Thoughts about Friday's update

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by klem

I have just two concerns now:
1. The FMs for the CoD aircraft must be improved and that is all it will take to make CoD unique aspects acceptable because all core improvements will be overlaid by the sequel (they could also release some of those as a patch later on for 'CoD only' users). I'm not an off-line player and I understand the campaigns are lousy (?) but that is something the community can fix and would have to anyway once people got bored with the out-of-the-box campaigns..

exactly right !
- fixing the major FM errors and tuning relative performances for the competing aircraft (FM and DM) should be their nr-1 priority, regretfully i am not sure luthier sees or understand its importance, or that he know how bad things are in that department (but this has only become relevant since the sim became playable). as you correctly identified, that is the single most important core element to address right now and it will satisfy the more experienced sim fans who are focused on realism (which is what had been the il2 series's great strength, and it is that "niche market" which will then attract new users who initially start on lower "full real" settings)
- i also agree on the offline missions and campaigns, however frustrating that they are not present, the fan base can gradually add those (as they already started) while more important technical sim aspects are addressed

Originally Posted by klem

You talked about a bug tracker, well as you also said we have one already but the devs don't read it. It was a fairly clean tracker with objective reporting mostly substantiated by in-game and historical evidence....It was prioritised by the community (how else would you prioritise it?) ......

that bug tracker serves a very important unique purpose, all CoD users can go and report on bugs they found, or participate in discussing bugs found by others. the volume of comments and the number of people voting for a particular bug's importance is also usefull, BUT that system of reporting does not provide a comprehensive overview of bugs, gameplay issues, missing features, and the importance of fixing them in context of creating a more rounded finished product which "does most things well, but has a few residual problems to be fixed".

hence my suggestion of having some specific constructive discussion amongst ourselves (without constant disruption by whiners and trolls), where we organize a list of elements to be addressed (most of which we already know) and place them in their order of importance so it addresses the overall gameplay and use of the sim. this can then be repeatedly flagged to luthier as the most important issues the community wants addressed, and their inclusion and degree of fixing will be the measuring tool by which the "final CoD patch" can be rated (for ex the lack of tree collision models i do NOT put on a high priority, however much we would like it for thrill factors. i resolving this is a major drain on cpu/gpu performance at the moment, resolving it can be delayed till later in BoM)

- a good example of some real major problems:
- reversed controls in some aircraft and some gauges not correctly working (mostly easy fixes but very annoying)
- the problem of not being able to set a specific FoV for your monitor size (which was possible in il2 series, in increments of 5 degree's between 35 and 90), and when correctly set you were able to see in-game objects in their 1:1 correct sizes for the distances they were at (a MAJOR issue, and again has a relatively easy fix for them).
- another crucial one is the problem of distant LoD model visibility (we are currently flying around like myopic pilots, instead of having distant aircraft being able to be spotted/seen at the right RL distances). i suspect the LoD problem issue is relatively easy to fix now the new gfx engine is working, eg in the short term it might be sufficient to have the smaller LoD models provided with "visual enhancements" ("dog balls" paint schemes, or maybe bump mapping etc). this needs tome tuning and work by luthiers team, but is a critical issue
- the problem of allied fighter performance (as is well documented in kwaitek's thread etc), damage models on 109's etc
- lack of AI control and commands of friendly squad
- AI behavior in general is poor "out of the box", yet mission builders can set level of AI skill and then have much better results and more realistic behaviour, similar control of AI skill level should be made available in quick mission builder and for campaign missions or online server AI elements
- etc..

Originally Posted by klem

And that is where my second concern comes in, they aren't listening to us except in patch bug threads which quickly deteriorate into the usual scumbag arguments and get abandoned by 1C and of course they are reluctant to say anything on a regular basis because they just get attacked and insulted all the time. In short, its the community's own damn fault and it isn't doing us any good.

exactly, and hence my own concerns vocalized several times in the last few months. imho we need need to get better organized "as the consumers" and provide some of the groundwork to sift through bugs/omissions/errors that affect normal gameplay and use of the sim, and then present this (in this forum) as some sort of "consumer request list" of bug fixes in order of importance. failing that i think a few squeaky wheels will get oiled in the last patch, and some important (but relatively easy to fix) more important issues will be left out.

Originally Posted by klem

Finally, I can't help noticing that some of the biggest critics don't even own the game or have abandoned it and no longer play it but still come here and use the forum as their own personal playground for creating mischief in something they are not really interested in. Except for their own entertainment or egotism.

agreed. tolerating the level of abuse and constant disruption by a little cluster of perpetual whiners who are deliberately disruptive is very counter productive and undermines new players to get help and objective feedback. several of those trolls, and all their alt login aliases should be perm banned instead of the revolving door of temp bans that doesnt change their behavior.