Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: JHerne on July 29, 2008, 10:14:55 AM
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As a video game designer and historical consultant to the gaming industry (Tesseraction Games, UbiSoft, MicroSoft) , I've played AH and really don't have too many complaints, so Bravo Zulu to HTC.
If I could have a wish list of ideas... in no order of preference...
1. Have an indicator that shows a GV turret position relative to the hull position. If your turret is turned 90 degrees, it sometimes takes a few seconds to figure out which way the vehicle is actually pointing. When you have to switch from one position to another to do that, it leaves you vulnerable.
2. Optical ranging system. Determining target range on most GVs involved using optical sights whose focus would provide the ranging. If a target is visually out of focus at 500 meters, focusing the optical sight on the target, bringing it into focus, sets the rough range. The entire process takes about 2-3 seconds to accomplish, and eliminates the guess work of ranging a target. This could be used as an adjunct to the existing targeting system, giving players the choice of which system to use.
3. Radar directed gunnery. Naval gunnery in WW2, initially, was optical, controlled by a fire control director on top of the ship who would range the target (same system as the GVs), and transmit that information to the turrets. Turrets also had individual, albeit less accurate, optics. Later on, naval radar was used to range a target. Perhaps selecting a target from the clipboard (which means ground targets), would automatically range the target which can then be zeroed in optically.
4. Naval targeting...the optics don't follow the muzzle elevation, they remain on the target, to allow for watching the fall of shot. For high elevation ranging (say, cruiser to shore batteries), you have to zoom back from the target to keep it in sight, and if the elevation is too high (more than 7-8K) it becomes lost on the bottom of the screen.
5. Aircraft: How about a Ki-100, A-26, B6N Jill, D4Y Judy (as late-war replacements for Val and Kate), Ju-52, He-111, Halifax, Beaufighter, Pe-2, J2M ?
6. GVs, Panther, T-34/85, King Tiger, Su-85, Su-100, JSU 152, Hummel, M8GMC, to bring some parity to the Tiger as a perk vehicle. The Tiger was an awesome vehicle, but the addition of a King Tiger, Panther, and T-34/85 would give some options. Each has its share of problems, King Tiger was slow and heavy, T-34/85 had good firepower but lacked armor against German 75mm and 88mm guns, etc...We could also use a DUKW, much faster than an LVT, able to carry more (say, 10 troops AND vehicle supplies), but poorly armored and armed. Therein lies the tradeoff.
7. Field artillery - 105mm, 155mm, towed with a GV. As mentioned in another thread, they're vulnerable and easily seen when in-intransit, but once set up, harder to spot (reduce the visual ground range to compensate for camo cover). Allow for a battery, similar to the formation option in bombers. Targeting can be done with grid ranging, called in by a forward spotter or FAC.
8. Independent naval vessels - a cruiser, destroyer, or even a freighter to bring supplies from one base to another. The ability to shell a base from offshore prior to an air attack has certain appeal, not to mention historical accuracy, without the potential of losing a carrier, which never operated that close to land. Players would need to cover the vessels to protect them, obviously. A freighter could act as a temporary spawn point, providing troops, supplies, and amphibious GVs until destroyed. Bring that frieghter into a port, and you can offload non-amphibious GVs like tanks, Jeeps, halftracks, etc.
9. The blackout/redout thing... I've got more than 3000 hours of flight time in everything from Cessna 140s to Fouga Magisters. I've pulled some serious Gs in my time, and I've never blacked out that quickly. It takes a few seconds for that to occur in a sustained hard turn or dive (unless you're pulling 7-8 instantly in an F-18/F-16 type aircraft), and I feel the blackout/redout rate is too fast. Just my humble opinion... It would certainly allow players to be more competitive. The good pilots will always work within the envelope, but the less experienced pilots should have a buffer. Not asking for alot, perhaps slow the closure by a second or two.
10. This last one might cause some angst...but there has to be a way to prevent spies and cheaters. We had an example a few days ago, where several zero-ranked players jumped into the gun positions of a CV group, and didn't fire on the players that were attacking. I think the CV commander, the person steering the group, should have the ability to remove a player from a position. I also think that players should not be allowed to move from one country to another at will...I think once you choose a country, you're in that country for a specified period of time...an hour, 12 hours, 24 hours?
11. Increase the traverse rate of pintle mounted weapons...waist guns, GV turret MGs, anything not in a powered turret. A 150lb. man could move an MG34/42 on a pintle mount pretty fast. Most pintle mounts can't follow a low-level, in-range air target. In real life, you can...
On the historical side of things... numbers 1-7, I'm more than willing to provide whatever technical/historical data required. As a military historian by trade, I'm always prepared to support my ideas with usable data. So...if anyone from HTC likes these ideas, let me know. My 3000-volume library is at your disposal. I have access to flight data, ground data, ballistics and armor penetration data, reference drawings, historical photos, blah blah blah. In other words, I'm not just saying 'gimme gimme'. I can help make it happen. I can also provide references...lol.
