Oleg Maddox's Room #1

[Novotny]

Originally Posted by vanderstok

Oleg,

I'd like to ask a couple of questions that pop-up when describing a typical historical offline mission.
Some time ago I read about a precision bombing attack in 1944 by Mosquitos on a building in The Hague (where I live) where the Germans kept records of resistance fighters and many other documents. I was wondering if and how such a mission could be created for SoW (I know that the Mosquito will not be in the initial game, this is just an example!).

The target they had to destroy was a big white house. They probably had lots of recon photos for preparation.

Q1: Is it possible to include a couple of recon photos in the mission screen? They are a must have for a mission like this (I think this is already on the feature list)

There were three pairs of Mossies taking off from England and following waypoints to the Dutch coast. The aircraft flew very low and fast to avoid radar.

Q2: In IL2 the AI don't like to fly very low, they will usually pop-up when maneuvering. Will this be fixed in SoW?
Q3: Will there be radar? (Yes, I believe this has been confirmed already)

The Mossies flew over land, around Rotterdam to avoid the heavy FLAK there. They must have surprised quite a lot of enemy positions and vehicles before their presence was on radio.

Q4: Is it possible to surprise AI gunners? Can we set the alert status based on scripting?

The aircraft then turned back to The Hague, slowed down and set up for their attack run. Apparently, any enemy fighters were too late to intervene.

Q5: Is it possible to redirect (or have them take-off) aircraft to a certain waypoint based on a radar detection event?
Q6: Is it possible to place aircraft/vehicles at random positions within a given range? This would mean you could fly this kind of mission a couple of times. Perhaps it's a good idea to have an option to make the alert status of crews also random?

According to several sources the first Mossie tossed two bombs through the front door, blowing up the building. Other mossies threw incendiary bombs to burn the documents.

Q7: How will the damage model of individual buidling be? Is it possible to partly bring down a structure?
Q8: Is it possible to score points by destroying a static object? In IL2 you usually have to place a couple of vehicles as "bait" and to score points

Here is a great photo taken during the raid: http://www.strijdbewijs.nl/top/o/kl02.jpg

Q9: Will it be possible to take photos during a mission and review them during debriefing?

The Mossies then headed back to sea where a group of Spitfires provided air cover.

Q10: Will Ground control warn you if they see enemy aircraft on radar behind you?
Q11: Will the time accelaration or "skip time" function be available in SoW? I wouldn't mind fast forwarding when flying over an empty sea

Thanks for listening!

Awesome set of questions, superbly illustrated - has anyone asked before could we specify each plane's load within a flight? as in the mossie example above (meaning in single player campaign mode)

[Blood_Splat]

Oleg. I was wondering if there could be anti submarine missions?

[secretone]

FYI- You can do some neat stuff offline with the FMB. I created a scenario with an F4F and 2 Avengers taking off a CVE and nailing a uboat! Sometimes the uboat flak shoots down a plane or two. Usually the uboat is torpedoed.

[Skoshi Tiger]

Just a quick quesion. We've been told that a computer capable of playing IL2 on High graphics settings today will probably play SOW of reduced settings.

My question is will SOW on low setting look as good as IL2 on High settings?

[Lodestone]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

Just a quick quesion. We've been told that a computer capable of playing IL2 on High graphics settings today will probably play SOW of reduced settings.

My question is will SOW on low setting look as good as IL2 on High settings?

I cannot speak for Oleg of course but he has said, for instance, that in SoW there are only fully modeled 3-D trees. He has also said there are many more LOD's for planes than in IL-2. So even right there that is an improvement over IL-2. I think Skoshi that the answer to this is yes..SoW will look as good on low settings as IL-2 on highest settings. Maybe not texture-wise, but definitely in model detail. My own guess is that lowest settings for SoW will look better than 'perfect' IL-2 even in textures. Or at least here's hoping

What bothers me a little is that Oleg wrote that he'll fixe medium quality for online play if I understood well. I understand that through fixing this everyone should get the same chances even with a low end computer. On the other hand you'll just get medium quality if you play together with some friends with same high end computers.

I think quality should be set by the host/server. Most servers will choose quality that will fit most of their audience anyhow (after a try and error period of course to find good settings) in order to get their house full of players. But it leaves everyone to decide if he uses better quality when flying in a coop for instance ...

up to now all cockpits for SoW are as in IL2 empty. I'd like to know if there'll be for SoW no longer ghost planes but some with manned cockpits where you can see the pilot's hand on the stick and the legs as in so many other simulations. This is really important to get a first person impression and with today's technic this is already very realistic looking.

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by Blood_Splat

Oleg. I was wondering if there could be anti submarine missions?

May be... in time. In principle possible.

[BadAim]

Thanks for the updates, Oleg. I was going to ask about the map editor after seeing demos of the new far cry editor, but it looks like your way ahead of me. I noticed the self shadowing and different markings, but I totally missed the licence plates till the last pic. Very impressive, although I can imagine mission making will be nearly impossible now for the obsessive compulsives like me with all that detail to keep track of!

I do have one question, and I apoligize if it's been asked before. Will there be a favorites list or some such for IP addys in online play? For instance my squad has several hosters, and even a ten line (or so) dropdown list would be very helpful on the "join game" multiplay screen.

[RedToo]

Hate to be picky but for me the grass is off scale - too big for the size of the 3D models. Is it early stage grass? Or will the size of the grass scale down as video options are turned up during the life of the sim as computers get faster?

Brilliant 3D models, absolutely brilliant. I will continue waiting patiently. Keep up the wonderful work.

RedToo.