Oleg Maddox's Room #1

[yogy]

Clickable cockpits are really not priority I think. Good idea to let this be done by external parties.

On the other hand, the complex engine-menegement must be a feature of the next series IMHO. Reason:

Partly automized cockpits (example: the 190's Kommandogerät) gave pilots a huge advantage over i.e. complex machines like the i.e. P-38, because the could concentrate on their main job: The fight. This is still totally neglected in todays combat flight sims (aka IL-2).

[proton45]

I want to be a "Head mechanic" at an airfield during the "BoB"...

I want to be able to manage repairs and swap engines...I want to set work schedule's and fill out requisition forms...

I want to play out the "ground crew" role...

[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!

[Lodestone]

Oleg,

I have a question regarding online play in SoW.

I help to run a couple of dogfight servers, one of which is an axis-vs-allied setup. This leads to many instances (when server admins are not present) of players overpopulating the team with the most powerful plane on it. This lack of team balance ruins the careful gameplay balance we as DF map-makers try to put in our scenarios.

Currently programs like IL-2:SC can do a sort of team-balancing, but rather than moving people from team to team it just kicks you from the game if you join the team with too many players.

Will SoW include a server-side option for "auto-balancing' teams, like so many other online games have? Even a very basic form of team auto-balancing would be very welcome by many-a-pilot I think, and certainly by me!

I have dozens of other questions, but this is the one that I am most curious about. I won't waste your time with other questions, as I want to leave you some time for making the new sim (which is looking better and better with each update!) Thanks for your efforts to make yourself available to your 'fans'. I cannot think of another game developer who is so hands-on with his public. I, for one, truly appreciate it.

Paxton (aka Lodestone)

[proton45]

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!

I'm a little curious to hear what Oleg has to say about a few of these questions...but I have a feeling that most of these will fall into the "the code is in their/too early to see" category (LOL).

[Thunderbolt56]

Forced side-balancing should be an option for server admins, but not intrinsic to or with a pre-determined %. To be able to say that one side or the other can't exceed 10% advantage or something like that would be o.k. with me. I realize there are many times a squad may come to a server and want to all fly together thus making one side a bit more populated than the other, but things often have a tendency to balance out after a few minutes.

The only time I've ever really had an issue is when singles or pairs join and simply load up in "their favorite" aircraft on the team that already outnumbers the other by 2:1. Another option could be, If the numbers are seriously out of balance and the new pilots still want to join the side with the numerical advantage, they should have to fly the ragged, "pool" aircraft in a bomber role or the one with the supercharger that doesn't work.

[Lodestone]

Originally Posted by Thunderbolt56

Forced side-balancing should be an option for server admins, but not intrinsic to or with a pre-determined %. To be able to say that one side or the other can't exceed 10% advantage or something like that would be o.k. with me. I realize there are many times a squad may come to a server and want to all fly together thus making one side a bit more populated than the other, but things often have a tendency to balance out after a few minutes.

The only time I've ever really had an issue is when singles or pairs join and simply load up in "their favorite" aircraft on the team that already outnumbers the other by 2:1. Another option could be, If the numbers are seriously out of balance and the new pilots still want to join the side with the numerical advantage, they should have to fly the ragged, "pool" aircraft in a bomber role or the one with the supercharger that doesn't work.

All good ideas Thunderbolt, especially that of giving the new joiners on an over-manned team the old, dilapidated airplanes.

I'm not looking for a systems that starts shuffling people from team to team when they are out by just a couple of players. But I have, for instance, gone into our server and found the teams lopsided to the point of 30vs8, when the map is designed for the sides to be close to equal. I agree that much of the time the teams even themselves out pretty well, due to the high degree of sportsmanship most players have. But even a fair-minded player might fly around for 30 minutes not even noticing his team has a 2-1 advantage. The sky is big after all, even with 50 planes in it. Some kind of scalable team-balance system would help a lot in these instances.

I understand the wish for a forced balancing. But how should this work?

As an entrant to a server you are automatically switched to the outnumbered side or is it done when you are already flying and some on the other team leave and then I find myself in another plane on the other side?

What about 11:10 ratio (or 23:22 or 13:14, or ...)

What about 35:40? (that's no real outnumbering imho)

Could you force people to play on Russion side more in order to simulate the large numbers of Soviet planes on eastern front?

What I fear is that people will leave mostly if they cannot play on the side they like. We for instance are an RAF squadron and want to play on allied side. If we occasionally jump into blue crates it is because we want to.

[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?