IL-2 Sturmovik 1946...will anyone keep playing

[nearmiss]

As I recall

Some of those weird aircraft were things 3rd party devs built. Oleg checked them out and threw them into the mix (no harm done). Mostly, I think to throw the plane whiners a bone. LOL

Improved FMB and AI will move the sim up a bunch for Offline players, which I am for the most part.

The Online game is important, so Oleg will definitely have to maintain control of everything aircraft in the game. I'm OK with that.

I remember the CFS2 when you could get all the 3rd party aircraft. Heck... I had a F4U that could knock down an enemy aircraft at 3,000 meters. I mean all you had to do is point and he was dead. You could change the flight model and top speed was anything you wanted. Nope...we don't want that.

[Wutz]

Originally Posted by nearmiss

As I recall

Some of those weird aircraft were things 3rd party devs built. Oleg checked them out and threw them into the mix (no harm done). Mostly, I think to throw the plane whiners a bone. LOL

Improved FMB and AI will move the sim up a bunch for Offline players, which I am for the most part.

The Online game is important, so Oleg will definitely have to maintain control of everything aircraft in the game. I'm OK with that.

I remember the CFS2 when you could get all the 3rd party aircraft. Heck... I had a F4U that could knock down an enemy aircraft at 3,000 meters. I mean all you had to do is point and he was dead. You could change the flight model and top speed was anything you wanted. Nope...we don't want that.

Well I certainly was not talking about "space invader" aircraft, but as a PTO fan, you must admit possibilties to make missions as detailed as the ETO are very limited....maybe just take that into consideration than just thinking those that wish for more aircraft are just brainless idiots....

[Xilon_x]

in online game i loock the crazy pilots go up go down go right go left i loock strange pilot take off from the base whit need radio permission i loock crazy pilots not mantein the formation and not have a correct mode of fly.
not exist the rules real pilot if take off from base whit need permission risk court martial if pilot fire your team squadron friend risk court martial if pilot fire to civiles peoples and civils construction hause risk court martial.

REMEMBER the pilots are the military graduated and all military in the world have the precise rules if the military not respect the rules risk COURT MARTIAL.
in the simulation game PILOTS not are military but are CRAZY CHILDREN whit not have a Patent flight and not respect the
the basic rules of flight EXAMPLE FLY TO 3m to the CARRIER tower control
or take off from the TAXY and not FROM the runway.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Wutz

Ha ha, well then certain UFO would never have reached anyones game! Just need to think of that silly Lerche one of the most unnecessary aircraft in the whole sim. After first trails who uses that thing? If paying for aircraft would force developers to stick to aircraft needed for mission building, and leaving ridiculous aircraft, next to no one needs, a side only then, that would be a good idea. But is that really new? We had the "ace expansion pack", "Forgotten Battles", "Pacific Fighters", "PE2" etc. for which we payed.....so nothing really new.....and still we got the nut case aircraft in 1946 that just take up space but no one really uses.
A poll held at certain times left to run say four to five weeks, which area should be developed next would be a neat thing, and yes it can be a payed expansion....I would prefer that to getting aircraft for free that I will never use and just take up space.
But then will the developers even listen to customer wishes? Or will they just make what ever they fancy?

I don't think there are any silly aircraft in this sim.. I think the diversity of the sim is it's strong point... and even though I have only flown the lerche a few times.. I think just having thre option to fly it is a blast in itself... With the amoung of AC in the stock sim alone there is more than enough to keep one occupied.. if you add in some of the mod aircraft it is just insane the freediome we have in this sim as far as theaters and aircraft... and all of them ae decent... decent enough.. and they all were free.. Cant beat t with a stick.

[Xilon_x]

i think must peoples complain because want the operative airplane of ww2 and not want fantasy luft46. yes all peoples priority is first operative airplane of ww2 and after optional luft46 fantasy airplane.

[ElAurens]

As to new aircraft for Cliffs of Dover, I will gladly pay for expansions that have several new aircraft and proper maps for them to fly on.

What I won't do is buy aircraft one at a time, like Rise of Flight's dubious, and costly, business model.

A Med expansion, for example, with all the proper planes, map or maps, and ground vehicles/ships/etc, that are appropriate for that area, at a reasonable price is just fine.

$7.95 US each for the dozen or so new aircraft needed will be the end of my involvement with IL2, and everyone else that I know that plays the sim, and that is a lot of folks.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

As to new aircraft for Cliffs of Dover, I will gladly pay for expansions that have several new aircraft and proper maps for them to fly on.

What I won't do is buy aircraft one at a time, like Rise of Flight's dubious, and costly, business model.

A Med expansion, for example, with all the proper planes, map or maps, and ground vehicles/ships/etc, that are appropriate for that area, at a reasonable price is just fine.

$7.95 US each for the dozen or so new aircraft needed will be the end of my involvement with IL2, and everyone else that I know that plays the sim, and that is a lot of folks.

I thought RoF was $3 a plane.... and besides.. I thikj there were a lot more AC in WWII .... I wouldn't mind paying $3 a plane... or $30 and add on... map & planes... I guess we will see how this process is going to work soon enough..

[Blackdog_kt]

Even if it's the same amount of money, i still prefer a full expansion for $50 over 10 individual planes for $5 each.

The reason is that while i end up paying for aircraft that i might rarely use, i won't be left twiddling my thumbs because a mission that features a flyable i didn't want to buy comes up on a server. In the case of a complete add-on, i'll just hop in and fly it and maybe gain a bit of appreciation for an aircraft i didn't know much about. In fact, this thing happened to me countless times with IL2 and i'm not that much of an online flyer, it was great fun and a way to discover stuff that i didn't pay attention to over the years.

