The problem is that today many (if not most) of flight simmers only fly/play flight sims that (also) have multiplayer.
I can give you my personal example where in a group of more than 10 friends I'm the only one that plays BoBII and the reason why the rest doesn't play BoBII is very simple:
- Because BoBII doesn't have multiplayer!

Believe me that I tried to get some of those friends into BoBII and when I shown the sim most of those friends got quite interested (for example because of the missions with hundreds of planes, the sounds, etc...) but after a little bit they asked my the "fatal" question:
- Does BoBII have multiplayer?
And I of course, reply:
- No, unfortunally not.
Then all of them (with the exception of one) replied:
- Than I'm not interested.
The "exception one", replied the following:
- I might get into BoBII, but it's a petty that BoBII doesn't have multiplayer.
But the truth is that this last friend of mine still haven't purchased and got into BoBII.

What I mean with this is that Multiplayer is the best and perhaps the ONLY WAY to get new players into BoBII. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an online flight sim player and actually I don't like to player flight sims and most other games online (except for ArmA). But even so as an "Offliner" I can see that the lack of multiplayer is penalizing and hampering the sucess of BoBII.

The single player aspects of BoBII were already VASTLY improved and I'm willing to bet that there are still many more improvements to come (single player wise) but it will be a STUPIDITY and a wrong move to ignore multiplayer in BoBII.
If the upcomming SoW:BoB has some considerable improvements in the single player campaign part or even new campaign engine which from what we read in Oleg's latest interview it seems that it will actually happen in SoW:BoB than I'm affraid that BoBII could loose the vast majority of it's player core and "die". So IMHO, the only way to prevent this "death" is to implement the multiplayer in BoBII.
I believe that the BDG group understood this could probably be why they are working in the multiplayer part of BoBII, who knows??

Actually, it's mainly that the offline stuff has been improved massively (best combat AI around, campaign bugs fixed) and is stable. Buddye can focus his time elsewhere now, aided by an excellent test team.

In parallel some significant landscape improvements are coming, but that doesn't need coder effort.

I changed my mind. If you can release a quality Multiplayer product with dedicated server files before the end of the summer that would be AWESOME! Especially for the United Squadron's League: www.uslglobal.com

I am with ricnunes. Only fly sims with MP. And co-op mode is our much preferred style, from planning phase through ingress/nav and combat, and with any luck RTB. Sometimes needing to nurse a wounded fellow pi-ot limping back to an uncertain landing.

Eugene,

Actually I don't play (or very rarelly play) flight simulators in MP! I basically play flight sims in single player only but I admit the (huge) importance that a MP aspect have in a flight sim.
BTW, the only mode that I ever play in MP (in any game) is Co-Op.

It's funny ( quite nice, in a way ) how simmers have different opinions on playing them.
I agree fully with neither ricnunes or Eugene.
But I partly agree with both of them.

I have played multiplayer years ago on EAW, but not since. I can take it or leave it.
What is most important to me is being able to play a sim when i want to in single play offline. ( That's what irks me re ROF )

However, I am contemplating linking up with a friend for some multiplay in OFF, But I would be interested almost exclusively in fighting against another human. Got no interest in flying in Coops against some AI.

And i would love to fly BOB WoV like that in multiplay.

I agree that most sims would sell better if they had a multiplay possibility.

But I also know that that is not the same thing as having a multiplay requirement.
Many ROF sales are going to be lost because of this, IMHO.
In fact, it's an even bet that sales figures will cause ROFs Devs to change the policy
( Hope so )

Yes- Lets wish Buddye and team the best of luck for multiplay success

ricnunes, understood. And I too only engage in Co-op mode, whether in flight or tac sims. Also, I udnerstand that many do not have much or any interest in MP modes. I used to be that way, years ago. But after years of working with the limited number of ideal sims (for my tastes), the human element is what maintains my interest and now drives any purchasing.

Of course, that's why ice cream stores have more than one flavor (if they want to stay in business!).

I am down to flying only mostly three flight combat sims from the many that I have owned since 1998 and they are IL2 1946, OFF3 and BoB2. None of my co-op friends care for WW1 flying..........so that becomes a off-line battle for me as does BoB2. So all my co-op combat is with IL2 1946, which we hardly get enough of. I know that they would buy and enjoy BoB2 and flying BoB2 co-op as much if it were available. I find that the dogfights are just a little more realistic (but not much) in BoB2, especially the AI commitment to engage (you). I love it with the AI enamy, when in turning fight, that we continually end up in a head-to-head until one of us gains an advantage. That is real to me and as it should be. My only downside to BoB2 is the same as with IL2 1946, the AI hits are way to accurate putting our planes out of the fight with just a few perfect hits. My co-op friends feel the same. I enjoy WW2 combat and BoB2 and sorry that it is available for multi-play.
BadBud
www.simflite.com