Feisty AI and Quality Dogfighting from a Resurging Indie Game Just a short time ago a scrappy dogfighter has entered the scene. Its developer has been hitting the indie game focused social media accounts hard, making all the right moves to gain exposure. You may have seen it by now as well. Videos of propeller driven warbirds evading missiles while flying beneath floating islands. That was enough for me to happily download the free demo and see what was going on. At first glance, Sky Aces by Fireruner seems like a quickly put together arena-esque shooter with not too much else going on. My initial perception of it being this way went straight out the window after one particular dogfight. While losing a rate fight, I found the right chance to attempt to zoom climb out of the fight against the fighter with superior maneuverability. As I climbed with a few evasive maneuvers, the pursuing fighter stalled. Unable to follow me, the enemy fighter began to pitch its nose down, only to be strafed by two of my bot teammates before it could fully recover. Tangible energy management? AI teammates taking advantage of a situation? I'm interested. The demo for Sky Aces was released before the game enters Early Access. The demo is a vertical slice for what the solo indie developer is trying to do with the game. A brief conversation with the dev revealed that they had been working on this game over the past three years as a hobby. After a break with life getting a little busy, they are back to developing Sky Aces and making quite a bit of progress as of roughly a month ago. This is a straight up dogfighter game pitting teams of up to five people or bots per team against each other. In the demo, single player 5 vs 5 player vs environment is currently available. Player VS player and other PVE modes have been discussed. This game is set to allow for online co-op gameplay with human players working together to shoot down bots on the other side. A nice inclusion to go along with its online PVP experience. In games that do not have a lot of detailed story or extensive systems outside of combat, the quality of the enemies that players fight takes center stage. On the Steam page, the developer describes their AI units as: "The AI isn’t just a target dummy. It’s dynamic, aggressive, and responsive. It will adapt to your tactics, pressure you at the worst possible moments, and punish your mistakes all while using real life air to air combat tactics!" And you know what? Confirmed. The skill level of the friendly and enemy bots is high enough for them to be a nice challenge without being the classic hyper accurate, always perfect sort of way only bots could be. If you provide them with a perfect pursuit position and lazily maneuver, the bots will absolutely dump a few dozen cannon rounds into your aircraft. But actively maneuvering in dogfights with rapidly changing airspeeds, altitudes and directions is effective against the bots. These are genuine dogfights against enemies that will both gang up on a single aircraft and spread out the fight for multiple 1-on-1 engagements. They will enter rate fights when advantageous while sometimes doing unorthodox maneuvers that seem less than ideal in certain situations. Each battle is different. The bots can both be effective in combat and make mistakes within just a few seconds. The two aircraft currently in the demo represent different flight styles to a degree. At the most basic level, the Blowgun (right picture, single aircraft) is fast and nimble. Its lightweight makes it easy to perform hit and run tactics with minimal firepower. The Buccaneer (left picture, blue and red aircraft) is an overall heavier fighter with a large concentration of cannons capable of ripping other aircraft to shreds in a second. It is still very maneuverable but with more armor. As far as damage model goes, while there is no visceral damage showing the aircraft torn apart, they can have specific components damaged and disabled. Engine, cockpit, fuselage, specific wings, etc. Even each onboard machine gun can individually be knocked out due to battle damage. All it takes is one unlucky strafe from an enemy fighter to downgrade your firepower from a burst mass machine to a single barrel hole puncher. On the subject of weapons, the inclusion of a guided missile in a game full of prop driven warbirds sounds like it would be a massive problem. With no flares or chaff to ward off an incoming missile, it could be game breaking. The balance the developer has struck is to make it so players have one missile per life. Each time players spawn they have a single missile to use and do not get a reload until they are destroyed and respawn again. The missile's maneuverability is low enough that it could be outmaneuvered if players react fast enough. Also, frankly, the audio for the missile's rocket motor is so loud it is a valid warning cue even without a radar warning receiver. Players that use the missile frequently can learn the best angles and distances to launch it from, being able to one-shot other aircraft when they least expect it. Landing a well-placed missile shot into an ongoing furball is a fine opening blow. As deadly as a hail of bullets are, I was definitely defeated by the ground just as much as I was by the enemy. Why? Over speeding my aircraft to the point of aerodynamic compressibility. Losing significant flight control input while screaming nose down at the ground at high speed. Only bringing the throttle back to idle and deploying a speed brake if available can possibly help recover. Even in high altitude air battles, diving to escape is something that needs to be done carefully. The bots are exposed to this danger as well and they do fall into it. Sometimes crashing into hills or being stuck flying in a relatively straight line while deaccelerating, making them vulnerable to attack. In an arcade leaning title like this, having a flight sim lite style restriction towards not flying everywhere at maximum throttle with no penalty is refreshing. The quick gameplay style, frequent deaths, fast respawns and engaging bite sized dogfights have been a good experience in the current flurry of development for Sky Aces. Its developer, Fireruner, has also been actively engaged in feedback with players in Steam discussions, the recently made Discord server and social media. I look forward to trying out the multiplayer game modes with a few friends in later versions of the demo to get a better feel for what this game could look like in the long-term. This article will most likely be updated in the near future with information about the multiplayer experience. Connect with 'Sky Aces' Discord Steam X.com About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info , the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. [Read Staff Profile ]

Thoughts on a decent representation of a modern battlefield decoy The EF-24G Mischief  has changed VTOL VR forever. After this aircraft's introduction as purchasable downloadable content on December 21st, 2023, the virtual reality battlefields of VTOL VR  by Boundless Dynamics  now have to contend with a high speed, swing-wing electronic warfare (EW) platform. The AN/ALQ-245 advanced electronic warfare pods are the primary means to deploy defensive and offensive radar jamming capabilities, utilizing three jammer modes with three EM bands. The addition of this aircraft came with an EW game mechanic that is documented in the community made unofficial NATOPS Flight Manual for the Mischief, but for now I would like to discuss the lesser known ADM-160J Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD). ADM-160J in flight. "Trojan" The EF-24G Mischief primarily deploys the ADM-160J as an extension of its electronic warfare capabilities, rather than a mindless gliding body missile sponge. Each jet powered decoy can remain airborne for up to eight minutes, following GPS coordinate flight paths programmed by the Mischief aircrew. Decoys can either follow complex flight paths or orbit around a single waypoint until their fuel runs dry. These flight paths can be updated in real time as the situation on the battlefield changes. At the most basic level, it can use DECOY mode Signature Augmentation Subsystem (SAS) jamming to appear on radar as a different aircraft. From the size of a recon drone to manned fixed-wing fighters to combat support aircraft. Appearing as an aircraft, the MALD then operates in enemy controlled air space to hopefully cause hostile radars to activate, revealing the positions of air defenses to make them vulnerable to attack. Any sensor detected by the MALD is passed to the EF-24G controlling it, which in turn is shared with other allied aircraft via datalink. More advanced use is done in the form of stand-in NOISE jamming. Each decoy has jamming capabilities similar to the advanced EW pods carried by the EF-24G. An ADM-160J can jam across three EM bands: low, medium and high frequency. Different frequencies work better on different types of sensors. They can be set manually by a player that has a solid understanding of the EW. An AUTO mode is also available to let the MALD select the correct frequency for targets it has detected closest to each decoy without aircrew interaction. Nearby friendly aircraft can utilize the NOISE jamming from the decoys as they ingress, egress or operate in an area to enhance their own survivability. This effectively lets the EF-24G aircraft provide EW support closer to the combat area while keeping the aircraft and aircrew as far from danger as possible. EF-24G electronic warfare officer cockpit. Decoys can also be launched In COLD mode. With no pre-planning of waypoints or jamming modes selected, they will leave the aircraft, following its last launched vector of flight. Advanced electronic warfare tactics could utilize the undetected MALD in a few ways. For example, as an unexpected pop up jamming source or false contact after it penetrates enemy airspace. Similar to mimicking an unexpected fifth generation stealth fighter appearing on radar as it nears radars that burn through its stealth abilities. Making the false radar contact of a stealth fighter behind enemy lines more believable. Though each EF-24G Mischief electronic warfare aircraft can carry up to six of these decoys, it would do so by giving up its AN/ALQ-245 EW pods. While the ADM-160J is useful on its own, it should be seen as a supplement and extend the core capabilities of the EF-24G to better support friendly forces in the theater. The Mischief in flight. Representation vs Documentation I feel like I always have a lot to say about how VTOL VR provides a reasonable example of current year aerial combat. The ADM-160J Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) and its place in the electronic warfare environment in this flight game might be one of the best representations of a modern expendable decoy in a civilian accessible flight game/simulator. I have long had an interest in the emulation of decoys such as the MALD in flight simulators and their use in the real world. Recent uses of modified Azerbaijani An-2 Colts to defeat the Armenian integrated air defense network in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (2020) and older ADM-160 variants in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War keep me ever engaged in reading up on this subject. When I think of other flight games and simulators that have air launched decoys, I quickly run out of examples. For now the most high profile example would be the ADM-141A Tactical Air Launched Decoy in Digital Combat Simulator. Besides the ADM-141 being a less capable munition in comparison to the ADM-160J, DCS as a platform is hindered by the need to adhere to official, declassified documentation for the sake of realism of legal coverage. Also, this is something the simulator prides itself on and sells itself on. As such, something like a still in service and rather classified ADM-160J MALD could never be 1:1 accurately represented in a civilian accessible flight simulator. So far, VTOL VR gives the most reasonable representation of this decoy by showing a decent portrayal of its publicly known abilities, while being fine with not adhering to a 1:1 accurate simulation. Providing a good example while side stepping pure realism at least gives the opportunity to gain a working theory of how munitions like this operate, rather than completely forgoing the experience simply because the right permissions and clearances cannot be acquired. I can appreciate this. EF-24G with heavy MALD layout. Future Flights A member of the Skyward Flight Media staff is to acquire a virtual reality headset soon and of the short-list of flight games we are to experience, VTOL VR is one of them. I had long planned to put in more flight time into this game, specifically into the EF-24G Mischief. More VTOL VR content can be expected in the near future. