Friday Update, February 24, 2012
 

Good day gentlemen!

Most of us are busy preparing the beta version of the upcoming patch. We did make a whole lot of FPS benchmarking, and the great news is, it’s all in line with the previously announced numbers. The performance increase is very significant.
Unfortunately we could not do any benchmarks on the famous Black Death track. We know everyone’s been asking about it. The track however is currently broken due to changes in other unrelated parts of the code. We probably won’t get the old version to run anymore and have to make a new Black Death to go with the new patch. So any comparison between the old and the new Black Death will only be approximate (can’t wait for the conspiracy theories BTW).

So our today’s update is small but it’s got it where it counts.

We are showing the third and final ground vehicles video today. As most of you have guessed, it focuses on drivable tanks.

Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHc04iRFFwA
As always, I’d like to remind you that the feature is still a work in progress. We continue to test and improve the feature.

The sound is far from final. For example we are working on making weapon sounds more varied and historically accurate.

We have also made other changes since the version in which the video was made. The damage model for the vehicles was improved. Destroyed ground objects have inertia and continue moving after death. Component damage system (tracks, crew, gunners etc) has also been improved. Unfortunately due to yesterday being an official holiday we simply had no time to make additional footage and splice it into the video.

Most importantly, I do want to note one more time that at this time we do not know ourselves when and in which shape the feature will make it into the game.

Have a good weekend!

:)

Awesome thanks B6

Thanks Luthier ;)

/mazex

OK，very good !!

The video should have ended with a Stuka dive bombing the Brit tank :cool:

Thx B6. It looks like we will get tank sim in future :P

Good to know about fps and graphic engine improvements.

Could you tell if in coming patch will be also FM/DM improvements or it would be leave for another patch? And what with collision with trees?

Ownage!!!!

Thanks B6,

Great, i can smell the patch.

Thanks! Looking forward to the patch.

so again no patch ? mmh

Ummmmmmm, I don't know what to say. Good night all. Have a great week end.

I have to admit that I am one of the many who have been privately grumbling away to myself with such thoughts as "All well and good.. now can I have the flight simulator I paid for, please?"...... (I decided to grumble to myself instead of posting it as there are far too many people saying the same on here.)

But....well... I have to admit that I am impressed! :grin: It looks an awful lot of fun. As others have pointed out anyway... from the detailed vehicles in game to the erroneous control options in the menus, this was a seemingly inevitable development anyway and, had the game not been forced into being released before it was finished, it would have been just another feature of Cliffs of Dover that made it great and, I suspect, even the naysayers would have felt that way too.

Thanks for the update BS!

Now the annoying question: Patch soon? :D

News on the patch is great, it must be getting closer :)

Not sure why you're spending so much time showing us the vehicular side of things when you then go on to say that you don't know when or in what form it'll arrive in. Seems a bit odd to spend so much effort to show it... Though from a ground based perspective the sounds do sound pretty good to me :)

Thank you for the update in either case :D

Endless possibilities, you can dominate the market. Do a good job and I'd be willing to re-purchase this sim.

Don't screw this up! ;)

+1 haha!
Great news, looking forward to the patch!

I need a Jug! LOL


Loved the train explosion @ 1:00..... and the one @ 2:34 is spectacular. I wasn't expecting that! Nice job folks. Great touches with the flying debris. I think these added features of tank simulation and AA will really add a different dimension to this franchise. My only beef? Why did the soldier suddenly disappear when he was shot @ 5:19?

Can you give further insight to what the icons on the top left indicate B6?

Thanks for the update.

...

Nice work, looking forward to all the possibilities coming together someday.:grin:

Ahhh good old politics. Don't answer a question directly but throw in a red herring instead. Excellent stuff. It works.

Lookin Good :grin:
Thanks for the update.

The ground becoming 'alive' via player-controllable tanks and other weapons and vehicles will greatly expand the IL2 community and COD's sales. Promising :).

Thank you. The future looks good and promising

S!

Good news on the graphics performance, sounds promising! There are no tinfoilhat plots about Black Death..it has been porked since day one ;-) Maybe it needs to be re-done..

