The Ultimate Question -- Ext Views vs Locked Cockpit

[Chivas]

Off-line use whatever view system you prefer. In on-line war servers I much prefer a closed cockpit. All the outside views provide to much information about enemy movements which totally kills immersion.

[WTE_Galway]

Wonder women view reminds me too much of playing Wing Commander III back in the 90's.

[Azimech]

I always use the cockpit but in offline play I'm aware that the AI uses Omnivision so I have a disadvantage. Still, WW view has these ugly arrows and instruments and it feels like I'm playing an arcade game. Online I want cockpit only and I even use it if other players use WW. That's my loss, I shoot better with WW.

The tophat switch is usually enough for me but my Track-IR will be attached again in a few days because glancing at the instruments takes a bit much time.

I've always been about cockpits and dashboards. I have an old car with a beautiful dash. Why? Because after the road the dash is the thing you see the most.

In the future there will be more and more reason to use the cockpit as the airplane systems increase in complexity and the standard 6 aren't enough anymore. Manifold pressure, manifold temperature, CHT, RPM, oil pressure, fuel pressure, hydraulics pressure, ammeter, voltmeter, oxygen reserve, navigation, outside temperature, coolant temperature, turbocharger RPM, trim/cooler/flaps indicators and all the warning lights will all have an effect on engine/flight/systems/pilot performance. You can't fly successfully with complex management on without checking your instruments every minute. Switching between WW view and cockpit all the time would be very disorienting I guess.

One thing I dislike in IL2 1946 is the HUD engine overheat warning while flying full real. For the same reasons.

But hey, I'm primarily a gearhead, then a pilot.

[IceFire]

I've flown both and closed cockpit is a totally different experience than with externals available and/or "wonder woman" view enabled. Both are fun, both are challenging, and it's great that we can have our cake and eat it too with these features.

[dduff442]

Originally Posted by Azimech

I always use the cockpit but in offline play I'm aware that the AI uses Omnivision so I have a disadvantage. Still, WW view has these ugly arrows and instruments and it feels like I'm playing an arcade game. Online I want cockpit only and I even use it if other players use WW. That's my loss, I shoot better with WW.

The tophat switch is usually enough for me but my Track-IR will be attached again in a few days because glancing at the instruments takes a bit much time.

I've always been about cockpits and dashboards. I have an old car with a beautiful dash. Why? Because after the road the dash is the thing you see the most.

In the future there will be more and more reason to use the cockpit as the airplane systems increase in complexity and the standard 6 aren't enough anymore. Manifold pressure, manifold temperature, CHT, RPM, oil pressure, fuel pressure, hydraulics pressure, ammeter, voltmeter, oxygen reserve, navigation, outside temperature, coolant temperature, turbocharger RPM, trim/cooler/flaps indicators and all the warning lights will all have an effect on engine/flight/systems/pilot performance. You can't fly successfully with complex management on without checking your instruments every minute. Switching between WW view and cockpit all the time would be very disorienting I guess.

One thing I dislike in IL2 1946 is the HUD engine overheat warning while flying full real. For the same reasons.

But hey, I'm primarily a gearhead, then a pilot.

I like night and instrument flying in Il-2, but somehow my enthusiasm wears off when I'm being shot at. Hopefully SoW will have some innovations -- g-limited or laggy artificial horizons etc. Errors in barometric altimeters will be there anyway given that weather is modeled.

Night flying in Blenheims or Bf-110s could be a real blast. I'm hoping for a 41-43 night campaign as the first expansion myself. Quirky analog electronics prone to odd readings etc. give the tech of the era a totally different feel from the digital world.

dduff

[JG27CaptStubing]

Originally Posted by dduff442

I like night and instrument flying in Il-2, but somehow my enthusiasm wears off when I'm being shot at. Hopefully SoW will have some innovations -- g-limited or laggy artificial horizons etc. Errors in barometric altimeters will be there anyway given that weather is modeled.

Night flying in Blenheims or Bf-110s could be a real blast. I'm hoping for a 41-43 night campaign as the first expansion myself. Quirky analog electronics prone to odd readings etc. give the tech of the era a totally different feel from the digital world.

dduff

Well 4.10 is supposed to include G limits in IL2. Laggy artificial horizons? Why would you model such a thing? What does it really add to the simulation and the game for that matter? What you have to check your Compass and fix precession errors or a tumbled Gyro? You would have to get current altimeter settings throughout the flight. Sort of a waste of programming effort for a combat sim don't ya think?

Look I understand adding small details can really add to the sim but the type of things that need to be added should be geared more towards playability.

We like the fighting so that's where the focus should be. Much better AI ones that can actually fight and think more like a real person. AI aircraft are pretty horrible in the game right now. They have been improved but they just don't behave like real people.

[dduff442]

Originally Posted by JG27CaptStubing

Well 4.10 is supposed to include G limits in IL2. Laggy artificial horizons? Why would you model such a thing? What does it really add to the simulation and the game for that matter? What you have to check your Compass and fix precession errors or a tumbled Gyro? You would have to get current altimeter settings throughout the flight. Sort of a waste of programming effort for a combat sim don't ya think?

Look I understand adding small details can really add to the sim but the type of things that need to be added should be geared more towards playability.

We like the fighting so that's where the focus should be. Much better AI ones that can actually fight and think more like a real person. AI aircraft are pretty horrible in the game right now. They have been improved but they just don't behave like real people.

I more or less share your enthusiasm regarding attention to AI, but I think that perfect artificial horizons are a little too artificial. Even a single parameter -- a limit on the turn rate for a given instrument -- would be useful and easily done.

Likewise, less-than-perfect altimeters would seem to go hand in hand with dynamic weather. Remember that ground control may be able to tell you the pressure at ground level but they won't be able to tell you exact conditions over the target. This would be a serious concern for, e.g., Mosquito pilots on an Oboe-assisted bomb run when impact with the ground might be a serious concern. A drop of even 50m in the cloud base could also have serious consequences.

This seems trivial to implement once the weather system's already done, IMO. I'd support the idea of making these optional in the difficulty settings.

Night time is potentially a *whole new game* -- a whole new genre in fact. 40s technology is fascinating; it's quaint and baffling at the same time.

Broadly speaking, I'm all for granting CPU-intensive stuff similar priority to GPU-intensive stuff in the sim.

dduff

[swiss]

Originally Posted by Azimech

I always use the cockpit but in offline play I'm aware that the AI uses Omnivision so I have a disadvantage.

The AI has no engine overheat, THAT pisses me of far worse.
But then again I, don't play offline.

[WTE_Galway]

What would be awesome is to allow Wonder Woman view but also make you much more vulnerable to pilot kills from headon because there is no engine in the way to absorb the hits.

[Azimech]

LOL

Yeah, maybe only hairspray.