Heatblur Update - Supersize Me & Public Roadmap

[Lurker]

Is there a possibility that Heatblur will publish an updated roadmap, now that the Phantom has been announced? There are at least three upcoming modules in the pipeline that we now know about, and while the Phantom seems to be in focus I would like to know in which order they are planning to release them. I already have my favorite module (The Tomcat) and I don't particularly care about the Phantom, so I would like to know what's coming after it, if indeed that is the module that they are planning to release first. Thanks. 

P.S. I don't care about dates. I'd just like to know in what order Heatblur plans to release their upcoming modules, or indeed if they even have some kind of internal release schedule. 

[Ghost33]

5 hours ago, Lurker said:

Is there a possibility that Heatblur will publish an updated roadmap, now that the Phantom has been announced? There are at least three upcoming modules in the pipeline that we now know about, and while the Phantom seems to be in focus I would like to know in which order they are planning to release them. I already have my favorite module (The Tomcat) and I don't particularly care about the Phantom, so I would like to know what's coming after it, if indeed that is the module that they are planning to release first. Thanks. 

P.S. I don't care about dates. I'd just like to know in what order Heatblur plans to release their upcoming modules, or indeed if they even have some kind of internal release schedule. 

From what I understand we will get the F4E Phantom this year, then the Typhoon, then the second Phantom module (naval variants) and finally the A6.

[WinterH]

Yeah, can't quite link sources, but I remember Heatblur saying many times that A-6 is the last module in their pipeline, and looking at the roadmap, and the recent teaser, F-4E looks like their 2022 slot (of course, assuming all things going well). Thus, the order right now looks like F-4E, Typhoon, A-6E, Naval F-4s, probably anyway. Unless they now have multiple teams, then some of development may go in parallel maybe.

[Baco]

yeah while there are indeed separate teams, the coders are one or two so to finish modules there is a bottleneck.  remember we still have the F14A one of the two announced still in the pipelines plus maybe if ever an AI Draken... and the AI A6 + probably Tanker A6? so a naval phantom is quite far in the future yet.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Baco

[IronMike]

7 hours ago, Baco said:

yeah while there are indeed separate teams, the coders are one or two so to finish modules there is a bottleneck.  remember we still have the F14A one of the two announced still in the pipelines plus maybe if ever an AI Draken... and the AI A6 + probably Tanker A6? so a naval phantom is quite far in the future yet.

 

We only have one or two coders? That's the first time I hear about it. But maybe I was talking to ghosts all the time. Scary.

[ShinyMikey]

I'm really curious about when we are getting the AI A-6 (and KA-6D). We have seen the AI A-6 flying in ED's videos for over a year now.

[Germane]

vor 10 Stunden schrieb IronMike:

We only have one or two coders? That's the first time I hear about it. But maybe I was talking to ghosts all the time. Scary.

It's a bit OT and I don't know if you're allowed to say anything, but I'd be really interested in the organisation of HB. How many people are working on which projects?

[Baco]

21 hours ago, IronMike said:

We only have one or two coders? That's the first time I hear about it. But maybe I was talking to ghosts all the time. Scary.

Very happy to stand corrected then. And coming form THE source all I can say is thank you por straiting that out.

So can you confirm then that Times lines and road maps (as not fixed as they are in this business) have not changed too much form the loosely expected?

And can we expect a naval phantom within a two year (plus minus 6 moths) timeline?

Thanks in advance and I do understand that Times are NOT set in stone and you are not making any promises, but still some loose info would be very welcome..

 

Also clarifying the Probable order that we can expect the different modules would be very nice.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Baco

[IronMike]

On 2/5/2022 at 10:49 PM, Baco said:

Very happy to stand corrected then. And coming form THE source all I can say is thank you por straiting that out.

So can you confirm then that Times lines and road maps (as not fixed as they are in this business) have not changed too much form the loosely expected?

And can we expect a naval phantom within a two year (plus minus 6 moths) timeline?

Thanks in advance and I do understand that Times are NOT set in stone and you are not making any promises, but still some loose info would be very welcome..

 

Also clarifying the Probable order that we can expect the different modules would be very nice.

 

Order will be F4 -> Eurofighter -> A6. 

The Navy variant will come as quickly as possible after the release of the F-4E, but it is really hard to give an estimate. The team grew significantly in the recent past and is a strong and capable team, but of course, only so much can be done in a certain time. Maintenance remains for Viggen and Tomcat and then also F-4E, etc. All I can say is that we always try to work in a way that the projects rather propell each other than slow each other down, and so we will do our best to bring the Naval variant of the F-4 as quickly after release as possible. Whether that means a year afterwards or two, I cannot tell. And I would not want to set wrong expectations either. I can assure you though: anything that can land on a boat is very close to our hearts, so we'll want it ourselves as quick as you would.

Edited February 10, 2022 by IronMike

[Baco]

Thanks so very much! I was very frustrated so sorry for the bitterness. That is a lot of grate info.

 

[IronMike]

12 hours ago, Germane said:

It's a bit OT and I don't know if you're allowed to say anything, but I'd be really interested in the organisation of HB. How many people are working on which projects?

This changes a lot, depending on what is needed where. But generally everyone is capable of filling the need, so we can remain as flexible as required. I would not want to say how many on which project for 2 reasons: a) as mentioned it changes a lot and as necessary and b) it can give a wrong impression of favoring this or that quickly (which isnt at all the case). What I can tell you is this: there are always enough folks dedicated to what needs to get along, so no project suffers really from another one. To the contrary, we try to work in a manner so that ground work for say this project helps move things along more quickly with another one, and so on and so forth. To structure it in a way, so that all projects can move along as quickly as possible. This is probably not the answer you were looking for, but I hope it makes sense and suffices nonetheless.

