Sunday, June 10, 2007 09:22 PM

A Jihading We will Go A Jihading We will go...
Flanker 2.0 a Report from the 1998 E3 Show by the Pink Flamingo Pilot.

Screenshots...............Screenshots..............Screenshots.

Hi, my name is PAPA DOC Aka the Pink Flamingo Pilot....unbiased Im not...if your looking for unbiased....look elsewhere. Me Im so bloody Pumped to see and fly Flanker 2.0 that Im actually at a loss for words....not often does that happen. Meeting and talking to Jim, Nick and Igor has done nothing but reinforce my feeling that Flanker 2.0 is gonna kick some serious ass. Why...? Well consider a few things that will be in Flanker 2.0....also I know of some things that are being considered...but we cant announce until its seen whether it can be done in time.

Anyways on to the things I think I can talk about...hopefully I wont get in trouble. Truly I wont do anything to harm the kindness shown to me by everyone from Mindscape to Eagle to Flying Legends...they were all very very cool. And EXTREMELY forthcoming..... Oh and before we go on...NO I DO NOT WORK for them...though being a runner of Jack Daniel's beer between Kentucky and Russia sounds appealing. YES it (Jack Daniel's Beer) exists...thanks to everyone that mailed in. Nick pay Igor....hehehe.

Here are some bits and pieces of what I have put together....some of the goals of Flanker 2.0.

First and foremost bring the graphics into the mainstream....from what I saw running on a P-2 300mhz 128ram and an i740 3D card (WHAT!!! NO VOODOO!!!)..Goal Achieved in spades. The terrain I saw was Stereographic Satellite mapped and the terrain graphics will be mip mapped so that it will look great from all altitudes. Also Igor mentioned that not only will there be Power Lines to fly around but Bridges to fly under...MY OH MY. The build I was flying did not have ground objects so I didn't get the chance to see the buildings and such...The terrain even without the objects looked terrific....I didn't see any clouds though that will most definitely be in the sim. I will have a section on enhancements....and the clouds belong there.....hehe. The Americanski carrier Vinson was not complete yet....but even in this version it was launching and recovering planes...F/A-18's and F-14's...and looked to almost be inviting me to Load some Kh-29's for some fun...alas this build didn't allow that.<VBG> The Russian Admiral of the Fleet Kuznetsov (sp?) was looking very nice.

Screenshots I had hoped to have up will have to wait...Jim will be sending me a Jaz Disk with all the shots. (as an aside the i740 chipset was not up to date driverwise...so I suggested to Jim that we do the screenshots with a puter that have them look as good as they should..which btw for the cynics does NOT mean a SUN<VBG>) it was truly obvious that the graphics and sim were having a driver problem..(as another aside I was well and truly shocked to see that we were NOT running Dual Voodoo2's gotta wonder about that, that's the shit and would have been my choice, Im gonna email Voodoo and ask them to send Igor some Voodoo2's hehe so he will see the light)..so even the Pro's struggle with the same driver issue's we see. Ok the graphics are well on the way to kick ass....

Make the sim more accessible...yup that's gonna happen IN SPADES . Since I don't expect any newbie's to be reading the Pink Flamingos page...HARDCORE PILOTS DO NOT FRET. NONE OF US is MORE hardcore than Igor and Nick the hardcore part of this sim is staying and will get harder...much harder. But keep in mind that to get more of the series this one MUST be successful so please attempt to not lose sight of that...it will be hardcore and appeal thru options to those of us that DON'T have 15 hours a day to fly....<VBG>.

Include a campaign engine....this I cannot comment on...discussions are continuing as to defining terms and what is possible...and fun. Repetitive missions are NOT appealing...some dynamic engines generate extremely repetitive missions...ugggh. Flanker 2.0 will have a campaign...the form will surprise you...but you will have to wait and see. Im probably the most excited about the discussions I had with Nick and Igor about the campaign engine...but revealing it will have to wait.

Upgrade the Flight Model....yes even though the flight model of Flanker 1.5 was/is the STANDARD. Flanker 2.0 will leave it behind due probably to the increased processor power available to the average owner. The flight model I flew was noticeably smoother with small deflections of the stick. The nose was not moving around jaggedly but it felt as if it were now damped for want of a better word. Nick explained that there was much more floating point math going on...not being especially well versed in tech stuff I just shook my head knowingly...while secretly going hehehehehe.

Include the Carriers both American and Russian...and bring many more active objects into the theatre. The Theatre will include the entire Black Sea region. For an example of the number of active objects being brought into the sim an AVI was made...this AVI I hope will be released....as the line of equipment was WAAAAY too long to repeat here. Larry Bond was in the Mindscape booth and him and Carl Norman were watching it with me and we were all drooling. F-117, A-10, C-130, US Cruisers....and they all had the same level of detail we have come to expect from Eagle....which is to say the best..!

Bring forward all the brilliance of 1.5 while upgrading the entire package....

Enhancements......

The biggest item for me...was the knowledge that the clouds are gonna be thick as pea soup and that Instrument Landings were gonna be required...hehehe..damn I would almost buy another entire sim for just that enhancement. Then I found out that what the would mean for Carrier ops and I just about fainted. Can you say FOG...can you say AutoLanding with you running the throttle...can you say clench your buttocks...heheh. I know you can.

AWAC'S view is gonna change radically....now you will be able to highlight an aircraft and then right click it to give it orders....hehhee..OOOOOH MY. Talk about adding functionality.

Visual Damage modeling....

The recorder stays....I didn't ask about enhancements...though I will ask for wire frames....umm.

The Scaling was itsy bitsy planes...I didn't confirm whether it would remain the only choice....I hope not. The novelty of the so-called 1:1 scaling has worn off and I miss my regular size planes. A choice for this would be great....

Approaching the Carrier is gonna be a study in frustration for those who refuse to practice if the sim is on hardest settings. hehe...this is as it should be. The Carrier deck is a small itsy bitsy spot in the ocean. The carrier will be moving...whether it will also be moving up and down is left open at this point. It was not moving in the version I was demo'ng but it was still not an easy task to line up.....just my brilliant abilities and razor sharp nerves of steel allowed me to be the first....oh yea I wont let anyone forget...hehehe.

Missiles will be behaving as they should, FINALLY....sorry Nick, Jim and Igor its been one of my pet peeves for a damn long time....heheh. An AVI of a S-300 shooting off was tremendous...with the missile being cold launched then the motor igniting...and the missile doing that missile thing...<VBG> In the Version I was using the Planes would fire missiles which would drop off the rail visibly be affected by the slipstream and then the motor would fire and boom...off it would go.

Ok now since Im not very practiced in writing reviews and more than a bit tired let me post the questions I received and see which ones I can answer.......the ones I cannot answer I removed for brevity. Sorry...I will keep trying...when I get answers I will update this page.

From Al LOBO Bergen...

1) Will the Kuznetsov steam about?

That's Admiral of the Fleet Kuznetsov to you pilgrim....and yes both of the carriers will be steaming about......

2) Will the carrier's deck pitch and roll?

Still working on that....so don't know if it will pitch and roll....

3) Which versions of the Su-27 will the player get to fly? Will the Su-27K
(Su-33) be available?

hehe...well its kind of hard to fly off the carrier without the Su-27K seeing as how we have a realistic flight model...so yes....<VBG> Remember before flaming me...that I AM President for life of the assholes of the universe.

4) Will mid-air refueling be available?

Oops sorry didn't ask....the Su-27K that was flying was equipped with a Refueling nozzle...so probably. As well its SOP to take off with min fuel then refuel.

8) Will the missile range vs altitude inaccuracy be corrected?

Yes...most certainly...Finally...<VBG>

9) Will there be overcast type of cloud? If so will the player be able to
use these clouds to his advantage. ie: by diving into the overcast to evade
enemy fighters and infra-red missiles etc.

Yes the clouds will be thick...and though I didn't ask....well hell I didn't ask so I wont answer. But I did ask how thick the clouds would be and the answer is FOG..hehehe.

11) Will Flanker 2.0 include a nice high quality paper manual? thick, and
full of info?

Yes....

12) Will there be a nice paper map included?

Good question...why don't we ask someone who is going to meet them....instead of that senile old man...damn.

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Some more questions regarding Flanker 2.0 from Bas

1)Will we finally be able to use the ILS for its intended purposes :-)
meaning: If clouds and/or fog are modeled, what are the minimum values?

Fog, Instrument conditions...sound good..?

2)Does weather affect performance of (IR)missiles?

I would imagine so but I didn't ask so its just an assumption....sorry.


3)Will the player still be able to set temperature and pressure in 2.0?

From what I understand the functionality of 1.5 is to be carried over and if changed only enhanced...but this is just an assumption....lots of assumptions..sorry.

4)Are the bugs (mentioned in Redshift's FAQ) squashed?

What bugs.....? hehe...

5)Are 'controlled crashes' possible? (i.e. can you land on roads).

According to Nick who has flown the Su-27 landing on an unprepared road is extremely unlikely....I take this to mean probably not gonna worry about building that functionality into the sim. Realize that everytime you add a feature something else does not get done or added...if you truly understand this then you begin to be careful of what you ask.

6)If possible, post a picture with the 'polygon-style' graphics option
enabled (1024*768)! (that should get the 'buzz' going on Usenet <VBG>)

The version I was flying did not have options screen to change resolutions or detail levels so I wont be able to provide this.....

9)Will the manual (hopefully *not* spiral-bound) include an "Index"? I
find that these spiral thingies tend to tear pages. After years of
abuse, the original Flanker manual is still in one piece.

Oops I think I mentioned how much I like spiral bound...<VBG>

10)HOW COME YOU ED/SSI_GUYS GET TO BE SO COOL?!

Its not something learned.....you either are or you aren't....hehehe. Course since Im not either ED or SSI or Mindscape make your own opinion....hehehe.

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Michael "Loophole" Barnes wonders aloud...<VBG> nice Callsign BTW...

2. How will the dynamic campaign work? (my guess is something like
the RMG, but with 'intelligence').

Good question that I cannot answer....

2a. Will there be resource management. (fuel, weapons, a/c, pilots)?

Yes...I think...<VBG>

Sorry for cutting off most of the questions... I just didn't want to answer some and couldn't answer others....Im unclear on some issues of what I can discuss....and on most issues just didn't get a moment to ask. Usually when we had a moment we were exhausted...and going to sleep. But I will pursue many of these questions and the ones I can answer I will. Eventually ...hell gives you a reason to come back.

Also with the screenshots I will be hopefully getting some way of doing this from Jim....hopefully..<VBG>

Related page the Questions I was supposed to answer...<VBG>

Sunday, June 10, 2007 09:22 PM