If we had an individual pay-per-plane business model for IL2, i would probably know nothing about the more obscure aircraft in the sim. I wouldn't know enough to buy them in the first place and i wouldn't be able to fly them when an appropriate mission would come up on the servers i flew on.

Also, pay-per-plane tends to focus the developer's attention on modeling only flyable aircraft and potentially the most well known of them, because their revenue stream depends on selling these individual flyables. This would result in the game lacking in sufficient non-flyable aircraft for the AI (and even non-aircraft units), with which to "flesh out" the rest of the environment.
Some aircraft might be difficult to model as flyables or references might be scarce, but it would be a shame not to have, for example, an AI Catalina in the sim just because it's hard to fly with only one virtual pilot and slower than a modern car. Developers would think "almost nobody would fly this, it won't sell" and not spend time on it.

However, if the developers sell complete expansions instead of individual add-on aircraft they can be sure that a guy who wants the 109F and the Spitfire Mk.V will buy the entire add-on, so their revenue stream is not dependent on individually modeling the popular planes only. The popular planes sell the expansion along with everything it contains, instead of having to market each content item separately. In a sense, it's like buying the 109F and the Spit Mk.V for $25, but getting a lot of other stuff that might or might not interest you as a bonus. There's loads of planes in IL2 i've still never flown or flown years ago. Yet, i'm still glad they were included in the package and i paid for them, because a lot of times i was left thinking "wow, that is so much different and cool in its own way than what i usually fly!".

This gives the developers the freedom to work on that Catalina i used as an example, because even if nobody will fly one lots will use it as an AI unit to add some atmosphere to their missions. For example, you could be flying a mission in a user made campaign and as you are crossing the channel you could see one attacking a U-boat with depth charges.

And to tell you the truth, if the rumors about a new online mode that lets you run mini campaigns are true, i would fly that Catalina too if it was flyable. Sure, it might be boring with a single guy in the plane (depending also on how "smart" an AI the virtual crewmen will have), but with multicrew and other human players? Totally different story.

Imagine doing a mere 190km/h in cruise through the fog and hail of the north sea in an aircraft with pitiful de-icing systems courtesy of Oleg's new dynamic weather, when you get an automated message from an AI controller vectoring you to a convoy under attack (U-boats loved to attack in bad weather, maybe an AI behavior trigger for the AI subs that the mission/campaign builder set up in the new FMB). You still can't see the ships, but as you approach you can see the oil fires from the ones that got torpedoed lighting up the dusk sky like beacons.
Your buddies flying with you as your crewmen, the gunners frantically searching the sky for prowling Ju88 fighter-bombers (U-boats frequently transmitted the position of convoys so they would be attacked by air assets), the radio-man monitoring the radar scope looking for a periscope return, the bombardier turning the searchlight left and right trying to catch a wake or a trail of bubbles from a torpedo, the copilot managing the aircraft subsystems for you while you focus on flying the plane and spotting the target and on top of that, you would know that you are well within the range of human opponent players that could be notified by any U-boats you attack to come and swat you out of the sky in their Ju88Cs, a long trip back to home base making you even more afraid of battle damage.
Nothing's even happened yet and you're biting your nails off...hell yes! I'd fly such a setting for hours, maybe a single 3 hour sortie every other day or two (instead of the usual 10 smaller sorties flown in today's DF servers during a 3 hour mission duration), but i definitely would. Action would be sparse but brutal and the constant tension would be tremendous thanks to its clandestine nature (in fact it reminds me a lot of playing Silent Hunter 3 in this regard).

In fact, this would be a perfect way to bring more people to multiplayer by combining a less frantic style of warfare than the classic furball, but in a way that still has an effect on the outcome of the online campaign. I would love to fly such missions, as well as photo reconnaissance and pathfinding in mosquitos, night intruder missions in Do217s and Ju188s, ant-shipping patrols, etc...the less known, obscure but fascinating in a clandestine way operations that took place.


It's the small details like these that when added together provide that much more immersion and longevity for games of all kinds, yet they are sadly missed by a lot of developers today.
However, team Maddox has a strong focus on the small details, so i'm positive they will try to adopt a business model that allows them to spend time on modeling things like that as time goes by, instead of focusing on selling us individual production blocks of P-51s and Fw-190s (and i say that while being primarily a 190 driver myself )

[ElAurens]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I thought RoF was $3 a plane....

Single seaters in ROF are $7.62 each, while the soon to be available Handley Page 0/400 will be $14.99 and the Gotha G.V will sell for $11.99.

FYI.

Imagine paying those prices for every plane needed for a new Russian Front expansion. Does not sound like such a good idea now does it?

[Tempest123]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I don't think there are any silly aircraft in this sim.. I think the diversity of the sim is it's strong point... and even though I have only flown the lerche a few times.. I think just having the option to fly it is a blast in itself... With the amoung of AC in the stock sim alone there is more than enough to keep one occupied.. if you add in some of the mod aircraft it is just insane the freediome we have in this sim as far as theaters and aircraft... and all of them ae decent... decent enough.. and they all were free.. Cant beat t with a stick.

Yeah, and I'm no fan of any of of the fantasy planes either (Lerche, or that russian bi-? rocket thingy that noses itself into the ground after you hit terminal velocity, lol), but this is a small portion of the sim, we also have gems like the Hs 129, SM.79 and others that are included for free, that and the developer connection is something unmatched by any other sim. So if the devs went a little crazy and put a couple flying saucers in, that's fine with me, as long as the focus goes back to historical accuracy.