Where are the game elements in this sim?

[Blackdog_kt]

I personally can't go back to IL2:1946, it's been way too easy to operate the aircraft for a long time and after trying out the new CEM i can't go back.

Originally Posted by Feathered_IV

I must agree. Remember the "Holy Sh*t" thread that Luthier himself started asking for gameplay elements? Tons of suggestions in there and not one was acted upon. Instead they went for the Spitgirl...

The only people who seemed to benefit from that thread was the Rise of Flight team. I notice that a very great many of the features suggested in that topic are already announced for the new single player dynamic campaign announced for release this month.

In all fairness, it took RoF two long years to get there. I think the big surge in regards to CoD content will come with the release of the SDK or at the very least, some scripting documentation.

If we can customize the interface (which they said is possible) to run a campaign generator in-game and track relevant data in the form of mission event logs, parsing them to the generator (which is possible through scripting), then the campaign generator can act on that information and create the next mission in a dynamic campaign.

As for many of your suggestions in that thread (which i really liked a lot), i expect they too will be possible through scripts, after all it's a C type language they are using: it needs some coding experience but it's much more powerful.

I think that whatever the devs do, once the community come to grips with scripting they will always be one step ahead, simply because we are so numerous and ideas keep bouncing around all the time.

Off the top of my head, things i would do if i knew how to work with scripts:

1) Navigator interface: From a simple "i click on the map and you tell me how to get there" to a full fledged SH3 type of deal with markers, rulers and protractors so i can draw up my own flight plans mid-flight, the have the script play "AI navigator" for me and guide me there. It would only work in aircraft that had a navigator crewman, for single seaters it would just give you the mapping tools to work with yourself.

2) Celestial navigation with a sextant for night missions (since the nice sky has accurate positions of constellations).

3) Script calling out contacts when they are in the field of view of AI crewmen.

4) Bombadier guidance script: Jump to the bomb-aimer's station, engage the script and guide the pilot through the bomb run (like level stabilizer but so much better and more realistic).

If i can come up with 3-4 useful ideas in the time span required to post a forum message imagine what the rest of the community can come up with, especially people who can actually code it, dedicated modders, etc. There's no way a developer team of 25 people will be able to compete with a few hundred or even thousand modding community members, so they focus on getting the basics done and providing a framework to do more. Of course, the basics are not there yet and i'm not denying that. I just don't expect the dev team to be able to "race" the community in terms of new features once we are up to speed with scripting, it's not realistic to think so.

I expected CoD to be a sort of "operating system/framework for simulation gaming" type of thing and that's exactly what it is, which is a big reason i maintain mostly positive attitudes about it (that is, it turned out to be what i expected it to be).

[Rattlehead]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

I expected CoD to be a sort of "operating system/framework for simulation gaming" type of thing and that's exactly what it is, which is a big reason i maintain mostly positive attitudes about it (that is, it turned out to be what i expected it to be).

I feel much the same.
We have been given a pretty cool FMB that allows us to create missions that can be as in-depth as anything the devs can, provided one can code a bit. (And even if you can't, like myself, there is still a plethora of options available to create interesting missions.)
To me sims have always relied on user generated content for sustained enjoyment, and CoD imo is no different.

I do understand what Addman is saying and I agree things have been a bit neglected in that regard, but it's really up to the community to create that content.
Now, if we could have a proper campaign editor I would be over the moon.

[addman]

Originally Posted by Rattlehead

I do understand what Addman is saying and I agree things have been a bit neglected in that regard, but it's really up to the community to create that content.

Oo...that doesn't really agree with me. If that's the case then maybe they should've advertised that as a feature "New revolutionary game engine where you create everything yourself!" and maybe the sim should've been titled "operating system/framework for simulation gaming". According to some, this seems to be the case. For myself, I expected a somewhat complete sim/game, guess I was wrong and I guess that's too much to ask for after 6 years of waiting.

[Rattlehead]

Originally Posted by addman

Oo...that doesn't really agree with me. If that's the case then maybe they should've advertised that as a feature "New revolutionary game engine where you create everything yourself!" and maybe the sim should've been titled "operating system/framework for simulation gaming". According to some, this seems to be the case. For myself, I expected a somewhat complete sim/game, guess I was wrong and I guess that's too much to ask for after 6 years of waiting.

I suppose that's where I'm coming from; I have aways built my own missions rather than fly the ones provided. I never found them that interesting in all honesty.
Certainly, they were nothing I could not already do for myself, and I've had a blast creating missions for myself over the years.

I'm certainly not saying that there should be nothing provided by the developers...not saying that at all...but long-term I've always felt that it was user generated content in all it's forms which has kept me coming back to the game.

[TonyD]

Speaking of user generated content, go have a look at the link Dutch posted on page 1

[Rattlehead]

Originally Posted by TonyD

Speaking of user generated content, go have a look at the link Dutch posted on page 1

I've got two missions pretty much ready for public consumption, although I'll have to replay them a few times to make sure they're solid before I'll feel comfortable to release them online. They won't be historically accurate though, simply because my knowledge of the BoB is a bit lacking.

One thing is deciding how much stuff to add to a mission...too many objects and planes, or too many clouds will kill performance for some users.
Too few objects and immersion takes a plummet.
Maybe do a 'high' and 'low' version of each mission?

One problem I have is that I cannot script mission objectives...looks like some basic coding knowledge is needed.

[addman]

Originally Posted by Rattlehead

I suppose that's where I'm coming from; I have aways built my own missions rather than fly the ones provided. I never found them that interesting in all honesty.
Certainly, they were nothing I could not already do for myself, and I've had a blast creating missions for myself over the years.

I'm certainly not saying that there should be nothing provided by the developers...not saying that at all...but long-term I've always felt that it was user generated content in all it's forms which has kept me coming back to the game.

I'm glad that works for you but let me give you an example of my situation. I'd like to play a quite long Stuka campaign with medals and promotions right now problem is there is none so I have to wait for someone to make one because I don't have the time and I also don't want to know every little detail about the mission that I'm about to fly. As I said before though, maybe I had the wrong expectations on this game. I'm not shelving the game, I'm just not playing it at the moment, hopefully the almighty community will produce some cool stuff within a year or so and I can actually start playing the game instead of just tweaking it.