Vehicular system sounds good and can be a real contender against other MMOs like AcesHigh, WW2 Online etc. But that is far in future I bet..before everythibg matures with the IL-2 engine.

Thanks for update and have a nice weekend!

Classic misdirection. When fans are very focused on something that you're not able to deliver, you show them something flashy, (totally unrelated) but flashy enough to make them forget what they were really interested in before.

Is the video done with the old or new graphics engine? I cant imagine it is what we have at the moment, all the smoke effects would bring my game to a crawl (or at least it does when dust from the prop appears).

Looks great, happy to see the numbers are looking good!

Great news on the Graphics updates!

Cheers! :)

excellent news about the added control over tanks, looks very impresive.

hope in the final version the vehicles leave tracks in the grass/mud/ground, it looks veru odd without it (and this element was working in previous similar ground vehicle movement examples we have seen earlier)

what type of control over these vehicles will there be ? single vehicle, groupd of vehicles in one unit with AI commands, or is it all under scripted AI control with a single player vehicle we can hop into ?

will we be able to control single artillery pieces and batteries of artillery as a unit to ?

need....... grafix......... engine.........patch........ soon,........ going stir crazy with the low current performance of the flightsim aspect of BoB

Even better than last weeks update!:grin: Thanks B6 and luthier! It's like a dream come true, tank and flight sim combined, made by MG! I will need only one game for the rest of my life if these new features will come to fruition. Oh! and the patch progression was also interesting to hear about. ;) Looking forward to it.

Cool! Thank you for listening to community opinion and advise :)

now that looks almost like Armed Assault II with the WWII mod

the question is when they gonna add infantry & fps? :)

Do we have an ETA of the patch Blacksix?

The latest indications point more to one week than two... And thats the first time that happens ;)

/mazex

Very imppressive work! Thank you.

Any plans to develop infantry units too and for example paratroopers jumping from Ju-52s invading England, pilots able to enter and exit planes, possibility to get rescued by some friendly unit?

I so hope so. :)

Very impressive stuff guys, I like it a lot:grin:

Sound effects are gettimg better each time I hear them.

Explosion effects are brilliant - if we can keep the FPS up that is.

Great news about the FPS increases - that will reduce the grumbling considerably I think, especially if the dreaded CTD issue is fixed.

Also very pleased to hear that vehicles will no longer die instantly. This is a first in a flight sim I think. Can't wait to see vehicles swerve off the road on fire when I attack. Thanks for listening on that point.

If, in addition to this, you can iron out the remaining issues with the flying side and provide (or at least give the community the tools to) model the environment and missing objects such as ships and create a dynamic campaign which keeps track of object damage / engine wear etc. then you'll have a real winner on your hands.

Keep up the good work guys, the future looks bright8). Really looking forward to the patch.

I agree. Chapeau to Ilya & Team. I will not use this feature a lot, but it will surely boost sales.

Perhaps a flyable Lysander too? I believe they were operational at this time.

I want to play as a rat catcher... you know russian field airbases were full of rats!!!

Whac-a-mole for everyone.

Love how when someone suggest that they work on alternate MP modes or more content people scream that they want more aircraft, and the devs should only focus on the Flight model and patching the graphics engine.

But show a video about something totally unrelated to flying or the patch and people fall over themselves to give the first "+1" or "thanks devs".

Thanks for the update!
Looking forward to see someday walking pilots. So you can theoretically walk back to your aerodrome after bailout and to the next plane.

But I want to point it out one more time: What about tree collision?? We really need this feature

mmmmmm, i dont see so much simulation in this "ground vehicle control", if you are doing "all simulator", not only flight simulator, first, need, in anti air artilley, a full cliqueable control, change settings of the cannon, ful view, etc..., not only a sight and fire: is ARCADE, not simulation-

and for the tank... and for the tank..., nice external graphics, but only i said nice graphics and effect, allways looking since a plane, like a stuka o 110 for attack in a close pass, nothing more(no t since land): this not have nothing of SIM, only ARC... need to have the full interior of the tank, change setting, clickeable commands, change class of bullets, calibrate the sight, different class of problems in the tanks, give order to you crew, like a bomber. you can not only play the commands of the tank and shoot. that is very very first arcade. not sim.

why i am the only NOT zombie here?!

really don't get it! maybe the real SIM gamer people go away to another sim: rise of flight, dcs, and i am late, standing here, alone, with arcade players, that vote positive this implementing "" new stuff""... omg


nice week

2 questions:

-does scoring work differently for tanks etc?

