Ships Barges and Yards

[IckyATLAS]

I have no particular issues with the map, you can always do better but for such a small team it is an excellent result. And unfortunately we cannot just use today's city satellite images as here we are 75 years back in history. At that time cities were much smaller and a much larger part of the population live in the countryside and in small villages and farms. So it is a pretty painstaking work. Well done. Maybe city buildings wall colors could be improved but this can come later.

I hope we get a few additional ships for the "seaside" of the map, and some additional river transport barges like for coal and various goods. The Rhein was a major river transport route. 

I only wished at least just one large marshalling yard with something like 10 parallel lines for creating nice bombing/strafing missions. I did not find any in the map.

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by IckyATLAS

[[DBS]Browning]

Ships and barges are something that must be added by mission designers, not the map makers. 

[40plus]

All maps, in general, just need more stuff. Bloody sparse when you fly low.

[No_85_Gramps]

5 hours ago, IckyATLAS said:

I only wished at least just one large marshalling yard with something like 10 parallel lines for creating nice bombing/strafing missions. I did not find any in the map.

 

The biggest rail line I could find was in Frankfurt, it has only three tracks that lead into the main passenger station. I'm pretty sure this will change once the final map gets completed.

[Sharpe43]

13 minutes ago, No_85_Gramps said:

The biggest rail line I could find was in Frankfurt, it has only three tracks that lead into the main passenger station. I'm pretty sure this will change once the final map gets completed.

Duisburg and Essen would almost certainly need bigger ones

[Avimimus]

It'd be nice to have the QMB maps updated with a few more objects... it'd also be nice to have a way to edit the QMB... or to have more templates for various types of quick missions.

 

BoX is already better than past sims when it comes to modelling river craft - but given the importance of river barges for logistics it would be good to have some Western European ones. Similarly, more logistics objects (e.g. wagons, narrow-gauge trains) for Arras would be lovely.

[PatrickAWlson]

3 hours ago, No_85_Gramps said:

The biggest rail line I could find was in Frankfurt, it has only three tracks that lead into the main passenger station. I'm pretty sure this will change once the final map gets completed.

 

The buildings, port installations, ships and trains are added by the mission designer and therefore can be adjusted.  The tracks are integral to the map.  I'm pretty sure that what you see is what you get.  I am also pretty sure that this map is finished.

[Sharpe43]

28 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

 I am also pretty sure that this map is finished.

I hope not, this map isn't even a close fascimile of the bodenplatte area and time.

[40plus]

I also agree that the map is likely in a finished state for the summer/undamaged version.

We have other seasons and bombed out variations still to come.

[IckyATLAS]

10 hours ago, [DBS]Browning said:

Ships and barges are something that must be added by mission designers, not the map makers. 

I agree but if they are not made as objects available to the ME then you don't have them. At the moment we have the Kuban ones.

Maybe this will change over time,  maybe not at the initial release but later. Bodenplatte has lots of potential as the region was very densely inhabited and industrialized.

[JonRedcorn]

38 minutes ago, pfrances said:

I also agree that the map is likely in a finished state for the summer/undamaged version.

We have other seasons and bombed out variations still to come.

Certainly can't wait for the winter version. Although I do agree with some of the complaints the map does seem a bit barren. But we may be pushing the object limit as it stands currently. Especially with the building distance setting. There's gotta be some give and take. People are already up in arms about performance issues. 

[Uufflakke]

5 hours ago, No_85_Gramps said:

The biggest rail line I could find was in Frankfurt, it has only three tracks that lead into the main passenger station. I'm pretty sure this will change once the final map gets completed.

 

You lucky b *st*rd.

 

Amsterdam, our capital has only one railway.

Utrecht the railway junction of The Netherlands has, after counting and recounting, a total amount of... one railway. 

Taking in account the limitations of the game, where are the typical canals and the 112 meter high landmark the Dom Tower in Utrecht by the way?

 

[PatrickAWlson]

1 hour ago, pfrances said:

I also agree that the map is likely in a finished state for the summer/undamaged version.

We have other seasons and bombed out variations still to come.

 

Damage is a property on the objects.  The mission maker can set the damage level.  Of course the models have to have damage states to represent the damage otherwise there will be no visuals.  Is it the case that the Bodenplatte objects do not have damaged states?  Still, that is associated with the objects and not the map, so it is a relatively straight forward (easy, but big) update.

 

Wonder what happens if you drop a bomb on the Kolner Dom?

[MasserME262]

2 hours ago, Avimimus said:

it'd also be nice to have a way to edit the QMB

+10000000 to this

[RedKestrel]

1 hour ago, JonRedcorn said:

Certainly can't wait for the winter version. Although I do agree with some of the complaints the map does seem a bit barren. But we may be pushing the object limit as it stands currently. Especially with the building distance setting. There's gotta be some give and take. People are already up in arms about performance issues. 

The map is definitely putting a strain on mid-range rigs already. Even without the excess building distance on, i take a decent performance hit in comparison even to the Kuban map.

If this is the finished map, I'm happy. There's only so much detail you can put in before performance takes a real nosedive. 

I remember maps in old Il-2 1946 that I couldn't even play because it would be a slide show or even crash my machine. I couldn't even fly on the Leningrad map without risking a sudden CTD. They might have been gorgeous and perfectly modeled, but it didn't matter because I could never fly on it.

