It's not dead yet!

[sdsbolt]

probably beyond the scope of this addon but a series of missions or mini-campaign that depended on players success would really add something.

 

[gecko]

I've wished for it before, in some other threads though, but to have the QC to be basically a mission without any fixed enemy activity. The frontline (customizable perhaps) would be there, with randomly appearing air activity from both sides, active AA batteries, road traffic firing back if enemy, searchlights working, you get the idea. The entire thing alive so to speak.

I think that should be completely possible. I need to do some experimenting with how QC sets up free flight, since it uses different rules than missions. The challenge is for flights that start behind enemy lines, since normally CFS3 doesn't allow this. But some flavor of your idea (whatever I can get CFS3 to roll with) is definitely on the cards.

 

[gecko]

probably beyond the scope of this addon but a series of missions or mini-campaign that depended on players success would really add something.

This will depend on how much outcome information I can capture at the end of a CFS3 flight and pass to the interface. If I can, that sounds like a great idea. Something kind of like the old CFS2 campaigns.

 

[Frosty]

Wow!

Anything that is a step closer to more realism or variety of options in QC would be great.

I second that! I'd like to be able to change the initial QC setup in more detail, like altitude and relative position of the player to enemy aircraft
In general, not only QC, I'd like to see better tactical flying by E/A: not every fighter is boom-and-zoom etc. Essentially this is what I think the OFF etc. developers did.

 

[gecko]

Yep, more detailed QC setup including exactly the options you mention is definitely planned.

Regarding AI flying, I'd love to figure out how to do that. At present I have no idea, though as you mention, WOFF has managed to do wonders for the AI there.

 

[Pat Pattle]

I second that! I'd like to be able to change the initial QC setup in more detail, like altitude and relative position of the player to enemy aircraft
In general, not only QC, I'd like to see better tactical flying by E/A: not every fighter is boom-and-zoom etc. Essentially this is what I think the OFF etc. developers did.

I third it!

The stock QC is pretty dire, CFS3 only comes to life in Missions and Campaigns, so a new QC interface utilising mission builder type options would be great!

Having said that... QC is great for testing, so still having a quick way of getting into the game would be good.

 

[gecko]

I third it!

The stock QC is pretty dire, CFS3 only comes to life in Missions and Campaigns, so a new QC interface utilising mission builder type options would be great!

Having said that... QC is great for testing, so still having a quick way of getting into the game would be good.

This QC will still be in the spirit of the existing one to some extent. If you add too many options, it is no longer "quick." I'm still thinking through getting that balance right. QC will still be geared toward a shorter flight with a shorter set up time. Some of the suggestions here may not fit into QC, but can still be implemented in other modes. More on those in due time, but there will be more ways to fly besides Quick Combat, Single Mission, and Campaign.

 

[Pat Pattle]

This QC will still be in the spirit of the existing one to some extent. If you add too many options, it is no longer "quick." I'm still thinking through getting that balance right. QC will still be geared toward a shorter flight with a shorter set up time. Some of the suggestions here may not fit into QC, but can still be implemented in other modes. More on those in due time, but there will be more ways to fly besides Quick Combat, Single Mission, and Campaign.

To my mind, it's that when you fly in missions and the campaign you see so much more going on than you do in QC. It's hard to describe, but observing scenes like a sky full of parachutes, or a flight of friendly fighters coming to your aid just doesn't seem to happen in QC.

 

[gecko]

Yeah, QC mode is quite limited in scale, and changes some of the game dynamics in a way that limits what it makes sense to do, particularly the way it handles friendly and enemy territory. I will be doing away with those things and moving towards the ability to have more airplanes in the sky, and a more open, believable world. The extent of that is still TBD, but that's the direction I'm heading, and it seems a lot of people want similar things.

 

[gecko]

I've wished for it before, in some other threads though, but to have the QC to be basically a mission without any fixed enemy activity. The frontline (customizable perhaps) would be there, with randomly appearing air activity from both sides, active AA batteries, road traffic firing back if enemy, searchlights working, you get the idea. The entire thing alive so to speak.

So I ran a quick test tonight to see how this might be accomplished, particularly with regard to starting a quick combat flight over enemy territory. My results were exactly what I had hoped. By default if you have a frontline defined, the game assumes you are starting in friendly territory and everything on the other side of the line is enemy. Thus a British flight starting over occupied France will not encounter AA fire until crossing the channel back to Britain, assuming a frontline defined along the middle of the English Channel. If no frontline is defined, everything is neutral and nothing shoots at you anywhere. Neither of these things is what we want.

However, the global layer allows you to define an owner for every facility. If this is done according to where you would place a frontline, with an axis nationality owning everything on one side and an allied nationality owning everything on the other, this can take the place of defining a frontline and the issues that presents. If you're flying for Britain, all the German owned facilities will shoot at you and vice versa. The nationality of the ground traffic spawns is controlled by the nationality of nearby facilities, so you won't have the issue of the wrong country's ground traffic showing up in the wrong place. With the flexibility that will be possible with the new interface, you can start your quick combat flight anywhere, fly anywhere, and get an appropriate response from the ground. With a carefully designed set of routine air spawns (or possibly routine flights explicitly placed by the interface into the mission file before you run it) you have a live (and dangerous) world. Take off from an airfield in Kent, cross the channel and cause trouble and see what shows up to try to stop you, or if you have less time, just start the flight over Calais and take it from there with the same result. All without any predefined structure. Best to watch your back as you prepare to land back at base. No telling if Jerry has put up a free hunt flight looking for targets of opportunity just like you had been doing to him. Alternatively, the existing "dead" free flight world can be recreated by using a neutral global layer with no owned facilities for those times when you want to fly around without the possibility of combat.

GSL facility ownership and a frontline defined on the map (but not in the actual mission) would need to be created for each historical frontline state, but that is well within the capabilities of the new interface.

 

[Pat Pattle]

So currently, the frontline overrides the gsl, is that correct?
If so, is CFS3 doing something in the code to change ownership when you add or move a frontline in a mission in the MB?

 

[gecko]

Yes, essentially. And since using a frontline does not allow you to start in enemy territory, you can't have one in that scenario. Thankfully, facility ownership can still ensure that the facilities around you are still enemy in that case.

 

[greycap.raf]

Holy moly... so it can be done after all. That would be the single biggest thing separating CFS3 from greatness removed. And it only really needs a couple of frontline options - anything until D-Day is one and the same, then perhaps Market Garden and Bodenplatte or Varsity. Things didn't change all that drastically after that what comes to air warfare.

 

[gecko]

I'd probably do several, and don't forget May-June 1940, but yeah, I don't think it would be too bad.