impressions about the new maps :o)

[lowfighter]

I got the '46 yesterday and today I hade two recon http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif flights on Burma and Manchuria.A couple of thoughts:
Burma:
-many different NEW textures which bring the map very much alive. That's great! Some of the "crop fields" textures look a bit artificial to me, but that's rather subjective...
-a very very very nice feature: as you fly you see here and there an isolated house/farm or even just a small bunch of palms. Again it brings a lot of life to the map, unlike some other maps where you see signs of human presence only in the villages and towns. Some of the isolated houses are right at the river shore.
-I've got still to visit the airfields, the one on which I landed located about northest edge of the map has a great parking location, and very handy to populate.
So much about Burma, of course it was just a 20 minute flight following a river...
Manchuria:
-I like the fact that all the textures up to now (except some of the Burma ones) are on this map. So I've seen there fields looking like those on Normandie here, like on Berlin map and like Northwest Europe.
-the map has some nice village or town positions on slope of hills.
-at least where I landed (but I think also somewhere else) the airfield is very close to a village. The village is again on a slope, it's lovely when you take off or land and park.
-there is on some spot a couple of little but steep hills surrounded by the plain with a cobbweb of rivers and some little lakes
-there are still some stretches of land with the boring texture we see on early maps like Stalingrad for example.
I've got to fly also on Kiev and Khalkin-Gol...

What are your impressions? And some nice spots to visit on the new maps? http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[lowfighter]

I got the '46 yesterday and today I hade two recon http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif flights on Burma and Manchuria.A couple of thoughts:
Burma:
-many different NEW textures which bring the map very much alive. That's great! Some of the "crop fields" textures look a bit artificial to me, but that's rather subjective...
-a very very very nice feature: as you fly you see here and there an isolated house/farm or even just a small bunch of palms. Again it brings a lot of life to the map, unlike some other maps where you see signs of human presence only in the villages and towns. Some of the isolated houses are right at the river shore.
-I've got still to visit the airfields, the one on which I landed located about northest edge of the map has a great parking location, and very handy to populate.
So much about Burma, of course it was just a 20 minute flight following a river...
Manchuria:
-I like the fact that all the textures up to now (except some of the Burma ones) are on this map. So I've seen there fields looking like those on Normandie here, like on Berlin map and like Northwest Europe.
-the map has some nice village or town positions on slope of hills.
-at least where I landed (but I think also somewhere else) the airfield is very close to a village. The village is again on a slope, it's lovely when you take off or land and park.
-there is on some spot a couple of little but steep hills surrounded by the plain with a cobbweb of rivers and some little lakes
-there are still some stretches of land with the boring texture we see on early maps like Stalingrad for example.
I've got to fly also on Kiev and Khalkin-Gol...

What are your impressions? And some nice spots to visit on the new maps? http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[rr9]

Something I noticed while flying in a server where this Burma map was used: you get an interesting dogfight setting when clouds are set very low in FMB. Then clouds are very close to hill tops. During a dogfight it's possible to escape into a cloud, but you have to be very careful not to crash. In some places there may be just a little visibility between trees and clouds. Sometimes hills are partly covered by these clouds.

[lowfighter]

That's nice rr9, perhaps it's happening because Burma itself is situated at a certain altitude.
It brings to my mind that I tried once to cheat the cloud altitude by changing in the mission file the cloud height to 100-200m, but as I went back to the game and play it, it was restored to the (minimum in game) 500m, too bad.

[Dunkelgrun]

Yup, it happens on the Burma map because the Imphal Plain (NW corner) is at a higher elevation (300m? - can't remember exactly) than everything east of the mountains. Ian Boys didn't think that it would be possible to have water features at altitude but managed to solve it.
One trade off is that there are no bridges on the Imphal Plain, just fences where they should be. Bridges can (apparently) only be positioned at zero alt.

Cheers!<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

'Will there be any bartenders up there in Heaven?
Will the pubs never close, will the glass never drain?'

[Tater-SW-]

The manchuria map was another lost opportunity, IMO. Rename it something russian, and it could have been released in the original Il-2. I haven't fully explored it, but I haven't found anythig that pushes the envelope on that map.

The only problem with Burma is that Ian didn't make it, I dunno, 5000x5000km http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

tater

[lowfighter]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Tater-SW-:
... but I haven't found anythig that pushes the envelope on that map.


tater </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Neither did I, but the intrinsic plain-sea-hill-forest-habitation geography on it makes it to my nevertheless quite attractive. I still have to explore it, to the east and west...perhaps I'll come with a couple of screens.
Talking of Burma, another feature I like very much is the presence of small openings with sloppy villages on the jungle hills http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/partyhat.gif

[Dunkelgrun]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Tater-SW-:

The only problem with Burma is that Ian didn't make it, I dunno, 5000x5000km http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

tater </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Mmmm, that would have been nice, although I can't see too many of the dogfight Johnnies agreeing with you. I don't suppose there are a lot of folks who have the patience to fly from Imphal to 'Aberdeen' as it is. The airfields on the eastern edge have had to be brought in from a long distance further east due to the size of the map anyway, imagine if they were another hundred miles of so further on!

Cheers!<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

'Will there be any bartenders up there in Heaven?
Will the pubs never close, will the glass never drain?'

[Tater-SW-]

That was my sideways wish for an entire PTO done by ian, heheh.