Feeling somewhat bad for rudely interrupting your fascinating frog discussions, but do we have more than a tacit assumption the new game will use the RoF business model? Otherwise it might as well use a model similar to MMOs, which I seem to remember had been a rumor for a CloD successor.

You might want to caveat that by saying it is not known as a "major AIR battle," and you would be essentially correct. It was a huge land engagement (though without the big tank fights of Kursk), and while there was certainly a large air commitment by both sides and alot of attrition in the air, the air battle was an adjunct to the ground campaign (as it was most of the time in the Eastern Front), as opposed to being the Big Show itself (a la Battle of Britain or 8th Air Force bombing campaign).

That said, if you like the Eastern Front, Stalingrad makes as much sense as anywhere else, and probably more from a game design perspective, since it was on eof the few times on the Eastern Front where you had an extended (months long) campaign play out in the area that can be covered by a RoF/CloD style map. Any place else, and you would probably need multiple maps to do it justice, or end up with a very short campaign.

If you (like myself) don't like the Eastern Front for flight simming (no good guys to fly for, or none of the favorite Allied aircraft), then no battle in that theater is going to be that attractive. Assuming they do the same qualitiy work for BoS as we have for RoF, I will still purchase it, though. For one thing, I really don't enjoy WWI simming that much on its own, but I still have nearly every plane RoF has put out . . . it is that good. I do heartily hope they move on to a Mediteranean or Solomons theater very quickly, though (as opposed to staying on BoM for several years).

Agreed, while the Eastern front is not my favorite area, im hoping its a stepping stone for other fronts i do.

Med next i hope!

Things that are free in old il-2 are a 'luxury' for RoF and the new game

Il-2's development team was far larger and worked far longer on it than ROF's team or history has been.

Sort of like complaining an independent film doesn't have big stars or effects like the summer blockbusters do.

Unless you're volunteering to spend $200 for a sim out of the box?




The Jedi Master

It will not be an MMO, confirmed..
It will be based on the RoF business model.
It will be using a game engine model based on the RoF engine. (but not built yet).
It will not be compatible with CLoD.
It is a completely new game with the IL2 logo.
It will have nothing to do with ubisoft.

Also, the ROF model is not payed updates, any aircraft added will appear as AI, and you can gun from it in MP if it is a multi-seater, but you do need to pay to fly them as pilot.

But you have to pay for maps!

I'm definately fine with that model.

Frankly, guys, if we want a game of the quality of RoF (or what CloD was supposed to be), we are going to have to pay $100-$200 a piece. Game programmers have to eat and aspite to nice middle class salaries with big screen TVs just like the rest of us. These sims are many times more complex than our old favorites such as Pacific Air War or Janes WWII fighters, requiring alot more man hours, and the mass market for them is gone. If we want to pay $40-$60 for a full sim, we get Thirdwire or Birds of Prey, both good in their own right, but not the hi-fi sims most of us seem to want.

Yes, because maps take a lot of time and money to develop. There were payware maps for Il2 as well.

Will Battle of Stalingrad drop Steam and use ROF's DRM? Everything else about the ROF/1C partnership is good for all of us gamers. This is a win/win especially since Ubisoft is out of the scene. That being said, I hope 1C opens CLOD's source code for open development along with a no-steam patch.

I don't recall any payware maps and I have been in IL-2 a long time, Even the NGNB and Solomons maps were free maybe you are thinking of some of the add-ons which were merged into 1946 those had aircraft and maps with campaigns to go with them. but this was what was great about IL-2 under Oleg he made a package of things when he turned out add-ons like Sturmoviks over Manchuria. And I think that was like $10 when it was released, granted RoF's aircraft are more complex models and there is more work in a single aircraft but I would probably fly more WWII types than any of the more obscure WWI types, that to me says that this will get more purchases for 777 to develop because of the subject matter so if Jason is listening I hope he will throw us Westerners a P-39 and/or a P-40 when this comes out or maybe even a brace of Aircraft Adversaries, one from each side per purchase like the old days when you could buy a kit with both a 109 and a Spit, but we can only guess and hope. The other thing that is good is he comes into the forums all the time he's not unreachable and he will listen to our suggestions and requests and at least answer pertinent questions, so.. Win/Win

I guess this means 1C's East Front game is dead?

I have never seen a payware or official patch map only addon for any of the IL-2 iterations either.


Wheels

I think that it actually a plus from the developers' perspective. The planeset is quite limited and there are no huge formations à la BoB or Combined Bomber Offensive. Also a minmum of weirdness in terms of jets, radar, nightfighters etc.

Less gadgetry should hopefully translate into easier development. And perhaps a faster release. :-)

A payware addon for Il2 from Matrix...

Seems a similar model to RoF with a set of maps associated with campaigns.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=155

This add-on is misleading there is no new anything in these, only Campaigns, No maps. New Skins, but no Aircraft.

Not only that.. if I am not mistaken that is old.. There were a couple of add ons for IL2 like that.

Awesome news. I was hoping for a long time that something like this would happen. Good luck to the devs, beta team and Jason. Post a pre-purchase in the store and get a little seed money as soon as you decide on the DRM model. I will be a happy early buyer.

Those are old IL-2 addons, Unfortunately even if you wanted them you can no longer buy them.

Reviews:

• Banzai (Aug 20, 2005): http://web.archive.org/web/2006011522283...zai/review1.htm
  Old Airwarfare Thread: http://web.archive.org/web/20080521062325/http://www.airwarfare.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2664#2664
  
  
• Case Blue (April 29, 2005): http://www.simhq.com/_air3/air_121a.html
  
  
• The Last Days (April 29, 2005): http://www.simhq.com/_air3/air_120a.html

I am actually a little surprised that no one at SimHQ reviewed the Banzai addon.


Wheels