Things that I'd like to see fixed/added in BoN

[Enceladus828]

 

With it being the holiday season, I'd like to start a thread outlining some additions and fixes that could be made to the game during the development of Battle of Normandy. But first of all, I must give a big thanks to Jason and the team for all of their hard work these past 8 years, it's just fantastic. Oh wait, maybe fantastic is too much of an understatement.

Even in times like these it's amazing that the team is still developing this game.

 

Before I begin, I'd like to take the moment to address what the devs have done to the game over the past years so this thread really isn't that of a whine.

Please note that these include major additions/fixes:

Update 2.006 added DirectX 11 Graphics

2.009 added VR

2.012 added the Kuban map, along with ships, Hs-129, and updated aircraft FMs

3.001 was the final release of BoK and added the remaining aircraft, 2 Collectors, and the current Pilot Career that we know, Mods, rain on windscreen and goggles, increased terrain and cloud distances, updated winter landscapes and visuals.

3.003 started the Bodenplatte EA and added the Gyro gunsight

3.005 added WW1 aircraft and Tanks to the game (much better tanks than before).

3.006 had many improvements such as graphical like improved fire and fuel leak effects, planes no longer being destroyed just because of an engine failure, and many, many more improvements.

3.009 added the U-2VS, a couple scripted campaigns, and more Career missions.

3.011 added Tank crewmen to the tanks.

3.012 added the Prokhorovka map and several planes and tanks.

3.201 added the improved pilot physiology, Bodenplatte map, the remaining aircraft and the Arras map.

4.001 was the final release of Bodenplatte, FC1, and added Tank crew campaigns.

4.005 was a whole revamp of aircraft DMs, making them much more realistic than before; added Fuel trucks and Ambulances into the game, and binoculars for TC.

4.006 added several FREE scripted campaigns to FC1 and Bodenplatte, cockpit reflections and new pilot models.

4.008 added the final tank in TC1, P-47 Razorback and Ice Ring campaign.

4.009 added the Summer Velikiye Luki map, female pilots, missions for Bodenplatte and TC1, and cutscenes for Rhineland Career (that's Bodenplatte in case anyone wasn't aware).

4.501 was the final release of Tank Crew and added the Joystick option for moving the turret.

4.504 added more rougher terrain, sound and graphical improvements to the game

 

Now onto some things that I and perhaps others would like to see added and/or fixed in Normandy. Please note that these are just suggestions, and I while I think it would be great if all of these were added, I don't really expect them all to be added/fixed during BoN development:

 

1. Drop Tanks: The devs have stated for the past 3 years that they would like to improve the aircraft fuel systems and add Drop Tanks. Considering the fact that this has been stated for 3 years and probably isn't like the Pacific or the Air Marshall feature, it's of my belief that when added the player will have the ability to click what Fuel tanks they want to use, or select what fuel tanks they want by pushing the Tab button and using the number buttons.

We've all been waiting very patiently for Drop Tanks to come and I hope that they can be implemented into the game for BoN.

 

2. Improvements to aircraft bombsights: I generally find the whole thing with bombsights in this game very comedic as with the Ju-88, and Pe-2 and He-111 variants, you can only access the bombsight from the pilot's position and not from the Nose Gunner or Top Gunner's position, who was the Bombardier on those planes. Also, you just push a button and you automatically come to the Bombardier's position? And then it just seems very simplistic, almost too simplistic for a high fidelity game like this. I dunno, I feel that they should try going with how the Bombardier's position is in IL-2 1946 and IL-2 Cliffs of Dover where you switch to the Bombardier position, or the Gunner's position, and then push the button that you use to zoom into the gunsight, only now it's for the bombsight. Afterwards you set everything up by setting the velocity, altitude, and sight angle. I generally like doing that than how it is in IL-2 Great Battles.

Also, I feel that this is one of the reasons why the Bombardier position is not playable on the A-20B/

 

3. Pilots not dying when parachuting into the water: Probably one of the most annoying things in this game. It wasn't really an issue when there was just the Stalingrad and Moscow maps, but when the Kuban map was released, this fix was not there. I thought that it would be fixed in 3.001, or 3.002, and held my breath that it would be fixed in 3.006 and the update where the American pilot models that had lifejackets were added, but it was no for all of them.

I found the whole thing with German and Russian pilots running on the water and then belly flopping into the water after parachuting into the water a comedy in IL-2 1946, but at least they didn't die.

Since the devs have never addressed this issue (AFAIK), we don't really know what the cause is or when it will be fixed. My guess is that it was something that the devs have been aware of for a long time, and tried fixing it with 'so and so' spending sleepless nights trying to fix it, but in the end were unable to in a reasonable time, but hope to have it fixed at some time.