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza   Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info , the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. [ Read Profile ]

Okay, dead honest—my first impressions when I saw the first screenshots of this game were “what kinda blatant Ace Combat ripoff am I looking at?” Between the “totally-not-Kei Nagase” on the cover title and the brackets around the transmissions, it was kind of hard to go into this seriously. But… you know, maybe keeping my expectations low helped me warm up to the ideas I see here in Aurora Flight by Studio Wakaru (すたじおわかる). “Is that an EF2000 with elevators? SUPER EUROFIGHTER?!” From moment one, I can tell you that I struggled to navigate the game menus. I’m still not completely sure what the “equip” feature does. Pulling the trigger on this review relied on the fact that it very recently came out with an English sub patch, but it’s not complete. Thankfully the main menu is all the English you need to get rolling, and thankfully the game is fully Steam compatible with all the controller support that comes with, so no extra configuration was required. “Click this box. Or don’t. I’m not your mother.” What to make of the lackluster story I’m presented with? Would it even be considered spoilers to put a screenshot of the briefing of the third mission of the game right here? Well too bad, here it is! Bam! “Unfortunately I am also unable to read English. In fact, I’m completely illiterate.” The fact is that there’s nothing engaging here at the moment. The story starts with following a conflict on a far away planet where resources are being claimed by rival corporate factions. You fight for Terracom, an Earth-aligned corporation that has deployed your squadron on the frontier planet Zenoa. As you advance through you can feel this being an excuse plot for the time being. Perhaps someone will be able to make something of it right now, but it could use some further work. The first mission is so cliché that I groaned. Down the bombers. Kay. Fine. Got it. Tutorial time. We’ll live. It’s disingenuous to put this down. Every single flight shooter does this to get their new players acquainted with the gameplay style. And frankly, it’s darn good it did. Given all the Ace Combat signs I’ve been presented so far, I didn’t expect a true sim-lite flight model and the throttle mapped to the side stick and weapons mapped to the triggers. I needed a bit to get my bearings, and the time was appreciated. “Finally, a game to take advantage of my absurd monitor refresh rate.” The flight model is competent, if very jerky. I was stuck in a third person mode for the entire flight and I kinda wished I could switch to first-person in flight, but I wasn’t able to find a way. This feature may be available in the options menu but I refer back to my inability to read the script of the Land of the Rising Sun. It took me a bit to find out that yaw was mapped to the X axis of the side stick, which is not a default I support due to the layout often inadvertently pushing throttle inputs, but I will give credit that the default deadzone for the stick seemed to prevent it for the most part. I couldn’t get over how sensitive the control inputs were, though. I was recoiling my not-a-Rafale through the air constantly, and though I got better with time, I think a sensitivity adjustment is in order. Weapons are simple, and honestly I think the decision to simply forgo on magazine limits and give all offensive and defensive options recharge rates was a wise one. I’ve been coming around on this as an option in an evolving flight shooter landscape where ammo number inflation has been a steady creep making the numbers effectively meaningless. I was thrilled when I got my first gun kill. The tutorial talks about how the gun is for advanced users only, and frankly, they’re right, as getting a gun kill is a challenge. The throttle suffers from some of this inflation, as you do properly bleed speed in a turn, but it’s more of a trickle, and accelerating in level flight will get you that energy back in a heartbeat. “I am Mobius Gun.” There’s not much to say about the sound effects and music at this time; I chalk some of that up to the beta-status the game is in, and some of it to expectation for the target audience. Though I do get a little bit of Ace Combat 3 vibes from the low-tempo atmospheric choir-like track of the third mission. Missiles fire off with a “whoosh”, and the gun sounds like I’m shuffling a pack of playing cards. Voice acting is present, but you’ll hear a cacophony of identical voice lines as you engage enemy aircraft and you or your wingman get a missile impact. Graphics are similarly underwhelming. The cityscapes rendered in each mission I played in were nothing more than featureless blocks across an endless landscape. Because of the control jank, I was unable to get a fix on the models of the aircraft I was flying against. The second mission claims that you’re fighting old Earth-model prop planes, but beyond the sound effects, I wouldn’t have been able to confirm that. Colors are muted, unless you make a close range hit on an aircraft during the night, then you’ll be blinded by the light. “Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night…” So… The game needs work. I’m convinced that the radar doesn’t actually function, despite being able to manipulate it with the face button controls. I would be facing down incoming enemy aircraft but nothing would appear on screen. I suspected tuning for range at first, but I couldn’t get it to show anything of value in any mission I played. Given that this is 2025 we of course have to have clouds in the game, but they behave somewhat oddly here, almost acting more like ocean waves rather than a Stratus system. But despite it, I can’t help but be somewhat enamored by what I’ve seen. We have a good base system here, and honestly I got some of the same comfortable gameplay flow that I’d get from a good flight shooter. Of course it’s a beta—I can’t call this ready for primetime or recommend it to someone looking for a complete experience. I’ve been bitten in the past by early access games too much to tell someone to rush out and buy this. But keep an eye on it; put it in your wishlist. I have cautious optimism towards this humble sortie. Connect with 'Aurora Flight' DL Site Steam X.com Writer T.J. "Millie" Archer T.J. "Millie" Archer is Life-long realist and aviation enthusiast. Once the co-founding Administrator of the Electrosphere.info English Ace Combat Database. In the present day he is freelance, roving the internet in search of the latest aviation news and entertainment. [ Read Profile ]

Forward Air Controller-Airborne (FAC-A) is one of the most complex roles a modern-day military pilot could engage in. Forward air control with two feet planted firmly on the ground is challenging but doing it while managing a high-performance aircraft in hostile airspace is on an entirely different level. While single-seat aircraft with targeting pods are perfectly capable of fulfilling this role in Digital Combat Simulator, having a second aircrew member that could take over a few tasks would ease the burden. Thanks to the Jester LANTIRN update, solo pilots of the Heatblur Simulations F-14B can efficiently conduct FAC(A) operations. Weeks of fulfilling this role in PVE and PVPVE multiplayer missions with friends and random people have solidified my opinion that the F-14B is becoming one of the finest FAC(A) platforms in DCS. A summary of FAC(A) For those that do not know, in short, ground-based Forward Air Controllers identify hostile forces and guide fire support from friendly forces outside of the immediate area to strike those targets. Their tasks include managing the direction that support comes from, deconflicting assets, requesting specific weapons for the task, accounting for weather conditions and visibility, and safely guiding in fire away from friendly forces. Pilots that fly FAC(A) fulfill the same task as their ground-based counterparts but do so from an aircraft. This makes them a fast platform capable of finding hidden targets from high above while bringing their own weapons to bear if needed. They must do all of this while being competent enough to fly and fight in any condition effectively. An entire article on FAC(A) in Digital Combat Simulator could be written, but for now, let's leave it at this. FAC(A) F-14B in transit to area of operations. F-14B Design Benefits Despite FAC(A) being an unusual role for this aircraft, the F-14B's capabilities and design are beneficial. Its pair of F110-GE-400 turbofan engines give it enough power to sprint at well over Mach 1 to the area of operations if needed and use that same speed to break away from unexpected threats. Its variable swing wings sweep to more easily fly at lower speeds when needed. Though it does not have a fly-by-wire flight control system, placing the Tomcat into an easy right-hand orbit with a mixture of stick, throttle, and trim. When an orbit is established, the pilot only needs very light inputs to change the height and shape of the orbit. The large fuel capacity can translate to extended FAC(A) loitering time, assuming the pilot flies the aircraft efficiently, without frequently selecting afterburner. Unlike aircraft that use wing-mounted fuel tanks, the fuel tanks on the Tomcat are unable to obscure the targeting pod because of their position beneath the engines. Most importantly, the second crew member can independently search for targets and manage radios while the pilot concentrates on flying and the surrounding airspace. The second crew member can make all the difference. This is where Jester LANTIRN comes in. Restrictions Whereas aircraft like the A-10C, JF-17, F-16C, and F/A-18C can employ their targeting pods easily, the F-14B Tomcat has been