We’re starting to hear more from the folks at MicroProse on some of their upcoming products and the most recent is the beginning of a developer blog series from the team behind B-17 Flying Fortress The Bloody 100th. In this update we learn a little about the systems governing the experience with persistent crew and aircraft tracking. Let’s learn a bit more!

Crew members and beyond

The developer update on The Bloody 100th once again makes it clear that the company is developing a spiritual successor to the highly regarded B-17 Flying Fortress Bombers in Action and B-17: The Mighty 8th products that exist in the company’s history.

The experience is focused around managing your B-17 and the people inside of it. Your crew will reportedly gain experience, or falter under fire, or come back from being wounded in a prior mission changed from before. Notably, the team intend to make your B-17 itself a member of the crew with persistent health and interactive damage effects.

Something else the developer update touts are ‘critical events’ which are aimed at capturing the unpredictable chaos of aerial warfare. Flak may cause damage to the fuselage, controls may become damaged, and one of your gunners may be able to fight off an attacking fighter… or not. Notably the update suggests that they aren’t aiming to make these scripted sequences but events that emerge from the game’s systems. Here’s a little more:

These events aren’t scripted cutscenes; they emerge from the game’s systems, influenced by your crew’s health, morale, and skill. The Dynamic Time System allows you to slow the moment down, assess the damage, and make the hard calls: who gets first aid, which engine to shut down, whether to press on or turn for home.

I’m a big fan of building the systems that then create these events rather than having them very specifically and precisely scripted – it makes for repetition where there should be a bit more chaos. Anyone who has piloted a damaged airplane back to base in IL-2 probably knows the feeling.

Read the full update here!