Selectable aircraft code numbers

[56RAF_Roblex 1080]

Type of improvement:  Gameplay

 

Explanation of proposals:

 

The ability to choose an aircraft code number and have it placed on your aircraft skin (and the game always remembers what number you use)

 

Currently a large squadron flying together cannot visually see who is who.   The only way to allow this for a  squad with 10 players is to build 10 custom skins and even though you can use one base skin and just add numbers, it is still time consuming merging the numbers in properly ( I know, I have just had to do 12 ) and this still only gives you one model of aircraft with either a Summer or Winter skin. They then all need to be loaded into every squad members directory.  We need to see who is who on all models whatever the base skin pattern.  In a certain (ex?) rival sim not unconnected to IC we have that ability and even non squad members can see what code is on your aircraft without everyone needing to load hundreds of skins.    If someone makes their own custom skin where the place you put your number is wrong for their paint job or overwrites their own hard-coded code then that is their lookout. Allow them to turn your code off.

 

Even allowing a squad symbol to be placed on the nose or tail would help us know we are looking at a fellow squad member, or a selection of coloured tail stripes.  

 

Benefits:

 

The ability for squads to know visually which squad member they are looking at as they would have in real life.

Edited September 26, 2017 by 56RAF_Roblex

[xvii-Dietrich 372]

Good suggestion. This would really make things easier for squads to participate in multiplayer missions in a coordinated way.

 

It also lets non-affiliated pilots quickly identify their aircraft to others.

 

A blank-paint-scheme, plus a selectable tail number (or even fuselage number) would be great.

[EAF51_Triple1 20]

+1

[TG-55Panthercules 552]

+1

[Aap 548]

+1

I made similar suggestion in the pinned thread four months ago. Hopefully the devs have time to take it on their agenda at some point.

[Finkeren 6032]

The problem is, that the game engine was never designed for decal graphics. We have to remember, that the devs didn't actually build the Digital Nature engine, they enherited it from Neoqb, when they took over Rise of Flight shortly after that sim launched.

 

Rise of Flight was never built with decals for the planes in mind, and we know from previous statements by Han and Jason, that working this tech into the engine is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, even if the team actually prioritized to do it.

 

Still, the devs are achieving the impossible on a daily basis, so we shouldn't rule something like this out. Just keep in mind, that this isn't something the devs just didn't think about, and it is not their design choice not to have it in the sim.

[56RAF_Roblex 1080]

Good info Finkeren.

[darthdooboss 13]

+1

[LLv34_Temuri 918]

A somewhat clumsy solution might be to add official skins that have different numbers and then have an additional selection under each official skin to select the number.

[56RAF_Roblex 1080]

A somewhat clumsy solution might be to add official skins that have different numbers and then have an additional selection under each official skin to select the number.

 

It would work, and it is basically what I have had to do using custom skins,  but then for a selection of 12 numbers you are multiplying the disk space, ram space and loading times by 12 as well.  With the average server probably having at least 10 available aircraft and and 6 skins for each that is a lot of Mb.  A 4k skin takes over 20Mb so if we assume a built in skin only takes 10Mb that is 7.2Gb!   If that has to be held in RAM in case you meet someone with one of those skins then it would mean most of us cannot run the game.     

 

OTOH If they can attach 'damage' decals to a plane mid battle then surely attaching two numbers to an unnumbered skin from spawn onwards must be possible.  Instead of 'This plane has been hit in the wing by a cannon shell so add a decal of a hole in the wing in this place that everyone can see from now onwards',  you say at spawn time 'The player has requested that this plane be number 12 so add a decal of a 12 in these two places that everyone can see from now onwards'.   No radical change to the code or graphics is needed.  Just copy and re-purpose the existing damage code.  You don't really even need to copy and adapt the damage code,  just keep the existing damage code and add a new set of decals and say 'When this plane spawns it is immediately hit in these two places by a hidden 'Mk.12 Splat Gun' and the damage decal for a Mk.12 splat gun looks like a '12' :-)

Edited September 29, 2017 by 56RAF_Roblex

[curiousGamblerr 972]

It would work, and it is basically what I have had to do using custom skins, but then for a selection of 12 numbers you are multiplying the disk space, ram space and loading times by 12 as well. With the average server probably having at least 10 available aircraft and and 6 skins for each that is a lot of Mb. A 4k skin takes over 20Mb so if we assume a built in skin only takes 10Mb that is 7.2Gb! If that has to be held in RAM in case you meet someone with one of those skins then it would mean most of us cannot run the game.

 

OTOH If they can attach 'damage' decals to a plane mid battle then surely attaching two numbers to an unnumbered skin from spawn onwards must be possible. Instead of 'This plane has been hit in the wing by a cannon shell so add a decal of a hole in the wing in this place that everyone can see from now onwards', you say at spawn time 'The player has requested that this plane be number 12 so add a decal of a 12 in these two places that everyone can see from now onwards'. No radical change to the code or graphics is needed. Just copy and re-purpose the existing damage code. You don't really even need to copy and adapt the damage code, just keep the existing damage code and add a new set of decals and say 'When this plane spawns it is immediately hit in these two places by a hidden 'Mk.12 Splat Gun' and the damage decal for a Mk.12 splat gun looks like a '12' :-)

That's a really interesting point about damage decals. I wonder if that's occurred to them... that's the kind of stuff a coworker suggests at work at you face palm because it seems so obvious after the fact. I wouldn't hold my breath, but maybe you've stumbled upon the key to this problem.

[banana2042 0]

+1

[=475FG=_DAWGER 87]

A unobtrusive friendly Icon at short range would make more sense from a programming and play-ability perspective.

[Royal_Flight 408]

+1

[E69_Cachash 4]

In my squad we have already edited 9 numerals per plane to be able to fly together in coordination and bring a little more realism to the simulator. We have a total of 405 custom skins that occupy 8.43 Gb on disk and many hours of work.

 

I find disappointing that a sim as good as IL-2 GB does not look for a solution to the problem, as other similar titles have. Please keep this thread alive 

[56RAF_Roblex 1080]

5 hours ago, E69_Cachash said:

'In my squad we have already edited 9 numerals per plane to be able to fly together in coordination and bring a little more realism to the simulator. We have a total of 405 custom skins that occupy 8.43 Gb on disk and many hours of work.

 

I find disappointing that a sim as good as IL-2 GB does not look for a solution to the problem, as other similar titles have. Please keep this thread alive 

 

I have had to make about 16 skins for both of the Spitfires and the Yaks 1, 1b & 7b and the Tempest as those are the aircraft we fly 'en-mass' regularly but there are fewer for the other fighters that not all of us like to fly.   We have given up using custom skins on the US aircraft as everyone else will see us in the default shiny metal skins and the pilots that fly Axis aircraft say we stand out really clearly from a long way away in those skins.  For the bombers we only have about 4 numbered skins as we tend to fly no more than 4 and everyone else is in fighters escorting.   The total size of the zip file holding the skins is about 1.6Gb

[No457_Stonehouse 71]

Bump - really impacts PWCG as well. You either end up with generic skins for all or while you can manually set a skin for each of your own squadrons pilots you can't control the other squadrons so get complete mixtures on every other group of aircraft. This results in things like 16 identical B25s for you to escort or an enemy squadron with a different skin and colour scheme for each aircraft. Trying to get anything realistic is either extremely labour intensive or impossible.

[HubertMeyer 8]

1+

 

Nothing more to say