Oleg's Russian Interview Translated

[SlipBall]

I think that they doing their very best, and looking forward to a release as soon as possible...very complex, so much to do, most likely wishing the work load would end soon..and I bet very tired, but excited at what the world will soon see

[Feuerfalke]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

I think that they doing their very best, and looking forward to a release as soon as possible...very complex, so much to do, most likely wishing the work load would end soon..and I bet very tired, but excited at what the world will soon see

Well said. Agreed 100%


I also think that he said he WANTED the game out Q4 2007. The same way he said he wanted and needed it to be released Q4 2008.

But things never turn out the way you plan them, especially not with such an unique project.

[Skarphol]

With the statement that work on BoB started in 2007, I guess it will be fair to assume that these videoes from 2006 has very little to do with what we will be seeing in the end.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...42114309&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...99853180&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...44801294&hl=en

But nevertheless, it seems to me like they had stuff like flightmodels, cockpits, dynamic weathersystems, squadron-size takeoff etc up and going allready in 2006. That's not bad for not even having really started working yet.

In 2007, SaQSoN or Luthier (don't remember wich, and can not find the post) said that 1C could not afford NOT to release the game in 2008. Such a statement would normally indicate that the product in 2007 was in it final stage. If they had only started working in 2007, that's a little short funding for such a complex product.

The thing that Oleg said in December that he hoped to have the SoW:BOB site up and running around the end of December is another weird mismatch between what he says and what we see.

Most of all this wondering going on stems from Olegs own statements. And I really don't think he is trying to confuse us on purpose! No other game-developer has treated his customers as nicely as Oleg has done with the IL-2 series! So all these confuseing signals are making me really puzzled.

Skarphol

100% +1 , and here was me thinking i was the only one that had noticed.

[Feuerfalke]

Originally Posted by Skarphol

The thing that Oleg said in December that he hoped to have the SoW:BOB site up and running around the end of December is another weird mismatch between what he says and what we see.

Most of all this wondering going on stems from Olegs own statements. And I really don't think he is trying to confuse us on purpose! No other game-developer has treated his customers as nicely as Oleg has done with the IL-2 series! So all these confuseing signals are making me really puzzled.

Skarphol

Well, that's where Oleg is in a lose-lose-lose situation.

- If he says nothing about release-dates and estimations, especially in this forum SoW is declared as vapour-ware, Oleg is flamed for lack of information and threads demanding information fill the board.
- If he posts his estimates, he "puzzles" people, because they take his estimates for dates written in stone and personal promises. But nobody ever did such a tremendous project, nobody had such variables as third-party modellers, texturers and researchers, as well as other dev-teams joining his own.
- If he'd post a date he could surely hold, a LOT of people would get pretty p*ssed. Lets take the interview for example. He said that IL2 took 4 years to develop, SoW so far only 2 as a dedicated project and with the setting of making it a standalone game. Realistically considering the complexity of IL2 and SoW, a secure estimate would be 2011-2013.
Who here would not be disappointed, if this was posted, even if Oleg knew it would be released much earlier than that?

[Chivas]

Originally Posted by Feuerfalke

Well, that's where Oleg is in a lose-lose-lose situation.

- If he says nothing about release-dates and estimations, especially in this forum SoW is declared as vapour-ware, Oleg is flamed for lack of information and threads demanding information fill the board.
- If he posts his estimates, he "puzzles" people, because they take his estimates for dates written in stone and personal promises. But nobody ever did such a tremendous project, nobody had such variables as third-party modellers, texturers and researchers, as well as other dev-teams joining his own.
- If he'd post a date he could surely hold, a LOT of people would get pretty p*ssed. Lets take the interview for example. He said that IL2 took 4 years to develop, SoW so far only 2 as a dedicated project and with the setting of making it a standalone game. Realistically considering the complexity of IL2 and SoW, a secure estimate would be 2011-2013.
Who here would not be disappointed, if this was posted, even if Oleg knew it would be released much earlier than that?

+1

[msalama]

Thanks for the translation, very nice to see Oleg shedding some much-needed light on this project! This however caught my attention:

Some number of developers internationally that worked with MSFS, and probably a large part of them too, will convert to our side.

I see a problem here. The man has stated many times that they won't model interactive AC subsystems and/or cockpits for their own planes, and that's all well and good of course. But do they make them implementable for 3rd party developers? Because this definitely doesn't happen if they don't...

PS. Hiya guys, long time no see BTW. Still think the enemy has über planes and you p0rked?

[Skarphol]

Hi Feuerfalke and Chivas, I think you are very right about what you say in your post.
But what still makes me wonder is the lack of logic in what Oleg actually says.

Like the thing with the SOW:BOB-site. If he at the beginning of December really thought the page would be up by end of December, then he has been greatly misinformed by the team that developes that site. Or (more possibly) someone at the publisher has stopped the launch of it. But obviously, Oleg was not informed aboout this in the beginning of December.

And what about updates on this page? He says in october 2007: "I hope once per 2-3 weeks or so .... and more close to beta - each week like in old good time with IL-2"
I think it is fair to say that his hopes has not come to fruitition. We may or may not be close to beta yet, (60% finished doesn't sound like beta to me) but he is obviously giving us far less information than he planned to, or hoped for.

These, and other messages given during the years gives the impression that he doesn't have the control of the progress he should have. One thing is that creating a sim like this takes a whole lot of time (the timeconsumption is probably difficult to estimate), but Oleg seems to be at one stage of development one month, and then at a completely different stage the next month.

As I said, I don't think he is trying to confuse on purpose, but to me this is really weird.

And for release date; he hasn't given a hint for many years, so if he now says that he is 60% finished then that can be understood as a release around 2011. Time will tell.

Skarphol

[mazex]

Originally Posted by Skarphol

...it seems to me like they had stuff like flightmodels, cockpits, dynamic weathersystems, squadron-size takeoff etc up and going allready in 2006. That's not bad for not even having really started working yet.

In 2007, SaQSoN or Luthier (don't remember wich, and can not find the post) said that 1C could not afford NOT to release the game in 2008. Such a statement would normally indicate that the product in 2007 was in it final stage. If they had only started working in 2007, that's a little short funding for such a complex product.

The thing that Oleg said in December that he hoped to have the SoW:BOB site up and running around the end of December is another weird mismatch between what he says and what we see.
Skarphol

Well, I get a strong feeling of some kind of a restart in 2007. Like many have said there were indications from MG of a release in 2005 way back when (so they must have been working on it since 2003 at least). Then we had the Ubidate of 2006 and indications from Oleg about 2007... If they are at 60% now and talk about a "start" in 2007 I guess that they scrapped large portions of the code in 2007 and started from scratch? The 3D code would become rather out of date in a prolonged project like this after 5+ years...

If a restart was made in 2007, I'm gladly waiting until it's done...

/Mazex

[SlipBall]

(quote) Well, I get a strong feeling of some kind of a restart in 2007



This was my take as well...It seemed to me at the time, that the hack of IL-2 forced them to go back and re-write SOW, in a effort to close the way in.