"The situation sucks. I see no reason to sugarcoat it with bull. I don't
want to go make empty promises or try to prove that black is white. We
released a faulty game. We did more than even seemed possible to fix its
faults and add improvements, but in the end it was not enough. There
has to come a point where we begin to focus on the future, and Cliffs of
Dover just becomes something we can all learn from"
- Ilya Shevchenko 1C Maddox Development Lead for Cliffs of Dover.
With these words Shevchenko tried to close the door on an unhappy chapter in the history of the otherwise successful IL2 Sturmovik franchise.
Posting today on multiple forums, Shevchenko provided answers to a lot of the questions which angry and frustrated fans have been asking about the current and future state of the Cliffs of Dover sim.
Among the answers were some suprisingly frank admissions:
"
Q. Did you know that B6 (official 1C spokesperson) doesn't even like CLOD?
A. Why would that be a surprise? I know very few people that, you know, love love Cliffs of Dover."
His own frustration also showed through in his posting.
Quizzed on why 1C was more interested in making a new game, rather than fixing Cliffs of Dover, he said, "Fixing Cliffs of Dover does not bring in any money, and it has not
pretty much from the start. Even if we spend another year working on
nothing but Cliffs of Dover and release a super-mega-ultra update with
co-op, blackjack, and hookers, how many copies do you honestly believe
the game will sell? Then the entire team can happily go and look for a new job, preferably
in a third world country where it’ll be easier to hide from our
investors."
Here is the full text of the Question and Answers, part I and part II.
****
Good afternoon everyone. Sorry it took so long to get to your questions.
Finally got some spare time on a quiet weekend. Went through a bunch of
them, still have a lot left. Hopefully will get to them tomorrow.
I also answered a bunch of Russian-language questions on sukhoi.ru.
Sorry, no energy to translate them into English. Hopefully someone might
help me out and provide a translation for me.
http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthrea...72#post1902572
Here are the answers to your questions.
Quote:
| The single player experience in Cliffs of Dover has been roundly
criticized as being decidedly below standard. Can you tell us
specifically in what ways you think it is lacking, and explain what you
intend to do to improve it?
|
First of all, I disagree with it being “below standard”. Your
definition of single-player standard is probably different from mine. If
you expect Mass Effect or Skyrim, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Cliffs of Dover was intended to be a sandbox game more than anything,
expansive, open, giving complete freedom to the players. If you’ll
remember, the original Il-2 owed much of its success to user-made
content. We aimed for the same with Cliffs of Dover. Instead of building
complex single-player content in-house, we gave the tools to the
community. Cliffs of Dover has a much better mission builder with
scripting support, supports complex moddable briefings and debriefings,
and so on.
Unfortunately 3rd party support never materialized the way we hoped it
would, and we ourselves cannot at this point go back and redo single
player.
Still, I strongly disagree with your criticism of the single-player. The
two campaigns, quick mission builder, and the full mission builder
offer a lot in terms of single-player. Standard? I’ve played plenty of
AAA games where the entire single-player content is under 20 hours with 0
replay value, and I didn’t even feel like finishing the entire thing.
At the same time I’ve logged way more than 20 hours in quick mission
builder alone. What does that say about industry standards?
Quote:
| 1. Please could you look into the netcode, its killing Multiplayer servers.
|
Latest patch should take us closer.
Quote:
| 2. Could you reconsider your position on Co-ops, again this is
preventing a lot of people from wanting to continue using your product
now and in the future.
|
Redoing co-op is a huge task. We are a business. We have to make a
profit somewhere somehow. We cannot keep pumping resources and
releasing free patches for Cliffs of Dover forever.
And regarding not using our products in the future if we do not redo
co-op now. I believe the majority in this community actually will. If we
offer a much more comprehensive co-op experience in a future product,
and especially if such an experience still allows you a trip back in
time to fly some Spits and 109s over the Channel, well, I really hope
that most people will want to get the sequel.
To reiterate - I've never said that we'll never address co-op, I've only
said we cannot do it within the Cliffs of Dover project.
Quote:
| 3. It was claimed that within recent patches a 50% performance
increase was gained but as of yet I have seen no evidence to support
this, in fact my performance actually dropped whilst at the same time
features were taken out of the game. Could you tell me how I go about
getting this performance increase or what system I should use to get the
best out of CLOD, I currently have a i72600k running at 4.7Ghz, 2x
GTX680 in SLI and 16GB of DDR3 at 1600mhz.
|
There are plenty of people on the forums reporting a significant performance boost.
You should be getting excellent FPS in the game with your top of the line system.
