Managing after a failure
 

I have some two very bitter and disappointing experiences with software system failure. When I worked on FAA's Reroute Air traffic Control System, the FAA told us to take our system out of the Chicago Air Traffic Control center and to start over planning and writing requirements.

Also when BOBII was released in 2005, BOBII was considered a failure at least by me and many other players.

I now consider both the FAA and BOBII a success because new management software procedures and stronger testing (unit , subsystem, and system), and smaller incremental development.

To correct a system failure, requires a new management approach who will focus on a strong software development process, enforced priorities, and a stronger testing approach. The development plan must also take smaller incremental steps that can be tested, released for testing to a strong volunteer beta test group.

Without a change in management approach and focus there is a good chance that history will repeat itself on the new BOM System.

I do wish 1C the very best of luck on both the quality and profit of BOM.

I agree with some of your assessment, but Maddox Games did just fine developing the original series, with a working game engine. The problem with this development is the unfinished game engine which they are trying to fix and finish which exacerbates every other problem with the sims content and features. If the development could have waited until the game engine was working before release we would never have seen such a clusterfk. There would still have been problems, but certainly not to the extent we have witnessed. Hopefully most of the glaring issues will be addressed by the Sequels release and they can continue developing theaters without it being a Keystones Cops Fire Drill.

P.S. for those that suggest that it isn't the same development team, you would be mostly wrong, as much of the same development team is still intact.

Let's hope we see some momentum with BoB...there needs to be something done to make us 'believe' that the future looks bright!

Good to see you Buddeye...ever thought about BoBIII ? Just license the WoP engine from Gaijin and honestly your AI will do the rest ;)

Why the WoP engine? Its a load of rubbish, just visuals and bugger all else...

It would be silly now for them to dump this game engine with all the time invested in it now, and compared to other sims out there right now you would be hard pressed to find one that is as complete and detailed, just looking at little details that people like to over look. We will see what Eagle Dynamics pulls out with their new Game Engine, but right now, a completed and refined IL2:CoD Game Engine can be a wonderful thing...

I agree, pity that some here are too busy looking at the shiny things than looking at the amazing level of detail that has been put into the models.

Hopefully we will not be losing these features in the next game.

Someone else ask the question. I just can't do it.;)

I wasn't talking about CloD I was saying it about BoBII: WoV which Buddeye worked on. So have all the beauty of the WoP engine BUT all the quality of their missions and AI.

Not CloD ;)

The difference is the size and scale of the channel map in both wings of victory and CLOD. The WOP engine just cant produce maps that size, and still be able to do the things it does. Go play on a CLOD
server that dosent have CEM running... the gameplay is extremely smooth with alot of players swarming around...but what fun is that.. basically left with old IL2 so to speak. I like the WOP graphics
also.. but something has to give. WOP has no where near the level of CEM or DM that CLOD has. In a perfect world we would have CLOD FM/DM with WOP Weather and atmospere and BOB WOV campaign and AI. Unfortunately the Holy Grail of WWII flight sims still illudes us.

I'm not sure you can class CloD as a failure. It got off to a pretty shakey start
for reasons no one here really knows. But the developers have steadily made great
improvements including a complete rewrite of much of the core code. True it has
been time consuming and some elements have been removed or cut back for the sake of
playerbility but the latest update has really moved things on. Who knows what will
be reinstated in future and exciting things have been promised.

The only thing I can think will make it fail is having enough buyers of the sequel
to recoupe developement costs. They need a good few thousand rather geeky anoraks
with an obsession with all stuff WW2, with deep pockets for the heavy hardware, too
much time on their hands and a chidlike desire to be Biggles. Oh and if married, a
tolerant wife and a thick skin to weather the ridicule of their kids.

I agree the size of the map is probably a large part of the problem. I sometimes
wonder if all the goodies we were expecting were developed on a much smaller test
map and when the big channel map and the game engine met things went a bit pear
shaped but as too much had been invested in map and engine and development time
had run out then some serious compromises and back peddling had to be done until
the developers could find out how much could be salvaged. But so far so good.