Friday the 14th Development Update
 

Hello everyone,

It’s been too long since I’ve posted on here. Black Six has been doing such a good job managing the forums and interacting with the community that it really allowed me to sit back and just focus on managing the product.

I apologize if my absence has upset some of you. I know the community adores wild rumors, but we’re all still here, and we’re working very hard on making the Il-2 series better.

However as you might have guessed, the brunt of the team’s efforts has gradually shifted to the sequels. I know many of you won’t be happy, and neither are we. Cliffs of Dover is still not the product we are happy with or proud of. Unfortunately, as all businesses we have goals, budgets, profits, losses, expenses, and wages. We have milestones to meet with our future products, and we just cannot miss those.

So for the past two weeks the team has been working hard on delivering a stable, working milestone for the sequel.

The general plan is, after the milestone is submitted and accepted, we return to the now almost-final patch, cram as much as we can into it, and make it our final Cliffs of Dover patch. The next time it will be updated is when you install the sequel over it.

Are we happy with that? No. But we simply cannot continue to support and grow Cliffs of Dover while also trying to ensure our sequels are released on time and are sufficiently polished. I’m sure most of you will agree that we have already supported our release more than perhaps any other developer in a similar situation. Most of you have probably guessed that Cliffs of Dover was not exactly the most profitable project in the world, and for at least the past year supporting it did nothing for the bottom line but put it deeper into the red.

Having said all that, Alexander sent me a short list of the most commonly asked questions. So here are the answers.

1) When do you expect to have full-featured anti-aliasing?
We still didn’t get to that task as our graphic programmers still have a pile of even higher priority issues to cover. So, not in the next patch.

2) Will the next patch be fully NVidia certified, and will it have Crossfire support?
NVidia – definitely. CF – still TBD.

3) Will there be a complete readme?
Yes!

4) What’s the status of the Su-26 and the SDKs?
We will most likely include the Su-26 in the final patch for free. The SDKs, we really want to release at least the map-making SDK to the public “as is”, which is why they’re not covered by the next patch v. sequels discussion. However simply packing up the source code into a package that can be released to the public is a somewhat lengthy task that can only be done by our lead programmer. Once he’s done putting out the fires, and once the patch is out the door, we’ll find a way to squeeze that into his schedule.

With that, I'm out. I'll be back at the end of the day to answer more of your questions.

Special thread for your questions:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=34369

Thanks for the honest post. Sad news. Perhaps after the sequel comes out some more work could be retrofitted to CloD.

Any word on what the big feature that hasn't been done before was going to be?

Good to hear from you again luthier, thanks.

"The next time it will be updated is when you install the sequel over it."

Great news! At least future updates will incorporate and update CLOD.

Thanks for this important information for future development.

Cheers, MP

"The next time it will be updated is when you install the sequel over it."

All i want to hear :grin::grin::grin::grin:

Looking forward to the SU 26 (probably). Thanks for the update, and later the update to the update.

I cant speak for anyone else, but this part is important for me. Hopefully you can get the sequel to the level you and we hope for and Cliffs will therefore also benefit.

Good luck and cheers.

EDIT: lol ... just saw the posts above mine saying essentially the same thing posted as I was typing.

The general plan is, after the milestone is submitted and accepted, we return to the now almost-final patch, cram as much as we can into it, and make it our final Cliffs of Dover patch.

And how long are we looking at for this to happen?

If only you told us all of this ages ago. Might have stopped those 'wild rumours' you reckon we like, such as 'they're not working on CloD' etc.

Predictable because of the realities of business. I just hope that the powers that be at 1C (= those with the ties and the money) realize just how much porcellain has been smashed by this release. Before CloD many people would have bought any sequel without a thorough test, after CloD the sequel(s) will have to be everything that CloD was not: a finished, well-rounded simulation with working engine, offline gameplay part and not too many bugs. Otherwise they will rot in the shelves. :-?

Luthier said:

No, not agree I'm afraid. One disaster heaped on another.

Perhaps some concessionary truth about the past would earn goodwill for the future. Glossing over things and putting standard-issue spin on the situation helps no-one.

BlackSix has been the fire buffer between the forum and the devs and placed in a very difficult position, and sometimes made to look ridiculous (perhaps through no fault of his own, and nothing to do with his command of English). The answers he has given (or been allowed to give) have been oddly-worded, idiosyncratic, sometimes evasive, sometimes oddly whimsical, sometimes banal, and have often turned out to be factually incorrect.

