good news, yes?

Thought you at least had the updated blog entry.....

http://combathelo.blogspot.com/


there you go

As it turned out not much to say over the Christmas period, I decided in the light of stuff going on and having to spend time away from home there wasn't much point in working so I took it as holiday and relaxed.

Things are moving forward again.

Nice to start getting some of the infrastructure sorted out. New gun audio too. Speaking of which, anyone else watching Sons of Guns?

Hi Flexman,

Happy New Year to you, the team, and all your families (including AD's cats...)

Yeah! I've been watching it since it started. As an ex-engineer I love all the work they do on the weapons.

All mad as as a mad thing in Madville on Madday though......

Cheers,

AndyB

Flexman, I am throwing money at your site but nothing happens, what gives?!

Working on the distribution stuff, Eurogamer preview in the works AND taxes to do. I hate the business stuff, who doesn't?

Hey Flex!

I just saw the video from a few months ago (Combat-Helo Prologue (wip)) on YouTube and I was delighted to see the shout-out to the 404th KamiKali during the unit selection screen! I was in the 404th with you back in the LB2 days and I used to go by Ghostrider16 but there are too many Ghostriders around these days so I switched to AlphaOneSix a few years ago. I must say I am looking forward (understatement) to the release of this product and so far it looks just ridiculously awesome. Keep up the good work, and I hope I can throw money at you and your project in the near future!

AlphaOneSix nee Ghostrider16 aka Darrell S.

Awesome. Some of the chaps who used to log flight time for the old 404th are still active and I get the occasional surprise email. I remember most of the names as I had to log them by hand, this was before we had backend databases and dynamic web pages. Anyway glad you caught that We got a couple of other virtual squads in there as well as active units.

New Blog Update !

I'm a bit confused about what I read in the blog. Can the program be installed on a machine without internet connection provided that I have a pilot ID (i.e. copy setup.exe to machine x run, use ID an play)? Also I don't get the 'MMO' term in the context of this sim. Is it going to be a MMO of some kind?

That doesn't say it's going to be an MMO, only that the games launcher window will appear on your desktop with options to play etc.

I used the acronym "MMO" as that's the context most people are exposed to such launchers.

You run a small .EXE which checks your local files and downloads as necessary. If you have everything installed (or on a DVD) it serves as an update checker. If you check the 'offline' mode box then it just displays version, any notes and a run game button.

It was supposed to be a simple one size fits all solution.

All fine Flex, progress as expected?

Yup. There's a call for engine bugs and there's still a doozy but what I've decided to do is forget about it being fixed at the engine level and write around it.

Will I be able to use my racing pedals as rudder pedals for this sim like with Falcon 4.0 BMS?

Hello Flexman,

just a little word to ask you the statute of the Eurogamer preview ?

What about your bollocks, all are ok ?

All my respect for your wife and best wishes and money for CH.

This thread might at least be called , flexmans blog has yet to be updated

For crying out loud Oscar, STFU...
As I believe you're Dutch:

Spreken is zilver, zwijgen is guod!

Oh no! evil, evil!

(sorry, I'm not up to a more sophisticated response today, I'm not a fan of automatic patching, but I'm glad you'll be shipping DVDs - I've always viewed them as a kind of receipt and I'm very glad that you guys are making progress towards release).

Hello,

blog's up :

http://combathelo.blogspot.com/

Thanks a lot, Richard, best wishes for the Tricubic team.

Great to see the update and project moving on. Can't wait!

Russian-dubbed, but still a great doc.

New Update on the CombatHelo Blog!

Two of those beauties flew low over my place of work yesterday, awesome sight!

C´mon guys that nose art looks nice!

Combathelo.blogspot.com!

After not seeing an in-game screenshot for a while, that blog post was like crack to an addict after being stuck in rehab against his will...on a serious note though, it was a very nice surprise to see after work.

That nose art is very clever. Very original and would definitely give CH it's own flavor.

Thanks a bunch Raptor!

Sorry about the lack of updates chaps, development pretty much stopped for a while (again bills, family, job interviews). Dave is not happy with me either and understandably so, I'll try and make it up.

Made a quick video of last nights work, I'm updating the HTR flight model today as it's long overdue.

Awesome.. thanks for the video Flexman.

Looks incredible! Thanks for the update!

Great to see things rolling again! Where do you get all this info, is AH-64D so declassified already?

Well, the last I heard Flexman had to run at least 2 or 3 times away from strange looking "Black Helicopters"! LOL

Now seriously, we live in the "information era" which means that all sorts of information are just "floating around" (namely and mainly on the internet but not only!) and inside that "floating information" is certainly all sorts of "sensitive" information regarding the AH-64D Longbow Apache Helicopter. You just need to find that information but that of course that requires WORK, LOT OF WORK which sometimes can be comparable as coding a game itself (but that I think only Flexman can really confirm it).

