S3 Series

I think this is the post referenced Bill, and it hasn't changed.

(Thinks about grabbing bar peanuts but just nods to Sakai and leaves)

<S> Gentlemen. Enjoyed your company! Fight the good fight! Now that the evil ones are no more expect a thriving joyous community!

Jabo--thank you for everything. The only thing I have for you is...set the settings and leave it set. The "mindset" is success gets punished...If we avoid the sweep and bounce the bombers, bombers are tougher to kill next time around. Never mind we had a successful tactic to be able to get into the bomber stream.... Other than that, no other game I've played mimics the adrenaline rush of an S3:) Good luck on your 100 goal!!

Dobs

Hey Bill,

Thank you for posting, and welcome to the vBar. <pours a highball>

Here's the deal, rather than Skype, I prefer to post so that my comments...; are available to all; can be clarified if called to question; are subject to future replies and comment.

I share some of the same thoughts as Dawger and Dobs above, and in the iEN forum, Juice's comments; Main Arena play is stagnant, tiresome, and the root cause of many players' disgust. Not counting the 475th's Dawger, Dobs and Zin, my squad TK and S3 affiliated Composite Lf6 have lost four long-time players, Hutani, Tote, Rat and Briar, the latter two have been here longer than my thirteen years. To a man, they cite the Main Arena play as the reason for their cancellations. And now the problems in the MA have creeped into the S3s which is now cracking with lack of participation, ahistoric squad rolls and mission execution.

I think the Bomber squads share some culpability in MA play. Let me explain and qualify that this is my OBSERVATION over the last few years. A great majority of the bomber players are regularly below historic altitudes and flying their bombers in a profile that is not correct or conducive to enjoyable play for all. Now many will (have) said, they pay too. That is right, they too pay as much as I for the enjoyment of flying WWII aircraft. That said, what 'Fighter' was developed, in real life, to combat and attack a bomber flying under 2kft? Further, what four engine bomber was developed for this low altitude mission profile? B-24s and Lancs were historically flown in low altitude missions, but the percentages of these mission profiles are dwarfed by the at alt missions for which these four engine bombers, AND THEIR ORDNANCE, were designed for. I know all who read this, know these facts. And added to the bad mission profile is issue with the laser sighted OTTO that shreds at EXTREME AoA, distance and g-loading. Because of this, I have not, and will not engage the bombers. My plane of choice is fragile enough without the need to expose it to the wild maneuverability and stable platform Boeing developed for the Fortress, or Consolidated Liberators or Avro Lancasters. So their play has influenced how I play.

I do hope that any Bomber-centric player reading this will understand that I am not saying ALL bomber players fly these types of missions. There are several players that take the time to get to altitude and fly proper mission profiles...and when I see that, I acknowledge their work on CH100.

I think what Darryl has done to grow the Raiders from a fledgling squad to, perhaps, the largest squad in our game should be commended. He does engage the new-player and offer a home to those starting out in this game. However, some of their members influence new players into these seldom-used mission profiles for four-engine planes. I think some development is long overdue for the Bombers that will curtail this type of play. There will be much gnashing of teeth while the bomber pilots re-learn their plane, but that is something EACH fighter squadron player has faced with the introduction of the FM team's outstanding work. I think we should reach out to the bomber community for a volunteer to data-mine and participate in the FM development. And if no one steps up, the current volunteers can go forward with their own research and with full iEN support.

Which segues perfectly into the FM team. I think the dismissal of the current team's work and allowing D&D to leave is the wrong decision. I think we should encourage their work to continue and provide the entire team some incentive to continue what they have given so much time to. And to be totally honest, it seems that EVERY volunteer to come along, since Target, has had the same issues precipitating their departure. I wonder why that is?

I think it's root cause is a non-shared vision for development. I think you can help this by outlying a clear development plan for Warbirds...this Warbirds...the one we share and devote our time to. In your post, you list six main points for WB Development, but only Bullet point #4 addresses development to the game. Nothing else touches on the issues that cause players to leave. WB Mobile may get people in the door, but we will never be able to keep them here with an occasional 'race', DoA event or even the vaunted S3s, which, as mentioned earlier, ARE in decline. If I recall correctly, the WWII arena and Dawgers World arenas were removed so that there would be no dilution of players from the Main. If this was the rational for closing those arenas, why would the Warbirds Mobile arena be separated from the Main as highlighted in point #5.

