More twin Engine flyables in IL-2 1946

[Igo kyu]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

The Defiant Mk.II night fighter, with turret and AI Mk. IV Airborne Interception radar, was the most effective British night fighter during the "Winter Blitz" German night bombing campaign of 1940-41, and over 200 Mk. IIs were built.

I repeat, the main use of the Defiant was not in combat, it was as a target tug for training.

There were 1060 Defiants built, most of them were built as dedicated tugs, and most survivors of earlier versions were converted to tugs.

It would IMHO be a more useful thing to have an AI target tug version of the Defiant (or a Henley or Skua) for training in the sim than to have a flyable barely used fighter version.

Saying that the Defiant night-fighter was the most effective British night-fighter of the winter 1940-1941 is a condemnation of the British night-fighting effort of that period, not a vindication of the Defiant (though I'm sure the crews did their best with what they had), it was designed as a day interceptor of unescorted bombers, but the German bombers weren't unescorted.

I agree that a what-if forward gunned Defiant would have probably been a useful fighter in the early war, but unfortunately it never happened as a squadron aircraft.

[sniperton]

Originally Posted by Igo kyu

It would IMHO be a more useful thing to have an AI target tug version of the Defiant (or a Henley or Skua) for training in the sim...

Defiant or not, an AI target tug version of any plane (existing or new) would be a very useful training tool for eternal newbies like me...

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by sniperton

Defiant or not, an AI target tug version of any plane (existing or new) would be a very useful training tool for eternal newbies like me...

???

IL2 already gives you the opportunity for far more realistic gunnery training than any WW2 pilot ever received.

Just set up a QMB mission with the targets of your choice as friendly planes, give yourself unlimited ammo, and blast away.

If you want to get a bit more complex, set up a mission in the FMB where you've got an AI plane towing a glider and try to shoot down the glider (very difficult if you're not using cannons) without shooting the tow plane.

If you want something a bit more challenging, set up a bunch of enemy planes in the QMB. If you want to make things easy for yourself, give them empty loadouts and/or rookie AI.

In any case, you can keep track of your hit percentage from the appropriate screen in the QMB, and can keep track of your hits in real time using Arcade mode.

Windsock style gunnery targets were with best substitute available for actual targets, but they weren't very good.

Tow planes were typically slower than combat aircraft, they could never be as maneuverable, and the risk of hitting the tow plane prevented gunnery students from attacking the target drogue from certain angles (like 6 o'clock level, which is pretty much your preferred deflection angle for most attacks).

Air forces that could afford it tried to use remote controlled drone targets, or esoteric aircraft like the P-63 "Pinball."

Air forces on a budget learned that the closest thing to effective combat gunnery training was to attempt to shoot the shadow of a maneuvering aircraft as it moved across the ground. But, this required that training take place close to the ground (dangerous for rookie pilots) and limited training to sunny days.

Given the time and effort required to develop new planes for IL2, I'd vastly prefer that TD or outside developers concentrate on combat types.

[Tinpanzer87]

why are all the planes from the IL-2 mods are not in The Team Daidalos updates. There are alot of planes in the other mods. somebody did a ME-410 cockpit already and a few other planes too.

[gaunt1]

Originally Posted by Tinpanzer87

why are all the planes from the IL-2 mods are not in The Team Daidalos updates. There are alot of planes in the other mods. somebody did a ME-410 cockpit already and a few other planes too.

Because their quality isnt good enough. Modeling an accurate and detailed cockpit is very hard. Again, only a few planes would be possible within reasonable time:

1, more He-111 variants, probably this would be the easiest, because Yt2 (TD member) already made a beautiful mod, that not only adds more, but corrects the faults of original models.
2, B-25C. I think it should be easy too, even gunner positions.
3, Do-217K/M, also a mod, fairly complete, but of course needs more detail. This plane would be really interesting to have
4, Bf-110C4, maybe modifying G2 cockpit?
5, B-25G/H. Turrets could be adopted straight from B-25C and H, question is cockpit. Dont know how different compared to C/H variants...
6, Ju-88C6. Much could be used from A4 pit, it mainly needs a new instrument panel, and some weapons inside, like MG FF and MG 17s
7, Beaufighter. Earlier british variants would be sweet! Probably it could be modified from the Mk.21

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by Tinpanzer87

why are all the planes from the IL-2 mods are not in The Team Daidalos updates. There are alot of planes in the other mods. somebody did a ME-410 cockpit already and a few other planes too.

Most of those tend to be half finished with many errors both modelling and in programming.

TD focuses on finished products, quality, and stability whereas the mod packs tend to be less focused on those but they are rapidly updated and they get things to a "almost good enough" stage so that people can play around with them.

It means going slower but also maintaining a relatively consistent product.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Tinpanzer87

why are all the planes from the IL-2 mods are not in The Team Daidalos updates. There are alot of planes in the other mods. somebody did a ME-410 cockpit already and a few other planes too.

In addition to the reasons that Icefire mentioned, DT doesn't reach out to modders. Instead, it's up to modders to contact DT and work with them.

I forget where I saw it, but at some point I recall members of TD saying that the Me-410 mod (at least the AI aircraft, if not the cockpit) was up to their standards, and they'd be willing to have it in the official game if the creator contacted them. So far, that hasn't happened.

In a few cases, there have been projects that started out as collaborations between outside developers and DT, but went off the rails. For example, the Dewoitine D.520 was originally developed with DT's blessing, but the creator refused to reduce the model's polygon count to acceptable levels, so it ultimately got released as a mod.