Leatherneck Simulations Monthly Update - Februamarch 2015

Dear All,

First off – I'd like to sincerely apologize on the behalf of the team for the issues experienced by a significant amount of you with the rollout of the 1.2.15 patch.

Something seems to have gone awry in the patching process that requires many of you to repair your DCS install to make the MiG-21 function properly. We are unsure what is causing this. Some other issues, such as the main landing gear slightly sinking into the ground do not occur on our local development builds. We are investigating the cause for these discrepancies and hope to correct them as soon as possible.

Some major bugs we are tracking include the ASP, various instances of avionics errors, steering difficulties (note, that steering will be far more difficult now as the implementation has been changed to be realistic, but the current situation might be exacerbated by the sinking of main landing gear) and more.

We'll keep you updated on our progress and also note what is intentional/correct behaviour, and what is not.

In our previous monthly update we noted that we hope to ship all backer rewards in February; but while we've made significant progress on this front, we have shifted production runs to allow for shipments in late March.

Likewise, as noted previously, we have combined several backer rewards into bigger, more useful, and better crafted items.

These include for example printed manuals, T-Shirts, other printed artwork. We think you will be very happy with the level we've been able to attain.

These items will be presented shortly, so we can receive your input and hold off until mostly everyone is satisfied.

In our last newsletter, we mentioned significant growth of our team and the establishment of a new, permanent, studio in Swinoujscie, Poland.

While our new studio is not quite yet operational; it is complete and in its' initial transitory phase.

We're extremely excited to be able to grow and increase our production output, as it allows me to tease you all with secretive new content on a far more frequent basis.

Growing the development team requires us to revise our internal thinking and workflow quite considerably.

As the team and both our old and new aircraft and theatres grow in size and complexity, our current, tight-knit form of communication and task delegation is rapidly becoming obsolete. Thus, significant effort has been made throughout January and February to convert to and more effectively use project management tools and also revamp our workflow. While this may sound (oh, who are we kidding, it is) completely uninteresting, the take-away is that we are able to significantly enhance our effectiveness and thus content creation speed.

Basically: We're going corporate. Expect more evil in LNS modules from now on. ;)

In the last newsletter we also noted that we had already expanded the team considerably, and I can now take the time to proudly introduce you to our new team members. We feel incredibly lucky to be able to work with more individuals who share our passion, drive and commitment. Without further ado; please welcome

Christoffer Wärnbring

Teodor Frost

Andreas Sandin

Anders Karlsson.

Our Team section on our site has been updated accordingly; and features some snippets of information about the new cannon fod...er, team members.

HERE: http://www.leatherneck-sim.com/team/

Aircraft development during the past two months has been progressing at a fantastic rate.

Just like our changes in project management and task delegation, we too have been making big changes in the nitty gritty of our development process.

The MiG-21 was an isolated product with a very specific codebase. To more efficiently move forward, we have spent a lot of time restructuring our projects and code itself, now adhering to a more general framework.

This will allow us to more quickly prototype new aircraft and to get into the real meat of avionics and FM coding, as well as increase efficiency of started projects and code-porting.

We have also written several internal tools which will help to enhance these benefits.

We are working in parallel on our three advanced aircraft projects; but that isn't quite the whole story.

In addition to these main, flyable aircraft modules, we are investing a lot of hard work into the creation of auxiliary components, such as: Tanks, Ships, AI Only Aircraft and much more.

These items are heavily related to our theatre development plans, and represent one of our most ambitious undertakings.

All three of our aircraft have necessitated the need to develop new, internal technologies that we did not need for the MiG-21. Some of these have been more challenging than others-- and some will probably genuinely make your jaw drop.

By developing these difficult features, we are later able to adapt them to new aircraft, and thus shorten our development times even further.

Examples of complexity include e.g. Ground Radar, AI Systems, and more.

Currently, we hope to release two aircraft during the course of 2015. As usual, everything is subject to change, but as we become more experienced, we are able to better gauge our progress and remaining workload.

The aforementioned project management and structure changes play a part in this as well. All indications point to two Leatherneck releases this year.

I do not think you will be disappointed in the aircraft on offer.

That just leaves the elephant in the room.

The answer is Monday.

We will announce one of our new, advanced modules on Monday. Apologies to those of you who have spent half the night up mashing your F5 key, but we need the extra day to facilitate the creation of our announcement materials.

For those of you with sharpened pitchforks; there are free sausages in the fridge and I see you've already started a sizeable fire. Just grab a seat until Monday.

The primary purpose of the establishment of our new, permanent studio is theatre development and everything therein.

Theatre development requires a vast amount of content, especially if the theatre is set in a location or era not related to any currently available and developed location.

While our theatre development plans are still in the early phases, considerable progress is being made. I just used the word theatre a lot.