Quote:
| 4. Could you tell us how you test your alpha/beta patches before
release, many of them have broken has much as they have fixed and your
customers are left scratching their heads wondering how you could of
missed some of the most obvious bugs, such as the hurricane not
starting. Also could you tell me what online servers you or your
employees use to test the game.
|
Ooh somebody’s real grouchy.
Quote:
Can the sequel be merged with COD like the original il2 series and
if it can will we get to test features that will be appearing in the
sequel I.e. Weather etc.
This question Ilya! Please confirm that the sequel will be able to be
merged with our current game as in all previous IL2 releases.
|
Definitely not planning to release any sequel features as add-ons for Cliffs of Dover, sorry.
Quote:
| Also, please, please introduce a coop mode similar to the one we had in IL2 as you are loosing potential sales without this!
|
As I said earlier, this just doesn’t make sense financially.
Redoing co-op in the way that the community wants cannot possibly be
profitable within Cliffs of Dover. At this point there’s just no way
that any given feature can lead to any kind of profits.
Quote:
| How many people are there working on IL-2 Sturmovik series now?
|
Slightly over 50.
Quote:
| Why were the Flyable G50 and Br20 modelled for CoD, when they only
played a very minimal role, and more common aircraft left out, such as a
flyable Do17 and indeed even the CR42?
|
Was it originally intended to move to the Med theatre after the BoB?[/quote]
I was not a part of the decision making process about any flyable aircraft in Cliffs of Dover so I cannot answer this question.
Quote:
Have you addressed the bugged Mixture issues in the RAF types?
Have you addressed the Engine Overheat issues in the RAF types?
Have you addressed the issue of the Spitfire under performing in terms
of relative top speed compared with the 109 (e.g. see graphs in 1st post
in this recent thread http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=34115)? Thank you.
|
We keep working on aircraft performance, and hopefully the most recent patch showed some improvement in that respect.
Quote:
Would it be possible to hand out information on how to handle each aircraft the proper way?
after 1,5 years, there is still too much confusion about the different
types of planes, and how they perform the best way,and how to get the
most out of them.
For example every month there is another thread about the prop pitch
management of the 109, and even among the experienced 109pilots there
doesnt seem to be a consensus on whats the best way...
for example: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=34328
there is historical information around in the net and in books, but we
dont know whats implemented in game, what works best, and how it is
intended to work...
|
Our goal has always been that the actual aircraft flight manuals
should be used with Cliffs of Dover. If that’s not the case, the only
people that know the guts well enough to write a flight manual are our
aircraft programmers – and in that very case their efforts are better
spent bringing the performance in line with the actual flight manuals.
In other words, there’s never a situation where writing a flight manual for Cliffs of Dover is a good idea.
Quote:
| 1. Can you tell us anything about the forthcoming sequel and where you intend to take the series after that?
|
I cannot talk about the sequel until the official announcement, sorry.
Quote:
| 2. Do you consider that you've achieved about as much as you can,
performance wise, with the game engine at the moment and that people's
systems now have to be improved to improve performance?
|
Yes, we’re pretty of the same opinion. We’re not doing further
optimization at this time, we’re improving features instead.
Specifically landscape geometry and clouds for starters, but all that is
for the sequels.
Quote:
| 1. Is going to be more view distance whitouut touching much the
performance? I think in the first versions the view dstance was more.
|
It’s really hard to compare versions, too much has changed. I’m
not sure if we can do anything to drastically improve performance as
related to view distance at this time, sorry.
Quote:
| 1. Why was Clod released (in the condition it was in)?
|
We had to release on the announced release date. Never any question about that on any levels.
Quote:
| 2. Have you had serious problems re-writing the various code routines?
|
As clearly shown by some of our beta patches in the past, no, of course not, why would you ever think that?
Quote:
| 3. Do you still have some of the original engine coders?
|
Yes. We even still have the core of the original 2001 Il-2 team working on the products.
Quote:
| 4. Do you have anybody responsible for 'gameplay?' - serious question.
|
Yes, but not with Cliffs of Dover at this time. Honest answer.
Quote:
| 5. Do you think releases (both game and patches) have been handled competently?
|
Well, it was either test with the community, or keep the patches
brewing internally with tests taking much longer. If we had done this,
the community would have imploded months ago being torn between the
latest conspiracy theory of us closing down, and screams of "where's the
promised patch give it to us now show us your progress".
Quote:
| 6. Do you think the strong criticisms of Clod, on a forum such as this, are fair and reasonable?
|
I do think that people that post on the forums are naturally much
more passionate and particular about the game than the average player. I
do believe that we deserve most of the criticism that we get, if not
always the tone in which it is offered. So, that covers fair.
