AndyHill

AFAIK = As Far As I Know _________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

It's not even about differential braking, it's about having a brake axis at all. I prefer stomping on my foot to brake the plane to pressing a button on the keyboard. The fact that toe-brakes are a trivial feature is the very reason they should be included ASAP. Something like coding proper ATC instructions would (although quite nice) be a monster of an operation compared to adding an axis for toe brakes. The pilot's head moves inside the cockpit in relation to where you're looking at. That's a neat feature, but if I had to choose between toe-brakes and a neat feature like that I'd prioritize toe-brakes every time, since it actually has an effect on how the sim works. I could code the toe-brakes for myself through Lua exports in probably less than an hour testing included, but I'm not going to redo my pedals' wiring just for Lock on. The airbrake AFAIK is just an on/off button, at least it is so in an F-16. BTW, I don't know about toe-braking in Russian planes since they had a peculiar system in place during WW2, but AFAIK at least A-10 and F-15 should have it. It might very well be different in the Russian planes, because it's hard to understand why ED would've left it out when they programmed the fantastic new physics model (and cross-wind landings) on the Su-25. _________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

Well I think take off and landing are pretty important parts of any simulator. Taxiing is just a bonus (unless you're on the Kuznezov), but I think the part where you get off the runway so that the next guy can land is a pretty important part of a flight. ED have added a number of neat axis functions already, I just don't understand why brakes aren't on the list. I think it's pretty much a standard feature in modern simulators. ________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

Swingkid's generator is free AFAIK. The only problem is that it's not ready for download yet. You can download an early version of his previous generator, but it's pretty much a technology demonstrator only. I think what he's working on now will be very different. _________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking! ________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

Being unrealistic isn't so much of an issue, since in reality the flights could be redirected if necessary. Since Lock on doesn't do that the next best thing is to give the player the means to do so himself. I don't think a scripted campaign does a very good job of simulating a real pilot's role in a war, since the entire effort is halted until the pilot completes a set of mission objectives. In dynamic campaigns (many of them at least) the player is just one pilot and his actions have no more impact than for example the AI flights in the air during the same missions. The one thing that is so badly missing in the scripted campaign is the tactical decision making. Perhaps pilots don't just choose what targets to strike on the fly, but sometimes circumstances certainly force a change of plans. Perhaps the primary target is too heavily defended and the correct shoice is to abort and go home or divert to a secondary target. Perhaps you're unlucky and stumble upon an enemy strike package and its escorts on the way and the mission turns into a hectic run for cover. I kind of think that being a fighter pilot in modern air combat (not referring to the sim, at least the way it's at the moment) is mostly about making quick tactical decisions based on information from different sources. Perhaps I'm wrong, I've never flown a fighter myself, but in Lock on that aspect pretty much doesn't exist. After one or two tries you know exactly what to do, you just try it enough times until you finally succeed. Randomness in missions and branching campaigns help somewhat, but the replayability value isn't too high unless the campaign is already fairly dynamic. Any real percont with decent capabilities at building missions can create better missions than average dynamic campaign generators, the problem is what to do when the mission is over and you need to have hte next mission. Until I'm rich enough to hire a couple of 24/7 mission designers for my personal use I'm going to need a dynamic campaign generator for that. _________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

Yes you can have missions with extra units fighting in Lock on and you might even go watch the battle unfold. What's the point, however? How the fight goes has absolutely no relevance to anything. Not having a couple of extra mavs to assist the ground forces doesn't make difference to anything except perhaps your personal kill count. And at least for me that's not so much of a difference at all, especially since there are kills I HAVE to get or I'll be stuck in the mission until I manage to complete the objectives. It would be very different if the ground battle actually had some meaning in the bigger picture. I might even have to divert from my original objectives to stop an enemy breakthrough. Interesting gameplay situations are born from a complex environment with lots of different factors influencing each other in a meaningful way. The overall radio silence is a big minus, but I don't think the interaction with the environment can be truly immersive if the only actually meaningful thing is the group of 4 tanks that must be destroyed in order to get to the next mission. _________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

Don't get your hopes too high, but there are chances of seeing a dynamic campaign in Lock on, possibly even before version 1.2. ________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have differential braking with toe-brake functionality

Awesome news. Although I must admit I started thinking about how much CPU power these new features are going to require. When are you going tell about the new toe-brake feature? ________________________________________________________ Lock on must have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

All the things are already necessary because of A-10 and Su-25. The Hokum will just make them even more important and underline any issues in the ground war. _________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

Don't give up on the dynamic campaign. It's doable, it's being worked on and it will be good especially if ED fix some specific issues. _______________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe-brake functionality with differential braking

Something to play (=dynamic campaign).

