After a week of playing the gold version of Combat Flight Sim 2 I sent off a few questions that had cropped up since my previous interview with Tucker Hatfield regarding my experiences with the game so far.

On to the Questions:
In our previous conversation you stated that "rearm, repair, refuel" happens when you land on any base… Is this only in multiplayer ? I wasn't able to find any info on it in the manual. And it didn't seem to work in the single player game.

Tucker:  Yes, this is only in Multiplayer.

Will it be possible for users to create training missions ?

Tucker:  Yes, we used the mission builder to create all of our training missions, so the users can create their own using the builder. However, they will have to be played as Single Missions, because the Training Mission interface contains content that is tied to each training mission, and doesn't support additional missions.

Will there be a SDK and if so what is the approximate time frame ?

Tucker:  Yes, there will be one, but I don't know the exact timeframe, yet.

Force Feedback effects on the runway are very powerful. Was this something overlooked or was it purposefully ?

Tucker:  They are pretty strong, but if you watch the aircraft from outside you will see that they match the degree of compression you see in the gear pretty well. Remember that most of the airfields in the Pacific were coral or matting, so takeoffs were pretty rough. I think we may be a bit overly strong on the feedback on the carrier deck, but everywhere else I think it's about right.

In your opinion what were the top two highlights to the final game ?

Tucker:  The first choice is easy: the graphics. We set having great looking aircraft and special effects as one of our goals for the game, but the final result is far better than I could have expected. I am constantly amazed by just how good it looks.

Second is harder. There are a lot of features I love, like the improvements to AI, the Mission Builder, the general look and feel of the game... But, I'd have to say the other thing that really excites me is performance. We put a lot of work into getting good, stable performance on even modest machines. People who have had problems with frame rate on FS2000 are in for a surprise. CFS2 looks even better than FS2000, and the frame rate is hugely improved. The improvements reflect a lot of hard work by everyone on the team, and it's something that everyone, regardless of what system they play on, will benefit from.

Thanks again to Tucker Hatfield for taking the time to answer my questions.

Review by: William Gall
Date: October 14, 2000