"no, Phase Three will soon be ready for release"
YAP3 will not be new missions, aircraft or ships (beyond those in Set 10). It will be versions that will run fully patched on XP and on Windows 7 machines.
We have thought about updating some of the worse aircraft in WOV (A-6, A-7, B-57, etc.) but have not made up our minds yet. It would take a shift of mindset. From the start, we wanted to tell stories and not sell models (even though we are well aware of the fact that our customers really like new models). The problem was modelers. Hinch works at his own rate and the product is unsurpassed, so we choose to not compromise on ships. We have maybe 8 aircraft and cockpits in the works right now. Some are for YAP Set 10. Some are for Rising Sun. Some are for another project of a different sort.
We can get any aircraft turned out in high detail rapidly now but remaking all the WOV and YAP planes would cost a fortune that is unlikely to come back to us. I think people that have seen the Rising Sun aircraft see the evolution of our skills. Even some of them could be re-detailed.
Two things: We never marketed YAP right. It is history for history nuts, not first person shooter for gaming nuts or freeware to garner applause. Our demographic is "men who read books" and that's a shrinking field. We have no plans to put it on an iPad either.
The other thing is the feeling that our customers have not flown the missions we have created. We are testing now and have had the opportunity to go back and refly some of our initial missions. I forgot just how good they were...the detail employed to set the scene. I wonder who has flown Prince of Darkness, Big Mother, Lima 85, Dragon's Jaw Finale...or that one where you land the SeaWolves Huey on the LST (Mobile Riverines)...the one for which we created the flamethrower.
Unlike just being in the sky shooting things, YAP requires you to know how to fly, know where you are going, know how much fuel you have, know the situation and then come home again...and often onto a carrier at night. It's very demanding for a game or for a book. The idea was to make you do pedal turns in helicopters, refuel behind tankers, trap onto a deck, dodge ground fire, deal with confusion and weather so you are in the boots of the 20-something boys that do this stuff. I learned an awful lot researching, interviewing and creating my part of this. I know it is a means of learning history far beyond anything else short of putting on the plane and hanging it out there.
There will be new aircraft in Set 10 and we are not sure how many yet. There are some conspicuous in their absence. We just need an interesting and unique mission to justify them...even if it's one mission. We were thinking about doing "Charlie Don't Surf" for comic relief employing all we know how to do...including Mike's new Helicopter Flight Model.
It is evolving. We always go overboard anyway.