1C Games Studio Game Night 2013

http://www.simhq.com/air-combat/air-combat-previews/1c1c-games-game-night-2013-uss-hornet.html

http://www.simhq.com/air-combat/il2-sturmovik-battle-stalingrad-preview.html

Great read, looking forward to both Assault Squad 2 and IL-2. Seems a bit early to pre-order IL-2 though.

Did you notice if they also demoed Assault Squad 2, if they did I I know what I'm scouring the internet for

No demo of Assault Squad 2 at the event, just Nuclear Union and IL2. If I see anything I'll let you know.

Great Article EP, glad you took the words out of my mouth. lol


sorry for the blurry pic, but bar tenders aren't good at taking them I guess.

Thanks for the pre-view.

It'll be interesting to see what lessons they have learnt from the development of RoF. The mission editor doesn't seem to be one of them though. Although I haven't even looked at the editor myself (fine one to start chucking stones) I've heard grumblings about it's complexity and shortcomings which, if ArmA III is a useful benchmark, might have some truth behind it.

I hope they've also taken a good long hard look at the method of constructing the FM's. While it might be one of ROF's great strengths, it's complex inflexibility also seems to be a bit of an Achilles heal. That said, with more original, accurate and complex information available by builders, pilots and testers who had a better understanding of what they were doing, then the base model should be far smoother with less gaps to be filled in. Also on the same subject, the combat environment is in some respects more forgiving than WW1 in that aircraft separate quicker, out of effective guns range, and turning takes longer, also allowing for better separation before a shot can be taken.

As an idle thought, and it was mentioned in the pre-view, I wonder if it actually wouldn't be a good idea to have a generic FM or two, with some basic variability in number inputs/outputs. I only reason I say this is because there are some aircraft that might be useful to include but wouldn't necessarily be good sellers. One such aircraft that has already reared it's head on the forums is the Ju 52, given it's role in resupply for the trapped Germans probably an important addition but never the less probably not a great money maker for 777. It might also open up content creation to third parties, one of the big draws of the original IL2. Of course they would only be AI flown, unless demand was sufficient that 777 saw a market for including an AFM and cockpit. It just seems to be to be rather restrictive to only include content that might be good sellers and also, given the complexity and time required for the proper FM's, very limiting. Hopefully 777 can streamline this aspect of the development cycle as regular updates and fresh content on a regular basis gives a sim 'wings' so to speak and stops it going stale.

I am however looking forward to flying with the enhanced Digital Nature engine and more complex DM.

Great article.. I think this will be a winner.

Great article and I will certainly be a supporter of this as I have been for ROF and other IL2 titles. After finishing the article however my wife did ask why I was in tears on the floor. The only words I could get out were... "ROF Mission Editor"

Tears of laughter? Sorrow? Happiness?

Unfortunately sorrow. In Flight sims I use mission editors a lot and over the years I have had the opportunity to use many, if not most, of them. Now I hate to say anything bad about ROF because on the whole it is so very good but I must admit the ROF mission editor is conceptually the worst I have ever used. I did learn to use it (requires proper tongue positioning, eastern black magic and the patience of Zeus) and I have created some missions but the pain vs. fun factor keeps me from doing much. My hope is that once they do all the good Battle of Stalingrad stuff they are doing they will re-hire the guy that did the original IL2 editor and let him do his thing.

The 1st Assault Squad was not top-down.....is AS2 really going to be top-down?

Possible bad word choice on my part. The external view of Assault Squad 2 looks similar to Assault Squad 1. "Over the shoulder third-person" might be a better term.

I'm still looking for some visuals on AS2 that I can share with you guys.

Glad you got some time with BoS. I am waiting for the early version to come out so I can play it.

Thanks, I figured as much....3/4 isometric might also work. Here are some screens (definitely looks like an MoW game):

Nice preview of BoS, thanks! Glad to hear you think it is tracking well.

Going to be a great year for new combat sims with this and the DCS WWII title!

H

Looks promising, but Cliffs of Dover still stings bad enough to make me hold tight to my money right now.

I'll add a +1 to the comments good and bad.
Sort of a shame they had to model some bimbo's with the Hornets logo in sight, a cheap marketing ploy thats not respectful to the real women who wear the uniform.
I like **** as much as the next dude, but..wtf, over

Thanks for the preview,

I'm totaly not convinced, putting aside the hot chicks and the other staged parameters, much of what you wrote was also written in previews of CloD; that turned out to be not a castle but a favela.

