A Sim that never quite made it, "Target for Tonight"

[TheBlackPenguin]

A post over on the General Discussion reminded me of a sim I had been following up till around 2001, it was called Target for Tonight and it sounded very promising, however unfortunately it never came to pass due to arguments within the team I believe, anyway have a look over what was on the agenda:http://www.combatsim.com/memb123/htm/2001/08/t4t/

 

Shame it never, erm took off. Perhaps someday .

[DB605]

Really shame, that would have been very, very interesting sim...

[SOLIDKREATE]

That would have been a great SIM. I love it when we are allowed to add MOD's. I'd love to model an He-219 'Uhu' and get it in game.

[baders]

"Target for Tonight" was just one of the Mods developing from the Targetware engine. Sadly, the core code developer had to cease work on Targetware 2 engine due to family and work considerations, and all connected Mods have died

 

Other Mods using the Targetware engine were the original "proof of concept" which was "Target Korea", WWII Mediteranean based "Target Tobruk", WW1 based "Richthofens Skies", and WWII Pacific based "Target Rabaul", of which I was part of the Mod team and now champion.

 

All these Mods set the standard for terrain, flight model and damage model accuracy in my opinion, and some of the work being created for the TW2 engine was simply stunning, even in todays terms. True, the engine had many areas not addressed (you could not land an aircraft on a carrier), but those rough edges were all to be addressed in the new TW2 engine. LUA was the chosen scripting language to hook into the engine, and this allowed modelling of things like accurate strategy, moving ai targets, territory shifts, and the biggie, the weather. One of the Mods had scripted realistic moving weather fronts, rain storms and wind changes, literally fantastic stuff. What we could have achieved was only limited by the imagination. Alas, no more, as none of us are core code programmers, just very talented content creators

 

Myself, Peril and Yak still hold the candle for our Pacific simulation/game and we aim one day to bring it to life.

[1./KG4_Blackwolf]

Used to fly both Target Tobruk and Target Rabaul back then. I wondered what became of TW. Stiggy still around?

[Feathered_IV]

Stigler? Ah I do remember him.

 

Good luck Baders. The Rabaul area of operations has held my imagination for many years. I'd love to hear more of the project when you're ready.

[baders]

I haven't heard from Stiglr in some time unfortunately. He was certainly one of the "characters" of the flight sim world and a very talented contributor in his own right.

 

The missions and scenarios we flew in TR were "white knuckle" rides and the best immersiveness i've ever had from a simulation, despite the limitations of the engine.

 

The dream still lives, and I am often contacted by people asking about a realistic Pacific flight combat sim/game so it seems there is a lot of interest.

 

In the mean time, I have signed up for the Premium edition of BoS, and will be examining the flight models and other areas with interest.

[Revvin]

Such potential lost through bickering and fighting between mod makers and self proclaimed hardcore experts. It's a shame the engine never matured as Target Rabaul had a lot of promise.

[baders]

Such potential lost through bickering and fighting between mod makers and self proclaimed hardcore experts. It's a shame the engine never matured as Target Rabaul had a lot of promise.

Not true.All of our TR people worked very well, especially amongst themselves and the Target Tobruk and Richthofens Skies people. We had a pretty open community, as you would remember. The demise of TW had nothing to do with "infighting", but was simply the fact we relied on just one person for the engine. All the eggs in one basket, so to speak.

[baders]

 Hmmm, having looked at the Combatsim link above, I don't think this relates to the Targetware "Target For Tonight". It appears to be something else. Apologies for the mis-direction.

Edited September 3, 2013 by baders

[baders]

Ooops, my bad. The Targetware version was called "Taget For Today"

[Revvin]

Not true.All of our TR people worked very well, especially amongst themselves and the Target Tobruk and Richthofens Skies people. We had a pretty open community, as you would remember. The demise of TW had nothing to do with "infighting", but was simply the fact we relied on just one person for the engine. All the eggs in one basket, so to speak.

 

I said the potential was lost and it was through the bickering and infighting between some of the mod teams and vocal members. The usual merry-go-round of whose 'realism' was more 'real' than the next guy, the arguments over who actually created what and what mod could use that content and the mentality held by some that you were some kind of second class citizen if you were not creating any content. You have to wonder how much of that sapped the enthusiasm to develop the engine further. I remember some of the discussions about the LUA scripting, maybe you guys should try a Kickstarter and work with ED's DCS engine?

