In first place to thank you one more time by the great job that you are doing.

I am really amazed with the game, and how you have managed to improve a sim as WOV, a sim that I had always considered as a "second line" one.

My intention is to ask you for more info about the missions. Not in all missions, but specially in alpha strikes as Thai Nguyen, I miss to have more info about the rest of flights that surround you, what they are gonna do, their TOTs,... I know that the intention of the game is to be a complement of good books, and that we should be investigating in "Thud Ridge", "Pack six", "100 missions north"... but perhaps some more info should be very interesting and helpful for us

I have seen too that when we fly as wingies, we fly " in a different flight". I have been following my leaders in several missions, and sometimes they bomb and attack and sometimes ( like in Thai Nguyen mission) they are just wandering over target area, exposing us to AAA and SAMs, without making a clear attack to target. Is this intentional? How intelligent and reliable flying AI is?

Thank you again

Keep up the good job!

DaiSan

Let's see if I can address part of that.

First, technically, an Alpha Strike was a Navy operation against targets on the JCS A-list. The attack on Thai Nguyen was Air Force but I know that's not what you mean.

Our stories do not come from books. Some of the missions are like that one, well-known and well-documented. I heard of the raid while in flight school from Thud pilots but they didn't give a lot of details. I heard the story told by Robin Olds at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona while I was training to fly F-4's. After that, I started listening for pieces of it.

In some cases, we reconstruct a story much like a paleantologist does ancient man...from a tooth. General Olds' men were in and out in a very few minutes. That was the part he was talking about. He was coaxed into telling other details.

We tell the story through the eyes of a Thud pilot since it was overwhelmingly a Thud raid but the F-4C's were also bombers that day. The main theme is something General Olds said. "The weather was terrible and the flak was worse." We wanted you to experience fighting in realistic conditions.

As far as flying as wingman, my contemporaries were wingman usually. It is also convenient because it gives you something fun and realistic to do en route to the target. Without formation, refueling, finding the ship and trapping, this would be a shooter and we did not want to create something dumb like that.

The AI in WOV can be manipulated to be quite good but as you examine our missions, they are complex enough as it is. Often, there are hundreds of objects moving in the scene. We want you to fly the mission in your cockpit. Certainly, look around. That's what all the detail is for. But if Lead decides to climb to 27000 feet because of a quirk in the programming that we did not acknowledge, who cares? You still have to get home. Usually, they attack but sometimes, the uncertainty that makes Third Wire games so flexible kicks in and they just don't. We guarantee that your target will be there and the gunners will be trying hard to kill you. And if you let them, they will.

Some of my favorite books are When Thunder Rolled and Palace Cobra by Ed Rasimus. You need to read them both. I also liked the Misty books because they were quick tales like we present. Plus I know those guys.

Thank you for your answer. I got the idea. And I think it is fantastic. But what I wanted is to know more about who is around to increase my poor situational awareness.

And yes, I have read both books from Rasimus, and both are incredible. I have in my "to read list" Misty books. Today re-reading "Thud Ridge"

And thank you again for sharing all this incredible stories with us!

DaiSan

The numbering of the flying aircraft is confusing, I admit. Try this with Thai Nguyen SteeL:

Look at your number in the lower left hand corner of the screen. You might even pause to get your bearings. If you are Dodge 13, you can assume there is a Dodge 11 and 12 out there. The briefing will tell you your position so that will help. But I know it won't say Dodge 13. It will say Dodge 13 11 and it will call you "Cowboy". And Dodge 14 will be called Dodge 13 12. Terrible but that's what we have to work with.

Click through the aircraft until you find Dodge 11 and their bearing from you. (He's just to your left hauling ass through the skud.) Then try to hang on.

Check the map which will show aircraft positions and the direction to the target. At some point, it's you, your wingman and the target. Send 4 into the target and you green them all up for one drop and center-punch the factory. Then? Then you run like only a Thud can run, find the tanker and get some gas and go home.

Pretty much what they did that day.

Allright!!!

Much more clear for me.

I have another question. Is the terrain at the right scale? ( 1 m of terrain = 1 m in real life) My intention is to calculate visual flight plans using real maps, so it is important to know if it will work of maybe I must make some adjustments

And thank you one more time...

DaiSan

No. I believe it is 1:.6. In other words, Third Wire calls a kilometer a mile.