homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation IL-2: Cliffs of Dover IL-2: Cliffs of Dover - Extended Discussions The state of things?

Has Bliss ever posted the unique IP stats for the server? 2k names in stats does not equal 2k unique players. I know guys that change their Steam moniker 3-4 times a day. Heck, I've probably gone through 20+ names in the last month and a half (although I've quit the ATAG server, so my stats aren't there anymore)

The numbers where Oleg got the information originated from the times i've written about, IL2 started at the beginning of the widespread use of the internet.

And your statement about "airquake" on ATAG is the proof that you either don't know what you are talking about, or love to exaggerate, neither of both is speaking well of you.

imo, of course.

So, you know more about total sales figures vs people online more than Oleg? Saying that Oleg was talking about the beginning is obviously a case of you talking out of your rear-end when faced with facts.

Despite your non - existent manners ill try again to transmit my pov.

During the first years of IL2 the sales were in the overwhelming majority by offline players as online playing had just started to grow.

As the offline players also continued to buy IL2, the online players never ever had a chance to overtake the offline players in the sales.

The separation btw, is a synthetic one, as not all offline players are PURE offline players and online players also play offline sometimes.

Be it as it may, now its 2012 and online gaming is a big factor, offline playing is only interesting if you want to beat a computer (boring imo)

or to recreate history with lots of unattractive flights which wouldn't be manned online or not flown as they did then.

So, imo of course as there are no factual numbers to talk about, the majority of CoD buyers are onliners, which was reflected in the forums.

Thats it, if you can't share my pov.... i think i can live with that.

Ok...apologies for the manners. I just think Oleg has more factual data on sales numbers and such than yourself. The interview was basically a year ago, so it seems he would not make his estimate based on 10 year old information. I understand the "appeal" of flying online, but I don't agree that is where the majority of players of this type of sim are. Getting strafed while warming up your engines, warp, lag, host advantage, trying to coordinate with people that don't share the same view, etc. doesn't appeal to me and most others. Keep in mind the reason you don't hear that much from offline folks is because they are offline type people and there isn't much of an offline experience in this game yet to talk about.

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree!

I disagree. What is the "online" community of CloD? The 200 people playing the game on a handful of servers each night? Out of how many buyers?

I'd be very much surprised if the number of "onliners", that is people who predominantly play CloD online, is actually bigger than 15-20% of the player base.

Until I see some facts I go with Oleg's statement that the vast majority of IL2 players play the game offline and are only moderately interested in online play at all.

BTW dogfight servers for me personally are boring as hell.

Just one more remark about Olegs numbers, afaik he was talking about the total sales, and the number of sales diminished to the end, so the majority of the sales should have been in the first five to six years.

Even now, if M4T's numbers are in anyways correct (I believe that AASs's numbers are pretty much in line with theirs too), IL-2 is far more popular offline than online. ATAG's numbers vs # of sales, also seems to back this up, 2k names on their server (by far the most populated) vs the 10k Steam sales. I believe that's just the nature of the genre, people have such different interests, skill levels, time restraints, etc, that most people are still flying by themselves vs AI opposition, if they're flying at all, some in campaign settings, some for just the quick fix. I know the lack of variety of server types online right now has me flying (or making maps/missions) away from most of the online stuff right now.

The AI and AI Commands are two of the main issues that hamper Offline play. If I were solely an Offline player I wouldn't worry that these issues wouldn't be fixed properly because they feel the IL-2 developers cater to the Online crowd. This wouldn't be the case even if they did because the AI and Commands will be highly needed in Online wars, especially now that the AI aircraft can and will be used extensively in Dogfight rooms aswell as Coops. The use of AI was probably the main difference between the dogfight rooms and COOP rooms, hence no requirement for either name. I actually hate the term dogfight room as it it implies some inane furbal that is not the case in the servers I fly. I'm not sure when it will be possible, but it would be nice to lead a formation of 6, 12, 24, 50, or 100 AI bombers, that would follow your commands, change targets on the fly, etc. You would have to be able to choose the position in the formation to lead from, as you don't want human players just targeting the lead/first aircraft.

Totally agree with the above. It's the AI right now making (and breaking) both camps. Online, there's little to do other than dogfight, or single plane bomb of target, and offline, the AI is so weak, it's really hard to create missions, or have much of a challenge in them. However, there's not much hope for a fix to the AI problem in the near future, as the recent posts suggest the next patch is strictly video code. With a 4+ month gap since the last patch, I'd say its been at least 6 months since the AI was last addressed (fixed some radio commands, and removed others).

Holy hell, I asked a simple question and it turned into a seven page thread XD

The developers are still working on COD and the sequel at the same time. Both sims use the exact same game engine so any work done on the game engine will apply to COD, and the sequel. The sequel has not be officially announced and no time frame given, but it appears obvious that it will be situated on the Eastern Front. There is no fear of COD ever being abandoned, what the developer doesn't do the community modders will do. Personally I don't think we will see the sequel until next year. In the meantime we will see a number of patch that will fix COD and test features for the sequel.

lol - it's a WWII air combat sim, it's just most of the fighting happens in the forums

Welcome to the IL2 Cliffs of Dover subforum of SimHQ!