Interviewing the Falcon 4 Dynamic Campaign Creator, 25+ Years Later - A Retrospective

[@Enigma89]

This has been an interview that I have been trying to secure for the last year and a half, so I hope you enjoy it, let me know what part you found interesting. Additionally, I would like to thank Scope from the BMS community in introducing me to Kevin and I would like to thank the BMS developers for their continued passion and support to growing BMS so we can all still enjoy a combat flight sim in a dynamic setting.

[@SDsc0rch]

historic

[@jasonirby3382]

Maybe this guy ought to talk with the Combat Pilot guys.

[@gilmanlouie]

Without Kevin, we could not have pulled off Falcon 4.0. Looking back 25 years ago, it's hard to imagine Kevin was "just" an intern. What people don't realize is Kevin set the framework with F-16 pilot, Brigadier General (Ret) Pete Bonanni of how to get an AI to think about managing a war from "Orders of Battle" on down. It was 25 years ahead of its time and how real AI designers think about the use of AI in real modern warfare and defense applications. Kevin was so far ahead of his time.

[@Enigma89]

Oh the man himself! I hope the video was a nice blast from the past. Would love to chat if you are ever keen.

[@gilmanlouie]

Whenever you would like but much of the credit goes to the original 4.0 team like Kevin

[@Enigma89]

[e-mail] is my email. Could you shoot me an email there and we can take it from there?

[@viewer92759]

Yes please! Another interview!

[@MaxWaldorf]

There is a big misconception that people who do freeware don't have skills but I do believe it is the contrary! At BMS, we have a lot of people that are experts in theirs respective fields and put in knowledge that companies would pay millions of dollars. It is a matter of having the right setup and mindset in a team...

[@aaronwhite1786]

Yeah, I think people don't realize some people are capable, but just might not want something to be a full time job. I went to school for graphic design and did a lot of skin creation for the original Il-2 as a kid in high school, and now I love to create skins for DCS. I get overly detail oriented and spend entirely too much time hunting for details that I'm sure most people wouldn't want to bother with, and I think they look pretty good. But I don't think I could do it for a job and have it be a full time gig that I would still enjoy. It's so much more fun just being a nice side hobby.

[@xbogdix1]

Will there be a new f16 cockpit with the realease of bms 3.8?

[@Magpie...]

@@aaronwhite1786well I think as a job people would question whether the time spent pursuing details is a waste of time and money. However as an individual this is where you find the joy in the activity.

[@blakeh1234]

Thanks for all the work you do with the community, Max. You and the team have been key to many many sunk hours, can never say thanks enough. All for free. The value is without comparison.

[@ArchOfficial]

The most impressive simulation products I've seen are "mods". It's the blessing of having no deadlines and no budget, because consumer simulations are highly unprofitable to produce to a high standard.

[@lenn55]

It's crazy that he made the dynamic campaign mode all those years ago and DCS still hasn't gotten a dynamic campaign mode.

[@ShadeAKAhayate]

Well it does have a random mission generator, but it's rather bland, like WT one.

[@LodewijkVrije]

@@ShadeAKAhayate even strike fighter 2 has a better "dynamic" campaign then DCS. although its much more like the third party campaign generator for DCS. where it just creates a string of missions, and edits units out of the mission if you destroy them in a previous mission.

[@semvision]

@@LodewijkVrije Yeah this is what messed me up. Strike Fighters 2 is a sim-lite survey sim and it still has a dynamic campaign system. Meanwhile DCS has literally nothing. Best it has is the random generator which is kinda shit.

[@Tiro_Chopper]

12:15 "The nice thing is, being an intern, I didn't know it was impossible to do, right? So I just did it"

[@KnedlikMCPE]

"Everyone knew it was impossible, until a fool who didn’t know came along and did it." - Albert Einstein

[@mro9466]

the guy in 1998: meh i'm sure tons of simulators will have better, more sophisticated campaigns 20 years from now ! the guy in 2024: WTF is ED doing ?