Since Normandy will give us another water environment, I hope that this is fixed then.

 

4. Pilots being able to exit their plane after landing, or not dying when the plane has crash landed and is on fire or has ditched into the water: I find it very annoying that unlike in IL-2 1946, Tank Crew, and CFS3, the pilot only leaves the plane to bail out in flight, but not on the ground. Therefore, if the plane is on fire, or it ditched into the water the pilot dies. I am sure that someone who has been playing this game for a long time would say to end the mission if you're in that scenario, but for a newbie who isn't aware of this, if this happens in the Pilot Career (especially if they're on Iron Man mode), then they have to lose everything in their career because of this. Same goes with the issue listed above.

Devs. Either make it so that the pilot/crew is able to exit the plane after a crash landing on water or on the ground, or make it so that if they're in that situation that they don't die.

Thank you.

 

5. Radio Comms/Commands: Really enjoyed the Radio Comms and Commands in IL-2 1946 where the lead pilot would say "Attention. Beginning our attack run, enemy... commence the attack!", " Hello good friends, good to see you guys, somebody decided to join us. Over", " I'm on fire bailing out!".

The Radio Comms seem very limited in IL-2 GBs and I hope that the devs could make it more like how it was in IL-2 1946. They could also improve upon the Commands so that it can be Takeoff and Landing clearances, Request help, Request vectors to home base, instead of just wingman commands and gestures.

 

6. More list of things damaged: In CloD you can get things such as "Engine 1: Water Radiator Perforated", or " Engine 1: Governor failure". While in IL-2 GBs it is just "First Engine Damaged". Very vague as it doesn't say what about the engine is damaged and it continues to appear on the screen until the engine quits or you end the mission. I think that this could be a great addition to the game.

 

That is everything that I have suggested for BoN, and once again, these are just suggestions, and not really demands/requests. In times like this, during a pandemic, I think that it's just a miracle that you guys are still at it with developing this game.

Thank you once again 1CGS and Merry Christmas.

 

Enceladus.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Enceladus

[Jade_Monkey]

I believe drop tanks and simplified fuel mgmt are in the short list of features to be added next. I myself am hopeful it will be the very next thing.

With the channel map they will become more of a necessity than they are now, and the basic jettison functionality already exists for bombs and rocket launchers. 

 

I imagine the fuel mgmt aspect of it will be the bulk of the work.

[DBFlyguy]

56 minutes ago, Enceladus said:

 

With it being the holiday season, I'd like to start a thread outlining some additions and fixes that could be made to the game during the development of Battle of Normandy. But first of all, I must give a big thanks to Jason and the team for all of their hard work these past 8 years, it's just fantastic. Oh wait, maybe fantastic is too much of an understatement.

Even in times like these it's amazing that the team is still developing this game.

 

Before I begin, I'd like to take the moment to address what the devs have done to the game over the past years so this thread really isn't that of a whine.

Please note that these include major additions/fixes:

Update 2.006 added DirectX 11 Graphics

2.009 added VR

2.012 added the Kuban map, along with ships, Hs-129, and updated aircraft FMs

3.001 was the final release of BoK and added the remaining aircraft, 2 Collectors, and the current Pilot Career that we know, Mods, rain on windscreen and goggles, increased terrain and cloud distances, updated winter landscapes and visuals.

3.003 started the Bodenplatte EA and added the Gyro gunsight

3.005 added WW1 aircraft and Tanks to the game (much better tanks than before).

3.006 had many improvements such as graphical like improved fire and fuel leak effects, planes no longer being destroyed just because of an engine failure, and many, many more improvements.

3.009 added the U-2VS, a couple scripted campaigns, and more Career missions.

3.011 added Tank crewmen to the tanks.

3.012 added the Prokhorovka map and several planes and tanks.

3.201 added the improved pilot physiology, Bodenplatte map, the remaining aircraft and the Arras map.

4.001 was the final release of Bodenplatte, FC1, and added Tank crew campaigns.

4.005 was a whole revamp of aircraft DMs, making them much more realistic than before; added Fuel trucks and Ambulances into the game, and binoculars for TC.

4.006 added several FREE scripted campaigns to FC1 and Bodenplatte, cockpit reflections and new pilot models.

4.008 added the final tank in TC1, P-47 Razorback and Ice Ring campaign.

4.009 added the Summer Velikiye Luki map, female pilots, missions for Bodenplatte and TC1, and cutscenes for Rhineland Career (that's Bodenplatte in case anyone wasn't aware).