-would it be possible first to drive or be a passanger in a tank/vehicle, exit it near air field, enter a plane and continue playing as pilot? I think this would make some great missions possible (even if knowing how to drive a tank and fly a plane wouldn't be too common IRL :)

+1 to you my friend

THX!

Really like the effects of the blowing up boiler, looks very cool.

Nice feature by adding the tanks, but not really my cup of tea.
I would love to see more improvements on the flightmodels en FPS instead of infantry and tanks. I really thought i bought a flightsim instead of a tanksim :rolleyes:

My mother! This is degenerating in a useless way! I don't want to disrespect to development, but if indicate that if this I sold to my as a Flight Simulator, because before working in tanks and artillery, the aircraft which is really what matters? If you want to make me happy but a tank Simulator, first to what we sold...not be that way want to follow, but many feel cheated...and stating that I speak on behalf of many, which do not dare to say so for fear of expelled them to the dictatorship that trabe was this implemented in this forum...I like what you do, but everything has its priority, and in this case, they are the aircraft and some bugs, and I want to be able to fly the Bf 108 or He115, because they do not develop these aircraft cabins? to clear! are not interested in truth...to my me cost € 70 my version collector of a flight simulator called IL-2 Cliffs of Dover, not named, PzKpfw IV Ausf A Cliffs of Dover...


Good luck and good luck to us fans of the IL-2 series, among which I am I!


I repeat, I speak on behalf of many people that think like me but does not want to tell...and now...expel me as they are doing lately with everyone who says what he thinks...

Ground combat? We'll need dismounted infantry.

Thanks for the update and it's great to know that it seems the graphics rewrite is nearly ready for beta release. I hope so, and look forward to finally being able to use the combat flight simulation aspect of this global combat and train simulator.

I understand very well that the CloD venture needs cash, to continue the development and funding of the series. Tanks are the quickest way to increase the sales, and continue to get our beloved planes and maps. So good luck Ilya and Team.

Thank you for the update. Looks like the beta patch will soon be ready. The video you posted is impressive. I am very pleased to see that tank battles now take place at bigger distances, because in IL2 it was often 50m. The Tigers will PWN everything in our online wars. And I might jump into one sometimes also! It looks like a lot of fun. Though I wonder when will ppl start going up the buildings to get to higher ground lol

Bottom line is, recon boys and mudmoving guys have something special to look forward to.

I don't have the latest information from the Ilya on these issues, sorry.

We still have not decided

I can not understand what the "ETA"?

Infantry - this is a very heavy load on the engine and FPS, it's a big question.

Estimated time of arrival, B6 ;-)

Thanks BS!

well i like it a lot, looks like a whole lot of fun! sounds like the patch is progreeing well, any info regarding the FM work that has been done, the CTD bugs, trees being a solid object, and lastly the radio coms functionality?
As i said before i am really looking forward to the chance to play as part of the ground forces, but do trust that none of this is taking away from the work required on the core sim.

thanks for the steady flow of updates guys!
Craig

+1 ....absolutly

Another funny video of tanks.
Thanks team!

Pardon me but am i the only one who goes....WTF?

Adding a half-baked vehicle sim to this WIP aircraft sim doesn't make it any better for me. Would be OK if i knew there are enough resources on the development side to pull it through, but for the last couple of years it looked like development of this game was chronically short of manpower.

What can we expect in the end, an arcade game that has a little bit of everything in it, so that everybody can buy it, play for a month and trash it?

This problem will be solved in the future, I do not know the specific dates.