That's why I don't "buy" excuses the from DCS when they say that they won't model a -D model of the Apache because its information is "classified"!! It would be much more honest from the DCS guys to say:
"We only have a complete information about the -A model of the Apache and we don't want to commit ANY resources in order to research and find information regarding the -D model."
But of course this is just my humble oppinion...

And BTW, this isn't the first sim (Combat-Helo) that a detailed -D model Apache (Apache Longbow) is modeled in detail in a combat helicopter sim, just remember Janes Longbow 2 (IMO, still up to this date the "king" of all combat helicopter sims)!

And BTW, glad to know that things are advancing regarding Combat-helo, keep up the excelent work Flexman!

I guess ED simply can't use illegally leaked documents from the Internet as source for their next sim if they want to get military contracts in future.

We had a standard rule that we used back during the Jane's Combat Sims days and I think we've mentioned before. We wouldn't use information for which we couldn't find two public resources for. Some of our guys had knowledge not available to everyone and so it was a good check for them to make sure they weren't crossing any lines.

As for the DCS guys not modeling stuff because the information is classified, from my experience and knowing Matt personally I have no problems believing it.

Elf

I have a similar rule despite the odd individual attempting to be a good Samaritan, standing orders are to refuse. Everything we do is open to scrutiny. When setting up the firing ranges we were told we had to be careful and generic since attack profiles are considered sensitive. We were not given specifics and for game purposes that's ideal as players have a broad ability you need to set comfortable margins. Sometimes you get amazing data from Boeing, I have on my desk right now as it happens a full colour glossy sales brochure (circa 96? I found it with some old newsletters dated then) for the Longbow with a nice insert of the weapons page (in mono).

Guidance on the FCR was a bit thin as you can imagine but it got better, partly thanks to the blog and the feedback loop it creates. You only have to post a picture of the wrong gun here at SimHQ and you get a ton of helpful people telling you how wrong you are it's pretty fantastic.

Janes was a great reference since they included a sales video of the desktop simulator showing the FCR in use, the bi-directional sweep etc. I copied that behaviour (I'm told it's still not quite right but it matches how it mostly worked in LB2). For Apache-Havoc I offering some guidance here and there, some of it was wrong; the hover position box for example. If you didn't know I was responsible for some of the technical writing and history in the Enemy Engaged manuals, that paid for a laptop as I recall plus I got to keep and store about 20lbs of research material collected from brochures and publications. Being a perfectionist I strive to make it look authentic as opposed to realistic, only those who really know can tell the difference and they are not saying much except "pretty close". YouTube offers a wealth of data, often they scrub out naughty bits but subtle things like the LED matrix in a video of the KBU being used to send an "I love you" message gave us a font and colour. Can't remember if there was a cursor but I added one anyway. More animation looks cool.

Some of my own photos of the aircraft are used in game, I recall Matt Wagner sending my some renders of their A model with missing parts identified asking if I could help but they were pretty obscure areas (which I've since got good data on but it was a long time ago). Now we're collecting CH-47 material like crazy (had one enquiry from a movie set as Daves renders were spot on).

Oh, as a funny aside one military contractor (I won't name names) asked for advice on fonts for their own simulator gauges. What was funny is that I had to explain that in Combat-Helo ALL of the vector graphics and characters were HAND CRAFTED by me on pages torn out from my lads school math books and therefore difficult to export. All vector co-ordinates, no bitmaps. So yes, we do old school development Still have those sheets.

Perhaps the best single most important reference was the cockpit layout thanks to the British MoD who put 360 quicktime cameras in both seats on their website. So if our cockpit looks a little different to US ones it's partly that. Also we have the EECH style UFD and MFD bezels and button arrangements. This is party a style choice, a functionality choice and also a nod to the work that a certain old friend who helped build a render-horse cockpit back in 2002 (the same one used in the Outerra demo). But that's another story.

There's a LOT of love and work in our aircraft, teasing it out of nothing has been pretty much the bulk of it. Stories behind a lot of it.

You need to remember that DCS is a series that strives to make accurate simulations, we're in it to make a game, three guys making old school combat sims with a bit of depth (you'll see me repeating the words authentic instead of realistic). I do have an educational motive however and if you ever get me drunk enough I'll tell you what it is (I don't drink much so it wouldn't be too hard).

On reflection I think it would have been more fun making casual iPhone games. I quite enjoyed that. Not that I don't enjoy this, but it's certainly gone on a bit.

And just to add, I agree with ric, I think Janes Longbow still represent the peak of PC combat-sims as you got the whole bag of marbles (keeping in mind I'm biased towards rotors). You got a re-playable campaign (two, one mini sized), co-op, co-seat, AI. Wasn't perfect but the sum of the whole and atmosphere was different from anything else.