We also should address the limitations imposed on volunteer development. The only statement more tired than "Two Weeks" is the oft used statement '...that is code and Spindz doesn't have time to do it...' or some iteration to the same. Is there really only ONE person to manage the code and Generals? This very limitation has been around even with Target's reign. In my opinion this is a key point to understand, address and reevaluate. The spaghetti code has hindered many ideas and changes and having only one person with the ability to change or edit the code limits growth to only when he 'gets a chance' to make any change. I would propose finding someone who can learn the code, and invite this person to share knowledge with Spindz and have an arena dedicated to testing these edits for Main arena play. There will always be some dedicated players available to log-in to an arena and kick some settings around. Once testing is complete, there should be some evaluation period where we discuss the data...and I think this discussion should be in the FM forum or some other private, but accessible locale.

And one other point I want to touch on in this post are the graphics. You have, in your volunteer corps, some dedicated players who have learned how to model, skin, and terraform. I recently downloaded AHIII to see where they are compared to us. I still have not yet flown due to technical issues I am working through trying to run that game under Parallells on my Mac. What immediately comes forward is the gorgeous cockpits in that game. I still have not yet 'flown' but I have taxi'ed around and their terrain was good, BUT...I think they only have generic maps. If this indeed is the case, our game has an edge. We have some spectacular maps that are geographically correct. I think the terrains are the one of the gems we can highlight for Warbirds (along with the FMs). But to do this properly, we need a graphics engine update. Someone posted that an update to 2006 standards would help, but if you're serious with keeping Warbirds around '...for a long time...', then some technology update is long overdue. I posted in another forum a GTA-V PS4 video showing an Antanov landing on a carrier. The graphics were stunning! There is NO reason why a PC game today should lag that far behind a console 'driving' game. The consoles are going to win if we do not, can not keep up.

I will end with that for now, as I have been writing and editing this post for three hours.

I want to see our game grow, and to do so, we need to change our stale gameplay and outdated graphics and give developers the tools to create. I do not mean to offend anyone with my long-winded post, but I have to vent.

<pouring another dram for all, and pulling the cork on a dry red for me>

Great post Sanai.

Unfortunately, the turds arent going to copy it and forward it to Wild Bill so he will likely never see it.

On the code issue, i was teaching myself C++ by messing with the Warbirds code and learning a lot.

So there was some light at the end of the code tunnel.

But as Bill himself as said several times, Warbirds player base is now Old and Small. And he wants to make it as easy as possible for the Ancient to succeed in Warbirds. Personally I think he underestimates the Elderly. My dad flew my FMs pretty well until 3 days before he died at 75 last year.

Sorry for the loss of your Dad Dawger.

I have been able to relearn your FMs at 70 so if I can do it anybody can. My main issue has been the lack of enjoyment in flying in the MA which led to me only flying S3s. Unfortunately without some time in the MA or other arenas I didn't get enough time in to stay sharp and it showed in the S3s. I decided it was time to hang it up because it just wasn't as much fun as it used to be. I'll stay in touch through the boards but I honestly don't know if I will come back or not. Funny thing, I stayed with Air Warrior until they closed the doors on the last night then joined Warbirds right away. It has been a fun ride up until fairly recently and I do like and will miss the majority of the community.

<S>

70! Holy snike Briar....had no idea (Visions of a 30 something making those planes dance!).

LOL. I attribute that to a bit of 101 proof Wild Turkey consumed while flying.

Sakai. Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. Hopefully Bill will see it and put some thought into what you have said. Well written my friend.

<S>

Briar <S> Say it ain't so...(your leaving) It was an honor and pleasure flying with you and sometimes against you. You are and always will be one of the class acts in this sim.
Enjoy the Bourbon, but if you ever feel the need to take an edge off you will be welcome to fly with us any time...

<S>

Swede- CO 416 RCAF- 127 Wing.

Thanks and back at you Swede. I may come back in the future but I definitely need some recharge time. Let me know if you ever decide to make a trip to Florida.

<S>