Friday 2011-02-04 Dev. update and Discussion

[Stiboo]

Many thanks Ilya for lots of posts this week

as said before, your (and Oleg's) replies are worth more than the screenshots and vid.


I do feel that the points below (although not put in the most respectful way) do raise some valid points -

Originally Posted by sk065

OK a few concerns.

1. hardly any gameplay videos after 6 years of development time....are the devs hiding something? Most games have a plethera of information out on the game by this stage.

2. Rubbish release statement with misleading information.

3. Main attractive features of this 'sim' not included on release. i.e. dynamic campaign, dynamic weather andpotentially correct engine sounds (as they seem to be covert about this aspect).

4. Published by Ubi.....DRM crap

5. Silent Hunter 5 philosophy of releasing a half-finished product with the intention of introducing said features in point 3 at a later date (possibly by means of a paid addon) however if the game does not sell well it may be abondoned by Ubi like SH5.

Compared to most game releases I can think of, things seem to have been handled in a very strange way, very little video/game play video or trailers, no big computer magazine previews, no magazine adverts or any adverts I can think of...isn't all this sort thing what a game publisher is paid for?

The official website only going live a few weeks before release, with almost no content to it...

With only a few weeks to go before release I still cannot pre-order in the UK through GAME UK or Steam - i've NEVER known that for any game..?

Releasing the game at the same time as other big PC game releases such as Shogan2 TW, Dragon Age 2, Assassins Creed Brotherhood ( Ubisoft), Crysis 2, The Sims 3: Medieval, again I thought game publishers tried to avoid launching a smaller title when other blockbusters are raking in the pocket money...

Yes the core game looks fantastic and will grow for years to come, but as far as launching the game and 'selling' the game to the public and generating any sort of hype it's FUBAR !


So no moans at Oleg or Ilya but Ubisoft = SNAFU


Regards to you all

Simon

[ECV56_Lancelot]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

Hi! and thankyou very much for the update.

In the video Luthier is using a Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog. As I've recently got one I'ld be interested to know how CoD handles the On-Off switches on the throttle.

In IL2 many of the game commands are toggles, where the same key switches the system on or off (ie the engine switch where it is controlled by a single momentary switch ). Will CoD allow a latching OFF/ON switch (like many on the Warthog throttle) to be switched on and stay in that state until the switch is turned off?

I hope this makes sense.

Cheers and thanks again

It does make sense, and it's a good question, i would like to know that too.

[Kikuchiyo]

Originally Posted by Stiboo

Many thanks Ilya for lots of posts this week

as said before, your (and Oleg's) replies are worth more than the screenshots and vid.


I do feel that the points below (although not put in the most respectful way) do raise some valid points -





Compared to most game releases I can think of, things seem to have been handled in a very strange way, very little video/game play video or trailers, no big computer magazine previews, no magazine adverts or any adverts I can think of...isn't all this sort thing what a game publisher is paid for?

The official website only going live a few weeks before release, with almost no content to it...

With only a few weeks to go before release I still cannot pre-order in the UK through GAME UK or Steam - i've NEVER known that for any game..?

Releasing the game at the same time as other big PC game releases such as Shogan2 TW, Dragon Age 2, Assassins Creed Brotherhood ( Ubisoft), Crysis 2, The Sims 3: Medieval, again I thought game publishers tried to avoid launching a smaller title when other blockbusters are raking in the pocket money...

Yes the core game looks fantastic and will grow for years to come, but as far as launching the game and 'selling' the game to the public and generating any sort of hype it's FUBAR !


So no moans at Oleg or Ilya but Ubisoft = SNAFU


Regards to you all

Simon

Pretty sure that both Oleg and Ilya have posted on these topics before, or are misleading questions.

1. They have said they don't want to make misleading and shopped videos like other companies do. Most companies' early videos are teaser trailers that are rendered and not in game.

2. Ubisoft made the release statement, and they really don't give 2 shits they just want to get money.

3. I would hardly call those the "Main attractive features" sure they are great, and it has already been told to us that it just won't make initial release. This is the team that has continued to support a decade old simulator WHILE making a brand new significantly cutting edge simulator

4. The DRM doesn't sound awful, but 1C Maddox has little input on this, and yes I am against limited install DRM even if this isn't super restrictive like some we have seen in the past from Ubi.

5. This is far from half finished, and they have to get their money to continue supporting themselves and their families. They will support this game they aren't some huge dev house that fire and forgets what they make. They have proven that if nothing they are loyal to their fans.

I have to say yes I am a little disappointed about some of those facts (dynamic weather and DRM to be specific), but I have faith that 1C Maddox will support this simulator for years to come, and any features that aren't ready the day of release won't be as important as the features that are. Furthermore, that features that have been promised to this community will be in in future releases, and I don't believe it will be only with the purchase of expansions like other dev houses would do. They will be patches given freely, and that expansions and additions to the title that are paid for will add much more life both online and in single-player modes.

Once again Thank You to all the people at 1C Maddox for all your hard work and your diligent attention to this sometimes winy community.

