"Mr. Lin, you are unaware of this."
As Tailaipu sat down in the cockpit, he explained to Lin Lixin with a smile,
"When I first joined Lockheed, I was assigned to the newly established Missile Systems department."
"No wonder, this is still Lockheed's most profitable project."
"That's true, but what I actually wanted to express was something else."
He shifted his position in a seemingly serious manner, settled into the cockpit, and gripped the control stick.
Seeing that he was ready, Lin Lixin quickly typed a few debug commands on the external keyboard.
"Let me see... Maximize the enemy's missile usage, that should be fine."
Following Tailaipu's idea, Lin Lixin simply made all enemies lock onto and fire like players, reducing the probability of dogfights involving machine guns.
In fact, Lin Lixin had already set up three basic difficulty levels in the game, just like the original Ace Combat Air Combat.
But when he mentioned to Tailaipu that "we could try the hard difficulty," Tailaipu waved his hand, indicating that it wasn't enough.
That smug attitude of his, if you didn't know better, you'd think he was some old show-off from Gamenova. President Lin never tolerated that, so he simply maxed out all the parameters.
"Call--"
Tailaipu took a deep breath and pressed the start button on his coolie hat.
From the moment he arrived, he immediately sensed the dramatic change in the situation.
The dense red dots on the radar screen made his scalp tingle.
Each red dot represents an enemy aircraft.
The large area of "tgt (target)" markings slowly appearing in the air directly in front of us also confirms this.
"Wow—this is something else! You've turned it into a War Thunder game."
Lin Lixin clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked at the densely packed flight formation.
Even if a single missile could take down one, it would still take quite a while to finish the fight.
Tailaipu quickly regained his composure, and his breathing gradually calmed down.
To be honest, this was the most realistic Air Combat simulator he had ever seen in his life. Whether it was Lockheed or other fighter jet manufacturers like General Dynamics, they all had their own internal research and development teams.
It allows pilots to become familiar with operations in non-combat situations, which can truly save a lot of training costs.
But of all the versions he'd used, including some custom-made by major software companies, none had ever felt as realistic as this Ace Combat.
Perhaps that's why, the moment he actually sat in the cockpit and gripped the control stick, he was already fully in the zone.
"Waaah--"
He slowly pushed the throttle valve lever, and the fighter jet's engine began to accelerate in sync.
Instead of dodging, Tailaipu quickly approached the enemy lines ahead.
Damn it, I'm flying an F-16, what's there to be a coward about!
"Beep beep beep"
"Whoosh--"
The moment the fire control system locked on, he launched the missile, then suddenly strained his wrist muscles.
"Boom--" The fighter jet performed an exaggerated high-angle maneuver, and the sound of its wings cutting through the air as it passed over the air mass exploded through the speakers.
But since this is a simulation, there is no G-force overload, so Tailaipu doesn't feel any discomfort at all.
Just like the truck drivers in " Americas Truck Simulator " who drive trucks with speeds of 200+, Tailaipu also successfully overcame his inner demons at this moment and began to perform those bizarre maneuvers without any scruples.
At this point, the difference between professionals and amateurs becomes immediately apparent.
While Maikou and Tom Cruise flew beautifully, their performance was simply no match for Tailaipu's skill.
"Beep beep beep--"
[Warning!]
The moment he made the maneuver, a loud alarm blared from the speakers, and several warning messages flashed on the screen.
This means that at the same time he locked onto the enemy, he himself was also locked onto by the enemy aircraft.
Sure enough, several fighter jets nearby launched missiles almost simultaneously, heading straight for his vehicle.
The missile swarm covered a fan-shaped area, effectively locking down almost all of Tailaipu's evasive options.
If it were any ordinary person in this situation, they would probably be in serious trouble. But Tailaipu remained calm and composed.
He suddenly pushed the control lever.
The F-16 immediately followed suit, tilting downwards and beginning a spiral dive maneuver.
It seems that Tailaipu has completely figured out the aircraft's performance; he is truly skilled and daring.
The originally dispersed mass of missiles was forced to constantly adjust its angle under such maneuvering, flying out in a curved spiral.
Before long, the missiles had almost all gathered together.
"Want them to collide?"
Lin Lixin raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
Although this move looks cool, unfortunately, it's actually impossible to use.
The reason is simple: for performance reasons, these missiles themselves do not have collision boxes; they are rigid bodies that only interact with fighter jets.
But Tailaipu clearly hasn't finished his evasive maneuvers.
He climbed back up and then drew a wide horizontal arc. The missiles swerved left and right, chasing him relentlessly. Although they were no slower than his fighter jet, they couldn't catch up no matter what they did.
Only after the timed period set by the code ended did they burst into several rather dazzling fireworks effects in the air.
"Hey, this is interesting."