[@Avenger31]

Shame on ED really, he was loner and made that and they have teams that working years on “dynamic campaign” and i am sure that we wont see it in 2-3 years from now.

[@slowhornet4802]

Falcon was a really great sim. But I almost liked the DI Tornado campaign even more. It was less overwhelming and you could see quicker your impact.

[@aaronwhite1786]

@@Avenger31 I think there's also a lot to the idea of building the game around the dynamic campaign like they did with Falcon 4.0 vs trying to take the older game engine like DCS has and find a way to force the dynamic engine into the game engine that was never built with the idea of having a dynamic campaign. It's probably a lot easier when you can build the engine with the game itself instead of trying to go back years later and figure out how to make the dynamic campaign work in a system that nobody expected it to have. I think of it like the gun from the A-10, with the gun being the dynamic campaign. It's a lot easier to build a plane (the game) around the gun than it is to take an existing plane and find a way to make it work carrying the gun it was never designed to carry.

[@montrose699]

He explained in the video you don't make your money back. ED is working on it but we don't want them to burrry the company building it. In fact the campaign in Falcon was a big part of the companies failure

[@mro9466]

​@montrose699 ED can't even make a good AI within the span of a decade, it's an ED problem, not a "making money back" problem. Also, Microprose was not selling 70$ early access modules for the last 10 years before releasing Falcon 4, pretty sure it would have helped... Like it has been said a million times before, ED could use a subscription model and bath in money while delivering the things people want. I guess they are too busy making 10 000 000 £ interest free loans to the Fighter Collection 🤓

[@Tiro_Chopper]

39:25, about BMS "I think it's only possible because the source code was leaked?" "I leaked the source code." (chuckes nervously) Holy fuck the next 10 minutes are absolute GOLD. I really like this dude, he was so geniune and honest with you

[@Balu0]

I was part of one of the modding teams for a bit way back before BMS, before and around the time of the leak. I was tweaking the building and unit HPs and damage resistances. They were mostly uniform and everything was set to HE damage. It was a fun surprise to realize all the other damage types actually worked, and after setting up the AI started to equip different kind for weapons for different targets. Also building HPs were originally very low, a single mk82 could kill almost any building. So when I added much more HP to big buildings, the AI started to drop multiple mk84s , or even send 2 flights of 4 bombers to kill a bigger complex instead of a single 2 ship :D I was amazed how complex it was. Mind you I was young and still just learning anything computer.

[@gerodinis]

Is that part of the reason the original game equipped your bird with TWELVE Mk-82's for anti-ship missions?

[@MrCubanSpy]

I can't decide what we owe Kevin a greater measure of gratitude for - creating the dynamic campaign, or leaking the source code. He is truly a legend. Great interview, I also found it interesting that you brought up WWIIOnline - I agree with your coments on it completely, I have fond memories of that game.

[@seancummings7788]

Just a quick comment about the bubble concept. This is why we are seeing scaling issues with DCS. As you add more units things tend to really slow down and stutter. The bubble concept I think is the real genius of F4. It really let you play on a 486 with a few megs of ram. Hats off to this guy

[@uriba107]

Just to make sure everyone is not misled. The images in the background are from an upcoming release of BMS, not the current publicly available version.

[@Enigma89]

0:55

[@dunbar555]

@@Enigma89 i might reinstall BMS soon

[@EvansRG78]

Looks beautiful!!

[@Mario-ox1wc]

Wow new bms looks great!

[@RogueBeatsARG]

It looks so good for such an old engine, almost better than some modern sims

[@SDsc0rch]

39:24 --- it was him! HE leaked the f4 source code! whoaaaaaa!!

[@Soul-Clutch-Man]

delete this now

[@Mechagimbal]

I still remember when that happened. I remember downloading it. I also remember looking at said source code and thinking...nope.

[@HandyTot]

The GOAT

[@martinhsl68hw]

A special interview!

[@erazorDev]

I still remember the day.

