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

[Schallmoser]

In fact the real origin of horrido seem to originate in the very old German hunting tradition. Back then the hunters would say "hoch Rüde hoch" which means "get up my dog, get up".
Till today horrido is commonly used as a greeting between hunters in Germany.

Concerning military e.g. Luftwaffe, but also in ancient times horrido is and was used as battle cry.

here is the link to the german wiki page with more reference:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horrido

Oh, and I forgot, tally-ho seems to have almost the same kind of origin:

Tally-ho dates from around 1772, and is probably derived from the French taïaut, a cry used to excite hounds when hunting deer. Which in turn derives from taille haut![1] meaning raise swords cried by French commanders upon mediaeval battlefields upon the final assault.

ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally-ho

cheers,
Schallmoser

[briny_norman]

For me, the best way to make immersive missions is to make an immersive environment around those missions. I.e. create a detailed squadron environment with lots of things to do and see between missions:

BRIEFINGS:

- Detailed mission briefings conducted by an officer in a barrack surrounded by your squad mates. The briefing settings could change from time to time, sometimes they would be in the barrack, sometimes outside in the sun. And the setting would change graphically if your squadron moved to another airfield.

- VERY thorough de-briefings. Most cool thing in the world is going over your mission afterwards, seeing the flight path and having important events marked on the route such as kills, crashes, shot down squadmates and more (as much as possible). Maybe even having the possibility to see the route and events of all members of the squadron - this would immersive the player much more into the squadron and make the other members feel much more alive.

AWARDS

- Awards ceremonies.

- "Decoration certificates" would be available for viewing afterwards that stated the circumstances of the award - "On the 4th of July SqrLdr Ewing singlehandedly engaged a large group of enemy fighters to protect a returning recon plane..." etc.

- AND PLEASE!!! Follow historical award paths. Make it possible for allied pilots to be awarded bars to their DFCs.

- Make the awarding mechanisms much more dynamic - don't just limit it to number of kills (i.e. 5 kills = DFC, 10 kills = DFC+bar, 20 kills = DSO etc...).
It would be immensely cool if other more dynamic factors could be taken into account, like some sort of "bravery tally", where you would be awarded hidden points for certain heroic actions or completing certain missions and when you reached a certain score you would get an award - which one maybe depending on what you have already.
This mechanism could also be tied to the "special" missions showing up from time to time where completing them or doing especially well would make you much more likely to receive a decoration.
Perhaps missions could be rated for difficulty in this system and completing difficult missions or just doing well would earn you more "bravery points".

SQUADRON MANAGEMENT/ENVIRONMENT:

- A cool, chalkboard-type kill board.

- A detailed "diary" of the players career, with summations of all missions and a detailed "kill-book" with plane type, date, place and more.

- Being able to browse through the pilot dossiers and see your squadmates' personal details. Kills (with dates), decorations etc...

- Being able to see the line-up for each mission, which pilots flying where in the formations etc. And make the pilots names appear as icons inside missions instead of just a generic name like RABBIT 1. Might not be everybodys taste, but would add to the immersion to know which of your fellow pilots are going down in flames before your eyes...! (make this sort of thing switchable in the settings).

- Being able to change the formation, loadout and which pilots fly which planes (if you're the squadron commander, of course).

- Introduce things like fatigue and different skill ratings for pilots in the squadron, that change dynamically and that you have to take into consideration as commander. CFS3 tried something like this, and it was a sympathetic attempt, but they never got it quite right. I'm sure Luthier would!

MAPS & INTEL

- Being able to follow the day-to-day progress of the battle (with/without FOW) on an operational style map. Would be very engrossing to be able to see the RAF being pushed further and further back, airfields going through different stages of damage, radar stations going on and off line.

- Use videos and newspaper articles to highlight important events in the campaign (like new tactics being used, an important speech from Churchill, Eagle Day, newsreels etc, etc...).

- A map and dossier over all aces on your (and perhaps the enemy's) side. Might not be realistic but would be very fun to follow the progress of aces from other squadrons. A kill-board with the top aces of the campaign and their status & location would have to be there too. The kill-board/ace dossiers could be dynamic or just contain historical information. I'm sure you could get some forum members to find all the information you would need to make such a dossier, map and kill-board.
Just imagine how cool it would be to follow and try to match the day-to-day performance of Werner Molders or Josef Frantisek...!!!

MISSIONS

- Make it possible for mission designers to start some missions in the air so they can set the player up in certain situations, fx. as stumbling into a big bomber formation or being ambushed.

- Have a great variety of missions with a great variety of action. Some missions will be very low on action, perhaps just an interception of a lone recon plane by you alone or a scramble to catch a wounded bomber or even a wild goose chase!

THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE:

The most significant feature of all would be to make all of this moddable.
Make it possible for the campaign designers to make their own squadron management, campaign environment, add their own features and statistics, their own graphics and menus.
This would ensure that everybody could get what they wanted - and you could concentrate on the core of the game and let the community design THE CAMPAIGN MODE TO END ALL CAMAPIGN MODES!!

.................................................. ......................

That's all I could think of right now. If you need inspiration just look to the Red Baron series. It nailed many of the features I mention above.

[Erkki]

The Luftwaffe equivalent for Tally-Ho! was Pauke-Pauke!

Horrido! was shout when a pilot thought he achieved a victory. A pilot who would see this E/A go down, would confirm: Abschuss!

[Splitter]

Originally Posted by briny_norman

For me, the best way to make immersive missions is to make an immersive environment around those missions. I.e. create a detailed squadron environment with lots of things to do and see between missions:

<snip for brevity>

Hello All, new guy to these forums here. I am really looking forward to this release! I have been flying combat sims since top of the line displays were a whole 16 shades of gray....