Lin Lixin watched all of this in astonishment.
Regardless, it seems that Tailaipu has won this first round of attack and defense.
Just as he said, even with so many missiles locked onto him at the same time, not a single one hit him.
Looking at it this way, the difficulty level I prepared seems to have been completely meaningless.
To true masters, these missiles are purely decorative.
"In reality, missiles use parallel approach or proportional guidance methods. While tracking is simple, it severely depletes the missile's kinetic energy and has been phased out in actual combat."
Tailaipu finished the game, got up, walked out of the cockpit, and explained to Lin Lixin.
"That was indeed my oversight."
Lin Lixin nodded knowingly. In the world of video games, tracking is nothing new.
The tracing method was born from the very beginning of floating-point arithmetic.
Its core idea is to constantly adjust the angle of the bullet so that it always aims at the target.
Even in the future, this implementation method will remain a common feature in tracking bullets and will frequently appear in roguelike games.
"Alright, you try out the game on normal difficulty first, give me ten minutes."
He grinned, waved, and headed towards several development machines.
A few minutes later.
[bingo!]
A missile hit notification popped up on the screen.
Even Tailaipu couldn't help but cheer.
In regular training, there's never a chance to practice shooting at target drones with real guns and ammunition.
What's more, since his promotion to a management position, it had been so long since he had actually piloted a plane in the sky. These few minutes of experience seemed to pull him back to the time when he still deeply loved the sky.
However, before he could fully enter a state of flow, Lin Lixin returned with a newly burned copy.
"Come on, try this one, it's guaranteed to hit its mark every time."
Well, it turns out that, without an information gap, Lin Lixin is indeed relatively invincible.
After a simple modification to the missile's tracking algorithm, no matter how skillfully Tailaipu maneuvers he performs, he can only rely on the missile's tracking.
Beside him, Lin Lixin was happily recording data with paper and pen, occasionally offering a few comments:
"Hmm... it seems like we went a bit too far. We might have to nerf it when it's implemented."
Seeing himself crash once again, Tailaipu reluctantly gave up his attempts.
This level of guidance, even considering the ideal model of a video game, is completely at the military level. Lin Lixin is truly unfathomable...
"Ahem, so how was the demo experience anyway?"
"Excellent, very good!"
When talking about his experience, Tailaipu's expression became quite interesting.
"I've never seen a flight simulator of this caliber before! Mr. Lin, I hope to sign an exclusive supply agreement with you on behalf of Lockheed, requesting that you customize a more professional version for pilot training."
Lockheed really needs this!
No, it's more accurate to say that if this thing were actually released to the public, it would probably be snapped up by various aerospace research and development companies.
Although it might seem like he was taking advantage of her, Tailaipu couldn't care less.
Being in a good position gives you an advantage; if you don't seize this opportunity, you'll have wasted your time getting to know Lin Lixin.
"Oh, that's no problem, after all, I'm also a Lockheed shareholder."
Lin Lixin nodded; he had already considered this point.
" Will, take Tailaipu to check the requirements. I have other things to do here." He then looked at Michael Jack and Tom Cruise, who were still exchanging their thoughts.
"Would either of you be interested in participating in the voice acting for this game?"
The voice acting and sound effects were also one of the soul elements of the original Ace Combat.
Gamenova has its own professional sound effects team, and by purchasing sound sources from various places, they have achieved the best possible level of immersion in Air Combat.
However, a suitable voice actor has yet to be found for the character.
When filming the PV for " Ace Combat," Michael Jack's performance as a commander and Tom Cruise's performance reminiscent of " Top Gun " finally gave Lin Lixin the answer he was looking for.
Of course, due to stylistic differences, Lin Lixin did not continue using Michael Jackson's own album for the background music this time, but instead revived his own N.M.B Studio.
Late May.
With only a few days left until the release date announced in the first PV, Gamenova has finally released the final information.
But as soon as the data was released, it immediately triggered a chorus of exclamations.
It's not so much about how good the actual gameplay is, since most people haven't had a chance to experience it yet. What truly astonishes everyone is its outrageous price.
[Initial Price]:
Standard F-16: $10,999 (Original Price: $11,999)
Two-seater F-14: $13,999 (Original price: $15,999)
Ten thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine US dollars!!
The two-seater version has an even more outrageous price tag of $16,000!
This price point is unprecedented, even compared to Sega's previous Outrun.
Even if it's an arcade machine, this price is indeed outrageous.
It's no exaggeration to say that the price of one F-14 is enough to transform an arcade from a blank space to one filled with mini arcade machines.
This price is no longer something you can barely afford by gritting your teeth.
Even the manager of a large arcade must think things through carefully before making a decision to place an order.
This thing isn't something you buy in the store, you practically have to bring it to the store. It's absolutely the store's prized possession.