4.501 was the final release of Tank Crew and added the Joystick option for moving the turret.

4.504 added more rougher terrain, sound and graphical improvements to the game

 

Now onto some things that I and perhaps others would like to see added and/or fixed in Normandy. Please note that these are just suggestions, and I while I think it would be great if all of these were added, I don't really expect them all to be added/fixed during BoN development:

 

1. Drop Tanks: The devs have stated for the past 3 years that they would like to improve the aircraft fuel systems and add Drop Tanks. Considering the fact that this has been stated for 3 years and probably isn't like the Pacific or the Air Marshall feature, it's of my belief that when added the player will have the ability to click what Fuel tanks they want to use, or select what fuel tanks they want by pushing the Tab button and using the number buttons.

We've all been waiting very patiently for Drop Tanks to come and I hope that they can be implemented into the game for BoN.

 

2. Improvements to aircraft bombsights: I generally find the whole thing with bombsights in this game very comedic as with the Ju-88, and Pe-2 and He-111 variants, you can only access the bombsight from the pilot's position and not from the Nose Gunner or Top Gunner's position, who was the Bombardier on those planes. Also, you just push a button and you automatically come to the Bombardier's position? And then it just seems very simplistic, almost too simplistic for a high fidelity game like this. I dunno, I feel that they should try going with how the Bombardier's position is in IL-2 1946 and IL-2 Cliffs of Dover where you switch to the Bombardier position, or the Gunner's position, and then push the button that you use to zoom into the gunsight, only now it's for the bombsight. Afterwards you set everything up by setting the velocity, altitude, and sight angle. I generally like doing that than how it is in IL-2 Great Battles.

Also, I feel that this is one of the reasons why the Bombardier position is not playable on the A-20B/

 

3. Pilots not dying when parachuting into the water: Probably one of the most annoying things in this game. It wasn't really an issue when there was just the Stalingrad and Moscow maps, but when the Kuban map was released, this fix was not there. I thought that it would be fixed in 3.001, or 3.002, and held my breath that it would be fixed in 3.006 and the update where the American pilot models that had lifejackets were added, but it was no for all of them.

I found the whole thing with German and Russian pilots running on the water and then belly flopping into the water after parachuting into the water a comedy, but at least they didn't die.

Since the devs have never addressed this issue (AFAIK), we don't really know what the cause is or when it will be fixed. My guess is that it was something that the devs have been aware of for a long time, and tried fixing it with 'so and so' spending sleepless nights trying to fix it, but in the end were unable to in a reasonable time, but hope to have it fixed at some time.

Since Normandy will give us another water environment, I hope that this is fixed then.

 

4. Pilots being able to exit their plane after landing, or not dying when the plane has crash landed and is on fire or has ditched into the water: I find it very annoying that unlike in IL-2 1946, Tank Crew, and CFS3, the pilot only leaves the plane to bail out in flight, but not on the ground. Therefore, if the plane is on fire, or it ditched into the water the pilot dies. I am sure that someone who has been playing this game for a long time would say to end the mission if you're in that scenario, but for a newbie who isn't aware of this, if this happens in the Pilot Career (especially if they're on Iron Man mode), then they have to lose everything in their career because of this. Same goes with the issue listed above.

Devs. Either make it so that the pilot/crew is able to exit the plane after a crash landing on water or on the ground, or make it so that if they're in that situation that they don't die.

Thank you.

 

5. Radio Comms/Commands: Really enjoyed the Radio Comms and Commands in IL-2 1946 where the lead pilot would say "Attention. Beginning our attack run, enemy... commence the attack!", " Hello good friends, good to see you guys, somebody decided to join us. Over", " I'm on fire bailing out!".

The Radio Comms seem very limited in IL-2 GBs and I hope that the devs could make it more like how it was in IL-2 1946. They could also improve upon the Commands so that it can be Takeoff and Landing clearances, Request help, Request vectors to home base, instead of just wingman commands and gestures.

 

6. More list of things damaged: In CloD you can get things such as "Engine 1: Water Radiator Perforated", or " Engine 1: Governor failure". While in IL-2 GBs it is just "First Engine Damaged". Very vague as it doesn't say what about the engine is damaged and it continues to appear on the screen until the engine quits or you end the mission. I think that this could be a great addition to the game.

 

That is everything that I have suggested for BoN, and once again, these are just suggestions, and not really demands/requests. In times like this, during a pandemic, I think that it's just a miracle that you guys are still at it with developing this game.

Thank you once again 1CGS and Merry Christmas.

 

Enceladus.