I think the post I partially quoted was spot on. Many of those features have been in other sims, but did work so why re-invent the wheel? I am sure there will be some astounding developments in this release, but not everything has to be brand new.

Things that I have enjoyed from other sims or would like to see (most have been mentioned in some form):

Having the option to fly as one pilot for a career. As that pilot moves up in rank, he can gain more responsibility up to and including running the roster in the squadron and assigning pilots to missions.

Ability to sometimes be able to pick which of three missions to fly while most of the time being assigned missions.

Targets of opportunity. Trains, vehicles, troops that can be targeted after completion of the primary mission. These could add to the pilot's "score" and influence his career. This would be huge.

A dynamic battle map. Even back in the SWotL days, the battle line "moved". As the war progressed, Allied pilots could start flying from airfields in France, etc. while German pilots had to not only get back over the channel but make it over friendly territory before bailing or doing an emergency landing. A destroyed bridge remains destroyed until repaired.

Deteriorating aircraft systems after damage. Oil pressure dropping, fuel levels falling, oil on the windscreen, fire, etc.. Landing safely becomes a challenge.

Having to avoid debris either from disintegrating enemy aircraft or ground explosions. Kinda takes the fun out of blowing up a train at point blank range.

Special missions such as delivering a friendly agent or rescue. Recon. Assignments based on intel regarding important enemy personnel or targets.

Randomize encounters! This really adds to SP re-playability. Enemy fighters do not need to show up in the same place at the same time.

I want to have the option of having to manage my aircraft. Prop, fuel, and mixture settings for example.

SIM Killers:

Linear mission structure. No reason to replay and really shortens the lifespan of a game. You play it, you beat it, you put it away. Not good.

Impossible assignments. I should more accurately say, unrealistic assignments such as "You and your wingman must shoot down 17 enemy bombers on this mission". C'mon. Pair that with a linear mission structure and you end up re-playing (and failing) the same mission over and over until you either get lucky and win or give up.

Having to jump from one plane to another from mission to mission. I want to be a "pilot" on one side or the other and see how well I would do in that situation. Can I survive a tour of duty, or in the case of German pilots the war? At least give me a "realistic" career option. Please don't make me be a fighter pilot one day, a bomber pilot the next, and a test pilot the day after. Let me get to know one type of aircraft and then maybe move on to another as either I or my squadron is re-assigned. Hope that makes sense.

Poor flight models. It takes much more than jerking the stick hither and yon to be a pilot. Planes can stall at high speeds, be forced out of their flight envelope, and react differently at different speeds and altitudes. Different models are different and thus have their own advantages and disadvantages that should be faithfully modeled.

Time limits. I needn't say more.

Having followed this forum and the posts of Oleg and his staff, I am confident this game is going to be a blast. I highly doubt all of my "wish list" will be fulfilled let alone the others in this thread. In reading the history of IL-2 and how it progressed, I am equally confident this sim will be expanded for years to come. I love the eye candy that has been posted, I just really hope the structure of the game matches that level of sophistication.

Splitter

[Zorin]

Well trained pilots during BoB, who where in flight school for several years doing acrobatics and stuff sure wouldn't vomit. The anxiety might get the better part of them, granted, but I doubt that the flying would.

P.S.: I knew what you meant with "throw-up"

[ECV56_Lancelot]

Originally Posted by Zorin

Well trained pilots during BoB, who where in flight school for several years doing acrobatics and stuff sure wouldn't vomit. The anxiety might get the better part of them, granted, but I doubt that the flying would.

P.S.: I knew what you meant with "throw-up"

That´s why i said rookie pilots!

[Blackdog_kt]

I bet you guys are getting this idea from that film about Czech pilots in the RAF. It was a good movie and yes, having some indication that the occasional rookie breaks down under combat stress is a nice touch.

We have a ton of good ideas posted in this thread, i doubt we'll see most of them implemented upon release but since SoW will be moddable we'll probably be able to add some things like these. For example, you make a mission trigger that targets AI wingmen under a certain skill level, then it randomly chooses one and again, randomly applies debilitating effects on him (based on a % based formula). This trigger could be copy-pasted and the final effect of each copy changed, so that you could quickly create triggers for stuff like a rookie throwing up in combat, panicking and disengaging, doing something stupid, being reckless and so on. Then, you could copy these triggers into a special folder that the campaign missions would access, so that you could import them into your single player carreers.

[Stafroty]

something with damage model-

when gettin hit on engine, it might get fire real quick or not at all, all randomly.

same with hits on fuel tanks. sometimes its only a leak, sometimes it starts to smoke. when it smokes, random change to to light up on fire on random time scale. if it gets on fire, random change for exploding after that with randon time scale as well.

same with other areas when takin damage. if wing takes hit it would be nice if pilot would not know how bad hit it is, so it might crack easily with stick movement or all by itself. or not at all.

more randomness on damage model, as now you can observe how many "hitpoints" you still got left. and you can trust that plane takes you home for sure if wing is badly damaged and no more hits are gettin in.

there is no fear in this game on that part, as you learn what plane can take after what amount of damage and so on.

randomnes and alot so no one would ever anymore know how badly his plane is hit and will it stay air or ignite on fire so that pilots no more can trust but are filled with paranoia feelings.

that for sure would bring some immersion and feelings on flying.


like hit on right wing, graphical attributes for damage seems light on the surface. but pilot doenst know how bad it is from the inside.
so its then dice rolled by cpu that how much G can wing take and on which direction, as well how much speed it can resist as well.
every time different result when takin hits, like on critical parts especially.

wings or parts of them starts to flutter, giving signal/sounds/shakin on screen(=information to pilot) that something isnt right on this speed so it makes them worry and think. sometimes no warning at all. just snap like p51 on high speed high g turn

that kind of dm with much of variation would give some good vibes.