AS a soldier you have low situational awareness. You can rarely hear when a machinegun fires at you unless the smack smack of bullets hitting you gives it away. The explosion echos are premium in the game, but everything else in awareness lacks. Unfortunately this is vital as a soldier, which already is handicapped. Also, soldiers move about as limber as Fat *******, in the game. These have to be fixed.

I played the revaluation period and was pleased with the advances, but the infantry needs a boost. Also, it would be nice to give the Germans the Sdkfz 251 armored halftrack and a twin engine bomber. Also give the GErmans the Panzer IV, which did play a large role in France 1940, more so then the A13. Maybe then the Chars will not beat the living hell out of everything except the Flak 36. (thank god we have aa guns now)

Lack of SA? Tell me about it!

The infantry model doesn't even have a decent padlock, only snapviews and panning!!! Sheesh, talk about CRS pandering to the WB/AW/AH/MP/snapview crowds!

The next version will have the He-111.


They also said at http://www.hq.wwiionline.com that the infantry is getting re-done.

I found it strange that the SA of a foot soldier was much less than that of a fighter pilot stuck in the crowded cockpit of a Bf109E.

You can look over your shoulder when you're flying a fighter.

If you're an infantry man, your head can only turn 30 degrees. To look over your shoulder, you literally have to turn in place.

------------------
"Forget it Ming, Dale's with me." - Flash Gordon

Also, have you ever noticed how you can hear your own footsteps, but not those of a bad guy walking up behind you as you lie silently in a bush somewhere? How backwards is that? I don't need to hear it when I'm running, but I sure do want to hear that German clodhopper hitting the concrete floor around the bunker corner before he gets to me! A lot of the advantages a defending grunt has are largely negated in the game--I am really hoping that this upcoming 'infantry patch' shows some significant improvements to an obviously kludgy model.

'Infantry patch?' This is news to me. Any word on what it'll entail or approximately when it'll come out? If good reviews come in after it I may try the game again.

I believe it'll be with version 1.6 due in about 60 days. The only thing interesting I've heard about it is the ability to climb and jump will be added. Oh yeah, and also a reload animation along with some new dieing animation I believe.

It is actually supposed to be a complete revamping of the model. Originally it was only going to be a dying animation, jumping/climbing and reloading, but Mo hinted to it being competely revamped.


Tim

I understand that WW2 has become such a flop> (avoiding the nasty words) that stores now have it for 9.99, and still cant sell it.I for one fell for the low price and got it,,BOY was I taken for a ride on that one, I should of got an extra steak for dinner.
Anyway! I hear the goverment is doing a poll on low IQs...= How many here still paying to play this game on-line?

If one takes the time to get into ww2online it is outstanding IMHO. You do need some decent hardware to run it and it helps a great deal to join a squad.

I have never been one to require great graphics and it certainly does NOT shine in that department, but game play is exceptional IMHO.

I now find it the most engrossing sim I have ever played. I have waited a long time for the virtual battlefield to become a reality and at least for me ... it has finally arrived.

There is something better than ww2online in each category (flight-sim, navel, fps, tanks), but no other sim combines it all in a huge world with literally thousands of people on in the same persistant world. There is a minor strategic aspect to go along with the major tactical aspect. The strategic aspect should be getting a lot better in the coming months.

Bottom line: there is nothing close to this experience out there period that I've seen. Unless you need the thrill a second quake type game play it can be extremely entertaining. Board game nerds would be especially happy with it IMHO.

Don't knock it unless you have tried it lately and spent some time with an organized squad and are playing it on a decent cpu.

I'd say the closest thing out there to WWIIO is OFP, followed by H&D as a distant second. Naturally those are offline games with online as a secondary function, but the comparison holds if you play them online.
For me, spawn limits really dragged down my enjoyment. I never learned the "secret" to getting successful missions, so I get a decent tank only rarely. I dislike the infantry model as it stands, and never much cared for the flying part of it.
Tanking still has its flaws, but IMHO it's the best part of this game and the part that was most severely hurt by limits. Strangely, Chars were less of a nuisance when tank numbers were unlimited as there would be plenty of Flak 88s, Pz3s, and others to fight them.
Now one Char can go on a rampage for an hour as in a 1v1 battle (what happens most of the time) the Char will ALWAYS kill the other tank before it even has a chance to sustain damage. I can't tell you how many times I've lost my Pz3's gunner to a single shot from the Char's turret, nevermind the uber front gun.
It's like: struggle to get hold of a Pz3 (maybe a P38t), drive for half an hour, hear "plink" and lose gunner and possibly cmdr and/or driver, look around and see Char sitting behind tree right before 2nd shot takes out the rest of the crew and/or sets you on fire.

