Friday Official Update, July 20, 2012

[Osprey]

A correction for Blackdog, ACG (Air Combat Group) runs historical missions with AI bombers and is not objective based (you can fly bombers though). The campaign server is the JG27 one, "Storm of War Campaigns".

[McFeckit]

bugged bombers that cannot aim their bombs = players don't fly bombers = no battle of Britain

That's the hammer on the nail's head right there!

[GF_Mastiff]

I see my tears and then some in there some where..

[flyingblind]

I hope the wet floor wasn't BlackSix's reaction when Luthier said he had to do another Friday update and all they had still was a few more screenies.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Osprey

A correction for Blackdog, ACG (Air Combat Group) runs historical missions with AI bombers and is not objective based (you can fly bombers though). The campaign server is the JG27 one, "Storm of War Campaigns".

Thanks for the correction

Originally Posted by McFeckit

That's the hammer on the nail's head right there!

Well, i'm glad more people see it this way.

Currently, the easiest way to make multiplayer interesting is to make it possible to drop bombs on targets.

Imagine you are flying and see a group of 10 human controlled bombers. One team will escort them and the other will intercept them. It's a magnet for getting dogfights and in servers where there are specified targets, it will make things so much more interesting because of the need to fly CAP for the defenders, or the need to come around from an unexpected angle for the attackers.

So, let's say we make a decision to fly out to sea, then attack the target from the North to surprise the defenders and just exit south to friendly airbases back to France. Now we have to coordinate with the escorts and time their departures because they won't have enough fuel to go with us the whole way. They will have to sweep the target 5-10 minutes earlier and then escort us home. So, now we also need to navigate and have an idea of our ETAs. Similarly, the defenders will have to choose between patrolling in force and relying on radar vectors, or spreading their fighter cover thinner to cover more area.

So, suddenly we have a handful of added tactical considerations that make our gameplay more interesting. Suddenly, the map is not just empty space but useful space.

We have the pilots. Not many, but there is a core of people who set aside a great deal of time, learning by themselves, testing how things work and coming up with workarounds for things that didn't work. After all their experience, if a few things get corrected it will be easy and worth the time to pass this knowledge on to others.

We have the servers. We have the mission designers and the people who can make use of scripts.

The one thing we don't have is the ability to carpet bomb an airfield from 7km of altitude and that's why we don't see epic fights. I know i'm not going to spend an hour climbing up there and getting to a target in formation, if i can't blow things up, just so the other pilots on the server have something to shoot at

[Frequent_Flyer]

Blackdog, Good points. However, it appears performance related issues, ie. the sim pausing when a group( as few as four ) EA are encountered. Dramatic framerate reduction when hits are obtained causing debris particals, vapor, smoke and/or fire to trail from an EA. Sometimes followed by CTD . Even if the bomb sight calulations are rectified it appears the performance issues most encounter would reduce the immerssion factor to an unacceptable level. I find it disconcerting no mention from the developers regarding performance increases.I was under the impression the " new graphics engine " was being implemented for this express purpose. I am cautiously optimistic the " trees" will be fixed.