Author Topic: The SimHQ interview (Read 1005 times)

Pyro · « **on:** March 13, 2003, 02:09:55 PM »

Awhile back I posted that an interview on AH2 would be appearing on SimHQ soon. I've been quiet thinking that it was imminent, but a string of technical problems have delayed it from appearing. I'm told that it should be up today or tomorrow. Sorry for the delays on that.

Charon also has put together a new FAQ and that will be appearing shortly after.

daddog · « **Reply #1 on:** March 13, 2003, 02:53:45 PM »

Wklink (a squadie) was deployed to the Middle East, that may have been part of the problem.

Looking forward to the interview.

Spoons - SimHQ · « **Reply #2 on:** March 14, 2003, 08:06:02 AM »

It's up!

http://simhq.com/simhq3/sims/interviews/ah2/

My sincere thanks to Pyro and HiTech for all of their patience. Tom's deployment really wasn't the delay....he wrapped up all of his loose ends before he left. Our host (and therefore our site) just had a ton of technical problems in the last couple of weeks, which is why articles have been few and far between....I think there's at least three more in the queue, waiting for the problems to go away.

(knock on virtual wood) They seem to be fixed.

Midnight · « **Reply #3 on:** March 14, 2003, 08:46:38 AM »

Quote

Originally stated by Pyro
There will be a lot of things that are either different or won’t carry over from Classic to ToD. For example, killshooter (reflective damage for friendly fire) will remain in Classic but won’t be in ToD. Instead, there will be a court martial system.

I hope I am wrong, but I see a huge window for player abuses here. Some "troublemaker" might think it is funny to use an alternate avatar to infiltrate the opposing side and then shoot down that side's best pilots because they think it's funny.

This might be a tough one to find a balance on.

Batz · « **Reply #4 on:** March 14, 2003, 09:28:09 AM »

Midnight do you think some one will get a second account or try to get a 2 week freebee to come into ah and kill you just so they will screw up your rank?

lol I thought beetle was paranoid.

Pyro doesnt actually say that you would get damage and die, what he said was there would be a court martial system instead of reflective damage. It may very well mean you can frag your own team but I doudt we will see very many folks creating second accounts just to frag you.

Quote

We’re making some big changes in gunnery and damage modeling. We’re improving the precision of our hit detection by removing the granularity from it. If our current system is 95% of as good as it gets, we’re going after the last 5%. I don’t know if it will make a noticeable difference, but at least we’ll be wholly satisfied with that aspect of it.

We’re also making improvements to our weapon calculations as well as increasing damage effects. We’re still debating the exact level we want to take those effects to so that detail is still undecided for now. Our main goal is to have the damage both believable and variable without resorting to randomness.

Now the above is a bit ambiguous but even a 5% change could be a good thing.

Midnight · « **Reply #5 on:** March 14, 2003, 10:01:31 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Batz
Pyro doesnt actually say that you would get damage and die, what he said was there would be a court martial system instead of reflective damage. It may very well mean you can frag your own team but I doudt we will see very many folks creating second accounts just to frag you.

Hmm.. Good point Batz. Maybe I jumped the gun there. That could work just fine I suppose. Rather than a friendly actually being able to shoot you down, he just recieves the court-martial for attempting to do it.

So then the question becomes how will the system determine when to court martial you? Obviously, a stray bullet or two shouldn't be enough to trigger a Court-Martial, but a concentrated burst on a friendly target could. Pilots will need to be mindful of when they pull the trigger and be sure their drop zone is clear if they are planning on releasing ordnance on a target.

AcId · « **Reply #6 on:** March 14, 2003, 10:19:32 AM »

And even if the victim of such an attack were to receive damage and get shot down, I doubt very much that the perp would be allowed to carry on as such. I would think repeat offenders would warrant being banned.

Maybe we should all try to keep in mind that its a simulation of war.......there were instances of friendly fire.....you think a pilot who was shot down due to friendly fire was not frustrated?

Ifluff'n you can't hack ToD, stay in AH Classic.

Fariz · « **Reply #7 on:** March 14, 2003, 10:40:35 AM »

I see 2 problems with this:

1) I got 50 kills, and then BANG, newbie shot me down. Frustration. I was not trying to go to his cone of fire, just started turning when despite the order he opened fire at enemy which even were not in the range, and couple 30mm sent me to the tower. I do not care how much he is punished, I lost my month long kill steak!
2) I am flying and some friendly jumps ahead of me just in stream of my fire and die. He was bellow and under me, and though I gave vox message when started to fire, he still did it. I am court martualled, though it was not my fault at all. Frustration.

Will not happen very often, but probably there shall still be some way to send film to prove your innocence in case 2. About case 1, I would suggest the following, though air frame is lost, pilot who died from friendly fire accident considered bailed out, not killed (unless his plane were dammaged already).

