Suggestion: forget multiplayer focus on sim for single player

[carguy_]

Originally Posted by KG26_Alpha

Multiplayer is the only way to experience the heat of the battle with 20+ of you on
Roger Wilco/ventrillo/Teamspeak ( +++++) <<<insert comms of your choice
coordinating a bomb run or strike attack,
the mud movers cursing the fighter jocks (no escort cover)
the fighter jocks cursing the mud movers for being alll over the place (hard to escort)
then debriefing afterwards to see how everyone saw the battle from their perspective and what events unfolded.

And of course the satisfaction of getting a virtual kill on one of your long standing team mates or enemy squadron pilot.

.

Nice. Brought back some memories for me for sure. The most kicks I got was every time when someone yelled help 20km from me. 7mins later, after navigating just by the map on FR settings I spot the guy and his stalker, I smoke the red bastid and escort my damaged team mate to rtb. Priceless.

[SNAFU]

Well, Life is always a trade-off and so is playing this game. But in my opinion, the focus of the development should lie on the sandbox and the tools, enabling the community to provide the needs of the players - singleplayer and multiplayer. And with the new system, in which AI controlled aircrafts are more or less the backbone of the theatre, the issues to be worked out, are easy to find. Therefore I would not sperate MP here - SP there, I would focus on the common intersection of both elements.

In 1946 there were little chances to experience tactical engagements of player groups, acting as a team as you would guess a wing or "staffel" would have done in real. Those experience were mostly restricted to coop-online-wars like AFW, VOW, SEOW and the like. AI was an integral part of this immersion, simply because you cannot fill a server with enough minded players. But that was also the setback of the system. You had to wait for the players to join and get ready and if you only have one hour sparetime to play, you don´t want to spent this hour in the lobby, waiting for the ranks to fill. Now, we have the possibility to fill a map, with randomly happening missions and I believe and I am going to test, if it is possible to build a map and missions in a way, that the lone wolf pilot, taking off to shoot something will not find his satisfaction on that server. I am gathering information at the moment, to rebuilt the english channel outfit of german and british airfields, with the correct squadrons and airplanes for time frames I set to monthes as a trade-off. So there is a map for May, June, July, August and September, on which the palyers can only take off from airfields with the plane of the squadron which was actually operating from this airfield in that time frame. I found out that it is not easy to get accurate data for the planes which were flown at the accurate time, but as I said, there must be trade offs. One problem which I am facing is, that acutally bomber airfields are not even available on the current map. The next step would be to design realistic submissions for this maps, which reflect the everyday life of a fighter/bomber pilot that days in the given constrains. And so AI is here again the backbone of the happening. The goal is to provide a server, which enables virtual squads to operate and train in a surrounding, in which flights have to be planned, lead and navigated as closly as possible to what is necessary to give the best immersion into the time simulated. Due to the wide spread theatre, the long flight times and the nature of the missions. it should be unlikely to meet a lone wolf player just looking for the next trigger action. This is what I and my squadmates are aiming at and want to realize some day. I expect such a server design to lead to a rather rarely visited server, but our main focus will lie on the chance for virtual squads to have a ground for organized flights and training with or against other virtual squads, without having to wait for coops to fill.

I also like the airquake severs for some occasionally fun-action, but I simply missed in 1946 a FR server, orientating on historically circumstances on which groups could experience an inch of immersion without having to build a coop mission, and now we have the chance to integrate coop-like missions into a server with randomized enviromental hazards, which is great and just needs to be optimized. The rest, dynamic, static campaigns for SP, Career mode etc. can be provided by the community I am sure, the developer should focus and the frame work, tools and stability.

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Love multiplayer in flight sims but let's face it,COD's multiplayer is a joke at present,just look at the threads re the problems.

After installing Jafa's sound mod,I certainly would'nt want to go back to the awful stock sounds either,not that I can,now I have this mod added to my sim.

So at present I'm content to live without it,but it would be nice to play online once the devs sort out better sounds and all the other problems associated.

[JG53Frankyboy]

the reason for me for flying 100% online is to share the expereince with other players (and some of them became friends over the years in IL2) on VoiceComms !
Its not the AI, i flew mostly COOP wars (who else would fly all the 16 B-17s in a 1944 scenario over germany or the B5N over Pearl ), its just so that after a few minutes alone in front of PC screen in a cockpit i am bored to death.................

But flying in a Bomber, 150km to target and 150km back (if possible ) with guys on comms flying other bombers and escorting fighters - that makes for me a good mission.
Its the men, not the machine - as 'someone' said in the past, even when ment in another meaning, it fits for me in CombatFlightsims


A very important point is that 1C has to enable the community to MAKE the gameexperience. That is mostly the FMB (working and documentation). A few days (if not from the very first) the Hyperlobby was full of IL2 COOPs in 2001. It sure had its faults, but the gameexpereince was there !
CoD is leaving the most players here alone IMHO. I dont build mission in the moment with CoD , and that after building hundreds of missions in IL2 the last years
AND, it enable a lot of people creating singleplayermissions and campaigns. You just have to check sides like mission4today many people build missions with IL2.

Adi_Galland (head of Desastersoftware) summerized it in the german ubi form quit good: the way 1C decided to make the FMB of CoD has reuced the amouint of people able to build missions in CoD a lot in comparison to IL2.
At least it lacks documentation and who can be sure that now made expereinces (mainly with this script system) in the FMB are still correct after a few patches ?!

btw, RoF has a very similar proplem i think, a very complex FMB - but at least it has a documentation (but i dont know how good this is !).

[Thee_oddball]

Originally Posted by JG53Frankyboy

the reason for me for flying 100% online is to share the expereince with other players (and some of them became friends over the years in IL2) on VoiceComms !
Its not the AI, i flew mostly COOP wars (who else would fly all the 16 B-17s in a 1944 scenario over germany or the B5N over Pearl ), its just so that after a few minutes alone in front of PC screen in a cockpit i am bored to death.................

But flying in a Bomber, 150km to target and 150km back (if possible ) with guys on comms flying other bombers and escorting fighters - that makes for me a good mission.
Its the men, not the machine - as 'someone' said in the past, even when ment in another meaning, it fits for me in CombatFlightsims


A very important point is that 1C has to enable the community to MAKE the gameexperience. That is mostly the FMB (working and documentation). A few days (if not from the very first) the Hyperlobby was full of IL2 COOPs in 2001. It sure had its faults, but the gameexpereince was there !
CoD is leaving the most players here alone IMHO. I dont build mission in the moment with CoD , and that after building hundreds of missions in IL2 the last years
AND, it enable a lot of people creating singleplayermissions and campaigns. You just have to check sides like mission4today many people build missions with IL2.

Adi_Galland (head of Desastersoftware) summerized it in the german ubi form quit good: the way 1C decided to make the FMB of CoD has reuced the amouint of people able to build missions in CoD a lot in comparison to IL2.
At least it lacks documentation and who can be sure that now made expereinces (mainly with this script system) in the FMB are still correct after a few patches ?!

btw, RoF has a very similar proplem i think, a very complex FMB - but at least it has a documentation (but i dont know how good this is !).

+1