[@imaginarybaron5864]

A lot to unpack here. Incredible interview… Between leaking the source code and creating the dynamic campaign, the entire flight sim community owes Kevin an enormous debt of gratitude we can never repay. I’m glad computing power came up. A killer dynamic campaign could exist right now, it’s completely a lack of willingness to do so that’s holding us back and I remain immensely frustrated with ED for not getting this done yet. I still don’t get how an intern built this incredible campaign that is integral to the game but seemingly was developed in isolation. He had a great perspective on fun vs realism. INS alignment countdowns suck. Taking off from Japan for every mission would have sucked. Long flight times suck and that’s something I wish more people (including DCS mission builders & server admins) understood. I’m glad this guy wound up at Nvidia, he deserves all the success. I really hope he decides to contribute to BMS once he retires.

[@Ecthaelyon]

"Taking off from Japan for every mission would have sucked. Long flight times suck and that’s something I wish more people (including DCS mission builders & server admins) understood. " - This really is a matte rof opinion, in all fairness. Personally I believe to the contrary, but there we are. This said I agree with your comments regarding the lack of willingness to pursue the creation of a dynamic campaign within a flight simulator to date (bar BMS of course)... Eyes ED with furtive stares.

[@misarthim6538]

​@@Ecthaelyon Have you considered that it may not be actually just ED being unwilling to do it, but there's ton of other things other people want more, so that's what ED has been working on instead?

[@fabioarrigoni1089]

So its even clearer now...this man is the reason why we still fly Falcon to this day (...and the countless hours of the BMS team of course). What an interview! Cheers to you Enigma

[@krostouin]

Thanks Kevin for the massive work you did at the time. You are legend.

[@gryzor]

The old Eurofigther 2000 also had a "dynamic" campaign that was fantastic for a D.O.S. game.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

I swear there was a retrospective video on those games and how they were compatible with early VR but the uploader may have taken everything down.

[@gofres]

EF2000 and F22 total war were incredible games. So far ahead of their time!

[@-thegiggles-]

This is easily my favorite interview that you've done. Having a developer who doesn't have a financial stake in the the genre at the time explain that the financial aspect and market size bears more weight than cool ideas is the best way to have this explained. It's something that the flight sim community hasn't been able to grasp.

[@Enigma89]

Thx giggles!

[@DrydockDreamsGames]

Very cool! Only half-way into there but it's gold already. Thanks for the feature Enigma. Precious records lost in time.

[@Enigma89]

Thanks. I really was happy to be able to do this. A lot of good thought went into the campaign and glad that it could be brought back up, captured and be able to be referenced to in the future. I hope that these words help inspire someone to make a new dynamic campaign in the future

[@vecnejhipik5349]

Man is the GOAT. Thank you good sire.

[@BlackbirdDrozd]

That is 25 years of Falcon's dynamic campaign and 13+ years of ED pretending to be working on one for DCS (since 2011 first announcement of theirs).

[@davidlondon9242]

Man when I played the campaign in Falcon 4.0 I was blown away and was thinking OMG what will games be capable of in the future looking at this. I have to say I'm disappointed that no one has been this ambitious. The level of detail with the AI is unmatched. You felt the consequences of your actions more than any other game I've played. If I were to make a wish, I'd love him to bring his knowledge and experience to Star Citizen to build a special campaign.

[@MySonBand]

So interesting to hear that Kevin actually build the dynamic campaign like an RTS, because that's exactly how I played Falcon at the time. I would spend quite a bit of time on sending ground units to where I wanted them to go, adapting the missions I would fly to go for the targets I wanted to go for. It really was amazing to see what was happening in the campaign based on your input, both in the mission planner & while flying. I recall going after all enemy airbases as first priority and after taking them all out ending up with completely clear skies everywhere, that really felt like such an achievement. The campaign really is the killer feature of Falcon 4 for me, and one I sorely miss in any other flight sim I've played since.

[@Praxics0815]

I think that he approached it not from a sim pilots point of view but from a strategy players point of view makes it so ingenious and lasting. Well done, well done.

