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Red Baron II FAQ last revised on November 13, 1997 This FAQ is for Sierra's World War I flight
sim Red Baron 2. I do not work for or represent Sierra On-line, so
please don't blame them for any information that I have put here. Many
of the answers were taken from posts by Icky on the Sierra Flight Sim
Forum. Icky is one of the members of the Sierra Red Baron II team.
Look for the
Q: What kind of manual will ship with Red Baron II? A: "Yup, full-blown manual. Should be just as impressive (if not more) than the one in the original. 'round 200 pages, etc." - Icky. Q: How are collisions handled? A: Specific parts of planes may be damaged by collisions with anything. This is what Icky had to say: "Yes, indeed collisions are a great factor. With the damage system we're using, it's pretty easy to get a wonderful collisions system going. I've clipped the edge of my wing on buildings and other planes when I've gotten too close watch that bridge!" "Also, when I know I'm totally up the river, I become the human bullet! Muahaha! Another good one is smacking infantry with your undercarriage (takes some practice). In our realism prefs, we allow you to turn off collisions with other planes, as some aren't as secure in their flying ability as we are..." Q: What planes will be featured in Red Baron II? A: An official list of planes for Red Baron II was released by Sierra. Showing up for the first time in the Red Baron series is the Pfalz D. XII. Missing are the Siemens-Schuckert D.III and the Fokker D.VIII. Here is the complete list. Thanks to Botswana (Sierra Flight Sim Forum moderator), Neil Haldar ( RBII producer), and Scott Rudi (RBII team member) for taking the time to supply this list.
In addition, there will be 15 non-flyable bombers. Q: Will I be able to fly multi-seat or crewed aircraft? I'd love to fly as a gunner or take a Zeppelin up with a bunch of my friends. A: This question was raised on the Sierra Flight Sims Forum. According to Icky it's something Sierra will look at for a possible expansion pack in the future. Q: What is the flight model like? A: You will be able to pick difficulty options, somewhat like the original Red Baron. A physics based "force" model will be used, similar to what you see with more recent high end flight sims such as Warbirds. "Right now I'm putting on the finishing touches of all the flight models (yes, all 40 planes have a distinct flight model). Everything is mapped out if you damage the outer part of the top wing of the N.28, you're not totally out of luck, as the ailerons were on the bottom wings, etc. What I did for each plane was look up the stats on the largest production run for each, then took the most credible info from both the factory performance specs and the actual military tests (as the factory would kind of exaggerate at times, big suprise!). Finally, we add character to the planes based on pilot's reports. The most obvious of this is the Camel's torque effects. Other characteristics are like the Albatros's lower wings folding in a dive, and other stuff." - Icky. Q: Do the Red Baron planes exhibit that same bouncing/rubber band type effect that Warbirds/Flying Corps does before you dampen the stick? I admit, I can be a bit heavy handed, but in Warbirds I was able to customize the settings a bit. A: Gordon Berg "Not that I'm aware of, but that might be something they haven't gotten around to yet? The plane does exhibit the same bounce that FC does, though. It's real easy to over fly the plane in the vertical motion, resulting in an ever increasing oscillation. It's hard not to overcompensate, but I think that's the flight model and not the joystick. The weird thing is, when in autopilot, it becomes extreme! And the wingmen do it too. I often bring it out of full AI autopilot and simply set to the waypoint AI just to get level flight out of it. I'm wondering if it's an AI bug, or was their a tactic in WWI to avoid the flak bursts? This seems to happen the most near the front and would be pretty cool if this was indeed historical. If it's not, and the AI aren't smart enough to cope with a plane's behaviour, then it's a major oversight." Icky "Yup, I'm a WB fan from WAAAY back (I believe I was one of the first 60 to sign up a few years ago when it was still "Confirmed Kill"). I love the stick scaling and deadbands that they've got set up. We're looking of applying the same philosophy to RB2... " Actually, I believe that he's flying a version where we hadn't done the trim for our planes yet, resulting in the bounce. It's probably the flight model at that point." Q: Will force feedback joysticks be supported? A: Both the CH and MS force feedback sticks will be supported.