I think the best thing for BoS and the people that don't wan't to bump their head again(and their bucks, pounds, euros...) is that the BoS team release a SP/MP demo prior to release of BOS so people can make their own minds up on their own rigs.


And that they be clear with things like official system requirements because *probably* doesn't cut it.


After CloD for me the most logical thing is to not preorder and see where this goes and after making my own mind up, good or sour.

How long the preorder will last is anyones guess, but I really don't think you need to worry so much. BoS is being built on the strong foundations of Rof, so it's not a whole new engine as was CoD, which is why things have progressed so quickly. More importantly there is an extended beta period, first in late September-ish and then an even larger one from the winter. Prior to release, and nobody is forcing anyone to buy it prior to that, we will be able to have a good long look and thourough assesment of what BoS has to offer. It will be interesting to see what new ground BoS might break, but even if it's nothing earth shattering BoS should offer a good solid sim, along the lines of RoF which is certainly no bad thing. The only major weakness in RoF that I can see was, the set in stone FM's, hopefully this won't be an issue with BoS , because of better technical information to begin with and, fingers crossed, they have learn't some lessons from RoF. I'm sure they are aware of the shortcomings of some of the aircraft in RoF, it has caused a lot of angst on the forums, it would be nice if this didn't repeat it'self in BoS.

Specs for the IL-2 Battle of Sturmovik PCs:

AMD FX-8350
Radeon 7990
128GB SSD
16GB DDR3

It's disturbing and a bit pathetic that they have booth babes - sorry, 'spokesmodels' - in 2013. I thought simulation was meant to be the mature end of the computer-gaming industry.

Spiro Agnew...

La-5 is going to be porked to all hell. They will make the A3 a dog.

Do you have a single graph to back that up? :P

For a company that needs to regain the trust of its fans, after all the controversy that followed the release of Cliffs of Dover, the price for the standard edition seems a bit steep to me. Especially considering that we'll have to pay for future planes. While the price for the premium edition is just ridiculous.

The Oculus Rift is just the latest iteration in a long line of failures from a tech that's been a dead end for 30 years. Five years from now, you'll say "Oculus Rift" to someone and they'll either look at you blankly or laugh. I'm much more interested in learning whether they'll support Eyefinity/Surround, both proven immersion technologies.

Both Rise of Flight and Cliffs of Dover support multiple monitor rendering quite well, it is very unlikely that BoS is gonna be an exception. I mean they would be fools not to support that, triple screen setups might be a "niche" market for gaming in general but when it comes down to sims it is pretty much the standard...

I think it's all a matter of perspective.

The price for the standard edition seems perfectly reasonable to me. I could even make an argument that it's a little too cheap given the examples of console games and single aircraft addons to the DCS series, both of which are more expensive than the standard edition of BoS. It's not easy to see how they could break even, let alone turn a profit, if they sold the standard edition at a lower price point.

I can see the argument that the premium edition is a little steep, but it really just exists for those that really want to support the project. The standard edition should be more than fine for most players.

I pre-ordered the premium edition with the following logic in mind:

• $90 isn't really much money to me.
  
• I really want to support what's left of the flight sim industry... but only where I feel it has merit.
  
• I've been really impressed by Rise of Flight over the years, even though I'm not much of a WWI fan.
  
• The level of community interaction and communication coming from Loft via the Developer Diaries is hugely impressive.
  
• I've been very impressed with Loft's openness about what they can and cannot achieve (even when he knows they'll get slammed for it).
  
• Everything that I've read in the developer diaries tells me that the team is being very realistic about what they can accomplish.

With all of that in mind, I don't see $90 as a major risk. It's a leap of faith, for sure, but a measured one that's informed by optimism and hope for the foundations of a great new flight sim.

Yeah I get what you mean, that's why I said it seems steep to me. It always is just a matter of perspective.

I am still gonna pre-order it of course, but compared to the gazillion other alpha/beta/kickstarter games I am supporting at the moment, is one of the most expensive.

I know nobody is forcing me to pledge money into these projects but I'd still like to show my support and if there was a slightly cheaper option for BoS my wallet would appreciate it!

BTW does anybody know if the devs said how much future DLC planes are gonna cost?