Cliffs of Dover, a Year Later
 

Dear fans,

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year. For myself and for the team the past two years are a blur. Things have been hectic long since CoD pre-release days and there’s no sign of letting down. We work in a constant state of emergency.

We know that even a year after the initial release many of you are still unhappy with many aspects of the game. We are painfully aware of your unhappiness. For me personally, it’s a constant feeling in the back of my head. It drives me and motivates me, and I in turn use it to drive and motivate the team. It is at the same time very humbling. I personally want to apologize to the community once again for the state of the game at release, and I want to thank you for sticking around this long and continuing to give us a chance to redeem ourselves.

I realize that the pace at which we release patches and updates has slowed considerably. The latest patch that has been “almost ready” for months, and it’s even more almost ready today. The graphics rework is basically done. The average framerate has shot up almost twice. Only one relatively minor issue remains that prevents the gunsight, tracers, and bullet decals from being drawn. Of course, this minor technical issue has a huge impact on gameplay, and that is why we cannot release it to the public in its current state.
Secondly, reworking and becoming confident in the graphics engine itself allowed us to spread the net and start identifying additional issues that were causing hick-ups and slowdowns in the game. That is the hardest thing to locate since they are unpredictable and very difficult to replicate. Rewriting the graphics engine fixed many of those issues, and made the others very easy to identify by narrowing down the usual suspects. We have identified some very obscure issues with visual effects, the landscape engine, the texture manager, and with the weather system that were causing the occasional stuttering that by itself arguably had a bigger impact on gameplay than low average FPS.

On our end, we are much more confident in our product today than we were a year ago, and we are also much more excited about the future. The team continues to grow. We are just now beginning to look for a huge number of new applicants that will grow the team by almost 25%. We have a lot of very exciting new things on our plate that we cannot wait to reveal. The general mood of the team is one of excitement. We cannot wait to prove our detractors wrong, crush the competition, and give our fans what they are looking for with our next major release!

Thank you again for your support!


Ilya Shevchenko
Lead Development Producer

Thank you for the update.

:grin:

Thanks for informing us Luthier! You guys made a great job and I'm sure that you'll make a good job in the future!

Thumbs up for you guys!

Thanks Luthier. :grin:

Thx Luthier nice to see you here :)

"The general mood of the team is one of excitement. We cannot wait to prove our detractors wrong, crush the competition, and give our fans what they are looking for with our next major release!"

As Am I in reading this Luthier; Thanks a Million, keep on a truck'en!!

Thanks.Ive gone back to Il2 1946 for now but I know I will be rejoining some time in future,maybe after the next patch.

thanks team.

thx for ur update...its a good sign ;) :thumbsup:

Is it me...Or did we actually get a friday update? :confused: :grin:

;But I do find it sad how our un-happiness, and not your realization of the poor state of the game... motivates you. Oh well, thanks anyway!

:grin:

Thanks and much respects, Mr Shevchenko, and all at 1C. I'm sure your hard work will be soon rewarded.

Regards, Sam.

Happy Birthday Cliffs of Dover

Thanks for the heads up Luthier 8-)

The future's bright, I gotta wear shades :cool:

Great, finally some good words. Thank you for giving us some information we badly needed.

S!

Thank you Luthier - really good to hear this news which fills me with renewed hope ... again ;).

PPP

Thanks for a very good update luthier. I'd rather have an update like this once a month then anything else. We have waited so long for the patch now so if it takes a few months more, I don't really care anymore. Good luck to you and your teams continued efforts!

Thank you. Just wanted to let you know that we are behind you and the team. Looking forward to this patch!

Hi luthier,Good to hear from you.
The information you have given looks very promising.Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the info Luthier.

I've stuck with the Sim this long warts 'n' all. If the reworked graphics engine is as good as you say it is, all will be forgiven. In the meantime, load up the shells, warm up the Tigers Maybach, I've got some Tanks to kill.

Kind regards

Vonte

Luthier thanks for this update, I am glad to see that comes to give fresh news to its customers, it continues, continue with the good work and hopefully soon have the patch in our systems.

Hey Luthier!

Thanks for stopping by personally, blacksix has done an excellent job in the mean-time trying to put out all the fires, but it means a lot hearing from you again!

