First Proposal for the basic structure of the guide

[BlackLion]

S!

before I head off into a well deserved weekend, I thought about posting a first proposal for the basic structure;

I would suggest using a three-tier approach;

1) The Game

2) The Planes

3) The Historical Background

ad 1) there, I would include everything one needs to get the game up and running, from basic install to configuring various graphic card settings, sound settings, tweaking of the game (difficulty settings, dgen,...);
then I would put stuff like the various available addons into it, what they do, what they contain, certain issues with them and so on;
then, a good description of the QMB and FMB;
another section would deal with creating tracks and campaigns;
a good how to section about skinning would find its way into there;
of course a section on how to do online fighting, what one would need, where to head, squadrons that do online fighting and assorted stuff;
finally, a collection of "not to miss" links, where one can find each and everything he would need to get the most out of the game;

2) here, I would put all the technical stuff about the planes in, the best tactics for them, maybe even a sort of flying school specific to IL2 with regard to certain FM oddities and quirks;

3) historical things that are of interest, links, books on the topic, pilot stories, after action reports, screenshots whatever would fit in there;

this is just my first proposal;
I will work out the structure more precise as soon as time permits;

oh, and first I would love to keep FB/AEP and PF seperated in points 2) and 3);

my own library is very large, and I have lots of stuff to include here, but of course anyone with a certain affection for a specific plane can post his stuff and it would be easy to include this, the more opinions and bits of info we get, the better!

ok, feel free to discuss what you like and what you dont like, post suggestions, ideas, whatever you would love to see included
and finally, what do you think about that proposed layout?

best regards
BL

[CrazySchmidt]

Hi Blacklion,

You proposal sounds fantastic. Looks like you will have a very large amount of work ahead of you with this, but I for one am very much looking forward to it and will use it a lot myself.

You mention "configuring various graphic card settings, sound settings", will this go so far as to mention known problems and known fixes or point to links of known fixes?

Regards, CrazySchmidt.

[IV/JG1_Oesau]

This was first draft of a guide for FB (I did a couple months back and was off the top of my head) for what I wanted in a guide.

I looked at what had been done with LOMAC and was wanted to do the same sort of thing. I even approached Oleg about it for his support and got a confused email back. I responded and have got nothing back...

Yes, there's a lot to it but it would be great to do it. There are a number of guides out there, it's just a case of running it like a project and collecting it all together:

1. Introduction

2. Set-up
2.1. Installation
2.1.1. Stand alone
2.1.2. Add-on
2.2. Configuring settings
2.2.1. Out of game
2.2.1.1. Video
2.2.1.2. Sound
2.2.1.2.1. Voice
2.2.1.3. Network
2.2.1.4. Config file
2.2.1.4.1. What is what
2.2.1.4.2. Additional features from with config.ini
2.2.2. In-game
2.2.2.1. Video
2.2.2.2. Sound
2.2.2.3. Network
2.2.2.4. Voice
2.2.2.5. Input

3. Know your way around menus
3.1. Object Viewer
3.1.1. What information you can get from the object viewer
3.2. Settings
3.2.1. Brief on this
3.3. Difficulty settings
3.3.1. List each settings and what they do
3.4. QMB
3.4.1. Brief on this - covered in more detail later
3.5. FMB
3.5.1. Brief on this - covered in more detail later
3.6. Single Missions
3.6.1. Brief on this - covered in more detail later
3.7. Career
3.7.1. Brief on this - covered in more detail later
3.8. Tacks
3.8.1. Brief on what this does

4. Basic Flying
4.1. Controls
4.1.1. What does what - flight 101
4.1.2. Engine management
4.1.2.1. Radiator
4.1.2.2. Prop
4.1.2.2.1. Feather the prop
4.1.2.3. Fuel Mixture
4.1.2.4. Throttle
4.1.2.5. Emergency power (WEP, MW50)
4.1.2.6. Multi engined aircraft
4.1.2.7. Fire extinguisher
4.1.3. Flaps
4.1.4. Dive brakes
4.1.5. Brakes
4.1.6. Chocks
4.1.7. Gun sight
4.1.8. Canopy open
4.1.9. Views
4.1.9.1. Padlock
4.1.9.2. Icons
4.1.10. Landing gear
4.1.11. Hook
4.1.12. Weapon release
4.1.13. Parachuting
4.1.14. Mirror toggle
4.2. Instruments
4.2.1. Gauges
4.2.2. HUD
4.2.3. Speed bar
4.2.4. Map
4.3. Intro to each planes cockpit
4.3.1. List of every PF cockpit and what each control is
4.4. Taxing
4.4.1. Check lists
4.5. Take off
4.5.1. Check list
4.5.2. Tutorial
4.6. Turning
4.6.1. Tutorial
4.7. Straight and level
4.7.1. Tutorial
4.8. Landing
4.8.1. On land
4.8.1.1. Check list
4.8.1.2. Tutorial
4.9. Navigation
4.9.1. Tutorial
4.10. Radio
4.10.1. What you can control with the radio

5. Carrier operations
5.1. Overview of the history and problems associated with naval aviation
5.2. Take off from a carrier
5.2.1. Check list
5.2.2. Tutorial
5.3. Carrier circuits
5.3.1. Check list
5.3.2. Tutorial
5.4. Landing on a carrier
5.4.1. Check list
5.4.2. Tutorial

