But when looking at what some people even from the community are saying today
So...?
Really, I don't want to be confrontational / offensive, but a discussion is tough to have if people refuse to hear what was actually said.
Oh, and please - I know you are not an "employee" per se, but I figure there is a reason you had that description there put under your name. And that's perfectly fine. Just don't pretend it has nothing to do with anything whatsoever, either, please.
I'm not your enemy. I bought almost all the sims that came out under the label you are a tester / moderator of. So, instead of going defensive, you should maybe forward the considerations some of "your" customers have.
Well I _don't_ think it has much to do with "not getting it". Those machines, and I'm talking about the fully-modelled modules released so far, have most likely been so resource-consuming to develop that they simply might've not had the time for anything else (again, so far). Now, whether they could've envisioned a better business / development model, I won't comment on; but this is the route they took regardless.
Personally, I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to machinery of all kinds, and thus have no problems with the status quo as it is. But again, I of course wouldn't _oppose_ them doing a dynamic campaign / content engine either; why, on the contrary, I'd actually buy such a module immediately
But to conclude, the point I'm trying to make is that while I'm comfortable with the situation, I also realize others may not be. And more power to everyone
Just to clarify, ED Testers and most Moderators are not legal employees of ED/TFC. As was me, I was essentially a "contractor" brought in to do textures, and assist where I could. Otherwise man I NEVER or nor do they for that matter as far as I know, collect a paycheck from ED/TFC. They get some good access and information, but I worked quite a bit here and there and never got any sort of monetary compensation (other than a free copy of BS1). Otherwise they'd have something more official, etc. So while they're not employees they still represent the company in their own way but don't determine actual company policy, or philosophy.
|My Books | Home Page | http://562.combatace.com/ | - 'Nearly everyone felt the need to express their views on all wars to me, starting with mine. I found myself thinking, “I ate the crap sandwich, you didn’t, so please don’t tell me how it tastes.”' - CPT Cole, US Army - "...parade ground soldiers always felt that way (contempt) about killers in uniform." -Counting The Cost, Hammer's Slammers
Force10 I'm just a Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 4,200
CA
Yikes!
Ok gents…I apologize for taking the OP further off topic…that's my bad. Since it is a thread about the F-14 by Leatherneck maybe we should save this conversation for another thread?
Skate…it's your thread…if you want me to clean it up from the last couple of pages I will do so.
Asus Z87 Sabertooth motherboard Windows 7 64 bit Home edition Intel I5 4670K @ 4.4 ghz 16 gig 1866mhz Corsair Vengence Pro memory EVGA GTX 970 Superclocked 4gb Video Card Intel 510 series 120gb SSD (boot drive) Samsung 840 1TB SSD Onboard Realtek sound ______________________________________________________
Oddball from Kelly's Heroes: "If we're late, it's cause we're dead"
Well I _don't_ think it has much to do with "not getting it". Those machines, and I'm talking about the fully-modelled modules released so far, have most likely been so resource-consuming to develop that they simply might've not had the time for anything else so far. Now, whether they could've envisioned a better business / development model, I won't comment on; but this is the route they took regardless.
Well, I get all that and we've been through all that in the other thread, "Any decent campaigns yet?". And while I could point out the 11 odd years with nothing much happening campaign-wise in this context again, I specifically don't understand why they didn't outsource this as a third party project or why no one stepped up to do that. Well, maybe now that they have instigated a DLC concept for campaign creators, it might happen. But I'm not overly optimistic there. After all, the next shiney craft is still easier to market than what some people might percieve as an abstract concept. Only that it is the very opposite of abstract, it is a very hands-on experience once you have it, and a much better way to bind customers to your vision than "just" dropping 49$ birds on them that people wonder what else to do with them once they figured out the systems and flown the 10 odd missions - if any missions are provided at all.
Heck, they or a third party could lay down the ground work for a dynamic campaign system and make it modular, so it would serve as a template for third parties to create their own scenarios for the individual modules. F86 / MiG15 in a "MiG Alley" setting, A-10 in a CAS setting etc.
Ok gents…I apologize for taking the OP further off topic…that's my bad. Since it is a thread about the F-14 by Leatherneck maybe we should save this conversation for another thread?
Skate…it's your thread…if you want me to clean it up from the last couple of pages I will do so.
Well, if we can't have "dynamic discussions", I wonder if we will ever see dynamic campaigns again. I mean, people are free to return to the original topic. It wasn't my intention to derail the thread either, it just happened, dynamically. And I will not just swoop in with dynamic campaigns again when people start talking about the '14 again. Though the topic of the F-14 died down by itself after some 9 pages or so. But you run the show.
easier to market than what some people might percieve as an abstract concept
Exactly. And many of the rest would perceive it as "plumbing", making it hard to market again. Unless there was a clear public sentiment - and a clearly stated willingness to pay - for it, of course...
