Just Flight – Battle Over Europe Page 3

By SimHQ on February 18, 2004 in _air, hide

Q. Has anything been done to enhance AI behavior?

A. Only Maddox Games may modify AI routines in Forgotten Battles, so BoE users will see no unique changes in this aspect of the game. However the free 1.22 patch did come out with some Western Front specific enhancements, which you will notice in BoE, like changes to formation AI.
Additional AI changes are included with Oleg’s upcoming Ace’s Expansion Pack (AEP). Battle Over Europe is fully compatible with AEP, and AEP users will notice additional changes in plane behavior when playing BoE campaigns.

Q. Is your offline dynamic campaign the same as what came with IL2:FB but consist of west front data? If not what improvements have been added to yours?

A. There are certainly many improvements over the stock dynamic campaigns that shipped with Forgotten Battles. Our main goal was to create a much more believable, immersive environment, which made you feel as you were really at war. This was achieved by working on many different things.

We’ve spent many months rewriting and testing the mission briefings and debriefings, which now combine to create a much more diverse and involving impression. The missions themselves should also feel more refined and exciting, as we have more variety in ground targets and enemy air opposition. The overall ground situation has been changed drastically, and you will now see the fighting along the front lines as you fly over them, and much more exciting ground action altogether in the missions. We’ve also spent a lot of time balancing the gameplay and trying to make sure that the missions you fly are all diverse and exciting, virtually eliminating the chance that consecutive missions will feel repetitive or that you’ll feel that you attack the same target over and over again.

Q. How will the mission briefings be improved?

A. The mission briefings are one of the most considerable improvements in the project. Out of all project tasks we’ve probably spent the most time on this one. Compared to the stock briefings in IL-2:Forgotten Battles, our briefings are much more detailed, varied and to the point. For example, here’s the briefing from one of the missions. I’ve just grabbed a random briefing from one of the folders; this is from the US campaign in the Ardennes:

“Gentlemen! Target for today is going to be Dochamps. We continue to seek out enemy planes in the air and on the ground, and as the area has seen increased amount of fighting in the recent day there is a high chance of encountering enemy planes in the air. This area is just one of several high profile targets the enemy may attack, but considering their activity in the past several days I think your chances of seeing enemy planes are pretty high. However whether they’ll be fighters, Jabos or bombers is anyone’s guess. Good luck!”

For comparison, a standard IL-2:FB briefing would say: