g., sinking/crash in water, airplane crash, etc.)

* "Sudden Death" option - Mission ends when "flag" option is captured.

* Timed Option: Both sides have a limited amount of time to "rescue" or "capture" the "flag" object. If neither side gets the "flag" within a set amount of time, the scenario ends and one or both sides lose points!

Ideas for how "Capture the Flag" missions could work:

Land-based Combat Search & Rescue Ops (CSAR) - The "flag" is an aircrew object. Enemy forces are moving towards it. A friendly transport aircraft must land within X distance of the unit to "capture" it and must then transport it to friendly territory to win the game. Enemy units just have to capture or destroy the aircrew, or destroy the vehicle in which they are riding, to win. With variations, this can represent secret agent/special ops pick-up operations.

Ocean CSAR - As above, but the timer is running - the aircrew will die at sea if not rescued in time. Only friendly ships or seaplanes which land on water can make the rescue.

Capture the Gold - The "flag" is a cargo unit. Only ground vehicles, ships, or transport aircraft which land can "capture" it. The cargo can survive air crashes but is lost if it sinks in the sea. It can be handed off between ground vehicles and/or ships which get within X distance of each other. It can also be transferred to a cargo plane (or vice versa) if the plane lands within X distance of the carrier vehicle. One side wins when they transport the cargo to a particular goal location (i.e., friendly territory).

Airborne Soccer - Any airplane that gets within X distance of the "flag" can capture it. The flag survives if the unit carrying it is destroyed. Friendly planes can "hand off" the flag to each other if they get within X distance of each other. The unit carrying the flag becomes obvious to all. One side wins when they transport the flag to a "goal" area.

Capture the Objective - The "flag" is a building or airfield object. First unit to get within X distance of it wins the game. The "flag" object can't be moved or destroyed.

[P-38L]

Hello DT
Speaking of weather, it is possible to have the following characteristics?

* Random gusts of wind, whether the day is sunny.
* Moving clouds appear and gradually disappear.
* Variable weather

For more realistic maps:

* Smoke in the chimneys of some houses and factories that can turn off their smoke and randomly re-start.
* We have some watches to the public in buildings and churches, what about to have a working clock, so if you fly low and close, you can see the time. And in some cases the church bells are ringing every hour.
* Moving flags depending of the wind.
* Windsock in airports, with movement according to the wind.

To continue in the mission
* To have the R/R/R (Rearm, Refuel, Repair) option, with graduated realistic option that you can choose from the FMB or the difficulty options. This last option can be a complement to the mission ideas.

Thak you

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by P-38L

Speaking of weather, it is possible to have the following characteristics?

* Random gusts of wind, whether the day is sunny.
* Moving clouds appear and gradually disappear.
* Variable weather

Random gusts of wind seem like they would be the easiest to do, since all you'd need to do is add a randomization option to existing wind modeling.

Clouds that move might require some serious work on how the game handles graphics, and might result in a big drop to frame rates - at least if you have a lot of clouds in the sky.

Clouds that appear and disappear might also require some serious graphics work, and might also reduce frame rates.

Variable weather conditions are easy if you just have a setting to randomize weather conditions in the QMB! (Actually, "random" options for many of the settings in the QMB would be fun - random weather, random plane, random enemy planes, random mission, etc.)

Weather that changes over the course of a mission would take a lot more graphics and coding work, even beyond that required to get dynamic cloud effects. Basically, you'd be taking a somewhat elderly tactical combat flight sim, and trying to turn it into a state-of-the-art weather simulation program.

It might be possible, but I'm not sure that anyone would want to put in the work to make it happen.

For more realistic maps:

Originally Posted by P-38L

* Smoke in the chimneys of some houses and factories that can turn off their smoke and randomly re-start.

This might be useful, since smoking chimneys can help to identify ground objects, and lack of smoke from a chimney can indicate that a target is destroyed.

In the FMB, there could be the ability to "attach" smoke and fire effects to certain objects, possibly with pre-set "hooks" - so a train, ship, or smokestack always emits smoke from the top of its chimney, or a burning building always emits fire from its roof (or the middle of the mesh if it is destroyed).

Attached smoke and fire effects could be set in the FMB so that they go "off" or "on" under certain conditions (i.e., friendly/hostile aircraft nearby, object destroyed, at a set time, etc.)

Originally Posted by P-38L

* We have some watches to the public in buildings and churches, what about to have a working clock, so if you fly low and close, you can see the time. And in some cases the church bells are ringing every hour.

Essentially, this would be adding a "gauge" to a ground object. I'd imagine it would be possible, although there would be some coding work and certain building skins would have to be made to a higher resolution.

Originally Posted by P-38L

* Moving flags depending of the wind.
* Windsock in airports, with movement according to the wind.

This would make flag and windsock objects much more complex to create, since you'd need several different animations for different wind states. There would also be some coding work required to make the object pivot away from the wind, or change animations when wind speeds change.

I'm sure it's doable, but it might be a lot of work.

Originally Posted by P-38L

* To have the R/R/R (Rearm, Refuel, Repair) option, with graduated realistic option that you can choose from the FMB or the difficulty options. This last option can be a complement to the mission ideas.

Simple R/R/R has been done as a mod, so it can be done. Realistic R/R/R might be trickier to do, though, since you'd need to do lots of research into speed at which rearming, refueling and repair can be done for various planes - realistically, it can take hours to rearm and refuel a big plane, and days or weeks to repair a badly damaged one.

But, given that R/R/R is one of the most requested features in the game, I think it should be added as an option, even if it's unrealistic.