4.13 development update discussion and feedback

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by greybeard307

My original post was not solely about visual oiling effects, but more to do with introducing combat damage such as a hit to cooling sytems causing reports such as " Radiator Damaged - Engine Overheat - Engine Inoperable" which was much more common in real life than "Rudder-Elevator Controls Damaged"

This is an excellent idea and wouldn't be that hard to implement. Currently, there aren't "Coolant leak" or "Coolant Pressure Dropping" or "Oil leak" or
"Oil Pressure Dropping" messages in the HUD. Such information would be obvious to the pilot or flight engineer from the cockpit/engine gauges, more so than information such as "Cannon/machine gun jammed."

Ideally, there would be progressive messages similar to pilot hits - Oil/coolant leak > Severe oil/coolant leak > Engine failure imminent > Engine inoperable.

Admittedly, some of this info would be obvious, especially for single-engined planes. But, for multi-engined planes or jets, or planes with engines mounted behind the pilot, this info would be very helpful.

[ElAurens]

You should not need an aritificial pop up to tell you that your engine has run out of oil or coolant.

It should be quite obvious with the drop off in power, rise in temps as shown on the gauges ( you do look at your gauges don't you? ), and the terrible grinding clanking noises eminating from your power plant.

[greybeard307]

Yes ElAurens you are quite right, I can remember times when I have heard noises of distress from a smoking engine which makes louder and louder squeaking and screeching noises as the power output drops until it fails completely. So it would appear the effects are there, but not the HUD warnings, fair enough, as you say in reality you would see the effects on the various cockpit gauges.

[Reaps]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

You should not need an aritificial pop up to tell you that your engine has run out of oil or coolant.

We have artificial pop-ups for things as obvious as engine failures, I don't see why an option for pop-ups for things leading up to engine failure should be considered a bad thing. Don't like it? Turn it off. Not really a top-of-the-line issue though, methinks

[jt_medina]

Respawn AI in dogfight missions.

I know other objects can be respawned but I'd like to be able to do the same thing with the AI.

Sometimes I create a dogfight mission with tanks, static ships, all that stuff then I add a group of AI bombers for example. I think it'd be very useful if we could respawn that AI when they get destroyed or they land at their base.

When I play a dogfight mission in multiplayer where the goal is to sink some ships and destroy an enemy base but there isn't simply enough human players to fill the gap. If we could add respawnable AI would be perfect.

[ElAurens]

Actually if you could have multiple respawn times for an AI flight would be very cool.

Place one AI flight with it's waypoints and then have multiple spawn times for it. Be a cool way to create waves of bombers, for example.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

Actually if you could have multiple respawn times for an AI flight would be very cool.

+1. It would save mission builders a lot of work. Create one formation of bombers (or whatever), set it to respawn n number of times every X minutes and you've simply and quickly created an otherwise very time-consuming mission.

Allowing random factors when spawning or respawning AI planes would also be helpful. For example, you could create a bomber stream by having planes spawn around a fixed point at slightly different altitudes and coordinates, traveling at slightly different speeds, but all following the same course and waypoints.

For even more fun, you could have random types of planes or even random altitudes or vectors!

Basic respawn would just require a setting for the number of formations to be spawned and a timer to set the intervals between spawning times.

Randomized respawn would require parameters for the mission builder to set randomness in respawn time, altitude, longitude, latitude, course, airspeed and waypoints.

Totally random respawn would require parameters for the mission builder to set plane lists, loadouts and pilot skill.

Of course, much of this functionality exists in Uberdemon's UQMG ( http://uberdemon.net/index2.html), but it would be cool to see it incorporated into the FMB or even the QMB.

[gauderio]

Please make these changes to pollute less the game screen

ORIGINAL GAME SCREEN



NEW GAME SCREEN

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

It should be quite obvious with the drop off in power, rise in temps as shown on the gauges ( you do look at your gauges don't you? ), and the terrible grinding clanking noises eminating from your power plant.

Yes, it's generally obvious when a single-engined plane is in trouble. For multi-engined planes, not so much.

A HUD message indicating problems with the engine would be helpful for people flying without the cockpit, people with small/single monitors and/or without Track-IR or equivalent technology to quickly check the gauges.

It would also be helpful for people flying an unfamiliar plane or a plane where the gauges are in a foreign language or in an obscure location. (Wait, you don't know exactly where the oil pressure gauge is on the Avia B.534 and you don't speak Czech? Obviously, you're not hard-core enough! )

In any case, a HUD message indicating a problem with an engine would be realistic for planes with a co-pilot and/or flight engineer, assuming that the HUD serves as a substitute for the intercomm system.