homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation IL-2: Cliffs of Dover IL-2: Cliffs of Dover - Extended Discussions Mega-patch expectations

Well, since Luthier has decided to be quieter than a church mouse and skip yet another traditional Friday update newspost I thought we could fantasize about what exactly Maddox Games has up their sleeves. Its pretty clear that the next patch and its subsequent release is entirely up to the completion of the new sound engine. This should hopefully fix up many of the existing sound issues that have been around since the launch date (and ones that have popped up since then). Its more than likely we will see the sound samples redone from scratch as well, which would be a great morale boost as well as a solid statement of their commitment to the long-term development of the game itself (and not just the series as a whole).

While the sound engine is clearly the main feature of the next update, I'm confident some more work will be done on the renderer. Fullscreen support is currently still sketchy at best (not to mention its implementation broke Fraps support), object-based anti-aliasing is working at a questionable level of effectiveness and the game still has some issues in regards to missing terrain textures and z-fighting issues between terrain and the water. These are some pretty high priority issues that not only just effect Cliffs of Dover but any future game in the series using the same engine so I hope time has been spent on them.

Naturally we will see a myriad of bug fixes. I'm hoping they focus on fixing some of the more long-standing bugs (Bf-110 canopy), and also fix some of the most glaring bugs. FM inconsistencies come to mind, its been proven that some aircraft are well and truely below their historical performance data especially in regards to their top speeds and service ceilings. Fixing these would make quite a few people happy I'm sure.

As for things I doubt we will see changed, I think the GUI is here to stay. The MP GUI might continue to get some work done on it but I doubt the rest of the GUI will see much improvement. I don't think we'll be seeing new aircraft that require any sort of cockpit modelling work either. At least not for free anyway.

What reasonable changes are you guys expecting (or at least hoping) turns up with the next patch? Or are you a "hope is the first step on the road to disappointment" sorta person. Hehe.

What i need - sound, co-ops, FM and DM fixes.

what i would like - work on the render for the terrain, FSAA, better GUI, 100% working loadouts and settings for MP and SP, 109E-4, bug fixes.

We might be expecting a cure all mega patch (please god) but I would not be surprised if all we get is a small bug fix patch.

I'll also add that I hope the lighting is tweaked more, and the water shader updated to something that looks more worthy of running under DirectX 10. I hope the promised 2D distant clouds are included too (SLI be damned! ).

That's a good question Phazon. Personally I wonder if they shouldn't move to something like ArmA2, i.e. a community bug-tracker effort, i.e:

http://dev-heaven.net/projects/cis/issues?set_filter=1

There are obviously a lot of people that care about this title (either for or against, but they do care) and in some ways it would be good to harness some of that energy/effort into more of a community thing. This was certainly part of the IL2 'DNA' and accepting community contributions/feedback over the years, and now the 'CloD big release' is over and the publisher is probably just concerned more about sales targets than release dates, then it's a possible way forward.

There are pros and cons with this of course (transparency is hard work), in that you get people then insisting their bug is the most important and the developers a feeling of 'losing control' etc, but if you can harness it in the right way then a lot of good things can come out of it. You often can't '1.0 release' like that (look at all our bugs!) but 'post-release' you can plan to move to it.

If 1C go completely silent for long stretches (and I think I can understand why) then it might help them focus in the short-term but in the longer term I think they could try some ways to get people to help. The first step would be to start talking more.

For me they have too get the FM for the spit and hurricane fixed.I'm sick of getting completely out flown by bf109's with their gear down,they still out climb and pull away with no problems.But then again i just might be a crap pilot!If you want an easy kill i can be found on the syndicate server.

Neil

Pretty sure the "gear down flying fast" is a another bug mate, ive seen them doing 500kph with the wheels down Agree with the FM fixes, about 60 mph is missing on the spit and hurri, plus it seems the hurri is slightly faster than the spit and the spit is slightly more maneuverable than the hurri, i think they have them mixed up.

That would suit me down to the ground. I would prefer issues to be targetted carefully and thoroughly so when they are done they are done. Large changes like the sound engine should be given the time they need (like RoF and its career)

For me it's FM's and the flashing shadows as top priorities, in that order. Fix them and I would be back to flying the game. I would be happy to wait for the rest.

Sound , fm , loadouts,AA + fixes in the FMB, the spline road problem,people not showing,the weather system.Not really fussed about the gui.

Ooh good point about the soft shadows. They need to improve the filtering and soft shadow algorithm so it scales properly from a distance. At the moment the soft shadows look good close up but when you start to view them from a distance they have the tendancy to "flicker" as people put it. Trees are the worst offender since they cast a large shadow which can still be seen from a distance, but thats when the soft shadow algorithm starts playing up.

would the moving of the trees affect the shadows?

Possibly, but they aren't animated from a distance when the shadow flickering is still visible are they?

im not sure, i always thought that was causing the flickers, but the houses dont move do they? so i dont know.

FM
Sound
Flickering shadows
Dark Grey canopy and windshield

AI
Sound
FM
MSFF2 support for configurable feedback

In no particular order- all are extremely important, but current AI (doing barrel rolls 3 times faster than player) is most important.

FSAA and Sound (complete rework of the sound). I think if they made significant improvements with these two issues people�s perception of CoD would change appreciably.

Oh Yeah almost forgot, forests you can fly thru�

JD
AKA_MattE