Going to go and hide again now. Remasking.

/ /
That's how I act when reading new posts on here and on the CH dev blog.

The last six seconds of that KBU vid were sweet.

A photo whilst we wait for more updates:

Did you take that Daz? Amazing shot!

No, my mate is a AH64 pilot currently bashing out a tour in Afghan...it's his. I also copied it into the events forum

Ah right. You in that bottom pic?

They will never all fit in that Apache though

Unfortunately not mate...that was my old unit but I left the army 3 years ago now and that was taken about 12 months ago at Imber Village, Copehill Down. I've heard the AH64 wing stubs fit a couple of fat-arsed marines on, or about 10 finely tuned Paras

In regards to the new photo of Mossie on the blog. You could perhaps have either a cigar or a spent 30mm shell casing protruding from that toothy smile, lol. It could be used in place of the belt or with the belt, just a thought.

But it made me laugh to see Mossie posted again.

It's quite an honour actually. Glad you like it.

I thought about that but I always try to remember what my Master told me. Less is more.

I can still do some add after I've finished it. But I prefer to go step by step--

I'd definitely give it a try anyway.

Seriously, has anyone seen the clip on Flex' blog??

I think everyone have seen it. It was postet across the net just last week... What to say? If that manoever were be finished he would be probably the hero of the day...so he is the looser and will for sure loose his wings and a military law suit will be initiated(me thinks).

So your leveraging our picky, stubborn nature as a development asset?

BRILLIANT!

New update with the coloured Mossie.
'fraid it looks a bit too much like a bee, though.

Any suggestion?

What about making it Black, with "red flames" on it or something similar. He have to look like someone send him from hell.

Eh, maybe a bit too much. Remember it's going to be small and on the side of the cockpit frame...

Less is more.

New Mossie Update! (Still WIP though)

Incredible progress komemiute!I hope this year will receive a full version of this simulator mascot,Can't wait for next update

Thanks a bunch!

I'm not too sure about the action game thing. I'd rather have the chopper without whatever system isn't finished and a map to plop a few random targets on. Sorta like the arma 2 quick mission editor. If the rest of the features are released over time, great. I flew a bit in take on helicopters yesterday and the wonky track-ir implementation really destroys the experience for me. Why did I read chickenhawk again, the helicopters cravings get bad every time ... sigh

-C-

Blog update 2012/11/4

UGH! Put it on kickstarter so I can throw money at you!

I also agree that Flexman should put the Combat-Helo project on Kickstarter.

So many games and game "remakes" that are being put in kickstarter and many of them sucessfully funded! If this project was sucessfully funded this would ensure enough money to support any development costs even if this project would be developed in a full-time basis, IMO that is...

The only worry is that he puts an agreeable price on it, if he asks for something a bit crazy like 1 million then he won't get it, I think even like 200k is possibly pushing it with how the sim genre is these days. I don't want to see him post a kickstart and then not get the funding that would just be depressing...

I expect if he's going to do it though it'll be soon when he has a demo of some sort to show off.

It needs to be realistic ie what he actually needs to complete it. No bothering with "stretch goals" or whatever if he can't devote the time to actually DO them.

One issue is KS usually includes a copy of the game above a certain minimum level...so basically you're cannibalizing your sales for preorders to finish the game. Then the game is done, all those people get their copies...who's left to buy? Granted some people will never KS/preorder and instead wait for the final product, but they're not the majority anymore.

A lot of KS is about "getting the money from sales NOW to finish" and therefore your later sales are smaller.



The Jedi Master

I don't think it's that significant a loss though, if you look at double fine's kickstarter they only had 87k backers, if the game sells a couple hundred thousand after launch then that's still a significant chunk of people giving you money.

But I think it's just signalling a shift in how things are done though, doing kickstarter cuts out the middle man publisher, so now instead of being paid to develop this game and then on release the publisher and big names get the rewards, now I would assume that any money made post launch goes to the devs instead of the publisher.

I don't know, I've always been curious how big development studios handle sales, I assume it all goes to replenish money spent on development and then whatever's left goes to bigwigs and funding the next game.

Yes, FWIW I think "standard" game development is "publisher funds developer costs (salary, facilities, equipment) during game production, then get all monies from sales at launch and after with possible bonuses for exceeding sales and/or review score targets." The publisher also funds developer work on patches or post-launch content including DLCs or add-ons.



The Jedi Master

Yeah so I think overall doing kickstarter would be better financially for developers even if some of their sales are lost to the kickstarter.

All I'm sure of is that I'll be dead before I get to buy any version of LB2 that works on modern gear. But hey! The Romans missed out on ipads too.

Yes, what did they ever do for us anyway, besides the roads, the aqueducts, the education, cleaning up the streets so they're safe to walk at night...



The Jedi Master