Regards,
Jeff
PS: One more thing I completely forgot...and this could be real fun...
Picking up ditched or bailed-out pilots!! How about a Storch, Piper Cub, PBY Catalina, Dornier Do-24, so that fellow squadmates could land and pick up a bailed out or ditched player, thereby allowing him to 'land' his kills? Sending a Dodo into enemy airspace to retrieve a downed pilot, thereby avoiding "You've been captured" is a definite must-have in my book. I mean, we fly unarmed Goon missions in support of taking bases, why not fly unarmed missions (or high-risk missions with poorly armed aircraft) to save a fellow squadmate?
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Probably one of the best wishlists I've seen so far. :aok
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A very nice list, the only flaw I saw with it is that you forgot to ask for the A6M3-22. :D
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Out standing List :aok
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Excellent list :aok
<S>
Yossarian
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Great list, :aok but I'd like to address a few of those.
4. This is in there, next time you're in the guns, hit W or E keys... I think that is what you're referring to.
10. There is something like a 6hr lockout after swapping, but I'd be ok with longer, especially with the 2 latewar arenas. Make it possible to fly with different countries on different arenas. If you want to fly bish in blue and knights in orange, that would be a reasonable solution to me. Just fly with your friends in those arenas. Then you could possibly increase the lockout to up to one week. I'm sure many will complain, but it also encourages development of allegiance to one's 'virtual country'.
That being said, I like all of those suggestions!
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Outstanding, Jherne! <<S>> This game can only get better with a little homework.
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best wishlist by far :aok :aok
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1. Have an indicator that shows a GV turret position relative to the hull position. If your turret is turned 90 degrees, it sometimes takes a few seconds to figure out which way the vehicle is actually pointing. When you have to switch from one position to another to do that, it leaves you vulnerable.
2. Optical ranging system. Determining target range on most GVs involved using optical sights whose focus would provide the ranging. If a target is visually out of focus at 500 meters, focusing the optical sight on the target, bringing it into focus, sets the rough range. The entire process takes about 2-3 seconds to accomplish, and eliminates the guess work of ranging a target. This could be used as an adjunct to the existing targeting system, giving players the choice of which system to use.
Not meant to kill your ideas or anything but I have a problem with these two.
1. I understand what your saying and what your idea is but I think this is just part of the chalenge of gv'ing and I think its a good thing. Personally I always turn my turret back to facing the front of the tank before moving on just so I always know which way its facing.
2. Unless im understanding your wish wrong, I think your asking for a sort of auto rangeing system. Which would as you said eliminate the guess work of rangeing a target. I think this is an extremely bad idea because learning how to range a target before he can range you is the funnest part of tanking (personal opinion). Eliminate the guess work in rangeing and tank battles would be absoulutely no fun at all. There would be no skill involved at all. No offense meant.
I would like to see more tanks put into the game though,my top 3 in no specific order would be panther,most used sherman model in combat ( I dont know which model that would be) and the t34/85.
I like all the other idea's though. :aok
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Side jumpers were stuck for 24 hours formerly. Would be swell to bring it back.
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Hi Stodd,
Perhaps I should elaborate more...
In any WW2 tank, Shermans, Tigers, etc., there's always some kind of indicator that tells you the turret position relative to the hull position. In most cases, it was a simple clock-like affair that had two hands, one indicates the turret position, one indicates the hull position. This is to allow both the driver and gunner to be on the same page. If the clock shows noon, the turret is facing straight ahead, 9 or 3 o'clock the turret is 90 degrees to the hull.
This will make driving and gunning, something that was not required by a single person in reality, to be just a little easier, especially in moving gun battles.
The optics - again, this is based on historical equipment. Back in the day, I was involved with a game called Panzer Commander. It was pretty simple by today's standards (hey, I though Pong was the coolest thing at one time), but it used a fairly accurate representation of optical gunning. It's not an auto-lock by any means, but it does provide you with a rough range, generally within 25-50 meters, and you have to direct fall of shot from that point. A target was padlocked, much in the same way we do in flight mode, and an arrow appeared across the ranging grid on the bottom of the screen (the elevation was on the side). When the elevation of your weapon matched the approximate range of the target, the arrows overlapped. This was, by no means, designed to eliminate the fun of the game, but it was based on historical accuracy. This, to me anyway, seems to be in line with what HTC is doing with accurate flight models, etc...
At present, while the current GV targeting system works for those who use it, we've had to learn (and utilize) a system which is making targeting more difficult in the game than in reality.
You'll also notice that I mentioned adding it as a second targeting option, so those GVers who are already deadly with the existing system aren't losing anything.
I understand it's a game, and it's supposed to be fun, playable, etc...but I think we'd see more GV activity if the system were just a little easier - so long as it's kept within the realm of historical accuracy.
Just my opinion...
