4-12 wish list (Merged)

[Pips]

Any chance of a de Havilland Hornet being developed in a future patch? I've been in love with this aircraft for years, and flying the Mossie (good as it is) just doesn't do it for me anymore. The Hornet would provide a nice balance against the later German aircraft such as the Do 335 and the Ta 152.

Like the F7F Tigercat, the Hornet really was a supreme example of twin-engined power; and could just about hold it's own (if flown correctly) against any aircraft of the WWII era. Additionally it also was developed for carrier use - a nice addition for the FAA. Here's some info on it's peformance figures against contemporary challenges.

Hornet F.1
Speed sea level: 392mph
Speed at altitude: 472 @ 22,000ft
Initial climb: 4,650ft/min
Normal range: 1,710 miles/with drop tanks 'no data'

Spitfire XIV
Speed sea level: 375 mph
Speed at altitude: 448 mph @ 26,000ft
Initial climb: 4,580ft/min
Normal range: 460 miles/with drop tanks 850 miles

Tempest V
Speed sea level: 392 mph
Speed at altitude: 435 mph @ 17,000ft
Initial climb: 4,700ft/min
Normal range: 740 miles/with drop tanks 1,450 miles

P-47D-22
Speed @ 5,000ft: 363 mph
Speed at altitude: 435 mph @ 30,000ft
Initial climb: 3,120ft/min
Normal range: 475 miles/ with drop tanks 1,250 miles

P-51D-NA
Speed @ 5,000ft: 395 mph
Speed at altitude: 437 mph @ 25,000ft
Initial climb: 3,475ft/min
Normal range: 850 miles/ with drop tanks 1650 miles

F7F
Speed sea level: 366 mph
Speed at altitude: 434 mph @ 22,200ft
Initial climb: 4,530ft/min
Normal range: 1,200 miles/ with drop tanks 'no data'

Do 335A-1
Speed sea level: no data
Speed at altitude: 474 mph @ 21,325ft
Initial climb: no data
Normal range: 1,280 miles/with drop tanks 'no data'

Fw 190D-9
Speed sea level: 357 mph
Speed at altitude: 426 mph @ 21,654ft
Initial climb: 3,120ft/min
Normal range: 520 miles/with drop tanks 'no data'

Ta 152H-1
Speed sea level: 357 mph
Speed at altitude: 465 mph @ 29,860ft
Initial climb: 3,445ft/min
Normal range: 755 miles/with drop tanks 1250 miles

Me 109K-4
Speed sea level: 378 mph
Speed at altitude: 452 mph @ 19,685ft
Initial climb: 4,820ft/min
Normal range: 366 miles/with drop tanks 635 miles

And to finish off I can't think of a better way than with some words from Eric 'Winkle' Brown, who was very impressed with the Hornet. Note that Eric is discussing the performance of the Sea Hornet, which was some 800 kg heavier than the F.1.

"...the next two months of handling and deck landing assessment trials were to be an absolute joy; from the outset the Sea Hornet was a winner!" "The view from the cockpit, positioned right forward in the nose beneath a one-piece aft-sliding canopy was truly magnificent. The Sea Hornet was easy to taxi, with powerful brakes... the takeoff using 25 lb (2,053 mm Hg, 51" Hg) boost and flaps at one-third extension was remarkable! The 2,070 hp (1,540 kW) Merlin 130/131 engines fitted to the prototypes were to be derated to 18 lb (1,691 Hg, 37" Hg) boost and 2,030 hp (1,510 kW) as Merlin 133/134s in production Sea Hornets, but takeoff performance was to remain fantastic. Climb with 18 lb boost exceeded 4,000 ft/min (20.32 m/sec)"... "In level flight the Sea Hornet's stability about all axes was just satisfactory, characteristic, of course, of a good day interceptor fighter. Its stalling characteristics were innocuous, with a fair amount of elevator buffeting and aileron twitching preceding the actual stall"... "For aerobatics the Sea Hornet was absolute bliss. The excess of power was such that manoeuvres in the vertical plane can only be described as rocket like. Even with one propeller feathered the Hornet could loop with the best single-engine fighter, and its aerodynamic cleanliness was such that I delighted in its demonstration by diving with both engines at full bore and feathering both propellers before pulling up into a loop!"

