Game Server Population

[EZ1]

Has anyone else noticed how under populated the IL-2 game servers are getting. And, people are not going over to CoD servers either. There are only about 4 of them on Hyperlobby (need beta verion of HL to see them) and they are not used much at all.

Unless there are a lot of servers not listed on Hyperlobby things are looking a little grim for IL-2 right now.

[Aviar]

It's down about 50-60% from a few years ago. Very sad.

Aviar

[EJGr.Ost_Caspar]

With all the mods, it had been gone to be an offline game mostly. Thats my bet.

[Bolelas]

I am not sure about this, but i think, maybe a year or two ago, there were other servers of il2, apart from the hyperLobby world. is it true? I chatted with some portuguese mate that told me he played somewhere else, but, as i said, not sure...

[EZ1]

I think the main problem is that is just "too hard" for most of the younger gamers to get started. First, you have to find a copy of '46, then find and apply 4 levels of official patches, then to fly on most servers you need to install some unofficial patch. After you've done all that, you have to learn to fly and operate an array of querty old airplanes. That's a lot for someone who does most of their gaming on an iPhone!

[Romanator21]

It's not that hard to get the patches...It's hard when ten different people who swear by their own version of the game tell you to get Mod pack A instead of Mod pack B, etc. etc.

Besides that, there are multiple versions of the game in use online. Instead of 100 servers with version A, you have 20 with A, 40 with B and 30 with C and 10 with D. No one wants ten different installs of the game that have to be switched around in order to join a server.

Mods did a lot of nice things for the game, but a side-effect was a fracturing of the online community into various camps. Once all of my favorite servers switched to one of the various mod packs, I went online less and less.

Then of course, you have a negative feedback loop: The fewer people go online, then even fewer people show up because their friends are no longer showing up, and so forth until HL becomes empty....

Since that's the reality we have to live with, I for one am grateful that DT are apparently re-working the AI. It's also great news that DGEN is going to get a make-over as well.

[Fenice_1965]

It's quite normal that a game ten years old looses players with the time. Old players get tired with the time, if they do not have new stimulations.
It's also quite normal that newcomer do not choose a game ten years old to start combat flight sims.
This is the reason why IL2 is loosing players.
Mods added confusion but this is balanced by the fact that they add something new (and in may cases better) to the simulation.
On the other side it's normal that not so many pilots are going towards CLOD. It's an immature and uncomplete game and needs a top of the line rig to play with satisfaction.
Not so many can afford a PC able to run it well and also in many sectors it's far from being complete. You do not have the sense of coherence of every part that you have in a simulation, like IL2, with 10 years of refinement.
Also IL2 in ten years gathered a lot of utilities and features (think of FBDJ for example or of the large choice of airplanes and maps) that contributed to create a larger community. CLOD is far, far, far from that.
JMHO

[MOH_Hirth]

The simulation need culture and interest for ww2 aviation History, is not a simple "game" request good cpu, trackir4, joystic, time to know and learn.
Auor community is being very old and few young have the same interest in simulation like 10 years ago.

As far as the mods go ... with JSGME I have the basic version of Il-2 installed and in about 15 seconds can conjure up just about any mod (or mods) version that anyone would want. It's rather slick, really.

[HarryM]

Mods killed it for me. I've gone into HL a few times recently and looked up some of the old servers I used to like to go on and there's some crazy laundry list of mods needed, sorry, can't be bothered.