Q: Will I be able to fly for any country? A: You will be able to fly for any of four countries (France, Britain, America, or Germany) at any time, with any unit available. Q: Will I feel like I am wrapped up in the atmosphere of the period, or is it just a bunch of missions? A: This is one area where Red Baron II looks like it will excel. Period photographs, mission briefings, and painstaking attention to detail are featured throughout the game. Q: Can I customize my own portrait in the campaign mode? A: Yes, you can even import a real picture of you in to the game. You will just have to resize it down to the proper format. Q: Will I be able to paint my plane like in Red Baron I? How will that work? A: Yes, there will be a very nice plane paint editor in Red Baron II. "Actually, the paint schemes are done on bitmaps, so anything is possible. You can make a picture of anything anywhere on your plane, use any colors in any pattern, or not a pattern... basically, you draw what you want on each part of the plane!" - Icky. Q: Will my wingman have unique records and follow me through the campaign? A: Yes! Wingman will rack up their own kill record and receive medals. You can view them through your career and see how they are doing. Q: So will I be able to see how other squads are doing in the war during a solo campaign? A: "Sure thing! At any time between missions, you can check out squadron rosters, planes, etc. as well as intelligence about other squads!" - Icky Q: Can I shoot the little infantry men that run around on the ground? A: "....you will be able to KILL them! They even scream when you do! Muahahaha!" - Icky
Q: What's this I hear about "Dynamic Campaigns" and "Live Flight models?" A: This is a reference to how the mission generator will track all activity within 20 to 50 miles (sources vary on the distance). Ground troops, vehicles, and airplanes that are in the area will react to what you do while they are carrying out their own missions. Q: How will the computer AI pilots act? A: "AI pilots have been scaled to recognize friendlies and enemies about the same time as you do. This is pretty seamless now in the game and very believable. AI will flee if damaged too much or outnumbered, or outclassed. AI Vets are pretty smart, and they don't like to get too low over enemy ground forces (obviously heheh). " - Icky. Q: Will the need to keep planes serviced be modelled in the game? A: "Some of the poorer quality squads do have some mechanical problems not caused by combat... " - Icky. Q: Some planes were notorious for flaws with different components. Some of these were fixed later on in the war. How does this work in the game? A: "Plane flaws will stay one way or the other. For example, the Albatros's lower wing was weak through its entire career, so it is in Baron. The first batch of DrI's upper wing was weak, but it was soon fixed and so in Baron you just won't see that first batch. Sorry, but time-specific plane attributes won't be implemented in the initial release..." - Icky. Q: Will the damage from a crash be the same no matter how fast you are going when you hit the ground? A: "The chances of dying from a crash increase with speed." - Icky. Q: What happens if you get captured? A: "If you're captured, you MAY be in for the rest of the war." - Icky. Q: There were times in WW I that kills were not awarded because they could not be verified. How is that handled in Red Baron 2? A: "For simplicity, victories will always be confirmed." - Icky. Q: How are medals handled? A: "Some medals are tougher to get later in the war, including the Blue Max..." - Icky. Q: Will Red Baron II be made available for the Mac? A: No, the Apple Mac will not be supported. "Why? I don't know the whole story. Something to do with sales, costs, and other things that I as a developer don't know too much about or want to!" - Icky. Q: I noticed that it says in the game specs that an Intel Pentium is required to play. What about other CPU's like the AMD or Cyrix? "It will support Pentium, Cyrix, or AMD chips. Actually, anything that's pentium-compatiable will run it. BUT both Cyrix and AMD chips are notoriously slower when it comes to floating-point math. So, graphics programs, multi-media, and other programs are great, but when you get to 90% of the sims out there, with physics models, you'll see a speed hit. Not just us, just about any sim is like this. Pentiums for some reason kick butt with floating point math, dunno why... In any case it's still very playable whichever chip you've got. THe speed decrease isn't huge or unplayable. Instead of 20-25fps, you might have to deal with 18fps... heheh" - Icky. Q: Can I chew up an enemy's plane with my prop? Sure, if you don't mind dying. To be fair, Icky did point out that "Actually, the tactic of using your prop vs an enemy rudder was used more than once, especially before machine guns were normally mounted on planes... This is actually a fairly heroic tactic used in WWII by the Soviet Air Force. You'd get big medals for doing this, even if you died in the attempt" - Icky. Q: One thing that always seems strange to me is how in some games you can fly around your own base or balloon defense batteries with impunity , while enemy planes take a beating. Is their a chance in RB 2 that you can get hit by friendly fire? "Actually, when there's a dogfight, archie should stop shooting... " - Icky.
