OK, we are now up to 4.4h in a developer's version--if you're up to testing I think it is actually more stable than any of the previous 4.X versions and close to beta release. And TONS of new/improved/better features, basically this is going to be version 5:
http://brenthugh.com/flightgear/bombable4-4hdevel.zipHere are some of the updates/changes in 4.4:
Version 4.4 is a complete revamping of Bombable into more of a
complete, cohesive system for Multiplayer and AI dogfighting
and bombing. The accuracy of all the basic functions has been
improved and made more realistic, and a number of new "Bombable-
compatible" aircraft have been included, from WWI fighters to
modern-day jet fighters.
* AI AIRCRAFT SHOOT AT YOU (VISUALLY): AI aircraft have been able to shoot
at you for a few versions, but now there is a visual indication--
projectiles coming at you, and sometimes from several different
places on one ship or bomber.
* WEAPON HIT DETECTION GREATLY IMPROVED: Complete re-vamped system
for detecting your weapon hits on AI or Multiplayeraircraft. It is
no longer limited by FG's built-in, large "damage cylinder". It now
extends the weapon's flight path within that cylinder to determine
precisely how close the weapon hit on your target--allowing much
better modeling of hits, damage, and results.
* DAMAGE ANALYSIS SYSTEM GREATLY IMPROVED: In addition, the damage
analysis system, which calculates how much damage your hit has done
to the other aircraft or object has been updated to calculate and
use the momentum of weapons as the basis for determing damage of
weapon hits. This has proven to be far more realistic and gives
much better results than the previous ad-hoc method.
* GREATLY IMPROVED DAMAGE IMPACT ANIMATIONS: Previous versions of
Bombable relied on FG's built-in impact animations. The result was that
FG often showed the damage impact explosion when the projectile had
actually made a clean miss of the aircraft. In Bombable 4.4, this problem is
solved, with impact explosions being shown exactly where Bombable calculates
they happen, and only when Bombable detects an actual hit with damage.
So you have much tigher correspondence between what you see and what
damage is recorded.
The impact animations work for all types of small and large caliber guns and
bombs. The system uses FG's excellent particle system to draw the gun and
bomb impacts with almost not impact on framerate, and far less jerkiness
than FG's usual submodel method. As a bonus, the new animations look much,
much better as well, and the visual of the impact matches the actual damage
of the impact quite well--that is, the visual size of a bomb explosion closely matches
the actual damage area of the bomb; small caliber weapons hits show as smaller
impacts that large caliber weapons, etc.
* BOMBABLE FOKKER DR.1 FIXED: Fixed/update the Fokker Dr.1 aircraft.
It is now the same aircraft as distributed in FG 2.4.0 but with added
historically accurate guns and an aircraft help file.
* BOMBABLE GRUMMAN F6F HELLCAT ADDED: Added a new Bombable-compatible
aircraft, the Grumman F6F Hellcat. This makes a great foil to the
A6M2 Zero, as they fought against each other in WWII. (As always,
mucho thanks must go to the authors of the F6F aircraft--all I've
done is update the weaponry to be historically accurate and add a
thin veneer of tweaks to make the aircraft completely compatible with
Bombable. All credit for aircraft design, systems, FDM, and
everything else goes to the original authors, in this case Emanuel
Baranger and others.)
* NEW SCENARIOs: New scenario to show off the F6F, one to show off
the Bombable UFO, and one to help with testing:
BOMB-LakeTahoeWWIIB17BombersWithF6FCover.xml
BOMB-MarinCountyUFOInvasion.xml
BOMB-Kansas-City-Bombable-Testbed.xml
* BOMBABLE A-10 WARTHOG ADDED: The A-10 is the best plane to fly several
scenarios and including it in the package means that it can be
used to fly multiplayer bombable as well. It has several tweaks making
it easier to use with the Bombable package and also improves an annoying bug
where the A-10 slows FG's framerate massively after a few re-init/re-locates.
(Again, all credit to the A-10 original authors--all I have done is add
a few Bombable tweaks and specifics.)
* BOMBABLE UFO ADDED: This is mostly for testing; keys 1-9, 0, q, and w
fire different weapons. A working AI version is included--so you can
have dueling Bombable UFOs over Multiplayer or try the UFO dogfighting
scenario (surprisingly fun!). Also a testbed scenario is included, and
using the UFO with the BOMB-Kansas-City-Bombable-Testbed.xml
scenario is the easiest way to test most Bombable functions, aircraft,
and AI aircraft. (Based on FG's stock UFO, but with Bombable capabilities
added.)
* BOMB DAMAGE: Reconfigured damage impact of bombs; the bombs now act--look
and create damage--far closer to real data.
* NEW MENU: Re-vamped Bombable menu with new/streamlined/more
sensible options.
* RESET DAMAGE: In the new Bombable menu you can reset damage for main aircraft
and AI aircraft and objects.
* BOMBABLE SCENARIOS RENAMED: Renamed all scenarios that come with the
package with prefix "BOMB-". This should make it easier to find the
scenarios and also update or remove them when necessary.
* SMALLER SMOKE/FIRE OPTION: A small fire option, used where
appropriate, so that fires/explosions/damage don't always look so
overly huge.
* UNUSABLE AIRCRAFT REMOVED: Removed unused/unusable aircraft from
the distribution. Some of these are perfectly fine for general flying,
but weapons or other features don't work well with Bombable, and
having them listed in the menus when they didn't really work made for
confusion.
* SCENARIO FIXES: Some scenarios were not loading properly for some
people in ver. 4.3. This might be because of inconsistencies in the
case of some file and directory names. I worked on resolving this
issue, but please let me know if it is still happening.
* SCENARIOS RENAMED: Renamed all scenarios to start with "BOMB-".
This should help us keep straight which scenarios work with
Bombable and also troubleshoot and track down & fix problems with
scenarios.
* AI WEAPONS IMPROVED: AI weapons now malfunction when the AI
aircraft, vehicle, or ship is damaged.
* MISC. UPDATES: Updated included AI aircraft and scenarios to fit
with the new impact detection system.
* FOR BOMBABLE AIRCRAFT DESIGNERS: If you have designed aircraft to
use with Bombable, you should look at the sample AI aircraft provided
to see updates to the Bombable dimensions, vulnerabilities, and
weapons sections. You will need to re-tool your aircraft slightly,
but when finished the results will be much better.
* BUG FIXES: Various small bug fixed and improvements, fixed a lot
of the programs with scenarios, AI Aircraft, directories.
See the To Do file (many of which have now been done) for many more
changes, updates, and improvements.