1) we have not thought about it
2) out of the car - not sure
most likely it will be done in the same way as the transition from the plane to the plane

Thank you)
It all depends on the programmers, perhaps in the next few days.
Ilya still does not say anything to me about it...

http://i1020.photobucket.com/albums/...ght/header.png

Recruiting Soon! :-P

Hi guys, my name is Dorge.This is the first time I write, greetings to all.
This sim is world of tanks? I just think they made a mystake, because what we had purchase a planes simulator.
If it does not even come to implement other things alien to the simulator?
Excuse me is that I do not understand.
Sorry for my bad English:confused:
Good day to all:grin:

Development team please fix the launcher, even trust you.

+1 ;)

Because most of us are grown up enough to realise that the team ARE working hard on the flight sim aspects (as plainly obvious from last weeks update) and a separate team is implementing the long planned ground-based items which are very impressive and praise worthy in their own right.

Implementing the tanks takes NOTHING away from the improvements to AI, comms, FM, DM etc. Different skills, different teams.

You guys are unbelievable. You whine like mad when the devs show us nothing and throw everything back in their faces when they do make an effort to show how the product is progressing. Credit where credit is due.

Mmmmm I can almost taste that patch.

As for tanks, a WWII Dynamic battlefield? I'll take it! :)

Sorry but i cant believe that this is an update info of an incoming patch of a flight sim... sorry again.

QFE!

You beg for info, then the info isnt what you want and you trash them, way to promote communication guys! Everything I see them doing is moving towards a more complete WWII experience, bombing a live column of tanks? I'm in...

Do you guys really think (it's a serious question) that a Game/Sim could satisfy plane AND tank enthusiasts?
If I think on Tiger Vs. T34 - all the stuff like DM, sound, physics in a Flightsim on a nowadays rig? No way if you ask me... however I hope that they'll make a perfect flightsim and add some tanks and stuff to sell more copies of the game. If this is satisfying for tank fans is a whole other story though...

Thanks for the update, but I have to say I've never played these ground type shoot em ups and have no interest whatsoever personally. If I did, I understand there are good tank sims etc and the like already on the market.

That said, looks ok for what it is (arcadish apparently) , might be fun for five minutes I'll concede, and I can definitely see the plus points in hopefully bringing in more revenue etc. I am not opposed to it as such, so long as Flight Simulation is paramount ; some people seem to be excited about it, and that's fine.....personally I couldn't care less, and its not for me.

Just be prepared for a future deluge of 13 year old 'Panzerkinder' laughing heartily whilst they blow up your flight of 109's on the ground, in a coordinated 'pincer troll assault'.

Online Chat: 'HAHAHAHAHA.....I blew up dat fuel depo and Trukz coz U thought I was on your sides U NOOBZ.....KA-BOOOOOM!!! HAHAHAHAHA.....I pwned U all, all UR planez 2......LOLZ, ROFLCOPTER....HAHAHAHA' (etc etc)

You get the picture. :)

Anyway, look forward to the patch, and hopefully correct performance data and ceilings etc for all aircraft both blue and red, correct octane fuel (or option even), AI working properly, working AA etc which is all I'm bothered about....but that's just me, and my opinion...so don't jump on me lol. Cheers. I'm glad that good progress has apparently been made on FPS and performance, we'll see.

Should be soon hopefully, looking forward to it.

B6 thx for coming around Fridays ! Any news on SLI and 100 octane avgas ?

Just any news please.

Mj

Based on some of the replies thus far.. I think 1C should be handing out free hoodies like this with the weekly updates ;)
http://sliceofstyle.com/wp-content/u...rry-hoodie.jpg

yeah, thats ncie and all, but when will you guys release a working aircraift sim. preferably a battle of brittain one, but im not really picky by now....

Thank you for the update.

If the ground vehicle aspects were a third party (or even in house) addon at a later stage with a fettled game I would support them. As it is the current position gives me real concern as to the direction the development is going in.

As to fundamental realism aspects like tree collision I am encouraged that it will be addressed but again, when things like that are missing and i'm watching a tank battle in the game I've got to wonder if the priorities are right here.

Anyway, back to lurking.

Quantity over Quality

IMO the answer is no. Sadly.

Well said. And I wouldn't be that surprised if practically all ground war models are imported from 1C SoftClub's other merchandise: Theatre of War series. Those models are so detailed that it would be almost impossible to flight sim developer to allocate so much resources to create the models from scratch.

