Hardware, software and the future of flight combat sims.

[kendo65]

Zapa, you are refusing to acknowledge that a key reason for COD's difficulties was that the developers over-reached themselves by being unrealistic (with hindsight, verging on reckless) about what exactly a development team of their size would be able to implement in the time available.

When the various features for COD were being trailed several years ago I was as excited about them as anyone. With the experience and results achieved in il-2 I had no doubt that they would succeed.

The scale of the ambition was breathtaking both then and now. But obviously things didn't go to plan even well before the release. Stories of staff being dismissed, the switch mid-stream from OpenGL to Direct X, Oleg quitting (or being removed?). Each one of those would have caused disruption and slowed down development.

But, it seems inescapable to conclude (again, with hindsight) that perhaps the key reason was because the scope of the project was just too ambitious. Partly that was down to the number of cutting edge features that were being built into the engine, but part was also down to poor management and planning (e.g. the decision to devote so much effort to a full set of detailed ground vehicles [superfluous in a BOB scenario - could surely have been delayed until sequel], non-essential aircraft (ME-108, Sunderland - even the Tiger Moth and the training aspect could have been left out at least initally with little detriment)).

When they were forced to release the game unfinished (after several years of development time and investment), many of the basics were not in place - a lashed together, clunky GUI being the most glaring example.

The game was released to a storm of disappointment and criticism, some of it over the top and unfair, but much of it was understandable and unavoidable given the state of the game.

The state of the game at release can only be understood as a direct consequence of earlier design and development decisions. They over-reached themselves and then didn't make the difficult decision of scaling back the ambition until it became apparent that there was no way they were going to get everything ready in time. Then there was a panicked stepping on the brakes and several features (dynamic weather, campaign) had to be postponed.

Complaining now that 777 are not going to go down the same route strikes me as a wilful refusal to face facts and learn the hard lessons that are all too obvious from the COD saga.