Something that would make the game more versatile.

[Sakyosha]

Hey all,

I've been playing combat-sims since the early 90's. Unfortunately towards the end of the 90's and the early 2000's - the genre kind of degenerated. Now there is IL-2 and I'm mostly happy with it... mostly. Before I continue, please excuse me if I did not want to go through 199 pages to find a topic like this.

One feature I'd like to have put in, at least available as an option, was something that was in the old Wing Commander and Aces (of the Pacific, Over Europe, etc) games. Skipping through to the combat. For example, in Aces of the Pacific - you had way-points, much like IL-2. The difference was, if you did not feel like flying for 20-30 minutes before getting to ANY action, you could hit a button - and the action skips to where the enemy or the objective is in the general vicinity (or to the next way-point).

Does this take away from realism? Certainly, but it also wasn't automatic - the player had to choose to do this (and it obviously would be a single-player only function). It also gives the ability to work up your skills faster - If I flew 10 minutes (at max fast-forward) and I miss dive-bombing the submarine - I don't want to have to go through the 10 minutes of fluff to get to the meat of it for a retry.

I think it would expand the fan-base of your game exponentially - just to be able to sit down and have some 'quick action' to balance out the 'endless flying while looking at the pretty scenery'. Again, if you make it optional (in the realism pannel, for example), the hardcore sim people (who are no doubt going to flame me) can retain their game the way they like it, while I and others like me can have mine.

Just something to think about...

[Yellow_Sub]

Welcome,

you can already skip way-points in the game. You probably have to assign a key to that function. Check the controlls sections.

Also you can change some options for the campaigns. For example the distance of the flight but I think this doesn't work in pacific scenarios.

See here:

http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base&op=show&kid=28

[mmitch10]

Originally posted by Yellow_Sub:
you can already skip way-points in the game. You probably have to assign a key to that function. Check the controlls sections.

That's true, I think I have it set to Crtl T, but it's not instantaneous, you get a blank screen with a timer in the corner. For missions with lots going on, the timer sometimes doesn't go much faster than 2x, at least on my old rig.

There are no doubt problems with implementing an instantaeous time skip, in terms of tracking what each plane is doing in the meantime, but it would be a nice feature so long as you didn't come out of a time skip to find a dozen bandits on your six!

[Sakyosha]

Well, I think what previous games did in the past was program in hidden coordinates. I mean - the AI does the same thing every mission, more or less. So the programmers can say "OK, if they hit skip - you'll come out of it right here - with the bandits 8k away," or being 8k away from the mission objective.

It just gets very old, even going at x8 fast forward, to sit there on auto pilot... for 10-15 minutes at a time. I mean I could go get a Sudoku puzzle or a novel but that will take me out of the 'mood' real quick.

[Lurch1962]

This game's time skip feature is admittedly rather slow--it seems to work much like the usual fast forward but with the display blacked out. (and it does seem to be both system- and mission intensity-dependent). I admit that I do find it to be tiresomely slow, but it is necessary when dynamically tracking every AI's movements.

If loooong flight times en route are getting in the way of skills development, I'd strongly recommend to first rack up time in either of the Mission Builders (Quick and Full). Alternatively, download some of the excellent user-built missions and campaigns, many of which were specifically designed to get you into the action quickly.