PS. Getting altogether OT now, so I'll just get my coat. S! all.
Well, either way, I love how this thread went, because it modeled exactly what the idea behind a dynamic campaign is, for those who maybe missed out on the concept: You take off in an F-14 Tomcat, but then end up in an unpredictable, non-scripted threat (or thread ) environment, where one thing leads to another, and your efforts might change the situation in the theater you are flying in.
Personally I couldn't care less about a dynamic campaign, I just would like to fly around in it.
|My Books | Home Page | http://562.combatace.com/ | - 'Nearly everyone felt the need to express their views on all wars to me, starting with mine. I found myself thinking, “I ate the crap sandwich, you didn’t, so please don’t tell me how it tastes.”' - CPT Cole, US Army - "...parade ground soldiers always felt that way (contempt) about killers in uniform." -Counting The Cost, Hammer's Slammers
I just hope they simulate the air war, pilot career and carrier operations a bit more than we have seen before. I'm interested in the whole package, not just how the actual aircraft works.
My World is simple, I answer to the CINC House: My Wife, my Kids, my troops: 2 German Shepherds. I just love Flying Flight Sim's, and driving my 2017 Challenger SRT .
My Dark Blue Beast. Cooler Master HAF X Blue-Liquid Cooled Windows 10 64 Bit Intel i7 6950X 10c@4.0 Ghz Asus Rampage V X99 Asus GTX 980 GDDR5 4Gb Corsair 64 Gb DDR4 (8x8Gb) Corsair AX 1500 Watt P/S 2 SSD's (1 Tb) 2 WD Velociraptor's(1 Tb) 2 Spin point F4(2 Tb) 2 WD Green(6 Tb) Track iR Pro, X-55 HOTAS & Pro rudder pedals.
First off, thank you all for your kind words of support and positive attitude to our announcement. It is a great motivator to put in those long hours when you know you've got such a great community behind you. Sincere gratitude from the entire team. Also a big thank you to those of you who have gone above and beyond to spread the news of our announcement. While it's still relatively early in the development process, it's good to get some awareness out there right off the bat.
We've been kind of quiet lately, but not to worry; it is simply an effect of the large workload placed on each and every member of the team. Ambitious plans require hard work and much of our focus lies on attaining planned development sprints.
Unfortunately, a byproduct of this is that many of your questions about the F-14 have gone unanswered. I've been gathering many of these and they will be answered in the FAQ section of our new F-14 site section coming next week. Therein you will also find a lot of information on various features of the aircraft and our design goals for e.g. JESTER AI.
We're due for a monthly update, which will have some information about other developments and the MiG-21. Thus, I'll be keeping this F-14 specific update fairly short.
Art Development
We're now essentially feature complete on both exterior and interior models for the F-14, including the majority of integration work and animations. Thus, preparatory work for diffuse, specular and normal map texture creation has begun.
With the F-14, we're pioneering several new techniques based on the tried-and-tested industry standard sculpting and baking workflow. We've already put this to good use for our other unreleased, in development aircraft, but we're hoping to take it that one step further for the F-14. We hope we can further enhance the realism of both our exterior and interior textures and the initial results are very promising.
It's very exciting for us as artists to have the opportunity to apply years of accumulated knowledge to a project such as the F-14. We hope to capture every minutiae detail, down to the touched up lumps of paint.
Something many of you have concerns about is performance. We're taking a very pro-active stance on ensuring that performance is optimal at release this time around. We very much wish to ensure that the F-14 will perfectly on the vast majority of systems, and approaching things more carefully from the beginning will make it easier for us to make adjustments in the future.
Attached below you can see some Work in Progress renders of the cockpit. Do note that these images have flaws, so take them with a few pinches of salt.
Codebase Development
Not counting the Radar and HUD (two big systems in themselves), the Tomcat contains, by our count, roughly 67 Major systems, of which 37 are related to Flight and Flight Controls. In addition to this, one must take into account the size and difficulty of both the JESTER AI system and the External Flight Model. Noting that the F-14 is a massively difficult undertaking is putting it mildly.
Currently, heavy focus lies on creation of the AICS (Inlet Control System), Hydraulic System and Electrical System. These systems, together with the Engine and grouped control systems lay the basis for the construction of the swing-wing EFM that will capture the spirit and real performance of the F-14.
There is yet a long road ahead, and many difficult tasks to complete, but we have absolutely no reservations about our capabilities nor our choice of aircraft.
We look forward to sharing more progress with you soon. Thank you for your support,
Progress looks good. I'm curious if they'll use the common cockpit for both aircraft, or if the B will get some upgrades (PTID,upgraded rwr w/ separate screen, SPARROWHAWK HUD). Either way I'm excited.
First off, thank you all for your kind words of support and positive attitude to our announcement. It is a great motivator to put in those long hours when you know you've got such a great community behind you. Sincere gratitude from the entire team. Also a big thank you to those of you who have gone above and beyond to spread the news of our announcement. While it's still relatively early in the development process, it's good to get some awareness out there right off the bat.