Whether it’s reasonable is a more complex question to answer. The vocal
minority always claims (and sincerely believes) that they represent the
silent majority. We have our own opinion of what the silent majority
wants however, and that often clashes with the forum consensus. At other
times forum criticism can be unreasonable simply because some forum
posters just don’t understand the simple realities of running a
business.
So, in short, forum criticism is almost always fair, but not always reasonable.
Quote:
| 1. will this game ever run good on windows xp using dx9? 'good' defined as 30 avg fps on black death track.
|
That’s quite an interesting way to define “good” performance.
Black Death was never intended as a 30 FPS benchmark goal. It was rather
intended as an extreme way to bring any system to its knees.
Just upgrade to Win 7, please.
Quote:
| 2. will you ever consider getting rid of steam and going to hyper-lobby format?
|
No.
Quote:
| 3. what pc components, drivers, supporting software...etc. do you
now recommend to run the game optimally, given so much of the code has
changed since original release date since the game was first spec'd out.
|
I cannot answer that question off the top of my head, sorry
Quote:
| 4. was the epilipsy filter a fraud? honestly, it was so absurd. very hard to believe in hindsight.
|
No that was indeed a real situation, a real publisher requirement, and our desperate attempt to address it at the last second.
Quote:
| 5. surprise, did you know that B6 doesn't even like CLOD?
|
Why would that be a surprise? I know very few people that, you know, love love Cliffs of Dover.
Quote:
| 6. did you hire any of the Daidalos Team member to work on CLOD when
you put out those help wanted advertisements a while back?
|
We need full time employees in our Moscow office. Most of our
current employees only speak Russian, so new employees have to be fluent
in Russian as well. I’m not aware of anyone at Daidalos who fits all
those criteria.
Quote:
| 7. will the final patch include moving dogfight server and rearm, refuel and repair capability?
|
Of course not, who ever said that it would?
Quote:
| 8. after the final patch, where do we go to join 128 player battles online?
|
We don’t run our own servers if that’s what you ask.
Quote:
| 9. why did oleg leave? the real reason.
|
The only person who should ever answer this question is Oleg himself.
Quote:
| 10. if you could do it all over again, would you?
|
Yes, just differently.
Quote:
Have you seen how many times the same questions are asked, and if so
Why are they not being answered unambiguously, or a way that appears deceptive?
Why is there so much emphasis placed on the sequels process when most want CoD fixed?
|
Because we’re a business. Our goal is to make money. Fixing Cliffs
of Dover does not bring in any money, and it has not pretty much from
the start. Even if we spend another year working on nothing but Cliffs
of Dover and release a super-mega-ultra update with co-op, blackjack,
and hookers, how many copies do you honestly believe the game will sell?
Then the entire team can happily go and look for a new job, preferably
in a third world country where it’ll be easier to hide from our
investors.
Quote:
Can you please open the game up to third parties and modders to fix.
The game has amazing potential, but is obviously quite broken at the moment.
|
This has always been our plan, and we still cannot get around to
it. We obviously cannot just release the source code, and making
end-user tools is not something that we have the resources to do at the
moment. This fact greatly upsets me.
Quote:
| Are you ever going to fix the severe particle effects fps issues
without resorting to making the effect look like it was made with lego?
|
(blows a raspberry).
Quote:
My questions would be all about the main map itself (many others are
pointing out all the other issues, no need to add anything there) but
they would need elaboration and this is not the place. So I will be
short:
1. As a matter of principle would you be OK with one or two
"communities" (actually myself and some others) working to correct the
many flaws, lacks, incoherences, wrongs, missing elements etc of the
MAIN map, under your control, when it is possible (even if still far
away, the work itself will take probably more than one year anyway)?
2. An idea when this could happen (granted as long as it is not "never"
the question is rather rhetorical...I suspect the answer)?
|
See above about tools. Map-making tools are number one on our list
of end-user tools to release, whenever it is we’ll be able to.
Quote:
| 1. What specifically is preventing clouds from being depicted in a
volume and quality that is competitive with other sims currently on the
market?
|
Are you saying there is a sim out there today that has clouds of
better quality at greater volume, and offering better performance? I.e.
matches all three criteria, quality, volume, and FPS?
Because I know there isn’t.
Quote:
| 2. What is your assessment of the quality of current AI speech
routines. What if anything do you intend to do to improve them in the
future?
|
AI speech does less than half of what we wanted it to do for
Cliffs of Dover. Unfortunately the person responsible for the task left
without completing it and we’re still trying to pick up the pieces.