hindered. Since its release on March 13th, 2019, the Heatblur Simulations F-14B could only use its LANTIRN pod (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night) if the aircraft had a human Radar Intercept Officer in the backseat. And, let's be honest, how many DCS World Tomcat drivers have a consistent human backseater for every sortie they fly? It's a low percentage. This means that since its release, the most advanced air-to-ground capabilities for the aircraft have been locked away from a majority of its users. Players flying the F-14B alone could access their targeting pod by switching from the front seat and back seat manually or through the use of the Pilot LANTIRN Pod Control mod. With the Jester LANTIRN October 2021 update, all capabilities of the F-14B are universally accessible, which in turn made FAC-A a possibility for all that own it. FAC(A) with Jester Before attempting anything as a Forward Air Controller (Airborne), be competent enough to use Jester LANTIRN. As capable as Jester is as an automated RIO, he obviously isn't capable of passing information to other human players or searching for hostiles without player input. It's best to think of Jester as a semi-self-guided targeting system capable of sorting targets by certain categories while maintaining laser guidance and providing basic threat detection. The human pilot of the Tomcat will still be in charge of getting Jester looking into areas where targets may be, forwarding that information to allied forces, and coordinating attacks against the hostiles. There are multiple sections to this topic: Visual example only, not to recommended scale. F10 Map Marker Placement Placing map markers in the F10 map is essential for navigation and target acquisition in the F-14B Tomcat. These markers can be placed on the map both pre-mission (during the briefing) and mid-mission. The markers can be given custom labels typed out by the players. Short names are ideal, but the markers can have longer labels if needed. Make as many markers as needed for navigation, target areas, locations of nearby friendly forces, and other relevant marks. While the Tomcat does have a limited number of waypoints that can be stored within its systems, the map markers can still be used by Jester through LANTIRN Q Modes. Add as many target-related markers as needed. As a side note, the marks on the map are also visible to other players looking at the F10 map, improving their situational awareness as well. RIO Navigation Menu The F-14B can store three navigation waypoints, one surface target waypoint (location of enemy units), hostile area waypoint, initial point (beginning of bombing run), and defended point (location of friendly units). Map marker coordinates can be input into these waypoints by using Jester's Navigation Menu to select Steer Point From Map and assign map markers to the waypoints desired. Jester LANTIRN Q Modes Use Jester LANTIRN Q modes to quickly begin the search for targets. Select either waypoint (QWP), which were set in the RIO Navigation Menu, or cue map markers (QMAP MARKER). Jester will immediately slew the LANTIRN onto the selected point. Unanticipated targets can be acquired quickly by using the menu's Head Control subsystem and using either QEYEBALLS to look out the canopy and tell Jester to look at a specific area or using Direct Head Control to make small adjustments to what the LANTIRN is currently looking at. Getting Jester's attention back onto areas of interest is as simple as reselecting a waypoint or map marker, letting Jester handle the process of returning the targeting pod onto those locations. Example of pilot view of LANTRIN. Note target location information on bottom right of display. Target Spotting and Guidance After Jester finishes slewing the LANTIRN onto the desired location, immediately select SEARCH FOR TARGETS and begin searching either for units of a specific type (SAMs, Armored Vehicles, Aircraft, etc.). After the first target is located and automatically designated, new targets of that type can be found by using the Jester menu to search for Next Target or Previous Target. Once the desired target is selected, Jester will continue tracking the designated target but will begin giving steering cues to bring the F-14B onto an attack run. It is at this point Jester's steering cues should be ignored, and the pilot can settle into an orbit and begin guidance for other aircraft. These options include: Begin generating Nine Lines or establish parameters for buddy lasing of a target. Talking an allied aircraft onto the target using terrain landmarks and visual cues. Using laser designation to guide other aircraft capable of laser spot search/laser spot tracking to get their targeting pods looking at the same target area. Relaying coordinates of the designated target (bottom right of LANTIRN display while a target is designated) by radio or text for other pilots to input into their navigation systems. When other aircraft are ready, having the FAC(A) Tomcat launch the initial attack, visually marking the area with a column of smoke from the first destroyed target. FAC(A) can then return to orbit. Creation of further F10 map markers as needed. LANTIRN Lasing Details Normally Jester only lases a target while the F-14B is attacking a designated target. For FAC(A) and buddy lasing purposes, using the second page of the Jester LANTIRN menu is vital for these operations. Jester can be ordered to turn the laser from Automatic (for the F-14B's own attack runs) to Always On (laser on at all times). As friendly aircraft get the information they need or use the FAC(A) laser to get their weapons on target, once the task is complete, switching the laser back to Automatic shuts it off, preventing a potential overheat of the LANTIRN. The laser code of the LANTIRN can be changed while in flight, but any laser-guided bombs on the F-14B can only have their laser codes changed while on the ground. This is the same for many other aircraft in Digital Combat Simulator. While coordinating laser codes and weapons pre-mission is ideal, in the event this is not possible, keeping the LANTIRN pod's default 1688 code is fine. Just keep in mind that multiple lasers using the same code in the same area could cause problems. Threat Detection While Jester's steering cues should be ignored, muting him is an unwise decision. He still gives callouts for non-laser designation-related events. These include the location of friendly aircraft close by, new radar warning receiver hits from air contacts and surface contacts, and warnings about incoming missiles. The missile warnings, in particular, are useful in the case of short-range surface-to-air missiles like MANPADs being fired at the aircraft. "Armor captured." Jester spotting a target through a building. Quirks and Bugs As of the time this article is being published, there are a few known quirks and bugs of using Jester in this capacity. A voice glitch can occur where he constantly lets the pilot know a target has been lased or designated. Using the LANTIRN reset utility stops this but requires the target to be re-acquired through Q Modes. Jester's ability to spot targets can underperform if the area of interest is too far from the aircraft (over 20nm, estimated) or overperform to the point where enemy units are spotted through solid objects like buildings. This could be a problem because though Jester sees the target through obstructions, the laser from the LANTIRN will designate the obstruction and not the target in question. As stated in a comment from a Heatblur developer, Jester's target sorting is limited by the way DCS groups units. While the mission editor has sub-categories for unit types, these categories are not present while a mission is running. For example, anti-aircraft guns appear under "SAM" search, while armored personnel carriers, main battle tanks, and infantry fighting vehicles are classified as "Armor." Some units have an odd crossover, like some parts of the HY-1 Silkworm anti-ship cruise missile launch site appearing under the "SAM" designation. Normally this is where visual confirmation of the target is needed. While Jester is able to change the LANTIRN's field of view to zoom the camera in and out, he seems to only do so momentarily. Jester has no issue seeing targets in this regard, but there is not a function that allows the pilot to adjust the field of view. While Jester may not need this, giving the pilot the option to have Jester adjust FOV would be beneficial to the pilot in certain situations. Tomcat switching to FAC(A) role with Viper escort. In the real world, the F-14B "Bombcat" has served as FAC(A) in actual combat despite it not being its primary role. The F-14B of Digital Combat Simulator certainly has more hurdles to leap and bugs to squash in relation to this role, but with further development, it's possible that Forward Air Controller (Airborne) in swing-wing fighters won't be a rarity in multiplayer servers. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile .

Our VRChat Colibri Dogfight Tournament ended this past Saturday, we had around 60 pilots enroll to the event and three tournament winners which fought tooth and nail for the win. As we put this event behind us to focus on the future, we would like to have one last review of the event from the perspectives of everyone in Skyward that had a part in it from an organizational standpoint. Cubeboy's POV As the aircraft and world creator, this tournament was something special and terrifying at the same time. It had been more than a year since I had last made an event world like this for VRChat, so I had to readjust myself to the workflow and the way that this system works. The match system that KitKat made a couple of years ago was never truly documented properly, which means that we rely on magical mystical knowledge from her and the other tournament world creators to set up the system properly. This means that I ran into a lot of issues that, in reality, had been nothing but an improper set-up of an object or a parameter. Tournament World Unity Project Screenshot Setting up a tournament world properly truly feels like discovering some ancient puzzle made by an advanced civilization, and solving it by throwing stones at it until it solves itself. Jokes aside, KitKat and VTail were extremely helpful and saved me several times. Sournetic was also very much an important part of the project, and helped me until the very last second and made sure that everything was running well. A moment I think was very much worth it, at least to me, was seeing people become as competitive as possible during the tournament. Everyone was not only trying their best, but making it a point to want to win no matter what. We had some absolutely insane matches that went on for maybe far too long, but they kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time. We had a lot of technical difficulties, including VRChat's servers completely crashing and going offline the night we were supposed to have our finals, but with a quick reschedule and proper testing; we pulled it together, and we allowed our pilots to go ham. The tournament ended with a bang as our friend Sournetic made a very fancy animation to present the trophy to the tournament winner, who ended up being CriticalForce. The animation combined the design elements of the trophy with the classic