Developer Diary 289 - Discussion

[PatrickAWlson]

Best of luck with everything.  Looking forward to driving the halftrack around for a bit, and more WWI stuff is always welcome.  

 

Mini PWCG plug: awhile back I created the concept of iconic missions.  These missions emulate real missions at a particular time and place.  Example is the Kerch landings.  After adding them to the career I made them individually flyable.  After that I added the ability to drive a vehicle instead of flying a plane.  To make it short: you will be able to drive your new halftrack around in different iconic missions.  Market Garden is good fun for AAA.  Kerch is also fun because the Russians are landing light tanks that your 37mm can probably take out.  

[LeLv30_Redwing-]

Great news...thought I'm more excited of finally getting ammo crates and boxes what are not floating in the air than the Sd.Kfz. 10/5 Flak 38 I pre-ordered. ?

[PatrickAWlson]

12 minutes ago, =KG76=flyus747 said:

Sorry, I meant the updated German bomber pilot models

[Manstein16]

13 minutes ago, Jason_Williams said:

Just something to know about the team these days, we have 9 open positions (most are new positions) on the team that should have been filled by now, some others were filled late so some work is delayed otherwise even more would be ready by now and in the near future. We continue on as best we can and the Covid situation has really caused us some problems.

 

Jason

See, now this is exciting. Not that the team is struggling to fill openings - although that is true everywhere these days - but that demand for this product is high enough to support so many new positions. What a great time to be a virtual warbird pilot! ?

[Elem]

All this and we can finally scroll through the pictures again!

[Beebop]

50 minutes ago, silvergun said:

There's one thing I don't like, which is grass height, is too tall and is not realistic or immersive, mainly playing with tanks on "Tank Crew", I hope that in the future there will be an update, with more variety and different grass sizes.

There's a couple of different mods for that.  (I realize that it would limit the servers you could join but it is a solution)

Currently making a working groundskeeper to mow the grass weekly is at the bottom of the teams To Do List.

 

 

[Avimimus]

15 minutes ago, =KG76=flyus747 said:

Sorry, I meant the updated German bomber pilot models

 

Slight distinction there ? 

 

The He-111 is a small bomber... but the He-111 pilot I met was quite a bit smaller... less horsepower too... but more complex systems.

Edited August 6, 2021 by Avimimus

[Wester]

1 minute ago, Avimimus said:

 

Slight distinction there ? 

 

The He-111 is a small bomber... but the He-111 pilot I met was quite a bit smaller... less horsepower too... but more complex systems.

 

He is talking about the pilot model for all German bombers, they still utilize the models from 2013.

 

This is what they look like if you have never noticed:

[simfan2015]

Incredible, big reveal !

It's looking better each and everyday.

Only a few weeks/days ago we learned about the confirmation of so much anticipated features from COD/Tobruk and now also IL-2 GB becoming even more of a dream !

Thank you Jason and the whole team. 

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

The new map objects like the lamp posts, cranes, cars, etc. really breathe life into the map. Could these be added to the Rheinland map?

[Avimimus]

3 minutes ago, Enceladus said:

Also, as someone who got Rise of Flight in the late summer of 2016 and bought a lot of DLCs from then till November 2017 when FC was announced, I feel cheated as if I had known that there was going to be FC and each installment would have 10 planes and cost $100 CDN, I would have gotten the Channel Battles and the Ilya Muromets DLCs and stopped there.

 

FC is just getting in the way of too much of the developers time and resources that could very well be spent on other things that a lot more people have shown an interest in such as Battle of Normandy, Tank Crew, the C-47, Li-2, and IAR 81, not this.

 

Hmm.... fighting words there. Honestly, part of me would like it if there'd been a discount on FC2... but part of me also recognises that WWI sims tend to be less profitable and there needs to be a revenue stream to cover the upgrade costs.  Part of me doesn't mind spending the extra $15 Canadian over the course of a couple of years. Also, it will still be at least 8-10 years between your purchase and FC catching up on RoF... so you may well still get years of use out of some of the RoF aircraft and maps before FC catches up (if ever).