I am very happy to hear that you are excited about the future and if I am understanding you correctly here we are to expect an overall increase in FPS and stutters from previous versions. This will surely make a lot of people happy, including myself. Also it's good to hear that you are expanding your staff to bring new fresh additions to the game, helping you build your competence! Hopefully you can aquire more cockpit/aircraft modelers to increase the output and production capabilities of additional aircraft content. IL-2 is primarily a flight sim, and should stay true to it's blood heritage, even though the ground stuff is a strategically smart decision. You attract more audiences at the cost of frightening us flight-simmers. The majority of us would prefer the animated bailout sequence or better tailgunner controls over 100 controllable ground units, but hopefully those modeling and programming teams are split :)

I also like your enthusiasm and humbleness, stating that you have done some (really) bad stuff in the past, but are seeing good progress and continue to work into the future. We didn't get to 1946 in 1 year either.

I am eager to see what you are working on and I can't wait to try the next patch :)

Peace is done! Thank you Ilya, and good luck.

Wow, real patch info. Now that's more like it.:grin:

Thanks Luthier, feel better now.

Ok, nothing new than we know yesterday.

Thanks for the effort.

This is the kind of information I've been hoping for a long time.

Thanks, much appreciated.

good to hear from you!

I've enjoyed the year flying Clod...and am now enjoying the anticipation of things to come:)

Finally an update that deserve that name!
We all still hope (beeing here is the evidence of that) and we are waiting for the patch!

Have a good work!

Best bit of communication so far. Congratulations and salute to you and your team.

Thanks Ilya!

The vast majority of us old Il2 squad vets still come here weekly to look for signs of progress. We talk in private as there's is nothing that we could do or say in public to help in any way.

While we don't post, we do track and read - we are behind you and the Team 110%.

We know that you and the Team will come through to release the patch that will draw us all back together again and place the new Il-2 engine, up in it's rightful place.

I just want you and the Team to know that we have not gone away. We are waiting....

All the best,

Gunny

Thank you for the information Luthier. Nice read, but unfortunately nothing new, nothing concrete, no timetable, no preview of what ever.

It's hard to stay tuned, Luthier. :(

Thanks very much Ilya, much appreciated. I understand what you're saying and I wish you best of luck.

Thanks for the update. This definitely gave me a confidence boost towards the dev team. Good to hear it's closing in.

S!
 

Luthier, thank you for the update. Your enthusiasm is promising and highly contagious.

Oh yeah. I like that. The real community is not letting you go anywhere in the future.:grin:

I hope the team remains in good health and good mood. Both are imo equally important.

As a brand new user to CLoD, having just recently installed and getting ready to start flying - thanks for this update and the information shared - nice to see this happening between a developer and the community. Long time lover of the older IL2 Series, which was awsome - and looking forward to the great days ahead for me with CLoD.

Thank you for your persistance and dedication to your work!

Per ardua ad Astra!

That was a great update.

An affirmation of what he have supposed and hoped was the case: the team is hard at work, making progress and are aiming high.

Luthier- Many thanks for the update. I really enjoy the sim ( despite flaws & lower than desirable FPS..) I wish you could hire the guys from Rise of Flight Public Relations - it might save you some grief by having a more user news & progress news release..
They too had a deeply flawed initial release , but have done an outstanding job in customer relations while steadily improving their product.
http://riseofflight.com/Blogs/default.aspx

Luthier thanks for the info!

Thanks for update Luthier... but We need any more this post... one year and too problem not solve... :( :(

The game is more unestable and this made that the comunity sim dont play CloD... this is bad to CLoD and team 1C...

More people left and play other games Rise of Fligth and other...

PD:Luthier, Thanks for making us dream. good luck.

Reinforcement like this just makes one hopefull again that their $ will one day yield an optimized stable product.

Keep squashing those bugs and thank you.

I only can say that "thank you Luthier". It is very good to hear somethings about what is going on there.

Oh yeah. I like that. The real community (that doesnt troll and try to bait arguments) is not letting you go anywhere in the future...

Thanks for the update Luthier..appreciated

Thanks for the update, it is at least something an Il-2 average fan, with high expectations on CoD but a bit disappointed at this stage, may understand easily; to see you guys are working hard on things that seems, after many messages read here (and many more before this thread), to worry a big part of this community, is a relief. I will get back to play the game, confident major bugs are going to be sorted sooner or later. Thank you.

Thank you Luthier.

thanks for the update, it is great to hear your confidence in the work that is being done by yourself and the team. there is no doubt the game has gone through a painful birth, but even blind Freddy must be able to see the potential this game has, and should soon be realized with your efforts! i for one am looking forward to the addition of controlable ground forces in the future, bring it on, bring it all on mate ;) i have well and truely gotten my moneys worth already and it is only going to get better, great news indeed!

Cheers
Craig

Thanks luthier! hope to see you posting more in the coming weeks:grin:

Thanks for the update, uff good news!