Solid list! Definitely agree with all of these.  I really hope GB can eventually get to the level that 1946 was.  1946 included several of these features like drop tanks, expanded radio commands/dialogue, pilot being able to ditch etc, hopefully its on this devs teams radar to deliver these and expand on them eventually....

 

[Avimimus]

For me it is always:

- Ground target improvement (greater diversity, more objects). It would be nice to see more of a template system to allow for semi-procedural changing of aircraft details (e.g. have five different pre-set locations for a fuel truck).

- Improved quick missions or quick campaigns (e.g. 10 minute missions where one starts near the objective).

-- It would also be nice if the QMB saved the presets for each map and each mission differently - this way one could just pick an icon to change sides, rather than having to go through and change all four flights of aircraft each time!

-- With regard to the quick mission builder - it might be nice to have some 'pre-made' ground targets to attack with wingmen... basically little unique missions with markers on the map (and an ability to pick which aircraft to use).

-- Of course, the holy grail would be to have some kind of segmented mission or time-skip functionality that allowed one to fly a mission that contains a sequence of pre-programmed or generated states (e.g. as in the first Red Baron or Eurofighter 2000)

 

AI:

- AI improvements (e.g. more situation AI that behaves differently based on the opponent type, or the thrust to drag ratio... things that help lead to more historical behaviours and make it easier to have both WWI aircraft and Me-262 in the same sim without them falling out of the air) 

- Adjusting the gunner AI to remove the 'death point' where they become perfectly accurate at one specific range (where various factors cancel out)

- Having an option for AI to be more likely to disengage

- I also agree that having more descriptive radio comms could be valuable.

 

House-keeping:

- Having the U-2VS be able to drop bombs with contact fuses at low altitude (currently a time delay is required for even the FAB-50 to reliably detonate)... the same goes for WWI aircraft sometimes.

- Having an alternative loadout for the HS-129 where the gunpod is attached to the other trigger

- Having the second landing light work on the Hawker Hurricane

- Having the emergency gunsight flip into position when the main gunsight is destroyed in BoS aircraft.

 

Also, it would be nice to have an option to select 'historic' for convergence... and have a pre-programmed firing angle for each gun be loaded in order to replicate the more complex convergence used historically (e.g. each pair of guns sighted differently). Failing that, it would be nice if each aircraft saved its convergence settings differently so that we don't have to remember the best convergence and then manually set it each time we swtich the type of aircraft we are flying.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Avimimus

[Enceladus828]

19 hours ago, DBFlyguy said:

Solid list! Definitely agree with all of these.  I really hope GB can eventually get to the level that 1946 was.  1946 included several of these features like drop tanks, expanded radio commands/dialogue, pilot being able to ditch etc, hopefully its on this devs teams radar to deliver these and expand on them eventually....

Agree.

My guess is that because this game was built on a game engine that was from a WW1 flight sim, things like parachutes, drop tanks, radio comms, and oxygen masks just weren't there.

But I'm glad that at least some of those things are currently in the game, and hopefully we'll get the rest soon.

 

Cheers.

[Avimimus]

Ah! Another feature that has been on the wishlist since RoF came out: Modifying the padlock view to work more like in the original Il-2...

 

The current padlock system makes it very difficult to assess attitude when in padlock mode (which makes it particularly difficult to use for WWI aircraft). The original Il-2 padlock mode also had some other neat features (it would snap to gunsight when the enemy was in front of you)... and it could be blocked by cockpit geometry. There is something about how 'up' is handled in padlock which makes it hard to keep oriented, and the snap to gunsight function is also valuable (both more important than cockpit geometry).

[Avimimus]

It would be great if we were given a second set of controls for the Flying Corp aircraft to adjust the ring and elevation of the gun mount separately from the motion of the flexible mount. The controls are all linked to the mouse and if one aims downward on some aircraft it'll actually bring the guns into a lowered position (thus reducing the field of fire downward)!

 

Also, regarding gunner AI excessive accuracy/inaccuracy:

 

I suspect it would work better using a system with a couple different types of more linear ranging errors (i.e. not based on radii - but instead based on a value for cross-wind, a value for range)...  There should also be errors for gross vs. fine movement (i.e. turning a gunner ring or rotating a turret a large amount should produce different inaccuracies than fine adjustments)... however, these should be more like the existing radial errors (but should be relatively short lasting... with the longer lasting errors due to more linear flaws estimation).

 

That is my guess anyway... ironically my RoF gunner AI mod repurposed the original code to make the inaccuracy almost entirely a result of the changing motion of the enemy (the derivative)... rather than using the randomised radial errors from the current position of the enemy (the main way the inaccuracy was added by default).