Ok so whats next?

[FC99]

Originally Posted by Zorin

What happened to the whole night fighter radar theme and the triggers? Those I believe are some feature that most were looking forward to.

This is still planed, we have made and tested lot of individual modules but we have to put them together. I believe that sometime this year players will be able to enjoy these features.

In addition to that we are contemplating addition of strategical level to game AI to enhance usefulness of the triggers, naturally, radar and night fighter would benefit from it too.

These are our main coding tasks, we have spent incredible amount of time on 6DOF and AI for 4.11, since we are free from that we can focus on other important things and night fighting and triggers are on the top of the priority list.

While I'm here I'd like to know are players interested in "Branched Campaigns". I'll explain it a little to those who are not familiar with that concept.

Currently we have two types of campaigns in Il2, linear , custom made campaigns and dynamic campaigns like DGEN. Branched campaigns fit somewhere in the middle. They are hand made but unlike linear campaigns, we have now, they allow different outcome of the campaign.

That way player can affect what happens in the campaign(like in dynamic campaigns) but they retain all of the good sides of well designed hand made campaign.

On the bad side this makes task for campaign maker much harder because he must make missions for each of the campaign branches.

FC

[GF_Mastiff]

that sounds interesting FC99. i.e your in an il2 squadron
your squadron makes a routine bombing run and depending on the
results from a scout bombing assessment you have to hit again or the campaign continues
good idea.

[Juri_JS]

Branched campaigns are definitely a good idea.

And here two of my ideas. I think they can be added without causing too much work for Daidalos Team:

What about adding new countries, for example Vichy France, China or Nationalist and Republican Spain. Medal and speech packs already exist for these nations, all DT has to do is to ask the creators if they agree to add their work in a patch.

My second suggestion are winter versions for some of the existing maps. I would like to see a winter version of the Norway map. Some of the most well known missions in this part of Norway took place between December 1944 and February 1945. I would also appreciate a winter versions of the Berlin map.

[Letum]

I suspect we already lack the mission builders to get more than three or four high quality branched campaigns within two years, even if it was added as a feature.

[FC99]

Originally Posted by Letum

I suspect we already lack the mission builders to get more than three or four high quality branched campaigns within two years, even if it was added as a feature.

That's my main concern. Is it worth it to do it if there might be a handful of people who will use it in the end.

[Juri_JS]

Originally Posted by FC99

That's my main concern. Is it worth it to do it if there might be a handful of people who will use it in the end.

In my opinion a branched campaign system could be exactly the right thing to revive interest in mission building, especially in combination with triggers.

[Letum]

Originally Posted by FC99

That's my main concern. Is it worth it to do it if there might be a handful of people who will use it in the end.

It might be an idea to see if you can find some mission makers to start making missions for several branched campaigns so some can be released along side the branched campaign patch. If you struggle to find any one to make missions before you start work on a branched campaign mechanic, then it probably won't add much value to the game.

[FC99]

Originally Posted by Letum

It might be an idea to see if you can find some mission makers to start making missions for several branched campaigns so some can be released along side the branched campaign patch. If you struggle to find any one to make missions before you start work on a branched campaign mechanic, then it probably won't add much value to the game.

Good idea, so who is volunteering to make one or more branched campaigns for 4.12 ?

[Juri_JS]

Originally Posted by FC99

Good idea, so who is volunteering to make one or more branched campaigns for 4.12 ?

You will get more answers when you ask this question at http://www.mission4today.com/

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by FC99

Good idea, so who is volunteering to make one or more branched campaigns for 4.12 ?

Hrmmm... I might be persuaded

I'm not sure how branching would or should work in the IL-2 context. Would ever mission have a branch or just key missions with specific events. The interesting part about this is that I would have to change how I view my campaigns... I tend to make them with this historical inevitability about them and the player is just caught up in the events. If they mess up then they have to play it again.

But with branching...say the enemy sinks your carrier or destroys a vital objective. Then in theory it could change the course of history. Or it could be small scale enough to not matter to the whole war but matter to you on the front.

The narrative would be important.

While we're talking about campaigns... Being able to do non-sepia filter tracks with text at the top might be a nice feature for campaign cinematics. Aside from NTRK playback in these modes not using Perfect mode... it would be nice to have the option of it appearing just like the game. Or having the sepia filter on for other instances.