Edited September 6, 2013 by Revvin

[TheBlackPenguin]

Thanks for all the replies, Targetware looks interesting too .

[LukeFF]

I remember following the development of Target for Tonight on bombs-away.net. RickGenius was the guy in charge of the project. Shame it never did see the light of day.

[baders]

I said the potential was lost and it was through the bickering and infighting between some of the mod teams and vocal members. The usual merry-go-round of whose 'realism' was more 'real' than the next guy, the arguments over who actually created what and what mod could use that content and the mentality held by some that you were some kind of second class citizen if you were not creating any content. You have to wonder how much of that sapped the enthusiasm to develop the engine further. I remember some of the discussions about the LUA scripting, maybe you guys should try a Kickstarter and work with ED's DCS engine?

You are entitled to your opinion of course. But take it from someone at the centre, If sick had continued development of the engine, Target Rabaul (and TT, RS) would be going strong today. Nothing at all to do with "infighting between some of the Mod teams". Thanks for the DCS suggestion.

Edited September 7, 2013 by baders

[buster_dee]

I still dream about that abandoned effort.

 

I was young then

[Panzerlang]

I had quite a lot of communication with Rick and he was beset by significant issues in his personal life. I recall he walked away from TfT, returned and then walked away again, never to be heard of any more.

 

I remember the biggest issue we worried about was players turning up/down their gamma to cheat away the darkness of night.

[EAF_Paf]

Target Tobruk seemed to be on a great way for TW2. The shots were amazing, and there were already alot things done right in TW1.

[II./JG27_Rich]

I remember it well. Wasn't this a Canadian sim?

[buster_dee]

I remember it well. Wasn't this a Canadian sim?

If you mean Target for Tonight, it had a British start, then some others joined to help.

[buster_dee]

BTW, I was involded a little in both Target for Today and Target for Tonight. I had started a B-24J for the TW romp, bits of which, heavily reworked, made it into the IL2 46 upcoming B-24D. For Target for Tonight, I think I had started a truck (best described as a box and a few circles) and a Uboat that was so far beyond my abilities the skattered bits on my hard drives may as well have met a depth charge. I am still very rough: my stuff looks "pretty" enough, but I seem to always need an army of finishers to help sort out the snags. My point in mentioning this is that the projects may falter, but the bug usually stays firmly attached to the back side. The folks I met along the way still chip in when they can.The community still gets some of the dream even if the connections aren't obvious. When I'm sick of modeling (more and more lately), I just throw behind other people's efforts--like supporting this sim.

 

This really is a sickness

[Feathered_IV]

Bomber Command operations and the human aspect of them are such an interesting subject.

I've often thought about the possibilities of a stage play about night ops. Something like an adaptation of Spencer Dunmore's Bomb Run. A cutaway set and clever lighting could give a good impression of isolated crew positions and allow other spots on stage for different scenes. Hmmm...

 

Come to think of it, an aircrew simulator title would be an interesting game too. The episodic sort of thing where your whole perspective is from within the airframe and your interaction with the other characters. Perhaps a game that is one eventful mission, that can be played out from each crewmembers perspective. No externals, but free movement. Press A to climb over the mainspar... Banter, oxygen checks, real navigation, first-aid etc.

[MarcoRossolini]

Something that recreates that would be very impressive. And probably relatively easy on the workload too... I think there's a big opening for "unglamorous" wargames as opposed to your usual shoot-all kill all variety. Valiant Hearts the Great War sort of scratched the surface in that regard... But if you can have something like an RAF night bomber game where its super loud. Super dark, lots of waiting . The odd bit of crew banter.  6-7 hour game that is basically hours of waiting and doing odd tasks such as navigation followed by bowel loosening terror when AA starts going off and Bf-110s start coming out of nowhere.

 

Then we have an expansion of the dambusters...

[wastel]

TT...nice memories....

 

wastel

[buster_dee]

B17II The Mighty 8th by day (with MP this time) and Bomber Command by night. For some reason, escort carriers mothering convoys against Uboats falls into the same category for me--more reliving history than keeping score I guess.