"Here lies a fallen god His fall was not a small one, We did but build his pedestal a narrow and a tall one" -- Frank Herbert

I've been wondering about an interesting question: How is it that Oleg Maddox - once hailed as the saviour of the flight-simulator industry and the greatest developer, who was held up as a model to other developers - could so quickly become forgotten and treated only with criticism and scorn on these forums?

Why do people turn around so quickly?

-- Is it that people get jealous of success and relish the moment when fortune reverses her favours?

-- Is it that some people resent the fact that only Russian developers still work on flight sims (ie. the failure of CFS3)? Is this a possible source of the repeated 'vodka' jokes (actually an ethnic stereotype of Russians as lazy drunks)?

-- Is it that a number of people disliked the Il-2 series, but never had an opportunity to say so unhindered when he was popular? That they always had these sentiments?

-- Is it that people can't empathise with the challenges of development, and blame the developer for a release rushed by the publisher?

-- Is it that people's hope for the sim were built up to an impossible level (eg. by imagination or by features that were announced in 2007 and officially 'withdrawn' before release) - and they are turning their disappointment outwards into rage?


It seems like a lot of work to repeatedly show up on the forums, months after release, to focus on every little rumour and repeatedly celebrate the failure of others and the potential death of a great simulation series.

I'm wondering if any of you can provide some insight (of course, without speculating on any individuals - other than ourselves).

I think its more to do with the fact it looked like he jumped from a sinking ship, whether that is what happened as no one knows for sure as we do not know what happened behind closed doors.

I was looking forward to Clod, and really want them to try and iron out the problems but at the moment I can not see how much longer they can work on it without a massive improvement. My only hope now for a modern desent WW2 game would by 777 Studios.

My vote goes to over-hype and then under deliver.

I have the utmost respect for OM as a software developer. He gave the flight sim community so much through the IL2 series (including tons of free content). The IL2 series set such a high benchmark that even the same team is having a hard time matching. Sort of like the 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390. Every Mustang built since will forever be compared to the legend.

When an individual is lauded and loved more than he deserves, we shouldn't be surprised when the mob turns on him viciously.

TBH, I never got the impression that these extended discussions really dwelled on OM. (well sometimes in the past tense) but otherwise more with the current administration - who, it appears, have their hands full and aren't quite sure which course to take next - except to attempt to steer the attention away from clod to bom.. (and what is mmo?)

I think it's more with management than with artistic talent. Sometimes these two don't go well together. And it is a rare individual who can synergize the two.

It's a great question Av, and something I've been considering for a long time. I think it boils down to a whole combination of things like you wrote - so here's my ranked list

- The game is really inconsistent, as in the bad parts are really bad but the good parts are actually really good. This basically means it polarizes opinions. Example: I've never had an issue with performance, but can empathize with those that do, but at the end of the day it's not a problem I see. When I do get bad performance I rage.

- MG are really really slow at fixing things, so while any community has 'haters and fanboys' most of the normal people are getting bored and have lost interest now. As nature abhors a vacuum, that just leaves the obsessives or trolls to party as middle-ground people usually want no part of the conversations they see here.

- 1C is to healthy community communication as Josef Mengele's was to the art of paediatrics. They haven't got a clue, and generally do the exact wrong thing. It provides new angles at which to wack the dead horse every couple of weeks or so. Keeps the stew simmering.

- People hate change. Some people got IL2 working just right on Windows XP and always saw CloD as a threat, i.e. the shiny arrogant usurper. Lots of bloated promises from foreign sounding people that should get their's in the end etc.

- It uses Steam. Some people hate Steam, and we just have to wait for them to die; which given the demographic and their blood pressure won't be long.. lol

- Flight Sim fans often have fan-bases like sports teams from the UK 1980's. They basically come here just for the fights or to watch fights, and if any talk about flight sims happens then that's more by accident rather than design. We used to get IL2 fans on the RoF turf until it flares up and then collapsed under it's own exhaustion, we sometimes get IL2 fans torturing the Gaijin forums - but this CloD Extended Forum is special as it's a legitimate place to just come to rant / argue / troll even if you've not had time to see the game yet. It's the only unique place in SimHQ set up just to troll people (bar PWEC I guess), and it provides a lot of entertainment for those into that. Given that product forums like 1C, RoF and DCS on their own site moderate more strongly than here (i.e. keep making the same complaint again and again), then we get left with the outcasts who get some small satisfaction out of a mutual circle-jerk of baiting. Once the last positive voice, or anyone wanted to be reasonable about having a discussion, has left the building then they can claim victory and then move on like locusts to some other place where the circle will just get repeated. It takes two to troll, and due to the polarization the game brings means there's been rich pickings in this little corner of the net.

