Will HTC follow the trend?

[Revvin]

As I recall the last time the subject of painting your own aircraft was brought up Pyro (correct me if I'm wrong) said that HTC did notthink it a very good idea as people would use this feature to cheat by making enemy planes easily visible etc as well as dweebs wanting to fly round in planes with skull and crossbones mixed with flames etc looking like a hot-rod which I'm sure would totally ruin the immersion for alot of people.

What I wonder now is that will HTC have a change in heart now that their competitors have announced over the last few months that user art can be submitted for inclusion in the game? Warbirds III and Target Korea are both allowing users to submit textures AND moels for their sims for inclusion in their sims, cheating is not an issue as every submission if good enough would be digitally signed so that only that image could be used in the game, imagine the possibilities this can lead to with historically accurate camo schemes for scenarios etc much in the same way AirWarrior has in the form of the SAC utility.

[Fidd]

I'd like to comment on this, as I was one of the team of players that created the SAC utilty for AW3. The AW community rationalised it thus: If someone is so desperate to gain an advantage that they need "neon" skins on their front-end program, the odds are high that their actual combat abilty is so poor that they don't (in fact) present a threat to you!

Furthermore, in AW3 the graphics are handled slightly differently, so that the aircraft is initially a dot (at long range) then becomes a simple coloured aircraft from about 4k until 1500 yards, and only then becomes a fully 3d rendered object. Because of this, a "neon" skin confers no advantage in terms of acquiring (ie initally spotting) an aircraft, and at close range any advantage gained is so small (if any) as to be moot.

I don't know how AH employs textures, so I don't know how it might be implemented here. My main concern with AH would be people being able to add "windows" to their cockpit via adjusting their skins, which would of course confer a great and unfair combat advantage.

I did get 2-3 emails from colour-blind players who were delighted with it!

Fidd

[-ammo-]

Mebbi you didnt use enough bait revvin

Miss having you around M8!

<S>

[Westy]

 This needs to be punted about a week after 1.06 is released. I would really like it if one of the HTc folsk would at least let us know what the issue may be in not having this ability.
 I think they may be too busy right now to answer. Only guessing at that though.
 
 -Westy

[Tac]

I dont think you should be allowed to pain someone else's plane...just your own. Your FE should either display the other guy's plane as the other guy paint schemed it or show the default skin.

[maik]

nice to see u here Fidd, bring the Krait'S over here  .

<S>
Maik

[miko2d]

 

Originally posted by Tac:
I dont think you should be allowed to pain someone else's plane...just your own. Your FE should either display the other guy's plane as the other guy paint schemed it or show the default skin.

 And since you cannot see the outside of your plane anyway, why not just imagine that it is already painted?
 I know - you can see it in a film! Is it worth an effort on the HTC part to improve our film-viewing experience at the expence of the new features? May be some day when they have nothing else to do...
 miko

[AKDejaVu]

This thread really strayed right off the bat.

Two things are being discussed that really are completely different issues.

Should players be able to design skins that will be used in the game?  I can't think of a single reason why not.

Should players be able to paint any aircraft in the game any color?  I can think of reasons why this should not be allowed.

Player contributed skins and terrains should be encouraged at some level.  It encourages contribution and increases the sense of community.  Kind of ironic considering the tools necessary to do this are not available to most of the community.  But, it works.. I've seen it in the past.

I'm not really a big fan of the "paint your own plane" mentallity, however.  Maybe some kind of square box similar to the Squad Logo could be alotted for pilots to do their own thing... some kind of nose art window.

AKDejaVu

[Fishu]

I don't see any reason why players wouldn't be allowed to use others own skins or default skins.

But player should be only allowed to paint own plane and see other planes either as default or by skins made by the players for their plane.
For host setting, there should be also option to prevent using either default or player skins. (or even make third option, which would enable premade skins for the arena, that everyone should use)

[Revvin]

Ammo> Geez m8 where ya been, I'm currently making a sequel..'Revvin in Aces High Part II: The Revenge'   Been flying for the last few weeks after being tempted back, primarily by my old squaddie Wilbus and been having a real blast...looking forward to v1.06

Tac> What about if said custom skins were enabled by the CM's, perhaps have some kind of config file they can load with a default set of skins for a certain area eg. playing a eastern front scenario the CM could load up a config to have all planes enabled in the scenario default to their respective winter camo so nobody is flying around in desert camo   I think this could add so much to the immersion as you form up on the runway and then fly alongside your wingman in a historically accurate camo.

