Announcement of the game "IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad"

[777 Studios - Jason]

Let me try to give some context here.

A lot of weird assumptions in this thread, but we expected some blow-back so no worries.

Comparisons to CLOD are natural and we don't expect everyone to love everything we do, but we'll work hard to please as many folks as we can.

Our engine is indeed advanced and does A LOT very well including our ME. The former CLOD team members that have joined us are very impressed with our engine. CLOD may have done some things well, but over many years and many millions of dollars it didn't do everything quite well enough. For you its a hobby and a little bit of money, but for the business interests involved it is their careers, reputation and big money at stake. Decisions to move on and make changes have to be made or it all goes away with no future.

I hope everyone joins our new forum and reads our FAQ. And all this talk about ROF business models and stuff is not accurate for this product. We are proud of what we have accomplished with ROF considering where we started and it has been a blessing to ready us for building a WWII product. As already sated, the business model will not be like CLOD and not exactly like ROF.

So before you condemn us and our engine for trying to make WWII give us some time to do our thing and in the meantime feel free to play CLOD to your heart's content. I'm sorry some of you are disappointed about CLOD development stopping, but it was not our baby, although Loft did oversee the final patch and made sure it was a good one for you. Loft says you're welcome btw.

There is no animosity among the new blended team and they are already working hard on this product together. Give us a chance to earn your business. Overall response has been quite favorable and many long time IL-2 community members have already contacted us wanting to lend a hand with everything from data collecting, model building and mission creation. There is much to be looking forward to.

Just imagine a world of regular content releases, moderately priced, with new planes and theaters on a well-functioning engine with interesting 3rd party content being made. Not since the original IL-2 has anyone even gotten close to this promise. IL-2 was released what over a decade ago? We want to give this to you, but we can only get there if you give us a fair shot and your support. If this fails, I don't see anyone else attempting such a product for a long, long time. Only 1C and 777 are foolish enough to try. Give us some credit for that. There is WT and WOWP coming, but it won't be the same as a Sturmovik product.

That's all I will say in this thread. I will continue to work with everyone in the new IL-2 forum.

Jason

[*Buzzsaw*]

Originally Posted by 777 Studios - Jason

Let me try to give some context here.

A lot of weird assumptions in this thread, but we expected some blow-back so no worries.

Comparisons to CLOD are natural and we don't expect everyone to love everything we do, but we'll work hard to please as many folks as we can.

Our engine is indeed advanced and does A LOT very well including our ME. The former CLOD team members that have joined us are very impressed with our engine. CLOD may have done some things well, but over many years and many millions of dollars it didn't do everything quite well enough. For you its a hobby and a little bit of money, but for the business interests involved it is their careers, reputation and big money at stake. Decisions to move on and make changes have to be made or it all goes away with no future.

I hope everyone joins our new forum and reads our FAQ. And all this talk about ROF business models and stuff is not accurate for this product. We are proud of what we have accomplished with ROF considering where we started and it has been a blessing to ready us for building a WWII product. As already sated, the business model will not be like CLOD and not exactly like ROF.

So before you condemn us and our engine for trying to make WWII give us some time to do our thing and in the meantime feel free to play CLOD to your heart's content. I'm sorry some of you are disappointed about CLOD development stopping, but it was not our baby, although Loft did oversee the final patch and made sure it was a good one for you. Loft says you're welcome btw.

There is no animosity among the new blended team and they are already working hard on this product together. Give us a chance to earn your business. Overall response has been quite favorable and many long time IL-2 community members have already contacted us wanting to lend a hand with everything from data collecting, model building and mission creation. There is much to be looking forward to.

Just imagine a world of regular content releases, moderately priced, with new planes and theaters on a well-functioning engine with interesting 3rd party content being made. Not since the original IL-2 has anyone even gotten close to this promise. IL-2 was released what over a decade ago? We want to give this to you, but we can only get there if you give us a fair shot and your support. If this fails, I don't see anyone else attempting such a product for a long, long time. Only 1C and 777 are foolish enough to try. Give us some credit for that. There is WT and WOWP coming, but it won't be the same as a Sturmovik product.

That's all I will say in this thread. I will continue to work with everyone in the new IL-2 forum.

Jason

Thanks for your comments Jason.

I am a happy RISE OF FLIGHT flyer, will continue to be, and undoubtably will buy BATTLE OF STALINGRAD.

A little sad the CLIFFS OF DOVER engine never reached its potential and never was developed properly, but that sometimes happens.

In the meantime, I hope everyone will give Jason their support and encourage him and the BATTLE OF STALINGRAD team with positive feedback and direction.

One point Jason:

You may be already aware of this, but the original IL-2 map for Stalingrad was based on a modern map, not a WWII one. AFAIK it contains reservoirs and river systems which were not in place in 1942.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by JG52Uther

Its the future Avro, the old model just won't cut it anymore. I just hope the new development doesn't cut into RoF/WW1 expansion.

