What happened to ATAG online action..?

[JG52Uther]

Originally Posted by JG53Frankyboy

About COOP online wars, i think, we dont have to talk anymore with CoD, their times are over i belive. It was a nice time in IL2

Considering just how popular the online wars were, especially with the Russian community, I am genuinely shocked that the developers of CoD did not make an effort to include this style of play. I personally spent hundreds of hours flying in the various online wars over the years, and DF servers will get old very quickly.
A huge, inexplicable oversight.

[SNAFU]

Originally Posted by JG53Frankyboy

as i tried to say, its about missiondesign mainly IMO. And i guess the missionbuilder are still in the learning phase with this software.
And if we will see again formations of bombers (most time AI, and i mean more than 6 in one formation) at higher alts online(24/7 servers), protected and intercepted by high flying fighters - time will tell.

About COOP online wars, i think, we dont have to talk anymore with CoD, their times are over i belive. It was a nice time in IL2

Well, after now about 2 month of testing on a dedicated server with concepts, missions and players I can tell you that the problems are not the missions. The missions are available, also the servers providing such missions. For example our server has missions with up to 24 bombers stacked in a box and 16 escort fighters clashing into 18 RAF interceptors. The problem is the software and the human-factor.

For the software: The software renders coops to rediculous small raids, due to that...

1.50% of players receive a CTD the moment larger amounts of AIs spawn,
2.the connecting time to the mission increases to inifinity if you also add ground objects, or even buildingsto the AI planes in the mission (one of the both is ok, but both ground objects and AI - is a desaster)
3. the more AI you have, the more network-lag you have, thus providing the players with stationary planes, which suddenly warp to their real position, because their position doesn´t get refreshed in time (in the old 1946 the number of AI were restricted by the players system, here it is a general game/network problem)
4. warping AI as soon as the damage modell is working (f.e. everything runs smooth until the first hurricane starts hitting one bomber -> slide show and warping)
5. breaking RAF Radio due to too many planes in the air, and therefore breaking the custom menu in my opinion the heart of all-what-is-possible-with-CoD

For the human factor:
Most players hate to read. They just have 1h spare time and want to have action as fast as possible and will not bother reading any briefing. Therefore you have to provide them something to shoot at, where ever their random moods just gets them to. This makes it impossible to provide objective base missions with larger numbers of AI involved, you simply can´t have the AI targets everywhere. Or you simply ignore this demand and focus on one aspect area, one objective, one flight, but then you have to ignore the demand of the casual player for entertainment and stick with the few players, who have time to read a briefing and have the discipline to stick to their task.
Furthermore, and I guess this also can be adressed to you, the most players do not understand the new possiblities the software has. There is simply no need for the 1946 coops-system anymore. You just can enter a server at anytime, choose an available flight, may it be the as a flight leader of an AI flight, which is in idle mode on the ground or already engaged in fighting with enemy in the air. Or you can choos to create your own flight and start in a hanger. Then you can wait for either start a mission on your own or team up and then start a mission in which you can choose to play on the intercepting side or on the escorting/bombing side and the team, which meets its objective will receive points, adding to a final victory condition and so on... this is all possible and feasable. And all the testing of the last months, was for me to gather experience in the game behavior, scripting, software limitations, to be finally able to provide some kind of "coop" war some day, but one as mix between the ADW and VOW. A server 24/7 available, where you don´t have to wait 1hour to get up an OPFOR Team just to get a Loading-Mission-Screen 2minutes after take off, but you can join and fly a mission on a randomly evolving map, with AI and with historically accurate missions. We can get behind the software limitations some day (hopefully), but we will never get past the player limitations.

But anyhow, most player don´t even know what is possible, that there is a briefing available and an objective to meet and everthing is new to many, so noone can blame anyone.

[SEE]

I posted on the ATAG forum regards the increased size of the AI Bomber formations. My system performed accepably well previous to this latest patch but now, with formations of 30+ AI and other players defending/attacking, ATAG has become virually unplayable.

Even over Hawking at 13K and Flak suddenly appearing, If I engage a single fighter that happens to be at a similar altitude I get lag, low fps, stutters with the end result of complete loss of visual which is critical to the outcome.

Its a shame because the whole experience of MP on ATAG has taken a nosedive. Most of my sorties are to intercept/defend AI formations -my system cannot deal with the low level furballs even if I wanted to - not that I want to anyway. I see combat in a X - Y axis and at 1500ft the Y axis has effectivley been cut in half!

[SNAFU]

Yes, the AI related issues have gotten worse with the official patch in my opinion too and you/we shouldn´t blame the ATAG Team or the mission builders. Almost everthing is possible with the scripting options, but the game simply doesn´t allow to use it yet...

[SEE]

I haven't blemed them Snafu, they and all the server hosts are doing a fantastic job. I asked if some (not all) of the AI formations could be dropped to their previous size (15 to 20) so that those of with lower spec systems could at least see wether recent performance issues are a result of this official upgrade or the increased AI formation numbers.

Previousley, with the last Beta and moderate formations, my system performed reasonably well.

[CWMV]

Originally Posted by Jaws2002

The war is over for 70 years, remember?

We've been playing some sort of Il-2 version for ten years now!!! Don't you get tired of doing the same thing for ten years?



It's actually this kind of attitude that kills the popularity. Think about the people in the other team. How do the feel when they get bounced over and over at the end of the runway and know there are 5 109's circling above for every Spit or Hurricane.
It gets boring quick.

Nope! I can count on one hand the number of hours I have in types other than the 109.
Perfection never gets old!

By your logic ATAG should be a ghost town already, yet its not.
Here is what will happen if you try to balance things:
Welcome to ATAG redo-server! How can I help you?
Yes id like to fly a 109 please
Oh I'm sorry, but we have already met the max number of 109's,
What?
Yes were sorry but you'll have to take an English crate.
No, I don't have to. Goodbye.

[McFeckit]

1.50% of players receive a CTD the moment larger amounts of AIs spawn,
2.the connecting time to the mission increases to inifinity if you also add ground objects, or even buildingsto the AI planes in the mission (one of the both is ok, but both ground objects and AI - is a desaster)
3. the more AI you have, the more network-lag you have, thus providing the players with stationary planes, which suddenly warp to their real position, because their position doesn´t get refreshed in time (in the old 1946 the number of AI were restricted by the players system, here it is a general game/network problem)
4. warping AI as soon as the damage modell is working (f.e. everything runs smooth until the first hurricane starts hitting one bomber -> slide show and warping)
5. breaking RAF Radio due to too many planes in the air, and therefore breaking the custom menu in my opinion the heart of all-what-is-possible-with-CoD

That's quite a depressing read SNAFU I do hope this get's addressed sooner rather than later. Multiplayer is where the real potential of COD lies, as we learnt with IL2 so i'm optimistic.

[Insuber]

Originally Posted by JG53Frankyboy

not without a reason i said 'players' - we have a simple "refly" button in game.

as i tried to say, its about missiondesign mainly IMO. And i guess the missionbuilder are still in the learning phase with this software.
And if we will see again formations of bombers (most time AI, and i mean more than 6 in one formation) at higher alts online(24/7 servers), protected and intercepted by high flying fighters - time will tell.

organized events, where all players are playing as a team, thats another story.

About COOP online wars, i think, we dont have to talk anymore with CoD, their times are over i belive. It was a nice time in IL2

OK for the first part, understood. As far as online wars, there are still many SEOWs all around, with 60-70 pilots each time + other online wars, based on Bellum for instance. I still enjoy them with 6S, my squad.

Cheers,
6S.Insuber