animation style that Sour has had for the past couple of years Personally, I quite liked the tournament. It was a fun event to run and make, and even more fun to watch. Stayed tuned for more tournaments and events in VRChat, this is just the first of many events we want to do as collaborations or as the sole developers and organizers! Hueman's POV One of the unique challenges of this tournament was the need to establish our own visual identity - while Skyward has taken part in many tournaments before, they had always been organized primarily by other groups. This was the first time we’d be the primary organizers of the event. This meant we had complete free rein over how the aircraft’s liveries looked. Well, almost complete - as a tournament livery, it had to be color-coded, so the crowd could distinguish between the contestants at a glance. It also had to reflect Skyward’s visual identity, and due to time constraints, preferably be simple and easy to implement in a 3D model. The livery ended up as a two-tone, Ferris-inspired paint scheme, with two highly contrasting shades of grey as the base - following the same design language of Skyward’s liveries for DCS aircraft, and with the added bonus of also being similar to the color palette used by Dogfight Central, our partners for this event. For the livery’s color trim - which identifies in which “side” the aircraft is on - I wanted to do something slightly different from the usual for VRC aviation tournaments. Instead of highly saturated, bright blue and red colors, I opted for more muted, desaturated tones instead, which we found better fit the livery base. For the finals, however, I wanted something special - something which told the finalists and the audience watching them that this was a completely different stage. And thus, the bright colors were back in - but not red and blue, no, that would have been far too pedestrian. Instead, I wanted a different set of opposing colors, one warm and one cold. Hi-vis orange was the substitute for red - a color with a long history of use in aircraft and which perfectly fit the livery. And as a substitute for blue, after trying out many cold colors, I found the one which best fit the livery was a slightly muted teal - in between blue and green. This unusual color turned out to be a fan favorite during the competition! Having settled on these colors, I wanted to integrate them into the trophy design somehow. After discussing some ideas with Benjamin_Yes, Dogfight Central’s artist who was going to model the trophy; and Reason2Die4, the Black Aces’ veteran trophy designer, a lightbulb eventually lit up in my brain and resulted in this very rough sketch: It combined elements from Skyward FM (the arrow logo), Dogfight Central (their challenge coin in the center), and the Colibri jet trainer itself, the star of the show - as well as the final’s livery colors. Benjamin set out to model it with his own twist in Blender, and the result is this gorgeous trophy - which, in keeping with VRC aviation tournament traditions, received its very own reveal animation by Sournetic, who contributed with his 3D animation and particle work skills. RibbonBlue's POV Colibri Tournament May-June 2025 was an important event for both Skyward Flight Media and VRC Dogfight Central (DFC), whom we recently partnered with. For all details on this tournament, see our blog post about it. Preparation for this event outside world creation and aircraft development also spurred on an effort to expand our own VRChat content on the website, standardize promotional imagery and all the usual tasks that come with hosting a tournament. This process was further streamlined with the use of the VRChat Flight Tournament & Airshow Checklist created by Stagnation of The Black Aces VRChat aviation community. It should be noted that this community provided 50.00 USD towards the combined 350.00 USD pool which competitors drew their cash prizes from. During the build up to the event it was great to see competitors fervently practice in the recently made Colibri Dogfight Center featuring the SW-210 Colibri in jungle and snow camouflage for both organizations. While that world was built, the flight values of the armed Colibri were refined by staff from Dogfight Central and Skyward Flight Media, making this our first collaborative effort even before the tournament began. DFC staff analyzed the aircraft in air combat, producing a Rate Graph competitors were given access to shortly before the prelims began on May 31st, 2025: SW-210 Colibri Rate Graph created by Dogfight Central. Now that the tournament is over, the Skyward x Dogfight Central Tournament World is now available for use. Tournament worlds like this are often not freely accessible, so it is great to see it become a resource for people interested in competing with their friends or for other organizations to host their own event. Media of the practice sessions circulated around the DFC Discord and X.com. Some competitors even posted videos of their matches throughout the tournament. For broadcasting and promotion, the DFC YouTube channel is hosting VODs of two of the preliminary blocks ( Block A , Block B ). The semi-finals and finals were hosted as a livestream, with the VOD available below:  DFC x SFM Colibri Tournament Finals While providing my own commentary with the basic fighter maneuver experts of Dogfight Central, I found myself genuinely enjoying the air battles that took place. Largely because of the flight characteristics of the weapon equipped version of the SW-210 Colibri, a majority of the battles were notably different from the type of air combat we normally expect between fourth generation fighters in these events. With the aircraft's engine able to be disabled by combat damage but with it possible to glide them back to the center stage runway for rearming, refuel and repair of the aircraft, all manner of exciting and unusual battles took place. It was hard to predict at times, which was very appreciated. While the unfortunate mass failure of the VRChat platform on June 7th, 2025 forced a one week-delay to the event, the tournament still concluded with few hang-ups. This event gave both parties more experience with preparing material for large-scale events and hosting future events together. Engine disabled SW-210 attempting to glide to safety. Picture by VTail64. Event Pictures Well known VRChat cameraman VTail64 took pictures during the prelims and finals of the tournament. Promotional media images used for social media and livestreaming by benjamin_yes have also been gathered. All pictures have been put into a Google Drive Folder : Event Winners First Place CriticalForce Second Place Savory Three Place fuwamon Event Credits Commentary benjamin_yes, CRDM and Jono from Dogfight Central. Cubeboy, Hueman, KOSMOS and Ribbon-Blue from Skyward Flight Media. Last but not least, Reason2Die4 from The Black Aces, and KitKat as a Special Guest Broadcasting, Promotional Material benjamin_yes, CDRM, Jono, RIbbon-Blue Event Photography VTail Colibri Aircraft Design Cubeboy and Hueman. Colibri 3D Modelling and Adaptation to VRChat Cubeboy Colibri Porting to SaccFlight Version 1.7 VTail Colibri Flight Model Refinement benjamin_yes, CDRM, Cubeboy, Hueman, Jono Match System KitKat Tournament World, Match System Implementation Cubeboy Trophy Design Hueman and benjamin_yes Trophy 3D Modelling benjamin_yes Trophy Reveal Animation Sournetic Special Thanks The Black Aces for prize pool contribution. KitKat, Sournetic and VTail for assistance with various technical aspects making this tournament possible.

Game Jams are magical places where vague concepts need to be distilled to create a working game loop in a short amount of time. They are a mixture of personal challenges for indie developers to better their skills and find motivation, while also having their works submitted for judgment in competitions. From time to time, I love digging through the smallest of the smallest, most niche flight games. There are fewer places better to look than game jams. This time around I was digging through Game Maker's Toolkit Game Jam 2025 . Running from July 30th to August 3rd, about 9,614 games were built and entered for competition in just those five days. The developers were given the loose theme of "Loop" to build their games around. The different teams took this theme and interpreted it in literally thousands of different ways. I now have a nice list of death loop games, music/rhythm games and some heart jerking love stories. While sifting through the 40+ pages of games, the image of a sky writing aircraft flashed across my screen. Skywriter Academy was created by team Trash Pilots (an amazing team name). When asked about how this game fits the Loop theme of the game jam, the team said: "In Skywriter Academy, you're tasked with writing messages in the sky by using smoky loop-de-loops to pass challenges!" All controls are done with basic keyboard inputs for maneuvering the aircraft, throttle selection and an interact button to click specific controls in the cockpit. This was a quickly assembled game, so it's fair to not expect full controller support here. I suggest downloading the game to get the best experience. From the beginning the dev team intentionally designed this 3D flying game to be difficult . While the flight model is very arcade-y with the aircraft more than capable of performing unbelievably tight turns in just a few seconds with little to no risk of departing from flight, the cockpit is where the game design intentionally overrides aircraft functionality. The cockpit was purposefully designed with a somewhat problematic layout. The aircraft has unusually low visibility and the bare minimum amount of flight instruments. Even the switch activating the smoke generator is placed behind the pilot seat, forcing players to look away from the direction of travel to turn it on or off. The screen in the lower-center console of the cockpit is the game defining flight instrument. That screen is showing a live camera feed from the hangars of the runway players takeoff from. The shapes or messages players must sky write, as referenced in their document folder, are to be drawn above the runway according to the perspective of that camera. This creates a pretty wacky dynamic where players both need to look straight down in the cockpit to monitor their progress. Looking forward out of the cockpit while skywriting is actually a detriment. The camera feed is vital for getting the shapes as correct as possible, but it is also the only way players can ensure they will not collide with terrain while flying. This is probably one of the most awkward ways to attempt flying an aircraft through aerobatics I've seen. Collisions are bound to happen, and squiggly shapes are expected. Though, after a few attempts this odd style of flying becomes easier to understand and the game itself is decently lenient with its grading system. So don't sweat failing a few times. A key part of the experience is the challenge of trying to succeed in intentionally difficult conditions, rather than revel in the accuracy of how real-world skywriting is done. The Trash Pilots team made a pretty odd little game in a matter of a few days. While I do not expect this style of game to "take off" anytime soon, I do think that Skywriter Academy could probably get away with a standalone, paid game release if it added more shapes to draw and a consistent grading system and maybe some unlockable aircraft with different flight characteristics. Using these aircraft could also act as a score multiplier for shapes drawn. That is just me thinking out loud though. If you have a few minutes and a working keyboard and mouse, try something unusual. Take a look at Skywriter Academy. Connect with 'Skywriter Academy / Trash Pilots' Game: Itch.io Art: Ties Groen Music & Sound: Nik Buchowski Programming: Bart van Egten Programming: Victor Ghys . About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. [Read Staff Profile ]