I don't think it will.. I think that both theaters have a core that prefers that theater and both theaters have folks who will go either way. I think that this merger is actually going to be the best thing that could have happened to the genre.

Originally Posted by aus3620

.... ROF, and admired many features of it, it did not grab me as much as CLoD.

RoF didn't grab me much but that was, as I came to realize more so because of the theater than the sim itself or it's business model. I just prefer those 39-49 aircraft to the 15-19 ones.. The sim itself is not bad at all. I like it.. CoD didn't grab me much .. partly because by the time I was able to run it it had gone through it's changes and I was not sure of where it was going.

Originally Posted by *Buzzsaw*

Thanks for your comments Jason.
I am a happy RISE OF FLIGHT flyer, will continue to be, and undoubtably will buy BATTLE OF STALINGRAD.
A little sad the CLIFFS OF DOVER engine never reached its potential and never was developed properly, but that sometimes happens.
In the meantime, I hope everyone will give Jason their support and encourage him and the BATTLE OF STALINGRAD team with positive feedback and direction.

This.. and thanks for the post Jason.. I'd like to post on the forum but I am still waiting for my email .... I figured maybe I screwed something up but when I tried to join again it said my username & email was already in use so I am just waiting..

[fruitbat]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I'd like to post on the forum but I am still waiting for my email .... I figured maybe I screwed something up but when I tried to join again it said my username & email was already in use so I am just waiting..

check your spam box, my email from them ended up in the junk mail.

[Mustang]

I need Ground Battles in ROF
ROF engine could do this ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHc04iRFFwA

[Feathered_IV]

Ultimately, Clod couldn't do it either. So no point crying over it. Lets move on.

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by Feathered_IV

Ultimately, Clod couldn't do it either. So no point crying over it. Lets move on.

are you blind ?

the video is right there, it IS CoD

and the video is from march 2012, not something more recent

the only reason we dont have those added features to look forward to is the high volume of whining and moaning from the same people who are now suddenly happy to wait two more years to get a much inferior product that will NEVER come close to what CoD is currently

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by feathered_iv

ultimately, clod couldn't do it either. So no point crying over it. Lets move on.

Originally Posted by zapatista

are you blind ?
the video is right there, it IS CoD
and the video is from march 2012, not something more recent
the only reason we dont have those added features to look forward to is the high volume of whining and moaning from the same people who are now suddenly happy to wait two more years to get a much inferior product that will NEVER come close to what CoD is currently

I think what he means is that the features in that video never materialized to us.. Not fully. That is a nice video.

Originally Posted by fruitbat

check your spam box, my email from them ended up in the junk mail.

I looked in there it was empty..and what I get upon trying to re register is this:


But when I try to sign in it tells me I have the wrong UN & PW.. I suspect it is because my confirmation email got lost in the ether somehow..

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by Mustang

I need Ground Battles in ROF
ROF engine could do this ??

no of course RoF will never do this, they wont even try

just compare the ground textures in RoF and the lack of detail, and the fact it cant handle high object count or high level scenery detail

and they wont even try, all they will now do is create a few ww2 era planes and insert it into the old bland RoF world and sell the new aircraft to you one at a time

[carguy_]

Originally Posted by 777 Studios - Jason

Just imagine a world of regular content releases, moderately priced, with new planes and theaters on a well-functioning engine with interesting 3rd party content being made. Not since the original IL-2 has anyone even gotten close to this promise. IL-2 was released what over a decade ago? We want to give this to you, but we can only get there if you give us a fair shot and your support. If this fails, I don't see anyone else attempting such a product for a long, long time. Only 1C and 777 are foolish enough to try. Give us some credit for that. There is WT and WOWP coming, but it won't be the same as a Sturmovik product.

Jason

I`m all for it. IMO most people here perfectly understand, that you`ll need a steady cash flow to make this new project work and grow. There were countless times when people offered dollars for one aircraft, just to fly it even if there is no scenario to cover it. It is just that not all of us necessarily enjoy a biz model where you have to pay additional money for say a scarf, an ammo loadout or a cammo. That is a little too much. Ofcourse giving people OPTIONS to buy it is nice, though we never should do this to hurt the theatre of operations. For example, I`d be very displeased if you provided a Bf109F4 for the Stalingrad, but asked money for the Bf109G2. You just don`t do that.

Also, please consider that CloD lacks similar thing what RoF lacks - and that is good coop material. I don`t mean an MMO, far from it. I mean that CloD devs have neglected the classic coop mode that so many of us had used and one of the reasons why the original IL2 still lives. And for that we need also a good full mission builder.

All in all, I sincerely hope you can build a more sophisticated sim than RoF.