A lot of the team read this and his A-10 book when the project was first starting up. It gave us some ideas of what to shoot for. Unfortunately my copies are currently packed away in storage with a bunch of other stuff I had in my office during those days.

Wow the video brought back some flashbacks. I had forgotten how much stuff I had to hook up for the WSO to say. At times that was rather challenging since some things didn't have a cut and dry "when this happens say this" rule I could use and then there was the balancing act of getting him to say enough to make him useful, interesting and hopefully not seem artificially stupid while trying to avoid getting him to the point where people want him to shut up.

I can definitely understand people wishing we had included co-op multiplayer but if we had you wouldn't have gotten the game that you did. We only had so much time and resources to do the game we did (including a bunch of overtime) and if we had tried to add that we would have had to cut something else. Also at that time no one was really sure that we could pull that feature off. The tricks that Andy used for F-15 III definitely couldn't have been used for this game. I think somewhere in the archives there should be a post I wrote up that talked about that. At the time that still wasn't a feature that a majority of the people who bought it would have used. Also, while we were trying to make a quality game, we weren't planning on creating one that would last for more than 10 years. That sort of defeats the idea of making new games later. ;-)

Actually after we finished JF-15 the initial thought was to do JF-15 II. The concern was though that not enough time would pass for the average consumer to feel like it was worth buying the next game. Regardless though we knew that we wanted to add co-op to the next game so once we were done the patches for F-15 my initial task was to prove, first with math and paperwork and then prototyping in code, that I could pull it off. I think that post I mentioned previous goes into this as well. I think about 1/3 - 1/2 of my time on JF/A-18 was spent on co-op multiplayer.

If we had done a third game then the main thing I probably would have worked on would have been a dynamic campaign engine though this probably would not have required much reworking of the in game engine.

I'm glad that people still find the game worth talking about and I forwarded the article to a number of the team.

Elf

Update: I found the link:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/874807/Re_F_15_vs_Su_27.html#Post874807

Here's another that references that thread and has some comments from CJ. Note, the link inside has changed since that was written (so I had to do more searching ;-) ) :

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/875322/Re_Reply_for_Goanna.html#Post875322

We got lucky? ;-)

Elf

I know eh. I always thought they botched that... Co-op would have been very nice. Wingman pairing and such. There would be a squads even to this day..

It is a shame...

I even thought, if the devs were hardset on the head to head feature, why couldnt have the client's enemy look like a Mig?? Why did they have ugly skinned F-15s on teams??


Regardless...


Great read B!

TS

Indeed. During my "research" I re-installed JF-18 + the TSH add-ons..and wow..it looks great..!


Thanks for the comments Scott...those books are an inspiration..and there is no better way to tell a story than to just go ahead and let the guys that flew the missions tell it like it was..


When I was playing JF-15 for the article, I was taken aback at how awesome the sim still is. You guys actually "nailed it" with regards to the participation of the phantom WSO. The timing of his comments are right on..and they actually don't sound corny at all and fit right in with the action. Love it when he call out the secondaries. I also thought the explosion graphics for things like the fuel farms blowing up and other aircraft going down in flames was quite good...it seemed like a good approximation of all the flames, debris and smoke that I remember seeing from missile test videos against QF-4s (ie: 3:22 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xISpZYajveA )..


Yeah..I think we all understand that a project has to have limitations..and looking back on it I was content to play single-player to my hearts content. VOIP and other communications were in their infancy..so I wasn't that enthralled with MP anyway..but now I'd kill for it.


Ya'll done good on JF-18..


You tease! Ah..the dream is alive out there...


Thanks for taking the time to tell us your thoughts and memories. It is telling that sims like JF-15, JF-18, LB2, EECH, Falcon 4, etc..are still very fondly remembered and even played to this day. Your blood, sweat & tears made them unforgettable...thanks for all the hard work..!


Yeah..when I think of getting together with a team of 8 guys and sending a big package against and airfield or something, each with a specific target..talking about the mapping and the SAMs, and fighters..wow..it could just be so awesome. I love JF-18..and I really need to get back into playing it and explore the MP aspect of that sim..but I just love the ground radar mapping modes in JF-15 that it is really hard to imagine anything better than that. Perhaps Eagle Dynamics will someday in the future find a way to code in a good ground attack aircraft that uses radar like the F-15E or Tornado. <fingers crossed>

Thanks for the comments...glad everyone enjoyed the stroll down Memory Lane..

BeachAV8R

here is my collection;

I love the JF-18, I still have it installed in my pc, and TSH has brought so much more live to it.

I wish we could have had a JF-18 II, with dynamic campaign... like Sott said


I have not included the DVD case simulators and IL-2 with CSF2 is missing in that picture, I didnt have space on the shelf lol

Oh MAN! My old log in still works! :-)

What a terrific article! I remember calling the US one night to order the Officer Edition of Jane's F-15... And then buying and reading "Flying the Strike Eagle in the Gulf War". Ah the sweet memories! Thanks Beach!

Jorgen "Troll" Toll

Hey it was only a 3 year break

Nice to see ya around still Troll.

Troll! Welcome back! Hope things are going well for you..

Hey man! Told ya I'd keep the light on for you.

LOL! Hey Dudes!

Yeah, I'm lurking these boards now and then. I just got myself a new sim-rig. I really want to fly ROF when it's out.

SimHQ still is the sim site to beat..! You guys have made a great effort! I'm proud of you! It's so great to see the SimHQ logo, or award, on DVD boxings and such, and know I used to be a part of that.

BTW, didn't mean to hijack the thread..! But since Beach asked, I'm fine! As you know, the aviation industry is what it is. But I still have a job, and I'm very happy with it!

Anyway, I'll be around...

Jorgen "Troll" Toll