This is suggests the supply of information to Blacksix has not been thought out very well, if at all. It also suggests a distinct lack of anythign resembling coherent project management.

The number of dissenting voices on here is not high, so I thought they should be adequately represented. In short the reaction to Clod has been awful, not that you would often guess it from this forum in recent months. This is a fact, not a slight against the forum.

Thank you, now I know I can safely uninstall Dover.

Thanks for clarifying this important point !

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/images/icons/icon13.gif

No, I do not agree with you.

Regards Varrattu

Black Six or Luthier, are you going to still answer the questions in the Q&A thread or is this it??

Tree- read a bit closer mate, he said he will be back later

Sorry. I am german and so i am unsure if i got this right.
Whats correct?

CloD will receive no update from now on until the release of the not even officially announced sequel?
OR
Clod will get its release patch via steam and THEN it will only get a new patch with the release of the sequel?

Winger

Luthier will answer in the Q&A thread (or in the new thread) in some hours.

One patch then sequel

You forgot a very important part of running a business here Luthier, you missed out the word 'CUSTOMERS'. After selling us this product with no mention of any of the problems that you were fully aware of you should put your CUSTOMERS before anything else. You have failed to do that in my honest opinion, your priority for the last 18 months should have been all hands on deck fixing what you sold us rather than concentrating on your next money making scheme.

Same opinion here: the possibility to merge CloD and the sequel is all I want to hear of the future development of the series :-)

The strange thing is that it was already said months ago (by luthier) that the sequel would install on top of COD and update it (and that it would also be a standalone product for those who didn't have COD), yet somehow in the intervening period that all became open to doubt again...I think because B6 felt he did not have authority to comment about it when asked in various threads...crazy?!

So, I'm glad that people are relieved to have it confirmed but it's not news to me.

:)

Please god let them release a decent patch!

Surely you realise you must fix the major CloD issues and win back potential customers with a strong final version of CloD. Dropping it now will spell disaster for any sequel, with only a small dedicated number buying it.

The future looks decidedly dodgy.

+1000

Support for fixing CloD has not been good (compare yourselves to Rise of Flight, or DCS? You cannot) - still the game has not the features promised on launch, i won't list the huge list of things broken or missing we all know them, and now you expect people will buy your sequel? You say yourself you are not proud of it.

Sorry but I must conclude 1C does not live on the same planet as we players (and, I point out, PAYERS).

To discuss the work on CloD as dragging down your bottom line and sending into the red, please reconsider. Fixing CloD is an investment in your future, encourage people to buy your sequel. Why should they when you do not fix what is broken, it will be the same for the sequel.

UNLESS YOU MAKE THE SEQUEL FREE OR BIG DISCOUNT FOR PLAYERS WHO MADE THE MISTAKE TO BUY CLOD.

I like you because you brought COD which is an Improvement to IL2. It really is. People how say it's not are just fooling themselves. Give the final patch and the community will do the rest with mods and addons like DESASTERSOFT.

Keep doing the fantastic work of keeping the sim world ALIVE.

I would love to see an eastern front as well as the pacific in the future. BUsiness is business and I understand that you can't run a company based on dreams.

just m 2 cents that I hope all of you wonderful Russians will read. I feel that most of the mature and reasonable community will understand your position.

Don't pay attention to the posts like : no one will buy the sequel

Yes they will. All true Flight sim fans will buy

Thanks for all the support

I am mostly happy because you will stick it out with the patch untuil the very end.

As some Posts above, Luthier.
Thanks for the comm.
One question : how could you expect to me buying your sequel if you do not fix the basis of original product ? Give me a proof to trust in you.

Agreed ,i am afraid i won't be buying the sequel on the whim,i will wait and see but to be honest i really can't see how you can expect people to buy the sequel .

All I can really say is 'we will see', so many knock backs already for the forgotten segment in this farce, the customer, that I will believe it when its out and working.

However, if I am reading this properly there will be a patch for CLoD, that will fix some of it, but for the finished product (paid for many months ago) we will need to shell out more £/$?

Oh my god!!! :(

I am just guessing many things in luthiers post, but for me personally, that is really the hit in the neck of the il2series.

My comments:
1.) Answered question are nearly the same as his last post and nearly all answers are really of low priority. AA? = not essential! Su-26? = nowhere near essential! and SLI? = waste of time until the whole game gets better engine.

