Oleg. Ilya, do you guys do something with the comments on the updates?

[Zorin]

Originally Posted by nearmiss

1+

Kendo ... has a knack for explaining things without saying much of anything

The SOW is close to release. Any requests for anything at this point... don't mean much to the development team.

Getting the SOW finished is the current goal.

May I remind you of the Bf-110 errors that have been taken care?

I am sure that, given proper references are supplied and the necessary workload is not out of proportion, they will attend to any mistakes that are pointed out.

[furbs]

Until we start seeing DX11 videos and screenshots we are a long way from release...i would guess a Xmas release at best.

Originally Posted by furbs

Until we start seeing DX11 videos and screenshots we are a long way from release...i would guess a Xmas release at best.

Oleg doesn't have the hardware to show the game in DirectX 11 or AA turned on.
Maybe he won't also buy it before release.

[Novotny]

Actually, I think you'll find that the likes of both Nvidia and ATI PR will be falling over themselves to ensure that their cards run this well, just as they do with every major release.

Do you really think Oleg doesn't have top ends cards from both teams?

Originally Posted by Novotny

Actually, I think you'll find that the likes of both Nvidia and ATI PR will be falling over themselves to ensure that their cards run this well, just as they do with every major release.

Do you really think Oleg doesn't have top ends cards from both teams?

Having seen some pictures of Oleg's office I would be amazed if he could run 'Monkey Island' on most of his PC's let alone SOW .

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by Novotny

Actually, I think you'll find that the likes of both Nvidia and ATI PR will be falling over themselves to ensure that their cards run this well, just as they do with every major release.

Do you really think Oleg doesn't have top ends cards from both teams?

from previous statements oleg indicated they are primarily focusing on nvidia and not ati during development. iirc they are in contact with nvidia directly, and might even have received cards from them for BoB development purposes. obviously they do keep "ati bug checking" to and its not as if they can ignore 50% of the market, but it is 2e priority and largely the game is developed with more optimization for nvidia (i think that manufacturer was more cooperative)

if the game is to be released in the next couple of months, i suspect oleg is also more concerned to get decent fpsec's and optimised performance on dx9 systems right now, rather then primarily focus on the newest dx11 cards that have some selected features which might become more important later on.

that's the way i read the current situation

[Fergal69]

flames in the wrong place & colour, trees wrong type, pilot too small, grass, buildings, etc.

You only notice these things in screenshots.

There is only so much you can do with pc's. These items are created & not filmed.

Besides, when you're flying & hit an aircraft that then catches fire, you are probably more excited that you hit & damaged the plane in such a way that damage is visable that you probably don't notice the fire is in slightly the wrong place.

trees - as long as I don't hit a tree when flying low, I'm not bothered as to whether it the right sort or not.

grass - I'm concentrating on flying not seeing what the grass looks like when I take off or land.

buildings - as long as there are some buildings, does it matter if they have the right number of windows, etc.

BOB - SOW is primarily a flight sim. Whilst all the attention to detail on little things sets this flight sim apart from others, like wobbling arials on tanks, most of these things will be missed by the majority of people as they are concentrating on flying rather than sight seeing.

[Trumper]

Originally Posted by Fergal69

BOB - SOW is primarily a flight sim. Whilst all the attention to detail on little things sets this flight sim apart from others, like wobbling arials on tanks, most of these things will be missed by the majority of people as they are concentrating on flying rather than sight seeing.

I agree BUT it is also in a small way a ground based sim.Oleg has stated you can fire the AAA and i suspect/ hope that in time it will integrate to more than just a flight sim.That alone will open many doors to other people buying it [this will help with the money as flight sims are a bit specialist].
BoB is just the testing ground for a long term and hopefully upgradable in the future [Oleg stated this at a sim convention at Birmingham a few years ago ,when i was there].
Personally i would be quite happy to try many other non flying roles,AAA gunner, Radar plotter/ sector controller or even the intelligence officer debriefing and organising the repairs/replacements.
If it is all done well in the first place and made future proof as computers get better [look at the advancements in computers since il2 came out] this could be massive.
Get it right now and it makes it easier

[Blackdog_kt]

Yes, it would be a whole new experience if we could take part in dynamic online campaigns and get our hands dirty not just with flying, but also with mission planning and some form of resource management.

In most of the objective based DF servers for IL2 that focus on realistic gameplay, there are maps running for 2-3 hours where each team has their offensive and defensive objectives, a pool of available pilots and a pool of aircraft.

Imagine this taken a bit further. For example, the map doesn't come with pre-determined objectives anymore but with a set of victory condition triggers, then it's the player's job to plan their own mission in a modified mission builder interface. Think of it not as placing 3d objects, but waypoints, selecting/advising armament and loadouts for the flight and maybe even writing a bit of a briefing. Then, on each team's lobby the virtual pilots can see the list of available missions, click on them to read the briefings and decide which one to fly.

The map itself doesn't last 3 hours but 3 weeks, the pool of available pilots is bigger and also replenished at set intervals to simulate the arrival of new pilots from flight school, same with the aircraft pool that now also tracks specific types (so for example you might run out of Spitifires and be forced to operate mostly Hurricanes) and a fuel and machinery/tooling pool is now added. This doesn't have to be overly complex, after all it's not a resource management strategy game.

However, just by introducing some form of automatic resource flow based on parameters set by the mission builders, it will give the virtual pilots that much more meaningful things to do. For example, the axis team could make a concentrated effort to hit oil storage facilities or refineries over a period of consecutive days, forcing the allied team to fly with reduced fuel loadouts. Similar things could happen with the supply of ammunition for reduced ammo loads, or machinery supplies that put a delay on how fast a damaged aircraft is considered as returning back to the pool of available aircraft, etc. Think of it like the kind of campaign found in Falcon4 and the Rowan sims, but in multiplayer mode.

If something like this happens, it will be possible to draw in a different set of players who are interested in not just the combat/tactical aspect but also the strategic/planning one. For example, there are people who enjoy playing the role of air traffic controllers in multiplayer sessions using civilian sims, imagine how big an advantage it would be to have someone experienced like that in the radar plotter's seat, guiding your flight in a multiplayer session. Of course, it wouldn't be mandatory for everyone to dabble in that aspect. As long as each team has a few people who like planning stuff, the rest can just fly the missions provided or make their own ad-hoc sorties. The beauty of it all is that it provides a common meeting ground for those who just want to fly and those who want objectives, it's like fusing the offliners, the DF crowd and the co-op crowd into one gameplay mode.

I know these ideas sound crazy, but they are neither demands nor expectations, they are just ideas. However, the bits and pieces and hints dropped during the development of SoW lead me to believe that we'll see some kind of expanded feature list that isn't usual for flight sims up to now, in an effort to not only broaden the gameplay but also draw in customers from other genres and that's a very clever move.

[Friendly_flyer]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

I know these ideas sound crazy,

No, it doesn't sound crazy, actually there is a system that does most of that for IL2 already, the SEOW:

http://www.seowhq.net/

I've flown a few SEOW campaigns with my online squadron, and to me that is the very best way to use IL2 there is.