Ask anyone who’s ever played Ace Combat - video games can be far more than mere entertainment. When intended as such by their developers, they can be incredibly powerful vessels for storytelling , possessing a trait unique to interactive media: while a well-written book will certainly immerse you in the story, a video game allows the author to place the audience directly inside it. This format’s potential for storytelling is in fact so great that, sometimes, a story will be told even though it was never really intended to have a story at all. Many years ago, when I didn’t yet have a PC powerful enough to play DCS or one of the newer IL-2 games, Strike Fighters 2 was my go-to combat flight sim. We’ve covered this old gem before , but suffice to say that while it does have several campaigns, there’s not really any narrative. No characters, no cutscenes; no storytelling. It does, however, have two features which in conjunction resulted in an experience I’ve been wanting to talk about ever since. Of Rosters, Rookies, and Aces The first is the game’s Custom Campaign feature. Players can take one of the game’s campaigns and change settings such as your unit’s aircraft and even the country it’s from - you can even pick certain squadrons from air forces around the world. In conjunction with the game’s vast modding scene adding more aircraft and maps to the game, this allows the player to create almost any scenario imaginable, from French Mirage IIIs intervening in the war between the game’s fictional countries of Dhimar and Paran, to JASDF F-4EJ Kai fighting Flankers over the Kuril Islands. Apart from having unique ammunition cost mechanics, custom campaigns in Mercenary mode let you really feel like Shin Kazama with these terribly mix-matched formations. The other feature of note is the pilot roster system. Pilots in your squadron are given a name and surname at random, picked from the game’s remarkably expansive list of available names for each country - and if it’s a mercenary campaign, you will have a hodge-podge of names from all over the world. They each have their own set of stats for various skills, and even fatigue - which forces the player to constantly rotate which pilots go out on sorties. The combination of these stats change the way in which individual pilots behave, fly and respond to threats. As pilots gain experience in combat, they sharpen their skills and can also be promoted. The simple fact that these NPCs have names and their own behaviors changes how the player interacts with his wingmen as opposed to flight sims where they remain nameless. You will certainly end up having your favorite pilots to fly with, that one inexperienced rookie you always have to take care of at the start and ends up growing into a solid pilot - and, because this is a combat game, some of them will almost inevitably be shot down. If they manage to eject, they might be rescued by friendly forces, hospitalized due to injuries, or go missing in action; if they don’t, they’ll be KIA, and be permanently crossed out on your roster. This is of course not unique to SF2, and the fascinating phenomenon of player attachment to characters simply because they have a name has been explored at least since 1993’s Cannon Fodder. What is interesting though, is that under the hood, the same system is being applied to all pilots in the campaign - not just to the player’s squadron roster. This means that each NPC has their own skill stats, they also earn experience, they can also get promoted, and their number of kills is tracked - even though you can't see it. That is… until one of them gets five kills. When an NPC becomes an ace, their name becomes visible to the player. Every time you come across them while flying, you will be able to see their rank and name; and in the pre-mission planning map, when looking at an airbase, it’ll tell you which squadrons are stationed there - as well as listing out known aces belonging to these units. In certain base game aircraft, aces even get their own kill marks! The thing is, for the longest time, I had only seen friendly aces ( I guess the poor Fishbed pilots never lived long enough to get five kills...) and thus I thought this feature applied only to pilots on the BLUFOR side. It made sense to me at the time - this is a flight sim, after all. It doesn’t have the narrative drive of an arcade game like Ace Combat; the whole point is that it’s attempting to simulate aircraft behavior to a point where you must use the appropriate tactics when fighting them. In this context, enemy aircraft are simply targets for you to practice against; there’s no need for characters to be attached to them. There’s no use for a story. This is the story of when I was proven wrong, and all of that changed. Setting the Stage SF2’s custom campaigns gave me many memorable moments - like that one time in a Starfighter campaign, when I took a rookie pilot along for an easy recon mission to get him some experience, only for my F-104G to end up being blue-on-blue’d by a Sidewinder when we came across a pair of MiG-21PFs and the rookie turned out to be dangerously trigger-happy. Goddamnit, Lt. Banzhaff. However, of course the most memorable one of them all had to involve Northop’s masterpiece: the F-5E Tiger II. When starting this campaign, I wanted to fly the F-5E in the classic matchup of Tiger II versus Fishbed. For the squadron, I picked Brazil’s 1º/14º GAv/Ca (Grupo de Aviação de Caça - Fighter Aviation Group), “Pampa”; all that was left was to pick the area where the campaign would take place. But where would it even remotely fit? There was no South America map. And then it crossed my mind - during WWII, Brazil sent an expeditionary fighter squadron to fight alongside Allied forces in Europe - what about a what-if scenario where the same happens in a Cold War gone hot? A completely insane proposal, but it was enough for me - and so, the campaign would be set in Europe. This scenario would’ve been set in the mid to late 70’s (the F-5E first flew in 1972, and entered operational service with the FAB in 1975) - however, this would mean facing tons of MiG-23s with their semi-active radar homing R-23s. What I wanted instead was to face MiG-21s in close-range dogfights, some classic Fox 2 and guns only action; and to achieve this, I cheated a little bit, and set the campaign’s year to 1968, a time-travelling journey for the “Echo” Tigers which SF2’s campaign editor happily allowed. This was, after all, a completely casual campaign - just to have some fun. Little did I know I would get way more than what I’d bargained for when asking for dogfights against MiG-21s. The Story Begins The campaign starts with 1º/14º GAv/Ca (Grupo de Aviação de Caça - Fighter Aviation Group) “Pampa” being forward deployed to Brüggen airbase, West Germany. On the 21st of August, Warsaw Pact forces cross the inner German border, seeking to unify the two countries under the GDR’s banner. What shall be the F-5E squadron’s first assignment as this conventional conflict deflagrates? SF2's automatically generated missions are always a box full of surprises, after all. I look at the game’s briefing screen: we’re being sortied as a four-ship, callsign Kingfish. Mission objective: “Provide close air support to friendly units defending Fulda.” Oh. Oh no. Looking at the squadron’s roster, I pick the three other pilots who will be heading straight into the jaws of the Pact’s armored push alongside me. Armed with a pair of Mk 82s and two 70mm rocket pods each, the four little F-5Es head towards Fulda, where the battle already rages on both in air and ground. There are F-104Gs dropping bombs on columns of advancing T-55s; on the other side, Su-7 Fitters lob rockets at the defending NATO forces. Heading to the gap. In the ensuing onslaught, two of my wingmen get shot down by anti-aircraft gunfire. One of them bursts into a fireball after being hit by 23mm gunfire from a ZSU-23-4; the other one manages to eject, and parachutes straight into the battlefield below. The scenery of the onslaught. At the end of the day, NATO forces succeed in repelling the assault. The fields of Fulda lay covered in smoldering hulls of T-55s and BMPs; and apart from strafing armored columns with rockets and guns, the 1º/14º gets its first air-to-air kills when, spotting an opportunity, I slot behind a pair of Su-7 Fitters setting up for an attack run and let off a pair of AIM-9Bs - one of which surprisingly connects, while the other misses entirely, leaving me to finish off the lead Fitter with my two 20mm M39 autocannons. Strafing run at the Fulda Gap. However, for me, this victory was a bittersweet one. Of the four F-5Es which sortied out, only two are coming home. On its very first sortie, the squadron lost two aircraft and one aircrew; while one of the pilots was rescued by friendly forces after the battle and returned to the squadron’s roster, 2nd Lt. Janelson Monteiro is KIA. The following sorties went a lot smoother; however, it was perhaps because of this initial shock that, after a successful armed reconnaissance mission, I ordered my wingman to return to base while I searched for targets of opportunity. I still had nearly all of my weapon loadout - two Mk 82s and two rocket pods - and sure enough, after a while I came across the mother of all targets of opportunity: an airbase with most of its air defenses knocked out, and a bunch of MiG-21s just sitting there on the flight line. I look at my map - Merseburg Airbase. Not exactly near the frontline, but not super deep inside East Germany either. I figure I can make a run for it if something goes wrong; and after looking around to make sure no bandits are in the area, I line up for my attack run on the airfield. Look at them all lined up! It was just too tempting! A barrage of rockets rains down on the parked MiG-21s. Very little AAA fire comes to meet me in response. Emboldened by this success, I decide to go for a second pass, and my two Mk 82s vaporize a section of revetment where Fishbed-Js had been parked. This MiG-21S is about to have a very bad day. Thankfully, no one's in it. However, after I pull up from this attack run, I notice I've got company. Approaching fast from my east is a lone MiG-21, armed with four heatseekers and a massive 23mm gunpod on the centreline - it's a Fishbed-J. I figure he must be from this airbase, and he's probably not very happy about what I just pulled off. But something else caught my eye immediately and sent chills down my spine: This guy had a name. Instead of "MiG-21S Fishbed-J", the red letters on my screen read out: "K-n Dmitri Kostilev" . My heart races. What on earth? A named enemy ace? I didn't even know that was possible in this game! What is this fight going to be like? How different