Friday 2010-11-12 Dev. update and Discussion

[1.JaVA_Sharp]

Originally Posted by IceFire

I remember reading the report as well. One of the USAAF fighter groups (or perhaps it was just a single squadron) decided to remove tracers from their loadouts. They found their overall scores were going up. Possibly because the enemy was not alerted by the tracers flying near their plane and possibly because it forced the pilots to not rely on tracers and instead do range/angle calculations completely in their head.

Depending on the virtual situation the lack of tracers may be or not be a useful feature. Either way I'd love to see customizable loadouts. If someone wants to not use tracers...great. If someone wants to load up a ton of tracers then ok.

easy solution: tracers or no tracers become a difficulty option. But what does Oleg say?

[winny]

The way I understand it the 2nd loadout I mentioned, (no tracer) was deemed to be the better option because if you missed when you were bouncing someone (as most BoB encounters seem to have started) they didn't know about it, if you miss with tracer it let's them know you're there.

[Icewolf]

Originally Posted by 1.JaVA_Sharp

easy solution: tracers or no tracers become a difficulty option. But what does Oleg say?

good question but I think it already has been asked but worth repeating.

BUT there is so much idiot spam on this thread I doubt Oleg reads it anymore

I'd like a few preset options for online games in a pulldown menu. Sort of like in IL-2 when you can select your bombload/gun loadout/fuel. That way people who like lots of tracers or non will have that option.

Another option or addition to that could be people saving their preferred tracer/ap/inc/ball loadout on their PC's then that preset being an option for them when they play online.

[David603]

Originally Posted by 1.JaVA_Sharp

easy solution: tracers or no tracers become a difficulty option. But what does Oleg say?

I don't see that tracers should be a difficulty option. Historically some planes had tracers, some didn't and there was a lot of choice, even between aircraft in the same squadron. Customisable (historic) loadouts would therefore IMO be a much better way of doing things.

[AWL_Spinner]

Customisable (historic) loadouts would therefore IMO be a much better way of doing things.

I think the operative word there is historic. It will get very tiresome very quickly online if it becomes stuffed with goons who find it entertaining to load 100% tracer and pretend they have laser cannons.

[David603]

Originally Posted by AWL_Spinner

I think the operative word there is historic. It will get very tiresome very quickly online if it becomes stuffed with goons who find it entertaining to load 100% tracer and pretend they have laser cannons.

Of course.

Otherwise I'm going to take a Spitfire, load up all 8 guns with de Wilde ammo (maybe 2 inner with mixed tracer/de Wilde) and watch as everything I shoot at immediately bursts into flames

I think Oleg already said there will be a number of loadout options for ammo, which to me would imply being able to select from preset options (hopefully historical), rather than full customisation.

[C_G]

Originally Posted by David603

Of course.

Otherwise I'm going to take a Spitfire, load up all 8 guns with de Wilde ammo (maybe 2 inner with mixed tracer/de Wilde) and watch as everything I shoot at immediately bursts into flames

I think Oleg already said there will be a number of loadout options for ammo, which to me would imply being able to select from preset options (hopefully historical), rather than full customisation.

I'd prefer full customisation myself, even to allow non-historic loadouts.

The way to "control the goons" (for those who wish to do so) is to make the ammo selection settings controllable by the server host, imo.

[David603]

Originally Posted by C_G

I'd prefer full customisation myself, even to allow non-historic loadouts.

The way to "control the goons" (for those who wish to do so) is to make the ammo selection settings controllable by the server host, imo.

That could work, something like a switch that allows fully customisable/historical only ammo loadouts.

On the other hand, if someone does want to load up full tracer, good for me/you, bad for them. They will do less damage, alert every player within miles to the fact they are firing and probably have a hard time seeing what they are shooting at.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by C_G

I'd prefer full customisation myself, even to allow non-historic loadouts.

The way to "control the goons" (for those who wish to do so) is to make the ammo selection settings controllable by the server host, imo.

Originally Posted by David603

That could work, something like a switch that allows fully customisable/historical only ammo loadouts.

On the other hand, if someone does want to load up full tracer, good for me/you, bad for them. They will do less damage, alert every player within miles to the fact they are firing and probably have a hard time seeing what they are shooting at.

I'm going to have to agree on both counts. With the amount of customization that's being talked about, maybe this is the best way to do things.

Just as the IL2 multiplayer host enforces certain realism settings, the SoW host could enforce realism, loadouts (this is already done in IL2 as well) and even mod settings. It would streamline things considerably.

For example, since modding support is said to be built into the engine, it won't be necessary to alter core game files to mod things. Instead, what will probably happen is that you'll have some extra folders with your modded effects that override the defaults, or extra folders with the 3rd party aircraft that are separate from the core game files.

So, instead of having to have 3 different game installations and version switchers to be able to fly on all your favorite servers, you would be able to join everything with one installation. Upon joining, the server logic would be like this: All mods off by default, unless individually specified as on by a "flag".
This way the server's configuration file would include the appropriate flags and we wouldn't have to keep different installations on our disks. Hope i'm making sense.