4-12 wish list (Merged)

[Lagarto]

Originally Posted by RegRag1977

Why not start with a good old Ki44 instead?

Yes, exactly. Oleg and his team had a penchant for exotic stuff, that's why we got BI-1, BI-6, Go-229, He-L-IIIB2, I-185 (which, by the way, serves only as a stand-in for the Ki-44), I-250, MiG-9protoF-2, Ta-183 and other oddities - but not, for example, Hawker Typhoon. I really hope that DT will continue filling gaps in historical ranks, rather than produce more oddities.

[Fighterace]

I hate the Ta153 and the Lerche

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Lagarto

Yes, exactly. Oleg and his team had a penchant for exotic stuff, that's why we got BI-1, BI-6, Go-229, He-L-IIIB2, I-185 (which, by the way, serves only as a stand-in for the Ki-44), I-250, MiG-9protoF-2, Ta-183 and other oddities - but not, for example, Hawker Typhoon. I really hope that DT will continue filling gaps in historical ranks, rather than produce more oddities.

That, and probably 10 billion email messages from people begging for "Luftwaffe 1946" stuff which historically never made it beyond sketches on the backs of napkins, produced by engineers desperate to avoid getting conscripted into the Volkssturm, but which allegedly would have won the war for the Nazis in some alternate universe.

Also, to be fair, a number of projects didn't make it into the game due to failures by third parties. I think that the Typhoon was one of those casualties.

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Also, to be fair, a number of projects didn't make it into the game due to failures by third parties. I think that the Typhoon was one of those casualties.

Bingo.. there was great enthusiasm from many different people but for various reasons only some of those third party efforts ever made it to the stage where they could be incorporated into the game. There was a time when aircraft were reserved and this created a situation where someone would be reserved for an aircraft for long periods of time but without anything getting to the finishing stages.

It was never done maliciously. It just worked out that way. People get busy and life gets in the way. BUT... a great number of third party projects did make it into the game later on as well and we've got some great variety because of that.

New planes arriving all the time... but a Typhoon I would love to see. The Normandy map is definitely missing a key piece without it.

[Fighterace]

Bring on the Tiffie !!!

[Orangeman]

Originally Posted by Fighterace

Bring on the Tiffie !!!

Yes a Typhoon would be great!

[Lagarto]

Actually, Ki-44 is a great choice. It came as a shock to Chennault's fighters in China, beating Warhawks at their own game, booming & zooming them at will.
By the way, was there any consideration within DT to make a map of south-east China, roughly the area marked on the map I've attached? Unlike many PTO battlefields, this one was active for at least three years.

[ElAurens]

I am in constant longing for just that map.

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by Lagarto

Actually, Ki-44 is a great choice. It came as a shock to Chennault's fighters in China, beating Warhawks at their own game, booming & zooming them at will.
By the way, was there any consideration within DT to make a map of south-east China, roughly the area marked on the map I've attached? Unlike many PTO battlefields, this one was active for at least three years.

A Ki-44 is high on my list as well. Really interesting and non-typical Japanese fighter for the time. Pilots initially didn't like it but some seemed to be quite successful later on... particularly against the P-40s and early P-51A models when they were first deployed.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Lagarto

Actually, Ki-44 is a great choice. It came as a shock to Chennault's fighters in China, beating Warhawks at their own game, booming & zooming them at will.
By the way, was there any consideration within DT to make a map of south-east China, roughly the area marked on the map I've attached? Unlike many PTO battlefields, this one was active for at least three years.

There's a mod version of the Ki-44, with several variants, which is pretty good. I'm not sure it's quite up to DT standards, though.

As for maps of China, there's a modded Hankow and Taiwan/Formosa map which are reasonably good, but still not quite good enough. A few years back, someone did a number of "starter maps" for most of China, but these are nothing more than crude imports of STRM data, with no attempt to correct mistakes or add roads and the like.

The main problems with doing maps of China are very different terrain types and the fact that most areas of China are heavily populated.

The first issue is a massive limitation, because IL2 maps can only have two types of ground textures per map. So, map makers either have to make smaller maps or put up with unrealistic looking terrain on part of the map.

The second issue means that map-makers need to spend lots of time putting in roads, villages and railroads. And, it's a balancing act as to how much "civilization" you add, since lots of buildings reduce frame rates.

Another issue, somewhat unique to China, is that the major rivers in China were historically prone to extensive flooding, meaning that the terrain looked very different at different times of the year. During WW2, the Chinese also deliberately breached levee systems to deny territory to the Japanese, so areas which appear to be protected by levees on maps were actually flooded.

Finally, almost no other part of the world has seen as much change and population growth as China. Modern STRM data of the area will not accurately model the landscape as it was 60 or 70 years ago, and terrain images from Google Earth won't accurately depict the look of the terrain as it was then.

This means it's impossible to make realistic-looking maps of large areas of China, and very hard to create realistic-looking historical maps of specific areas. To do it right, you'd need to have at least 6 different maps of China, and even then that wouldn't cover the entire country!

This isn't to say that I wouldn't be thrilled to have such maps, just that it's not an easy project!