Quote:
| Will the sequel have AI comms that work properly and have a level of
detail/available commands that is closer to what we had in IL-1946
series. Offline play in even the exceptionally good Desastersoft
campaigns is badly stifled by the extremely limited AI comms system we
are stuck with in Cliffs.
|
Yes it will.
Quote:
| Will it ever be possible to add collisions to trees?
|
This murders FPS. We have too many trees.
We can only do it on a map that’s not as tree-y as the Channel.
Quote:
| 1. Can we ever expect authentic looking cloud cover and weather environments that actually effect gameplay?
|
That’s what we’re working on right now, for the sequel.
Quote:
| 2. Lastly has there been any progress on making the AI work and fly
like we would expect or are we stuck with either barrel rolls or no
reaction at all?
|
It already does a lot more than barrel rolls or no reaction.
Quote:
| 1. How do you expect your current business model to deliver a profit
while using the traditional il-2, addon every 2-3 years approach, and
do you plan to offer DLC content in the future?
|
Add-ons every 2-3 years has never been our business model, and we've evolved even further away from Il-2 lately.
Quote:
| 2. Why are weathering layers of skins unable to be packed in such a way that they can be modified or improved by users?
|
We hated seeing horrible flat user-made skins everywhere in the
original Il-2, so we settled on the technology that keeps the lower-end
of the quality bar firmly set where no user effort can nudge it lower –
even if that means also setting the ceiling for great skin makers.
Quote:
| 1. Are the team hoping to continue the series (all being well) as was mentioned earlier in the development cycle?
|
Yes
Quote:
| 2. Are you going to be in a position to give the planned overdue announcement regarding future development’s any time soon?
|
I hope so.
Quote:
Can we increase even more the degree of realism e.g. available & working aircraft systems?
Just a side note, please remove the ever icing clouds, most of them are
not, especially flying low, it's not that often sub zero.
|
We are seriously addressing our approach to modeling various
systems. A lot of the stuff that we spent so much effort on with Cliffs
of Dover ended up being a dud, no one wants it, no one uses it. At the
same time a lot of systems people clearly want and need are not modeled
with enough details.
So do expect a more sane approach in the sequels.
Quote:
| 1. Is it possible to expand on the not before seen special feature
that was mentioned? Will it come for the sequel or will it not come out
now?
|
Sequel
Quote:
| 2. Any news on how the vehicle control will be implemented? Will that ship with the sequel?
|
We still don’t know what to do with the feature commercially.
Quote:
| 1. Is it save to say that the the sequel will, besides adding new
content, fix all major gameplay, graphic ,multiplayer issues we
currently have?
|
Since I fear we may differ on our definitions of major issues, I’d rather not commit myself to that.
Obviously no one here wants to repeat the Cliffs of Dover release fiasco. We really do want to get it right next time.
Quote:
| 2. Will there be a solid documentation for engine management, level bombing etc.?
|
We are planning for an in-flight checklist feature, for starters.
Quote:
| 3. What happend to the offical announcement for the sequel?
|
Delayed due to external circumstances. Not under my control at all.
Quote:
| 4. Is someone still working on improving and/or adding new/better sounds?
|
Yes, that’s our sound designer’s only job.
Quote:
You said earlier:'we really want to release at least the map-making
SDK to the public “as is”, which is why they’re not covered by the next
patch v. sequels discussion.'
If this is released will it be possible for an organised community
effort to improve certain elements of the main COD map or will the sdk
be only for creating new small maps?
|
Yes, the SDK will allow people to edit existing maps.
Quote:
As you probably know quite a few people are disappointed with the
current map and feel it could be made better by making changes to tree
coverage/ hedgerows/etc. These would not be difficult changes
technically, but would be time consuming and labour intensive - and
therefore ideal for talented community members to undertake whilst the
developers focus on the sequel (almost like a Team Daidolos for COD).
If the choice is between NO further work on the map OR allowing an
(organised) community effort to make improvements (with your final
approval regarding quality) would you be agreeable to this happening?
|
See above.
Quote:
| Videos from the Igromir pre-release version of COD seem to show a
better implementation of the map. Were changes made after Igromir for
performance reasons, and if so can those changes be easily reversed?
|
The entire year before the release is really hazy for me. I cannot
say what changes were made to the map after Igromir. I want to say it
shipped largely the same. If anything, we might have reduced the number
of smaller trees and bushes around the landscape to improve performance,
and adding them back would be a quick, fatal fix.
Quote:
| May I expect a sequel including a comprehensive manual for the DM, FM, FMB, including scripting?
|
Probably not comprehensive enough. See our manuals for the old Il-2 products.