- The flight model over 18,000ft is not accurate for Oct80 fuel in 1940.

People started losing faith with Oleg when the release dates started to be missed and the lack of any real info, anyone remember the new years message 2007 "i hope to finish BOB in the new year"?

That and Oleg turning up at the opening day of COD and signing boxes only to never be seen again.

I don't know which forum you read, but I don't have the impression that Oleg Maddox is bashed here on a regular basis. Luthier/Ilya? The CloD devs in general? Yep, he/they receive some serious flak, but I have to say, rightly so.

I will always be greatly thankful for what Oleg did with IL2 and Forgotten Battles, and to a lesser degree with the following products.

As far as CloD is concerned, I'm just incredibly disappointed with the man. To this day we haven't heard a single line from the "father" of the series as to what exactly happened. Right up to the release he acted as the front man for the game, well knowing about the unfinished state of the game. Then he just disappeared. What exactly his position was within the development team at that time no one knows. We only know that at some time during the development he left, for whatever reasons.

A lot of people bought CloD because of Oleg's reputation and achievements in the past, and were trusting him to deliver a quality product. This trust has been broken, and quite a few people feel actually deceived, which is no surprise.

I have waited many months for a "letter to the community" from Oleg, explaining what happened. Nothing, though.

And that is what disappoints me so very much.

I'd be surprised if Oleg Maddox could comment on Maddox Games freely. Apart from the fact that he may own a chunk of it, have a contractual obligation not trash it etc, people hoping for a Mea culpa are a bit optimistic IMHO.

Unfinished product is unfinished. Oleg disappeared. What more is there to say? Ilya very very very occasionally will make a comment, or at least used to on the forums, but very rarely since the release of the game. More often than not it is Blacksix who will come in now with some "community updtate" that has more screens from BfM but not much on the actual state of the released game and of course that always on the horizon performance patch....

It's like the present team has no idea what the previous team did. So in order to fix the issues, they either have to "reverse engineer" a solution or re-write entire sections of code (graphics re-write anyone?).

It's been frutrating since release - and we have yet to see anything other than a "beta" patch.

I haven't posted on this forum for a long time, to be honest I have been patiently waiting for CloD to live up to the level we all expected given the information provided by the developers during development. To be honest my expectations (but not desires) are to see it fail. The question posted by the OP is kind of missing the point, he almost hit it with his last option.

"-- Is it that people's hope for the sim were built up to an impossible level (eg. by imagination or by features that were announced in 2007 and officially 'withdrawn' before release) - and they are turning their disappointment outwards into rage?"

This is close but the fact is many of the features were not "officially withdrawn" as you seem to think. They were not found to be missing until after release. While imagination can and does run riot in some people, it is usually the result of hype. It is the result of promises or claims made by those "marketing" their wares. If large parts of these claims are deliberately vague, or the person making the claims knows they are false, then who's fault is it that customers imaginations run riot? It was only a few weeks or months before release that we found out many "planned" features were to be dropped.

While I do not claim to speak for everyone, it seems to me that people have become less and less patient over the past few months because no tangible progress is being made (new sounds aside). CloD was released 16 months ago and since then nothing much has been changed. The last official patch was over one year ago on May 2011 and many serious issues are still present. The latest beta patches have actually degraded the graphics, so much for the graphics re-write. On top of this we find out the developers are working on not one, but two sequels (BoM and that MMO). People are simply starting to lose patience and faith in the developers ability to fix their sim.

I'm sorry but given the nature and wording of OP's "list of reasons" it seems he has already decided that the poor developer is the real victim, not the customers. He entirely overlooks the fact that sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one. No conspiracy theories about old IL-2 haters coming out of the woodwork after all these years required.

