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New plans for new planes.
Hairog
Member Posts: 97
Vehicle short term schedule, 1st quarter 2007
I'm going to talk a little about the first vehicular tasks for this year with respect to art and vehicle production schedules as the year gets underway.
There are several things on the whiteboard and being laid out in production meetings right now. From a "vehicle/art" point of view they are:-
1. The fix stuff phase. At the start of every year, after the hoilday break, we always try to devote a dev. cycle to a "fix stuff that always gets passed by" phase of our development schedule. Things on that list (just talking about vehicles at this moment) include:
a) Gun elevation tweaks on boats. Some of the AA guns don't elevate as high as they should. That should be fixed this time around.
b) Elevation ability that is currently missing from the commander episcopes of the French tanks is to be added.
c) We have had 100HP missing from the Bf110C4/B for quite some time. This will be added. (note: done already)
d) There has been a long standing issue with the engine nacelles on the DB7/Havoc bombers. We'll be looking at that.
2. The first vehicle additions for the year. We have a quick set of aircraft we can get done pretty easily. They actually cover a few areas of the game that have been long standing sources of "concern" for some players and for the first time do not represent a same tier identical role introduction as has always been the casse previously. We have made in the past sufficient progress towards populating the game with a well rounded and diverse variety of equipment that we can now focus on greater detail over basic structure. This is a very good sign and a signifigant moment for the games evolution. Before I go on about aircraft I'd like to point out that this does not mean the other branches of the game are not getting any attention. We are actually going to be doing some much needed naval development this year, but that is not the subject of this post.
Back to what I was saying ... we picked 3 aircraft that we can do relatively quickly and within our pretty restricted manpower resources at this time. The best part about these 3 aircraft is that they fit our ability to get them done without an enormously long dev. cycle to do them in ... they offer greater flexibility to the pilots who will be choosing from amongst the aircraft available to play in ... and they address a number of differing concerns offering each country something their members have always perceived as "missing" ... while this may or may not be true to varying degrees they are interesting choices all the same.
1. The German choice. The German pilots in the game generally have the fastest planes (on average) at any given time. By the time the end of a campaign rolls around the biggest issue is that many players can't quite come to grips with the narrow confines of the skillset and discipline required to do well in the Fw190. It's a damn good fighter (maybe the best so far) and it sure isn't a lack of firepower they suffer. It's the flight envelope of the really fast, wicked rolling but poor turning BnZ regime they struggle with. They really need a more Bf109 approach, but find the existing F4 varient hard to master in gunnery because it only has a single 20mm cannon and 2 pop guns. so while speed is well represented in the Fw190, they could probably use a "more guns" application in a Bf109 style package. This kind of nixed the G2 varient as the next choice. It would be much better to introduce something really new that didn't rely on speed (Fw190 does that) but more on arming the Bf109 style of pilots with a better gun set, or at least a different gunset. If we spend rare and valuable resources here on something new, make it something really new. We can always get a G2 later when we fill out the weapons set further, but until then, greater variety is still the mantra.
Enter the Bf109G-6/U4. This aircraft sees the introduction of the Mg131 13mm heavy machine guns and the Mk.108 30mm cannon. It's not faster than the existing Bf109F4 (turnrate will probably be slightly less but not by much) but it's climb rate is excellent and it has a totally new firepower loadout ... it will be difficult for some, and deadly for others ... but it is asignifigantly different and valuable addition to the game on the basis of it's character alone. If we have to make do with only 1 varient of Bf109G for a long time (a likely proposition) this is the obvious choice. It's not going to unbalance the speed equation (384mph) and it offers the German pilots something in their planeset they don't have already.
