Thought for future expansions: Release Chronologically

[Voyager]

I was thinking about Il-2 and its expansion packs, and the post Cliffs of Dover future, and it strikes me that it might be worthwhile to do the expansion packs for Cod in more ore less Chronological order, especially focusing on significant changes in the airwar.

I see several advantages, and some weaknesses.

The first major advantage is aircraft facetime. Online, most people fly the best planes they can get, which means the older models get left on the shelf. Most of the crap planes were at one point cutting edge, or state of the art, so by moving through them in chronological order, most planes will be the best at some point in time. This also means that most players would get new toys to play with every major expansion pack.

The drawback of this is that some popular aircraft don't show up until very late. For example, the first P-51A's don't show up until early 1943, the P-47C first gets in in April of '43, and the Merlin Mustangs aren't there until 1944.

That said, it still seems to me that there would be a big bang for the buck for every new aircraft added, since most would have their day in the sun.

The second advantage I could see would be story continuity. You can do the entire arc of the war in continuous, but manageable pieces. Midway is more important if you spent the last three packs on the retreat, and you've already had two carriers shot out from under you. Likewise the reversal from the German Offensive in the BoB, to trying to defend against the bomber offensive that followed their defeat, and the progression from intercepting lightly armed and armoured bombers to the later flying tanks with escort fighters everywhere.

If they want to push the storytelling of the campaigns, I think having that continuity between expansion packs would be a big thing.

I also think it would reduce the plane fatigue factor, but I think that falls under the "new toys" I mentioned above.

Any thoughts?

Harry Voyager

[ChrisDNT]

First addon : Britain 42, first Focke's (please, the bar !), Westland Whirlwind, Spit V etc...

[Mr_Zooly]

The Battle of France or maybe Poland would make perfect early addons, we should have to wait for the late war planes...crap planes all the way for me

[JG53Frankyboy]

Originally Posted by ChrisDNT

First addon : Britain 42, first Focke's (please, the bar !), Westland Whirlwind, Spit V etc...

DIEPPE 1942 !
Mustang Mk.I, Spit V&IX, Fw190A, Bf109G, B-17, Do-215, Typhoon (to name a few) and that with almost no work for a new map, if at all. And i belive working on a map in CoD quality is a lot of work ....

[Wolf_Rider]

Battle for Britain
Western Front
The Mediteranean (Italy/ Africa/ Malta)
The push into Germany
The Pacific Theatre of Operations

Its an age old argument, but keeping plane sets pegged to the year and the region would be nice

[Coen020]

I thought the Korean conflict was already being worked on by Oleg and team?
Should be good fun, really crappy jets + maybe UH-19's?.. anyone?

[camel24hrs]

Originally Posted by Wolf_Rider

Battle for Britain
Western Front
The Mediteranean (Italy/ Africa/ Malta)
The push into Germany
The Pacific Theatre of Operations

Its an age old argument, but keeping plane sets pegged to the year and the region would be nice

Ditto that. I would love to see the 8th airforce bombing campain against Germany. Large formations of B17s and Me109s, FW190s attacking and P51s coming to the rescue. So far that is one thing IL2 has not touched. It would be sweet but complex. Those bomber missions covered a large area.

[WTE_Galway]

SCW

- anarchists versus fascists
- birthplace of the 109
- huge number of aircraft types that fought (http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/drnash/...spain/did.html)

what more could you want ... leave late war for the ego point whores

[Feathered_IV]

Voyager, what you say makes perfect sense. If only you could find a way to convince game developers of this.

[David603]

Originally Posted by camel24hrs

Ditto that. I would love to see the 8th airforce bombing campain against Germany. Large formations of B17s and Me109s, FW190s attacking and P51s coming to the rescue. So far that is one thing IL2 has not touched. It would be sweet but complex. Those bomber missions covered a large area.

A large area is right

At a rough estimate, a section of map about 6 times the area of the BoB map would be needed to cover missions to Berlin.