posted 09-18- 03:25 PM            

Whats your opinion!

posted 09-18- 04:30 PM            

But tell me about Il-2. Whats that,is there a website available?

posted 09-18- 04:34 PM               

Go here for some screen shots: http://209.198.154.16/il2-e/products/screenshots.asp?id=68409.1-2742-36785

And here for other things:
http://il2.sim-arena.com/

posted 09-18- 05:55 PM               

Yep IL-2 is the sim I'm looking forward to.

I don't know how everyone can say ww2 sims are dying when there is all these sims indevelopment.

Stormbird
IL-2
BOB
B17-2
cfs-2

and then the online

ww2 online

and if its still holding and they can find a backer i think inertia is still thinking of doing a pacific sim with an updated openplane engine.

Right now alot of people are still playing

SDOE
CFS
EAW
WW2 Fighters

and then the online games

AW3
AH
WB
FA2

posted 09-18- 09:07 PM            

Publishing companies won't continue to support this. They aren't run by a bunch of hobbiests, but rather by people who have to make sure the business makes the most money possible.

posted 09-19- 06:19 AM            

I hope,that this Genre will be never given up! and i should take a little bit more opimistic for future Games.

posted 09-19- 07:51 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jerry:
I doubt if MH or Mighty or even Ron can survive long with negative cash flow for the two or three years it takes to get a sim out these days.

---

Thats why I have high hopes for their RC sim (keep the cash flow positive). Also, thats the beauty of OpenPlane. Should they decide to come out with SDOE2 PAW (or whatever) there are already a number of excellent planes they could use without spending time doing anything but cosmetics.

I wouldnt mind a bit if the work I do on the P38 or the PBY end up in a different game. Actually, it would be very high praise. And knowing their level of integrity, I suspect that the name of anyone that helped develop something they used would be listed somewhere.

They also have some eager, rabid test pilots, myself included. If they made water landings possible for the PBY, I would drop $50-$75 for it as soon as it came out. I have only purchased 2 games on (or near) release date. Falcon 4.0 and Recoil (a shooter but fun).

The genre is not dead. But I think the process is changing....

posted 09-19- 08:53 PM               

The changing sim and pub/dev relationship is the reason I think its high time for more internet released games with no box nor hard manual. and installment games that recoupe the last 6 months of development instead of hopeing for HUGE sales after 1-3 years of development.

Plus taking advantage of the public as beta testers and sounding boards for ideas and concepts.

posted 09-19- 09:19 PM               

My 1st air-combat sim was on my all time favourite computing platform, the CBM Amiga back in early 1988.My experience in flight-sims is pretty common amongst the users of this board.The are dozens of us who have been flight-sim grognards 4 longer than we care 2 admit, & the one thing that all of us have experienced are extended periods of time when there were no air-combat sims (and I mean the so-called, "hard-core", or "study" sim variety) at all being released, whether they be WW1, WW2, or "modern" jet sims.

These painfully long periods of drought were often followed by a virtual deluge of sims, often all of them belonging 2 the same category (ie. WW2 sims, jet sims, etc).U see, PC entertainment s/w publishers are somewhat like lemmings.They are also very much like film studios.When one studio produces a big box office hit about 'situation X', then all the other major studios rush out and also make movies about 'situation X' because they think that the public will just want more of the same.Of course, they merely succeed in flooding the market with a series of movies all about the same bloody thing, and many of these movies don't even end up breaking even.

The very same thing happens in the computer s/w entertainment field.Didn't u notice that between late 1998 and mid 1999 at least 6 WW2 sims set in the ETO were released?This fragmented the market, and as a result most of the sims did not make anywhere near the amount of money that their publishers had hoped.PC games of all genres are in a slump at the moment.They are practically at an all-time low when it comes 2 sales, whilst console titles are selling by the million.Large publishers r saying 2 themselves, "Why should we produce an expensive title like Falcon 4.0 that has 'only' sold 300,000 units, when we can make Super Mario XIV & sell 3 million units?".

This slump we r in will last 4 quite some time, IMHO, but it will NOT be the end of air-combat "study" sims.I think that we may have seen the end of the large sim publishers like Microprose & EA/Jane's, but I strongly believe that smaller developers & publishers like Rowan/Empire, Maddox/BlueByte and their ilk will the gaps.They have much lower overheads than the big guys like Hasbro (just typing their name gives me the willies) and will not only be able 2 produce their sims 4 less, they will be able 2 recoup their costs with far lower sales.The small publishers can make a good profut with sims that "only" sell 150,000 -300,000 units, whilst the majors barely even break even, let alone make any money.

If u don't believe me, then just check out another one of my favourite genres, computer RPG's.From late 1994 to late 1998, we were were starved of RPG titles, with only a tiny number of quality titles (like Fallout, 4 example)released.But, since Fallout 2 & Baldur's Gare hit the market in the latter part of 1998, the RPG market has blossomed.The same goes for massively multiplayer (MMP) RPG's.First we only had Meridian 59 (does ne1 remember that?), then UO came 2 market, started making big business, and now EverQuest and Asheron's Call r also big hits, & there r a plethora of MMP RPG's slated 4 release).

It's a cliche, but things really do come full circle.Until things pick up again, & that could be quite some time, just be content with the several excellent air-combat sims, both prop & jet-based that have been released since 1998.There's plenty there 2 keep us busy 4 a LONG time yet!

[This message has been edited by Hawkwind (edited 09-19-2000).]

posted 09-19- 11:17 PM               

Even if we do have a LONG dry spell from flight sims I'll be very content here.