Miko2d> I would like to see all planes have the correct skin for the scenario as I explained above so it would not be a waste of resources just for the film recorder, imagine if what I described above was taken a step further and HTC decide for one TOD the run a terrain with a semi winter type of terrain texture and then enabled winter camo's for all planes then the next TOD we had a more summer type terrain with the corresponding camo's. Its not ground breaking and not impossible but it is something that other sims have not done as a feature in their main arena format and on top of that apart from the initial work at setting up the information for the community to be able to do this then they can carry on working on whatever update is pending and let the community take some of the strain off them.

[Swager]

HTC is a trend setter, not a trend follower.

 

[TheWobble]

 

Should players be able to design skins that will be used in the game? I can't think of a single reason why not.

Should players be able to paint any aircraft in the game any color? I can think of reasons why this should not be allowed.

I agree,
I think that adding the option to "paint" your plane would add a whole new level of immersion and FUN to the game, it would give you a better sense that the plane your flying is YOUR plane.  I love the idea.


Plus, the real fun would be in trying to make the REALISTIC paintjobs like camo patterns and stuff like that, i for one would paint my P-38 like the 202 just because it is such a cool pattern.

[milnko]

I'm all for user created plane skins submitted thru HTC to the community, with the download OPTIONAL from HTC's addon's page.

My concern is that we have many user terrains  already been created, some that are truely FANTASTIC, but have not yet been accepted and implemented into the MA. Would skins be any different?

With these outstanding terrains some MAY experience FPS hits, however with the feature added last ver. of scaling via shift F1, F2, etc. I really don't see as it would be a great issue.

If HTC creates a tool for skins like it did with the terrain editor, will they use community addons anymore than they do now?

Somehow I don't think so, I'm not informed as to why HTC doesn't use these terrains, but I suspect the same reason would apply to created skins.

[AKSeaWulfe]

Because no one has made terrain for the MA. Luzon, Stalingrad, ETO terrain are all great and will be used for the SEA when events are run that require that terrain.

However the MA is a lot different and requires each country to have equal advantages, disadvantages and terrain for the most part.

If anyone remembers the MA in WB with the Med terrain, it left a lot of areas vulnerable and a lot of areas that were impossible to capture.
-SW

[Jigster]

 

Originally posted by AKSeaWulfe:
Because no one has made terrain for the MA. Luzon, Stalingrad, ETO terrain are all great and will be used for the SEA when events are run that require that terrain.

However the MA is a lot different and requires each country to have equal advantages, disadvantages and terrain for the most part.

If anyone remembers the MA in WB with the Med terrain, it left a lot of areas vulnerable and a lot of areas that were impossible to capture.
-SW

user terrain skin: All the cool things people have posted. These could be implemented into any current or past main arena terrain by HTC by switching out the compile files. This is usually what people want, a new look to the terrain tiles, and a move away from the basic 5 that have been with us since beta: grass, forest, rock, farm, water.

user terrain: the topographic information and actual design of a terrain from the ground up via the terrain editor, which may or may not include new user terrain tiles. The TE makes it possible to import skins and include them with the topographic information via compiling.

There have been MANY MANY MANY user terrain SKINS created for use with say, any of the current terrains. This is what so many people have been messing with, and not extensively working on a new terrain for the main arena. It's relatively easy to change, with the exception of the MA skins, because of the potnetial problem for HTC by releasing the compilation files without something along the lines of an NDA. If they were available though, any past terrain could be reskined with any of the user terrains skins.

This is generally what has kept many of the people working on skins so baffeled -- the MA skins could be changed so easily via HTC using user created skins...

I don't what the deal is, apparently someone keeps thinking the demo terrains, to show what the skins actually look like when applied to AH engine, are what have been submitted for the main arena, with no relevance to the work that went into skin creation/editing being considered (well, untill recently)

- Bess