 

Honestly, the one thing where I'm a bit unsatisfied is that it'd be really nice to get some more upgrades to the Rise of Flight aircraft: Separate controls for the different parts of the turret rings (allowing control of elevation of the bar, and rotation of the ring separately from the pintle). Engine variants (I'm still hoping that the Sopwith Strutter will get an early variant that is easier for the early German scouts to catch). Limits on reloading while pulling gees. A modified anti-aircraft gun AI to make the 77mm less perfectly accurate at some ranges... also bringing back recon and artillery spotting - it'd be nice if they're able to make enough profits to hire a little bit of extra staff for some of these tweaks.

 

But, I'm also pretty happy that we're getting the existing aircraft in a new engine and two new aircraft! It is important to remember that there were essentially no WWI flight sims between Red Baron II/3d and Rise of Flight... those of us who have been around that long remember what it was likely to have no support or new WWI content for twelve years!!

7 minutes ago, VAT_Kerak said:

 

He is talking about the pilot model for all German bombers, they still utilize the models from 2013.

 

 

You're making me hesitate to look in a mirror! I still utilise the same model I had in 2013 (and 2003) - except for some upgraded textures with slightly deeper wrinkles/bumpmaps.

[ilmavoimat]

Excellent news!! Are we getting Herman Nelsons to warm up the Gooney's engines in the winter???

[Beebop]

@Enceladus
that's a lot of whining about FC given it appears you don't even own it.  What could you be disappointed about?  Looks like you own a lot of RoF so fly that.
If you want to direct the Dev Team pony up a few million and give it to them.  Maybe then you would have some pull to redirect their efforts.

I too would like to see a bunch of different things like static ships, static FC planes and a more flexible Mission Editor but being in no position to fund the Team the best I can do, the best any of us can do, is make polite suggestions and then if they get enough maybe they will head that way, if and when they have the funds to do so.

Remember this is a business proposition for them and if it's not profitable you may be stuck with either World of Warplanes or paying even more for DCS planes with no WWII maps.

Meanwhile if you can say it with a little more civility, qwitkherbitchin'.

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by Beebop

[Voidhunger]

Aaa future projects...finger crossed for the TC2

[Dutchvdm]

36 minutes ago, =KG76=flyus747 said:

Sorry, I meant the updated German bomber pilot models

My best guess would be that they are going to update those together with the finalization of the new Ju-88c6. 
 

Grt M

[Beebop]

42 minutes ago, =KG76=flyus747 said:

Sorry, I meant the updated German bomber pilot models

I like PatrickAWilsons's model!  ?

[=KG76=flyus747]

28 minutes ago, VAT_Kerak said:

 

He is talking about the pilot model for all German bombers, they still utilize the models from 2013.

 

This is what they look like if you have never noticed:

That's what they look like... Even above 4km aka above oxygen mask altitude

[FTC_Knipser]

Thanks a lot for giving us this detailed insight into the current development of the game! ?

[J2_Bidu]

Exciting times!!!

 

I love this game.

[Enigma89]

Good update

[Mysticpuma]

 

 

 

That USAAF Bomber pilot would look great in the seat of a   B-24........just saying

Edited August 7, 2021 by Mysticpuma

[LuftManu]

What a great bunch of news. Lots of new contents and mechanics incoming. Nice!

[Drum]

The detail of the new American bomber pilot model is impressive, nice job!  I had to open a can of beer after reading this DD, cheers! ?

[fergal69]

Really nice work going into this sim. It just gets better & better.

 

Looking forward to update when it drops.

 

Thanks to all involved for their hard work in the current climate.

 

Covid might have stopped some things, but luckily, our favourite sim hasn't been one of them.

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by fergal69

[dburne]

2 hours ago, Manstein16 said:

See, now this is exciting. Not that the team is struggling to fill openings - although that is true everywhere these days - but that demand for this product is high enough to support so many new positions. What a great time to be a virtual warbird pilot! ?

 

Yes this - growing while may be painful in today's time, is a very good thing.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

3 hours ago, Gimpel said:

pacific ocean!!!

 

Yes, please!

3 hours ago, =KG76=flyus747 said:

What happened to the updated German bomber models?

I'm guessing the engineers are slammed.........

