flight simming.. Allways has been.. most likly allways will be! ;)

All the developer has to do is provide a star wars, or newbie clickon for those types of users.

There are features built in that do that, but it is easy to forget the newbs and people that are into that genre are gamer mentality.

All developers know what they are up against. I appreciate all the efforts on our behalf as dedicated air combat sim enthusiats, but if number of boxes sold is important they have to find a way to capture that business.

You can't do it with a bunch of click ons,complex configuration, setups and advance quality hardware items.

They have to think of ways to get people involved with a few simple clickons and minimum hardware requirements to get started. Then have the ability for interested users to move to more advance levels.

There are several cheap joysticks AV8R, etc., that will fill the bill for cheap entry hardware. The graphics enhancement need a progressive way to access better and better graphics, but there must be lower graphic requirements for newbs. Getting people involved with the COD is the secret to more users.

I have given away numerous copies of the IL2 sturmovik 1946, and I don't think there is a single one of those people that even have it on their HDD at this time. Why is that I ask myself?

There have been plenty of air combat games released and people do buy them, because they keep coming to market.

Facts are facts, and the COD with C.E.M. and other complexities aren't a best start for anyone. There are just too many things competing for people's free or leisure time. W.O.W - Everquest have captured huge market. Anyone planning a game of any kind should carefully strategize with those game in mind. IMO, they remind me of Pachinko. Redundant hacking or beating on enemies is boring in about 3 minutes.

There is something to say about rewards system that is sure, which is pretty low priority with IL2 and COD. Hitler believed in awards and accolades for sure, and had a zillion medals for anyone did well.

I've often though no one should enter the game except at lowest levels, and advance in rank and medals. There was quite abit of this with early release of IL2, but the way to acquire the advancement was hampered by the AI that were terrible and the stupid mission and campaign scenarios. It was better to just become a flight leaders to start with high rank, because following the AI probably meant you would never get anywhere.

So rewards system has to be carefully planned for maintaining user interest.

The developers/publishers probably will never get their monies back with the sales of COD. The only reason the development is still in business, is the business model calls for a series of theaters. The main reason that COD probably won't see a profit is that the game engine was being developed at the same time as the theater. Once the game engine is complete, the developers/publisher can start pumping out theaters quickly and cheaply, which will start generating profits.

With the release of the SDK, it will not only expand the IL-2 series, but some in the free flight community might prefer flying over IL-2 series terrain than Microsoft Flight terrain as both series expand. Maybe at some point drivable tanks might draw many in the Tank sim community to the FMB and maps of the IL-2 series.

The future could be bright, or die, but the community certainly doesn't need any Debbie Downers casting a pawl over the development at this critical juncture.

If only they hadn't released it in such a broken state :(

Wrong ....we need the Sim to work for 95% of people without crashing. Then we need historical FMs, a AI that allows single player to not be a total wash out.

Then it might start getting some good reviews and word of mouth.
Then we might start seeing more than 50 people playing CLOD across the world.

Have to say I agree with nearmiss' ideas. The key is getting new people through the door. Other arcade sims are good for that (I came from WoP which lasted about a week) but would be better if there were more gaming elements. And before you flame me I only fly on full real servers. And, yes, Tree, the bad reviews for CoD wouldn't help but here's hoping for a brighter future hey?

anyone know the sales to date of the IL2 franchise?

Perhaps we really need some blockbuster ww2 fighter holiwood movie in 3d. Sort of American Airforce vs Aliens or so to boost sales.

That is only a part of the hardcopies.
Steam does NOT give out any data. So unless 1C wants the numbers published we will never know.

Interesting, I had always wondered what sales were on this software. Russia would swallow up Europe and other countries, problem is, the number of individuals who could invest in a system their like in the West to play the title is quite low. The future of this game is directly tied to sequel sales, and obviously getting the patches right. IC has every incentive to get it right, they will with time. Time does cost money though, lets just hope its sooner than later, as I'd like to see the series continue.