A: ".... the bullets are real physical objects. They arc from gravity and lose momentum/killing power over distance" - Icky.
A: "Yes, there can be up to 12 planes on the ground awaiting takeoff, if you happen to jump them at the right time, and yes, if some planes are available, they'll scramble to engauge you! A word of warning, while it's incredibly fun to jump planes taking off, watch the MG emplacements they kick but at short range..." - Icky.
Q: So will Red Baron II have 3D card support? A: Not in the initial release. Red Baron II has so many ground objects in the 40,000 square miles of terrain that is modeled that they won't fit in to most 3D cards texture memory buffers. Other games like Flying Corps have far fewer active ground units and objects. Remember, Red Baron II was started way back before 3D cards were an issue. Sierra would like to include 3D support in a future release. Q: Will Red Baron II have rolling terrain? A: Absolutely! From the screenshots that I have seen, it looks like Red Baron II will not be nearly as flat as Flying Corps or Red Baron I. You will be able to use terrain and buildings to mask your approach in low level flight. Q: Ok, but what do the graphics look like? A: While not up to the standard of dedicated 3Dfx games, there is an impressive amount of detail. Planes and objects blow up with a satisflying shower of debris and flames. Dynamic lighting effects, clouds, and smoke are also available. Q: What color modes and screen resolutions will it run in? A: The pre-beta has support for 640x480 SVGA. There will be support for higher resolutions later.
However, since this isn't really a tough task, requiring only time to get hooked up, I'd think it would be a good patch feature... Perhaps rolled up with a 3D patch. Hmmmm... " - Icky. Q: What kind of frame rate will Red Baron II have? A: That has been the subject of a lot of speculation. Until the final copy comes out, no one will really know. Sierra claims that it will run well with most options on using a Pentium 166. Those that have have a pre-beta copy say that it's already better then Flying Corps initial release. Here's a quote from Gordon Berg's preview of Red Baron II at GamePen. "The press blurb that came with the pre-beta said framerates hadn't been optimized yet, so the debugging code is still most likely present and only time will tell if the released product will be smooth enough to play on. Requiring DirectX 5, the game so far only runs in 640x480x8 resolution. It didn't matter whether I set my display to 640x480 with 256 colors -- and hence full screen -- or if I kept it at my default settings of 800x600 with 16 bit color (it ran in a window when I did that); the frame rates didn't alter for the better in either setting. For what it's worth, I'm running a P200 with 48 megs of RAM, using a STB Lightspeed 128 vid card (ET6000 chipset). I will say this though, the frame rate at times were faster than the state some sims officially release themselves in (again, Flying Corps comes to mind), but it still clearly needs some tweaking." Q: Will there be support for fixed views? A: There will be three different types of viewing systems. Fixed views will be supported using the numeric keypad. There will also be a padlock/"slewable" view and outside views. Q: Will you be able to switch to a view without a cockpit like in Microsoft's Fighter Ace? A: "Well, we're not going with the sans-cockpit view. Hopefully, the three different view systems will compensate enough for the lack of you really being in an airplane. hehe ." - Icky Q: Will you be able to sit on the runway and actually see your rudder or elevators move when you move your rudder or joystick? Is their an On/Off switch for the engine? A: "You can see your control surfaces move at any time, and can switch your engine on and off." - Icky Q: How many planes can be in a dogfight? A: "Well, there's really no limit to the number of planes that join in a dogfight. Later in the war, the dogfights might start small and turn into a furball. However, the more planes on the screen, the more of a hit your computer takes. If you had 100 planes flying around you, I couldn't imagine the framerate... make a great screensaver, though! hehe. I've had stuff happen with 20-30 planes in close, and haven't seen the framerate go low enough to be unacceptable (on my p6-200). We're still optimizing, too..." - Icky
"If you shoot the water, you'll see a water splash. If your plane comes down in water, you'll make a large splash and sink below." ... something similar happens with woods. If you land in the woods, you'll disappear into them, with only a plume of smoke and/or explosion to mark that you went down there." - Icky.