4 minutes ago, Baco said:

Thanks so very much! I was very frustrated so sorry for the bitterness. That is a lot of grate info.

 

My pleasure! If we can help and give you more insight, always feel free to ask. I know it is hard to sometimes understand how things work from the customer point of view. And while we cannot disclose everything, we'll always try to be as open as possible.

[KomandorAdam]

IronMike and could you tell us how many people work at HB?

[IronMike]

28 minutes ago, KomandorAdam said:

IronMike and could you tell us how many people work at HB?

Unfortunately no, that is not my place to tell. We may present the team at some point - that is the core team - we also have part-time guys that are on and off, and contract external partners for certain tasks when necessary, then we get help from SMEs, testers, etc. I'll put it like this: we're not a huge company by any means, but we're also not a small team, and as of now, we have grown more than ever.

Edited February 5, 2022 by IronMike

[KomandorAdam]

It's nice if the company manages to double the number of employees every two years, we need so many modules! Hopefully Draken will come out of your studio someday, not just AI. Ps. It would be nice to see the HB crew.

[Germane]

vor 13 Stunden schrieb IronMike:

This is probably not the answer you were looking for, but I hope it makes sense and suffices nonetheless.

No no, everything fine! Thank you! 

I want to say, you do an amazing Job. In my opinion are the F14 and Viggen the best moduls in the game because you are really focused on quality and details. And I m sure the F4 and EF will be also outstanding. You have my full trust

[Dannyvandelft]

F-14D?  :ducks:

Yes!! hero!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[IkarusC42B Pilot]

Anything on a6?

[IronMike]

My apologies guys, I see how a comment of mine was easily misunderstandable, and edited it out, and deleted some of your replies that quoted it.

To re-affirm: F4 -> Eurofighter -> A6. What else the rather distant future may hold, no one can tell yet, would have been the much better formulation. My apologies again, if anyone got their hopes up over me talking clumsy.

[LanceCriminal86]

[Qiou87]

9 hours ago, IronMike said:

To re-affirm: F4 -> Eurofighter -> A6. What else the rather distant future may hold, no one can tell yet, would have been the much better formulation. My apologies again, if anyone got their hopes up over me talking clumsy.

Hi and thank you for the transparent communication. As a guy eagerly awaiting the A6 (flying off the boat, staying low to drop bombs and hunt SAMs, what's not to love?), may I ask for the reason why this module has been delayed apparently? I use the word delayed because it was announced early last year, first as AI then as flyable module.The EF was added after your partnership with TG. And F4 was announced in January 2022. But somehow, F4 is closer to release than the others?

I am mostly curious, I have no issues to wait, I know it takes a lot of work. The A6 is a complex machine with side-by-side multirole with a specific AI to play the role of BN, when the F4 has a lot of similarities with the F14 that could make it a bit easier for your team to develop I guess (RIO in the back -> Jester is already there). I am also not oblivious to the fact the F4 is the safer bet financially for you. But if you have any insights into the reason why the A6 will be the slowest of all these 3 programs to come out, I would really welcome it.

[Lurker]

@Qiou87 I too would be curious for the reasoning on how HB have decided their release schedule, but I doubt we will get a more forthcoming answer from the one we already have. And it's a pretty extensive one to boot and makes quite a bit of sense to me. 

[Dragon1-1]

To me, it seems it was not delayed. The F-4 was kept under wraps for a long time, and now it's unveiled, it's said to be close enough to ready to hope for a 2022 release. HB was always clear about the Intruder not even having been started (the AI model was) when they announced it. So, it's just a matter of a different announcement timeline. 

[WinterH]

I think, or at least it appears to me like, many of you people may not have followed things as closely as some of us did. But already immediately after showing us the A-6 in ED's video, Heatblur said that A-6 is really quite distant-ish in future, and not the first module we will see coming from them. Also when they have published the public roadmap on Trello about maybe a year-ish ago, it was listed after two unknown modules as the 3rd and final one. It's just we have come to find out one by one that the other two were Eurofighter and Phantom, and the Phantom's card on Trello had "2022" label on it for quite a while.

Besides, in an ED interview some months ago, Kate said in answer to "DCS Phantom when?", something along the lines of "oh, yes, soon enough too", and Bignewy said on discord that F-4 is coming but from a 3rd party and not ED themselves. Many of us put 2 and 2 together and realized that it is probably Heatblur's first module in line, only waiting to be announced

[IronMike]

On 2/11/2022 at 1:29 PM, WinterH said:

I think, or at least it appears to me like, many of you people may not have followed things as closely as some of us did. But already immediately after showing us the A-6 in ED's video, Heatblur said that A-6 is really quite distant-ish in future, and not the first module we will see coming from them. Also when they have published the public roadmap on Trello about maybe a year-ish ago, it was listed after two unknown modules as the 3rd and final one. It's just we have come to find out one by one that the other two were Eurofighter and Phantom, and the Phantom's card on Trello had "2022" label on it for quite a while.

Besides, in an ED interview some months ago, Kate said in answer to "DCS Phantom when?", something along the lines of "oh, yes, soon enough too", and Bignewy said on discord that F-4 is coming but from a 3rd party and not ED themselves. Many of us put 2 and 2 together and realized that it is probably Heatblur's first module in line, only waiting to be announced

[Сиваш]

I still do not understand when the A-6 AI will be released, or will it be released as a full-fledged module?