2. The French choice. Again ... as always, a difficult one because of the historical situation, but not impossible. The first thing to do when working this one out, is identify what the issue you can solve is. There is always more than 1, but try to pick the just 1 anyway. The French pilots have a fighter with truly excellent firepower and top speed in the Mle.322/15 (P-38) but again, like the Fw190 in German service, many players cannot come to grips with it although others of course do really well in it. What to offer for an alternative ? Something more turn orientated to pair up to the BnZ style of the 322, although skilled pilots can make the 322 turn well they are somewhat rare compared to those that can turn a Hawk, for obvious reasons. The H-81 is a really nice aircraft but gets a bad reputation by the vocal minority because, like real life, it was slow and not well armed apart from the 2 x .50 cal HMG's. We could have chosen a Spitfire Vb as the French had them, but that is a rather bland option and we don't like to just duplicate something already in service (Spitfire Vb serves the British in game already) when we could choose something more diverse or interesting, and of course, keep the countries as unique as possible.
Enter the H-87b3 or P-40F. Actually used by the French, the first blocks of this aircraft without the elongated fuselage are close enough to the existing H-81a2 Tomahawk that it's a no brainer for us to do it, the remodeling will not be extensive. It maintains an existing "Hawk" line in the Armee de l'Air service in the game, and with the 1325HP Packard version of the Merlin engine, the short fuselage version was able to do 373mph, and carries the ubiguous and familar (to those who know WWII air combat) American standard gun package, perhaps one of the most iconic of all, the "six fifties". We had entertained the 4 gun "lightweight" N varient but the fuselage requires more extensive remodeling and it never served with the French to my knowledge either. This H-87 should turn about as well as a H-81 but it is 20mph faster. This will be an excellent partner to the P-38 as we are right in the same territory as the Spitfire Vb anyway (speed wise) and we get another iconic new gun package in the skies of Battleground Europes air combat.
3. The British question. This was the hardest. The spitfire does everything well. It turns, it's fast, and it climbs well. In every multiplayer PvP air combat environment I have been a part of in the last 15 years (all the big ones) it always wins the popularity contest. It's not hard to understand why, when arguably the greatest surviving Bf109 combat pilot of all time describes the Spitifre as "dead simple to fly". With the exception of the early Mk.I it also has 20mm cannons throughtout it's life. In game this translates into no real need for a different Spitfire than already exists in the available equipment lists. All we could model is a faster Spitfire and we don't need one of those to any real degree. That leaves us with the Hurricane, unless we build a brand new model of something we don't have yet. Since we already have the two basic Hurricane versions that cover all we could expect the Hurricane series to cover without doing the IID and it's 40mm anti-tank cannons, which really isn't going to be modeled until we do the Ju.87G-1 with the 37's under the wings, the choice narrows down to .....
Enter the Hurricane IIB. With the movement to the Tier 0 .. H-75/Bf110C/Hurricane Ia .. plane set and the extension of existing tiers out 1 more step along the tech. tree, we have the opportunity to do something new again. Cannon armed Spitfires should not be common until the Vb for a variety of reasons, and the thing that the British lack most is firepower in tier 0/tier 1 (the new tier 1, I mean) ... what about the chance to take the least popular aircraft they have (Hurricane Ia) and with the upgrade that brings the Spitfire I into the game (tier 1) ... make the Hurricane I a IIB ? For the first time we have a n00b ride RDP upgrade as an experiement, and the Hurricane gets a 50% firepower upgrade to make it a better partner to the much faster better climbing Spitfire of that tier. Since the Hurricane is so dreadfully slow anyway ... this makes for a reasonable choice given there isn't a Spitfire choice that is suitable for this time in the games development, and without a suitable "new" aircraft alternative that leaves us with the Hurricane. Of all the Hurricane choices the IIB is the natural one when you consider all the other criteria. The slow old Hurricane gets a little bit faster (it's still slow) and packs some more punch to help keep it useful. This then represents a useful early campaign upgrade where the British need a late campaign upgrade least of all.
It also ensures more positively that we can get these new aircraft into the game quickly without taking resources away from other things like the naval game work we are slating ourselves this time around, at least not to any degree more than minimal which to get all the BIG things done this year, is an important criteria for us here at CRS.
