Suggestion: forget multiplayer focus on sim for single player

[csThor]

My attitude towards MP is the result of four or five years worth of experiences with online gaming. And five more reading various server message boards.

[T}{OR]

MP all the way. SP vs. AI is for those that have never flown / participated in a well organized Online event.

[sigintwarrior]

I am a singleplayer/offline flier. I have not tried offline play, so I can't speak intelligently on it at all.

However, I completly enjoy my experience with this game so far. I can get over the bugs as I read alot about this game before I bought it. I expected to have alot of problems, but honestly, have had a very good time with this so far. I expect alot of fixes and improvements, and those will come with time.

I hope that they work on both sides of the spectrum so that we can all enjoy this game to the fullest. I believe that there is alot of potential and look forward to seeing if they can push this game to its limits.

[addman]

Focus on both parts are equally important IMO but the day MP becomes the number 1 priority for the devs it's bye bye for me. I agree with csThor all the way, I don't want to be dependent on other people for my own gaming experience. When I play ANY games (except WoT) I want to do it my own way and at my own pace. This is all a matter of taste that's why I don't condemn MP in anyway and expect onliners to be just as tolerant towards my taste and opinion. Long live MP!, just stay away from my SP .

[Danelov]

The solution maybe is well informed host or builders for MP missions with his basic data available.

-As example: C.A.I.(Corpo Aereo Italiano) fly his first mission Oct 24, 1940.

That mean any Regia Aeronautica aircraft is available for MP mission before this date.

-Jabos were first used by the Erp.Gr 210(including E-4Bs), Jul 19, 1940.

That mean any Jabo available, for all other units excepting Erp.Gr 210 before this date.

-The Bf 109E-7 entry in service with the I./LG 2 in August 1940.

That mean any E-7 available before this date y only from this day for this unit.

Same for entry in service of Spifires MK II or Hurricane MK II, etc, etc,etc.

[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.

1 human kills worth 100 AI

Skulking around alone in a DF server looking for a low level crippled smoker,
or doing the conga with some over the shoulder shooting trying to add to your points tally
is far from my idea of online flying.

Lets hope CoD gets multiplayer sorted fast

.

[baronWastelan]

Playing online, even in the most carefully structured historical war, with the most serious & dedicated enthusiasts, I cannot escape all the 21st century chatter about PC's, pings, track IR, teamspeak, AI, pets, spouses, etc. etc. It ruins the experience for me. If I'm in a mission in Summer 1940, I don't want to hear or see anything that isn't in existence in 1940. It's nothing against the great guys doing the online wars, the problem is my own puritanism about putting myself 100% in 1940, at least in what I see and hear from my monitor and speakers.
Like csThor, I'm only interested in seeing/hearing the history in it's most basic and starkest form possible. In any case, according to Oleg, it was well documented years ago that the huge majority of Il-2 users were strictly offline, a fact that Ilya is surely aware of. I suspect MP is considered the "low hanging fruit" at this point when rebuilding the AI is apparently such a herculian task.

[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.