The Afrika Corps scenario is beginning this weekend. See
http://events.hitechcreations.com/scenarios/afrika/ and visit the Afrika Corps forum on this message board for more details. If you aren't registered and want to try and secure a spot as a walk-on, please make sure to familiarize yourself with the event and the procedure for walk-ons.
For 1.05, the score system will be undergoing some changes. Fighter and bomber scores will be broken out to separate rankings and those rankings will be averaged to determine your overall rank. There's a number of other changes being made to the score system as well.
We've begun work on the ships. Right now we're working on a PT boat and a carrier. The fleet we're working on for 1.05 consists entirely of American ships. Ships from other countries will be something we can work on in the future for use in historical terrains. We have to see how much work is involved in this first set of ships before we can plan that far ahead. The fleet ships we're keeping as simple as we can. While they will be player-controlled, it won't be as a helmsman. That will be done by inputting waypoints for the fleet to sail to. The player with the highest overall ranking will get precedence in positioning the fleet. Players will also be able to man the guns for both anti-aircraft and shore bombardment.
The carrier that we're working on is an Essex class carrier. After that, we'll start working on a Baltimore class cruiser. The 8" guns on the cruiser will be the heavy bombardment weapon of the fleet. If people like that aspect of the game, we'll probably follow up with a battleship. For anti-aircraft, players will be able to control a variety of batteries ranging up to the 5" guns with VT fuzes.
Unlike the fleet ships which are pilotless and persistent, the PT boats work like any other plane or vehicle. We're making a late-model 80' Elco. This will be one of the heaviest armed vehicles in the game with 4 .50 cal machine-guns, a 20mm cannon, a 37mm cannon, a 40mm cannon, 16 five-inch rockets, and 4 torpedos. Speed is around 45 mph.
Naturally, a new terrain will be required to implement the navy and we're working on that as well.
------------------
Doug "Pyro" Balmos
HiTech Creations