will it be from a common enemy MiG-21? As I tried to process what I was looking at, the distance between us was closing fast. I didn't have an escape window to bug out of this fight - I had no option but to face him on the merge. The dance begins. I do not remember the details of this fight as much as how it felt - this guy was a lot more difficult to deal with than anything I'd been across before. Most SF2 enemies are nearly trivial to fight - but this guy knew how to move his Fishbed around, and most importantly, he was aggressive . And, this being an F-5E versus MiG-21 fight, our performance was very evenly matched. Whether it was due to the shock of this being the first time I'd seen an enemy ace, or whether it was actually that good, the fact of the matter is: for the very first time in a Strike Fighters 2 playthrough, I actually felt like I could end up losing a 1v1 dogfight against the AI. After a good few minutes of the most tense fighting I'd ever had in this game, I finally managed to get him in a rolling scissors, where the low-speed performance advantage of the F-5E over the Fishbed gave me enough of an edge to put him in my gunsight. Gotcha! As the twin 20mm cannons roared to life, the Fishbed-J's right wing was sawn clean off. Flames erupted from the wing root; and a second after the canopy blew off, the plumes of the ejection seat's motor dashed out of the cockpit. Splash one Fishbed! I circled around as I watched the smoking MiG-21 plummet to the ground, and sure enough, a white parachute canopy opened up. Mr. Kostilev would live to fight another day. My victory came right in the nick of time, as two East German MiG-21PFMs showed up to the party - thankfully too late. "Hallo, ist hier der Luftkampf?" After returning home with barely any fuel left, I went straight to the game's planning map. Sure enough: at Merseburg Airbase, there was an unknown Soviet unit, and in the list of known aces: K-n Dmitri Kostilev, with five confirmed kills. Unfamiliar with Soviet rank abbreviations, I did my best to look up what "K-n" was supposed to stand for - and, while inconclusive, my best guess was that it indicated the rank of Kápitan - or Captain. Though he had appeared alone this time, it was very well possible I'd see him leading a flight. My next sortie, a combat air patrol over friendly territory, was uneventful - but, in the second sortie after that encounter, our mission was to attack the runway at Neubrandenburg Airbase in a two-ship formation. I figured we'd have escort, so our loadout was full air-to-ground - all Mk 82s. As we approached the target, however, it became clear there would be no escort - the enemy air defenses were cleared out, but if someone jumped us, we'd have to fight our own way out. And what would you guess - as we're just getting ready to line up on the runway, Red Crown comes through the radio: Bandits at 12 O'Clock. Fishbeds - no less than eight of them , heading straight for us. And on the lead MiG-21S, was none other than Dmitri Kostilev. 8v2 isn't even close to a fair fight to begin with, but running away is hardly an option - we're deep inside GDR territory, and the Fishbeds are faster than us. We wouldn't make it to friendly lines in time. I order my wingman to jettison his payload and head back home; as he does so, I fly directly at the Fishbeds, the four Mk 82s still bristling under my wings. My plan is to push straight through and head for the target - faced with the option of an F-5 that's running away and one which is heading for their airbase, I figure the MiG-21s will choose me and leave my wingman alone. I just need to survive the head-on pass; whatever happens later, we'll see. I had no reason to fear crossing the bandits head-on: their missiles, just like mine, were rear-aspect only. SF2 AI also typically only uses guns when they have a textbook firing solution - I had never seen one go guns head-on. But, of course, there's a first time for everything. As the eight dots in my windscreen grow larger and larger, I see bright yellow shapes coming from the lead MiG-21. "WHAT!? They can do that?" "What the?" Instinctively, I roll hard to the right and pull back on the stick; the tracers fly screaming by, just barely missing my poor F-5E. Just barely missed it! Completely astounded, I try to keep my focus on the runway as the Fishbeds streak by - none of the others tried pulling off something similar. I had never seen an SF2 AI being anywhere close to that aggressive - I now dreaded the fight that awaited me. Got the runway, though! After successfully dropping my bombs on the runway, I weigh my options. Should I try to disengage? But there's no way - trying to run away would only put me deeper in enemy territory, and accomplish nothing but delaying the inevitable as the horde of Fishbeds catches up to me. Once again, Kostilev has left me out of options - I must turn and fight. Look at this madman, full afterburner, guns blazing. What a vibe. After dodging another nasty head-on cannon burst, the mad furball began. I remember dodging more than a couple missiles, but overall, apart from Kostilev the other fighters thankfully presented little challenge. After shooting down two jets, I finally managed to down Kostilev again - and once more, he ejected. After that, the enemy fighters disengaged and returned to base. I took the opportunity to head straight for friendly lines; nearly out of fuel, I opted to land at the closest friendly airbase I could find instead of trying to reach home plate. This pattern continued for several sorties - we'd have a handful of uneventful sorties, and then Kostilev would appear and force me into a situation that completely ruined my game plan. Kostilev and his gang showing up to ruin everyone's day again. He'd somehow manage to show up at the most terribly inconvenient times - such as when I was going back home after a deep strike into enemy territory, in an area covered by a bunch of SAMs; or to attack a flight of friendly bombers I was escorting just as another enemy unit had drawn us away. Kostilev throwing everything at two defenseless B-57 Canberra bombers. Every time, I managed to shoot him down after a long and difficult fight; and every single time , he ejected successfully, a parachute popped up, and he lived to fight another day - preferably, at precisely the worst possible time for us. Usually he'd show up with a two-ship, sometimes with a four-ship; but luckily, he never showed up with the massive eight-ship formation again. That is, until he did. We were scrambled to intercept an incoming attack; A group of Tu-16 Badgers was headed straight for our airbase. Eight F-5Es went up in full air-to-air loadout. Usually these bomber interception missions were fairly easy - but this time, one of their escort groups was none other than Kostilev's squadron - an eight-ship formation led by the man himself. It was a cliché at this point - Kostilev always showed up head-on, letting rip the 23mm gunpod. By this time, Kostilev's rank read "P-k", which i can only guess means Polkovnik - Colonel. Somewhere along the line, he'd been promoted - presumably for successfully managing to be the largest possible pain on my squadron's butt. But this time, it was an even fight. It was 8v8 - and my squadron was full of experienced pilots. Confident, I ordered one of my four-ship flights to deal with the bombers while me and my three best pilots dealt with the Fishbeds. I managed to shoot down Kostilev once more - and once again, he ejected successfuly. The poor guy's spine must have been compressed a few centimeters by now. At the end of the day, the bombers were destroyed, and all of our F-5Es came back home safely. It's hard to believe, but Kostilev managed to get out of this unscathed - he always does. You can see the whole three pixels of the ejection seat near the top right corner. For several sorties after that, I waited for Kostilev to come back, as he'd always done before. But he never did. I wondered how could that be - after all, I saw him eject, and he had a good chute. But then it hit me - of course! If the game applies the same system for enemy pilots as it does for the player’s squadron roster, then that means the same logic applies for what happens with them once they're shot down. And, since Kostilev bailed out well within NATO-controlled territory, that meant he was now a POW. I felt a sense of relief knowing Kostilev - this fictional character who didn't even have a face, nor a backstory, nothing but a name - was still alive; and a slight hint of sadness knowing I’d never see him again. As it turns out, this was the last dance. Flamenco guitars, please. The fact is, after the enemy ace which had long been my nemesis was no longer a factor, the campaign felt... empty. It was like something was missing. No longer did I go into every sortie wondering whether he'd appear; no longer did I have to worry about him showing up with a four-ship and forcing me to abort a ground attack mission. After Kostilev left the stage, I became the head-on menace. A few sorties later, I encountered another enemy pilot which had become an ace - from the same unit as Kostilev. However, it just wasn't the same. For the readers who played Ace Combat 04 - do you remember how it felt like to fight the fraud that was Megalith’s “Yellow Squadron” after defeating Yellow 13 over Farbanti? That's how it felt to face this new ace after Kostilev was gone. Sure, he put up a slightly harder fight than the average MiG-21, but compared to Kostilev it was laughable - so much so, that I don't even remember the bloke's name. There was none of the challenge, none of the thrill. “You’re not him” , I thought to myself. “Here, catch this Sidewinder. See? Kostilev would’ve dodged that.” A few more missions came and went. With one of the only enemy pilots which posed a genuine challenge out of the way, the experienced pilots in my squadron and other BLUFOR units - some of which had become aces themselves - established complete air superiority over East Germany. As NATO forces pushed into East Berlin, and it becomes clear the Soviet plans of a quick takeover of West Germany have failed, the campaign ends with talks of a peace treaty, and thus we come to the end of our F-5E saga. At the campaign's end, NATO air forces had five aces up their sleeve: apart from the maniac F-5E driver (the player), three USAF Phantom pilots and one RNLAF Starfighter pilot had achieved over five kills. I came across them in several sorties, and the game even made it so the F-4 aces escorted some of our strike missions. Look at this absolute legend who managed to live long enough - in a Starfighter - to get five kills! And yet, the only ace from this campaign whose name I remember off the top of my head is Polkovnik Dmitri Kostilev. In a game where there is no fixed story, where names are semi-randomly generated and where nothing is scripted, it is impossible for me to share this experience as one would with facing off against Yellow 13 in AC04, or against Pixy in AC Zero. But despite this inherent limitation of a story which is by definition personal, I've always wanted to share it because I cannot deny it: Kostilev left as much of a fond memory to me as any of these legendary Ace Combat characters. So much so that, years later, I even decided to draw that fateful first encounter. Sometimes, a name is all it takes for a story.