Quote:
| Can you comment at this time on whether the next sequel will be
Moscow as previously stated, whether Stalingrad will be a separate
sequel to follow, or how the MMO option will fit into the series?
|
I cannot talk about the sequel until the official announcement, sorry.
Quote:
| 2. How about flak control? it's for the sequel?
|
Yes, not for Cliffs of Dover.
Quote:
| I'd be interested to know if you've addressed the aircraft
visibility (or invisibility) issue? IMO, the problem has all but killed
the game. Whatever the reason for it, it doesn't really work in a
simulation. You simply can't shoot what you can't see.
|
We hope it’s been addressed with the latest patch.
Quote:
| Precisely how many separate projects does Maddox Games intend to
work on at one time? Is the rumoured MMO to be developed by MG also?
|
I cannot talk about the sequel until the official announcement, sorry.
Do want to add however that the occasional rumors that pop up around
here simply mystify me. Why would anyone go through the trouble of doing
all that? Lame and so very very creepy.
Quote:
| Luthier, will you continue to support CLOD independently with updates 'AFTER' the release of a sequel?
|
No. As I stated previously, this current patch, once pushed out to
steam, will be our final update to Cliffs of Dover proper. All future
work will be done within the framework of the sequels.
Quote:
| 1. Why are there no plans to sort the problem of not being able to
use the main componant of this game (the Channel Map) for coops?
|
Please see above.
Quote:
| 2. Will the terrible weathering on Allied aircraft be fixed?
|
It’s not terrible.
Quote:
| Hello Luthier, my question is simple, shall have we the correction
of the bug of rear-view mirrors on the English planes for the next
patch.
|
We “almost” got it into the release candidate, but decided not to
delay it because of the mirrors. Really hoping to get it working for the
final release.
Quote:
1. Will dev fix the pop up trees and buildings or provide greater view distance for people with high end cards?
2. Why do you have pop up buildings and not fade in.
People in bombers can't fly higher than 3'000m because targets pop up seconds before they must drop bombs.
|
We are aware of the issue, especially in relation to bombers.
Quote:
| When will you fix the service ceilings in aircraft? The 109 is not able to reach 10000 meters. The real ones do.
|
Please see the most recent patch notes.
Quote:
You say you are 'not proud' of Cliffs of Dover' and fair enough you should not be.
Will you be offering a discount on the sequel, to people who bought Cliffs of Dover, as an apology?
|
Seriously?
Quote:
| 1. Will the lack of a decent Co-op mode be put right in the patch or the Sequel.
|
Please see above for my thoughts on co-op.
Quote:
| 2. Will the Channel map be available for Co-op in the online mode.
|
It’s available now.
Quote:
| Are you working on the bombers bombsigths? The german one dont work
completely , (the triangle that shows when the bomb drop occur isnt
working)
|
We’ll see if we can get this in. The list of issues is dozens of
pages long, and the amount of time to do everything is almost
astronomical. We’re tying to prioritize.
Quote:
| I know you stated the next CloD patch will be the last, so that
means any fixes, advances and such into the game engine that come from
the sequel will not be translated at some time or another back into
CloD? Will Clod be completely abandoned in whatever state the final
patch leaves it with no hope small updates, etc?
|
Why would you think that? We’ve never done that before, and I’ve
always stated that our plans remain the same. There were many issues in
the original IL-2 in 2001. After a few updates to the original,
Forgotten Battles was released and there were no more updates to the
original Il-2. That doesn’t mean it was abandoned however! You can still
play all of the original Il-2 content with 1946, all carried over and
updated with the rest of the engine.
Quote:
| Any chance of stopping the trees and their attendant shadows looking like they're having an epileptic fit?
|
I would think most of the community should know by now that mentioning epilepsy to the team is a very, very bad idea.
Quote:
| If your team cannot fix this first game, and give us what was
originally promised/expected, what is there to show us that the new game
will be any better, and worth our support, dedication, and more
importantly, our money?
|
Don’t give us your money on day 1.
First of all, I see that my brand of humor offended some people. I
forget sometimes that some fans are so passionate about this game they
can’t take anything but straight out plain answers, so I’ll answer some
of the earlier questions again.
Quote:
| 4. Could you tell us how you test your alpha/beta patches before
release, many of them have broken has much as they have fixed and your
customers are left scratching their heads wondering how you could of
missed some of the most obvious bugs, such as the hurricane not
starting. Also could you tell me what online servers you or your
employees use to test the game.
|
The entire point of an alpha-beta patch is to TEST things. If an
alpha-beta patch had no problems, it wouldn’t be called an alpha-beta
patch, it would be called a release patch.
