15.02.2011, 05:55
In my view there are several things CK needs to do. It's fairly obvious the trouble model makers are going to so the issue of accurate detailed aeroplanes is not important.
What is important therefore is the enviroment they fly in. I have drawn attention to this before, but Europe is a region with variable conditions and rarely blessed with clear skies. Weather is a complex issue and one that can have direct effects on the conduct of a aerial battle, in that aviators used clouds as cover or places to shake off pursuers. If CK adresses this issue thoroughly and visually accurately, it will score heavily. If we're all fling in californian blue skies and clear air, we've lost a precious opportunity.
Also, the issue of tactics is relevant. One of the great criticisms of IL2 AI is that enemy aeroplanes (or even your own flight) don't really behave in a convincing manner. Would Russian fighter pilots really fly away into the distance before returning for a head-on pass? That's not what the memoirs say.
The same applies to WW1 tactics. Early on of course fights were more usually one on one, and only the need to defeat the opponent and guard yourself against attacks meant that by the end of the war, massive furballs between sixty aeroplanes a side were taking place.
Unlike the supposedly ordered WW2 era of IL2, the battlescape of WW1 aviation was much more reliant on individual initiative. No radios of course, just hand signals (now there's an idea... A little bubble on the edge of the screen showing a little graphic of a senior pilot furiously gesturing at me would be good. Sort of like the Crimson Skies virtual targeter for instance).
There should also ideally be ways of customising your aeroplane, because aviators did that back then. Whereas the technology of WW2 was a specialist subject for aircraft engineers, pilots in WW1 adapted their aeroplanes if they thought it would help them.
There's probably a whole host of things I haven't thought of, but just a few things that I'd like to see.
What is important therefore is the enviroment they fly in. I have drawn attention to this before, but Europe is a region with variable conditions and rarely blessed with clear skies. Weather is a complex issue and one that can have direct effects on the conduct of a aerial battle, in that aviators used clouds as cover or places to shake off pursuers. If CK adresses this issue thoroughly and visually accurately, it will score heavily. If we're all fling in californian blue skies and clear air, we've lost a precious opportunity.
Also, the issue of tactics is relevant. One of the great criticisms of IL2 AI is that enemy aeroplanes (or even your own flight) don't really behave in a convincing manner. Would Russian fighter pilots really fly away into the distance before returning for a head-on pass? That's not what the memoirs say.
The same applies to WW1 tactics. Early on of course fights were more usually one on one, and only the need to defeat the opponent and guard yourself against attacks meant that by the end of the war, massive furballs between sixty aeroplanes a side were taking place.
Unlike the supposedly ordered WW2 era of IL2, the battlescape of WW1 aviation was much more reliant on individual initiative. No radios of course, just hand signals (now there's an idea... A little bubble on the edge of the screen showing a little graphic of a senior pilot furiously gesturing at me would be good. Sort of like the Crimson Skies virtual targeter for instance).
There should also ideally be ways of customising your aeroplane, because aviators did that back then. Whereas the technology of WW2 was a specialist subject for aircraft engineers, pilots in WW1 adapted their aeroplanes if they thought it would help them.
There's probably a whole host of things I haven't thought of, but just a few things that I'd like to see.