Friday the 14th Development Update

[Fearless_1]

Originally Posted by luthier

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.

No, no we won't. Most developers won't put themselves in that situation, and the only one I know of who has, TK (Strike Fighters was rushed by Wal-Mart in 2002), has corrected the major problems in his sim. When Pacific Fighters was released the devs missed a few obvious things, but they were actually fixed - within 2 months. When Theater of War came out the only heads which turned were doing so because it was incomplete. They completed it and gave a massive patch for free.

Nothing about what you developers has done indicates that you ever intended to finish this. I'm glad I bought the DEMO on bargain. When you release your next demo, Battle of Moscow, I'll be passing it up.

You guys disappoint me. You overspent on graphics, inserted little game play, and completely failed to use the potential something like the Battle of Britain had to sell. As of now, Battle of Britain 2 is still better.

I hope you care about your customers as much as you say you do, because we have real concerns about your approach and it's failures.

[RupertVonHentzau]

Originally Posted by Fearless_1

No, no we won't.

(...)

When you release your next demo, Battle of Moscow, I'll be passing it up.

You guys disappoint me. You overspent on graphics, inserted little game play, and completely failed to use the potential something like the Battle of Britain had to sell. As of now, Battle of Britain 2 is still better.

I hope you care about your customers as much as you say you do, because we have real concerns about your approach and it's failures.

So well brought to the point. And I wonder - while most of you express much better what I could not put in English - that some still want to buy the sequel as if this is an addiction you cannot control: I learned my lesson having bought the collector´s box of CLOD although (!) I read about the problems beforehand - at that time trusting in a continuous support.

[planespotter]

Originally Posted by FS~Phat

...Clod was not what anyone wanted...It is certainly not ideal that we have been paying alpha/beta customers...we dont have the final product we were all promised and hoping for in Clod

+1

At least we agree on some things.

[Bakelit]

Originally Posted by Fearless_1

Nothing about what you developers has done indicates that you ever intended to finish this. I'm glad I bought the DEMO on bargain. When you release your next demo, Battle of Moscow, I'll be passing it up.

You guys disappoint me. You overspent on graphics, inserted little game play, and completely failed to use the potential something like the Battle of Britain had to sell. As of now, Battle of Britain 2 is still better.

My sentiments, exactly. BoB2 ist still the better BoB sim and is still supported by knowledgeable enthusiasts.

I don't care about a Su26, the Messerschmitt-Mädchen or the X-Wing to be inserted. I waited years and wanted a solid, state of the art BoB sim and paid my good money for the collectors edition.

Finally I'm out. Tschüss 1C ich bin draußen...

[Robert]

Originally Posted by kristorf

Chivas, you are correct, people would have bought the sequal, however we/they have been burnt once so will now either wait for good reviews before buying or cut their losses and move onto something differant.

I think what will hurt though is the lack of coop content as most squads prefer this form to going onto D/F servers (I know ATAG and others have a work around but thats not the point is it?), especially those with no interest in the Eastern Front

Not sure if I'll have to go as far as waiting for reviews. There were tell tale signs before the release that indicated an incomplete game. Luthier's "Drop a Bomb on Me" video of him flying a 110 over water should have been an indicator, lack of improved engine sounds, no skirmishes but a few highly polished movies are another. If the development process follows the same path so close to the release of the sequel I think we can safely say that the sequel won't be up to standards. On the other hand if we do see honest* representations of developemnt with honest improvement I'll buy. It may seem like a long shot to some but I'll take the risk if I see good updates and progress.

*I'm not trying to indicate dishonesty on the teams' behalf, but there were clues that had me sctratching my head, and I know there were others who looked at late development with askewed glances of disbelief.

Personally, I'd like a RATA over the snows of the eastern front.

Good luck crew. I'm sure you're aware of the thin ice on which you stand. You have the time to make something we all hope to have on our hard drives.

[Storm of When]

If he doesn`t turn up and answer the questions you`ll have all the info you need about the sincerity of the team. They knew it was a disaster area on release, yet they still dropped it on 1000s of loyal IL2 fans, sad thing is unless DCS has a mad influx of people developing WW2 aircraft off their own backs we`re stuck with this as the Gaijin effort was removed from my SSD after the first 10 mins on it. I wish 1C all the best and maybe one day this will be a success as per IL2, but I seriously doubt it given their inability to address the problems that have beset this release from day 1 and before.

[tomandre81]

In 10 years or so il2-cliffs of dover ends up like a "mod" where talented hobbyists and programmers have fixed the game, making it run smooth, with dynamic campaign and flawless multiplayer.
Similiar what happened to Falcon 4.0 wich was released in 1998 and in 2011 became Falcon BMS.

See you in 10 years!

[r0bc]

COD highlights the one biggest flaw with PC gaming. A console developer never would've been able to release a product in the state we received this.Its sad but if you love PC gaming this kind of thing is just a fact of life.

[bzc3lk]

Originally Posted by David Hayward

I look forward to seeing you flying over virtual Russia.

[IMG][/IMG]

This will be the only thing you will see flying over the " Virtual Russia " based on their past business conduct after releasing Clod.

[Redroach]

Originally Posted by luthier

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. Most of you have probably guessed that Cliffs of Dover was not exactly the most profitable project in the world, and for at least the past year supporting it did nothing for the bottom line but put it deeper into the red.

Is this serious? Support? Where was it? All I got was improved engine sounds (not bad, to be fair), new tracers and some CTRL-C; CTRL-V plane versions (with totally messed-up FMs). I wouldn't call that support. Support is defined as straightening out, and probably bring in minor new stuff into, a finished game.

As for the less-than-stellar profits on CoD: Do you really, really not understand why? Really?
Many gaming magazines even refused to test CoD due to its alpha state and postponed it to a later time. And because nothing improved in CoD, that later time never came. Not a good advertisement for the product, don't you think?
A blind man can see that such a sorry game won't attract many buyers. I firmly believe the game could've gotten its "second wind", were all of its issues fixed, but now, that opportunity is gone... again.

And to declare the next patch the "final patch" is the last brick in the 'fail building'. Everyone and their grandparents knows that this patch will do nothing, as all those before. So, those who urge to wait for the patch before starting another round of complaints: Why not just start now?

I just hope that you can survive on the 500-or-so copies that BoM will sell, to the die-hard fans and to the unwitting (which should be rare, since they need to have CoD first)...

P.S.: What's the matter with all that talk about an MMO? Was this ever mentioned somewhere? AFAIR, it was just an idea thrown in by someone for that "big thing that no one else has" - and it swirls around for many months now. Which is almost as baffling as CoD itself, given that those speculations about an MMO mostly come from the die-hards

P.P.S.:I just can't fix the ATI-bug on 1946, otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered for so long