Friday 2010-10-08 Dev. update and Discussion

[robtek]

Originally Posted by jippy13

Hi Oleg,
I may be displeasing the purists, but I d like to see in Bob the following feature:
a mode (usefull for rookies) that would allow the pilot shooting on a target to see (readable information on the screen), in real-time, technical information about the dammage caused by his shoot . For example, rudder hit - 70% destroyed etc., left wing hit 2% dammaged

I think this kind of functionnality could help rookies to improve their skill in dogfight.

Another point, a detailed statistic chart at the end of the mission would be great to evaluate your action.

Thanks for reading

I think thats a feature for fps and it's much too arcadish for MY taste.
It might be interesting in training, but then it would be very hard to hit always the same parts to get the same results, so it seems rather pointless for me.
We should remember that we don't have hit-boxes for a wing or the fuselage but a lot of really small hit-boxes for all the sub-systems and parts.
One would get messages like:
Left wing, Spar 3, 4 and 6 hit; lost 50% stability;
Hydraulic Line left gear holed, 100% pressure lost;
Engine hit, spark-plugs 12 and 13 100% damaged, Power loss 12%;....
For the training it would be enough to show the hits with markers like in IL2

my thoughts

[Insuber]

? Just simple real time gunnery statistics, as CFS had some 15 years ago (upper-right corner with components hit & hit %) ... great for gunnery practice. Remember that new users are often scared and repelled by the steep learning curve of combat flight sims.

[robtek]

Yep, 15 years ago, with large hit boxes ;-D
Oh well, as a option, as long as it doesn't reduce performance

[jameson]

I'm confused about about why anyone would want little red arrows flying around the cockpit or statistics writ large in the corner. Why can't they learn to fly by instruments and learn to shoot properly, and then get situational awareness by looking out of the window? I thought this was going to be a realistic flight simulator....

[robtek]

As real as possible is, regrettably, not everybodys fashion.
Those, who dare the challenge, are even sometimes called snobbish
One can always hope that the arcade setting get boring for the masses and a few more
will find the way to the light of "arapatm" (as real as possible at the moment)

[Richie]

Then turn them off I'm sure

[Insuber]

TRAINING with post-flight (or, better, real time) hit statistics is more realistic than your stuff, because the GUNNERY PRACTICE was actually done like that in the combat flight schools.
PRACTICE targets were used, such as drones pulled by another plane. Try and check the memories of Brian Kingcome, for instance.
As we don't have this possibility in the game (and we don't want it either, as it would be too cumbersome), we must find something else to TRAIN our virtual pilots.


And, let me add that's not about full switch vs. Wonder Woman (yawn!), it's all about attracting more users and enrich our community. Stripping out TRAINING functions and make this game a barebone flight simulator will not help, imho. Any technical aid to TRAINING will reduce the learning curve and facilitate the passage to full switch, if the gamer likes it.

(I've put in capitals the words that sometimes go unnoticed by some people).

Cheers,
Insuber

[rga]

Originally Posted by jameson

I'm confused about about why anyone would want little red arrows flying around the cockpit or statistics writ large in the corner. Why can't they learn to fly by instruments and learn to shoot properly, and then get situational awareness by looking out of the window? I thought this was going to be a realistic flight simulator....

Because SOW (and IL-2 as well) is, first and foremost, a game, not a simulator. A game is made to entertain people, a simulator is made to train people. The idea of a truly "WW-II simulator" is completely absurd, because WW II is already 60 years ago. Nowadays, noone needs a pilot which can fly a 60 year old WW II aircraft to its limit (because it's sometimes quite dangerous), which can use deflection shooting from 500m (because they have complicated gunsight and better, missiles for this purpose), which can turn his head quick and often enough to spot enemies (because they have radar). You won't get a job after you beat the best of the best aces in SOW online.

Many people (including you) have fun having a much realism as possible. For you, anything less than "full realistic" is just a waste of time. Because of you, many realistic features are implemented in game, which makes flying in games more or less comparable to flying in real life. You enjoy the game, the game developers do their best to make you enjoy their game and buy it. Excellent, a typical "win-win" situation.

Some people (including me) just don't have time, don't have motivation or simply aren't interested enough to "learn" the game. Sometimes, we enjoy realistic features, sometimes they irritate us: got bounced from nowhere and killed immediately, firing the whole magazine without effect... We don't want to sit 8 hours a day to "learn", we want to be Ben Affleck in our short weekend. We don't want to get shot down 10 times for each kill, we want to see enemy's wing falling off every 5 minutes. Therefore, we need "arcadish" features to make the game easier. Call us "noobie" of whatever you like, being a better gamer doesn't make you a better person. As long as we enjoy the game, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. And as we buy this game, with the same price as you, our opinions are as important as yours.

[robtek]

The "problem" is that easy gained success is worth less.
To "beat the system" (or here to master the 60 year old systems of those obsolete planes) is worth the work put into it.
There is also NO border between simulation and game, the switch is fluent, and simulation is definitively not only for training but also for entertainment.

[Richie]

Originally Posted by robtek

The "problem" is that easy gained success is worth less.
To "beat the system" (or here to master the 60 year old systems of those obsolete planes) is worth the work put into it.
There is also NO border between simulation and game, the switch is fluent, and simulation is definitively not only for training but also for entertainment.

If you sell a sim with a default full real setting and that's all it will not have no selling power. Many of the newbs who buy it will simply not have the patients to learn. After the 100th ground loop and firery crash into the fuel depot they'll give up and take it back to the store and get a Microsoft product.