Frankly, historical weapons and capabilities without historical constraints on their use (and I don't mean supply, I mean tactics) ruins it for me. In 1940, France kept its Chars like armored AT guns. They didn't roam the countryside with them. They were also greatly outnumbered.

I think there need to be side-based spawn limits ie only 1 Char allowed for every 3 Pz3s out there at the time or something. Everytime I played as a tank in that 2 week trial, it ended with me cursing the Char. A13s, the light tanks, no problem. They can kill me, I can kill them, and the A13s gun is also strong, like the Chars turret...but at least I can kill one by myself if I'm the only one out there!
That's one of the reasons I didn't sign up when the trial ended.
Damn chars.

The Jedi Master

Jedi,

Sounds like a fair assesment. The squad thing is actually pretty darn important cause going out alone or even without a coordinated effort is a death wish. There are tons of tactical things to learn in order to survive.

Squads have recon (usually air, sometimes 88s,paks or flaks on hills) that alert pz to chars and other threats. Squads go out with several pzs at once and use bounding tactics. So if you are with 3 or 4 buddies only one of you is probably going to get ambushed if that. Improves your odds considerably, plus while your bounding the other tanks got their optics on looking out for you. To play this game right requires teamwork (largely why I believe this is the best game I've ever played) and when done right is the most satisfying victories there is ... against other humans.

I agree the infantry model needs some major work which is being done BTW. The thing that I find most disturbing about wwiionline is the flight models which they think are so wonderful, but in my mind they are something less than wonderful ... especially the uber stuka.

I garentee ya Jedi, if you spent a month with an organized squad you would feel a whole lot different about it. Squads teach you things while your playing that would take months and months if ever to learn on your own ... much less 2 weeks.

Still, I completely understand where you are coming from and wouldn't blaim you for not bothering again with it. It can be frustrating, especially alone.

I agree in Flight sim and FPS part, but where you can get better WWII tank sim? Panzer Elite is good, but IMHO WWIIonline beats it. Panzer elite has problems in damage modelling (By that I mean it doesent calculate slope effect correctly,) and shell flying instantly to target.

If there is better WWII tank sim, I really like to know. I probaply buy that game instantly.

Well, if I manage to get my security clearance *crosses fingers* and I keep this new job the $10/month wouldn't be an issue. My friend has spent a lot of time on it since Sept and just got promoted again.
Oh well, maybe when they have a major upgrade again.

The Jedi Master

Well, I have good news concerning the Char. The next update, which is 1.53, will introduce the British Matilda tank. Now the reason that's good is because that means British players will NO LONGER be able to spawn Chars. In other words, Chars will only be driven by French players and Matildas will only be driven by British players. That right there will effectively cut down the number of Chars that you will encounter on the battlefield. As far as historical performance goes, the Matilda was indeed more heavily armored than the PZ IIIH, but it was slower and its main gun had roughly the same firepower as the 37mm gun on the PZ III.

I definitely feel Jedi's pain when it comes to encountering Chars in the game. The key though is team-work. I have taken part in many engagements where I would be part of a 5 or 6 tank group and we usually had no problem in dealing with any Chars because one or two of us would be able to hit the radiator or hit the rear of the turret. Of course, you NEVER, EVER want to come face-to-face with a Char. You will die. When I finally learned those lessons, I greatly cut down the number of times I got killed by a Char.

I don't think it's a flop. CRS is still releasing new updates for the game and the game is continuing to get better with each successive patch. Yes, the game was a disaster when it was first released last June but belive me, the way the game is now, it is literally 1000x better. CRS has really made tremendous strides in improving this game. I also know the game hasn't flopped because WWII Online is still ONLINE!! The day the game goes offline, that's when we'll know it flopped. Of course, I really doubt that will happen.

Oh good. The current dying animation for infantry is pretty lame. It's like the body becomes instantly stiff and then it falls to the ground and kinda "slides" until the player despawns.

Yeah, its similar to the way people died in the original "All Quiet on the Western Front", spinning around and what not, not realistic.

Xylitol,

I stand corrected. I know of no better WWII tank sim. In my defense however, I was thinking of Steel Beast, but that isn't WWII of course. SB is the best tank sim of all time IMHO.

I think people not giving WWIIOnline much of a chance are missing history in the making. Within the next 6 months it will probably put most of the other online WW2 things completely out of business.

I agree this completely. There are (for now) better flight sims out there but WWIIonline flight model isnt that bad. There are lot better FPS but again WWIIonlines model isnt that bad (althought this is part, that should be updated next). For tank simmers WWIIonline is best WWII tank sim out there. WWIIonline is getting better patch after patch and "soon" (inside joke in wwiionline boards) there arent anything like it. Even now most of games feel empty after playing WWIIonline.

EDIT: I was quessing that you were thinking SB when I wrote my post but as you said it isnt WWII tank sim

[This message has been edited by Xylitol (edited 02-22-2002).]