posted 09-04- 12:57 AM               

They don't look that good, but I bet they will start to look better as the months pass. I am excited!!

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Disney's Dinosaur, my passion, my love, my life. Think Im obsessed? You're right.

2 Quotes I live by......

"Somethings start out big. And somethings start out small. Very small. But sometimes the smallest thing, can make the biggest changes of all." ~~ Plio in Disney's Dinosaur

posted 09-04- 02:07 AM               

Time will tell; I hope it is good, as I am one of the very few who think we can never have too many WWII European theater flight sims. But if it is just another WWII Fighters, well, been there, done that.

Fingers crossed. LOL

posted 09-04- 07:24 AM               

Feature-wise, though... well, with night missions, multiple players in aircraft, and (by all accounts) an extremely flexible and usable set of editing tools for modifying planes, landscapes, and missions... I think JAS still has a lot to offer!!!

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Shadowcat
One of Many

posted 09-04- 08:19 AM               

The campaign engine will be the go/no-go for me. If I'm going to do disjointed scenarios, I'll do them in SDOE, where at least I can have stats kept on my specific pilot. And what people are doing with SDOE now, like Bombing the Reich, swimmer rescue with amphibs, and the totally engrossing visually un-bee-leeeevable WW1 (air AND ground, yet!)... the excitement and creativity are here.

I'm particularly angry at the influence 'suits' have on the game-making process. Sure, I understand that you need to have some idea a game will sell before you put the necessary resources into it to make and market it. I doubt I'd invest heavily in a game on something like, say, being a lumberjack in the current northeast, or better yet, bull riding (JEEZ, who'd ever be dumb enough to do THAT!?!). What I don't understand is someone doing a WWII flight sim, say based on the North African campaign, and the 'suit' saying "no, we'll cancel that, it'll never sell!"

V/R,

posted 09-05- 08:46 PM               

Here's a quote from an article that Denny Atkin wrote at the time JAS was cancelled. The URL is http://www.cdmag.com/articles/028/057/flightline_117.html but the site seems to be down at the present...

quote:

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Of course, all the basics were there. Realistic flight dynamics, detailed damage models, smart AI, multiple campaigns, and so on. The terrain was as ultra-detailed as you'd expect from the company that created the Flight Unlimited series. And the subtle effects were amazing--realistic flak created by digitizing real WW II combat footage, bombs that wobbled as they plummeted towards the ground, tanks engaging in independent ground battles, gunners falling from the fuselages of severed bombers.

Then there were the really cool features. Custom nose art. Independent engine control. Ships rocking and bobbing as they were sunk by Ju-88-launched torpedoes. German air-to-air rockets. A realistically modeled Me-163 rocket plane. Train cars derailing, skidding out, and accordioning before disappearing in a cloud of dust after Allied strafing runs. Having to open the canopy before bailing out when flying with full realism.

Most impressive, though, were the flight model and mission editors. The flight model editor would let you tweak the most minute details of a plane's performance and systems. Not just basic speed, turning radius, and so on, but individual cooling systems, turbocharging performance boosts, you name it. You could even fire a gun cursor at the plane to see how damage would affect its flight model. You'd need to be pretty aeronautically savvy to take advantage of this, but the interface made the data accessible to anyone interested in playing around. The flight models in the build I flew were already impressive, but one can only imagine how good they'd have gotten when some hardcore sim fans had spent six months of spare time tweaking a single plane's flight model.

The mission editor was similarly powerful, yet simple. Although the campaign wasn't dynamic, the ability to set up very sophisticated event triggers and to set a level of randomness for unit location and appearance meant a well-designed mission would rarely play out the same way twice. You could drop into 3D mode for precision object placement. Campaigns could be linear, or you could set up branches depending on the results. You could script a unit's actions in detail, or just tell it to scramble if an enemy came within visual or radar range and then let the AI take things from there.

And then there was the multiplayer. In addition to fighter combat, multiple players could man bomber stations. In addition to standard multiplayer action, there were going to be some creatively goofy modes as well, such as an all-bomber dogfight where B-17s would take broadside shots at each other.

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Unless Mad Doc are really going to town and implementing radically new features, that probably answers the campaign question. It sounds to me like it will be about as good as a non-dynamic campaign can get; and I'd expect some very cool missions and campaigns to be created by fans.

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Shadowcat
One of Many

posted 09-05- 09:50 PM               

In fact, it sounds better than MSCFS2, which was released later. Note from another post elsewhere on the forum I'm playing SDOE now, not MSCFS2.

Regarding the campaign, sounds fine with me. The problem with a dynamic campaign is that the missions come out kind of bland. The two best implimentations of this were Red Baron 3D, where there was some variety, and Mig Alley (I am having too much fun in SDOE to buy BOB, I will in about a month and save myself about $5) in the Saber campaign where you chose the missions, guided the air campaign, then dropped into whatever cockpit you wanted to. Problem with the latter is that it hurts immersion if you want to role-play a pilot. Watch Wings With Wires campaign on this. Battle of Britain lost points with some because you couldn't keep stats on your chosen Spitfire or Hurricane pilot... it felt like you were watching a campaign, not really participating in it or experiencing it as a pilot.

So, I REALLY hope Janes Attack Squadron makes it out this time. I can see playing it and Wings With Wires for a decade, and SDOE WW1&WW2 until they come out.

Of course, there's Ronin's Zep. And Harman_5's FT-17. And WTG's B-24. And Aladar's...

V/R,

posted 09-05- 10:19 PM               

And the mission editor sounds really cool too.

Whats with the FM tool? Can you add planes or did they know that people would in the end be able to make better FMs then them if they dedicated weeks of time?

posted 09-05- 10:37 PM               

Reminds me of a time or two online SDOE, Tailslide vs anyone brave enough ( or dumb enough, hehe ), bomber vs bomber dogfight. With some of us lucky enough to get viewing positions from observation planes. What a blast! Anyone else remember those?

posted 09-05- 10:58 PM               

I think that would rock. Missions and stuff but everyone flys heavy bombers, even the escorts.

Course our systems would be having a hard time.