[Chief_Mouser]

3 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 I am also pretty sure that this map is finished.

 

I do hope not! Remember the Stalingrad had a major update a long time after release. But if the Rheinland map is finished... well, it's not finished!

Edited October 9, 2019 by Red_Cat

[DD_Arthur]

3 hours ago, Avimimus said:

... it'd also be nice to have a way to edit the QMB... or to have more templates for various types of quick missions.

 

 

[SYN_Vander]

1 hour ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

 

Wonder what happens if you drop a bomb on the Kolner Dom?

 

It gets destroyed!

 

The major buildings in towns (town hall) now also have damage models. Still not all objects though....

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, RedKestrel said:

The map is definitely putting a strain on mid-range rigs already. Even without the excess building distance on, i take a decent performance hit in comparison even to the Kuban map.

 

Me too, but FYI I turned clouds down to Medium (I can’t tell the difference) and I’m back up to 60 FPS at 4K.

 

This works even when sitting on the airfield, not staring at distant clouds or landscape.

 

 

[RedKestrel]

1 hour ago, Gambit21 said:

 

Me too, but FYI I turned clouds down to Medium (I can’t tell the difference) and I’m back up to 60 FPS at 4K.

 

This works even when sitting on the airfield, not staring at distant clouds or landscape.

 

 

My clouds were already at medium unfortunately. Most of the tweaks I can make for performance without significantly sacrificing graphics, I have made.

However I have yet to try some of the tips like fiddling with different vsync settings so I think I can maybe get rid of the stuttering entirely.

[CanadaOne]

The map is beautifully done. I have no complaints. But the lack of anything in it is... not great.

 

What is surprising is the lack of populated airfields in the QMB. It's pure ghost town. I can't understand why in the QMB, you don't at the very least, have a populated airfield to take off from. I mean, does it cost a lot of money to put a few planes on the ground, maybe have a few trucks roaming about, you know, make the place looked alive, have a little scenery.

 

The original IL2 had airfield attacks, and you could add options for AAA and planes taking off. Is there a technical issue that makes that impossible here?

 

 

 

[PatrickAWlson]

8 minutes ago, CanadaOne said:

The map is beautifully done. I have no complaints. But the lack of anything in it is... not great.

 

What is surprising is the lack of populated airfields in the QMB. It's pure ghost town. I can't understand why in the QMB, you don't at the very least, have a populated airfield to take off from. I mean, does it cost a lot of money to put a few planes on the ground, maybe have a few trucks roaming about, you know, make the place looked alive, have a little scenery.

 

The original IL2 had airfield attacks, and you could add options for AAA and planes taking off. Is there a technical issue that makes that impossible here?

 

 

 

 

No.  All of the above is possible and it doesn't cost any more money beyond the time to make it happen.  One issue is a rather severe limit on AI entities (anything that moves or shoots).  Putting things around your airfield wouldn't cost too much in performance.  Putting things around every airfield would.

[Gambit21]

Just now, PatrickAWlson said:

 

One issue is a rather severe limit on AI entities (anything that moves or shoots).  Putting things around your airfield wouldn't cost too much in performance.  Putting things around every airfield would.

 

Easily solved in the editor logic, of course.

 

[Semor76]

11 hours ago, Red_Cat said:

 

I do hope not! Remember the Stalingrad had a major update a long time after release. But if the Rheinland map is finished... well, it's not finished!

 Regarding Jason´s statement here, I would not put my hands into fire for bigger improvements over the next months.

 

?

 

 

[Lusekofte]

16 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

The buildings, port installations, ships and trains are added by the mission designer and therefore can be adjusted.  The tracks are integral to the map.  I'm pretty sure that what you see is what you get.  I am also pretty sure that this map is finished.

I agree but I hope for a development. In my point of view Arras map is not finished. It simply lack finesse down low in almost all levels. Not par with rest of the maps. So there might be changes. 

[CanadaOne]

11 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

No.  All of the above is possible and it doesn't cost any more money beyond the time to make it happen.  One issue is a rather severe limit on AI entities (anything that moves or shoots).  Putting things around your airfield wouldn't cost too much in performance.  Putting things around every airfield would.

 

Howdy,

 

I'm sure you're right. But just having the one airfield you take off from  - or can return to after a mission - having some assets around, and one to attack would seem to be an easy thing to do. A flightsim QMB without airfield attack missions is like pizza without cheese. Or something like that.

 

I'd say again that the original IL2 QMB had it right. You could have an enemy airfield with or without AAA, and with or without planes around it or taking off. It would be a great addition to this QMB.

 

Granted, I know less than nothing about programming, but isn't this something that could be done in about half-an hour?

[Bremspropeller]

16 hours ago, Uufflakke said:

Taking in account the limitations of the game, where are the typical canals and the 112 meter high landmark the Dom Tower in Utrecht by the way?

 

It's no longer there. I crashed into the tower. Sorry.

[PatrickAWlson]

@LuseKofte Distinguishing between the map and the objects.  The map is probably finished.  The objects definitely are not as there are no WWI units available yet.  In a recent DD they did show WWI units (trucks and other things ... cows!) so I believe they are coming.

 

@CanadaOne Everything that you said is correct.  It would take somebody a day or two (or three or four and probably not more than five ) to write the code to populate the player's airfield.  Did it for RoF (successfully) and BoS (less successfully) so yes, it's doable.