AD,

if you ask me, making your simulation mod-able in the broadest way and to the furthest extent possible is the best investment into the future of it. Modable sims, even if buggy and premature released, usually keep living on, guaranteeing sales in years to follow.

But it sounds to me like you are already focused on CH2... don't know how to take that

Anyhow, to call your terrain ugly strucks me as a bit of an understatement ....
And yes, I followed this thread since your announcement and I cannot remember having been impressed more since joining SimHQ.

Michael.

We're not focused on CH2 at all, if this is a bit of a flop there may not even be one, it's costing me personally close to $300 per month in regular outgoings on interest and host services. Still cheap in development terms. But I think of it as a longer term investment as it's about developing core systems that can be used in the future.

We have talked about what things we want to do differently, a roadmap of sorts, expansions and the next project beyond Combat-Helo. We're always limited by what we can do using off-the-shelf technologies, but we're stuck using it due to costs and time-scale. We want this done as quickly as possible as frankly I'm itching to play the finished game before the debt collectors come around

Personally I'm confident that it'll be a sleeper hit, certainly when we get in the expansion aircraft and a new theater to play in. Tools to help build the maps are something we need to work on later but we have a good idea on how to import veg-data now.

Building a retro-esque game is one thing, but you can't keep doing that as expectations are frankly at the point where games are unsustainable except by the super-rich publishers. But I like to think that simulation enthusiasts are less shallow than your typical gamer and will play something that is fun, challenging and assumes they are intelligent.

Modability ideally needs to be built-in and that consumes time, and there are license/legal considerations. That's something that we can't address properly this time around. But eventually I want to improve the vehicle system and include some kind of SDK, probably LUA based to enable third-parties to go into gauge level detail. But again that's way way off in the future. So let's not get sidetracked by sequels until we have a finished game we can take forward to the next level.

I am curious how this sim will avoid the Russian Pitfall, which is creating an utterly convincing environment but with a completely sterile feel to it (the Flanker lineage products suffer from this badly). The world feel uninhabited and empty despite working SAMs etc.
How are you going to avoid this sense of emptiness in your lovely sim?

Sorry if I gave you the impression that we are focused on CH2, as Rick says that isn't true. I brought up the subject of CH2 as the question regarded terrain modding, which is an area we have discussed opening and improving in a follow-up product. Although plans do change.



Primarily, by not following in the footsteps of the Flanker/Lomac/DCS series and instead looking towards LB2 and EECH for ideas and inspiration. We've also developed ideas relating to sub-games and even a quest type system that will bring character and feel into the gameplay.

Cheers

Ejecto is perfectly right, and your answer so encouraging that I am already stashing away money for your sim. Please, give it a working and heavily swearing crew, if possible, task sharing and serious, context sensitive background chatter. Not only dull recordings. You both may right about judging a retro sim, but LB2 (and perhaps F15, F/A 18 and in other aspects F4) was in these aspects unmatched until today, so one can hardly call it retro.
The voice pitch, the unnerved tone, "S**t, we're hit" and all that - there is still no sim that's anywhere as immersive than LB2. OK, mayby BOBII.

Michael

We threw in a few funny lines, what I dubbed "extra cheese". I can imagine they might get a bit annoying after a time so you'll be able to flag 'em off.

We have some of the "drama" dialog too, including that very line you mention, Jim recorded that one for us with his trusty co-pilot.

I am always in for some extra cheese, sounds good (the other toppings as well).


michael.

What I meant was say one person finds a target and attacks it. It is destroyed and burning. He wants the other player to engage targets in the same area. The second player has a much easier time finding them if he can see the smoke plume from the targets that have already been killed.

Thanks for the response and I am really looking forward to release

Note #38

A new, yet to be named FOB is in the works. It's located smack-bang in the middle of the AO and will become the central hub of NATO army air operations.









Cheers

AD, none of the images is visible to me. Says due to Photobucket bandwith exceeded on your side.

Michael.