Please put this post in the banana foruns...

Exactly. There is always something valuable to be learnt from these discussions.

Virtual combat in WWII flightsims in a multi-layered battle, with as much of the action taking place verbally on the forums than stick in hand on the servers. People dueling in the virtual skies with their Spits and 109s like to gather in the forums after battle to throw charts in each other's face and call their own virtual rides 'porked'. The fun, the challenge, and, most of all, the learning never ends.

In a way, everybody who's engaged in these endless debates about hood fasteners, grass and colour saturation have already started enjoying the sim, weeks before release, and are already taking the first steps towards the first game updates/modding projects by poiting out what they consider to be flaws.

What will it be like when the sim is actually released ? Worse I should imagine - and I certainly do hope - because it'll show people are taking interest, which should be a good indicator of the sim's prospects, and also because, well, it really is a lot of fun to watch sometimes

Cheers

Nico

That is true but we all have to remember that we are talking about a 49 dollar video game. Yes, we all strive for accuracy but in striving for it we have to realize that any game is not going to be perfect. It can't be for 49 dollars. Even at 100 bucks I can't expect a total and complete rendition close to reality.

We need to remember that when we start rivet counting. You are right, it is members enjoying what is coming up but it is also an indication of why many developers have gotten out of the flight simulation business. The amount of research and effort needed to create a decent flight sim, especially when the numbers are compared to other games, is staggaring. If Madden fans started throwing fits and making the game sound like a crock because the eyes on Philip Rivers were the wrong shade of blue then EA would probably get out of that business too. It is fine to say that this is not quite right or that is a little off but there are people here that make a point of complaining, and complaining hard, about stuff that really isn't important.

I have only one major demand of IL2:COD. Deliver me an experience. Make me feel like I am not some middle aged guy from the Pacific Northwest but a fighter pilot flying over the English Channel in August of 1940. Do that and you will have my money and my support. That, and only that, is what I demand of a game. Looking to throw a fit over trivial things just takes the fun out of it for the player. It is no different than the guys that lose total immersion in movies like Saving Private Ryan because the 'Tiger' in the movie didn't have the exact correct roadwheel alignment. Trust me, I used to be one of those guys and it spoiled a lot of fun for me.

Or you can download Blender for free, purchase Maya or some other expensive 3d modeling program and fix the aircraft or avatar yourself.



Actually it wasn't a real Tiger at all. It was a t34/85 if I remember correctly owned by the 9.SS reenactors.

I agree with this 100%


What some people feel entitled to for the price of a decent lunch is beyond me at times.

And nit picking is fun during these times, becuase it lets us enjoy the game, before we even get it, but you know it will carry on after release too, and probably get worse. I mean, imagine what's going to happen when the 190s engines start to fail? After all, like has been pointed out, how are they going to maintenance the engines without hood fasteners?

Shall we use the word 'perspective'?

I was reading a passage from "The Mighty Eighth" over the weekend that reminded me of "perspective". A fighter pilot from the 362nd FS was relating his experiences during an escort mission over Leipzig. The squadron had encountered a gaggle of 109's and 190's (in addition to a few 110's and 410's) over the target area. The squadron promptly disposed of of 22 of these with a loss of only one. He went on to say that they all celebrated except he. The one lost was his wingman.

So yeah.. talk about hood fasteners to these guys.

Make me feel like I am not some middle aged guy from the Pacific Northwest but a fighter pilot flying over the English Channel in August of 1940

Bearing in mind that a small boy in an upside-down cardboard box can be that pilot.

Moral: we must do our bit too, nitpickers beware of mixed metaphors, embrace the half-full glass

Ming

As a small boy in an upside-down cardboard box, I win.

I had a small boy in a box once, but they told me it was wrong.


he didn't like it though, and refused to stay in it. he said the box color was way off, and it was missing some locking tabs that held the box closed while he was upside down.

This thread is the best

Make that 10 11

Can we take anyone on the internet that now doesn't play WoP as a minus due to them not responding? With IPv4 addresses now exhausted the WoP tally now reads:

-4,900,000,889

Your move.

I agree completely about the overall experience being the most important thing.

One thing I would add is that it isn't just PC sim players that get obsessed with details but any true enthusiast. Sports is really common to 'go deep' on. I have a friend I used to work with who is now at EA Canada near Vancouver. Last couple of years he worked on the NHL 11 team, and had a funny story.

One of the (paid) play-testers was getting upset with the various statistics that each player's attributes are valued with. Lots of arguments ensued, as obviously a lot of these stats have to be subjective and if you look for it you can see bias everywhere. Anyway, to 'solve' the arguments this person ended up making a claim that 'hockey stick length' was a 'mandatory feature' and the game would be an enormous let-down unless it included it. A parcel arrived at EA, a pretty big one too. The play-tester had provided around 700 individual photographs - one for each and every current player in the NHL that year. On each photo he had hand-marked up an estimation of the stick type, length and manufacturer. He also provided a 300 page binder of amended statistics he had hand edited. It was his personal hood fastener but for hockey.

That feature didn't make it in (too late, too narrow a need, plus each player already had 27(!) unique attributes), and till this day the guy claimed he would 'never play the game unless stick length is added'. There's a thin line between passion and obsession I guess, and that's all it took to break the overall experience for him. This was for a game where the PC port got cancelled too, and that went on to make a metric ton of money.

Expensive sports games can make it up on volume, but flight sims still need to be 'fun' enough to attract a main-stream audience. The future is probably split between 'study sims' and 'casual sims' with the former being a healthy but always small market.

Ok, we get the hint. Now can you stop your spamming?

You know, I had been thinking of moving to Canada but you're really not helping to sell the place.

There's still no American Football, right?

There is the CFL, and much as I love it, it's sort of a bizarro-world football version

I concur, excellent thread

Only Fools and Horses? Saw that episode the other night. Classic comedy!

"so what's Dave then? A nickname?"