So we recently made a survey about the THI warbirds specifically. And when i say we, i mean Karl Reisman and me. Because even though i am heavily involved with THI, it is Karl who owns the brand.
Apparently some still think that THI is my brand, but that is not the case and THI does not equal AMOK or myself. Thus i will comment some of the comments we have had on the survey as if you ask THI, not AMOK.
As of this date 41 people filled out the survey. Taking into account that our userbase is composed of around 800 individual accounts
We have a rate of around 5% which is not truly representative, but within the normal realm of such surveys. (Considering that other game companies in RL, have way more users than us).
1. What THI Aircraft do you own?

This shows the aircraft owned by the people who participated in the survey. Even though the 109 is not our best seller. Most who actually care, own that aircraft. Which makes me personally happy.
2. Whis is your most favourite THI Aircraft so far?

Also pretty clear. The 109 series is the most popular, with the P-38 coming in as second.
3. Please rate the features in THI Aircraft. 1 is really bad and 5 is really good


So now we are getting more into the meat of things. Generally speaking: General flight physics, rudder control, gunnery sights, and payload options are generally liked.
However, crash, stall and landing/takeoff mechanics are a mixed bag and the HUD layout is somewhat borderline.
So we sat down and tackled some of these issues, but more info on that later
4. If you could name one feature that should be added, which would it be?
This was short answer textfield so i will pick some of the comments we got send to us and answer them right here:
“Ability to choose payload after the engine has started, but aircraft is landed.”
A: We took note of this and the VICE versions will have this feature implemented in an update.
“Make the aircraft feel less “dead” to fly. I have flown demos of most and they all feel similar to each other – lacking any quirks or defining character”
A: We are currently updating some of the things that make them feel “dead”. However, our aircraft uses the scale of mph divided by 10 in m/s which roughly results in a scale of 1/4th of the real life aircraft. Since these aircraft often did not differed that much, they also do not have such noticable effects. The same accounts for turn radii and such. There are charts for these available online and when we are done adjusting them for scale and Second Life they are just not overly different. But i can assure you that they are there.
“an easier way to paint this woudl be nice. ”
A: With the paint panel, applying new paints is even easier than applying them per hand to the model if it would be mod. Try it out. it is really not that hard! 🙂
“can be painted with own textures. ^_^v”
A: We provide PSDs which you can modify as much as you like. But we cannot change UVs so you’re stuck with those templates.
“None. Maybe it would better to think about the way to make the planes as light as possible. Oldschool THI planes still behave better in lag. ”
A: That would mean, making them in sculpts again. Sculpts still cross better and generally behave better in physics. But no one really wants that anymore.
“More choices for payloads and weapons”
“More weapons and payloads”
A: The specific models we make, usually have all the options that are feasable in SL for that specific model.
“Swappable weapon systems via commands”
A: MCE has that already. VICE can’t have it for the most part (unless you talk switching from a machine cannon to a tankbuster cannon that is, which are entirely different mechanics)
“historically accurate performance scaled to SL”
A: As outlined above already we do have a scale and some modifications just have to be made to make them enjoyable in SL. Speed is not so much an issue. Climb and dive sometimes is (although we are about to introduce some improvements there). The most difficult part is adjusting the turn rate. A BF-109E-4 has a turn rate of 27.4 seconds for 360 degrees at optimal speed in real life. Even if we apply our scale of roughly 1/4th to that, it would make a turnradius of more than a sim. I doubt anyone would enjoy that.
5. If you could name one feature that should be removed, which would it be?
Autogyro/AutoTorque/Torque on take off
A: We have had a lot of those. Will get removed in a coming update.
“Overspeed”
A: Overspeed also known as compression is an important feature for aircraft and is an integral part of our game balance. Some aircraft where good divers. others not. But do not fret we might have a fix for that, more info coming below.
“Current crash and stall mechanics, planes fly arcade-ish, it’s best to treat them that way to make them more optimized for SL combat (regardless whenever it’s MCE or VICE)”
A: We got good news for you coming on the bottom.
“The tendancy the script has to speed up during sims’s crossings, wich is really annoying when you’re about to land on a laggy sim. The more the plane is slow, and the more the script will speed up during the crossing. ”
A: We tested this and the speed difference on sim crossings is only about 1-2 meters per second. I think that has to do with how SL handles our dynamic engine over sim borders and thus far it eluded me to find a fix for it. Sorry.
“crash on by default, make it optional”
A: That is already a thing if you enable safe mode. But only outside of combat. However we have good news coming for you below.
“MCE”
A: Speaking solely for THI. We do offer both versions in all packs of the current models. No one gains anything by removing it and no one looses anything by keeping it. Besides, like it or not, MCE still has a small following.
Oh and i did admit defeat in terms of MCE serveral times publically. But i keep it alive for the people who enjoy it. Because for them i made it in the first place.
