OT: What do you think of this?

[ZaltysZ]

Originally Posted by Formula88

If this sim/game is totally free then I honestly dont see how it can be any good.

It will probably be free, but it will either require you buying plane upgrades or investing lots of time for acquiring them in "free" way. I.e. lots of people would choose to buy Tiger tank killer Mustang and get instant gratification, instead of working their way with P40 and lesser planes.

[BRIGGBOY]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

screenshots look way too cartoony. Might have to buy a xbox 360 controller to play it? Lol

+1000

[bongodriver]

What's all this 'at least I can play a beta instead of buying an alpha' stuff that gets throw around all the time, at the end of the day what difference does it make which part of the time line the money gets spent? the outcome is the same.....money is spent!

[MACADEMIC]

Originally Posted by Formula88

Subscription free doesnt mean you wont have to pay for the game to use it, it just means yu will only have to buy the game once. If this sim/game is totally free then I honestly dont see how it can be any good. Judging by the screenshots and scope that has been announced for World of Planes I seriously doubt it will be completely free. And thats just fine. I have signed up for the beta and look forward to this one. There will always be the hardcore that will never leave the Il-2 series, I used to be one of them, but if this delivers on a simulation level as well as it does on a graphical one then I will be saying goodbye to 1C for good. At least with World I get to test the beta, not buy it and then wait for the game to be patched up to full release.

You're right, the assumption that the game would be free is speculative on my part. All they have said for now is that it will be subscription free. Could imagine though that there will be a basic free version where you start with a limited number of airplanes and armament, and by playing can work your way up toward other airplanes and configurations. It's clear that they'd have to earn somewhere, in other F2P games this is done by having a game currency and making micropayments when you want more content. If enough people play and are eager to progress this could pay off instead of the full price game model. I find the idea interesting, it could attract a lot of people to the genre since the basic content is free. On the other hand, this bears the danger that the game could become too simple to impress sim players.

Again, purely speculative here.

MAC

[bongodriver]

Yeah....I'm sorry but this reeks of going down a MMO console style affair.

and subsequently putting another nail in the true flight sim coffin.

[albx]

Originally Posted by MACADEMIC

You're right, the assumption that the game would be free is speculative on my part. All they have said for now is that it will be subscription free. Could imagine though that there will be a basic free version where you start with a limited number of airplanes and armament, and by playing can work your way up toward other airplanes and configurations. It's clear that they'd have to earn somewhere, in other F2P games this is done by having a game currency and making micropayments when you want more content. If enough people play and are eager to progress this could pay off instead of the full price game model. I find the idea interesting, it could attract a lot of people to the genre since the basic content is free. On the other hand, this bears the danger that the game could become too simple to impress sim players.

Again, purely speculative here.

MAC

and what about Birds of Steel? do you think it will be simple like this or WoP? I'm afraid that everytime a title is build for consoles and PC it is arcade

[MACADEMIC]

Originally Posted by bongodriver

Yeah....I'm sorry but this reeks of going down a MMO console style affair.

and subsequently putting another nail in the true flight sim coffin.

Hi bongodriver,

Wouldn't paint the future quite so black. IF the business model is as I have speculated, Gaijin would naturally have to attract a LOT of people to break even with the game. This would mean that they couldn't make the game too difficult because that would put too many newcomers off. Due to the continuous world nature of the game Gaijin would need to run their own dedicated servers with a set difficulty. So far, so bad.

However, two points which may help see this in a more optimistic light:

1. Even if the game would turn out Super Arcadey (which I hope it will not), this would still bring a lot of people to the genre of WWII flight who might otherwise have not found their own way here otherwise. And many of those would be here to stay, and find their way to more demanding flight simulations.

2. Gaijin could decide to run several parallel worlds with different sets of difficulties, from Arcade to something closer to a more realistic flight simulation, although it would remain to be seen how good of a simulation they could deliver.

In any case, what's to be feared by Cliffs of Dover? There's always an elite that gets fed by a broad basis. If CloD is the Rolls Royce of flight simulations, it doesn't need to worry about all the Mazdas, Renaults and VWs around.

MAC

[MACADEMIC]

Originally Posted by albx

and what about Birds of Steel? do you think it will be simple like this or WoP? I'm afraid that everytime a title is build for consoles and PC it is arcade

Hi albx,

I don't know how ambitious Birds of Steel will be. I'd expect it to be better than Birds of Prey was, but how much of a flight simulation it will become remains to be seen. In any case, I think even Birds of Prey was a wonderful way to bring people who happen to play on consoles in touch with the genre. There's still a good community there who love the game, of which some have migrated to Cliffs of Dover.

The difference this time between Birds of Steel and World of Planes will be greater though. Wings of Prey was clearly a port from the console version which was done after the console version was finished. Difference there was that Wings of Prey saw additional development, however the gameplay remained restricted pretty much to what it was on consoles.

World of Planes and Birds of Steel are parallel developments right from the start. Of course they would share common resources (it would be madness if they wouldn't), but World of Planes looks quite like a different concept which is taking the greater possiblilties of the PC/MAC platforms into account.

I would hope it has something interesting to offer even for the more sophisticated simmers.

MAC

[bongodriver]

Wouldn't paint the future quite so black. IF the business model is as I have speculated, Gaijin would naturally have to attract a LOT of people to break even with the game. This would mean that they couldn't make the game too difficult because that would put too many newcomers off. Due to the continuous world nature of the game Gaijin would need to run their own dedicated servers with a set difficulty. So far, so bad.

Exactly...

1. Even if the game would turn out Super Arcadey (which I hope it will not), this would still bring a lot of people to the genre of WWII flight who might otherwise have not found their own way here otherwise. And many of those would be here to stay, and find their way to more demanding flight simulations.

What simulations?.....once the console genre kills the sim genre off.

2. Gaijin could decide to run several parallel worlds with different sets of difficulties, from Arcade to something closer to a more realistic flight simulation, although it would remain to be seen how good of a simulation they could deliver.

again this doesn't fill me with confidence, sounds expensive and the modern generation tend to be too lazy to seek new 'challenges' the console genre gives them a 'quick fix' there is no tweaking this and that, they have no interest in history, instead of learning real tactics they would prefer to be able to hit 'x+o+left thumb button' to pull off some radical move, and all this spoon fed to them in a packaged environment with a sweet coating of hollywood pazzaz!

In any case, what's to be feared by Cliffs of Dover? There's always an elite that gets fed by a broad basis. If CloD is the Rolls Royce of flight simulations, it doesn't need to worry about all the Mazdas, Renaults and VWs around.

Rather than Rolls Royce how about the general British car industry, it's just barely twitching and life support is ready to be turned off, all thanks to the likes of mazda etc....

[ATAG_Doc]

MAC what do want to accomplish by this thread in the middle of the Cliffs of Dover forum? Are you taking a survey of people over here that would be interested with the billboard ad you've so kindly erected for us? Personally I only have room in my brain for one sim at a time and this hasn't been released yet.