[LukeFF]

3 hours ago, percydanvers said:

This is very interesting. I wonder what kinds of mission types will be added. In any case it will be quite welcome to have a little more target variety!

 

It means that attacks against static targets with fighter-bombers will carried out by formation dive-bombing. 

[DD_Friar]

Please may I ask, is there a road map (however long and twisted) for Tank Crew?, Now that the German AAA vehicle is completed, will that free some resources?

[Avimimus]

10 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

It means that attacks against static targets with fighter-bombers will carried out by formation dive-bombing. 

 

So eight different types of static targets for dive bombing attacks?

 

Does that include diving rocket attacks for the Typhoon? It'd be pretty cool to see (I'd basically assumed it wasn't going to happen, but your comment here makes it seem plausible).

[Vishnu]

This post has inspired me to pre-purchase the Sd.Kfz. 10/5 Flak 38 (20mm) Vehicle Mounted Anti-Aircraft Gun!!! 

...and yes I copied and pasted the name of the vehicle!!

 

Great update, and I purchased this to support you guys!   I hope PWCG will be able to utilize these in some future format!   Thanks Devs!

 

 

PS:  Did somebody mention models??????

 

LINK:

 

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by Vishnu

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, Avimimus said:

So eight different types of static targets for dive bombing attacks?

 

Does that include diving rocket attacks for the Typhoon? It'd be pretty cool to see (I'd basically assumed it wasn't going to happen, but your comment here makes it seem plausible).

 

Yes, it's the eight level-bomber missions adapted for fighter-bombers.

 

Typhoons: they already dive when firing rockets. What you're going to see is the 'Bombphoon' squadrons exclusively carry bombs (currently, 197 and 440 Squadrons). 

Edited August 6, 2021 by LukeFF

[Jade_Monkey]

Updates in all fronts, that's quite the DD!

 

• Love the bomber model, looking fly.
• Looking forward to the bigger announcements from Jason in the future.
• Also excited about the FC2 map, looks like a lot of detail went into it. I love some of the smaller decorative objects:
  • Disassembled plane
  • sandbags
  • boxes
  • lift?

 

[pilotpierre]

Another eggs celent DD.

[percydanvers]

45 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

Yes, it's the eight level-bomber missions adapted for fighter-bombers.

 

Typhoons: they already dive when firing rockets. What you're going to see is the 'Bombphoon' squadrons exclusively carry bombs (currently, 197 and 440 Squadrons). 

Woah neat! I always thought that'd be fun to do.

[Beebop]

"...here is a picture of our new American bomber pilot models that are now ready for implantation."

Does this mean a flyable B-25 is in our foreseeable future?

Or just a revamp for the A-20??

 

I hope it's the former.

[BMA_FlyingShark]

4 minutes ago, Beebop said:

Does this mean a flyable B-25 is in our foreseeable future?

If and when they find a team to make it.

But I don't see it happening any time soon.

 

Have a nice day.

 

[Asgar]

6 hours ago, Gimpel said:

pacific ocean!!!

 

Nah! Tank Crew 2!!! Need to take advantage of those BOB and BON maps. TC2 - Battle of the Bulge!

[Boomerang]

It's all good news with the progress.

Thanks for all the continued hard work, your all amazing. 

Wishing everyone is well.

[Asgar]

5 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

Best of luck with everything.  Looking forward to driving the halftrack around for a bit, and more WWI stuff is always welcome.  

 

Mini PWCG plug: awhile back I created the concept of iconic missions.  These missions emulate real missions at a particular time and place.  Example is the Kerch landings.  After adding them to the career I made them individually flyable.  After that I added the ability to drive a vehicle instead of flying a plane.  To make it short: you will be able to drive your new halftrack around in different iconic missions.  Market Garden is good fun for AAA.  Kerch is also fun because the Russians are landing light tanks that your 37mm can probably take out.  

20mm actually. So unless their landing BT-5 and BT-7 it might be hard to kill those unless you get good side shots

[BMA_FlyingShark]

19 minutes ago, Asgar said:

Nah! Tank Crew 2!!! Need to take advantage of those BOB and BON maps. TC2 - Battle of the Bulge!

Yeah, good idea.

 

Have a nice day.