With the improvements seen in Flight Simulator and the knowledge that CFS3 would feature a new campaign system, simulation followers were hoping that Microsoft would give the genre a nice boost. Microsoft certainly makes some changes that move the franchise in the right direction, but the results at this point are disappointing, and CFS3 actually falls below standards set by previous series titles.
What happened? Only the developers know for certain, but CFS3 looks like a case of well-intentioned ambition that couldn't be harnessed by the ship date. The latest installment in the CFS series is clearly attempting to address the shortcomings of its predecessors.
This effort required a considerable split from the past trend of incremental updates to the core Flight Simulator engine, however, and swapping blocks of the foundation around appears to have left it shaky.
The most dramatic of the changes is the game's addition of a brand-new campaign engine. Once CFS3 players have selected a career path fighter or bomber and a nationality American, English, or German , the campaign gives them the ability to choose their own missions in the front line sectors. There are immediate benefits in this approach. Although the inability to fly bomber missions beyond the front line is somewhat unrealistic, the player has the flexibility to fly the types of missions they prefer air-to-air, air-to-ground, escort, and reconnaissance.
This also provides much better variety than a scripted campaign typically does, since there is usually at least one of each type of mission to choose from at each location on the front. Players supposedly have some control over movement of the front line, but here's where CFS3 reveals some odd behavior. The documentation claims that two things move the line: flying successful missions, and manually triggering ground war advances.
Yet, as we flew day after day of successful missions for the Allies, we saw the front line crumbling. It was horrible, as if Hitler had pushed ahead with his intentions to invade England. What's even more puzzling is that this happened after the front line initially had burst across the English Channel and into France. We tried to engage the ground war by manually ordering a push.
Players earn prestige points when their squadron flies successful missions and these points can then be spent on ordering ground war attacks. They can also spend prestige points to transfer to a different air base or gain a new aircraft type early.
Ordering a ground offensive, however, is expensive, and it would be hard to sustain one by player intervention for extended periods of time. And, every time we tried to do it, it seemed to have little effect. The campaign engine seemed to be chugging along and doing something, but no matter what we did, we ultimately lost territory swiftly and without explanation. It's also uncertain how useful it would be to spend points to transfer to a different airbase, as the campaign would periodically transfer our squadron with no explanation.
The campaign provides little feedback to the player. Novices, and some experts too, are going to be absolutely flabbergasted because there's nothing but confusion about the ebb and flow of the front line. Successful missions and manually triggered ground movements have little effect, there are no battle reports about what happened in the ground assaults, and there's nothing to identify what the player is doing wrong.
There is no tangible link between the player's actions and the results on the line. There's a news section players can view to see items about the war, but most are terse statements that the player's forces gained or lost particular objective, or useless trivia about what propaganda movie the troops are watching. The campaign fails to create the sense that the player is a small but significant part of a grand war because their involvement is so abstract.
They do not see their efforts making a difference and there's little evidence that other friendly air and ground forces are at work.
There are artillery firings and explosions occasionally seen near the front, but the player still feels like a lone participant. I understand that this is a game that is set in the middle of the war, but seeing as you do a MK 1 Hawker Hurricane, I think that it would be nice to do more original aircraft like the MK 1 Spitfire, or BFe. But no pressure and keep up the good work!
News Combat Flight Simulator. CFS3 Downloads 1. Cooperative Multiplayer — Players will be able to play Single Missions with friends, cooperating to achieve mission goals as wingmen.
Enhanced Campaign Play — Players will be involved in fighting tactical missions in a campaign where their success or failure can move the front line, influence the quality of equipment available, and even change the outcome of the war.
Reactive World — Areas of the campaign world will trigger events, spawn aircraft, generate flak, etc. The player also makes decisions that influence how the war is fought, where to put the pressure on the enemy, and what aircraft improvements are crucial to the war effort.
Enhanced Expandability - more cleanly supported than in previous versions. These repaints are courtesy of Will Hunter and the package includes an improved flight model, vc Stand alone update of the MS stock Spitfire Mk. IXc representing an early F. The repaint is courtesy of Will Hunter and the package includes an improved flight model, vc views and loadouts The virtual cockpit is basic, any help from other designers and skinners is welcome.
Gmax source file and texture templates are available please contact me. The repaint is courtesy of Will Hunter and the package includes an improved flight model, vc views and loadouts. See the readme docume
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