Oleg and Team.

[LEXX]

Ya, very poor taste, but nobody here can totally refute Gozr's claim, and none have done so. Computer gamers have traditionally been better at creating gaming content than game developers who are best at creating game engines. The new upper level cloud layers look great in some screenshots I saw here recently.

However, I'd say it with better taste. Like thanking Oleg for the fantastic game engine without which no modding would be possible.

[Lo0n]

Originally Posted by LEXX

Ya, very poor taste, but nobody here can totally refute Gozr's claim, and none have done so. Computer gamers have traditionally been better at creating gaming content than game developers who are best at creating game engines. The new upper level cloud layers look great in some screenshots I saw here recently.

However, I'd say it with better taste. Like thanking Oleg for the fantastic game engine without which no modding would be possible.

+1 modding can only be as good as the engine the dev's created.
modded maps may be good but... without olegs work there wouldn't be anything. stock still provides ample opportunity to be bounced while enjoying the view.

[6S.Maraz]

Originally Posted by LEXX

Computer gamers have traditionally been better at creating gaming content than game developers who are best at creating game engines.

This thing is very common, see what happened with the "Silent Hunter III" game: it was an unfinished game full of bugs, the modders made it a completely new, amazing game. Without the modders, Silent Hunter would be now forgot, instead it is still selling (I got my copy and started to play this sim few months ago).

The reasons are many, the most important ones are that game developers have a tight schedule (game must be ready and tested for a given date), they have limited manpower (limited investment), and also of course they are doing everything (game engine, models, maps, etc) so nothing can be neglected in favour of something other. Instead, modders can invest their time as they like, maybe work 20 hours one day and then leave the work for a month, and also each one can concentrate on the things he likes best (Skins, 3D models, maps, effects, etc....), and not other aspects of the game.

So that is NOT because modders are better than 1C team (who worked in an excellent way to make a sim that has lived much longer than any expectations, and is still the best one in flight sims after many years), only that they are working in a different way to achieve different results.

It's a very normal thing, I cannot say really why some people are so upset about that.

Maraz

[Feuerfalke]

I think there are a lot of aspects to think about.

SH3 is a very good example for an excellent mod. The same is true for OpenFalcon, which exceeded the original engine by far. But both games are primarily played offline and there is no real competition in either games.
But then again you'll have to look at Falcon4:AF. There are a lot of people playing this game especially online, but the options to change things was drastically reduced to give a solid basis.
Same is for CFS3 and many other games. Infact Lock On is one of the few successfully played online games, that can be modded to a larger extend, but the players are very dedicated and even then, there are a lot of black sheep on the servers.

And to the modding qualities? Well, it's pretty obvious that modders are far superior to developers - at least by pure number! And as 6S.Maraz said, they don't have a schedule to finish their mods. Even better, they can look at the work done by the programmers, use the data and structure to add their own sniplets.

So, while I still really much enjoy some of the screenshots or options presented, I don't loose the touch to reality. Most if not all successful online-games are locked against ANY mods. Most of them even use Punkbuster or similar tools to detect and ban programs like Teamspeak-Overlay, Log-Analyzing, Keyboard-reprogramming and macro-generating, ping variation, package loss, etc.

We will have the ability to add content to SoW and that is IMHO a great offer of 1C towards the mod(el)ers and skinners out there. But I'm still convinced that IL2 was not were it is now, if it was as open as the CFS-series.