EDIT: I have edited the following paragraph to better qualify my intended meaning.

IMHO the true reason for many peoples scorn, distrust and anger is really very simple. It seems they are of the opinion that Cliffs of Dover is crap. This is the real reason why Oleg/MG/Luthier/IC are no longer idolised by many people.

It takes years to build up a good reputation, it only takes seconds to destroy it.

Wasn't it that his son developed a serious illness that prompted Oleg to give up designing flight sims and concentrate on his family instead.

I do seem to remember that was the reason given at the time. If that was the case who would not do the same?

Please don't make the mistake of thinking that Oleg is the target for all the scorn/hatred/anger the OP is referring to. It is the developers in general and their lack of tangible progress that is the real target. I am not claiming the OP deliberately named Oleg as the target, it might have been an honest mistake, but it is very clever that the thread is entitled "The Rise and Fall of Oleg Maddox". It sets up a nice straw man argument by making it look like Oleg is the target and not the developers in general.

I mean attacking poor Oleg, those evil haters.

Not thinking at all at the moment, just got in from work and on auto pilot browsing my usual haunts.

I was just saying is all......

If you want to fight with someone 2005AD, fight with me. Let's see how that goes.

Describe how you find CloD 'crap'. Or are you just trolling?

I'm not picking a fight, I noted that the title of the thread (and by extension the OP) implies only Oleg Maddox has been the target of all the negative posts on this forum. Given this direct implication, either intentionally or unintentionally it sets up Oleg the individual as the strawman argument. Make it out that the haters are attacking Oleg and not the developers in general and it makes it far easier to defend against their argument. Like I said, it might not be intentional, but it does without question have that effect, as has been demonstrated by Brigstocks post already.

NOTE: I am not attacking Brigstock.



Not trolling, I had though about elaborating on this point but didn't feel it necessary. My apologies, I should have qualified that statement with an IMHO. Of course it is all subjective, but my only interest is offline single player and in this area due to the atrocious AI I find CloD to be utter crap.

Fair enough - I'm in a foul mood today, so coming out webbed feet swinging is counter-productive, sorry

I agree CloD single player AI is pretty crappy still, and I am also frustrated that they haven't sorted something out by now.

Honestly, I don't think Oleg has #%&*$# to do with it. It's frustration with the current crop of developers that are sullying what was once the flagship franchise.

Oleg had about 7 years and 7 mill, he has plenty to do with it, Luthier picked up the pieces of a fecked up development and added to it.

I agree with all of your post, but especially this. I am astonished at how little real progress has been made since the sim was released. 16 months now! Like most I was disappointed by its state at release, but never in my wildest imaginings did I expect that there would be so little improvement almost a year and a half later. The endless waiting for extremely meagre rewards, especially the whole continuing saga waiting for the next Steam patch (previous one October 2011 !!) has exhausted most of my patience and faith.

I still hope that we get to see COD reach something close to its potential, but...and this is something I've been thinking for a while now...given the absolute fiasco of the release and their continued inability to make progress after all this time do they really deserve to succeed? One or two serious errors are forgivable in a project of this complexity, but it seems there has been chronic and continuous mismanagement on an epic scale for COD. There seems to have been continuous over-reaching and poor choices right from the start (e.g. numerous highly detailed vehicles and tanks in a Battle of Britain sim but NO Royal Navy ships!), and this trend seems to be continuing with the news about the MMO. COD has been a really bad case of running before you can even crawl.

So, do they deserve to succeed and pull it off after all this? I'm really not sure. If COD was a horse it would have been put out of its misery a long time ago.




A few parts of it are good. A lot of it is really bad. As we all know there is masses of 'potential', but that becomes frustrating as well when they are unable to realise it, except as some shimmering mirage that continually sits on the horizon and never seems to get any closer.

Overall it is crap.

Actually, I think he stated he was getting out of the business to pursue other things and because he wanted a life-style change. His own health was a deciding factor if my memory serves, as well as time away from his family. Being a developer and face of a brand can be very exhausting and stressful!

I can't ever remember reading a post here bashing Oleg, except for people being unhappy that he left. It's not Oleg who really "fell", it was the team he left in charge when he moved on.

Here's my own story, because I certainly can't speak for anyone but myself. To save you guys some time, the "too long didn't read" version is this...

