Friday 2010-09-10 Dev. update and Discussions

Originally Posted by Bobb4

You will know it is nearly done when a website officially opens and teaser video's start doing the rounds. As with all games before it until you start seeing promo material it is nowhere near done.
The promo stuff will be linked to the "new" publisher and so will the website.
Until then, be happy with what we are getting very decent updates, regular feedback and the joys of reading Tree

Woohoo, you are 100% right though Bobb IMHO, and I have being saying the same for quiet some time.

[The Kraken]

Originally Posted by Richie

Was this done in Dx11? Does anyone know?

It doesn't contain anything graphics-wise that hasn't been shown in screenshots, so it's unlikely to be DirectX11. Although I'm not expecting a huge difference anyway.

[Baron]

Just developed a wild theory.

Doesnt this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMFFQGryWhk

remind anoyne of this (from 0:24):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GtsNqaE1yU

One and the same?

Both spits seems to behave iraticly sometimes (unstable/stall whatever)



Nothing speciall really, would just mean the SoW Spit video is quite old. Got to thinking since there seems to be a "debate" about weather we are shown everything thats brand spanking new or some old stuff just to tease us.


My point is: since noone of us knows the full context of whats beeing shown peoples crituiqe is based on mere guesses wich is proppably why every friday uppdate derails into nitpicking.

[steam]

Actually, the official date of celebration of the victory of the Battle of Britain could have and a gift made in the form of video or, at least, more information about the progress of work or the official website launch ...

[Thunderbolt56]

LMAO...these forums are like the virtual Church of Oleg. The worshippers all gather 'round and play patty cake anticipating the arrival of their savior and in the meantime pass the time straining their eyes and imaginations looking for the image of their beloved spitfire in the entrails of chickens. Once in a while the pastor shows up and wiles the worshippers with his wisdom who cling to it as though it were food and water.

Don't get me wrong, I'm digging these weekly screenshot rations, but honestly, that's all they are. They show some cool stuff, and display a definitively higher level of detail, but isn't that expected?

Forgive me for wanting meat and potatoes instead of cabbage water.

[Blackdog_kt]

I think that the more people wait, the more they cover the same ground and after a while sides form and get entrenched.

There's many good points made by a lot of people here, regardless of what they believe about the state of the simulator and the potential of release, and there's also some needless remarks made by the exact same persons. It just goes part and parcel with the nature of internet forums and a bunch of highly enthusiastic (and thus, some too impatient and some too perfectionist) people discussing the same or similar things too often. People get tired of the repetition by others and then state something themselves that is already repetitive as well

The developers are not gods, but they are not stupid either. Could they screw up? They could potentially, they are humans after all. Do they have a proven track record? I'd say they do and i give them the credit due for it and the burden that goes alongside said credit that they will deliver another benchmark product.

I too get tired of reading a lot of similar things, but then again nobody is forcing me to and i'm also guilty of doing it myself for the reason outlined above: we cover the same ground too often. However, that doesn't detract from the fact that if one is willing to dissect the flow of posts in a reasonable manner, it's very much possible to separate the useful bits from the rest.

In short, don't let it get to you everybody and keep posting, as statistically speaking when you have a large enough number of people with a wide spectrum of opinions, you also will have a better spectrum of potential ideas and constructive criticism...we just have to be calm and separate the chaff from the wheat

I think that despite the various rivalries, the place is still bubbling with anticipation if heated debates are anything to go by and most importantly, harsh remarks might be made from time to time but there has not been a concentrated effort to shut down anyone who's critical of the pace that progress occurs or any real or perceived features of the title.

We've had threads discussing anything from mission design and campaign structure to DRM, as well as people pointing out flaws and disagreements in some strong language and yet, to my knowledge there hasn't been any "forum-pogrom" by one side against the other. There are usually a few people who take up "forum-dueling" among themselves but the rest, regadless of personal opinion, manage to maintain a level-headed attitude.

This is way much more than can be said about another recent simulator title that was released in a state and with features that many potential customers found quite disagreeable. I don't want to point fingers just for the sake of pointing fingers, but if something is true then it's true and that's all there is to it.

When RoF was released (a year and a half ago was it?) it had a handful of flyables, no offline single player mode, no persistent server multiplayer mode, quite the host of technical issues, a precarious development history under a team that people weren't familiar with and a restrictive activation system that extended to the very ability to use the simulator one paid for with their hard earned cash and yet, when people talked about it all hell would break loose.

Hell can break loose in here too, but people are allowed to nitpick details to no end, from aircraft related ones that can be considered important like incorrectly modelled trim tabs, to scenery related ones like foliage types, plus they are allowed to do it to an extent that sometimes even important details get dragged down to the level of minutae, or as an ancient Greek saying goes about diminishing returns for the effort expended when directly translated, "refining the mosquito". Just a single comparison made for the sake of maintaining some perspective. The difference in amount of slack provided and scale of allowed criticism is enormous.

I don't agree with all the nitpicking, but i don't agree with the "wait and hope it gets fixed" school of thought either. It might seem like constant arguing sometimes, but i think the end statistical result of it all is a good amount of synergy between developers and fans and you know what? I think the dev team sees this too, despite the tiresome taks of having to wade through the static, otherwise they wouldn't let it continue or they would throw us a bone as a means of appeasement.

They know what we want to see in this sim because we are allowed to scream at what we think is wrong and vice versa, they actively try to fix issues that are being pointed out as evidenced by corrections shown in the weekly update (yes, issues as small as a reversed aerodynamic fairing on the 109's radio mast, i'm not saying it shouldn't be correct but it wouldn't make the sim unplayable for me if it wasn't) and for me, that's the most important thing. I don't know if they will get 100% right on release, but i guess it'll be a solid 70-80% in the worst case scenario and that is worth a delayed release in my book, as opposed to having to "fight" the game for the first few months and losing interest in it.

Of course, this is my personal opinion and not the absolute, universal truth, so everyone do feel free to strongly disagree, pick it apart and shoot it down at your own leisure...who knows, something positive might come out of the whole exchange and if it does, that's worth it too. It's good for a community when members are strongly opinionated, what's bad is them being dogmatic

[Xilon_x]

i like much first video of Sow i look the son reflection in the cokpit is fantastic but not send the sound of enjine.

[nearmiss]

Blackdog

A nice expression

The SOW will be released when it is done.

The SOW development is on the downwind leg.

Nothing mentioned on these boards will make it "Gold" faster.

There is pressure on the developer for the SOW to be finished, alot more pressure than most posters on this board have ever experienced.

Get busy with your life on other things, drop by every now and then to check status. Time will pass faster.

No sense working yourselves into a frenzy, and saying things you might regret. We all are anxious for SOW. We are all members of the "Waiting for the greatest WW2 air combat simulator of all time" club/clan.

Good post Blackdog, I would like to add that maybe the dev team should be a little more open about where they are currently, this would immediately end speculation and divsion, Oleg makes a statement about a potential release in September and then nothing! A simple 'we are not there yet guys' but soon, or we are aiming for blah would stop most of the bickering, its called communication and it simply stops speculation form all sides of the house and keeps 'us' informed. The constant 'none' statements from the dev team about previous hinted dates for either release/website construction/system spec's only serve to dishearten all but the most hardy.

[philip.ed]

Originally Posted by Baron

Just developed a wild theory.

Doesnt this:

remind anoyne of this (from 0:24):

One and the same?

Both spits seems to behave iraticly sometimes (unstable/stall whatever)



Nothing speciall really, would just mean the SoW Spit video is quite old. Got to thinking since there seems to be a "debate" about weather we are shown everything thats brand spanking new or some old stuff just to tease us.


My point is: since noone of us knows the full context of whats beeing shown peoples crituiqe is based on mere guesses wich is proppably why every friday uppdate derails into nitpicking.

I'd say that is an interesting approach, but I don't think the two are related. I think the video that was leaked is indeed the current SoW model. Watch it again and you'll see that a lot of aspects of it match what we have been shown over the past year.
A good example is the self shading, which I think never reached the old SoW version developed from Il-2. In many sense, the SoW video from 2006/7 time looks quite finished.