[Dano]

Originally Posted by Hecke

That's what he said, and the video was fluent. With that CPU. Above water, yeah, but anyway.

He also said:

Originally Posted by Luthier

My system isn't good enough to run the game at full settings while flying over populated areas, especially over London.

That's actually the fault of the CPU. Even if we replace all objects on the screen with single pixels, it doesn't run any faster. There's just so many objects around you being tracked - buildings and trees - that constantly updating their location relative to you takes a lot of resources.

My card is mostly maxed out by textures of tons of different objects, againt in populated areas. Airfields are the worst in this respect. You're seeing a ton of high-res objects at the highest level of detail. The game uses dynamic texture loading, and you'd see various textures cycle through lower LODs, try to load a higher one, run out of memory, and swap back to lower detail.

We have specific graphic options for that which allow you to limit the number of objects on the screen and their detail. Going to medium object density is hardly noticeable, especially compared to Il-2. Going to medium object detail is even less apparent unless you're taking an up-close look at a truck or a building.

Well theres no point sending the game to be reviewed by any PC mags without at first telling the potential reviewer what system specs he/she need to run the game smoothly, the first thing anybody will do in a battle of britian sim is whack the detail up and try and bomb London or defend it. As luthier as said this will only create a slide show hence the game review score will ultimately be very low.

[Kikuchiyo]

Originally Posted by Tree_UK

Well theres no point sending the game to be reviewed by any PC mags without at first telling the potential reviewer what system specs he/she need to run the game smoothly, the first thing anybody will do in a battle of britian sim is whack the detail up and try and bomb London or defend it. As luthier as said this will only create a slide show hence the game review score will ultimately be very low.

You're assuming a reviewer will have a crappy system, and not an advanced "high end" system that most review houses have. I think you are a detractor/troll/sperglord from what I've seen, and certainly a pessimist. Will it get high scores from most mass market reviewers? Probably not, but they review for the average gamer and not for niche market gamers like us. You frequently post non-constructive criticisms, and frankly have turned many people who are excited about this sim off of these forums, and I say that not as an uniformed poster, but as someone who reads other forums that are excited about this particular sim.

[GOA_Potenz]

Ilya answer the phone

Originally Posted by Kikuchiyo

You're assuming a reviewer will have a crappy system, and not an advanced "high end" system that most review houses have. I think you are a detractor/troll/sperglord from what I've seen, and certainly a pessimist. Will it get high scores from most mass market reviewers? Probably not, but they review for the average gamer and not for niche market gamers like us. You frequently post non-constructive criticisms, and frankly have turned many people who are excited about this sim off of these forums, and I say that not as an uniformed poster, but as someone who reads other forums that are excited about this particular sim.

Yes thanks for that, but can you not see where your answer is fundamentally flawed, in that we dont know how it runs on a high end system, we keep begging Luthier and Oleg to show us some video on a real high end PC, we want to wave the Cliffs Of Dover flag and say jeez look how good this game runs if you've got the the right kit, hundreds of people are waiting to buy or build new systems and spend thousands just to play this game, but for some reason the devs are holding back on showing us this game run on a top end gaming rig.

[BadAim]

Oleg and Ilya, thank you for your wonderful work, and for the love that you put into it every day. I would hope to think that some of the naysayers would change their minds if they understood that it pains you guys as much as it does us (if not more) when you have to leave out or simplify a feature to get this sim to us in usable condition, after all it's you who has put all this work into it!

I just love the colors and the "feel" of the environment shown in these last shots. I really am looking forward to drivable vehicles, the scenery is that good. The "silvering" is going well.

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by luthier

Whoa.

I did post this on a Russian-language forum a few days ago.

The dynamic weather is extremely complex and done in-depth, more so than in any other sim. However its complexity is its downfall. It runs so slow, you can't fly with it on our large map. The physics kill the CPU and the complex clouds kill the video card.

Since complex weather was down the task list for the team behind FM, AI, various plane systems, and DM, we started on optimizing it too late and so won't have it working at sufficient framerate in time for release.

However we actually are shipping the weather in its current state with the game, accessible to the player via the FMB as a "play with it at your own risk" undocumented feature. And we will definitely be updating and improving it in the future.

hiya luthier & oleg,

big thanks for making the effort to include the dynamic weather "as is" as an optional extra, many people on higher end machines will enjoy playing around with the dynamic weather to see how it works and its effect.

it is indeed a lower priority, and important to get the game out the door at the moment with the more important core elements working correctly.

question: is there any hope to have the dynamic campaign element added in as a similar "as is" state, and allow the community to develop it further with some tools ? (if this is low down the priority for your team). this is a BIG part of what some of us were looking forward to the scripted missions are fine for one initial part of the game but it is not what will keep people playing it over and over. it completely takes the sim to a new level of gameplay to be able to have an unfolding war scenario that evolves 24/7, with us being able to step in at various points and choose the missions types we prefer (fighter escort, interception, dogfight, pilot resque, naval torpedo attack, resupply mission to frontline troops, etc...), and have an evolving battle scenario unfolding around us