Just my two cents.

If I'm totally honest I'm just not interested in the ground warfare element and I think the plot has been lost. There is a massive array of first person shooters out there and I just don't see how this path of development will ever be able to compete with the likes of games like Battlefield.

My interest is the air. My passion is for warbirds. There are a lot of positive comments here so maybe there will be a market for this stuff but personally, I think they should stick to what they do best - and keep the focus of battles in the sky, either air-to-air combat or mud-moving.

Sorry BlackSix - I just don't believe this is where 1C's future is with this game and although I'm an avid supporter of all things IL2 and CloD I'm actually getting bored of this. Having said that... I do applaud and personally thank you for your improved communications.

Thanks B6 - exciting times me thinks.

As I said in a post that was deleted (OT I think), I think that the models may have been already created. The controls menu shows this isn't something that has only recently been thought up, the potential (and perhaps intent) for ground units has been there since release (I remember seeing the vehicle controls on release day). The ground units have always had great detail and even animations on firing, so it doesn't seem as though too much 3D work would have been required.

Also, with a expansion/sequel on the way, modellers would have been working on new aircraft and we know that graphics programmers have been working on the new engine.

People here seem to think that the developers dont want to make a flight simulation or have abandoned it, but they are going to want both new customers and potential ones to buy the sequel, so there would be no point in stopping flight development.

As other people have said, wait and see for the patch and an official announcement on flight models and then see how the flight aspect is modelled. If you dont like the idea of ground warfare, I'm sure you can ignore it if the flight system is improved.

The simulator will not be worse because of the ground stuff become driveable. This is an extra feature. If you don't like it, it's ok, but who's care? Then you don't use it, and done. Why do you think that things can not be developed simultaneously? The core programming and these are two separate part of the game, the guy (guys) who programmed the memory leak problem, still working on their own tasks... :rolleyes:

Well said +1

You dont ask an electrician to put your plumbing in!

nice video... nice nice... but, this will be true??? I have more concerns... The SLI and other big and more important bugs, will be solved??? or FPS and shooter always persist??...

But I'm always happy to see new news and Luthier and Cia are working to CloD.

Thks B6 and Luthier team.

Yeah, right?

I love it when people want to deny other peoples` options. :D

One big game
 

Hi all,
It's good to see something Oleg said years ago coming to reality (jump from your plane and use flak) and even better now. Someone worked on it ; but the patch, then Russian extension come first, I suppose. What I wonder is how this will happen online? Can we imagine a Kursk tank/airplane campaign with 128 players (squadron leaders, tank groups, with proper communication, etc.?). That would be something new, more than just old IL-2 + some Red Orchestra features). Thanks to the team and the weekly news.

I dont know about SLI, but they are claim big increases in performance, so you have that... at some point we complain just to see our name in print I think ;)

Actually - no.
Only SB Pro which is outdated.


BTT:
Has anyone of you wondered how they finance current development?

So the people who are working on the tanks, work for free? They don't need to occupy a space in the office? They don't need to use an office computer?

Because what they are doing, the resources they are using right now, could be used to give us a flight simulator instead of a 1/2 assed flight sim with no content and some stupid tanks you can hop in and see how crappy the models are from a first person point of view. The money used to pay those people could be put towards people who will actually make the "FLIGHT" part of the game better.

You lost nothing if the ground stuff become playable, and win nothing if don't. However, if the developers abandoned the project because many people are opposed to this, who want to use, it will not be able to. I do not understand why this would be good to those who now complain. :evil:

And the money made selling the game to those RO2 and World of Tanks types can be used to hire more people who will actually make the "FLIGHT" part of the game better

This has obviously been on the cards for some time (since before release)- look at the controls section (vehicle controls). Would it be better to have the coding and models for this and then suddenly sack developer team members and throw away all the labour that had taken place for a long time? If this is the case there are two options:

1) release the vehicle part of the game, get more customer, more revenue and able to develop a better flight sim.

2) Drop everything, dont make back the cost of developing vehicles and then try to focus on flight sim but with reduced funds for development.