[@narutorun542]

Thanks Kevin for all he has done for Falcon4. Greatly appreciated 🙏

[@TheOriginalCoda]

When he first mentions 'Gilman', he's talking about the legend Gilman Louie, the guy who founded Spectrum Holobyte, and made the original Falcon, Falcon AT, Falcon 3, etc. If you can get hold of the manual for the original Falcon game (IBM PC, Atari ST, or Amiga), there's an cool forward written by Gilman in it.

[@SheikahZeo]

Huge interview for the history of fight sims and computer games in general.

[@gofres]

ED seriously need to employ this guy, then take on a bunch of interns, then charge us $50 (a module cost) to use the dynamic campaign. Even better if it's multi player.

I want to beg him to make a new dynamic campaign as he mentioned with online multirole feature. Wow.

[@scopefalcon]

Hope you guys enjoyed this, enigma has been working on this for a long time and i hope its as interesting as he envisioned it to be. And thanks to Kevin for giving us tons of memories :D

[@Enigma89]

Thanks for helping setting this up!!

[@thebiggestoneyouveverhad]

For someone who cut their teeth on spectrum holobyte's falcon 3.0, it was very interesting. Thanks Enigma!

[@km1983a]

I was secretly dreaming about such an interview with Mr. Klemmick since I learned bits of history behind this dynamic campaign marvel and its details that Tiag and others are unveiling on BMS forums.

[@SDsc0rch]

"incentivise collective action" YES dcs needs this

[@AnimalMother207]

time stamp?

[@sabre051]

@@AnimalMother207 Its at the beginning of the MMO chapter @45:19

[@bulletstop100]

I picked it up, in Dec of 1998! Still fly BMS mod!

[@saulvera76]

Woww Meeting the god of the dynamic campaign, the creator of something that no one has been able to do new, I consider it an honor and a privilege to have listened to this interview. Thanks for this interview

[@kwisatzhaderach1458]

I started with DCS. I learned with BMS and the dynamic campaign is one of the main reasons.

[@radsy5821]

Your point about subscription models is at the heart of the problem with DCS. They've painted themselves into a corner with the paid module approach, and the DCS community would lose their collective minds if they flipped to a subscription despite it being healthier for the developer and better incentivising investment in the core sim and the campaign engine. Thank you Kevin for the literal years of entertainment you gave me and my friends.

[@rolinthor]

This seems to be an under appreciated dynamic in game development: the path dependencies created by different funding models.

[@Ihawk100]

Nice screenshots 😛 Seriously though, I guess anyone who live Falcon, as a user and for sure as a Dev, should be thankful for Kevin for his work here on the Dynamic Campaign which is the heart of the sim.

[@Muehlema1]

oh boy i would pay a subscription for a DCS with dynamic campaing like in Falcon 4

[@AverageSubscriber17]

I agreed with his take on flight sims. I’m glad you mentioned VTOL VR, IMO that is the best “flight sim” experience out there because it’s so immersive and easy to get into. Doesn’t have to be super realistic, it just has to feel real.

[@parab225]

It's so cool to get to get to hear what Kevin has done and also just his thoughts in general on Falcon 4. We're still hoping a dev catches up to Falcon 4.0/BMS so this interview more relevant than ever. Also Kevin's statement missions need context is another point that players and devs seem to miss these days.

[@Quasi_Stellar5150]

Thank you Enigma for securing this interview. And thank you Kevin for giving us something so many years ago to play as a game that has turned into the hobby that so many of us enjoy today. There are many in the community that would buy you a round or three 😂 Thank You for so many memories and friends I’ve made along the way because of a game 🫡

[@unotoli]

Whaaaat!!! The topics, the author, the screenshots. Great interview, a real joy (so far).

[@Al-Azraq]

This is really interesting, and refreshing to listen someone speaking so freely in this industry. Thanks to Enigma for this interview, and Kevin for gifting this amazing piece of software.