A look at our training mission to be released in the future I can confidently say that when it comes to Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) , pretty much all the Skyward Flight Media staff prefer multiplayer experiences over single player experiences. Not to say that we dislike well-made solo pilot missions and campaigns. We just deeply enjoy the teamwork aspect of online multiplayer missions. Instead of solely learning by offline independent study, our lead DCS mission editor, Caio D. "Hueman" Barreto , created a controlled training environment that can be used in multiplayer servers or for offline play. Known as the Skyward Marianas Training Range, it features various training tools players of all levels could use to learn any module (aircraft) in DCS world with other human participants. These include valuable bombing ranges and a strafe pit that uses in game assets and .lua scripts, not requiring the download of mods , to provide users with information they can use for training. While the Skyward Marianas Training Range has been operational for many months now, a version specifically made for public release is still in development. Consider this a preview of something good to come. F-5E on approach to the Skyward Marianas Training Range. The Traditional Training Process In November 2020, when I started my serious effort to get started in DCS, I did plenty of offline study and practice. Reading the provided manual, single player tutorial missions included with the module (aircraft) I purchased, video tutorials, expansive PDF guides - I spent a lot of time just trying to wrap my head around it all. But when you have other friends that are online slinging AMRAAMs and landing on aircraft carriers, the desire to get out there yourself often overtakes the "traditional" study approach. The same certainly happened to me. At the time, we thought the best compromise would be to find public servers running 'training missions' for me to learn while flying along them. I learned quickly that calling these missions "training missions" is a bit of a stretch. It is hard to learn and retain knowledge when there is a sprawling battle taking place against an opposing force. You could potentially have new players that can barely take off from the airfield, fumbling through basic aircraft systems while there is an unforgiving AI enemy actively trying to destroy them at every moment. Learning something new while under enemy fire is always less than ideal. While I did persevere through the dozens of deaths during that time and until I was finally comfortable with DCS, I have never forgotten the grind and how few training environments there are in DCS multiplayer servers. AV-8B Harrier firing its underslung cannon. Training Environment To clarify, when I say "training environment" I mean a scenario that does not force players that are trying to learn their first aircraft or their latest aircraft while in the middle of a full-scale wartime scenario. A training environment would be something where players could learn how to aviate, navigate, manage aircraft systems and become familiar with weapon capabilities long before being fired at themselves. A place where they could get comfortable enough with their aircraft with other players around, if desired. This same environment would also have the option for players to voluntarily enter into limited combat scenarios when they felt as though they were ready. That is a basic idea of what I would consider a training environment. Skyward F-16CM dropping practice bombs. The Skyward Marianas Training Range includes every aspect of what I've described a training environment to be (for the record, I personally had nothing to due with its development, all credit goes to Caio D. "Hueman" Barreto). Since this is a preview of sorts, I will not be detailing them all just yet, but my personal favorite features in this mission are the Bomb Range and Strafe Pit. Preview: Bombing Range The Rota Island Bombing Range is designed for guided bombs, air-to-ground missiles, unguided rockets, air launched cruise missiles, guided rockets, glide weapons, and unguided bombs. Using a .lua script, munitions that explode within its range provides specific players with their accuracy in the form of in-game text messages. For unguided weapons, this is especially useful. As pilots practice CCIP or CCRP weapons delivery, they become more familiar with the dive angles, air speeds or distances they need to maintain to consistent hit targets. While multiple bombs can be dropped at the same time onto the bombing range, the ideal application is to drop one bomb at a time to truly practice refining accuracy. Preview: Strafe Pit 6 nautical miles north-east of the Rota bombing range is the strafe pit. This pit is set for West to East gun only attack runs when aircraft roll in below 5000 feet MSL. As long as aircraft stay within the valid strafe pass zone, information on the number of hits on designated targets and the accuracy of those impacts are also communicated via in-game text messages. Coming Soon ™ The public release of the Skyward Marianas Training Range will be handled similarly to how we provided the Syria COIN mission. When the time comes, a similar product page will be setup with an online event scheduled. There is no hard date for release of this mission file, but work is actively being done to prepare the public version for release. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile .

In a simulator designed for combat and high action flying, one would think that something like a big, slow and "unamusing" aircraft such as the C-130 would not even be able to participate in basic scenarios. After all, this is Digital "Combat" Simulator, right? Well, it turns out that I have been finding myself flying such an aircraft inside actual combat missions, and in multiplayer too! But before we talk about that, let's talk a bit about the mod itself and how it works. ORIGINALLY POSTED: 08/27/2021 MINOR UPDATES 1/20/2024 A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE IN DCS: WORLD As a mod, the C-130 is pretty well-made, except for the cockpit model and textures. It is impressive how much work went into the systems and displays inside the cockpit. Aside from only a couple of mods such as the T-45C, this one has got to have one of the best implementations of digital displays, even the Heads-Up Display (HUD) has its graphics done with .svg files, which increases their definition by quite a bit ("a bit" being infinitely scalable)! The textures are quite plain and lack depth (same goes for the model), but the displays more than make up for it. Additionally, she does fly the way you expect her to. She is heavy but not maneuverable, making flying this bird quite a joy. I suppose that is natural when you have a pretty decent external flight model (EFM) and not a simplified flight model (SFM) driving the aircraft. Is the handling a 1:1 replica of the Hercules? No, but that is ok. When it comes to features, the Hercules has some of the most interesting ones I have seen in quite a while. From deployable paratroopers to droppable pallets with spawnable cargo inside that bring the airlift powerhouse that is the C-130. It also has a functional navigation computer that allows for waypoints to be entered. The computer can also calculate reference speeds for landing and take-off according to your weight and flap configuration, cool, huh? External model's good, nothing spectacular but it does its job! The external model is pretty good, too. It is properly animated and has enough texel density to look good while not taking up hundreds of megabytes of textures. It is not the highest poly model you will ever see, but it is just enough to look excellent with the help of the amazing texture work that it has, which was made by other community members! Although it might not be able to directly attack air targets and despite it having some ground attack capability thanks to its mounted cannon option, that does not mean that this bird is completely defenseless. It has the largest amount of chaff and flares dispensers that I've seen in DCS World (840 of each). Something that is beautifully represented by the attention to detail that the devs had in implementing these, seeing as even the dispersion pattern is spot on. Check this angel out, quite the looker: Now that you know a bit about the mod, let's take a look at how I've been finding myself using this bird in a multiplayer scenario! THE RIGHT PLANE FOR THE RIGHT JOB Lately, I've been playing a lot with my group of close friends on a private server. In that server, we are currently running a sandbox-like mission which utilizes scripts and dynamic triggers to make the battlefield more alive. We also run mods in the server, such as the A-4E, A-29B and of course, the Hercules. If we are victorious, we are usually left with a capturable airbase! Prior to us setting up the Hercules for the mission, it was usually the AI who randomly chose to capture the airfield whenever it wanted. We kind of got tired of that, which is where the C-130 comes in. After the clean-up is done, one of us (usually me) gets into the C-130 , starts it up, and heads straight for the airfield that we just freed. This part is usually fun as the rest of the players will have to escort this slowpoke of an aircraft for hundreds of miles , usually having to defend me from enemy fighters that are trying to intercept me. This has led to some pretty exciting and interesting scenarios, some of which have ended with me dead in the middle of the desert. Let's say that, after a long flight, I reach the airfield with my Hercules. As long as there are no enemies inside the zone and I land safely, bringing the aircraft to a halt, the neutral airbase will be captured, and allied ground forces will spawn! This, in turn, has made our experience much more gratifying as we have direct control over what happens and how it happens. This is the kind of scenario in which a cargo aircraft such as this shines bright like a diamond. After capture, we can now safely spawn and enjoy the protection of our SAM network in the airfield. This gives the mission a much-needed sense of progression that only the Hercules could bring. It truly is the right plane for the right job. A HERCULEAN CONCLUSION While it might not be the ideal platform to fly in the middle of a contested airspace, this aircraft and many more of its kind have a definite place inside DCS: World. They present the player with a completely new experience and one that no other sim can offer today, with the closest game that has something similar to it being Bohemia's ARMA 3. Give the Hercules a try, you will not regret it. You can even cold start it, that's always a plus! About the author: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord : Cubeboy

Introducing an early project, touching base with a familiar face Hey howa' doin, FlyAwayNow here again with the third indie highlight article, brought and produced by yours truly. Nova Squadron and Supermaneuver are the next of the indie flight games we'll be looking at today: One of them has been a known contributor to Skyward Flight Media, and as for the other, it's their first time through! So before we get to it with direct questions, I'll lay both of them out from the top down: Nova Squadron , the synthwavy, rougelity, Jupitery acelike, whose demo has been available and continued to be updated as it works up to its 1.0 is a game that I have known ever since my own work Project Wingman: the neighbor over the fence, and in many ways still a few steps ahead with ideas and notions about roguelite integration and location and even flight characteristics that comes with the higher sci-fi setting. Once you know what Nova Squadron is, you'll always recognize it when you see it between floating installations, aerial navies, and the tooth and nail rougelite climb that is ripe for the taking in our genre. Speaking of unmistakable, Supermaneuver at a casual glance, for Ace Combat fans out there, you will know the aesthetic immediately: This project by developer Gabriel Solon is, and I don't use this term lightly, the spiritual successor to the Ace Combat game made at the End of History; the game that confronted the oncoming future of technology. The internet was a thing not yet truly known of its nature and formation, and in that surreal weave of danger, War, as a constant fixture, was made partner with it. Supermaneuver then therefore will take us back in time to the days of the Electrosphere. As a general disclaimer before we get underway, I am a producer on both of these games, as I was on Project Aggressors in the prior article, and in games to come, hence my ability to provide you these insights! However, the questions I ask are not those offered by these developers, and some of them are even interrogative in nature; the project of this genre demands that all of us collectively ask these questions, so that, in some very funny form of the Socratic method, we get closer and closer to a more perfect union of plane games. Nova Squadron Website Links:   Steam  | Bluesky  | X.com Who are you? Hey, I’m Clara, I’ve been a professional games programmer for 4 years and, in my spare time, lead developer of Nova Squadron for 5. Why are you making this game and this type of game? Back when I was in my first year of university, we had an assignment to make a small game where you flew a plane in 3D; we were only given a few weeks to