6. Combat
6.1. Weapons
6.1.1. Bombsights
6.1.2. Gunnery
6.1.2.1. Gun sights
6.1.2.1.1. K-14 Gyro
6.1.3. Rockets
6.1.4. Bombs
6.2. Air combat manoeuvring
6.2.1. The art of air warfare - see them first
6.2.2. Offensive combat
6.2.2.1. Tutorial
6.2.3. Defensive
6.2.3.1. Tutorial
6.2.4. Escort
6.2.4.1. Tutorial
6.3. Ground Attacks
6.3.1. Level bombing
6.3.1.1. Tutorial
6.3.2. Skip bombing
6.3.2.1. Tutorial
6.3.3. Dive Bombing
6.3.3.1. Tutorial
6.3.4. Rockets
6.3.4.1. Tutorial
6.3.5. Straffing
6.3.5.1. Tutorial
6.3.6. Torpedo Bombing
6.3.6.1. Tutorial

7. Single Missions
7.1. Provide overview

8. Pilot Careers
8.1. Overview
8.1.1. Pilots
8.1.2. Nations
8.2. Dynamic campaigns
8.2.1. How they work

9. Quick Mission Builder
9.1. Overview on options

10. Full Mission Builder
10.1. Overview
10.1.1. Understanding what can be done and what can not
10.1.1.1. AI limitations
10.1.1.1.1. Kamikaze missions
10.1.1.1.2. Towed aircraft
10.1.1.1.3. Mistel
10.1.1.1.4. Parasite Aircraft
10.1.1.1.5. V1
10.1.2. controls
10.2. How to make a single mission
10.3. How to make a online mission
10.4. How to make a co-op mission
10.5. Create your own campaigns
10.6. Object list

11. Aircraft
11.1. List all aircraft

12. Ships
12.1. List all non static ships

13. On line gaming
13.1. Overview
13.2. Where to go to play
13.3. Online commands
13.4. Hosting
13.4.1. Setup of a game ie. icons
13.4.2. What hardware you need
13.4.3. Lag
13.4.4. Online cheating
13.5. Rules
13.6. Squadrons
13.7. Community

14. Making tracks
14.1. How to record tracks
14.2. How to make movies

15. Skinning
15.1. How to make your own skins

16. Appendix
16.1. Conversion charts
16.2. Maps
16.2.1. List with a brief history of area and it's role in WWII
16.3. Any table related info

17. Sources
17.1. Thanks
17.2. Acknowledgments

[BlackLion]

Heya!

Oesau, your proposal for a structure sounds really great-better than my basic one!

but that is the purpose of this forum I guess

yours is really well thought out and very detailed, and I guess we should use your proposed substructure;

I would love to keep the basic structure of my proposal though, making it a three part venture;
I feel this way, if we get this organised as a project, coordination should be easier, and it would be more flexible for adding stuff;

Personally, I guess we should not ask Oleg for official support-he is a very busy man and as this should become a guide from users for users, we should keep it limited to that;
I think FB/AEP/PF has gathered a large enough dedicated simmers group with a wealth of expirience in virtually every field, this guide should encompass!

so, I would love to merge my proposed basic structure with your proposed worked out structure and then get this going as suggested, as a coordinated project;

posting this once we know where it should head and what we want out of it on the official forum, as well as on simhq and of course here, I guess it should be possible to find some people who are willing to do stuff for this guide;

what do you think about this?

best regards
BL

[IV/JG1_Oesau]

I like your idea of having the 3 sections, it works well in the context of things.

Looking through my list I see that I probably go into too much detail when it comes to topics such as take-off and landing (for example). The problem becomes that each aircraft is different, however I don't see that a generic guide can not be created and having more detailed check lists for specific aircraft in the appendix (there are guides like this out there, the Me-262 is on off the top of my head).

At the moment I'm writing a training program for my squadron that will have components that can come into this guide. This covers basic to advanced controls ie. engine and flight controls.

Things that we need to work out are:

Audience- is this going to be aimed at those that know how to fly and just need a little help in some areas or should we look at it as a complete guide for the new pilots to the IL-2 series and those of us that have been using it for a while?

Scope- need to lay down the scope of what is to be covered. Yes, this will take a long time to complete, but it will provide the framework we need to complete the guide.

Resources - need to get some people to provide their time (and commit) to helping with the creation of the information.

Format - Word doc, PDF, web, or even a helpfile (easy enough to do when you have completed either html or a word doc)


As you pointed out, there is already a wealth of knowledge out there in the community and that?s where we need to tap into as I do not have enough knowledge to complete this.

At the moment it seems that you and I are the only ones keen on the idea of creating this. We'll probably need to branch out to other forums to get help.

Next step is to create a project plan and organise what needs to be done.

Oesau

[IV/JG1_Oesau]

Is there any interest in a guide being developed?

There is already the ever expanding online found on this site, not to mention there are a number of other word or pdf guides out there?

Do people want a word manual that they can print, or are we happy with online guides (or both).

Guess the guide is probably better aimed at those that are new to the sim, while the forums are great for trouble shooting.

[EURO_Snoopy]

How about using a Wiki to create the guide?

Wots a Wiki?

You've probably heard of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin

The beauty of this is that everyone would have access to current versions of pages. I think this would get the creative juices flowing.

I will investigate the best way to get this going over the weekend. If you have any ideas for software/sources please let me know.

[Merc]

<S> There has been a lot of discusion in H/L about Vid Cards.
I thought the Microsoft XL Veiwer Datasheet on vid cards might be
a handy tool for the forum.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 492#sctNav[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102492#sctNav
Anyway the info is there you will need an XL Veiwer to use it but it works
good for vid card comparisions. [/url]

[EURO_Snoopy]

I don't see an Excel document there, that link goes to an advert for a video card