[@ЙцукенПетрович]

Now my dream is that you would find the developers of DID dynamic campaign engine (EF2000, Total Air War) and interview them the same way. Hell, there were some great dynamic campaign engines back in the day. Learning more about any of them would be awesome.

[@saladinosaurus3852]

Thanks for this video and Kevin you're a legend for leaking source code

[@Marc42]

What an absolute nugget this interview is! Thank you all for making it happen!

[@pawechlebowski3410]

This.Is.Gold. Great idea and execution. In terms of dynamic campaign you should also try to get hold of Todd Gibbs - he with his team at Razorworks made the magnificent helo sim Enemy Engaged: Apache/Havoc and Commanche/Hokum. Those are still pretty alive with allmods community.

[@Hiuuz]

EECH is unmatched!

[@viewer92759]

@enigma89 Yeees! Please do this!

[@ShadeAKAhayate]

The main thing a lot of people can't seem to grasp is *'flight simulator'* is a _game mechanic_ describing a way the game world interacts; *'clickable/simplified cockpit'* is _control visualization type_ describing the way you interact to set up your vehicle, *'high/low fidelity'* describes how deep system modelling goes, and 'game/toy' is a way you interact with the product as a whole, either toying with it or achieving some progress in constrained environment littered with some obstacles to your goal. These qualities can be mixed and matched to receive different results. Dynamic campaign, for example, emulates a living world by introducing rogue-like elements into gameplay, which is also a game mechanic. Although not necessary to receive an interesting game, it saves a huge lot of work for scripters and level designers. Open world (like maps in BMS, DCS, IL-2 or WT) is another element of game mechanic -- and it can also be used for good or otherwise. For example, BMS is a game where you try to achieve your campaign goals. DCS in comparison is a toy where you just study your aircraft and try it in a few scenarios or auto-generated setups without influence on anything but your 'score', not really achieving goals. In IL-2BoS you are generated into a mission with few checks to check, so it has much stronger game elements -- but your efforts don't affect stuff at large, diminishing your actions. What stands out for me is MS CFS 3, where everything was based around ground action and strengthening a sector could ensure breakthrough. On a tactical level it was a masterpiece, unfolding 'sector strength' into dynamic frontline with strongpoints, attacking and counterattacking forces, supply, etc. Sadly, it fell off on strategic level, and even more so on the main part, flight modelling of aircraft involved, and even harder on aircraft AI.

[@gungriffen]

A damn travesty is that NO flight sim company has ever attempted to hire THE ONLY successful guy to make a Dynamic Campaign.

[@fonesrphunny7242]

Razorwork's EEAH/EECH had dynamic campaigns as well. Maybe a bit less complex, but still good enough to keep you busy for a while. It's still playable thanks to its modding community. If it still exists, EECH Central should have everything you need.

[@viewer92759]

Awesome! Thanks for making this happen!

[@mrshar1000]

All honesty this was amazing and also made me think about how I came into the sim community, I remember starting off with those crappy phone games and a very specific pacific one where you played a A6M or a Corsair and tried to shoot and blow up the enemy Carrier or dds. It makes me realize tho that ease of entry really was a big point in weather I continued or not even to today, great video and amazing interview behind the man who brought us the BMS campaing!

[@mrcroa2564]

Kevin Klemmick the man !

[@Stickers96]

Well damn... we could have been taking off from Japan this whole time! ; D

[@tanaKaa]

His talk about a MMO with macro and micro control across an entire war is exactly what everyone wants.

[@mro9466]

I'm pinching myself, this guy's vision was crystal clear

[@xenaandzenafromsanbernadin3807]

I remember reading his interview years ago and I was blown away by the fact he was an intern given a blank check to make a dynamic campaign. It wasn't perfect but it was immersive. I had just built a new a new rig with a Celeron 300A overclocked to 450MHz and I can vividly remember being mesmerized by 'action camera' following units going about their business in the 3D world. Of course it all came crumbling down to single digit frame rates if you cranked up the world bubble sliders :D

[@dongraf1222]

Great Interview. So I had the original F4 back in the day and I loved it. Now if I play a flight sim I usualy play F4 Allied Force+Sunkworks MOD. (I have BMS but the hardware and learning curve is just a bit too much for me at the moment). But how I play it is primarily for the campaign. I run the war. I plan EVERY SINGLE mission down to DCA, support missions and weapon loads. It takes me months to finish a theater, but I love the fact that I can plan the campaign, fly the lead Wild Weasel mission, AND order the ground units around (once I have air superiority). The genius of having Russia and or China intervene at some random point in the KTO was mind blowing at the time. Well done. I still have so many questions...lol.