2.) Engine: My claim is, that simply nobody will ever know, if you really rewrote it! For most of my mates it simply looks like taking away features and try out the best feature set. It is 100% sure for me, that the newsteam patch will tell us some truth. If this patch is not sufficient and just an official release of the current beta with some reimplemented features, this will be the end of trust in their abilities. And that from me, who always stayed calm. This will be the killer and if you do not release BoM soon and with a big test version for free, noone will ever buy the sequel instantly.

So, if this patch and the sequel are not 100% evolution of current state, the il2 series seems to be dying. :(

@luthier: please give information of the official patch. This is the question, which everyone wants to know immediately. Otherwise I am really afraid, that this post can be the last drop of water, which is needed to lose a big part of your customers. I feel a bit fooled, because you instantly answered totally non-essential questions.

Sorry, but feed us with the patch info, readme or something else.

We cannot see all things, that you see in development. So I am a little bit more defensive with your sentence about support in comparison to other games. I just say, that a big question is, if your staff is really able to serve a fast support on such a game? This is offensive, but this question is now burning in my mind. It seems, that efforts are made too slow. If this is not true, you should serve us with information, which shows your efforts and explains complexity. Otherwise it is soon over, as noone understands anymore, why so few efforts impact so late and in such a quality.

Blacksix: thanks for all your work on the frontlines. Today it should be luthiers time to explain. Hope he will explain essential things to put out the biggest fire: "trust of customers"! The initial post here was only salt into the wounds.

How do we say in Germany: "Hosen runter!" ("Trowsers down please!") ;) This is exactly the time!

LOL! weird isn't it?! That wasn't news to me, they've already explained in an older Q&A that old il-2 series release model will be used in the new series. You see some people spend so much time here yet know nothing, boggles the mind. Nice to hear from you again though luthier, thought the code had jumped out of your monitor and sucked you in to the matrix itself there for a while.

Please re-consider implementing some sort of "classic" coop interface though if you really want the sequel to have better longevity, also try not to neglect us offline players this time around. We actually might want to play that sequel of yours also, not just having it sit on a shelf collecting dust.

Thanks. I can live with that!

Winger

Nobody asks the obvious question to ease some of the rampant speculation, Luthier, will you continue to support CLOD independently with updates 'AFTER' the release of a sequel?

+1

Pulling that business model on Wall Street will get you jail time.

Luthier,

thx for the news update

please make sure the FM and DM of the allied CoD planes continue to be improved and corrected, there are some major issues there that need to be addressed for the CoD sim in that theater to have any value

Arent you people reading the same forum as eveyone else? They have stated one more patch and then no further support for CLOD! Please stop saying thank you, and then asking for something to be fixed. THEY COULDNT GIVE A WHAT WE/YOU WANT AND THEY HAVE JUST PROVED IT... There is no way in the world I would buy there next crappy bugged product. It looks like DCS and other professional developers have my vote and support.

@Luthier, good to see you here again!...your post is unclear to me, just to clarify, no patch for Clod till sequel release?..thanks:)

No, one final patch for CLOD and then further updates with release of sequel.

Well yes, this has been obvious for quite some time. So, what are you going to do? File a class action suit? Lament the waste of a small amount of money and call it a day on CloD and its sequels (assuming there actually are any)? Or venture a bit more on the sequel in the hope that maybe this bag of balls eventually gets rolling?

Me, I'll buy the sequel because there's no alternative to this bag of balls at the moment and the £30 it'll cost me is bugger all in the grand scheme of things. One thing's for sure, if nobody buys the sequel, then that really is it.

I must admit I cannot understand all the 'Thanks for the (no news) updates'?.

It says very little really that hasn't been thrown out there before and basically says 'give us more of your money if you want it to work'..

+1

On going support and development for the series. Sounds Great! Can't wait for the next update.

Thank you bongo...you are a lawyer?:lol:

lol!! This is starting to remind me of that episode of Fawlty Towers where Basil tries to explain to the guests that there will shortly be a fire drill...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r8X3Z-t8bc

Bongodriver's interpretation is correct here Slipball.

+1

Hope is the last to die. I don't say I'm happy about the whole COD affair, but in the end I've spent the same amount of money for stuff that I enjoyed even far less than COD :-P

Thank you Luthier - I'm 100% behind you and, as a financial person, I understand that the sums have to work!!

I, like so many out there (perhaps silent), wish you and your team great success - IL-2 has given us so much enjoyment and I'm sure that CoD, and its sequels, will do likewise.