And

"Landings aboard Ocean had been made without any crash barrier... Yet, in the case of the Sea Hornet, I had felt such absolute confidence that I was mentally relaxed... Indeed, there was something about the Sea Hornet that made me feel that I had total mastery of it; I revelled in its sleek form and the immense surge of power always to hand..." "Circumstances had conspired against the Sea Hornet in obtaining the recognition that it justly deserved as a truly outstanding warplane...in my book the Sea Hornet ranks second to none for harmony of control, performance characteristics and, perhaps most important, in inspiring confidence in its pilot. For sheer exhilarating flying enjoyment, no aircraft has ever made a deeper impression on me than did this outstanding filly from the de Havilland stable."

[Pips]

And for those who may not be familiar with it's appearance, here's a photo.
Such a beautiful aircraft!

[Ace1staller]

I would like to see a flyable B-17/B-24/ or a B-29. Also, I wanted the Throttle system fixed on the Fw-190A-4 because I notice it only reaches up to 88% when it should have been reaching a 100%

[DD_crash]

B-24D is in build and the throttle on the 190 is correct as the boost is limited.

[Jure_502]

-further development of nightfighter tehnique and navigational aids
-flyable Ki-45 (or D4Y)

[Ace1staller]

Originally Posted by DD_crash

B-24D is in build and the throttle on the 190 is correct as the boost is limited.

Kay thanks DD (:

[Whacker]

Cross post for this thread, plus some additions.

My "most wanted".

1. Please please PLEASE give us FOV ranges and options. 20 - 170 in 5 degree increments, and increase/decrease FOV in 5 degree increments is much needed. My three flying FOVs are 60, 120, and 155 as an example. It's totally dependent on the user's setup and resolution. Mods and tools somewhat cover this, but each have drawbacks and there's no substitute for real in-game support.

2. Please make the game more friendly for ATI/ATI Crossfire users. I play different games frequently, and having to manually go into the control panel and turn Crossfire off just for IL-2 is a bit tedious. Also there shouldn't be any reason with modern cards ATI users can't run the same bells and whistles as Nvidia users. Not asking for optimization, just the ability to run same maxed settings.

3. Please incorporate the functionality of the outstanding "Mission Pro Combo" into the game. http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=18353.0 This mini-mod is wonderful, but the menus are always messed up, too small to read, smashed together, etc.

4. Please increase the number of available aircraft slots for modders by a large amount. It would appear some of the larger mods are approaching or at the limit and are having to "prune" some aircraft here and there in order to be able to fit them all.

5. A generic "level autopilot" for every aircraft. Just want something that will hold a plane's altitude and direction (accounting for crosswind as well). Don't want it to touch engine settings, radiator, pitch, try to follow waypoints, or anything. Just straight and level on the heading. If speed drops and it can't maintain altitude, then keep the plane level and same heading, but let it sink at whatever rate it needs to sink at.

My "nice to have but not as badly needed" list.

6. Catapults and specific keys for catapults (NOT chocks in/out). The mini-mod with HSFX that uses chocks is decent, but something officially and built into the game by TD would be wonderful.

7. The ability to 'back up' an aircraft. This one may be a bit controversial, but it's something I've consistently wanted, especially after landing on an aircraft carrier. Maybe think of it logically as the deck crew or ground crew pushing or tractoring the plane around. Maybe make it so that the engine needs to be off and this mode is "toggled", when on the plane moves very slowly and is controlled by rudder and throttle? A logically extension of this idea would be the simple ability to fine tune an aircraft's position when on the ground and power off. I am NOT in favor of a simple "reset position" key combo that puts the plane back into a take off position on the carrier, as again I'd like this to be useable on land as well.

