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Iain James Stewart

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Posts posted by Iain James Stewart

  5. Posted

    I think it's sweet. You should give it a name.

     

    Also, just because it makes it funnier.

     

    Rouge = n.

    1. A red or pink cosmetic for coloring the cheeks or lips.

     

    Rogue = adj.

    1. Vicious and solitary. Used of an animal, especially an elephant.

    2. Large, destructive, and anomalous or unpredictable: a rogue wave; a rogue tornado.

    3. Operating outside normal or desirable controls

     

    I'm guessing you were meaning 'Rogue', but there is something l really like about the idea of a Chicken in red lipstick, operating outside normal or desirable controls, somewhere in that back of your Maule. I mean, what exactly is it up to back there?

  8. Posted

    All MS need to do is give a game designer a few beers and sit them down in front of back to back episodes of 'Flying Wild Alaska'. There is enough ideas in that show to keep us in properly entertaining missions and landing challenges for several rounds of DLC.

     

    Build a bit more depth into the airport job board system, make sure to include a Cessna 207 or 208 in Era Alaska colours and maybe a red Cessna 180 with Tundra tires and you're on to a winner. On a related note, working auto pilots and ATIS would really make a big difference to the immersion. If MS could get ATC and some form of IFR flight plan filing implimented along with some new weather themes (or even better - real-time weather) then it would make for some really challenging flight situations and missions.

     

    How about trying to get the 207 down on a hairy little bush strip with 50 knot crosswinds and bad vis because there is an injured hunter who needs medivac to Barrow and you are the only plane near enough. Or flying SAR in the 180 to look for a missing Snow machine because there is only another hour of daylight before the sun goes down for six weeks and you are the only plane who can land and pick him up if you find him.

  9. Posted

    I agree with Meshman on this. Cockpitless warbirds hold little to interest me in what otherwise is shaping up to be an excellent GA flight sim, But I've got plenty to do trying to perfect my landing technique in teh Maule, so I'll just leave them to the people who do like them (and there certainly seems to be enough of them around).

     

    Here is a little musing I posted on another forum...

     

    Having made external models of aircraft for games in the past, I know how much effort is required, and the ones I was building were a lot lower in mesh and texture detail than the ones MS are turning out for FLIGHT. Building a VC and the coding required to make all the knobs and dials work will most likely take more time (at least as much again, probably double or triple at an educated guess) than building the external model. Until they know for sure that FLIGHT is going to take off (doh!) MS is probably trying to keep team size down to limit development costs.

     

    Pitless planes are an obvious choice for keeping the flow of DLC coming with minimum cost in man-hours. Warbirds are an obvious choice for pitless models as they suit the 'yank and bank' style of flying which is the only one really possible when flying from a chase cam view. At least the ones they have released so far are historically relevant to the flying area.

     

    I know that the bulk of the 'proper simmers' are not happy (to say the least) about pitless models. Much as I love old Warbirds, my only real interest in flying them virtually is if there is something to shoot at and be shot at by. I put myself in the 'not bothered' camp rather than the 'driven to heights of gibbering rage' camp, but I can see why some people feel the need to go there.

     

    IMHO I think MS made a bad call in not having more DLC ready to go at launch. I'd have had at least one more VC plane ready in the wings. That way I could have released it now and reassured the more vocal section of the audience that it wasn't only going to be pitless planes from now on. Juging from the Team Photo posted on the official site I'd guess that there are probably only a couple of artists making external plane models and a couple working on VC's and another scripter/coder or two to tie all the art assets together and get them in game. Most of them are probably working on stuff for Alaska and the next wave of DLC after that.

     

    Still guessing, I'd say that the next release will be the Alaska pack, including one new Deluxe airframe with VC. At the same time or shortly after there will be a second Deluxe airframe as separate purchase, possibly introducing some new feature like working auto pilot.

     

    I think MS will be in trouble if they can't get the Alaska pack out the door by next month, and if they can't then they need to have a new deluxe aircraft ready instead. Releasing a fourth pitless model with no Alaska in sight is probably going to create enough negative feeling that it will start to affect the bottom line (if it isn't already) and drive away some of the existing customer base. The first aircraft release after Alaska needs to be another deluxe model. If it were me calling the shots I would make it a 'pro' version of one of the pitless warbirds (still keeping the overheads down as far as production cost and time go). I'd sell it for around the same cost as the Maule, with some interesting challenges attached. I would also make the VC and challenges available as a cheaper 'upgrade' pack in order that people who already bought the pitless airframe aren't going to feel like MS are making them pay twice just because they bought into warbirds early.

     

    For me, that would go a long way towards smoothing any troubled waters and re-assuring the old guard that FLIGHT isn't just going to be a kids game from here on in. I'd also be working on getting ATC, realtime weather, damage modelling, working autopilot in, but those should really be free upgrades to the base package, rather than paid for features.
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