Hi Gozr,
I'm sorry but I disagree with your view that these improvements, little or big, would dramatically increase the client base of LockOn, online or offline...or combat flight simulation games in general (without restarting the debate of sim vs game).
Although we see a constant drip-feed of people new to lockon, which I think is excellent, this isn't down to feature creep necessarily, but the fact that people tried LO when it first came out, had a rig that caved under the CPU load, and only recently decided to re-try it with a newer rig. My point being...these aren't people new to the genre, they are people who are giving it a second go...and not directly as a result of features (bug fixes may be but...).
Am I looking forward to BS? Yes, I am keen to fly it.
Am I disappointed it won't add anything to the Su-25/T (which I fly exclusively at the moment)? No, not really. BS is about BS, not the other stuff.
Am I thrilled to hear about other developments like the mission editor? Hell yes, cos LO:FC editor is frustratingly tedious for designing server/online missions (arrrrgggh the repitition of adding fecking client planes and waypoints).
Your biggest request seems to be turbulence/weather/environmental dynamics and immersion. We already have a degree of wind behaviour in LO, albeit not sophisticated, but...is it really more important than:
the AI ground vehicles behaving like retards
mission editor requiring 1000 clicks to put 12 player a/c in an online mission
new terrain mesh and textures for a more realistic low-level experience
many other things we can all think of.I appreciate this issue is important to you, and everyone's issue is important to them, but...can you please let it go? Its pretty clear from previous posts in this thread that it isn't other peoples priority either, nor will in radically increase sales/revenue for ED, else they would be doing it so please....let it go.
Brewber out.
EDIT: Wags, thanks for info, I'm sure we're all disappointed that it all takes time but...I am equally sure we will all appreciate the product when it arrives. I am thrilled to bits to hear the ME is getting revamped/redesigned, cos the current FC one removes my will to live if I am having to create a 12 a/c strike mission for my bomber wing, and terrain etc is getting improved. I sincerely hope that hitting things like trees and powerlines will damage the BS and that we can't fly through stuff like that...and that the AI can't see us through the terrain etc...but I am sure the team has considered these things already :)
Keep up the hard work, but please don't make BS the next "Duke Nukem Forever" ;)