8. Angled-deck carrier with catapults (see pt 5). The models you guys make are second to none. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Antietam_%28CV-36%29 I realize the core game is WW2 specific with the few 1946 "additions", but post WW2/Korean War mods are great and just scream a need for these.

9. Option for "rearm", "repair", "refuel" through comms menu to ground ctrl when landed. I think UP3 has this, and thought it was a great idea. This could potentially be mission specific, only available at one's home airport, at friendly airports, etc. The level of "repair" could be variable, such as quick repairs only, full repairs, etc etc. "Re-arm" could be guns only, bombs only, both, etc. "Refuel" could be the same, 100%, 75%, 50%, external stores, all, etc.

10. A "lean out window" key to angle view to partially see around the nose for tail draggers, like pilot does in this vid here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQxb-V-rZqA

Or make it a function of the 6DOF use, at the extreme left or right side of the cockpit allow for "leaning" out the window when it's on the ground and under certain speeds.

[Luno13]

2. Please make the game more friendly for ATI/ATI Crossfire users. I play different games frequently, and having to manually go into the control panel and turn Crossfire off just for IL-2 is a bit tedious. Also there shouldn't be any reason with modern cards ATI users can't run the same bells and whistles as Nvidia users. Not asking for optimization, just the ability to run same maxed settings.

Doing things like this to a 10 year-old game are exceedingly difficult. DT would have to write the entire code from scratch. Il-2 just simply wasn't made to run on modern hardware (ironic, isn't it?).

4. Please increase the number of available aircraft slots for modders by a large amount. It would appear some of the larger mods are approaching or at the limit and are having to "prune" some aircraft here and there in order to be able to fit them all.

This is probably another inherent fault of an old game engine that was not anticipated to model more than 20 or so aircraft. DT had to do some serious rework of the code just to get more toggles in the realism settings (the old limit was only 32, I think).

10. A "lean out window" key to angle view to partially see around the nose for tail draggers, like pilot does in this vid here:
Or make it a function of the 6DOF use, at the extreme left or right side of the cockpit allow for "leaning" out the window when it's on the ground and under certain speeds.

It's pretty easy to taxi if your head is to one side or the other and you zig-zag, which is what most pilots do anyway. It could be useful, but not every plane has opening canopies anyway. This feature would be most appreciated in the Yak, which for now has no way of allowing the pilot to see the fuel gauges.

[Whacker]

Originally Posted by Luno13

Doing things like this to a 10 year-old game are exceedingly difficult. DT would have to write the entire code from scratch. Il-2 just simply wasn't made to run on modern hardware (ironic, isn't it?).

Dripping with irony! The thing is, I don't believe a major re-write or even really any "optimization" is needed at all. I've got dozens and dozens of older games from '99 on up that work with crossfire on, but don't really benefit from it at all because they're so dang old.

Point is, if it's not a lot of effort (relatively speaking), it's something I'm lobbying for.

This is probably another inherent fault of an old game engine that was not anticipated to model more than 20 or so aircraft. DT had to do some serious rework of the code just to get more toggles in the realism settings (the old limit was only 32, I think).

Also true and understand, but as above if it's feasible, it'd be greatly and widely appreciated, since all the major mods would benefit from it.

It's pretty easy to taxi if your head is to one side or the other and you zig-zag, which is what most pilots do anyway. It could be useful, but not every plane has opening canopies anyway. This feature would be most appreciated in the Yak, which for now has no way of allowing the pilot to see the fuel gauges.

Aye, the zigzag taxi works and it's historically accurate, but it's still a bit of a pain. Short of modeling a ground crew sitting on the wing (sarcasm), having a "lean out" view function with be the next best thing.

[Luno13]

Having dudes on the wing would be really cool. That would require a bit of AI programming though, as it has to "see" obstacles and intersections and give the right instructions to the player.