1 sounds like a winner for both those who are and aren't interested in the ground stuff :)

Edit: Also, especially with regard to the sequel, fighting in dogfights or ground attack above fields with dynamic action happening on is going to be far more interesting and realistic than watching battles that will have required huge amounts of scripting from mission designers.

How do you know what is going on in development? It cold be someone decided to work on this on their own time, during down time, or at times they werent able to work on something due to other things going on. This reminds me of people complaining on the Eagle Dynamics forum about the P-51 they are working on and people worried it has replaced the next modern fighter... ahhh internet forums...

Tank You!!! No Really,Tanks a lot!!!! :)

We do not know the company's structure, the knowledge of the workers, the currently running processes and future plans. Who has time to do this, the project leaders decide, but i'm sure, he has a better reason than "there was no other work". :rolleyes:

At least one got it.
It's pointless to polish the flight sim to excellence if sales suck.
A pure flight sim will never hit a 7digit sales number(-anymore), no matter how perfect it is.

They should Fix the game so it works in for most people as the flight sim.

Then they can work on tank Crap. If you read B6 awnsers They dont know if its making this version or the sequal, nor do they know the important awnsers to simple questions.

They are not fxing CLOD there makng a new game sit back and wait a few years we aint geting nothing soon its been 5 months since last patch after all.

The reactions to this and the previous two updates shows how utterly difficult decent PR can be if it's being treated as secondary - as is obvious with the belated appointment of BlackSix and the rather limited amount of information he seems to get.

The problem as I see it is that Luthier has not much to show in the way of screenshots or videos which touch the core of what most people think ails the game (performance, FM, systemic bugs etc). You can't really show a video or make screenshots to document fixes or updates since most of these things can only be experienced in-game and are highly dependent on what kind of hardware the player has. And since he has nothing in that sector to show - and since he is not inclined to let the audience take a peek at the details by making them public or talking about them - Luthier does show something that he can. Only that it's not what a good number of people want to know about (myself included). I can understand the idea to "show something for the sake of showing" because otherwise he'd be accused of not providing enough information, but I am personally not sure rolling out this "feature" at this particular time was a wise move. Stuff like this most of us see as additional feature to be worked on and introduced when the rest is up to specs ... only that it's the rest that we want to see fixed and know about. ;)

Very nice, looking forward to the new and improved engine!

While you're new improvements are real cool, you attempt to divert attention away from the important flight sim aspects is laugh-able. Christ, IL2 46 is a better FLIGHT SIM than the current state of this one. Make up you're friggin mind which direction this sim is moving and be done with it. And this BS about a BETA patch is exactly that. What better analysis can you get than from the people who love you're flight sim. :(

Well P-51 (for Eagle Dynamics) was created as a side project and they decided it was good enough to release, so basically it wasnt part of the development cycle and was added later, I am just saying it could be the same thing here. To assume this is taking away from current development is short sighted, we also have to consider they need to justify their exsistance to the people paying the bills, showing future possibilities makes that possible, the fact that they are sharing these early developments with us should be appreciated a little more... :rolleyes:

Scene at 5:19 ahahahahah

and the title at the end "Coming soon". Should be "Coming soon, optimised, in 2030. Stay tuned!"

Really, if the peasant vehicles and tanks wouldnt drive them from fixing the sim and making new planes for BOM (no new planes for CLOD as we heard) - Im all for it. Why the hell not?. Anyway I would glidely man the Flak when Kiss a Bliss is near in a puppy plane.

Sad but true..

It has been clear for some time.. Eversince EA anounced they were cancling the A10 project some 10+ years ago flight simmers had to come to grips with the fact that flight sim games are not the best selling games.. Clearly 1C knows this.. And knowing that they know they need to pull in some other paying customers so they can continue to do what they love.. flight sims

If that is what 1C is up to than I am all for it

If they think they can make ONE game for ALL.. That is to say make the groud vehicals as detailed and realistic as the aricraft.. Than my fear is they will fail like all those before them that tried this.. Because truth be told, when you try to be all things to all people.. What you end up with is something that does no one thing very well.. To put it short.. Jack of all trades master of none.