[@MoGray-nx6vv]

Thank you for this, a true gem of an interview, and great look into something that has still yet to be duplicated...or topped!

[@BunialskiTrip]

Wow. What a clickbait! What a guest!!! Genius. Prometeus. The best sim ever made. Falcon BMS is the best. I love it.

[@DanBlake3rd]

WW2 Online, maybe 10 months to a year in, was pretty close to what he described he would build today if he had an unlimited budget.

[@DESHolden]

Great interview - well approached & interesting interviewee.

[@rolinthor]

I used to fire up Falcon 4.0 and let the campaign just play out without flying any missions. I’d check in every so often to see how the war was progressing. It was a marvel then and remains unsurpassed in gaming today.

[@eobet]

Not sure why this entire video isn't just random camera switching from an ongoing Falcon 4.0 campaign in the background instead of the same few modern images... but very interesting interview! 👍

[@urrugames4062]

Awesome interview

[@Enigma89]

Thx

[@nihprodne]

Great interview, great content as always

[@Enigma89]

Thanks for listening and leaving a comment

[@captaincurd2681]

Thank god, I always wanted to hear this !

[@steviesgames]

Great interview! Thanks!

[@Tomcat56th]

Interesting interview and nice shoutout for wwiionline. I loved that sim and had some of my best experiences in it. It’s where I learned how to fly proper tactical formation :)

[@MrNomadic76]

Great to hear from this guy and it's no surprise to me that he was driven by an interest in strategy games. I played thousands of hours of Falcon through Allied Force, Red Viper, eFalcon, and BMS and it really frustrates me that DCS World still hasn't been able (or willing) to implement something that comes close to Falcon's dynamic campaign despite the leaps in tech and processing power since Kevin started his internship, it's indefensible. There was a period of time where my joystick (a Saitek Cyborg lol) stopped working and I had to save up for a new one. I couldn't fly in the game but I was still able to start a fresh campaign and play it as a commander, generating my own mission packages and directing offensives. Falcon 4 was 2 games in one and that wouldn't have been possible without Kevin's hard work, I truly am thankful to him for providing one half of what was my go to gaming experience for so many years. Happy he's doing well and hope he enjoys his retirement, although if ED were to call him maybe he could give them some tips on how to pull their finger out their ass... EDIT: Wow I just got to the bit where he said he leaked the source code! Now he really is a hero to me. Get that man a cape.

[@erichvons8748]

Very important to let devs know that dynamic campaigns are cool and should be the base in every sim game !

[@VaingloriousGabagool]

Fantastic work, thank you sincerely.

[@louishoffmann4459]

Really enjoyed listening to this!😊

[@Enigma89]

Thx!

[@philb1167]

I really enjoy these background interviews with interesting and influential people. Thanks for pursuing them.

[@Enigma89]

Glad you like them!

[@theflyinggasmask]

I'm so hyped for the future of BMS

[@seancummings7788]

Just as an FYI Falcon 4 was a clickable cockpit even back in 1998 when it came out. It was done via a 2d pit. You could go to a really dummed-down 3d pit and slew with your hat. It wasn't till BMS we got a real clickable pit in F4. F4 has come a long way through many different modding groups but I'm glad to see BMS is still going. Who knows what F5 will bring in the future

[@xXE4GLEyEXx]

Sadly due to Falcon acting up against my head tracker, I could not really dive into the game, but it does seem like something that with the addition of the campaign would be one hell of a fun thing to fly instead/side by side to DCS. Good interview, thank you for it! :D

[@b0bl00i]

Please come back to BMS. That would be awesome.