Well it's as I said before they've had a hampster squillering away in some forgotten corner tinkering with COD while the real work has been on the sequel. Its simple business sense to go after something that may pay the bills.
My concern is about the deceit and non disclosure of the real state of affairs and allowing the resentment to build up in its core customer base.
Bad karma.

[QUOTE=kristorf;460752]I must admit I cannot understand '

I know I know!

+1 to all of you :D

RIP CloD. :|

I sure will wait a long time before purchasing the sequel to ensure it is not another dud, assuming of course that the zealous support that some have here for this studio will be sufficient to keep MG afloat that long.

Being an optimist, does this mean a sequel is near to being released?

I for one, am happy that I can now fly over London on medium settings without freezing after updating to Windows 7 64bit.

I wish I was.....I'd be rich.

Luthiers statement

The bit in red means 'AFTER' the release of the final CLOD patch.

This is good news!

The show will go on

there will be a patch

there will be a sequel

there will be many more posts to read

LOL, where do you live? In the real world it is you don't make money, you're out. Team scattered, and not a single patch for anyone this way. Meeting deadlines for milestones is a necessity in business, and I'm pretty sure if the choice was up to luthier and his crew, it would be different.

Maybe you can change the deadline for the next milestone if you write a nice letter to luthiers bosses, but I'm fairly certain they will only appreciate it for comical value.

One and a half year after release and people are still writing posts claming that they have no interest in this game or will not buy the sequel.

Funny :-)

Glad you find it funny, but I suspect because of the awful mess that is CLOD and the amount of time it has taken to still not fix it, and the missing features and the dumbing down of graphics, the poor netcode, the lack of coop's, poor campaign's, the broken GUI in single player etc etc, that the sales of the sequel will reflect what I consider to be rather shoddy treatment from the dev's. If you consider the above to be good for business then you are deluded.

I remember hearing this too Kendo. This was announced months ago. But I think all the rumors and speculation about the sequel being an MMO made people think it could be something completely new and leave CoD out in the dust. Good to hear that's not the case.

Remember a few months ago when this board thought the plug was being pulled? This place is insane. But that's what happens when you get minimal updates.

No matter how hard they try they just can't get you to leave.

Look Tree ... when luthier's bosses put down their foot and demand a resource switch to something that may bring fresh revenue as opposed to something that doesn't he is not in the position to refuse. Unless you're your own boss you are in a similar state of dependence to those who pay your wages.

For the people who make such decisions at 1C the question of longetivity of a gaming genre or a certain branch of software is of secondary importance (it may be nice but only to bind customers and perhaps generate more money). If the sequel is another dud and fails to generate income they will simply move on to other projects and either reassign Maddox Games to something that's potentially profitable (like some shooter spin-off for the brain-dead) or close MG as a department for good. 1C isn't going to die because Il-2 CloD hasn't been up to specs, it's just a financial loss - nothing more. These suits don't really care about what customers of past titles think, they look for return of their investments and if anyone who has already paid is unhappy then it's too bad for that person. Don't you watch real life news and know what business is like? :roll:

well said.I feel used and cheated.You promised us a game and we took the bait based on il2's past history.You then took a beautiful sim and ruined it and promising us a fix it all this time and knowing it would never happen.Shame on you.you cannot sell a product and then say we will fix it if you buy the next version.that is poppycock.


since you guys have not kept ONE promise. and not fixed anything.How about releasing the tools so we can do it ourselves.(this was also promised by Oleg himself)He said the tools will be released.There are guys here that can fix this game (modding community)So with that being said...Thanks for nothing.Do the right thing and release the tools so the game will be fixed.Be honorable after all that is what this community is based on we should except nothing less.

i will buy the next version only because i am still hopeful.but i still feel jipped.

Caveat emptor.

A week or two back B6 mentioned it reaching alpha in 2013, so not that close.

Not good for business, but beats out of business.

I think the sales of the sequel will mostly reflect that they go back to the Eastern front, cater the home market, which is what made Il-2 successful in the first place. If they get it right that time, all the trouble with CloD won't matter much. Commercially. And that's why luthier has no options but to meet the deadlines.

i have to say that i'm very disappointed. :(

The game was released and sold as a product while it was just a half a product. Few patches released did not rise it to the product it should be.

Now, to get a product i all ready payed for i need to buy more?

that's maybe called business in Russia but in the rest of the world that's called fraud.

Yes, so to those who say this is such good news for Cliffs of Dover because improvements in the sequel will be backed into CloD, what this means is maybe, yes

...in 2014 or later!!

