Elf

Thanks for vid Blitzen. I've seen this before. It is deceptively pretty in the first couple seconds. Visually interesting at first glance, but terrible in every other way. The escorts are so close they'd likely be fragged by any hit to the carrier. They also look like they are sitting still and the water is "flowing" around them. In short everything wrong with the modern day video game industry. They don't understand their source material or the subject they are representing. Hope my comments are NOT taken as a personal criticism! lol.

Since we are all dreaming, I thought I'd add to the list. I want a carrier operations simulation. The carriers, and the naval environment, the ships are your map. Everything else is water. Weather is key, night ops are super challenging and unique. That implies a flight sim, but I think what could set this project apart from the rest of the pack and carve a niche in the market is a focus on hyper-realistic and immersive WWII carrier operations. With the right engine, physics etc, "all the things" it will be a cool flight sim, but without an equal measure of attention to the unique Naval Aviation story it will just feel like another flight sim. Carriers are what make Combat Pilot special. Carriers are described as floating cities, complete with everything you'd need to live. Every digital carrier I've flown from has been a simply modeled 3D asset with no life, not anywhere near the real thing. No sense of action or purpose or environment other than to take off and maybe land. Just flying around a carrier in peace time is an intense, challenging, rewarding experience if done correctly, and the IJN and USN approached the concept very differently. Telling THAT story in a sim would be pretty special. So to that end, a focus on shipboard life and a living carrier is key. That idea is a can of worms that isn't worth me going into, but my dream is to see it one day.

I'd love to see Midway but I feel like jumping into that as the first battle, if that is what Combat Pilot in fact matures into, is going to the peak of the carrier war right off the bat. More work required to pull off a believable carrier combat experience. I think an early war approach would be more easily achieved and would allow us to ease into this, and build up to the big scenarios. So, the early carrier raids and Coral Sea. Same basic Aircraft set, and little in the way of major land based combat. Coral Sea A smaller Carrier clash compared to the grand daddy Midway. Carrier set would be simpler, only one IJN fleet at Coral Sea (Shokaku-class). Shoho would be needed to be 100%, but I'd argue modelling IJN carriers in detail is the taller task, and she's a light carrier. USN would need Yorktown and Saratoga classes, but I'd think both are necessary in any case. The bigger lift is the 2 different fleet carrier classes for the IJN at Midway. Not to mention each of the IJN carriers were unique in their own ways. Plus there was a massive fleet of ships that attended them of many different classes. Aircraft set is straight forward. F4F-3/4 SBD TBD and a search plane (though SBDs could play that role) A6M D3A B5N and a search plane The Midway operation... ...was massive in scale. While the USN had Just the Yorktown class, the action itself at Midway was so much more complex, because of the island forces. There were B-17s, B-26, F2A3, F4F-3, TBFs, SBDs, PBYs and SB2U Vindicators in action. I think that would be great to have, but the F2A3, PBYs, SB2U and all of the Army Air Corps wouldn't be necessary for a Coral Sea scenario. Don't doubt, I am all in favor of CP including all this goodness right off the bat. anyway, just my humble perspective. In the end I want it all!!!

Man, that is a stunning example of the A6M2-21. Absolutely immaculate. I had the chance to walk around a flying example of the A6M5 and sit in an F8F back in '05 at an airshow. Now I know why the A6M was off limits! Really cool that they did that walk around. I learned something today. Thanks Trooper!

Great video Trooper, thanks for posting. I knew that there was one under restoration to fly, but didn't realize they'd done so!

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Perfect. Dude I am so ready for this.

So stoked to hear about this project! Standing by to support in any way.