[@Soul-Clutch-Man]

bro he literally said he was too busy, maybe if he retires in the next few years

[@Gunterlund583]

Great to hear Kevin. He did a great job with the engine. I remember the Star Trek Title being a big mess that never got out.

[@tonywilliams7031]

Excellent interview!

[@radoslawbiernacki]

Oh wow! That's such a great interview! Even I disagree with one point. The Falcon 4.0 actually shows success for the nerdiest, long standing community of all times. You stressed a couple of times that amusement is important and making products which will attract many player's as this way the title will be long standing. So... How many players does the Deer Hunter have? What I think is important to realise, money came with contradiction to nerdiness and therefore long live community. Other than that's all you said is actually in line with my observations including you cannot make such a game as Falcon with random programmers (take a look at what happened to CDProject). Two more messages from me: - did you tried to play DCS on your Oculus? If not.. man.. really try. - and actually have MMORPG mod for DCS which supplements the RPG part of session. It is called Olympus. A commander mode if you will.

[@nexus888]

Great interview. Keep raising the ask to ED to focus on their core gameplay and consider options for how to support it financially. I can’t imagine people will be upset to pay for an upgrade to the engine.

[@WrongwayMPT]

I absolutely loved CRS and WWIIOL.

[@Tomcat56th]

Same here! And your name looks familiar from it (didn’t it have a 0 in it though? 😂)

[@WrongwayMPT]

@@Tomcat56th haha, yes indeed! wr0ngway of VFA-25. I do remember the 56th! That was a long long time ago!

[@JohnDoe-qw5pv]

Just having in game training for the sim would make a world of difference and open the game up to a many more players. This is especially true in the age of VR. Trying to learn a plane while following a video, referring to Chucks guide and finding other answers/procedures while wearing a VR headset is at best frustrating.

[@lezzbmm]

i’ve only just been getting into milsim from a distance the past few weeks via drewski via helldivers 2 been watching some of yr stuff today after learning abt the cold war server from drewski just watched this and the interview w the nuclear option dev,, awesome stuff thanks so much for sharing yr passion and helping build this community !! so cool !

[@lezzbmm]

as a programmer and nerd these interviews r so cool

[@Enigma89]

Thanks!

[@spc83]

That conversation about game vs sim makes me think of that F-18 Campaign: Rising Squal. It blended Ace Combat and DCS. i agree about the point of allowing people to start with more basic modes and naturally allowing people to learn more advanced modes

[@neutchain7838]

Regarding the mobile game question some random monopoly mobile game made $2 billions in just over 6 months. That's pretty wild if you ask me. Great interview mate, thank you.

[@HighAspect]

Amazing work, I hope ED can do this someday.

[@JD96893]

i would pay $45 for a dynamic campaign... The reason we don't have anything better than Falcon 4 isn't just economic, it's also shortsightedness. ED has had tremendous success recently with DCS, but i get the feeling that a lot of new players are realizing how shallow the core game is. It's that core gameplay that gets players hooked and keeps them playing, that is why BMS is still relevant even though it is inferior to DCS in many ways. I would argue that DCS is suffering because it's core gameplay loop depends solely on players to create interesting missions or campaigns, or buy them. Even then, they aren't dynamic and don't provide that level of replayability. This isn't just an ED thing either, War Thunder promised something similar to a dynamic campaign years ago, instead they are stuck in loop thinking that new content like planes and tanks will drive players. Basically ED's 'strategy', or what it looks like from the outside. There are so many new aircraft being worked on by ED. This kind of thinking that we constantly need new modules to drive sales leads to mediocrity, at least as far as being an actually fun to play game/sim. We really have no way of knowing if the DCS dynamic campaign will actually live up to what Kevin did in Falcon 4. I think if we take a second to look at Falcon 4 and BMS, i would say they were/are extremely successful and it solely focused on the F-16. Having a flight sim focus on solely 1 aircraft to perfect it and the core gameplay loop is a recipe for a 20 year long success.

