Friday the 14th Development Update

[jibo]

Oh my CoD !

[furbs]

Originally Posted by zapatista

jeez gosh, now lemme think, mmmmm what could it possibly be ? is life really that hard to understand wherever you'r at ?

first, the gfx engine is actually working now, which was the main cause of problems at release time
second, creating new objects and scenery for the new maps is a minor element that can be delegated to a few specific staff (other then the detailed new plane models which take more time and which uses a few other specially skilled people)
third, whatever else is currently a problem, AI, FM and DM's etc, they will have had a good year to focus on it without other distractions, which means it will be significantly better, which means in turn we will have crossed the threshold of the overall package being playable. fine tuning of individual plane performances can still continue later on (which is one of the things current CoD fighter aircraft badly need)

does that mean BoM will be perfect or the end all and be all of the new sim series, nope of course not, but it will work reasonably well out of the box and wont have the major problems CoD had. see, wasnt all that hard really

to now already waste time whining about future imperfections of other SoW projects just shows the stunted destructive and self defeating mindset some are locked into

Zap, you think the engine is working? not on my planet its not...

No AA
No X64bit
No DX11
The clouds, particles, smoke and hit affects are still not working as intended.
Tree's and shadows still flicker and shimmer.
View range for aircraft is still way too low, with mid and far LOD's that are horrible.
Ground object view distance is terrible and make bombing missions almost unplayable.
Craters and far objects still show through landscape and cockpits.
Mirrors still dont work.

That to me is not a working GFX engine.

As for my view on BOM, im judging it on the 8 years of development plus 18 months post release of COD.

I remember when a few of us said it was not looking good for COD before release, and you kept telling us we were wrong and COD would be great, well here we go again...

Zap, here's my prediction(make a note) BOM will be more of the same, just with different aircraft and maps. The same bugs and problems and then the same promises and excuses from the devs about how they need a bit more time to get things right.

If they could get it right, they would of by now, is 18 months not enough?

[Redroach]

Originally Posted by mazex

C'mon Tree It's simply impossible that you work in the private sector of what the rest of us call "the economy"? Basically it's about the fact that if your company does not make a profit it gets shut down... Fast.

So - who would put up the money to have the team working on patching a product for 18 months that unfortunately must have been a financial fiasco? 1C? Ubisoft? Just get over it, CloD was a failure - both financially and technically. End of story. Now they have actually spent too much time trying to get it right as they are naturally embarrassed that some bean counter forced them to release it while the engineers with Oleg at the helm most certainly wanted to do a second (or third) restart of the project with a new engine... Which was naturally impossible after that last managed code experiment that failed...

A pillar of the market economy is that you don't throw good money after bad. The only reason we have gotten patches the last 18 months is that Ilya and "the new" team convinced someone with money that they could do a sequel based on the failed project to get some money back from that seven year investment. The financier probably realized that even if a sequel was successful, they would never get all the money back for the previous seven years. As they don't live in Northern Korea they know the meaning of "sunk costs" and agreed to finance the development of a sequel anyway, as the costs to have the team running another 2.5 years would be smaller than the expected revenue from the sequel (keeping in mind that they did not start from zero). Ilya probably had to get a new suit for these meetings and certainly got some milestones set that they had to deliver along the project time line or the money tap would get shut down at any point...

I really would like the CloD we all dreamed of, but we have to to accept the fact that it will not happen. Every hour spent patching CloD that does not benefit the sequel increases the risk that MG will have to pick down the sign next year (or this year if they don't show good progress). That sequel has to get decent reviews at least and sell a couple of hundred thousand copies. That's the only way we will ever see a FW 190 in the future in this engine...

And no, the argument that they have to fix CloD or no one will buy the sequel is naturally bull. If the sequel hits the market next fall and gets reviews in the > 80% range every single one of the customers that bought CloD will buy it as we there are only 1-2 decent simulators released every year. We are not that many anyway - so it's the ones that did NOT buy CloD that they need to get green figures at the bottom line

EDIT: The ones we have a right to be pissed at are the publishers 1C/(Ubisoft) - that actually released the game to the market in the state it was, I don't hold MG responsible for that bad decision at all... But - if it was that or nothing I must say that I've had quite some fun with CloD anyway that definitely makes up for my $39.

That's a very optimistic view, mazex. You may be right that they were pushed to release CoD early after a long time of development. But I don't think the developers were in any way pushed to release the do-nothing-"patches" they released over the past 18 months, leaving us basically in the same state as per the release.

And the thing that many people buy BOM regardless, is pretty optimistic, too. I think, by now, after so much crookery and blatant lies, many users have made it a matter of principle NOT to buy BOM (as did I), preferring to stick with 1946 or so rather than to let that shabby scheme succeed (*).
Plus, many gaming magazines probably will think similarly, and will consider the utter failure when testing the sequel, so even IF the addon is somewhat 'good' (which I don't believe for a second...), high ratings for it will be next to impossible - game tests in magazines are there to inform about quality and to save people from rip-offs, after all.


(*) It may be true that companies' power is great these days, but if that doesn't spark some sort of 'grass-roots' boycott, then I don't know what does...

[planespotter]

I like the 1C style I must say. Is it the Russian way? Tell the children you will get them a toy, if they give you some money. But you can't find, so you throw a broken toy to the children, at least it gives them something to play with. When they complain it is broken with four wheels, fix one. When they still complain tell them you will fix one more wheel, then kaput, no more! Your toy is wasting Daddy's important time, he has bigger things to worry about. Then tell them you will give them a new toy in two years, so they should start saving more pennies.. But they still have questions so you say, write your questions down children, Daddy will answer them tonight. Then you don't come back at all. Hahahaha pass the vodka!

[Feathered_IV]

We've seen these Q&A things before. They are usually about as revealing as a Taliban swimsuit calendar.

[kristorf]

Originally Posted by Feathered_IV

We've seen these Q&A things before. They are usually about as revealing as a Taliban swimsuit calendar.

Lol

[mcFly]

What i like most are the delays for everything, even the promised answers in the evening are still not here, or don't i just see them?

[Tettie]

I’m sure most of you will agree that we have already supported our release more than perhaps any other developer in a similar situation.

Nope. I understand the business situation but this is the world upside down.

CoD was delivered prematurely, horribly bugged and in a poor state overall. You have sold a broken toy to us and had to mend it in order to keep some credibility. If you hadn't you would have been out of business.

For me CoD is a great game, but I will not buy the sequel unless reviews on the different sites call it a good product.

Not falling for this a second time.