| Editorial: VERBOSE RESPONSE for LOMAC |
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Dale Snodgrass (F14 veteran) said in a Sim HQ interview about some flight-sims he'd been sent:
For a real plane, people will put in the time it takes. I'm sure he didn't balk at the more than 3 days it took to learn how to fly an F14. But for a modern sim, users want a quick jump-in and that can be done with a Verbose and Responsive sim. In playing IL2/PF you need only 3 keys and the simplest joystick manoevres to get in the air. Outside of that simplicity, the valuable thing we get back from IL2/PF is all those messages on the Right Side. Throttle 90% Flaps: Combat Flaps: Takeoff Gear up For practically every keystroke/throttle adjustment there's a response from IL2/PF (I'd reject the IL2/PF speedbar - a modern HUD gives the exact same info) When I fly a modern jet, I want to get a response to every key I hit so that I know exactly what I've done. Why not? It's modern. In Real Life you do get responses. Maybe not in Big Bold Letters, but in a sim - Why not? Hitting a '6', I should get a message= Air to Ground Mode: Mk82 Hitting a 'D', I should get a message= A2G: Cycle to Mk84 Even better, Verbose Response handles most especially well the different Radar or Combat modes that are available. It introduces new modes easily and the new user learns the name of those modes. It would maximize learning which is what we're here doing for the new user. For a study sim, of course this has draw-backs for true pure learning. But if someone is away from a modern flight-sim for some time or especially never tried one before - Verbose Response is a strategy and a Marketable Feature. Interested users could get a lot of value out of a sim without having to 'book up' deeply. And if someone wants to play off-line ALWAYS like that, it's their 50 bucks. To make it optional just put a great big toggle button that says "Verbose Response". For on-line stuff, I'm hard-core and would prefer to see Verbose Response hard-coded out. Others might want a variable where the host decides. Everyone says that IL2/PF has taken things to the next level. You can jump into a 75 different(albeit simple) planes including those complex bombers. Verbose Response is part of the reason why. The basic 'get into the air' training can take care of itself including a lot of the basics for the popular dogfighting. The new user can learn the Advanced stuff after the hands have been trained. We'll attract not the casual but the interested users who, armed with a key card, will be part of the community. And that's a good thing. |