Oleg Maddox's Room #1

[III/JG11_Tiger]

Zapatista, I get what you mean, but my squad flew ongoing campaigns against AG51 for a couple of years and we enjoyed many of the features you require, unfortunately there was a need for quite a bit of planning input, but we had tanks running out of fuel etc and supply was important to keep airfields active and many more features, maybe Oleg could speak to the developers of SE, as knowing one of the team that created SE, I am fairly sure that a lot of what you require could be added if SE was built into SOW, it will be interesting to see what maddox games comes up with.

[dflion]

Hope the following answer helps your query 99thFlyby.

When making campaigns in IL2 1946, at the beginning you often see 'Select the highest rank before commencing the campaign'. This then puts you in command of the whole flight/squadron. Using the 'Pilot voice commands' (TAB) you now have total control of your flight/squadron.
To stop your Stukas repeatedly attacking the convoy you select the 'Tactical voice command' then select 'rejoin' - your Stukas will break-off their attacks and rejoin you.
You can then issue new commands to attack new targets - once you have 'padlocked/highlighted' them either in the air or on the ground.

To take this a bit further, I would imagine Oleg is working on new dynamic set of pilot voice commands for SOW/BOB which will give us all much more control than with IL2. For example -if your leader is shot down your wingman may take-over command (you may be flying as a wingman). You may see a new 'voice command' - 'Takeover command' which will immediately give you 'leader status' with all the necessary command privileges to command your flight/squadron.
Ground control will be much more comprehensive in SOW/BOB, for example 'climb to 3,000m', target distance 5kl, vector 120 degrees etc. I would be interested in having some futher discussion with this aspect of the game.

Zapatista - I fully agree with your comments - SOW/BOB must have a true dynamic campaign engine.

DFLion

[Flyby]

dflion,
thanks for the input, but per youtr example I'd want the Stukas to keep attacking ships. What i would not want, per mission building, is for a flight to stop attacking even after the designated target for that flight was destroyed. In other words I'd like for a flight to seek other targets. Per my Kamikaze flight example, once the designated target was destroyed (by the lead plane, or any plane), the other planes in the flight would not attack other targets. I want the AI to attak other targets even if the flight lead is dead. I should have added that in my example, the flight lead of the Kamikaze flight was an AI pilot. I'd want an AI Stuka to attack other ships even if the AI leader of that flight was shot down. I'm asking if the AI will seek other targets in SOW if the assgined target is destroyed.
thanks!
Flyby out

[dflion]

Originally Posted by 99th_Flyby

dflion,
thanks for the input, but per youtr example I'd want the Stukas to keep attacking ships. What i would not want, per mission building, is for a flight to stop attacking even after the designated target for that flight was destroyed. In other words I'd like for a flight to seek other targets. Per my Kamikaze flight example, once the designated target was destroyed (by the lead plane, or any plane), the other planes in the flight would not attack other targets. I want the AI to attak other targets even if the flight lead is dead. I should have added that in my example, the flight lead of the Kamikaze flight was an AI pilot. I'd want an AI Stuka to attack other ships even if the AI leader of that flight was shot down. I'm asking if the AI will seek other targets in SOW if the assgined target is destroyed.
thanks!
Flyby out

I am hoping that Oleg has ' considerably stepped up the artificial intelligence of AI aircraft' in SOW/BOB, especially in the ground attack mode. After they have attacked and destroyed a specific target, they then seek out other live targets in the immediate vicinity, if ammo and bombs are still available (this does happen to a certain extent in IL2 now - though it is not reliable) - at the moment in IL2, if you are not the leader, you are powerless to re-direct the AI aircraft to attack other targets and they all end up 'milling-around' the original target until they are all shot down, or limp back to base damaged, or wounded? The way out of this dilemma is that if you lose your AI leader the AI 'second in command' (or yourself, if you are second in command) takes over and redirects the AI flight to other targets, or if you are the Squadron Leader you take over all the AI flights by issuing specific commands to attack other targets.
You must always remember that in the current IL2 flight simulator you are in control of your own ultimate destiny - as you are promoted you are are then controlling the destiny of your flight or Squadron pilots (In the offline mode, all the other AI pilots, in the online mode, other live pilots).
DFLion

[Bobb4]

Maybe the bunny in the screenshot was meant for an Easter update that never happened or they are so far ahead of schedule they were meant for Easter 2009? I am betting on the former http://files.games.1c.ru/il2pict/vvv-03_02.jpg

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by III/JG11_Tiger

Zapatista, I get what you mean, but my squad flew ongoing campaigns against AG51 for a couple of years and we enjoyed many of the features you require, unfortunately there was a need for quite a bit of planning input, but we had tanks running out of fuel etc and supply was important to keep airfields active and many more features, maybe Oleg could speak to the developers of SE, as knowing one of the team that created SE, I am fairly sure that a lot of what you require could be added if SE was built into SOW, it will be interesting to see what maddox games comes up with.

then you need to provide information like that to Oleg if you want to have any hope BoB will be better then il2 in that regard, because right now that is not going to be the case. maybe some of the previous work done on SE can be of some help to oleg, presuming that resource is provided to him for free. maybe the person that designed it can do some part time consulting for Oleg and get SE type functions/features implemented in a true dynamic way.

oleg had a post at the ubi forum a couple of years ago asking people to vote if they wanted a dynamic campaign or scripted missions, but it wasnt clearly explained what a true dynamic campaign is and the fake-real crowd was chirping loudly they wanted 100% "realism" in missions, not being smart enough to understand the full benefits of a dynamic campaign engine server that can run 24/7 over 4 monts with "tasked missions" (like falcon 4 does). meaning a server can run on its own over 4 months, letting you join at any time, and once logged on you get a list of the types of missions that are being tasked and you can select one you like, or simply select any airfield to start from (choosing an airfield with no missions tasked means you could do "free flying" from that location)

after the votes were in oleg stated he would plan on a scripted campaign, not a dynamic campaign, so that means a limited progressively evolving list of pre fabricated missions that run in a rigid fashion, and there is no 24/7 server at all. it also means the missions will always be exactly the same.

personally i would favor oleg trying to buy the "campaign engine rights" from mig alley or falcon-4 (in the same way he sold the il2 AI engine rights to the console developer of BoP), and expanding on it. if he is not going to do that he needs to include the skeleton of a true dynamic campaign engine right now into BoB, and allow the fan base to expand on it.

if any of you have any hopes in that direction, this is the time to start letting oleg know what you want and why, and help him with free resources to implement it. complaining later will be to late, and you wont get it for the next 8 to 10 years either.