oh well, I didn't plan to post about this, but I guess it's a bit selfish so:
Don't hold your breath tho, it's not a campaign I'm working on or anything, it's just me toying around. of course the idea doesn't come from nowhere, I do have a plot and stuff, but that kind of things has obvious gameplay issues that can't be fixed w/o serious code editing ( I see three main ones. )
now, for the explanation, the test was to figure out:
1) how FS2 would handle very high detailled models (look closely, the F22 has a modelled cockpit, with a pilot and all )
-> FS2 fails miserably, the Zbuffer is crappy ( but the cockpit+pilot submodel has its normals flipped, that doesn't help )
2) how to make a convincing sky
-> I'm more than happy with it, it's very easy actually, just have to use the right shape for the mesh plus a cleverly done map
3) how to merge the ground and the sky flawlessly
-> currently it's a big failure ( that's why the sky pof has been moved up and you can see space between the landscape and the ground on those pics ). but it's my own fault, I'll try a circular ground mesh next time, I think that should fix the cliping pb at high altitude ( that damn Zbuffer again )
4) wanted to test the primary with ammunitions from of SCP exe.
-> great job guys, it works wonderful
5) wanted to see how gameplay would be affected with "slightly" different tbls for the ships: top speed w/o the burners for the raptor is 150, 180 with burners if I remember right., no shields, very low HP ( two or three lasers will kill you, a collision with another ship/plane will kill you too ). aliens have a big damping factor, and lower speed.
-> I'm most pleased with that:
F22vsF22 dogfight proves to be very challenging ( yes, a 1vs1 dogfight ), it's not easy following the enemy at this speed, and it's actually very fun.
f22 vs alien is even more fun: the damping is very disturbing for a human player, but for the computer it doesn't seem to be a big deal. at first it seems the ships fly the same ( that's because of the shape of the alien, in fact ), but the cool thing is that they can face you even while flying in another direction than the "I rush up your face" tactic. which makes them more dangerous. sometimes they fly dumb as usual, and sometimes they just keep turning in every direction, making funny sidestep whirling moves. makes them quite difficult to aim at, then. and it's cool. they're easier to shoot down than a f22 tho, since they're slower.
I plan to fix the bugs of that thing and release a complete mission... well, someday, but if you insist I can upload the current version, but it's full of bugs:
you can fly through the ground ( just a matter of fixing the mass of the pof in modelview actually, I think )
there's the clipping bugs on the F22
have to remove the
entries on the medium sized alien.
but other than that it's nice enough I believe.
voila, I hope you could bear with that long "essay"
