Auto Pilot and Fast foward

[Anonymous]

An optional autopilot feature that can land, take off, and fly the plane to the mission objective so that the player can concentrate on combat. A fast-forward feature would take time off menial tasks like landing and taking off when the plane is on autopilot. 

[343KKT_Kintaro]

49 minutes ago, Anonymous said:

An optional autopilot feature that can land, take off, and fly the plane to the mission objective so that the player can concentrate on combat. A fast-forward feature would take time off menial tasks like landing and taking off when the plane is on autopilot. 

 

Agreed! But, please, only if the lower levels of realism settings are on. With the highest level of realism settings being on... impossible to have the autopilot and the fast-forward feature (please).

Other than that, for obvious reasons the online servers won't allow the fast-forward feature... unless the game master says... "to your attention please, you all prepare for hyperspace jump"... 🤣

 

 

[Anonymous]

7 hours ago, 343KKT_Kintaro said:

 

Agreed! But, please, only if the lower levels of realism settings are on. With the highest level of realism settings being on... impossible to have the autopilot and the fast-forward feature (please).

Other than that, for obvious reasons the online servers won't allow the fast-forward feature... unless the game master says... "to your attention please, you all prepare for hyperspace jump"... 🤣

 

 

I meant that the autopilot would be something that the player could turn on and off by pressing the “a” key.

[Major Lee]

I like how Kawahito handled time jumps and time compression in European Air War and then in Strike Fighters. ALT-N is jump to next encounter, there is also a key for speeding up time (2x, 4x, 8x). These sims also incorporated "autopilot" that will fly you to each waypoint. Another feature they both have is a simple wing leveler, which will put your plane into flat and straight flight. (I don't think it works if you're in a stall or spin... 😬) 

Personally, I use alt-n because I simply don't have the time, patience or desire to fly a 300+ mile mission in real time. If I want to just fly around and look at scenery, I'll get the latest MSFS, install some terrain add-ons and fly the Alps. Combat Pilot is a combat sim, set in the Pacific. I'm sure the water, islands and scenic elements of CP will be epic, but this is the Pacific Ocean and terrain other than water is relatively limited. I had a boat on Lake Michigan for years; open water gets monotonous, fast. My interest in CP is highly contextual; early war fighter combat in a time period that is somewhat underrepresented in flight simulation. 

[Boom]

Long 'strike' flights over water are a challenge in any Pacific combat sim. There is only so much to look at. One could improve skills in formation flying, but even that is likely to become tedious in a campaign after a while.

I have no problem with there being a 'waypoint' key (player selected) that would advance the flight to the general area of the strike eg within 10 mins flight time to target. That would give the player time to arm bombs and so on before possible intercepts by enemy fighters, get settled information, provide targeting instructions (if leader) and so on.

But I would not like to see autopilot controlling carrier take-off and landing sequences. That's where the personal skill of the player comes to the fore. And the thrill of flying off a carrier, forming up and heading off to target is a big part of carrier operations. As would be landing back on deck on mission completion, especially so if your aircraft is damaged.

[CPT Crunch]

Definitely need a auto leveler in all modes, I'd be pissed in more than one way on those multi hour sorties.

[343KKT_Kintaro]

On 9/24/2024 at 2:02 AM, Anonymous said:

I meant that the autopilot would be something that the player could turn on and off by pressing the “a” key.

 

I mean that this would be fine in the lesser levels of realism, not in the highest levels of realism. Chosing "high" in the realism settings should prevent from using your "a" key. But this is only my opinion. The developers will make their own decisions.

 

[ZachariasX]

One could also have a command that just brings/teleports you to the place of action if shooting or dropping bombs/torpedoes is all there is for you to flying missions. Which I think is fair, as it would be great if CP could cater a wide array of play styles.

I agree that flying places in combat sims most often is nothing but an awful grind. But it is my impression that this is due to the openly (and sometimes deliberately) neglected simulation of the sim world as such. It is evident that the sim world is mostly an inconvenience to making the whole thing. It is indeed pointless to have long flights if the only difficulty is orientation on a rather bland, artificial and stale map.

Yes flying over open water can come across as boring, but finding your carrier again with nothing but the tools at hand pilots had back then, especially when you run out of daylight might that add some entertainment. Also weather is local and variable. Should such be a challenge in the game, or shall it be WT through and through, „but realistic!“?

Done properly, what so far was a boring grind can become interesting. Given MSFS which incorporates mostly the most boring of all aircraft (lame GA and tubeliners) in the most boring of all ways (no dakkadakka), it still is the by far most successful of all sims. If there is a choice between including an interesting sim world or just some of the same combat sims always had, I‘d recommend to choose wisely.

How one would have a high fidelity flight sim without a high fidelity environment is beyond me.

[Bremspropeller]

On 9/30/2024 at 3:29 AM, 343KKT_Kintaro said:

I mean that this would be fine in the lesser levels of realism, not in the highest levels of realism. Chosing "high" in the realism settings should prevent from using your "a" key. But this is only my opinion. The developers will make their own decisions.

Why? Don't use the key then.

If I have to number two on a 4h round trip mission, I won't divebomb into a bucket. I'll hit "a" (or whatever), get up and visit the throne.

Same for a "skip to next waypoint" or "spawn near IP" function. People have real jobs and don't have time for tryharding flightsims. Maybe introduce a check-option to enable or disable this feature and have the option available for server-hosts. This would be the best of both worlds.

[343KKT_Kintaro]

Server hosts would block (or not) the option, that's one of the reasons why levels of realism do exist in flight sims (or video games in general).

Cheers!

[Feldgrün]

I like having the option to fast forward, but what the devs include is balanced between must have and like to have.

I'm all for having more options (like clickable controls), but some things are more important (FM, DM, realistic AI, graphics, etc.) so I'd rather those were developed first. CloD is a good example of a sim that got a lot of things right, but some important things wrong which tainted the entire sim.