This make work easier, having something to be waiting for. (did I say I didn't like to work?)

Those minor issues seem to become a never ending story.

Sounds a bit like it's still not days or weeks, but months.

Now matter how everbody feels about the game, for or against, I think that was a good update. Thanks for the explination.

Exellent news!!thank you sirs

~S~ to all

amd dual core 5400+
6gb ram
gtx460se
Win7 ultimate
trackir
microsoft sidewinder FF2

太棒啦。支持。

VERY GOOD!!!

Hard not be paid. Support you forever.


辛苦不会白白的付出。永远支持你。

Thanks very much for the communique, we all want the series to succeed, and to succeed like no other. Good to know you're still there, beavering away, and that you are mindful of the of the community.

Great update thankyou Luthier. I hope that the remainder of the bugs are easily quashed so you can get your patch out to the public and your sim finally up and running.

Per ardua!

Regards
Ds

"The latest patch that has been “almost ready” for months, and it’s even more almost ready today."

Good stuff! I'm even more almost ready to be thrilled to install it! :)

Thank you Luthier! I'm very grateful for everything you and your team have been doing and I can't wait to see what becomes of CloD in the near future! :grin:

Now that's an update, ... faith somewhat restored...

Thanks Luthier. Sounds like you are as passionate about this sim as we are. That's a good thing. Now get this thing done and push it out the door!!!

:)

And with this patch the ATAG blue team will crush the red team. Get your tissues ready.

I am so upset
 

I can not believe after all this time, that the Team that is building and fixing this game does not use the community to its fullest extent, there are plenty of ways to deliver beta patching system so we COULD HELP you fix the Bugs and get the game in a much better playable version FASTER. all you have to do is let us in on how we can HELP and get in on the daily builds. Personalty i don't care about decals and a few other things what stops me and every one else is the shuttering I mean really FIX THAT for us and patch it NOW work on the decals and visual shit after the SMOOTHNESS of PLAY (No MORE SHUTTERING) has been addressed. As for the comment of Occasional he must be talking about single player, I like shooting real players thank you, only reason i play this game.

Jimmy OUT!!! PATCH PATCH PATCH

Thank you, Sir! Your message is much appreciated!! I hope the patch will be released soon :)

gunsight, tracers, and bullet decals from being drawn

You would care about that m8, as it quite a big deal online or offline wouldn't you agree?

despite you didn´t say anything, you said something and that´s what we all wanted!

Thanks, I appreciate!

Exactly the post I was hoping for this Friday too settle the mood here. Thanks a lot Ilya, and good luck!

/mazex

Thanks Ilya.

Like Gunny's post several pages back, what's left of my squad is waiting for the great days to come.

Keep plugging away at it, and all the best to the new members of your team.


EL.

Thks Luthier, waiting for the release

Luthier, thanks for the update much appreciated.

Can you just imagine the noise in the office when they get those last few quirks worked out?

Luthier: Did you figure it out?
Programmer: I think so. Compiling it now.
*Everyone in office crosses fingers and toes
Luthier: Okay, load up the bomber intercept quick mission.
Programmer: Okay, here goes. Gunsight looks good!
*Cheers from all around
Programmer: Firing now. Tracers look great!
*Cheers and papers being thrown in the air.
Programmer: Okay, intercepting...firing on target and...BULLET HITS!
*Lease on new office required after the roof is blown off this one.

Thanks Luthier, looking forward to the next patch and also the next game release.

Good karma to end this month?
 

Things are looking up! Thanks for the news!

Ross

Thanks Luthier, I've always been confident, and will be for a long time, that your team has the capabilities to make this game the best combat flight sim ever!
Can't wait for the patch to be ready :!:

Many thanks for the update. I'm very encouraged to hear that ave fps has almost doubled.

Here's wishing you good luck for sorting out the remaining issues.

So gang being relatively new, how does this normally work?
When this big patch is ready, is it considered final and pushed out to all CLoD users via Steam automatically - or will there be a " beta patch" process whereby only those that choose to do so run the patch, until it is considered a final product?

Good Luck to the team MG. Thanks for the COD!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbN839SzDuM

Glad to read this info. Thanks, Luthier!

Thanks Luthier for the info!

cheers

Thanks cast and crew of the 1C CoD development team. Thanks for the words Luthier. See you again real soon? Maybe coffee next time? I'll buy. ;)

Thanks for the info luthier!

thx for infos luthier...and waiting for release.

please make of COD the sim it deserve to be.

Jap, like this! They will release first the beta, that can be downloaded from a mirror with manual installation and after that the real patch will be updated by stream!

