It's clear to me that the great "Uniter" will be Storm of War itself.
Without taking anything away from Team Daidalos, and the incredible work completed on 4.10 - I think the "community software split" will only start to be resolved at the relase of SOW.
4.10 will certainly bring folks back to the official product - but how far,and for how long, is not at all clear to me. Things like maps, 6 DOF, or generally what groups (online wars for example) find to be "precious" will drive the population shift.
When SOW is released, the most critical thing it seems to me is:
Will a Core2Duo user with a DX9 video card be able to play along with more capable systems online, or experience the majority of single player depth that those with newer systems will enjoy? I have no expectation or opinion in the least with respect to this attribute of SOW, other than I believe Core2Duo or less compatibility in MP is a very, very tall order. The CPU cycles required for complex atmospheric environments, more detailed FM and the aircraft interaction with the more complex environment - are not insignificant to the hardware, no matter what people may wish - or how brilliant the SOW team is. Add higher fidelity DM and the situation becomes only more challenging for the developer. Oleg and his team pull of miracles all the time - but this - I just don't know.
For MP, you can't have lower FM/environments on some systems and more challenging FM/environments on others. SP maybe, but not MP. The nature of the netcode for MP, is of vital significance to this feature - how much bandwidth will the new higher fidelity features use up? More bandwidth, more money especially in the U.S.A. and particularly with respect to server requirements. Oleg's team has had the best netcode by far in a combat flight sim, but again - who knows.
If owners of more modest systems could, however particpate fully - the nature of all this will be moot and it will be SOW which will quickly capture the users.
Lastly, at some critical point in the future (a complete unknown, IMHO) - one would rather see the genious of Team Daidlos - devoted to SOW rather than Il2.
Who knows the timeline? Only God and perhaps Oleg.
S!
Gunny