In particular, we have been conducting a lot of research on various topics. E.g. how to utilize various tools to enhance lower fidelity DEM data, or various texture baking techniques and how hand-sculpted terrain assets can be integrated into a DEM base. By leveraging the power of EDGE, we can follow in Eagle's footsteps and try to really push the boundaries.

While plans may change, we currently hope to bundle two small theatres for free with both of the aircraft we're planning to release this year.

Both theatres are significantly different from each other and will require the construction of a lot of content that can be re-used down the line.

In closing;

Thanks for sticking with us, we appreciate it more than we could ever convey.

We're constantly looking to improve, but we're only human. We do try our best.

The next monthly update will be before the middle of March – to compensate you for your long wait.

By then, it'll be a whole different conversation. ;)

Sincerely,

Leatherneck Simulations

nice:) okay one is Tomcat as I can see, what is second one?

Interesting, was hoping for the next module announcement... whats another two days anyway. Nice to see the focus on developing actual theaters though.

Thank you for the update, and I greatly look forward to Monday.

Especially now considering a ground radar may be involved!!

Flat spin recovery successful, hype train levelling out Angels 5 on gentle ascent.

Thanks for the update, EVERYTHING SOUNDS AMAZING! And I'm excited for Leathernecks future!

Cya's all Monday :)

Intruder?:)

Now we're left wondering what uses a ground radar. Surely not a Tomcat.

two free theaters!!!!!! you guys are awesome!!! and as far as my f5 key goes trying to find the next project... lets just say im trying to shape the molten plastic back ;) cant wait till Monday!

Glad to hear you're going for more complete modules. One thing that's bugged the hell out of me with the WW2 and Korean planes is the lack of stuff for them. A few WW2 fighters tossed together does not make a WW2 sim. The MiG-21 scrapes by at the bottom end of the current in game assets, but anything earlier really needs more. So this is very good news, I just hope you don't get bogged down for 4+ years on a map for 1 plane like ED did. I'm looking forwards to Monday's announcement, even though we all probably know what it is by now. Maybe there will be a video. :)

Edit: Yeah, that ground radar bit has peaked my interest too. There has been a lot of speculation that LNS is doing the F-14 + MiG-23 + WW2 thingy or F-14 + a pair of WW2 planes. But I don't think the MiG-23/27 of any type has ground radar, so both those options are clearly not it. Still hoping for a MiG-23, but the ground radar definitely changed plane #3 and I have no clue what it might be.

Great update! And excited for Monday! Great news on the new Theaters as well!

two free theaters!!!!!! you guys are awesome!!! and as far as my f5 key goes trying to find the next project... lets just say im trying to shape the molten plastic back ;) cant wait till Monday!

Just a quick correction (I'm exhausted and making silly mistakes). Free when bundled with the Aircraft. Pricing (if at all) for standalone purchase TBD.

Now we're left wondering what uses a ground radar. Surely not a Tomcat.

Does this count as a ground radar?

But free theatre? That's cool, I like my birds to have full, meaningful campaigns. Give people a reason to fight.

The opening bars of the Danger Zone fade into and out of my head every time I check this section of the site (like 6 times a day)

Hopefully we will get news on the Monday that is forthcoming rather than any old Monday :P

Now we're left wondering what uses a ground radar. Surely not a Tomcat.

I believe the upgraded APG-71 in the F-14D had ground mapping radar...and it was multi role! Fingers crossed!

Intruder?:)

That would be beyond my wildest dreams, but I'm still betting MiG-23.

Or maybe F-4C ?

F-111 would be awesome to or Su-24 too

Thus, significant effort has been made throughout January and February to convert to and more effectively use project management tools and also revamp our workflow. While this may sound (oh, who are we kidding, it is) completely uninteresting, the take-away is that we are able to significantly enhance our effectiveness and thus content creation speed.

As a RL software project manager, I was embarrassingly interested in this.

Just a quick correction (I'm exhausted and making silly mistakes). Free when bundled with the Aircraft. Pricing (if at all) for standalone purchase TBD.

Hey Cobra you did not mention anything about DVD version of Mig-21, could you please update on that ? Thanks :doh:

Thanx! Grate & very inspiring update :thumbup:

Wow 2 planes this year & 2 small theatres for free...can't wait:P

Now a big welcome to the new team members! Who all happen to bee Swedes.....and that can maybe mean we'll get a SAAB? 35 Draken or 37 Viggen, anyone of them would be fantastic!

Waiting eagerly for Monday's news:smilewink:

@Cobra: regarding the sunk in landing gear issue, see here please: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2330388&postcount=9

I think, I found the issue causing this.

(sorry, could not send this via PM as your inbox is full ;o)

Another possible option is the F-104G. That had ground radar too for navigation I think.

Great and interesting info, thanks for the update. Love the news about new theaters and looking forward to some details...