There are several things on the whiteboard and being laid out in production meetings right now. From a "vehicle/art" point of view they are:-
1. The fix stuff phase. At the start of every year, after the hoilday break, we always try to devote a dev. cycle to a "fix stuff that always gets passed by" phase of our development schedule. Things on that list (just talking about vehicles at this moment) include:
a) Gun elevation tweaks on boats. Some of the AA guns don't elevate as high as they should. That should be fixed this time around.
b) Elevation ability that is currently missing from the commander episcopes of the French tanks is to be added.
c) We have had 100HP missing from the Bf110C4/B for quite some time. This will be added. (note: done already)
d) There has been a long standing issue with the engine nacelles on the DB7/Havoc bombers. We'll be looking at that.
2. The first vehicle additions for the year. We have a quick set of aircraft we can get done pretty easily. They actually cover a few areas of the game that have been long standing sources of "concern" for some players and for the first time do not represent a same tier identical role introduction as has always been the casse previously. We have made in the past sufficient progress towards populating the game with a well rounded and diverse variety of equipment that we can now focus on greater detail over basic structure. This is a very good sign and a signifigant moment for the games evolution. Before I go on about aircraft I'd like to point out that this does not mean the other branches of the game are not getting any attention. We are actually going to be doing some much needed naval development this year, but that is not the subject of this post.
Back to what I was saying ... we picked 3 aircraft that we can do relatively quickly and within our pretty restricted manpower resources at this time. The best part about these 3 aircraft is that they fit our ability to get them done without an enormously long dev. cycle to do them in ... they offer greater flexibility to the pilots who will be choosing from amongst the aircraft available to play in ... and they address a number of differing concerns offering each country something their members have always perceived as "missing" ... while this may or may not be true to varying degrees they are interesting choices all the same.
1. The German choice. The German pilots in the game generally have the fastest planes (on average) at any given time. By the time the end of a campaign rolls around the biggest issue is that many players can't quite come to grips with the narrow confines of the skillset and discipline required to do well in the Fw190. It's a damn good fighter (maybe the best so far) and it sure isn't a lack of firepower they suffer. It's the flight envelope of the really fast, wicked rolling but poor turning BnZ regime they struggle with. They really need a more Bf109 approach, but find the existing F4 varient hard to master in gunnery because it only has a single 20mm cannon and 2 pop guns. so while speed is well represented in the Fw190, they could probably use a "more guns" application in a Bf109 style package. This kind of nixed the G2 varient as the next choice. It would be much better to introduce something really new that didn't rely on speed (Fw190 does that) but more on arming the Bf109 style of pilots with a better gun set, or at least a different gunset. If we spend rare and valuable resources here on something new, make it something really new. We can always get a G2 later when we fill out the weapons set further, but until then, greater variety is still the mantra.
Enter the Bf109G-6/U4. This aircraft sees the introduction of the Mg131 13mm heavy machine guns and the Mk.108 30mm cannon. It's not faster than the existing Bf109F4 (turnrate will probably be slightly less but not by much) but it's climb rate is excellent and it has a totally new firepower loadout ... it will be difficult for some, and deadly for others ... but it is asignifigantly different and valuable addition to the game on the basis of it's character alone. If we have to make do with only 1 varient of Bf109G for a long time (a likely proposition) this is the obvious choice. It's not going to unbalance the speed equation (384mph) and it offers the German pilots something in their planeset they don't have already.
2. The French choice. Again ... as always, a difficult one because of the historical situation, but not impossible. The first thing to do when working this one out, is identify what the issue you can solve is. There is always more than 1, but try to pick the just 1 anyway. The French pilots have a fighter with truly excellent firepower and top speed in the Mle.322/15 (P-38) but again, like the Fw190 in German service, many players cannot come to grips with it although others of course do really well in it. What to offer for an alternative ? Something more turn orientated to pair up to the BnZ style of the 322, although skilled pilots can make the 322 turn well they are somewhat rare compared to those that can turn a Hawk, for obvious reasons. The H-81 is a really nice aircraft but gets a bad reputation by the vocal minority because, like real life, it was slow and not well armed apart from the 2 x .50 cal HMG's. We could have chosen a Spitfire Vb as the French had them, but that is a rather bland option and we don't like to just duplicate something already in service (Spitfire Vb serves the British in game already) when we could choose something more diverse or interesting, and of course, keep the countries as unique as possible.
