External Views

[TX-EcoDragon]

I voted, and find it interesting that most who posted here said they wanted externals on, and yet there are more votes for externals off. . .interesting.I for one am going to be sticking to FR for a while, I have been wonderwoman's co-pilot for long enough as some sort of favor to everyone else, and yet there is no reciprocation of that favor to me/us. It seems we are waiting for something as a squad. . . what is that that we are waiting for? I think command is also waiting. . .waiting for a little "sure boss, we will stand behind you and give it a whirl and then decide"I don't think we need to set the OC3 to a very different setting (though I wouldn't object, and we WILL have a nice turnout no matter the settings)but I do think it would be cool for us to fly on a secondary server such as Cuda's or Ersky's using a full real but perhaps with friendly icons and padlock.I trust you all know my feelings on this one, though I have cast my vote.I hope you are all in good spirits and that life is treating you well.I am in Malibu, Kayaking, mountain biking, and rock climbing and such. . . I can't complain.S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

[WUAF_CARBONFREEZE]

I personally prefer Full-Real settings, cockpit only, no padlock. I don't use Track-IR or any of that nonsense, just my 10 position HOTAS hat switch.I believe that flying with wonderwoman and external views is a crutch, and I was a better pilot when I was not using them (maybe I'm biased because its easier to sneak up on yaks).If it were possible to have external views enabled for an "observer/neutral" team that spawned you into the game without an aircraft, in which you could take a break from playing, or watch other people play, without having to spawn an aircraft, it would be a good thing. Last time I flew an AI bomber I thought they could be flown without externals enabled(you have to press F-2 twice)."I vote Externals on. I Like to take a break every few minutes, and watch people fly. Its very enjoying, and sometimes you can LEARN stuff."I think this neutral/external view/observer/ghosting team feature would be  great, I am going to suggest it to Oleg.I like the way you are allowing the public to have a say in your server settings, I will fly their more often even if cockpit is off, I wont fly with it off.I eat, sleep, and deam of killing yaks.Then again, when do I sleep, I'm always killing them!

[TX-CUDA]

..OK gents here is my take on this...I voted for externals off..then went in and forgot..after I am shot down or crash...I usually like to follow the action from the external point of view. It also makes for some good screen shots. BUT...if this is what the majority want I'll go with it...but I would prefer externals OFF....or padlock enabled if possible...S~!Rocky...TX-CUDA on UBITX-CUDA on HyperLobby

[TX-OkieCop]

There is apparant tilt towards external views off from those in control ofthe settings LOL.For me, if I wanted to fly for real I'd get my pilots license. I find that the external views make up for the lack of any REAl feedback when in a plane. My 19 in monitor sitting in my office doesn't provide the kind of environmental feedback needed to make flight decisions as simple as what my attack angle is or even if I'm flying upside down. if I was in a REAL cockpit I could flash my eyes down to guages..no such speedy option with externals off. And my centering 'x' can disappear from my screen while I'm looking around and I waste valuable time trying to find it, sometimes crashing into the ground.Long comment longer. I hate no external views off but I appear to be in a slim minoriity. If we have to fly with externals off can we switch back and forth from time to time?  At least then my options for play on the game servers are something other than 'REAL' and 'NEWBIE'

[TX-Sputnik]

I dont get the switch personally, if id wanted to fly full real theres plenty of servers on hyper lobby for it or even the greater green server. Oc3 was the best as it was I figure it would be perfect if we could fly the allied vs luftwaffe with ai planes too and externals then it would be great greatness. I havnt been flying much since the change but ah well if it lasts too long ill play single player or somthing cause this is very frusterating for me i remember when greater green made the same change months ago It lost lots of flyers.flying full real makes your squadron seem more serious but i think the general flyers suffer. I find it odd most people that voted for externals on posted so, and those that voted them off didnt. Im a serious pilot but i get lazy and pissed off easily when pressing the numberpad key to look around, or spending all that time to take off find an enemy and get shot down without knowing till its too late.      Dont you guys feel the alternate cockpit views are hte bigger concern over no externals, i mean its not like we can aim with external views very well at all. but hte alternate cockpit view is 10x more revealing it tells you where enemies are, direction and perfect view with no blocking, and it does especially increase your accuracy. I have no problem killing hte alt cockpits but externals is a must for me.

[TX-CUDA]

After flying on the OC3 Campaign maps again tonight I have to say again that I prefer to have externals ON. It really is not that great of an advantage while dogfighting BUT...it sure makes for a better experience if and when you are shot down. IF I get knocked out of the air I like to take a second and look at the other pilots on both sides and see what the tactical situation is...or heck, just sit back for a minute and watch the show! I would like to see them rotated on say every other map if not turned on all together...S~!Rocky...TX-CUDA on UBITX-CUDA on HyperLobby

[TX-Bomblast]

I would like to have external views on, I'm sure I voted, but being from Fla. I probably made a mistake. When and if someone makes a 360degree monitor I'll vote for no externals, until then lets make do with what we have a "FLAT" screen. And yes, we need the A.I. planes to make it more realistic, that would mean a better selection of planes for both sides. And. could we have friendly icons on only?? TX-BomblastRed2

[TX-Zen]

