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

[Blackdog_kt]

Well, you have a point there, but since this has turned into a general wishlist thread and various people are coming up with some very cool ideas, i thought i might group what i found most interesting, add some personal dressing and serve in the interest of some more food for thought.

It might not be moments, but having those moments in a non-scripted (scripted=predictable after a while) fashion requires laying down certain game mechanics beforehand. I'd rather they released a stable, working game and then gradually patch into it some sandbox-type game mechanics and accurate systems and operating procedures modelling, instead of for example simply adding some scripted events with a random chance. Scripting means that you need to define each and every occurence yourself. It's faster initially but limits your scope to these 4-5, or 20 effects that you specifically coded. After a while it's "oh,look, that bailing out opponent is giving me a salute again" or "i'm bored with my no2 wingman being the only one who has random engine problems, why doesn't no3 or no4 ever get one?" and so on

Laying down game mechanics however broadens the scope considerably. It's more work to do initially, because you need to define certain variables and how they interact with one another. However, after doing that you can then let them run wild on their own, depending on the greatest randomizing function of all, player input. There's no need to script much at all if you get accurate systems and failures, because half of the time something will invariably come up due to player error under combat stress, enemy action or a combination of both.

[Ernst]

BlackDog,

You resumed in your two last post all features that a 'hardcore' player (grognard) would want. However it ll be interesting, regard the presence of clickable cockipts, possibility to assign some of this commands to keyboard buttons too (ex. flaps, pitch, trim and other resources commonly used in combat) for faster use.

But your ideia is very cool!

[Blackdog_kt]

Of course, there should be keyboard/HOTAS assignments for all of the primary functions. I mean, when i fly MSFS on my buddy's PC i never click and drag the throttles,mixture levers, or flaps, i do it with the stick throttle and keyboard.

However, there are lots of systems and functions to model and at some point you run out of keyboard combinations or they become too complicated to remember. That's where clickpits help, because you can keep adding systems without having to worry if the pilot will have enough keys to use them.

For example, the easiest and most often used case is setting the instruments for the course you need to fly. You could do it with the keyboard too, but i just look where the gauge is, pause the TrackIR with a button on the stick to keep the picture steady, place the mouse pointer over the little knob on the gyro compass and roll the mouse wheel...voila, the indicator of the desired heading moves left or right, depending on whether i roll the wheel up or down. Sometimes functions like these provide a faster and more precise control than having to press the same key combination 15 times, like using the trim wheels for example.

The thing is, mouse activated controls should not be primary controls because clicking with the mouse is slower than pressing a key or two (can you imagine having to click the gun trigger on the stick with your mouse? of course not ). However, they are very useful for controls that you don't use all the time and most importantly, things you don't use during combat but are also part of your aircraft, because that means less key combinatios for you to remember. If there's a complex engine start procedure according to real life aircraft manuals for example, there's no reason not to use a mouse. You only need to start the engine at the start of the mission (hopefully), so i guess it's easier to just click through the switches than setup and memorize 4-10 new keyboard assignments