J
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Finally! A good wish with well researched ideas and practical ways to implement them, while keeping it historically correct! :salute Sir
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You're welcome...just hope someone on the bridge reads it!
Jeff
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It's almost TOO good... Voss? :noid :D
(great ideas btw)
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I agree on the Gs things to a degree.
Basically, right now in the game, having good controls at high-speed is little to no advantage, for two reasons.
1.Even planes known for getting stiff controls at speed-109s, Zekes, etc-only get them at very high speeds. WEll in excess of what can be achieved in level flight. So to get these airplanes into a speed envelope where they have reduced control authority, you pretty much must induce them to power dive, which thing will not be done by pilots who know their plane.
2. High-speed controls don't do you much good when you are sevelely limited by black out anyway.
"9. The blackout/redout thing... I've got more than 3000 hours of flight time in everything from Cessna 140s to Fouga Magisters. I've pulled some serious Gs in my time, and I've never blacked out that quickly. It takes a few seconds for that to occur in a sustained hard turn or dive (unless you're pulling 7-8 instantly in an F-18/F-16 type aircraft), and I feel the blackout/redout rate is too fast. Just my humble opinion... It would certainly allow players to be more competitive. The good pilots will always work within the envelope, but the less experienced pilots should have a buffer. Not asking for alot, perhaps slow the closure by a second or two."
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it is genius :rock
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Understand, I'm not complaining...I've learned (the hard way, by losing a wing or a tail) to use an aircraft within the envelope, but the blackout/red-out thing almost completely negates the turning abilities of the aircraft altogether.
G-LOC (G-induced Loss Of Consciousness) in older fighters, (loss of blood flow to the brain) was gradual, and symptoms like tunnel vision
could be relied on as warnings. G-LOCs between 6 and 9 g are characterized by temporary loss of colour vision, tunnel vision, or an inability to interpret verbal commands. Sustained high-G turns could result if blackout if the warning signs were not heeded. Today's aerobatic pilots, flying Sukhois, CAPs, etc., typically pull 8-10Gs in extreme maneuvers, which are far more aggressive than WW2 fighter maneuvers due to their smaller size and higher wing loading.
The G-loading of a P-51 is listed by the USAAF as +8/-4 (USAAF 44-14134, 2/27/45). Unlike today, where G force indicators are often buffered within safety margins, during WW2, those standards were considered 'danger zone' numbers capable of tearing a wing off. This means that pushing a P-51 to the G-force limits are still with the acceptable range of most pilots not blacking out, especially as quickly as we do in AH.
That being said, I think they've modeled the negative G aspects pretty well, but again, I think the closure rate of the 'red screen of death' is a bit too fast...again, only by a few seconds.
A buddy of mine is staying with us. He's staging his Yak-50 out our local airport going into EAA all this week. I'll talk to him about this. He's a Navy test pilot who's got more hours than I can possible imagine in performance a/c. I think he's in the 15,000 hour range...siiiiick.
I'll get his input and pass on what's he says.
Jeff
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:aok :salute good list
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Best wishlist ever and not one idea I don't agree with. <S>
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I agree with everything you've mentioned as well. Some of these strike me as simpler and more urgent than existing plane graphics upgrades.
Add a better mix of mannable field ack (Big and Small) and you'd hit all of my wishes.
If only we could actually find out if any of these are actually in the works!
- SEAGOON
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9. The blackout/redout thing... I've got more than 3000 hours of flight time in everything from Cessna 140s to Fouga Magisters. I've pulled some serious Gs in my time, and I've never blacked out that quickly. It takes a few seconds for that to occur in a sustained hard turn or dive (unless you're pulling 7-8 instantly in an F-18/F-16 type aircraft), and I feel the blackout/redout rate is too fast. Just my humble opinion... It would certainly allow players to be more competitive. The good pilots will always work within the envelope, but the less experienced pilots should have a buffer. Not asking for alot, perhaps slow the closure by a second or two.
Here is the AH model for G-lock explained...
The black out model is suppose to work as follows.
There are two types of blackout.
1. Unconsious black out (UBO)
2. Vission black out (VBO)
when in VBO, you still have complete control of your plane.
When in UBO, no controls are operational.
As long as you do not completly black out, I.E. never have VBO you should never have UBO. (except for pilot wound).
Once you enter VBO a fatagie factor starts rising, If you reach 3 secs of fatagie, you will enter UBO, UBO last for 10 secs.
If you did not reach UBO, and are not currently in VBO, Your fatagie factor recovers at 0.1 per sec, I.E. if you were in VBO for 1 sec, it would take 10 secs before your fatage factor went back to zero.
HiTech
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#4 on the OP: press F8.
#1 is second nature with a bit of time. It would be nice to have remote control of the turret from the other positions, though. If not via the rudder from the pilot seat, then with four or eight buttons to rotate to cardinal headings. And while we're at it, independent track control/torque invert to allow those GVs that historicaly could rotate on the spot, too..