NORMAL = No CEM, Engine aids ON, FM aids ON, External View, Padlock, all "HUD": Instrument Panel full - (compass/waypoint indicator, wind speed, airspeed, altitude), Icons, "Map/GPS/Radar", Technochat, Messages text, option to select ON/OFF (H/M/I). Options (M/I) dependes on (H) ON.

That is certain. MP players will have to fly the SP campaigns in order to unlock items. It's a moronic design decision.

the game apparently is aimed fair and square at capturing the War Thunder style MP player.

H

That does not appear to be true. The game appears to be aimed at the same people who like Cliffs of Dover. The unlocks are an aberration in what have mostly been good design decisions.

Might be right. I like Cliffs of Dover and I like the idea of the SP campaign (without the unlocks).

The game appears to be aimed at the same people who like Cliffs of Dover.

Unlike:

"We had a debate about this, because from a marketing point of view, call the game IL-2 was not profitable (a lot of negativity from players and the media after the WT (Cliffs of Dover), is still with us on Steam many comments like "I do not believe you, your last game was a hoax and did not work."

"Word as the word virtual pilot recently turned into ridicule, frankly mentally unhealthy people.

"Therefore, IL-2 decided to change the audience."

".. because we said flight simulator game".

http://forum.il2sturmovik.ru/topic/1947-...-24#entry205873

"Therefore, it is a game, because it's a game."


Sokol1

Impossible to customise the difficulty setting to your desires. Either Novice or Expert and no in between.

As Sokol wrote in the other thread, that's not really true. Playing on Normal difficulty mode gives the player a whole number of options about what they want automated and allows things like external views by default.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4018036/NORMAL_mode_with_CEM#Post4018036

Let me make something clear. There is NO free version of BOS planned. Correct your post here and on your blog Heinkill.

Jason

The tutorial missions are very easy and don't take long to complete. I wish there was an option to skip the tutorial but at least it didn't take long to get past it.

Once you are in the "campaign" you get random and totally unlinked missions. Taken as a separate entity these missions are perfectly fine and are enjoyable AS LONG AS YOU STICK TO THE WAYPOINTS. Though I have only flown a few missions so far.

Campaign pluses
1. The missions generated are reasonably well populated. There does seem to be a fair bit going on and other flights do appear to be doing their own thing. It isn't an empty world at least around the mission waypoints, though neither does it give a feeling of a large scale war going on. I have not flown off the assigned waypoint routes, so I cannot tell if stuff is generated at random around the map.


EDIT: The above has been removed as a plus point because the world is empty of action outside the narrow mission waypoint corridors. Almost total emptiness.

Campaign negatives
1. You can actually choose to change plane types on a per mission basis. This is not a plus point IMHO, you should choose a bomber/fighter/ground attack career at campaign start and that should be it
2. You can change sides at will between missions. Yep, you can be Russian one mission and German the next. This is an appalling and totally immersion breaking design choice.
3. Impossible to customise the difficulty setting to your desires. Either Novice or Expert and no in between. EDIT: It is possible to change some things such as CEM using a workaround, but XP gained is not affected.
4. Locked weapons and skins that can only be unlocked by gaining XP.
5. Missions are not linked in any way and there is no sense of belonging to a squadron, or even an air force due to the fact you can change sides at will between missions!
5. On finishing a mission you get a totally arcade style XP slider telling you XP GAINED, NEW PILOT LEVEL REACHED, "LEVEL 3 PILOT2, NEW WEAPON UNLOCKED, NEW SKIN UNLOCKED etc.
6. No units generated/placed outside the mission waypoints. No other flights, no ground units, NO WAR.

It feels pure arcade IMHO and when you do start getting into it, during combat for example a big yellow message appears on screen saying "MISSION COMPLETE, PRESS ESC AND FINISH NOW OR LAND AT BASE FOR MORE XP".

I don't feel compelled to keep trying to be honest. The pure arcade nature of the experience just feels embarrassing.

EDIT: For the sake of curiosity I flew one of the missions but went near no waypoints. I flew well over the German lines in a Pe-2 and saw nothing, absolute emptiness. Finally I found an airfield with some parked He-111s and Ju87s, some boxes and even some infantry walking about. Though I was able to fly around and even land at the airbase with complete impunity. No enemy fighter cover, no AAA.

Also the HE-111 really is completely broken in the campaign (which is why I'm asking the questions instead of unlocking to see where I end up). Coming to think of it, maybe I need to unlock some more stuff to make it complete and working. Maybe it's just a glitch that I can select it from the start.

..
It was hard work. No, not the missions - the will to keep playing. The big yellow messages popping up all the time are a big turn off. Then there is the "GO TO NEXT WAYPOINT" messages. Uh well ok, duh! Thanks for telling me. I'd never have worked that one out for myself. Turning to the "next" waypoint here it goes again - "GO TO NEXT WAYPOINT"
..