homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation IL-2: Great Battles Dev Update 69

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/168-developer-diary/?p=131366

Hi Everybody!

Another week of development is passing by. Some of you may even say that the game is basically complete and we only need to assemble the ready parts and release is straight away. But actually we all here in our small Moscow office (which doesn�t even have windows BTW) and we are totally engrossed with work. Tension is growing every week, but even summer time with its traditional human thurst for vacations cannot break us. I think, flight-sim developers are the toughest and some of the most driven specialists in the gaming world, because if you can�t keep your promise to deliver a new high-end flight sim - then you don�t get to work on a new IL-2 Sturmovik title.

The Project manager that some of you may know as Han on the forums is the one who, with his unfailing precision is coordinating pretty much all production segments and keeps the work going as planned and previously announced. Actually, he manages to solve so many production issues that I�d rather not bother him without a certain need - everything�s under control and the system is maintained like a perfectly serviced mechanism. He oversees all new elements and fixing newly discovered flaws - all that is in trustworthy hands.

The team of engineers is led be Andrey aka Petrovich who occupies the furthest room in our office. They run so many insanly complicated maths and physics that I�m honestly surprised their PC haven�t been caught on fire yet (three knocks on the wood). The flight model for the Fw-190 and He-111 is what we all are expecting from them these days. There�s no doubt that the result will be as impressing as always. When these two planes are complete, the engineers will run tests for all 10 aircraft that we have and make sure they are historically and technically correct. No use repeating how difficult and long that work can be, but we�re sincerely grateful to them for it.

Of course, there would have been nothing to fly in without the game engine and the program environment in general which are permanently maintained and developed by our programmers and their leader, Sergey Vorsin. Those who claim IL2:BOS to be nothing more than ROF with different planes and maps have no idea on how incredibly wrong they were. Our code guys are relentless. The constantly work on newly added graphical technologies and fresh content, and neverending game optimization - they always know what to do and how to bring the project closer to their ideals. It�s the same story with our network segment developers. BTW you help them a lot with your bug reports on issues in multiplayer; all that feedback is warmly welcomed and sincerely appreciated. It�s crucial to fix the netcode now, before the big release.

The long-awaited He-111 can easily be taken from a desktop on our modelers� displays and made into a desktop - this much time and work it takes to make a large mighty German bomber. It�s still too early to show it on screenshots but trust me, there�s a lot in this aircraft for you to put your teeth into. The Fw-190 is much clearer - we only need to finalize the cockpit. Meanwhile, we still have to agree to some compromises, such as gauge illumination level dial is not going to be controllable in the game. Even though it�s a unique feature we still hope that you�ll be able to fly and and enjoy the game without it.

And that picture of peace and harmony that is saturated with creative energy is regularly resounded with rumble and clanking. Valery Kornilov, like a very self-critical and devoted goldsmith, is polishing the sounds that he prepares for the game. Well, we can�t shush on him: the war is a one loud thing, so our sound director is fighting for every decibel to be in its place.

The most quiet spot in our office is occupied be the customer support. If you�ve ever communicated with them them you must know how client-oriented they are. How could it be any different? Flight-sims is a unique genre and its community is definitely worth being treated correspondingly.

Unfortunately, the developer blog isn�t big enough for me to tell more about other crew members. But anyway what I was trying to share with you is the unique atmosphere here in the studio. It�s the spirit of the original, long-awaited and cherished project - a really new IL-2.



The change log (the most important bits of it):

- each fuel tank can now be set in flames individually

- stats has been fixed again, we expect some improvement

- the tail gear at Pe-2 was too weak, we fixed it

- shadows dropped by clouds are less contrast now so it's easier to see small elements of terrain and distinguish the plane shadow clearer

- La-5 will be available in multiplayer for the entire weekend

You ever going to work on the single player stuff?

777 made it quite clear SP is not a priority for them in a recent newsletter. I didn't give a crap when I read it because I had already given up on this mediocre sim. Every time I play the sim I come away thinking... meh. Absolutely nothing grabs me as "wow".

- The FMs are not pushing any boundaries.
- The graphics are good but nothing that hasn't been done before.
- The AI is same old poor dross as in RoF.
- The SP content is low and is not going to improve and only selected people will get the mission editor.