My opinions are negative because I had so much invested hope and expectations in this game, that when they released an alpha quality version of the game as a retail product, I didn't know whether to rage or cry or both.

Full story:

Been playing flight sims since the old Atari days. My top flight sims of all time still include the old LucasFilm trilogy, Battlehawks, Their Finest Hour, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. For me personally, the last truly great flight sim was SWOTL, with IL-2 Sturmovik being a runner up. (this is based purely on my own personal ENJOYMENT of the games, nothing more)

IL-2 was great for the time, I played it a lot, and had some really fun times on LAN with it and also making movies with it. When CLOD was first announced, I was over the moon about it. I loved "Their Finest Hour" and was hoping for another fantastic Battle of Britain sim. (I never really got into the Battle of Britain game that Rowan made and others still mod to this day)

I was so excited for this game that I was actually concerned about not being able to play it, once I moved to the other side of the planet to be together permanently with my wife. Yes, that's how much I really wanted to play it. When I should have been worried about a thousand other more important things, I was worried I wouldn't be able to play CLOD whenever it released...

Fast forward all these years, and I finally have the game in my anxious hands. It was like being 5 years old and opening a Christmas present, only to discover Santa had left you a sloppy pile of dog mess inside the wrapper.

It's been over a year since then. I think I've played it for about 14-15 hours tops. Yeah, the game I was so anxious for, for so many years, I've only played an average of 1 hour per month.

I have no ill feelings towards Oleg. I think he made the right move by abandoning ship. However I do believe I'm entitled to express my discontent with the game and its development team on an internet forum devoted to the game.

I'll never personally attack another SimHQ member over a game, but I just have to say that I'm bewildered that anyone can defend this game anymore. I really want to know how some people could possibly enjoy playing it. It runs fine on my PC, but what's there just isn't worth playing to me, personally.

Why am I still checking the forums for this game then? 2 reasons.

1. I'm checking to see if the ship has finally sunk with all hands.
2. It's amusing to see the reactions from other disgruntled fanssimmers, whenever any kind of news seeps out.

So that's about it. I'm not sure I could express any clearer why I'm so disappointed, disgruntled, and disenchanted with CLOD and the dev team.

Hogdriver, pretty much my story to a tee.

I also spent 2 weeks taking over 200 pictures of pre war houses, pubs and farm buildings and sent them to Oleg to help with the early years of development, was very glad to help and would of done anything to assist Oleg back then.

I met Oleg back at the official announcement of COD at the Birmingham flight sim show and found him a great chap, very excited about BOB(as it was).

When Oleg took questions about BOM at the end of the presentation, the first question turned into a "thank you from the community for IL2" and Oleg got a huge round of applause from everyone there.

I wonder if the same thing would happen now?

Hogdriver - that's well written, so thanks for that.

Hey, we're getting a bit of a AA meeting vibe in here

"I spent a lifetime in hell and it only took me twelve steps to get to heaven."

Don't get me wrong though, it's good stuff to discuss and it's an interesting topic.

Not sure where I seen it at, but within the last month there was an announcement that Oleg had joined another software company. If I run across it again, I'll post a link.

There was a lot of hype preceeding CloD...some by us potential users, based on what we'd been given with the IL-2 series and a whole lot by the developers. All these new "bells and whistles" that everyone would be amazed with...double decker buses, moving blades of glass and other things that the majority of WWII era flight simmers could care less about. And, to top it off...what was the feature that was most prominently hailed when CloD was released? Spitgirl? In the words of ESPN's NFL crew...."C'mon, man."

It just hasn't lived up to the hype, plain and simple.

I haven't seen alot of Oleg bashing, some people still think Oleg should come back and fix the mess. Oleg couldn't get the job done, and was unhappy with the percentage of the profits that went to the publishers. He must have decided rightly there was more monies to be made in other software developments. The fact that the sim had to be released before it was finished must have also drove Oleg away.

Luthier has drawn a bad rap since the Pacific Fighters days when people expected the whole Pacific theater to be modeled, combined with the aircraft fiasco, which weren't necessarily his fault.

