Rgr. Thank you for the answer. A friend and I got confused over the two.

2 or 3 months gone by, and no sign of being released by the looks of it

no doubt this will be THE map for the western front in il2-1946 whenever it gets released eventually, but with a 50/50 chance of a release of BoB before xmass 2009, and a 95% chance of it being released in the first couple of months of 2010, it is starting to look like this channel map will have a very short lifespan. given the amount of hard work hours put in by the channel team, that would be a real shame and disproportionate to the amount of work it took to create it.

why not release initially a v1 of the map with only the main coastal bases for both sides of the channel that have already been done so we can start using it ? the v2 of the map can then include further new objects and the more rear located bases for ex, and will be the piece the resistance it was intended to be. and whomever intends to create missions or a campaign for this nice map will need a few weeks or couple of months to develop them, with BoB around the corner it looks like they just wont have the time to do it any justice imo.

as a constructive suggestion, is there a way to add some type of "AI activity triggers", which for ex brings the new airbases to life when we approach them ? for ex some AI ground vehicles driving around, a few AI aircraft taxiing or taking off ? i have seen some mention of this in some of the mod work that this is now possible, would be perfect for this map.

I kindof agree with you rootango, it's a pity the map is still not released as I believe this would be THE map for the BOB/Channel campaign.. With all the research and historical accuracy (which I trust without knowledge of my own) behind this map I'm sure it would be pure joy just to fly around looking at the landscape and sceenery.

Though I doubt that BoB:SOW will be released earlier than aug/sept 2010.. Oleg promised release to BOB 70th anniversary.. ("within 2 weeks"). I believe we will start seing 1C announced ingame screenshots and reviews quite a few months before release.. and I haven't seen anything like it yet. So Christmas release 2009 is very highly unlikely.

Hi guys, thanks for the comments. I know its difficult being patient, noone wants to release it more than we do and we are continuing to make great progress. But our Team agreed back in the beginning when we started building this map that we were not going to give up quality to hurry it up and get it out, then it would truly have been a waste of time for us and you. I can assure you its being worked on everyday. But its a large map and you cannot create something like this properly this quickly, unfortunatly it just takes time to do it right. This is one of those projects that you get out of it what you put into it so we're working through it day by day. We appreciate your patience and hope you will enjoy it upon its release.

Best regards,
Boozse

No worries, Booze, we're an impatient lot, some would say more so than others, but we'll survive. We know you guys are doing your best and want it released as much as we do. Hell, you guys are probably tired of working on the thing and want it out more than we do! lol

Thanks for the hard work and we'll see you over Malta/North Africa on Friday! (hopefully from your six!!)

352ndBooze, thank you for the update.

We are waiting with various degrees of patience for what may become the best map project among many very well done map projects.

I asked before and the answer was satisfactory at the time but, with the release of the "Other, Other Channel Map and some other really good area maps, I need to ask again, will your map run on anything other than a near top of the line computer?

I have no intent to get into whos map is best, I am sure both will be great.

New maps are one of the best results of the ability to mod IL2 but some of them are simply too big or contain too many objects to be useable by more than the owners of top line computers.

I understand the desire for large strategic maps, especially if the long range British and American bomber campaigns are to be realized in real time, which seems to be where the 352nd is headed.

If possible, will there be smaller tactical maps of the overall large area released for the less fortunate among us? (me)

However you guys release it, we know it will be an excellent addition to the series.

Thanks.

Avatar thanks, looking forward to it. I know you at least salute when you shoot me down.

Sunchaser thanks, we are looking very forward to releasing so we can move onto other projects as well. We have several in the hopper we're just chomping to get at. I'm going to try and answer your question to the best of my ability and hope it makes some sense. Will the map run on a Commodore 64 or a very low end system? Probably not, or not to where it is any fun to fly. Our focus while building this was to keep a balance of realism and performance so that everyone with a reasonable system can play and I think we've been able to maintain that. We have 28 members in our squadron and all 28 members have been able to fly the map without problems. And we all have varying degrees of pc's in terms of performance but we have been able to keep it at a level where it is smooth for all. Part of this process is to blame for the time in creating the map because we have tested just about every new thing that has become available during the last year and a half. Some of them we use and some we do not because it does not work for us. And anything that causes lags we abandoned or set aside to test for the next map when hopefully more people will have upgraded to a faster system. The version of the map we are about to release will be a lighter version than what we were planning originally with not as many objects as a test bed. Still a 1:1 full size map and still with all the bases and targets we planned but just with less fluff. We'll know more once everything is installed then we can weed through any problem areas if there are any when we show up with a large group. But in a nutshell any reasonable system should be fine. Once we get it all together and do some testing we should have a better idea of how to better describe what a reasonable system is.

And to my knowledge none of us are planning on creating any smaller tactical maps of the area as you mentioned. However once the map is released anyone is welcome take it apart and edit it into smaller pieces if you'd like. We are focusing our next efforts on the Late War and the Long Range Bomber campaign.

Best regards,
Booze

352ndBooze, ya broke my heart, I have to finally retire the old Commodore 64?

Thanks for the comprehensive update.

Always a pleasure. And sorry about your Commodore.

Booze

LOL, hopefully that wasn't when we were on the same side...

As always, appreciate the updates you regularly give and look forward to finally being able to give the 352nd's version a test spin. S!