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B17 II Interview Update
by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson |
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A: The first job is the setting up the bomb panel to ensure the aircraft is slaved to the autopilot, and that the correct racks are enabled, and that the bomb bay doors are open. The player will then position the cross hairs over the desired point of impact and use the analogue computer of the Norden to stop any lateral or horizontal drift away from his aim point. When the indices meet, that means that where the crosshairs are pointing is where the bombs will land. The player releases the bombs at the right time, and the rest of the formation bombs on him. All the time the flak will be pounding away at the aircraft, perhaps causing damage or wounding crewmembers. The player will have to make quick calls on whether something is serious enough that he has to leave the Bombardiers position and deal with it, or whether he'll leave the AI crew to cope until after the critical release point.
 Q. Tell us about the operation of the aircraft at different levels of realism when you're over the target area from the perspective of the pilot, navigator and bombardier. A: WWII aircraft were easy to fly. They had to be, as most of the pilots were in their teens or early twenties, straight out of flying school. The B17 in particular is as docile an aircraft as you are ever likely to meet. The fighters less so, but still a lot easier than you might think after trying some other flight sims with the "realistic" flight model option. We have only one level of flight model, realistic, and yet anyone can take-off, fly a mission and land successfully with a little practice. And yet all the detail is there. Try landing a B17 with number 1 dead and feathered in a cross wind, or a P51 with the fuselage tank full and the consequent rearward CofG, and you'll see what we mean! For the navigator, the main areas of difficulty are in assessing and adjusting for wind drift, and not being able to see through cloud cover to fix your location. Both of these will be configurable. The bombardier encounters similar problems over the target. |
 Q. What is this like for the casual player? What about the hardcore player? I know that an important part of the design was to make the game accessible to as many gamers as possible, without diluting the content for hard-core flight-sim enthusiasts. A: This involved implementing some of the most sophisticated AIs ever attempted in a game. It is possible, for instance, to play a whole mission as a gunner, and leave everything else to the AI pilots, navigators, bombardiers etc. You don't need to read an inch thick manual to play B17-2. You can start with the easier aspects, and learn the finer aspects of pilotage, navigation, bomb targeting etc. For instance, you can sit back, watch and listen as the AI pilot goes through the complex engine start-up sequence, before trying it for your self in a subsequent mission. For the hardcore player, every switch, control, indicator is modelled in every aircraft. He can test the effect of starting with turbos on, having cowl flaps closed while taxing to the runway, leaving the air filters on at high altitude, leaving intercoolers hot for too long, forgetting to feather a dead engine…none of which are to be recommended! Q. Have you actually tested yet with a number of human characters manning a single bomber? What was it like? A: Groovy! But multi-player work is still in progress and won't be tested in hanger until after we hit Beta. Ask us again then ! Q. One of the big questions a few months ago involved the number of bombers we would see in a flight. Can you tell us where this stands at the moment? A: We are currently testing with 12 B17's and similar sized squadrons of allied and German fighters. However, we're still in the process of optimising the engine and this will determine a sensible maximum number of aircraft in the air. Go to Page Three
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