Oleg tried to accomplish too much, and couldn't optimize the code enough for the average computer. If you had a decent highly optimized computer the sim didn't run that bad, with few if any CTD's or Launcher exe problems. There was little excuse for the poor AI, especially the non working AI Commands, and the particle (clouds) problems. The poorly optimized code or unoptimized code that required a graphic model rewrite, indicates some major code problems. In the years to come if the rewrite/ patches works and the sim survives to meet its full potential, Luthier will be a hero, if not, he will be forgotten, and people will have moved on.

Maybe here?

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3600895/Re_The_future_of_COD.html#Post3600895

Well, as much as I'd like to think that Oleg had no part in the main COD debacle, something must have started going wrong with development of this title when it dragged on past 2007, and this was when he was in charge. I have trouble understanding how things went so wrong after the success of IL2, and how some things (eg AI, commands not working) remained broken all the way until the release and past it. I do wonder whether Oleg would have been able fared better than Luthier to put things back on track (it's hard to see how it could have been done worse though).

In any case, he left, that's his right, and he holds no duty to get back to us, the ones that inherited the project are the ones that have a responsibility to us. I still really wonder what was happening when he left, but most likely we'll never know. I still think that we lost something when Oleg left. I liked his vision of a sim. Nowadays, there are other companies with big ambitions regarding the ww2 theatres, probably more talent to produce cutting edge content, but a rotten sense of how to make money and what business model to apply - I don't think Oleg ever saw us as an opportunity to milk money or considered it ethical and acceptable to transform our hobby into a pokie machine - some people out there do and unfortunately seem to succeed better...

So, the frog she talk of a thing like that which is above what I type down up there! Yakkity yak yak it goes with respectfully. Perhaps she is better make up a ribbit ribbit sounds for his infos! . YES! I'M STILL FUNNY GUY WITH A JOKES LAUGHING OUT LOAD OMG! Heck it all dude guy and fearless thing, the steam she hates me with a lot. THAT'S WHY I AM TALKING ABOUT! So I'm not fondling her with anymore.

And I'm not died yet! Not with a long shot!

Til we meet again cheeky frog.

I've been reading all forums but I havent read anything serious said against Oleg ...do you have a link to such post?
I think CoD needs a few patches then it will be ok, currently the hardware requirements are the biggest limiting factor for me,
but I'm pretty much looking forward to skin for CoD later.

The "Rise and Fall of Oleg Maddox" is better analyzed within constraints. Rather, the "Rise and Fall of Oleg Maddox Within the Flight Sim Community", now we've got something to work with.

No doubt Oleg stood the air combat sim world on its head with the release of IL-2, followed in rapid succession with a series of add-ons that vastly expanded the original title. While most of the add-ons were not major evolutions of the game, but tweaks (some good, some not so much) and additional content (aircraft, maps, etc.), on the whole, the community was vibrant and came to expect good things from Father Oleg. Now there existed a true World War II flight sim, just pick your theater and have at it.

Accolades poured in from throughout the PC gaming world. Expectations were built on continued "more and better". When Oleg said his next work was going to be a quantum leap above IL-2, fans were understandably excited. The dated graphics engine first seen in 2001 would benefit from six years of computer graphics advancement and increased computing power would allow things only dreamed of when IL-2 first hit the streets. Coupled with snippets of things envisioned by the developer, fans salivated heavily and awaited the eminent release. There was every reason to expect Oleg could and would deliver.

Five years later, with poor communication stifling rather than building excitement, an obviously incomplete game was pushed out the door. Expectations, real and imagined, were doused with cold, hard reality and most of the faithful were not pleased, wasting no time letting it be known. In the heady times of a young IL-2, Oleg was a regular participant in sim discussions. He gave rise to what have become cliches in the sim world..."2 weeks", "it's a feature", for instance. Over time, Oleg became less visible and the consensus was he was too busy putting the finishing touches on what was to be the greatest flight sim ever! So, even the staunchest Oleg supporters must've been dumbfounded when it was announced he had left the Cliffs of Dover team. The embodiment of all that was good, all that was expected, had left the building. The best they could do was hope Ilya and the team would continue their work to salvage the game and in so doing, the trust that had been given would not be broken.