Enter the H-87b3 or P-40F. Actually used by the French, the first blocks of this aircraft without the elongated fuselage are close enough to the existing H-81a2 Tomahawk that it's a no brainer for us to do it, the remodeling will not be extensive. It maintains an existing "Hawk" line in the Armee de l'Air service in the game, and with the 1325HP Packard version of the Merlin engine, the short fuselage version was able to do 373mph, and carries the ubiguous and familar (to those who know WWII air combat) American standard gun package, perhaps one of the most iconic of all, the "six fifties". We had entertained the 4 gun "lightweight" N varient but the fuselage requires more extensive remodeling and it never served with the French to my knowledge either. This H-87 should turn about as well as a H-81 but it is 20mph faster. This will be an excellent partner to the P-38 as we are right in the same territory as the Spitfire Vb anyway (speed wise) and we get another iconic new gun package in the skies of Battleground Europes air combat.
3. The British question. This was the hardest. The spitfire does everything well. It turns, it's fast, and it climbs well. In every multiplayer PvP air combat environment I have been a part of in the last 15 years (all the big ones) it always wins the popularity contest. It's not hard to understand why, when arguably the greatest surviving Bf109 combat pilot of all time describes the Spitifre as "dead simple to fly". With the exception of the early Mk.I it also has 20mm cannons throughtout it's life. In game this translates into no real need for a different Spitfire than already exists in the available equipment lists. All we could model is a faster Spitfire and we don't need one of those to any real degree. That leaves us with the Hurricane, unless we build a brand new model of something we don't have yet. Since we already have the two basic Hurricane versions that cover all we could expect the Hurricane series to cover without doing the IID and it's 40mm anti-tank cannons, which really isn't going to be modeled until we do the Ju.87G-1 with the 37's under the wings, the choice narrows down to .....
Enter the Hurricane IIB. With the movement to the Tier 0 .. H-75/Bf110C/Hurricane Ia .. plane set and the extension of existing tiers out 1 more step along the tech. tree, we have the opportunity to do something new again. Cannon armed Spitfires should not be common until the Vb for a variety of reasons, and the thing that the British lack most is firepower in tier 0/tier 1 (the new tier 1, I mean) ... what about the chance to take the least popular aircraft they have (Hurricane Ia) and with the upgrade that brings the Spitfire I into the game (tier 1) ... make the Hurricane I a IIB ? For the first time we have a n00b ride RDP upgrade as an experiement, and the Hurricane gets a 50% firepower upgrade to make it a better partner to the much faster better climbing Spitfire of that tier. Since the Hurricane is so dreadfully slow anyway ... this makes for a reasonable choice given there isn't a Spitfire choice that is suitable for this time in the games development, and without a suitable "new" aircraft alternative that leaves us with the Hurricane. Of all the Hurricane choices the IIB is the natural one when you consider all the other criteria. The slow old Hurricane gets a little bit faster (it's still slow) and packs some more punch to help keep it useful. This then represents a useful early campaign upgrade where the British need a late campaign upgrade least of all.
It also ensures more positively that we can get these new aircraft into the game quickly without taking resources away from other things like the naval game work we are slating ourselves this time around, at least not to any degree more than minimal which to get all the BIG things done this year, is an important criteria for us here at CRS.
__________________
Geof Rey Evans
Producer/CRS
Game Manager/WWIIOL-Battleground Europe
"this is rocket science, it just looks like a video game"
Geof Rey Evans
Producer/CRS
Game Manager/WWIIOL-Battleground Europe
"this is rocket science, it just looks like a video game"
Comments
gonna be sweeeeeet
I regret I had to quit the trial and game due to graphic card's driver issues.
Even with latest drivers the quiting from the game crashed my desktop all the time.
It was so sweet to bomb the allys with Ju 87