Midnight · « **Reply #8 on:** March 14, 2003, 10:59:02 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by AcId
Maybe we should all try to keep in mind that its a simulation of war.......there were instances of friendly fire.....you think a pilot who was shot down due to friendly fire was not frustrated?

Maybe so, but the internet and on-line games have a way of attracting trouble-makers who do malicious acts just because they can, or just because it is fun for them to ruin other people's enjoyment of something.

Batz · « **Reply #9 on:** March 14, 2003, 11:02:51 AM »

it would be no different then flying in the main now when you try to avoid kill shooting yourself. The main is more packed and less disciplined.

Look at scenarios where we have ks off, while their are incidence of this happening that are relatively rare.

Either way if the guy that shoots friendlies does it more then one or 2 times no one will fly with him. If you get hit by accident then this goes to SA and understanding when the other guy has position. Instead of jumping in on his kill you should take a support position. Then use vox to let the guy know when you will take a shot. You will be more likely to take a support position in ah2:tod rather then cut someone off if it means you may get fragged.

Its the samething if by accident you shoot a friendly. Its all about SA. If theres a possibility that a guy may get "court martialled" he may be less likely to fire over your shoulder. It may cut down on some of the sprayers.

But pyro hasnt clarified what this means. It or or may not mean team "fragging".

But this brings up the question I talked about in an earlier thread. I feel there needs to be structure to the missions. There should be an ability to eject those who would disrupt folks from the mission. Pyro mentions a rating system and maybe it will include a means to deal with disruptive folks.

Another thing that didnt get talked about is squad missions. Will e have the ability to designate "squad only" missions?

AcId · « **Reply #10 on:** March 14, 2003, 11:03:28 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Midnight
Maybe so, but the internet and on-line games have a way of attracting trouble-makers who do malicious acts just because they can, or just because it is fun for them to ruin other people's enjoyment of something.

Can't argue that point....hence the "banning" method.

I do tend to think that the nature of ToD won't attract those types of people, at the same time I'm not saying it won't ever happen.

And Batz makes a good point that in current events friendly fire is rare because its a different atmosphere than in the MA. I admit I did put a couple rounds into a friendly once, didn't cause any damage though, what a relief. Poor SA on my part....sorry Rip, I still feel bad about that. I need therapy.

Swoop · « **Reply #11 on:** March 14, 2003, 11:19:16 AM »

I kinda doubt the court martial system would kick in for 1 friendly kill.

Do it in multiple sorties or multiple times in 1 sortie and then you can expect the CO (host) to be pissed.

addy · « **Reply #12 on:** March 14, 2003, 05:48:54 PM »

Did anyine notice this?

The Squad format of the main arena won’t be a part of ToD

That really really sucks!!

The squad based play is the major reason I fly AH. Oh well

Fariz · « **Reply #13 on:** March 14, 2003, 06:11:41 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by addy
Did anyine notice this?

The Squad format of the main arena won’t be a part of ToD

That really really sucks!!

The squad based play is the major reason I fly AH. Oh well

Addy, classic will still have squads. And I think if you want to fly with your squadies in mission arena, you can just ask them to be there at same time, and join same flight.

Kweassa · « **Reply #14 on:** March 14, 2003, 09:03:10 PM »

Quote

1) I got 50 kills, and then BANG, newbie shot me down. Frustration. I was not trying to go to his cone of fire, just started turning when despite the order he opened fire at enemy which even were not in the range, and couple 30mm sent me to the tower. I do not care how much he is punished, I lost my month long kill steak!
2) I am flying and some friendly jumps ahead of me just in stream of my fire and die. He was bellow and under me, and though I gave vox message when started to fire, he still did it. I am court martualled, though it was not my fault at all. Frustration.

Analysis:
1 - can happen in real life
2 - can happen in real life

Solution:
1 - Watch over newbies. Train them. Educate them. Notify them that if they do it, they're going to court marshalled, before the mission starts, if you think that guy flying near you is really a newbie. (but on second thought, really real newbies will probably flunk the training rounds over and over again. They probably won't be able to join your flight anyway)

2 - Stay aware of where your frdlies are. Talk to them. Get your roles straight on who's attacking, who's covering, so dumb things like 3~4 planes hogging over 1 enemy, all firing over each other's shoulder don't happen. If some guy ignore your vox, and does something like that, he's bound to courtmarshall.

Let's try and think in the WW2 environment mindset, and we'll all soon realize, those things aren't any problem. If you shoot over someone's shoulder, or if some guy just jumps in front of you.. if he ignores your vox.. if someone doesn't know the word of 'cooperation'... it just means your flight is full of untrained, unqualified, and uncooperative rookies, whatever the personal skill level. Nothing more.

Actually, those situations seem only more real and immersive to me.

If I ever become a flight leader, and see someone like that, his evaluation will be zilch.