In the real world, particularly in business and entertainment, you're only as good as your last success. Oleg had jettisoned the canopy and exited the cockpit. No matter what happens with CloD, he has removed himself as the recipient of adoration. Criticism is not so particular. We'll likely never know what happened. In the end, it doesn't really matter. Oleg may well be the game developer equivalent of the music industry's one-hit-wonder. Topping the last hit is always fraught with pitfalls and we may never know what Oleg Maddox was capable of outside of the original IL-2. Developers with more successes than Oleg's have come and gone (Microprose, for instance), but that's the way things go. If you can't continue to deliver the goods, your reputation can only take you so far.

Don't know if you know it or not, but OM had all the reasons to leave. And all those reasons were not related to gamedev at all. Those were really serious health related family circumstances

There have been reports here at SimHQ that soon after Oleg left the scene he was seen on a sunny beach drinking Daiquiris, with money hanging out of every pocket.

No, I don't know it. I'm sure Oleg had his reasons, whatever they may be and he doesn't need to justify it to people who aren't intimately involved in his life. I'm a rather private person and am guarded about sharing my personal life, so I understand it. The original post stimulated conversation and I simply expressed my perspective. I harbor no resentment against Oleg, but I do hate to see his work go unfinished. That, as much as anything, will shape people's remembrance of Oleg.

Some even say that he grew Dreadlocks and obtained citizenship in Jamaica, to pursue his life long dream of becoming a Ska-Fusion Musical superstar. Sadly, rumour has it that a gang of vengeful 'Yardies' became jealous of his rising fame on the Ska-Fusion scene....and sent out a Rude Boy hit squad to "bust im up mon, see?". He was last seen playing a Dubstep version of a well known Dire Straits song in Kingston Town......Cheekily titled "Roubles for Nothing".

Others say he bought the small Island of 'Mu-Mu' in the Polynesian South Pacific.....where he opened a Marmite factory in the Eastern Steppes, and he is now worshipped as the Demi-God "Marm-Ra, The Ever Living" by the indigenous population. The Mu-muans believe that Oleg created the Heavens and the Earth, and that everytime a Storm occurs it is the wrath of Marm-Ra manifest and given form; angrily farting into his Gold Plated Jacuzzi. When the Sun shines, this is because Marm-Ra-Oleg is greatly pleased....chuckling to himself happily as he counts his bejewelled caskets full of Sim-cash.

Who among us can say what really happened, and confirm or deny the truth of such tales? Not I. What I do know is that the past is a very distant place, yet not our Master; for all is in flux. Look forward, cherishing the memories of happier times as you throw your copy of CoD in the bin, laughing maniacally as the bitter, stinging tears of apocalyptically furious Nerd-rage stream down your face.

But I like marmite the way it is. This is concerning

Said to myself in a whisper..the horror!

Where is all this Oleg bashing?
Yes, people wonder what the real reasons for his leaving were, and it has been wildly speculated on.
I'm still thankful for the years of pleasure that his IL2 series have given me.
It's only natural alot feel let down by CLoD, and many vent their feelings, but I can't remember many posts where Oleg was getting it seriously in the head..
He was, and still is in my mind an icon to the WWII flight sime game world.

Absolutely Trooper, I'm not bashing him at all personally mate, just having a laugh. No one really bashes him here, as you say. He will always be a legend of the genre, nothing will change that. Sh*t happens and life goes on. Thats about it really. Ho hum.

That's what I said. I doesn't have #%&*$# all to do with Oleg Mattox.

I thought I was fecking crackers till I met you Catch. Catch the funny JOKE CLOWN! Hahahaha, my wooden leg broken today is be. Tomorrow mended is sometimes.......With FPS many more, but see do you the bananas of the yesterday? Fix will the patch! The tears must leave to the place of shadow. Always, this can be the way. Understand what is the way I say, and happy easter eggs to the grandmother. Always the fun she has in teh particles! Particles are make them sad. Silly Cow of sausage! Mooo. Nada the progress can see, it is not being. She bit my ankle, HE111 did....Clawing with its furry feet! But the eagle will roost in the snow.

Been on the Newky Brown Bigs lol ??

If you think thats mental, try translating Sukhoi.ru with Firefoxs 'Globefish'.......Its frikkin hilarious, the utter, incomprehensible bollocks and nonsense that ensues.