It is essentially air quake in white.

Have you ever seen a sub forum here on SimHQ that was so dead for a sim this close to release? This is a clue right there. The fact it is in beta/alpha does not matter, at this stage in the game the FMs, AI and content are pretty much finalised.

I havent played for a while because I cant be bothered to do the reinstall/update thing. But I guess it says something that I can't be bothered...

I am still looking forward to the campaigns in the final release though.

Makes sense. That's why I think we haven't even seen a hint of anything related to a campaign, and they took away the few
single player missions we had quite a while ago and have not returned them to the available pre-release game.

I think it's a huge mistake to give short shrift to offline and single player modes. There are a huge number of sim enthusiasts such as myself that don't give a rat's arse about multiplayer and would much rather fly a historical campaign. I think a really good set of offline stock and user built campaigns are what give a sim staying power, such as is the case with sims like the original IL2 and EAW. Also, while I'm on my soap box, why can't we start adding user made skins to the available aircraft?

All that said, this sim has a huge potential for greatness, and it would be a shame to blow it by focusing on multiplayer only.

Where is this MP only mentality suddenly came from?


Developers said themselves that they will concentrate on SP first given that 70-90% are single players.

To be honest, having to update the single missions every time you realease a patch because the map has changed or some other code thing breaks the missions would be a huge waste of time. The team is small so they keep one mission and the rest is auto generated (which is probably funcionality common to the campaign). Beta MP focus also makes sense since it's a good data feed for the devs. The MP crowd is also the loudest most vocal group of simmers around so they will be yelling if stuff is off.

There will be single player focus after summer, I am quite sure of it.

-C-

Yep - some 'thick' posts in this thread to put it nicely.
The conclusions some come to with a sim that is half completed...

I'm thrilled with the way it's coming along - looking forward to the stock user made campaigns and missions and
especially the user made ones that will arrive in short order.

At three months of release date??? good luck with the contents.

Sokol1

We are not experiencing the most current build or all of the completed or almost completed content.

Incorrect. Only selected people are going to receive the mission editor before the final release. Afterwards everyone will get it.



Such as...? Only so much can be done for a game meant to be run on a home computer.



For now it is, but it's hardly the AI that's going into the game for the final release.

The details of the campaign have been discussed at some length by the development team.

Read what I wrote. I am aware it was *discussed* by the development team. I'm sure that the weather was also discussed. I guess I would just like to *see* something related to the single player aspects of the product.

I've been flying flight sims since the original Red Baron days and don't fly multiplayer -- never have and don't plan to start. If there is no single player campaign, I won't spend my money on this sim.

Crockett

Please decide according to your own preferences. The Devs have already said that there will be a single-player campaign, the playing of which unlocks various weapons loadouts and custom skins. But in your case, it might be best to wait and see if it appeals to you. I'm similar in that I almost ever play multiplayer - in my case because my timezone is so inconvenient.

My reading comprehension is just fine, thank you. Obviously, we've not been shown anything past the details discussed in forum discussions, because it isn't ready to be shown to the public.

In (official forum) is said something like:

There will be a SP "sandbox" campaign... Maybe:

"Today start the Operation Uranus, the planeset available is X,Y,Z, the front line is XXX km from Stalingrad, DO WHAT YOU WANT (Include use Fw 190), AS MANNY TIMES AS YOU WANT ... When boring move to the Battle next phase, e.g. Little Saturn Operation... The planeset now is... Etc. Etc."

Does not seem exactly what SP crowd was hoping...

But we know: "It's only Alpha, 51%! Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Rama..."

September (2014)
is in >90 days...





Sokol1

Anyway....
This has been discussed already on the IL2 board.
Whatever we see at release will not be the final word on single player content.
Even with the complex nature of the BOS mission builder, we will some fantastic user-made content I'm sure.
That's above and beyond whatever 1C-777 adds/changes/upgrades in the future is the title is successful.
I'm not worried.

So there is no SP in the current 'buy early alpha/beta?'

That sucks, if true. I am another SP only gamer when it comes to flight sims. With a game like R6 Raven Shield, I'll do MP all day long, and auto racing sims I'll do both SP and MP, but flight sims are strictly SP for me.

Quick Mission builder similar to RoF is what's available right now.