Poll: Interactive Cockpits

[Blackdog_kt]

I can certainly see the deal about limited resources. That's why i'm not demanding anything. I'm simply advocating it.

I'll still buy the game anyway, heck, i'll buy a brand new PC just to be able to run the game when it's ready. That doesn't mean we shouldn't ask for some things if we do it in a nice manner.

As someone said before (i think robtek) and it's a very good point, clickpits and a bit more detail in the functions of each aircraft are not mutually exclusive. It's just that if a higher number of functions is modeled, it would be nice to have alternative control methods.

The only issue is the money issue to be honest. If BoB has an increased/more realistic pilot workload the amount of controls to bind to input devices will rise. I don't have a TIR, so i guess i'll be able to click the buttons just fine. If someone has a TIR and an entire panel of switches then he has no reason to complain, because he doesn't need to click anything anyway. If someone has a TIR but not an extra panel, he will have to use a HOTAS or the keyboard.

It's about options to suit every possible gamer, because let's face it, in the end this is not a gaming genre that gets massive attention. I doubt we can afford to be "elitist" (for lack of a better word, i'm not accusing anyone here) among ourselves.

Now if Maddox and co. can't do it in time, no problem. If it's as simple as EcoDragon says, the community will.

Maybe we could get a blank template text based file for each cockpit and do it ourselves. In order for this to work, it would have to start things out pretty simple, by only adding clickable switches and not movable throttles/sliders/trim.

For example, something like a conf.ini for instrument panels that will look like this

Me109E3cockpit.ini
Magneto1=x1235.67/y1564.56/z8963.45
Magneto2=x1235.67/y1564.56/z8963.35
Magneto1+2=x1235.67/y1564.56/z8963.25

Just an idea here. The thing is that this would need a way to open the cockpit models in a 3d viewer/editor to obtain the correct coordinates, much like it's done with skins in IL2. I don't know if Maddox Games would like this, as it could potentially lead to radical modification of the cockpit panels.

But then again, it doesn't have to be that way, someone could come up with a dedicated cockpit viewer-only application that would provide the coordinates when you mouse over the switches (and if it does that much, i guess it can map the desired function directly to the clickspot in the cockpit, like a joystick profile manager utility).

I know all this takes time, but it's simple ideas like these that got IL2 going for so long. Did anyone of us know when we got hold of the first IL2:FB box about water=3? No, but the option was open in the code for someone to add it later on

That's all i'm saying in the end. I hope we get a working sim first with some decent customization potential to use down the road, just like it was with IL2 but with a few new ideas thrown in the mix.