Friday the 14th Development Update

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by ChicoMick

What I don't understand is this. If the Sequel has the power to 'update/fix' clod in the future then why can't those fixes still be available as 'stand alone' patches? ie without the BoM maps missions and planes ? Then we can decide whether we want the sequel or not.

I don't especially want to fight on the russian front.

I guess this doesn't fit the business plan.....

looking at your pc spec list in your sig, is it really so heart wrenching to pay another 20$ for BoM later on so you later can get some further improvements for the BoB theater ? it obviously wasnt a deliberate cunning plan to release CoD unfinished, it was the forced premature birth of a very visionary advanced flight simulator that will take our old il2 dreams to a completely new level. the only other alternative would have been to close down the whole project and release NOTHING !! (there are some people here in this forum with a low attention spans and a failure to comprehend more complex concepts, and they seem to think there was some magic 3e option of receiving a perfect and completed sim in mid 2011)

was it frustrating to have to wait another 18 months and in the meanwhile just have some "beta product" to toy around with ? yeps ! but nope, i aint traumatized by it. meanwhile the globe keeps spinning, the shysters that caused the 2008 financial crash are still laughing all the way to the bank that they got away with plundering our coffers (and succeeded in killing off the american empire in the same process), the ice cap keeps melting further and is now expected to be completely gone in summer by 2022, and hoards of illegal economic migrants are still hopping over the fence unchallenged to come and eat up your meager pension funds and clog your healthcare system.

get a sense of perspective while the rest of the world is on a highway to hell, giving 20 or 30$ to 1C for them to keep building the sim of our dreams should be something we do willingly

[furbs]

What amazes me is, why some people think BOM is going to be any better than COD.

[Redroach]

Originally Posted by mazex

C'mon Tree It's simply impossible that you work in the private sector of what the rest of us call "the economy"? Basically it's about the fact that if your company does not make a profit it gets shut down... Fast.

So - who would put up the money to have the team working on patching a product for 18 months that unfortunately must have been a financial fiasco? 1C? Ubisoft? Just get over it, CloD was a failure - both financially and technically. End of story. Now they have actually spent too much time trying to get it right as they are naturally embarrassed that some bean counter forced them to release it while the engineers with Oleg at the helm most certainly wanted to do a second (or third) restart of the project with a new engine... Which was naturally impossible after that last managed code experiment that failed...

A pillar of the market economy is that you don't throw good money after bad. The only reason we have gotten patches the last 18 months is that Ilya and "the new" team convinced someone with money that they could do a sequel based on the failed project to get some money back from that seven year investment. The financier probably realized that even if a sequel was successful, they would never get all the money back for the previous seven years. As they don't live in Northern Korea they know the meaning of "sunk costs" and agreed to finance the development of a sequel anyway, as the costs to have the team running another 2.5 years would be smaller than the expected revenue from the sequel (keeping in mind that they did not start from zero). Ilya probably had to get a new suit for these meetings and certainly got some milestones set that they had to deliver along the project time line or the money tap would get shut down at any point...

I really would like the CloD we all dreamed of, but we have to to accept the fact that it will not happen. Every hour spent patching CloD that does not benefit the sequel increases the risk that MG will have to pick down the sign next year (or this year if they don't show good progress). That sequel has to get decent reviews at least and sell a couple of hundred thousand copies. That's the only way we will ever see a FW 190 in the future in this engine...

And no, the argument that they have to fix CloD or no one will buy the sequel is naturally bull. If the sequel hits the market next fall and gets reviews in the > 80% range every single one of the customers that bought CloD will buy it as we there are only 1-2 decent simulators released every year. We are not that many anyway - so it's the ones that did NOT buy CloD that they need to get green figures at the bottom line

EDIT: The ones we have a right to be pissed at are the publishers 1C/(Ubisoft) - that actually released the game to the market in the state it was, I don't hold MG responsible for that bad decision at all... But - if it was that or nothing I must say that I've had quite some fun with CloD anyway that definitely makes up for my $39.

That's a very optimistic view, mazex. You may be right that they were pushed to release CoD early after a long time of development. But I don't think the developers were in any way pushed to release the do-nothing-"patches" they released over the past 18 months, leaving us basically in the same state as per the release.

And the thing that many people buy BOM regardless, is pretty optimistic, too. I think, by now, after so much crookery and blatant lies, many users have made it a matter of principle NOT to buy BOM (as did I), preferring to stick with 1946 or so rather than to let that shabby scheme succeed (*).
Plus, many gaming magazines probably will think similarly, and will consider the utter failure when testing the sequel, so even IF the addon is somewhat 'good' (which I don't believe for a second...), high ratings for it will be next to impossible - game tests in magazines are there to inform about quality and to save people from rip-offs, after all.


(*) It may be true that companies' power is great these days, but if that doesn't spark some sort of 'grass-roots' boycott, then I don't know what does...

[planespotter]

I like the 1C style I must say. Is it the Russian way? Tell the children you will get them a toy, if they give you some money. But you can't find, so you throw a broken toy to the children, at least it gives them something to play with. When they complain it is broken with four wheels, fix one. When they still complain tell them you will fix one more wheel, then kaput, no more! Your toy is wasting Daddy's important time, he has bigger things to worry about. Then tell them you will give them a new toy in two years, so they should start saving more pennies.. But they still have questions so you say, write your questions down children, Daddy will answer them tonight. Then you don't come back at all. Hahahaha pass the vodka!

[Feathered_IV]

We've seen these Q&A things before. They are usually about as revealing as a Taliban swimsuit calendar.

[Tettie]

I’m sure most of you will agree that we have already supported our release more than perhaps any other developer in a similar situation.

Nope. I understand the business situation but this is the world upside down.

CoD was delivered prematurely, horribly bugged and in a poor state overall. You have sold a broken toy to us and had to mend it in order to keep some credibility. If you hadn't you would have been out of business.

For me CoD is a great game, but I will not buy the sequel unless reviews on the different sites call it a good product.

Not falling for this a second time.

[maki4444]

I like you because you brought COD which is an Improvement to IL2. It really is. People how say it's not are just fooling themselves. Give the final patch and the community will do the rest with mods and addons like DESASTERSOFT.

Keep doing the fantastic work of keeping the sim world ALIVE.

I would love to see an eastern front as well as the pacific in the future. BUsiness is business and I understand that you can't run a company based on dreams.

just m 2 cents that I hope all of you wonderful Russians will read. I feel that most of the mature and reasonable community will understand your position.

Don't pay attention to the posts like : no one will buy the sequel

Yes they will. All true Flight sim fans will buy

Thanks for all the support

I am mostly happy because you will stick it out with the patch untuil the very end.

[Fergal69]

Originally Posted by luthier

The next time it will be updated is when you install the sequel over it.

Being an optimist, does this mean a sequel is near to being released?

I for one, am happy that I can now fly over London on medium settings without freezing after updating to Windows 7 64bit.

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by Fergal69

Being an optimist, does this mean a sequel is near to being released?

...

A week or two back B6 mentioned it reaching alpha in 2013, so not that close.

[planespotter]

Originally Posted by kendo65

A week or two back B6 mentioned it reaching alpha in 2013, so not that close.

Yes, so to those who say this is such good news for Cliffs of Dover because improvements in the sequel will be backed into CloD, what this means is maybe, yes

...in 2014 or later!!

Who is going to care, two years from now, serious?