Friday Update, January 27, 2012

[Chivas]

Originally Posted by speculum jockey

Yes I understand that modelers don't fix AI, but I also understand if the modelers and mission builders have all moved on to Battle Of Moscow, then the actual content support for CLOD has come to a stop. Is that what you would call a finished game? I know that patches to the engine will continue to be developed, since their sequel hinges on them as well, but are they going to do the same with BOM? Release a 1/2 finished game (Content Wise) and then move on to the next sequel?

To repeat, I have no issues with them fixing bugs, but what's the point if they never finish the heart of the game, the campaign, the single player, new multiplayer modes? I started a thread a year ago about the devs actually using their heads to attract customers. Instead of counting rivets on the bracket that holds the undercarriage to the wing spar, maybe they could have included new multiplayer game features, new features for the single player, and other things that would make the game fun. What's going to attract more players and make the game more fun? Having the correct font on the oil-pressure gauge, or having additional content and multiplayer modes that draws you into the game?

People (who are not belly-scraping rivet counters) are begging for something besides "dogfight server". Everyone I know who still playes the original IL-2 uses the "Moving Dogfighter Server Mod" or playes with "SEOW". People are begging for an SEOW style play mode, where everything you do matters to the end result of the game. The real players don't care about some stupid Kill/Death Stat, that's for the Sperglords who've never left their mom's basement. Give us a play mode where shooting down a plane, bombing a fuel dump, losing a pilot, strafing an airfield, or sinking a ship makes an impact to the actual game, not just "Red team has been shot down". Hell, give us a capture the flag mode, anything besides "fly at 30m dogfight".

If Cliffs of Dover were released nearly a year ago with a perfect engine, ran flawlessly, had no bugs, excellent performance. . . it still would have scored medium-low, because after you've tried 2-3 uninspired missions, got pissed at the campaign, and skimmed the ground in a dogfight server for an hour you're pretty much done with the game.

EDIT: If the Devs have no intention on finishing their work, they should at least make sure that the community has the tools and ability to finish it for them.

The only aspect of COD I don't see the developer continue to work on are the Campaigns and Missions for COD. The existing FMB and any updates to the FMB gives the community more than enough tools to make very good campaigns, and missions, just as they were done in the original series. New aircraft will be added to COD thru those developed for other theaters and from the SDK that will be provided by the developer to the community.

I don't see any reason that the developer won't have plans or can't improve the existing multiplayer options. The rate of improvements are slow at this juncture as the main game engine is still a WIP. When the game engine is working and stable then the developer can apply more resources to features that improve game play.