Who is going to care, two years from now, serious?

hope you will offer refunds if the last patch turns to be not enough to make it a fully working product..

Was it going to be any other way?

What an absolute car-crash of a release over a year ago....

That's me done with 1C. Shame as the community is so passionate about aircraft and yet for some reason 1C could not do something easy as follow up on a success story that was IL2....it baffles the mind.

The sequel is free of charge i assume?
Take a good look at http://riseofflight.com/en and learn..

Cracks me up that people are backing this company.

See, in business, when you dont deliver on what you say, you dont make money.

You dont deserve to be sucessful when you put out broken products. Personally, its the devs fault CLoD was a mess. Obviously, not up to the task. Nobodys fault but theirs.

Sob story of "We have supported our product more than most companies" LOL. If it wasnt such a pile of crap, you wouldnt have to still be trying to fix things over a year later.

If you didnt understand my feelings of this new...I will not buy crap from these folks. Too many other companies that put customer first, that release quality, working products.

I do understand why you won't buy crap. I don't understand why you are spamming a message board for a company that you have declared that you won't support.

Lots of ww2 flight simulations out with current generation graphics?

Give it a rest
Shame you and a few others who bow at the feet of the developers didn't do likewise.
You have it in writing from Luthier himself that Clod is effectively finished and they are working on the sequel yet you still have to have a go at Tree:rolleyes:

Sadly no. War Thunder was my last hope, and that went down in flames from playing the beta.

As much as I like WWII era aviation, it just seems it aint happeing with 1C.

If it's all over, why are you still here?

And here we go ....

Because i have as much right to voice my opinions on this farce as a paying customer as you have to preach your views through rose coloured glasses.

Agreed.

Why would you want to? You apparently feel it's over. Find something else to do.

Nothing new, move along. Some minor, but apparently within-the-programmers-reach issues will be adressed (in some time...) for the publicity value. Yet, of course, nothing about the real problems - the fact that e.g. the prop pitch key(s) in the Me-109 are the wrong way around for quite some time now speaks its own language, and then some.

I mean, by fixing the biggest issues - and I mean really fixing, not just stating it in the rare readme files -, they could have restored their reputation by a huge margin, since the community in these forums here have a very, VERY high patience treshold. But - yeah, what can one say? They just aren't capable of doing this. The fact that internal pressure regarding the addon seems to be rising also speaks its own language...

Got to seven pages before the insults and slagging started, getting better.

Good little boys :rolleyes:

Luthier!
You may wait for my money! :)
You starve to death then! XD

Hm?
I would.

Sounds great to me!

That aproach worked great for IL-2 for over 10+ years so I look forward to CoD sequals for the next 10+ years

Luthier,

If your team cannot fix this first game, and give us what was originally promised/expected, what is there to show us that the new game will be any better, and worth our support, dedication, and more importantly, our money?

How to screw up?
If that were to be the new business model I'm out.

I think all the people who "feel cheated and used" need to get a little prospective, I assume you've never gone out for a night on turps spent a couple of hundreds dollars and had nothing to show fow it but a crackin hangover, the small amount I paid for CLOD compare the enjoyment I've gotten out of it is a bargain IMHO, not to mention the support to the company it gave to continue making the ONLY modern WWII flight sim out there, again easily worth it.

Is it perfect ? hell no, but it'll get refined and refined till it is amazing I've no doubt, Ic's track record supports this idea.

How hard is it to have a little faith in a comany that made IL2 - 1946 into the astounding sim it is? I'll e getting the sequel and any that come after it .

A very limited demo (just to prove it's working) - yes. But paying for every burp at every turn? Nah, thanks's I'll pass.

don't panic
I think that the Battle of Moscow should cost 1 Euro for us that have Cliffs of Dover

If you think that's going to happen you should probably start to panic.

I think there should be a discount, even if it is just £5-10 or 10%. It is possible to do this in steam, STALKER did it by checking if your steam account owns an earlier one then giving you coupons. Since it is a steam game this would be possible for BoM and I think it should happen though I realise it is unlikely.

why?
Do you get any discount on Cod, Arma, MW?
No.

I mean seriously, our equipment needed for this hobby is in the 4digit range - an you complain about 5quid?

Guys please try behave...
I know the news isnt all good, but please have a little respect.
Some of you were banging on about how Luthier should front up.... and he has with complete humility admitted that Clod was not what anyone wanted, least of all the team that developed it.