make it, so I wasn’t able to fit in everything I would’ve liked. The desire to revisit that assignment and do everything I originally hoped to (and, dare I say, some feature creep) eventually blossomed into Nova Squadron a couple of years later! What do you want this game to be? I always aim for Nova Squadron to be “baby’s first acelike”, so to speak - something with a solid tutorial and forgiving mechanics. It’s definitely not there yet, but I think some of this ethos shines through with things like the shield generator and fire support request system. I’m looking to start simpler than other games, and gradually build the player up to higher complexity gameplay. Acelike Rougelite, then. As opposed to acelite roguelikes, where the enemy planes can only move when you move.” This does raise a few questions in me then, what do you consider that simple floor, and what do you consider higher complexity than that? I’d say the core of it is that the player is free to make mistakes without being punished for them. For example, in most games where you’re in a plane, if you fly into something, that’s the end of the mission - not pulling up at the right time resets you back to the start, something I think we’re all painfully familiar with from ground-attack missions! The floor I want to start the player at is one where they’re free to learn the ropes and figure out how to control a plane in 3D space, and the game will give them the breathing room they need to do that. Then the complexity builds up as I stack more on top (weak points on ships requiring specific attack vectors, roguelite upgrades adding extra mechanics, and so on). Well, if we go all the way to the very end of the campaign, you’re going to have to fly through a tunnel. In fact you’re going to have to dogfight inside one! The more upgrades you stack on, the twitchier and less easy to control your plane’s going to be; and the most powerful upgrades are ones with trade-offs that force you to hone your playstyle. There’s an upgrade with a trade-off that prevents your shield from recharging until you get a kill, for instance, which forces the player to play more aggressively and deal more damage to stay in the fight. Nova Squadron is also mentioned to have a campaign, how does that work into the rougelite formula? In the demo, you can work your way through a series of 4 missions - for the first three, you can pick what type of mission you sortie into from the tactical map, but the fourth is fixed. A demo run always ends with a massive naval battle between your forces and the enemy, which is then interrupted by the appearance of Sceptre Squadron (or a certain suborbital superweapon...but that's a secret!) The full campaign takes this and expands it into a series of 3 mission sets, each 3-4 missions long, each ending with a fixed climactic battle. In the first set, you'll be ambushed with a random boss enemy; in the second, you'll chase after that same boss and eliminate it; in the third set, you'll charge deep into enemy territory for the final battle. We're talking tunnels, superplanes, antimatter reactors, the works! And everything you accomplish in each campaign run before your plane explodes will then link back into Renown you can use to request R&D on your planes, as well as conversations and bonds with your wingmen, allies, and even certain enemies.  What type of tone and writing are you looking for in this story then? We’re looking to make something light-hearted and filled with goofy over-the-top moments, but still with enough stakes and internal logic to keep you invested! To give an example, Nova 5 got their callsign by taking out a battleship via a controlled orbital dive at Mach 8, using their shields to absorb the impact. That’s the kind of “logical silliness” we’re pursuing. I’ve brought in a second team member to make sure we absolutely nail this. Robin  is busy writing the script and in-game archives and polishing them until they sparkle. Some of her work’s already in the demo - she rewrote all of the mission briefings for 0.4.0! How's development going since we've heard from you last? Slow and steady! I’ve been taking some of the oldest systems in the game, reworking them, and locking in their “final” versions - so with each new feature I add, it gets exponentially easier to add the next. The patch I’m working on now for July leverages all of those systems to add the craziest missions and weapons I’ve made so far, and moving on from there on I’ve got my eyes set on the metagame outside of regular missions - collectible dossiers, interactions with other members of your squadron and so on. Are there any gameplay decisions that you're on the fence about adding in? The core gameplay loop is pretty much set in stone at this point, I think (in design, at least - there’ll be a lot of changes to the demo in 0.5.0!) What’s still up for debate is a lot of the weirder prototype upgrades and mission objectives. Train heists, EMP fields, that kind of thing. What do you say about people who are otherwise turned away from NS due to its visual identity? Please bear with me, I’m working on it! 0.4.0 kicked off the visual overhaul with new shields and exhausts, and I’m moving on to clouds and explosions soon. Or cloudy explosions, maybe. Best of both worlds! It's been some time since Nova Squadron has been out there, and, as a dev myself, I know that the core of the vision can often change as we keep hammering away at the final creation. Has Nova Squadron changed fundamentally from what you wanted originally? Do you know where you're going? I think the core of the game’s stayed where it is since the first 6 months of development back in 2020 - peripheral design elements move around and get replaced, sure, but nothing that would have huge ramifications across the entire game. The biggest change is probably the narrative push you’re going to see in 0.5.0: a fake PC you can send messages with, read bizarre in-universe propaganda articles on, and…crash using terminal commands? The Song of Eventide ’s IT department would prefer it if you didn’t do that last bit though. You’ll get some pretty irritated messages from them if you’re not careful! Some developers have limited time demos to show their progress. The Nova Squadron demo has been consistently available for over half a year. What do you think are some of the benefits of maintaining a long-term publicly accessible demo? One of the main reasons to have a limited time demo is to build hype and fear of missing out - more people play the demo short-term because they don’t want to lose their chance to do so. I don’t want to do any of that. NS is a long-term project. I don’t want to build up a load of hype in a week and then leave people lost and confused for the next 3 years - I want to have you all along for the ride with me, and I want you to have faith that yes, this game is actually going to come out one day! Each update brings us one step closer to that lovely 1.0.0 release. What has been the biggest blocker for you in developing the game after all this time? Exactly that, really - time! I’m a programmer by trade and I don’t think anything could have prepared me for how long it takes to make all the models, textures, UI art and music that actually goes into a game. I’ll get there though. It’ll happen. Any closing thoughts or things you want to say?  I hope you like androids and fluffy ears. Not at the same time though. Supermaneuver Website Links:   X.com  |  YouTube Who are you, why are you making your game and this type of game, and what do you want this game to be? All in one go! I'm a 32 year old Brazilian gamedev. I've always had a passion for game design since forever, particularly vehicle based games. I grew up playing LOTS of Gran Turismo and Ace Combat on the PSX. I got this interest in airplane games when my dad got Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere and fell in love with everything. Ended up playing the game way more often than him. I remember some words from Stephen King that went something like this: "don't write down your ideas as you could end up clinging to bad ones, good ideas stay in your head and keep returning". I personally don’t think it's bad to write your ideas down, but he has a great point about good ones. This Simcade style flight combat game based on Ace Combat 3's design is one such idea. My plan for Supermaneuver is to pick the whole aesthetic of Ace Combat 3, borrow ideas from the whole series and other games like Project Wingman, deliver the political intrigue Ace Combat is known for and make a fast paced action game that requires careful plane and loadout planning. Before you were developing Supermaneuver, you were a 3D modeler who often posted your work for sale for other developers. How did you get into that? It's an interesting story as I started at 12 when I downloaded blender to make games, didn't even know what modeling was, and things evolved from there, but my focus was always modeling in the context of gamedev. I still sell some premade models on cgtrader and used to do some freelancing on Wildcat. Why get into game dev after that? I think the best ideas to invest on are the ones that keep getting back to you, so I've decided to fully turn to gamedev as I felt confident in my dev skills and always wanted to do a plane game. You can check my channel  to see some other game projects I did before. How long have you been working on Supermaneuver? It's a complicated question to answer because the dev work was really on and off for a year as I was doing a lot of freelancing and was really unfocused - depression can be a b**ch. But then I realized that the passion project was the way forward and the support/guidance you offered really helped a lot. Are you worried about people who are turned away from the "older" style of graphics that Supermaneuver has? It definitely would help to have shiny visuals like Project Red Sun on PW but Supermaneuver is first and foremost about my retro vision so this doesn't concern me too much. The interesting thing is that the gameplay itself is quick and modern. What makes Ace Combat 3 look like Ace Combat 3 if I can ask, then? Because you have the aesthetic nailed down from what you've shared. The things that make Ace Combat 3 are great pixel art for the planes but also, more importantly, the quality of the terrain sprites. The terrain was the main reason I chose the second mission from Electrosphere, “Bravado”. It has a simple (or I thought it was) ground sprite texture variety. It's "just" Rock and Forest. Of course when I started actually making my terrain I came to the realization that there were quite a few types of in-betweens and variations, so that was neat. While I was studying the map geometry I also noticed how restrictive the map's design was without being noticeable. There are some set tile elevations that repeat, the mountains have the same geometry repeated but it's all convincing thanks to good texture design and limited draw distance. Adding a lake to the Bravado equivalent mission in my game wasn't easy because of that. My reference didn't have this lake, so I had to get creative and load up the "Guardian Angel" mission that had islands transitioning into the sea so I could study the transition. Color balance was another very important step as every level has a characteristic tint, usually green or blueish, so I had to make sure all sprites were in the same theme.  I feel like if it wasn't for the work of Krishty   my job would've been at least 10 times harder. They ripped and organized all the textures and models/maps from Ace Combat 3 neatly in a way that made the process of studying and replicating the results far easier. How close is Supermaneuver to Ace Combat gameplay?  That is a dicy one because I'm inspired by the whole franchise but to be honest, I think it's an Ace Combat/Project Wingman Frankenstein. It has the agility from PW but the equipment selection will probably be simpler akin to Ace Combat Zero. Both games are about mercenaries, you can notice a pattern of taste there. Is there anything different you're doing with the flight model and gameplay you're doing, or do you want it to be close to Ace Combat? I don't really intend on mimicking anything specific as the fun factor will be king. The same can't be said about the visuals though. I’m really trying to emulate that Ace Combat 3 look. Would you want to share a bit more about your idea on the world or the story of this game? The story is just a rough draft at the moment as making a game involves so much work on so many different areas, but what I can say now is that it's a fictional world like Strangereal and is focused on mercenaries. Two rival companies to be precise but  I don’t want to say too much as these things change a lot. Are you interested in putting out a public demo? And if so, when? It's a secret shhh. Any closing thoughts or things you want to say? Again, shoutout to Krishty  for ripping and organizing the Ace Combat 3 files, Supermaneuver probably wouldn't exist. And shoutout to you Matt for the huge support. About the Interviewer Matthew "FlyAwayNow" Nguyen Artwork by alice (@atrousyolks) Producer, writer, incidentally personified online as a rooster. One of the three main developers of Project Wingman and now working across the board on several other combat flight videogames, audioplays, podcasts, and books. Advocate for indie creators, fanfiction, and critical analysis of what you love. [ Bluesky  / Linkedin  / X.com ]