We've been kind of quiet lately, but not to worry; it is simply an effect of the large workload placed on each and every member of the team. Ambitious plans require hard work and much of our focus lies on attaining planned development sprints.
Unfortunately, a byproduct of this is that many of your questions about the F-14 have gone unanswered. I've been gathering many of these and they will be answered in the FAQ section of our new F-14 site section coming next week. Therein you will also find a lot of information on various features of the aircraft and our design goals for e.g. JESTER AI.
We're due for a monthly update, which will have some information about other developments and the MiG-21. Thus, I'll be keeping this F-14 specific update fairly short.
Art Development
We're now essentially feature complete on both exterior and interior models for the F-14, including the majority of integration work and animations. Thus, preparatory work for diffuse, specular and normal map texture creation has begun.
With the F-14, we're pioneering several new techniques based on the tried-and-tested industry standard sculpting and baking workflow. We've already put this to good use for our other unreleased, in development aircraft, but we're hoping to take it that one step further for the F-14. We hope we can further enhance the realism of both our exterior and interior textures and the initial results are very promising.
It's very exciting for us as artists to have the opportunity to apply years of accumulated knowledge to a project such as the F-14. We hope to capture every minutiae detail, down to the touched up lumps of paint.
Something many of you have concerns about is performance. We're taking a very pro-active stance on ensuring that performance is optimal at release this time around. We very much wish to ensure that the F-14 will perfectly on the vast majority of systems, and approaching things more carefully from the beginning will make it easier for us to make adjustments in the future.
Attached below you can see some Work in Progress renders of the cockpit. Do note that these images have flaws, so take them with a few pinches of salt.
Codebase Development
Not counting the Radar and HUD (two big systems in themselves), the Tomcat contains, by our count, roughly 67 Major systems, of which 37 are related to Flight and Flight Controls. In addition to this, one must take into account the size and difficulty of both the JESTER AI system and the External Flight Model. Noting that the F-14 is a massively difficult undertaking is putting it mildly.
Currently, heavy focus lies on creation of the AICS (Inlet Control System), Hydraulic System and Electrical System. These systems, together with the Engine and grouped control systems lay the basis for the construction of the swing-wing EFM that will capture the spirit and real performance of the F-14.
There is yet a long road ahead, and many difficult tasks to complete, but we have absolutely no reservations about our capabilities nor our choice of aircraft.
We look forward to sharing more progress with you soon. Thank you for your support,
Progress looks good. I'm curious if they'll use the common cockpit for both aircraft, or if the B will get some upgrades (PTID,upgraded rwr w/ separate screen, SPARROWHAWK HUD). Either way I'm excited.
Great post, this feedback is excellent news on the progress of the F-14. You make a good point regarding the diffrent type of cockpit models. Knowing LNS I think they will release it in both
Here's a few pic's:
Heat2151 USN Retired "Mr, We could use a man like, Ronald Reagan again, those where the days"
Last edited by heat2151; 03/21/1502:44 PM.
My World is simple, I answer to the CINC House: My Wife, my Kids, my troops: 2 German Shepherds. I just love Flying Flight Sim's, and driving my 2017 Challenger SRT .
My Dark Blue Beast. Cooler Master HAF X Blue-Liquid Cooled Windows 10 64 Bit Intel i7 6950X 10c@4.0 Ghz Asus Rampage V X99 Asus GTX 980 GDDR5 4Gb Corsair 64 Gb DDR4 (8x8Gb) Corsair AX 1500 Watt P/S 2 SSD's (1 Tb) 2 WD Velociraptor's(1 Tb) 2 Spin point F4(2 Tb) 2 WD Green(6 Tb) Track iR Pro, X-55 HOTAS & Pro rudder pedals.
From their Facebook pages. Man, I cant wait to take this baby for a ride. She's looking purdy Thank you Leatherneck Simulations for keeping us in the loop.
Heat2151 USN Retired Mr, We could use a man like, Ronald Reagan again, those where the days".
Last edited by heat2151; 03/22/1511:40 AM.
My World is simple, I answer to the CINC House: My Wife, my Kids, my troops: 2 German Shepherds. I just love Flying Flight Sim's, and driving my 2017 Challenger SRT .
My Dark Blue Beast. Cooler Master HAF X Blue-Liquid Cooled Windows 10 64 Bit Intel i7 6950X 10c@4.0 Ghz Asus Rampage V X99 Asus GTX 980 GDDR5 4Gb Corsair 64 Gb DDR4 (8x8Gb) Corsair AX 1500 Watt P/S 2 SSD's (1 Tb) 2 WD Velociraptor's(1 Tb) 2 Spin point F4(2 Tb) 2 WD Green(6 Tb) Track iR Pro, X-55 HOTAS & Pro rudder pedals.