6. What type of aircraft, made by THI, do you look most forward to?
So apparently you want more allied fighters and attack aircraft. We got you fam. The Mosquito is on the workbench again! And that type should fancy both these types.
However in the final stages we have the Savoia-Macchi S.55 (both X and A) and the Short Empire and the Sunderland. Mostly because Karl wanted to do some golden age flying boats that have both civilian and military versions. He already said that after that he wants to finish his Blücher trainer. That is out of my hands, as changing Karls mind is particularly hard.
7. What else would you like to tell us?
You were very vocal with us. In a good way really. A lot of the things we saw were constructive in nature and some very motivational. Thank you for that!
Many things that got mentioned there, we already answered above.Some where just requests on aircraft. Others were bug reports, which we looked into and will get applied in the next big update! And yet others i like to answer below:
“make the payload selection able to be done if landed with engine off, instead of once engine is on, you can never change payload again”
A: Yup will come in an update for the VICE versions!
“Liveries for more allied countries as well as more allied aircrafts. ”
A: I personally object on making capured paints. They got badly abused back in the days, just because they bore the markings of the factions the players played in. However, they can be repainted and everyone is free to do as they please, using that feature. As for the more allied aircraft. We got you fam. The Mossie is coming (sooner or later – it’s a lot of work).
“hurricane, lancaster, P51C not mentioned, make a P40 dive faster and have more armor than a zero can follow and zero should burn quick but out turn, make Ki27, make P47 with load options, make a F4F and F6F with carrier ability they climb slower but dive faster and have firepower advantage than a Claude and Zero, Make custom squadron markings and pilot names available and and only if you feel you must offer a ‘anti-shana’ mode performance, would much prefer you stick to historically accurate relative to each other and work in cooperation with Joe Sparrow for his ships or like to make a carrier landing system and build up both companies, machinama friendly and for history recreations SUPPORT V.I.C.E.”
A: This is a lot but let me break this down:
“hurricane, lancaster, P51C not mentioned” – of course not. they are all old sculpts with old engines.
“make a P40 dive faster and have more armor than a zero” – I could make a P40 dive faster, but i cannot give it more armor. VICE has very specific settings.
“Make custom squadron markings and pilot names available” – Already a thing by customizable textures.
“and only if you feel you must offer a ‘anti-shana’ mode performance, would much prefer you stick to historically accurate relative to each other” – I won’t do an anti-shana mode ever. I do not feel like i need to go into competition on who can script the most OP airplane. That served no one ever yet. And i’m happy that you also prefer a historic approach (as much as SL allows us).
“and work in cooperation with Joe Sparrow for his ships or like to make a carrier landing system and build up both companies” – Joe and us are not enemies any longer and we cooperate on a variety of subjects already. I already have a carrier landing system that he can deploy if he wishes so. But Joe also got his own mind, which is a good thing, so do we. Suffice to say, that when we make carrier borne airplanes, that they will be carrier capable. In one way or another. However we do have a different schedule than Joe. Thats the difficult part.
“SUPPORT V.I.C.E.”
We do or we wouldn’t release content for it, right? But if you mean by supporting VICE by hacking it further and further, i disagree.
8. Conclusion.
We got a lot of feedback and what is generally known as “hard data” – This is really important to us and i like to thank everyone who participated in this survery.
What we took away from this survey are a couple things and i like to elaborate what we are planning to do.
We currently have a test build running that has the following changes:
- Autogyro/Engine Torque is entirely removed in both modes.
- Safemode will become Basic Mode, which can also be used in combat
- Basic Mode will have 80% of the performance of the advanced mode, but no crashes, splashes, stalls and the like. Also the fligh dynamics are dampened in such a fashion that it is generally easier to fly.
- Stalls, climb and dive values got re-evaluated and the stall entirely rewritten to be a lot more natural.
- The Flatspin stall mechanic is removed until we find a good, realistic way to reintroduce it and make it properly recoverable. And so it does not trigger at the wrong times.
- VICE versions can have their payload swapped once you landed and have the engine turned off.
This test aircraft is of course not final yet, as we juggle some numbers and fine tune values. Whitewolf Mumfuzz has a test build and if you see him online, hit him up for a test flight so you can see first hand, that we do listen to our customers.
On the subject of the HUD i am really unsure. Some stated that the HUD behaved sluggish. If you read this, please let me know on which aircraft specifically you experience that, because even with careful testing sometimes aircraft and HUD sync up in an infinite loop which lags the crap out of it. If i knew the aircraft, i could fix it.
On the matter of the HUD layout. I am really unsure on how to redesign it to make it easier to use or access. I know some people do not like HUDs at all, that’s just how it is. If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments!