We release these test patches fully aware that a portion of the
community will get upset over every issue and blame us for it, but we’re
still doing it because it allows us to test our software on a wide
range of hardware by a huge number of people, and locate and fix
problems much faster than if we test in-house.
Programmers themselves usually do a limited amount of testing, and
that’s precisely why it’s always a good idea to have their work tested
by other people when they think they’re done. Our other employees are
usually far too busy to thoroughly test patches, and external teams of
professional testers we have access to are not, you know, simmers and if
we test with them we’ll get nowhere near the feedback we get over here.
So, we will continue to use this approach in the future as well.
I just want to add however that if you are one of the people who gets
really, really upset when alpha or beta software does not work perfectly
then please, please don’t participate in beta tests. I’m not being
sarcastic or snarky, I sincerely mean it. Beta tests will always be
buggy by definition.
Quote:
| 2. Have you had serious problems re-writing the various code routines?
|
You’ve seen how hard it was for us to redo graphics. AI and radio comms are even worse. Flight models? Nightmare.
The only time redoing a feature turned out well was when we redid the sound engine. Pleasant surprise for everyone.
Quote:
| Are you ever going to fix the severe particle effects fps issues
without resorting to making the effect look like it was made with lego?
|
Yes, the current particle system still needs a lot of work.
Quote:
You say you are 'not proud' of Cliffs of Dover' and fair enough you should not be.
Will you be offering a discount on the sequel, to people who bought Cliffs of Dover, as an apology?
|
I’m not in charge of setting prices in any way. I seriously doubt
that any of the people who are responsible for setting prices and
distributing the product would ever consider anything like that. If I
were to suggest something like this to me they’d look at me with big
crazy eyes, quietly walk away, and never speak to me again.
----------------
Quote:
| 1. What exactly is the awesome feature never done in a flight sim before you told us about at some point?
|
Previously answered – can’t reveal yet.
Quote:
| 2. What is, or when can we expect to hear the June/July announcement?
|
Previously answered. Sorry, not my call.
Quote:
| 3. Will the radio comms be fully completed and working in the CoD patch? or at the sequel's launch?
|
Redoing and adding a lot for the sequel.
Quote:
4. Will the most urgent AI bugs:
- AI not following your radio comm commands
- AI not following you as a flight leader
- AI not considering you a part of their flight
- AI flying straight into terrain
- AI landing procedures
- AI waiting for player warm up (even if they don't have player's CEM,
they can be forced to wait for a few mins before starting up)
bugs be fixed for the CoD patch or sequel (which bugs in which patch/release)?
|
Sorry, sequel.
Quote:
| 5. Was sighting ghosts bug fixed and will the fix be included into the CoD patch/BoM sequel?
|
We hope it’s been fixed in the RC patch. I see some reports that it isn’t, so we’ll start investigating on Monday.
Quote:
| 6. Was the netcode looked for, and bugs like flying ships or warping planes fixed for the CoD patch?
|
See the most recent patch notes.
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| 7. When can we expect to receive a dedicated server?
|
Dedicated server shipped with the initial release?
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| 8. Will we get own airframe hit visual and sound effects added/bug fixed for the CoD patch/BoM sequel (and in which)?
|
This is something that we’ll make sure is in the final release patch.
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| 9. Will model LOD/dots transition be fixed for the CoD patch/BoM sequel (and in which)?
|
We are looking into this, the current situation is unintended.
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| 10. Will model LODS range (like terrain targets not visible even if
in a proper distance, and warping out from dot to a big model - ships,
buildings and facilities - things which are practically destroying
bombing and recon missions) be fixed for the CoD patch/BoM sequel (and
in which)?
|
We won’t address ground object LODs in Cliffs of Dover.
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| 11. Will the aircraft loads GUI be fixed for the CoD patch/BoM sequel (and in which)?
|
Completely redoing the entire GUI for the sequel.
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| 12. Will working clouds/rain (at least a basic, static, decent
weather system) be available back for the CoD patch/BoM sequel (and in
which)?
|
It’s nowhere ready at the moment, so you won’t see it before the sequel is released.
Quote:
| 13. Will flickering shadows be fixed for for the CoD patch/BoM sequel (and in which)?
|
Unfortunately, it’s working is intended at the moment. See most other current gen games.
All our shadows are saved into something called a shadow map, a single
shadow texture that is then placed on top of the landscape and other
objects. The shadow map is of a standard resolution. The technology
often leads to a case where a shadow map pixel is not the same size as a
terrain or object pixel underneath it. As the camera moves, the shadow
map is redrawn and reapplied, and the mismatched shadow map pixels
appear to shift or shimmer. This is especially noticeable with a large
amount of small objects.