They would have clearly loved to do more for this theatre of ops but commercial realities unfortunately exist.

It certainly not ideal that we have been paying alpha/beta customers, but I personally think its a small price to pay to keep the series alive. I know they are counting on the goodwill of the community too, which is in itself not a great thing, but we are where we are, and at least we have the chance to hopefully experience the full beauty of this series in the sequel and following sequels.

Certainly this particular theatre and release was a loss for the business, so we are very lucky that they even considered fixing any of it. That is fact.

If they didn't have the financial support of the parent 1C and Luthier's determination, this would have been shut up shop long ago and there wouldnt even be a sequel. We all know that.

So while we dont have the final product we were all promised and hoping for in Clod, at least we have a future to look forward to. Because the other option is to drop it all together, and many businesses would have done exactly that if it wasnt for the commitment and passion for the series.

It's also been made pretty clear that the sequel will be some sort of merge install where the sequel will follow in the footsteps of the old IL2 series where you get the benefits of the sequel flowing down into the previous theatres of operation.

The MMO??? Who knows what it was or even if it will be. My guess is it was a spin off idea and we may or may not see it, but we will certainly see a sequel and thats all im interested in. Because I will get the features and gameplay we all want, and so what if it costs me another $50... I spent $100 on plenty of PS3 and XBOX console games that only last 2-3 weeks of gameplay, IL2 is a series that most of us play for 5 to 10 years... so its cheap gaming in my books even at $200.. ;)

As way of an apology to the fans that were let down and the fact that to be perfectly honest CloD support is being dropped before the product is finalised. Obviously it depends on the final patch but if they leave CloD with many broken features (such as AI and sound amongst other bugs, like revered mixture) then say that unless you buy the sequel these wont be fixed then the people who bought CloD from day one deserve easier access to updates that will fix the game.

This from someone who has been very supportive of CloD throughout. Another option would be to continue with sequel and retro fit patches to CloD but leave additional features out- that way those who pay for the finished product get it whilst those who pay for new features get those on top. As I said, this is all dependant on the quality of the last patch.

CoD comes out from and AAA developer and gets is bugs fixed. ARMA 2 has beta patch support daily and is being supported over 3 years later with these patches. Also, ARMA 2 base game gets patches despite the appearance of AMRA2:OA. That is what I think should happen with CloD as I stated above.

+1 FS~Phat's sentiment.

I just want good flight simulations. CloD fell short so far.. but at least there is still some hope.

You should have to stop the work on it since the day one, instead of waste so many months with CoD. So, personally i agree with you 100% but we have wasted too much time however (again!), waiting for an improvement that has never been released....in 18 months!

That wouldnt have been useful seeing as the engine is shared between the two games! All work on CloD engine will fit into BoM and (hopefully) vice-versa.

I think the developers should offer a money back policy on the condition that the recipient has his steam account blocked so he can never buy any Storm of war related title ever again.

How many would dare to take that offer?

But it would definitely shut people up :-)

Why should a business succeed when they fail at making a product? If a diner served horrible food, but the owner kept promising it will get better soon, and it doesnt, how long will it stay in business?

Sorry, no love loss here. When I want to donate, it goes to a charity, not to a team that cannot make (or fix) a product released over a year ago.

Everyone has opinions, and if you feel the need to support them, its your choice. I dont agree with it, but I also know I dont control anyone eles way of thinking.

I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the state of mind of people thinking they the devs are doing a good thing. How is a crappy product that never reached its potential, features left out, buggy, with plans to end support for it, and then annouce a sequal be good? First product was crap, how about a second? Boggles the mind.

Gonna add a few more thoughts before this thread gets locked. 1. Having "supported" the game for some time after release is not the same has having supported it WELL. Duration of support and substance of support are not the same. 2. A business model that worked as late as last year even, might not cut it anymore, when big developers like Epic are being "forced" to make free-to-play titles to be able to keep up with the competition then you -as a game developer- has to realize that times have changed. Game are literally everywhere and on every device theses days, asking prices for some really cool games are less than a dollar, it's hard to justify the €40+ price tag.

Let's all hope -and pray- that the sequel will be what the devs originally intended CloD to be because I'm sure they aren't happy with the way CloD ended up, oh wait! luthier just said so himself.:)

An open beta, we know it...or better, an open beta first and an open alpha later.

We'll see but i really hope the engine will be much different from what we have seen in CoD, because this graphic is far to be the best one for the next sim generation.

I look forward to seeing you flying over virtual Russia.