[@Hiuuz]

I think the only way for a Combat Sim is like DCS FC3 model. Make an environment with strong rules, fundamentals and standards than you have time for the planes and maps. What if ED release FC3 and Caucasus map for money and after that from the income they release an other map with other planeset. Or for example make only the F4/Mig21 for a Vietnam map and let the modders/3rd party devs make the rest of the planes. Or let the 3rd party devs make the full fidelity cockpits. There would be more way to choose.

[@HADESPAYLOAD]

Clickable fc3 and let the servers decide the restrictions. We have to make comprises for completeness in DCS. Full fidelity modules are still not 100% accurate and cannot be. We have gamified ground and naval units why not simple planes. Scripted reactions on servers really help. Exceeding speed or not using a runway destroys your plane and takeoff timers.

[@SirCarcass]

What a legend

[@Spacegamejunkie]

An excellent interview, thank you.

[@myyoutube_6516]

If VTOL VR had a dynamic campaign... That would be amazing

[@thebiggestoneyouveverhad]

Great stuff!

[@steelin666]

I think the guys who are making Combat Pilot should try to hire this guy at least as a consultant when he retires from big jobs.

[@simgaminglifeofficial]

Fantastic! Great work guys! -D3m1aN

[@Andy-yj1pp]

Love the 90s games like F4.0 and and F22 TAW. And now I play... VTOL VR! Hope Kevin checks it out

[@IronChef60]

There were some Microprose legends back in the day: Gunship and F-117 nighthawk were my faves.

[@HarryMcW]

Great interview.

[@krpp]

41:30 Man casually dropping the double self reports

[@ustio834]

Regarding the MMO. Funny enough one game that is slowly but steadly going there is Star Citizen

[@bronco5334]

It's important to note that the Falcon 4.0 dynamic campaign, while very impressive, had (and has) some serious limitations to it. Yes, it simulates the war at a high command level. Yes, it manages every unit in the theater dynamically. But what it *doesn't* do, is tactics and terrain interaction at the fine level. It looks great on the big map, but it doesn't do a particularly good job of ensuring the ground units that are spawned into the actual flight simulation 3d world are placed in convincing locations. Convoys don't really follow roads, ground units are in arbitrary formations that don't take the terrain into account (and therefore look rather fake), and ground units don't really maneuver to attack each other beyond just driving directly toward their objective points. This was all made easier by the fact that it was played on a low-poly map, and forests/cities were generally speaking just textures on the map instead of actual 3d objects that have to be maneuvered around. The "bubble" method also works great for single-player games, but breaks down in online play, because each player would need their own bubble.

[@Enigma89]

I think it's pretty clear that those things that you describe as missing are obviously not important for a dynamic campaign for a jet plane.

[@bronco5334]

@@Enigma89 Really? You think tanks in perfect textbook formation, where half of them are on the side of a sheer cliff face or in the middle of a river is "not important"? You think that tanks clipping through buildings is "not important"? You think individual vehicles not attempting to seek cover is "not important"? Ok.

[@fonesrphunny7242]

​@@bronco5334 The bubble works very well in MP. Only one player creates a bubble and basically hosts for everyone around. If players stray too far from each other, a new bubble is created. I've only seen issues when the server was in need of a reboot. As for "missing details", yes that sucks, but how much of it can DCS do? Follow roads and scatter in random directions? It's only marginally better. But then we have the campaign, much better AI Comms, better planning tools, dynamic AI tasking ... all these wonderful features and you complain about stuff that nobody has pulled off properly by now.

[@jared9191]

It just shows how sad the state of DCS AI is

[@FlyingCaveman]

I won a campaign once without even flying a mission by adjusting the priorities before it started.

[@dubiousone8672]

"what i am surprised by is nothing better has come along" We all are really we all are I disagree with the premise that it is not "economically viable", So many games/genres would benefit from a campaign like falcon 4's,