The only solution is to increase the size of the shadow map, and that
leads to a huge performance hit so it's not an option at this time.
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| 14. Why can not the trees be made darker, as they should, by a simple texture modification?
|
Don’t have an answer.
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| 15. What features were removed from the current engine (due to
optimization reasons)? will they be added back into it, and when,
please?
|
Few features were outright removed. The only thing, if I remember
correctly, that we had and you guys could not access was
player-controllable ground vehicles. Other features may have been
modified, shrunk, or not completed to desired specs, but I can’t even
remember anything that was cut per se.
Quote:
| Will there be anymore flyable aircraft added to COD in the future?
|
No.
They’re too expensive to make to release for free, and we can’t possibly
hope to make any money selling them as DLC for Cliffs of Dover.
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| Is the video recording to record the fixed and the outside view in a
server with which it is deaktivatet. Because as far as I can remeber me
this unfortunately did not work, and so online battles and events on
Full Realitic can't be made movies or other video.
|
It’s working as intended. View settings cannot be changed in a
track, otherwise people would just record a track online, quickly play
it back on another machine, and see exactly where all the enemy planes
are.
It appears that the track did not record the bomb bouncing off the
roof. If you watch bombs dropped at a shallow angle in real time (i.e.
while flying) you’ll see that they’ll bounce. This is what happened, but
apparently the bounce didn’t play back in the track.
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| Luthier, you spent considerable time making some vehicles drivable, I
guess it dawned on someone at some point that due to the fact there is
no collision model on the tree's any kind of ground vehichle usage is
pretty much defunct, do you think you could of spent all that time
better by trying to fix the flying part of the game?
|
I’m not the only employee here. We have different people with
different skill sets. The person who worked on player-controllable
vehicles has absolutely nothing to do with aircraft or any flying part
of the game.
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I want to ask that you don't loose sight of the fact this is a game
and the importance of "Game Play" isnt lost in the effort to "fix" CLOD
and release new content for the sequel. More content in a new theatre
with slightly better graphics and dynamic weather and "better
simulation" or what ever other features you introduce wont make up for
bad game play and game dynamics... I think you know what I mean by this.
The game, bottom line, also needs to be fun.
1. In anycase, my question is, do you think you can do better with
"gameplay" in the sequel? Whether that be, "MMO" or a new "co-op" mode
or team "death match", "capture the flag" these kinds of things from a
flightsim perspective for the online world would bring a bit of variety.
The other obvious thing missing from CLOD was a campaign...
|
Definitely very important considerations. In addition to myself,
we now have several new game designers working very hard on improving
gameplay elements and creating interesting, exciting, new online modes.
Now that the game engine is rather mature and we aren’t constantly
distracted by FPS or crashes, we can finally take a deep breath and
start, you know, making a game out of all this.
Quote:
| 2. Will a sequel contain the ability or content for a dynamic
campaign? or even better, a rolling dynamic online war, where choices
your team makes determine the outcome of a battle over a number of days
or weeks?
|
(wink)
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Agree and support and would like to add to this question...will the sequel include a dynamic campaign?
The community can build missions and static campaigns and for 1946 the
best campaigns were comunity made. Desastersoft does great static
campaigns. Heinkill does fantastic historic and alt history missions.
|
(hurts his eye winking, ow)
Quote:
| Question, is the Dev team aware of the "new" flicker issue in the
zoom mode when dogfighting? Several members, including myself, are
experiencing this bug for the first time. Other than with that, happy
with the progress, and hoping the final patch and sequel are a hit.
|
Yes, we are aware of it. Sorry, we don’t have a solution yet, looking hard into it.
Quote:
| Will AI get the attention it deserves? Offline players are not happy with this at the moment.
|
It is getting the attention it deserves. Unfortunately the code is
so bloated and complex, changes to it take forever. See how long it
took us to get the graphics working – the AI is even worse.
Quote:
| Luthier, Is there any prospect of opening up COD for the community
modders to improve content/gameplay & fix bugs? Perhaps with some
sort of mechanism to allow 1C/dev's to "approve" altered content. I've
always believed that there are community skills that could be utilised
"for free" to improve COD which would relieve some of the load on the
development team.
|
See earlier about the mods
Quote:
| When you state that no other developer would have supported this
release as much as you people have really gets me annoyed, Mr Shevchenko
could you tell me in what other form of business could such a complete
mess have been released as a working product without a recall and
demands for a refund??. I think you should be grateful that 1C are still
employing you and the team given the failure in an 18 month time period
to fix this product to a satisfactory level??.
|
Well I could always run for senate.
