I wouldn't be very surprised if the "MMO" turns out to be quite simply BOM with a multiplayer campaign mode supposed to handle a large number of players who can also man ground vehicles (and to be honest, IF they could deliver this, I would prefer that to a true MMO formula, but that's no the issue here) - back before the release of ClOD, there was already the promise that ClOD would be capable of doing something along those lines - well we know how the glorious massive multiplayer recreation of the BoB has gone so far.

The mention of the MMO is just like the eastern front screenshots that made some people assume the development has stopped working on COD. Everything depends on finishing and stabilizing the new IL-2 engine, the venues are the easy part. The engine was originally designed to accomplish a number of different ventures, be it online/offline, MMO, movie making, etc. If the new engine is finally successful the very large main IC developer/publisher could assign any number of groups to continue to add new features to the game engine and other groups to build maps, buildings, objects, and aircraft that could be used in any of the venues. I doubt the development/publisher would limit their revenue sources exclusively to an MMO if they can get the game engine working properly.

The fact that IC is thinking of announcing the development of an MMO in June would make one think they have confidence that the game engine problems will and can be addressed. The biggest obstacles now appear to be the particle and stutter issues.

I suspect that you may be right. On a superficial level, flight simming, as with other forms of gameplay, can be adapted to the classic bare bones elements of an MMO, including, but not limited to, "Skinner box," gameplay elements and what not. Still, most flight simmers are interested in offline gameplay and most onliners, from my experience, are happy with more traditional forms of multiplayer gameplay. The MMO formula really seems to favor political and economic decision making, high levels of interpersonal social partnerships and social risk taking, in a way that is not always overtly violent, like an air battle. In some forms of MMOs there is a push toward rewarding the aversion of direct simulated violence, in favor of effectively employing the threat of simulated violence and other things that will, if my hunch is correct, make other kinds of MMOs more accessible and more attractive to the vast majority of Global MMO players, particularly females, than any attempt to turn IL2 into Eve Online.

To be honest Chivas...I'm not really seeing 8 months worth of work in the last patch. I think BOM or other things have slowed patch production because what we received seemed like a last minute hack job....just removing offending textures or effects didn't seem like a "total re-write" of the code IMO.

Ok, lets assume BOM is the MMO with planes, tanks and AA guns all working together on one map, how is that going to affect player numbers and how many can we have with out having major lag and stutters?
Lets say 50 people per map, we can forget the massive 128 player online wars for a second(its never going to happen) 50 people split into 2 sides, 25 per side, split that into planes, tanks and AA guns, say 10 planes, 5 tanks and 5 AA gunners per side, all over one map?
Now either the maps are small and the battle very concentrated or were just not going to see anyone, its hard enough on the COD map when were split 25 planes per side over a small part of the English channel.

To me all this looks like Luthier going to meetings with the bean counters and trying to persuade them to keep the cash flow going for longer with more smoke and mirrors.

COD has failed, everyone knows it, Luthier, the bean counters and us. BOM will fail too if done the same way, so Luthier had to come up with something else, and here we are....

You nail it Furbs. I have the same feeling, and in any case it's a guess that lines up with our experience with the whole mess so far.

I'm having fun with Rise of Flight and DCS (A10 and P51).

If something comes out of this MMO prospect, sweet I guess as long as it works - still quite a ways away either way. If not, you can go ahead and play that other WWII simulation out there. Which is Il-2 1946 or BoBII.

I agree its hard to see much progress, and I agree it could be construed as just a last minute hack job, but I suspect it was alot more complicated than that. I have no doubt the developer would turn down some aspects of the sim to be fixed later if they were causing some of the CTD issues. Eye candy can fixed later, the main issues is to have the sim playable. I don't believe for a minute that any work being carried out on the sequel has delayed fixing the game engine. The game engine is the highest priority, without it any Sequel or MMO will not sell.

I don't think Luthier is that stupid. I rather think it's the beancounters who salivate at the thought of milking customers via a MMO. After all 1C has founded a dedicated "Online Services Department" for such activities ...

The problem has nothing to do with COD, BOM, MMO, or coming up with any other product or sequel. None of those products will sell until the game engine is fixed. We know it, Luthier knows it, his bosses and investors know it. The fact that they are even mentioning using the new game engine for an MMO suggests Luthier's bosses and investors are confident enough to let Luthier continue to work on the game engine for atleast another year. No one is going to buy their next product unless they know it works, and if Luthier's bosses and investors who are much closer to the situation than we are, know they aren't going to fool anyone, and are still putting up their money, I'll still give them the benefit of the doubt. Its not costing me anything to see what happens, and the paranoia to fun to watch.