Swingkid is actually working on a campaign of his own. I don't know of ED's plans for a dynamic campaign in the future but Swingkid's work has already proven very useful in identifying several key issues to fix before a dynamic campaign can really work well in Lock on or any successor. If he gets enough of ED's attention you'll get a lot of important fixes for the simulator in addition to an interesting dynamic campaign. Check out this thread for things that might be and why they might not be: http://lockoncampaign.com:8811/board/index.php?a=topic&t=61 I think ED could do a lot for the SW2 campaign with relatively little effort and they'd get something substantial in return. ________________________________________________________ Lock on must have toe-brake functionality with differential braking!

I understand that at the moment some of the settings need to be mission controlled so that for example targets would appear even at with low detail levels. The target diamond did appear in a CAS mission. Note for the dynamic campaign design: the caret might only appear sometimes when certain conditions were met or more or less randomly. _______________________________________________________ Lock on must have toe brake functionality with differential braking

Yes, definitely a separate option to force the player to use a specific payloads AND really global preferences (at least difficulty options) that can't be overridden by the mission designer. BTW, was the target diamond (in the A-10) supposed to be there or did it appear because I unlocked the missions? _______________________________________________________ Lock on must have toe-brake functionality with differential braking

If Lock-on had CAS aircraft such as A-10 or SU-25 sound files and the triggers would be awesome. It'd be fun to get a call for help during a CAS patrol from ground forces in need of assistance or perhaps get a message when a SEAD flight dispatches a SAM telling you that you're free to go. Same thing for the higher flying stuff; how about for example an AWACS flight calling for help or sending you to assist friendly ground pounders getting attacked by fast movers? Nah, probably just too dull. _______________________________________________________ Lock on must have toe-brake functionality with differential braking

Strange. I can't say for sure, but any tracks that don't have the Su25 in them seem to work ok even if I happen to pull the gear down etc. I'm not completely certain about this, however, perhaps I'll test a little more if I have the time.

Well if we're talking about usability errors I'd like to point out that if an option isn't available there must be some visual cues (like a grayed out button for example) and preferrably an explanation. It took me a while to realize that changing loadouts wasn't possible because of the classification issue instead of just being a bug on my computer. ________________________________________________________ Lock on must have toe brake functionality with differential braking!

Being able to change the loadout is a fundamental feature and I can't begin to understand why it's disabled in classified campaigns. It should be a separate option reserved for special cases. ________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe brake functionality with differential braking

I don't know if this has been brought up before, but Lua commands such as lowering gear or flaps get through when playing track files and usually result in planes crashing and other problems. Maybe an option to disable Lua IMPORT functions during track playback? The export functions are useful for testing gauges during track playback so I wouldn't want to get rid of them. ________________________________________________________ Lock on must have toe brake functionality with differential braking!

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!! Hmm this of course means that ALL the planes will get differential braking? ________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe brake functionality with differential braking

I'm just wondering if a true collimation HUD focused at 25-30 meters will work properly for weapons aiming? ________________________________________________________ Lock on MUST have toe brake functionality with differential braking

Are there going to be edited tracks for viewing? I'm building a home cockpit and at the moment I'm testing servos and LCD displays. The best way to test is to watch tracks and observe how the instruments react, I've been through all the included tracks and although nice they're getting a bit old. Just watching the track would be great, but to be useful in my tests it really needs to be recorded by someone actually flying. Lock on must have toe brake functionality with differential braking!

Toe brake functionality with differential braking. Lua export for radar on AND radar off separately. Lua export for laser on AND laser off separately, including laser override function. Lua export of different light indicators (gear, laser etc.) Lots of other neat stuff. Lock on must have toe brake functionality with differential Braking!

Check out this bad boy: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4221&link_number= Bigfoot, if that's the 213T I think you're going to like it. The response time issue seems to differ from person to person, but I for example don't have problems with 25ms. You'll have to try it yourself, though.