My .02 cents, for what its worth.We started this squad with relatively easy settings to get the hang of the game. Since then we have often tried to push the harder settings to increase our skills, the sense of realism and to take advantage of our outstanding teamwork and excellent comms. But the fact appears to be (despite the voting) that the community as a whole does not enjoy locked cockpits. While many depend on superman view, many others can live without it but it seems to be a concensus among most that no externals is too restrictive. While you will always have the mad yak driving fools who will use anything and everything to get over on the rest of us, you will find them in every game including this one...but never as the majority. We've dealt with the occasional abuser for a long time now. While not an optimal situation it is nevertheless an endurable one, at least for me. Why diminish the fun for the majority because of a few abusers who rarely hang around long anway?We were the first group to run a dedicated 24x7 server and the first to add AI planes as a standard feature. We were the first to create the combined arms mission style which was entirely due to the AI planes being available. We've built a strong following precisely because of our settings and the AI planes being onhand. Many squads shoot for full real because they feel that makes them better players. In many instances it does. But the more difficult the settings, the fewer the players as we have all seen in the past 18 months of our operations.I've felt that we've never tried to claim we were a full real squad nor have we ever claimed that we are the in the game of being the best squad. We've always tried and succeeded at running the best server with the best blend of settings for everyone. Someone will always bitch they do not like this or that but history speaks for itself. With our server being nearly 100% full damn near 24 hours a day, I'd say that we found the best overall settings that the community likes. We don't run the server for the elite squads, nor do we run the server so that we have the odds stacked in our favor. We run it for the community and have established ourselves as a consistent and welcoming place to play. After so long with so much success, I would recommend to get back to our roots and enable externals and bring back the AI planes. From what I have seen of the server scripting, we have a powerful tool in our hands that is working extremely well. Combine that scripting with our classic settings and I feel that not only will we continue to have the best server in town, we will have a server that is untouchable by anyone period.Remember we were the first to do many things that have affected the entire community...our popularity is based on our innovation and friendly atmosphere, not our difficulty settings. We do not now and have never flown a newbie server and I seriously doubt the community perceives our squad as a bunch of softies that can't handle the hard settings. We've always flown for fun, not for bragging rights on something as inherently unrealistic as a flat monitor running a PC game. Give the people what they want I say, it's been our way of doing business for a long time now. TX-ZenBlack 6 Reserve

[BS87]

Well said Zen. As i said before, I hate using external views when i'm actually flying. But it's fun to look around and see how much dammage you did after you got shot down, or to watch the fight after you die. Gives us not-so-hardcore flyers a little break. I can understand your veiws, because Superman veiw IS annoying, but alot of people like externals, because they dont give THAT much advantage, and are alot of fun.

[TX-CUDA]

I flew this afternoon for a bit and was pleased to see that there were two AI planes to choose from  and externals were enabled. Made it much nicer when I could get out of that black hole I end up in everytime I get killed!..S~!Rocky...TX-CUDA on UBITX-CUDA on HyperLobby

[TX-Chukar]

My preference is to fly with externals off.  I’ll agree to all of the stuff said about how actual pilots have a better field of view to what can be represented in the game.  A real pilot can also turn their head and find a bandit with more ease than a player using a hat, mouse or keypad.  That it’s just cool to look at skins or the action form someone else’s plane.  But to say that externals on compensates for this is understatement, it puts the pursue-e on almost a level field, able to match the bandits movements at almost the same instant, not to mention the blackout possibilities.The fact is that every aircraft has a blind spot that is a disadvantage to any pilot that finds himself sixed up.  The aggressor should be in control. The compensation needed to even the playing field is the closed cockpit.  Now all your fighter tactics can come to play, situational awareness, defensive maneuvers, and as always nothing beats comms with a good wingman.  Last weekend for the first time I used a scissors to escape and turn the tables on my attacker.  You can’t really do that with externals on and with the gun cam view going.  I was very thrilled to pull that off after all but giving up on that maneuver.  It’s all just my opinion.  Not really trying change anyone else’s mind that that prefers the externals on, just putting is a plug for those votes for externals off.  I still like to fly them both but for now I crave the FR settings…icons on of course.TX-ChukarBlue 1

[TX-OkieCop]

Not really on the same topic but somewhat related i guess. I must rave about the plane settings and the maps. Its been alot of fun flying some planes I don't typically use and the matchups between axis and allies is quite fun.Cudos to the map builders.

[P47Jug]

I'd prefer externals on. I like flying the 110's, Ju88's and Pe8. Sometimes I like to just sit back and watch what everybody else is doing. Sort of a cheap mans movie if you know what i mean, then sometimes type a comment on what just happened. Ya'll know me I like to make little remarks once in awhile. Just my view on the subject.P47Jug

[SlackerMcFly]

Salute! great serverNow that we have a useable mapgrid reference system ,. Its easier to get our flights together , Personally ,sometimes I like to find a wingman or 3 and do Hi-low bouncing of enemies with externals off ,Sometime I like to gawk around at the awesome views and watch action going on across he map ...Herrs the thing...Cant we have BOTH?? Seems the server will have to be reset every certain number of hours anyway ,I voted for externals off because I like to do long drawn-out HE-111 attacks from 4k >:^) and I hate getting busted because some smelly allied has been ctrl-f-2ing me since I took off :)Respectfully Goon: vicious terrestrial biped,hammering away ineffectively at poor defenseless keyboard

[TX-EcoDragon]

What would be really cool would be a map that could auto change actual host settings. . .but oh well.Hosting at HL makes remote server settigns changes a little be easier than it had been (we had to work in a little window about .75 inch by 1 inch once the game menu had loaded. . no kidding) with HL it can be changed from outside the game, and your right that it needs a reload every once in a while. . .we shall see.Thanks for stopping by Goon. . . err. . slackerS!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO