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CoD Multiplayer Everything about multiplayer in IL-2 CoD

 
 
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Old 04-26-2012, 10:41 AM
irR4tiOn4L irR4tiOn4L is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 138
Default First multiplayer experience - pretty bad

Hi everyone, I thought I might give a new player's (to multiplayer CoD) perspective on multiplayer - initial impressions = not good. I will focus on the issues that determine how enjoyable the experience is overall. Here's what I found:


a) The server list does not populate more often than not, and this requires starting a generic server and then quitting again (or, if you're lucky, a COD restart) to repopulate. Every time. Not exactly great when you are greeted with an empty list of servers.

b) The game can sit an awful long time at the connecting screen, with just the 'break' button as an option and a lack of feedback on what is happening to the user. Very confusing.

Of course, pressing that 'break' button is a false option and mistake and will trigger a 'failed to authenticate' message every time you try and use that server again (for me it did the whole evening anyway) and requires computer surgery to repair. Very, very crap user experience so far.

c) As an Australian, most servers have 300 ms lag. Can't blame the game for this, and 300 ms is manageable in practice.

d) Most servers do not have many players. Can't blame game.

e) When they DO have players, they fly blue. All of them. I saw 4 players in the server and all were flying blue. Where is the fun in that? It's not like the RAF planes are THAT bad!

These players inevitably cooperate making going against them (to get some gameplay going) an exercise in futility in what is often the only allowed RAF planes, the Hurris and Spit I and Ia. I went up in a Spit Ia and despite jumping and having a great dogfight with one 109, I was of course shot down by a friend.

f) Further dampening the online balance, starting as RAF is made all the more unpleasant by the time it takes to warm up the spitfires as opposed to the instantly ready 109. Its not as bad as bombers and the G.50 (not nearly as bad), but it adds to the delay and odds against you.

g) Because mods are not available online to fix the most basic oversights of 1C, like the overly dense cloud and dust effects (easily fixed by mods) and the extreme framerate drops (related to clouds and dust) associated with looking at where the mirrors would be (because despite being non functional, they are still being rendered), even taking off involves more frustration than you are used to offline because you must avoid like the plague all hint of looking at the mirrors, dust or clouds. Manageable, but poor.

h) When you do finally take off, chances are that the blue team, that is, most everyone in the server, is already pounding your airfield and you are racing to get to altitude without being noticed.

Despite managing this and even tracing flak to a 109 unaware of my presence, and jumping him and landing some hits, you are inevitably at a major disadvantage in the present RAF aircraft. In the Spit Ia, you bleed E more readily with a high speed dive (which is necessary to bounce a 109) and soon the tables are turned.

However, I was able to evade a 109 that got on my tail through great, heart pounding maneouvering that was a lot of fun - he stuck on me like glue till he spun very close to ground, but recovered! From there, I was able to maneuver to advantage, which leads me to my next point

i) Given that most of the server (in my experience, once again) is blue and 109's and your only allowed plane is the abysmally slow Spit Ia for example, it is a given that as soon as you gain advantage the 109 will simply fly straight and outperform and outclimb you. Worse, they will call friends - not very sporting.

I was able to see the climb coming of course, so I didn't fall for the inevitable hammerhead, dodged the attack and again began a duel where I had a fair chance - but I was shot by an unknown enemy (I was checking my six, but hey) into my pilot and that was that. Numbers are everything, and while I wouldn't normally object, its a bit silly for 4 players who have all gone blue to cooperate against the only red player in an inferior aircraft over the red airfield. In this case, it ruined a great dogfight that the 109 had a better chance of winning to begin with! How can that be fun for those 4 people?

j) Of course, being a sport, I wanted to congratulate my opponents. But the game has not seen fit to assign a default 'chat' button, requiring a trip to the options menu to assign a button. Very poor attention to detail yet again.

Upon congratulating my opponents however and requesting in a sporting fashion that some join red for a bit more fun, i notice that my plane is still flying (should've crashed by now) and that I cannot switch to another or the other side - not to mention I am not receiving any messages in response.

k) Which is, of course, when the server tells me that I have a sync problem and am no longer connected to the server, and find myself back at the server list. Very frustrating, especially as my opponents will now think me unsporting!

l) And finally, to end the evening, I find that NO server is able to sync and logon anymore, thus ending my first ever multiplayer experience with CoD and IL2 (yes, never been online!) as an utter abysmal user experience failure.



Now I realise that first impressions are only so much, and I will overcome these troubles. Moreover, I found that my skills measured up satisfactorily for online play (I wasn't a pushover at least) and I was hooked on the pure unadultered adrenaline and plane handling that only human opponents can provide. My heart was actually pounding when that 109 got on my tail, and I loved the way I could see him spin out of control when he pushed too hard! This was fun!

So I will definitely persist.

But I must say that initial impressions are just not good. Particularly given problem after problem even connecting and the mildly unsporting attitude displayed by the players in the server for all hopping onto one side and actually bringing their advantage in numbers to bear (against a single player).

I understand that the 109 is better - I TOO wanted to pick it. But I chose red to get a game going and because everyone was already blue. I would expect at least some compassion from the other side and more importantly, some to actually join me.

Do we need a 'team balance' server setting like Counter strike and ilk? Are we really so unsporting as a community that people must be forced to join the other side like the fifteen year olds that populate first person shooter servers?


Still, I greatly enjoyed it and I hope to see you all online! My user name on that occassion was 'Tom' from Australia btw. To my opponents - I enjoyed our fight - sorry I couldn't continue!

Last edited by irR4tiOn4L; 04-26-2012 at 10:51 AM.
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