Q: What kind of sound effects will Red Baron II have? Will I be able to tell the difference between different types of planes, guns, and hear the stress of the airframe as it manuevers? A: Sound effects have been modeled for everything from the creaking of the wings to the fabric fluttering in the wind. Engine speed can be determined by the pitch of the engine. Different types of engines and machine guns will have their own unique sounds. Air raid sirens go off as you approach enemy fields. Ambulances will wail in the distance and their siren will change in pitch as they approach you. Q: Ok, but do the guns really sound like they should? What if I don't like how they sound? A: "I think our MG sounds are pretty good. However, there's always someone who wants to change it. There's a way to slip in different .wav's once you get the game, just like you can insert your own pilot photos and plane textures." - Icky.
Q: What multiplayer options will be included with the game? A: Red Baron II will support direct modem, LAN/IPX, and hopefull TCP/IP. You will also be able to play Red Baron II on SIGS/WON. Q: What is WON and SIGS? A: WON stands for World Opponent Network. SIGS stands for the Sierra Internet Gaming System. WON is now the official name of SIGS. You can already play several Sierra games there such as Lords of the Realm, FPS: Golf, Hoyle Blackjack and Outpost 2. Q: Do I have to buy anything in order to play Red Baron II on WON? A: Some Sierra games have eventually had demos that you can download and play on WON/SIGS.
Q: How much will WON cost? A: SIGS is currently free. Q: How many players will be able to fly at one time? A: There is no hard limit on the number of players in a game. This will be more of a function of the quality and speed of everyone's connection to the server. Q: How many players do you think will really be able to play in a single game on SIGS or the Internet? A: "I'd expect around 4 or 6 on the internet at first. Of course, this all depends on your connection, etc." - Icky. Q: Will you be able to join games in progress like Quake or do you all have to join up at the same time? A: For right now all players will need to start at the same time. Icky had this tantalizing tidbit to offer. "I do have a dream of getting a full-on AirWarrior/Warbirds style of RB thing going. We even did a bunch of plans for it at one point. Then again, once I did that, I'd probably never leave the computer again... heheh" - Icky. Q: Will there be a chat room from where players can set up missions? A: Yes. You can also create your own rooms. Q: Will you be able to register your own unique name on SIGS? A: Yes. You have to register for SIGS, even though it is free. This will cause the name you choose to belong only to you. Q: Ok, so what kind of information do I have to provide in order to register on SIGS? A: You will be asked to provide your name, street address, and email address. The email address will be used to mail back your password for access to SIGS. Since SIGS is free, you don't have to enter any payment or credit card information. Q: How will scoring be handled on SIGS? Will there be a way to track individual pilot's records? A: Details on how SIGS will handle scoring are not yet available. Q: Will there be support for squadrons and tournaments on SIGS? A: There may be support for painting your own squadron insignia on your planes. Beyond that, no details are available - yet. There will likely be a number of squadrons who will play on SIGS if the quality of game play is acceptable. Those that are familiar with the old Imagination Network will remember that many tourneys were organized by the players, as well as ongoing ladder competition. Q: Where can I find out more information about SIGS? A: There is a page with some screenshots of SIGS in action at Cage's Red Baron II Multiplayer page. You can also visit Sierra's SIGS home page. Q:Will Red Baron on SIGS be massively multiplayer with a persistant world? Will you be able to fly missions with a friend in a dynamic campaign mode? A: "Actually the initial multiplayer will be a big dofight arena only. There will be different goals, if selected, though. Fully integrated multi-campaign play won't be in the initial release. We _are_ planning on it for the future, but in what form, I'm not sure yet." - Icky.
A: "... we have an in-flight chat feature in multi. You can send messages in flight to all, your team, or a single person. A: Now, I know that this isn't too historical, but the gameplay value of BS'ing while you fly around is pretty cool. " - Icky. |
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in front of questions added since the last update. If you have
additional input, see an error, or think of something you want added
please email me so I can update the FAQ. Thanks, and enjoy!