HAHAHA OMG I laugh hardly! You are very wise guy. But, I'm sad a lot on your wooden leg. Here, take this glue to fix!

MUHAHA I MAKE A JOKE OMG! THEY ARE ALL GOOD DON'T MENTION IT!

I must go now for I have things.

Olegish?

Where's Ming?.. he'll sort all this jibberish out!

I think Oleg thanked Ubi the same way as any of us would have done for leaving him to the wolves (lawyers) of the American aircraft companies. Think about it. IL2 was hacked, quite well I must add. Ubi did not protect their rights. Rights lost, because if you don't protect them you loose them. Another company gets the FM code and does a trial run for a new flight sim game. Now there is one in beta that's graphics performace is unparalelled and runs on 5-6 year technologies like a dream. I think Oleg is a lot smarter than most people think. Ask yourself, what would you have done if you were locked into a contract for a sequel?

Is that what they call a dog fight?

What Craterman says looks very clever.
Many things are strange with these Russian companies, especially about some kind of "bridges" between them.

Oleg was definitely unhappy with the cut the publishers contracted from his work. As far as the IL-2 FM's were concerned, they were given to the Gaijin developers. I doubt he considered them a threat, and it held true as most in the IL-2 community stayed with IL-2 1946 after a quick test of the WOP sim. Olegs hopes for his new game engine and FM's haven't come to fruition yet, and now WT may actually be a threat. I'm not sure yet if WT is bringing to the table what I want in a WW2 aircombat sim. The new IL-2 series is trying to deliver much of what I want, but unfortunately they haven't delivered yet either. Hopefully both sims will survive and push each other to be better. I know I will initially support both, but WT business model looks like it could become expensive, which won't be a problem "IF" it delivers what I'm looking for. These type of sims should cost more considering the amount of work required and the lower market share.

I dunno, all this talk about Oleg makes me want to play il2:1946, which is what I'm gonna do. Stand by IJN, here comes the P-38 Liiiiightniiiiiiiinnnnggg!!!!!

The fact is Storm of War/CLOD has been managed less than ideally from the beginning. Ultimately, Oleg, the leader of the project paid the final price for what ensued. I am sure his exit was probably demanded by Ubisoft/IC management. He probably didn't leave voluntarily. How much control Oleg really had over the development, versus IC management and Ubisoft is debatable. We simply don't know. I am guessing Oleg was a project developer given no leeway over fixed goals with an impossible deadline and limited resources.

Of course, there were many missteps on the way that weren't his doing. IC/Ubisoft released the sim in its very unfinished date-some would say Beta- in Europe months before the US. This allowed months of poor press and public bashing while a ridiculous price disparity was spread across the pond. That led to sales being lost

Then there is decision of using Steam. Simulators are a niche market. Using Steam as the only medium for distribution and DRM was a poor idea from the start. Weather you like Steam or hate it with a passion, forcing it on all users was a very divisive decision that alienated a huge number of virtual pilots. CLOD is the only flight simulator that solely uses Steam for its DRM and distribution. If you own CLOD, you are using Steam. There is no way around it. DCS uses Starforce/Proactive. Rise of flight has its own DRM. The original IL-2 used a disc check. Yes all the games above are available on Steam-except for ROF of course-but you can buy stand alone versions free of Steam. The use of Steam is optional. Unlike CLOD, where if you hate Steam there isn't any alternative. Unlike Call of Duty, or other blockbuster hits, CLOD could ill afford to loose any sales. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the already small base just walked away and never returned.

Finally, the game had a terrible single player with unfinished campaigns. There goes more sales. Just like an aircraft accident, CLOD was a series of poor decisions from the beginning. I highly doubt Oleg had much control any of them. I am sure Luthier is even in less control.

In my guess/opinion, if CLOD doesn't get fixed anytime soon, the Battle of Moscow will become vaporware. Let's face it, if after seven years they can't get the base program fixed, why would battle of Moscow be any better?

Don't forget hyperlobby - slap on the community's face to omit that from day 1, it was

Simple, the game did not live up to the hype. As for me being loyal to Oleg and 1C, I bought every edition of Il2 that was released for sale. I would gladly support CloD if they were as loyal to the consumer.