I'd like to propose a suggestion to the KOE folks on a way to move forward. All this traffic on this forum is great and should tell you two very important things. There is a huge vacuum just waiting to be filled by a good WWI. The second thing is that the community felt that KOE was that replacement, even based on the sparse information that was made available.

But now what? It would be an impossibe task to manage the continued development by a few individuals with the entire community inudating you with suggestion after suggestion, many of them contradictory.

Here is my suggestion. First, decide which of the remaining crew will act as spokes person. ALL communication should be to and from that person. Next, you already have a formal "presence" on this forum but this isn't enough. You should make sure you have an account under the same name at least on Wings Of Valor (www.wings-of-valor.net) and SWWISA (www.swwisa.net).

Next, a small group (4-8) from the community should be formed into a committee. This committee would represent the community as a whole. This will keep the communications to a managable level. Ideally the committee would represent the different aspects of the game. They would not be on the KOE development team although they may have developement skills. They would be more like a captive focus group. They would be a group against which you could bounce ideas off of. They might even provide testing or fill other roles that you would like them to fill. The KOE development team would have no obligation to incorporate any suggestion that they would make. The committee would be an asset to the KOE team, not a watchdog group from the community.

In order for the committee idea to work, it has to keep the community at bay and patient while you continue the work. That means they have to have the trust and credibility of the community in general. From your perspective, this individuals need to be reasonable level headed people that can clearly articulate they opinions and be realistic in their expectations and without personal narrow minded agendas.

I would suggest that a nomination process be started at each of the three forum sites. Anyone that wanted to be considered could nominate themselves. A "disclosure" form would be developed. Anyone wishing to be considered for this committee would fill it out and describe their qualifications. The KOE developement team would then select twenty names from the list of nominees based on the qualifications that they deem most necessary. A poll would then be put up on one site. At the end of the voting, the top eight (or however many it was decided) would make up the committee.

Then the real work would begin.

I believe your suggestion is a very reasonable one and I'll print out a copy of your idea and present it at our next planning meeting.

Two things I'd like to mention.

While we're already implementing a plan to rescue our work on KOE, it could be months before we have something to share with this group. This will allow time to assemble this group, but people should be prepared to be patient as well.

Also - KOE, or whatever we decide to re-name it will not be the sim with all things for all people. The first stage of it's release will most likely not have all the features mentioned in the interviews that Mat gave to the flight sim magazines that are often quoted on these forums. Simply because we no longer have the manpower that we once had.

Along with this I'd like to point out that there are other WW1 flight sims still in development. I'm thinking of Birds of Prey, Richthofen's Skies and the continued work to make modifications for Red Baron 3d, and even the dispised Wings of War. After looking at their websites and seeing what their main focus is suppose to be I believe that KOE is going to be different enough from these other projects that we are not going to be in direct competition with them for the hearts and minds ( and pockets) of the WW1 flight sim community. Instead I think we will be complimenting one another.

Also, if my responses start to slow down and aren't as frequent as they were the last few days it's because I'm slightly overwhelmed right now. One more reason to follow up on your suggestion.

Xeidos2...it would be perfectly understandable if you drop out of sight a bit over the next few weeks. You have told us enoguh about what is going on to satisfy even the most curious, and we know you have got a struggle on your hands to get some kind of deal in place to salvage KOE. I hope it all works out!

You mentioned a few other WW1 sims in development, and I feel I have to point out one thing that is lacking from most of them...

They are all Online Only Sims!!!

Well...except RB

But, anyway, I hope that this period of forum activity has shown how strongly the small handful of dedicated WW1 flightsimmers can be, and the level of support and sensible comment that a forum can provide!

You mean we won't get 100 planes with the first release?!?!?

Droops