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On ATAG it`s very easy to lose sight of targets or chase ones that simply aren`t there,
can that be fixed please?
|
We’re hoping it’s been fixed in Friday’s RC,
Quote:
| I know you have said that there will only be one more patch before
the sequel but is there any possibility that features that were going to
be in COD and are being made in the sequel could be tested in COD?
|
No, I don’t believe so.
Quote:
| Is there a way that you can make the sequel(s) independent of Steam
please? I'm wanting to be able to buy a CD and install it and be able to
play it in the distant future (I'm saying when I'm 36 in 20 years
about) without having to worry about Steam. That is just hope that I
have since I hope to continue flying this for as long as I can
(devolpment of the original IL-2 started before I was born and it's my
favorite game that I own).
|
Thank you for your support and your kind words! I can’t make any
comments on online platforms for the sequels at this time however, and I
really wish I could.
Quote:
Luthier, you say that many core problems will be fixed by the sequel
but there will only be one more CoD patch. The fact that the sequel can
be loaded over CoD means that CoD will benefit from all of those
improvements. These may be net code, LODs etc which we may have to wait
for.
BUT! Unique CoD issues have only one more chance. This essentially means
the map and the aircraft. Everything else would seem to be 'core'
although I may have missed something.
|
As stated previously, it’s still my hope that we’ll release a
map-making SDK allowing the community to change the existing map as they
see fit.
Aircraft – as I wrote previously, they won’t be abandoned with the
upcoming final patch. We are carrying everything over to the sequel, and
they will get the same attention as new sequel aircraft and definitely
benefit from our future efforts.
Quote:
The BoB was to have been the flagship of the SoW series (as it was
originally called) and for a very good reason. It was the iconic air
battle of the war and particularly spotlighted air combat between the
fighters. CoD cannot even come close if the FMs for the aircraft are
incorrect. Anything else is just noise or are core issues that will be
fixed anyway.
We still want to fight the BoB on a realistic basis as far as the aircraft are concerned, particularly the fighters.
Will you please confirm that if the FMs are still not close to
historical data when we beta test them in the next patch (as regards
basic performance like speed, climb and turn) you will put maximum
effort onto this important CoD aspect and get them right or promise a
final patch that fixes this single important aspect?
|
Absolutely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kendo65
Can I say regarding the bolded bit
from your quote above that I disagree somewhat. For sure some here will
be hostile no matter what you do. Others, myself included, sometimes
feel that poor communication needlessly creates antagonism - eg the
delay in providing answers to these questions. A simple post on the
forum saying they were delayed but upcoming would have been enough to
smooth things over until they were ready.
Some of us who want to be supportive feel that the (lack of)
communication here is sometimes more damaging than the issues with the
game.
If that could be improved i think people would feel more involved and on your side.
|
I meant that it wouldn’t do anything for the bottom line, for
sales. Whatever I do here today won’t sell any new copies, and it will
have no effect on the sequel.
The only reason we ever did anything with the game, starting as far back
as about last May, was for forum brownie points. It was clear enough
even then that any additional fixes won’t pay the bills, that the only
way for us to survive financially is to release a good sequel, fix any
issues with Cliffs of Dover while making the sequel, and grandfather CoD
content into it.
We made the decision then to try to release as many of the fixes as we
can in the shape of free updates for Cliffs of Dover and hope that it
restores some of the trust and placates the community. That
unfortunately never materialized. The community is as hostile as ever,
and for most of us the general atmosphere of “you fixed X, about time,
let’s never mention it again, now why the hell aren’t you fixing Y” is
extremely tiring. Again, don’t feel like being all PC today. Definitely
not judging anyone for their attitude or saying they have no right to
feel that way, but I personally can only take so much abuse, and that’s
why I post here so rarely.
To me, the product speaks for itself, and my efforts on the forums are
secondary. I feel that if the people aren’t happy with my product when
they play it, I certainly can’t convince them to like it by posting
about it on the forums.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GF_Mastiff
yea' but now there seems to be
texture lod issues again with the 109s disappearing when 300 meters away
either this is modeling issue or texture
planes are causing micro stutters when they get near my plane
Spits won't start
Hurricanes won't start
throttle settings are incorrect
Boost scale is way off
Single player customization ammo load outs are not working
objects and horizon are visible through the cockpits again
objects are visible through the terrain and clouds
now if those were fixed, I think 95% of us would be happy with it.
|
Great list, thank you! Do everything we can for the final release.
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