Battle of Malta or Mediterranean - why not?

Chivas · #1 01-17-2012, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richie

The Mediterranean will come along after Russia I'm sure. They already have many of the aeroplanes needed but Italy Sicily Yugoslavia Greece Crete maybe Turkey, Tunisia Libya Egypt the Mediterranean Sea Etc. will be a huge undertaking it sounds simple when one just says the "Med". This may take a while especially if it's done one to one witch seems impossible. I think it will be done in sections.

The size of the possible maps is still an unknown. It will be great if its possible now, but I think it will awhile before the sim is optimized enough or even computers strong enough to make highly detailed large maps. But in the mean time we could see smaller maps, like the area surrounding Malta, that could intail parts Sicily, and a very small part of N. Africa. That said there weren't alot of objects in that area so its possible it could be expanded.

edit....the size of the map in your thumbnail would be a great map.

GraveyardJimmy · #2 01-17-2012, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chivas

I think it will awhile before the sim is optimized enough or even computers strong enough to make highly detailed large maps.

I'm not sure how the sim at the moment renders maps, but it doesn't do the whole map at once- if I press Ctrl F2 to look at enemy aircraft and they are over land it takes a few seconds for the land to change to sea or vice versa, with the area of the map they are in getting rendered to view when selected. As you get a lot better FPS over sea than land I think that it could handle larger maps, but only if optimised enough to render that much buildings and landscape- London isn't as smooth fps-wise as the channel. However I hear some people get good FPS over London on very high end PC's, if thats so then they could probably get good FPS over large maps as it will generally always be the same amount of view distance that is rendered I would guess (less if we get fog etc, though the way smoke effects destroy my fps I'm not sure that would be good at the moment!).

Chivas · #3 01-17-2012, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GraveyardJimmy

I'm not sure how the sim at the moment renders maps, but it doesn't do the whole map at once- if I press Ctrl F2 to look at enemy aircraft and they are over land it takes a few seconds for the land to change to sea or vice versa, with the area of the map they are in getting rendered to view when selected. As you get a lot better FPS over sea than land I think that it could handle larger maps, but only if optimised enough to render that much buildings and landscape- London isn't as smooth fps-wise as the channel. However I hear some people get good FPS over London on very high end PC's, if thats so then they could probably get good FPS over large maps as it will generally always be the same amount of view distance that is rendered I would guess (less if we get fog etc, though the way smoke effects destroy my fps I'm not sure that would be good at the moment!).

Your probably right, then it would be just a case of the time it takes to build such a large map which wouldn't be a problem when its mostly open water, but the time to build a Britain to Germany bombing campaign map would be another matter.

proton45 · #4 01-18-2012, 12:17 AM

I have to admit that I was looking forward to project Galba...Mig's & F-86 Sabre's battling it out!! The mind drools. Also...all of the Asian ground textures (and buildings, ect) would have been a great boon for a modding community, that's interested in the Pacific theater (once the tools are released).

I still hope (dream and fantasize) that somehow, the Chinese (1937) incident and the Spanish Civil war will be offered in some kind of an add-on. I love the variety of aerocraft involved in these theaters. On the one side, you have a rag-tag variety of fighters & bombers that have been imported from around the world. And on the other side you have a determined and organized industrial power that is working to develop a modern air power.

If I remember correctly...the Mediterranean theater, was the forums front runner for the next add-on. Granted it was all forum speculation, but it was never presented by the development team as a possible add-on...it was the forum that presented the idea.

Anyway...the defense of Moscow will be fun too.

Richie · #5 01-18-2012, 03:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chivas

The size of the possible maps is still an unknown. It will be great if its possible now, but I think it will awhile before the sim is optimized enough or even computers strong enough to make highly detailed large maps. But in the mean time we could see smaller maps, like the area surrounding Malta, that could intail parts Sicily, and a very small part of N. Africa. That said there weren't alot of objects in that area so its possible it could be expanded.

edit....the size of the map in your thumbnail would be a great map.

I totally agree about the thumbnail map Chivas. We've had a lot of fun on that map. Very versatile.

Feathered_IV · #6 01-18-2012, 04:24 AM

Interestingly, I find my machine takes just as much of performance hit over one of the silly little clod maps as it does over mainland France or Britain. The FPS issues seem to be deeper than just meshes and textures. If they get their **** together with the new engine, it could mean good things for future map sizes.

Liz Lemon · #7 01-18-2012, 06:01 AM

There are some desert textures already present in the game.....

DoolittleRaider · #8 01-18-2012, 06:11 PM

For those interested in the Defense of Malta in 1940, here is a link to the IL-2 movie "Faith, Hope, and Charity". Made in 2005-2007, there had to be a lot of workarounds for acft types not available in IL-2 and no real Malta map, etc. The movie is an epic fictional drama, "inspired" by historical facts. The movie is the longest ever made using IL-2 (at one hour in duration), yet was extremely well received at the time of release.

COD has virtually all of the Italian acft needed (and of course the RAF Gladiators) for this small 1940 early "front" of the larger Mediterranean theater. The Malta story of late 40 to early 41 could be told/played also, since the necessary Luftwaffe acft types are also available in COD. A Map of just Malta would do the trick for 1940, with the addition of Tunisia for early 1941 operations, while awaiting the much larger and encompassing Med Theater map and ships/aircraft needed for the 41-44 scenarios.

In the meantime, I offer "Faith, Hope, and Charity" for your possible enjoyment.

"Faith, Hope, and Charity" at FSM