THX 1c-Team! For the work!
And thank you for giving me the chance to have a look back into Il-2 1946! (honestly)

Salute from the heart of nowhere!

sounds great. they want to crush the competition? good to see such confidence in them..

Very positive update, thanks Luthier.

Thank you, team luthier!

Thanks for the word!

Hey Doc,
You mean with a correctly modeled Spitfire Blue will have an unmeasurable advantage?

This I hafta see! :-P

Looking forward to it indeed!

Cheers Mate.

as red flyer all i can say is: i can't wait ;)

Positive words, i appreciate it. Hopes raised a bit.
Though im looking at Luthier sidways with squinting eyes hoping its not a bluff, wanting to believe but waiting to see.

CLOD needs more than a graphics patch to pull it round though, i hope the patch when it comes is the start of more fixes to come that are in my view more important.

S!

Good to see where IL-2 is going. Thank You for the update!

Great friday update!

Thank you Luthier. :)

The best news to me is the twenty-five percent increase in the development crew. That is a very good sign that the development is on solid ground and we can expect the sim to be finished. Also very good to hear that the bugs aren't serious enough to be development threatening. An update like this every few weeks and a decent patch every few months would make me a very happy camper. The graphics/performance patch has been a huge setback, but once thats cleared the path forward should be much smoother.

Excellent update. Thank you very much.

Ok got it, thanks for the info!

I've been quitely waiting for news from the dev's knowing that it's been 1 year since game release. Thankyou Luthier for your post.

I've taken time in the last week to (1) read the original game reviews from when CLOD was released, (2) look at some of the original videos & clips of the game & (3) read many of the posts from the dev's since game release. Most reviews indicated that CLOD was in a poor state at release, but suggested there was some hope for improving the game once bugs were fixed & once the community were involved in expanding the game content (mods). While most dev posts promised a range of forthcoming improvements/developments (SDK's, bug fixes, AI improvements, faster fps etc). I really want to believe that bigger things are possible with the CLOD engine. I really really do ... but ...

Let's take a step back & review exactly where we are 1 year down the track? A patch 5 months ago & only vague promises since. Well to be frank, more promises just doesn't cut it any more! We still have a bugged game engine, a game that doesn't run on the specified minimum PC specs, an extremely limited number of online servers, limited mission functionality because of game limitations (no tree collissions, no dynamic weather, porked AI, no DCG etc).

It's fairly obvious from the dev's comments that 1C has little intention of fixing CLOD as it stands now. CLOD will likely get an upgrade (?fixes) when the BOM sequel is released (no forecast release date yet?). You ask for patience, Luthier, but regretably, I am out of patience. 1C has lost my good will & my enthusiasm for this game.

Thx Luthier, great posting. I wished, TreeUK could say his thx too :grin:

That just wouldn't make sence. The engine will be the same in the sequel so implementing it in CloD is just whats right, and it has to be. surely, some things will probably only make it into the sequel, but the performance patches have to be applied to CloD, in order to get things right for the sequel and to raise the community for buying BoM.

Yes, but what I'm saying is that we will likely not see any further changes to CLOD perse, until BOM is released.

No ETA of patch.

Some info. I liked the one about more FPS.

But we all know that. The real update will have patch ETA ou patch relase itself.

Until then, not very usefull or promising, sorry to say.

Still waiting. When the pacth is out, i believe that NOW we will have some MAJOR performance gain. I have faith in this team.

First, thanx for the update.
Second, confidence is not restored at all as we got lots of "eye-candy" vidéos one year ago incitating to buy a broken game.
Third, sooner the patch is out and efficient, sooner i will trust you again.

Neither COD nor BOM could be fixed or finished until the graphic/performance patch is successfully completed. Without this patch COD, BOM, and the develpment were finished. The sequel hasn't been even officially annouced yet so I think there will be time for a couple more patches to COD. If the development survives COD will never be finished, all feature fixes, like the AI, Commands, FM, DM, Weather improvements will apply to COD, BOM, MED, PAC etc etc. The only improvement to COD that probably won't be done by the developer is new campaigns which is not a problem as the community will be able to handle that very well along with a number of other additions.

That is contrary to all information we have received. In this update he even said it is almost ready. I dont think BoM is almost ready.

It makes no sense financially either. Who would buy a sequel to a game that hasnt been supported? Not many here- so they will patch CoD then release BoM when it is ready and people are happier with CoD.

+1

That means that someone with money believes in the team that is a lot more worth than a bunch of $49 "shareholders" expressing their concern - on the short term at least ;)