#3176449 - 01/10/11 11:59 PM
Building Midway
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,739
zerocinco
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Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,739
Tchepone, Laos
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When we first started this stuff, a detractor said that missions were easy to create and that you could make one in a few minutes. In reality, a recreation of a real event takes a very long time to do. There are missions in Yankee Air Pirate that took a month and others that took 6 months. We are working on Phase Two which will start in Darwin, Australia but will spend most of its time in the Coral Sea, north of Midway and in the Solomons. I thought a couple of shots of the building of Midway might be interesting. First, Edward makes the basic scenery from aerial photos from the time, not Google Earth. You may notice in-game that the longest runway is not lined up the same as the photo. Making runways work and objects appear where you want them is a mathematical equation that is a lot easier if the runways are N-S or E-W. Then we place the objects from contemporary drawings. The colors? They come from walking around Pacific atolls while my cargo plane was being unloaded and refueled. Coral sand, mangroves and coconut palms are pretty much the same everywhere. Then Sand Island is laid out according to drawings from the time of the battle. And, finally, the island is populated correctly. It takes just a little more than "a few minutes" do to it right. Considering that most of the Battle of Midway will be out at sea, it is tempting to just put something together but we will stage the attack on the island and several missions from it, too.
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#3176522 - 01/11/11 01:46 AM
Re: Building Midway
[Re: zerocinco]
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 26,556
wheelsup_cavu
Lifer
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Lifer
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 26,556
Corona, California
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Looks very nice zerocinco. Populating the maps in IL-2 with the stock objects on it is time consuming enough. I can't imagine the difficulty of starting from scratch with a blank template. Wheels
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#3191148 - 01/28/11 05:54 AM
Re: Building Midway
[Re: zerocinco]
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 248
kverdon
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Posts: 248
Tigard, Oregon
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Fantastic! The "Slow But Deadly" lives!
Need a bomb? That is "da bomb!"
:-)
Last edited by kverdon; 01/28/11 05:56 AM.
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#3192002 - 01/29/11 12:24 AM
Re: Building Midway
[Re: zerocinco]
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 26,556
wheelsup_cavu
Lifer
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Lifer
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 26,556
Corona, California
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Now that's an SBD skin. I always seem to hit there too. I never lead enough to hit the front end or the middle of the ship. Wheels
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#3202236 - 02/08/11 07:17 PM
Re: Building Midway
[Re: zerocinco]
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 5,834
Boilerplate*
Viceroy of Huntly
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Viceroy of Huntly
Hotshot
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 5,834
Virginia, USA
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When we first started this stuff, a detractor said that missions were easy to create and that you could make one in a few minutes. In reality, a recreation of a real event takes a very long time to do. There are missions in Yankee Air Pirate that took a month and others that took 6 months. (slips in slightly winded to add perspective, fashionably late...) You're not kidding. Using Jane's old mission builder tools years back built more than missions.. it built character. I did only two historical missions for Battle of the Bulge era and that was exhausting enough. What folks need to understand is that if you're trying to recreate history, the slightest detraction or perceived inaccuracy can ruin the show. There are many cuts and retakes required while sitting in the director's chair. However, it's quite rewarding if you're able to reach a satisfactory notion of what it might have been like at the time.
It's a Game.
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#3203172 - 02/09/11 05:27 PM
Re: Building Midway
[Re: zerocinco]
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,739
zerocinco
Member
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Member
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Tchepone, Laos
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Funny you say that. As we start to assemble things and theory gives way to stories, it seems you are right. The place to stop might be Midway.
A logical set of tales might be:
First Darwin Raid: one or two missions frin AKAGI, KAGA, SORYU and HIRYU LEXINGTON in action off Rabaul. two missions ENTERPRISE attacks Wake Island. two missions Flying Tigers attack Chiang Mai. two missions Doolittle's Raid from HORNET. one or two missions. maybe ENTERPRISE fighters strafing pickets. Battle of the Coral Sea.
TBD's/SBD's sink Shoho D3A1's sink Neosho...maybe Wildcats defend fleet...a couple of times Zeroes defend fleet SHOKAKU hit ZUIKAKU loses it's aircraft LEXINGTON sunk YORKTOWN hit
Battle of Midway.
TBF torpedo attack from Midway and CAP defense. Zeroes fighting Wildcats over Midway and vice versa Bombing of facilities on Eastern Island Bombing or strafing of facilities on Sand Island Zeroes defending fleet against USN torpedo attacks Zeroes defending fleet against USMC SBD attack TBD torpedo attack on KAGA or HIRYU. SBD attack on the AKAGI HIRYU attack on YORKTOWN HIRYU torpedo attack on YORKTOWN HIRYU bombed
We think we can put on the battle without boring players with repetition or too much open ocean. What we want to do is let the player see what happened in the eyes of the pilots that books cannot show...like having your carrier sunk while you are on patrol, or facing massed firepower from SBD tail guns. Preliminary test missions diving from 15000 feet really gets your attention as does facing AA while skimming the ocean on a torpedo run. There are so many myths attached to the story that they hide the more interesting truths. Here's one: Everyone knows that the decks were crowded with aircraft about to launch to destroy the American fleet with bombs and fuel everywhere...except that is not true.
We have to tell the Big Picture story in two paragraphs and then let the game do the rest.
After that, Guadalcanal should be a separate tale...maybe combine the whole Solomons/New Guinea missions into one South Seas phase. We just don't want this to go on forever with too many Phases. I think we can trim some in the later years when Japan was so far behind in production that the story, in many cases, is better told from the Japanese side.
Last edited by zerocinco; 02/09/11 05:36 PM.
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#3203229 - 02/09/11 06:32 PM
Re: Building Midway
[Re: zerocinco]
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,739
zerocinco
Member
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Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,739
Tchepone, Laos
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We are looking at those. The PBY is in the next set. We just haven't settled on a story that is exactly right. You take off and land in the lagoon but we would like for the player to do more than just fly around. Going after the Akebono Maru with a torpedo at night, while good in real life, so far is lousy in game play.
We think having Lt. Best pop the Akagi makes the most of what the engine will allow so that one is set. After that, it's McClusky on the Kaga or Leslie on the Soryu.
We do all the missions then perfect the ones that show promise. If it wasn't such a job making them work, we could send all of them out as bonuses without making the "official" list too repetitious. I agree that the SBD missions, once you are flying them, are a lot of fun and I don't think people would be bored with it as easily as some other mission types.
And, we had the Mogami on the list but might be forced to cut back some. It all depends on time, money and if the mission is too much like another mission.
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#3210556 - 02/17/11 08:25 PM
Re: Building Midway
[Re: zerocinco]
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,739
zerocinco
Member
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Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,739
Tchepone, Laos
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After reading "A Dawn Like Thunder", we moved the pilot's gun to the nose as a .30 cal, made the ball gunner rotate with the ball and put the bombardier/radio operator down in the tail. Torpedo 8. Amazing tales. Also, we got an eye witness view of what was on Eastern Island the day of the battle. We were close but not exactly right.
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