Large number arenas

[=LD=4brkfast]

My questions first is, is it possible?

 

Why I ask:

 

I still remember, as if it were yesterday, a Battle over Germany scenario in an older(far less complex, far less pretty, far less historical) game.

 

I still remember flying lateral with a group of B17's(my squads assignment in the first frame was scouting and I had a nose for trouble, still do!), I encountered from long distance no less than 50 sets of B17(roughly 150 planes) and roughly 50+ fighter escort, just barely within visual range, coordinating fellow squad-mates on my team(Axis side) into a convergence. After getting the word to meet up at a particular sector, I went full throttle and met up with 2 full friendly squads of Fw190's and 2 friendly squads of 109's.

 

Needless to say, the results of this were a dead bomber group and scattered enemy fighters after we crashed through and destroyed half of the enemy bombers in first two hours of the first frame, in a resounding Axis success in the first frame!

 

This may seem like I digress, but not really, I'm very, very hopeful for large number arenas. 100 players is good, it's better than most flight sim games, but for this kind of large scale, coordinated action, hundreds of players are wanted! Perhaps even needed.

 

I just have a vision. I really like Rise of Flight, despite my general apathy toward World War 1, I like the revisions(mod v4) to Cliffs of Dover, which I suspect will have striking similarities to Battle of Stalingrad, in just a different theater.

 

So, what I'm asking really is, are there plans in the future to provide large arenas? This is the kind of thing that would solidify this game for a decade.

 

That's what I want to see. I want a permanent home for my squad. It's what drove us, some of us, to a game before this and lead us here.

 

Thanks for reading.

[=LD=Hethwill]

I hear you mike.

[SeaW0lf]

Me too, but I am starting to have mixed feelings about the whole stuff. We "might" get the spring and autumn maps as add-ons and we still have to see if mission builder will be easy to work with, because ROF mission builder is a true buzz killer.

 

BoS seems to be focused on a narrow mission, probably with a frozen river to not have to deal with boats (I heard someone saying that we will have no boats). I also heard Jason (I suppose?) saying in a stream that BoS was going to be more focused in offline gaming. I don't know what that means, but I only have interest in the online community.

 

We need to see how the game will turn up, because from what I have seen so far it focus a lot in graphics, flight model and looks, but the gameplay is at the background. I didn't hear about the mission builder and the freedom we are going to have to build an exciting war theater, especially since the lapse is so narrow (only snowy terrain). They should come up with a good online environment and mission builder, even for who wants to use it for offline gaming, otherwise it will be a one note song.

 

We should be hearing more about the gameplay. What they have in mind, especially for the online community. Maybe they are talking about it, but I haven't seen it.

[[JG2]Phen0m]

4brkfast  I second your motion for huge areanas. I want a team game. So do all 55 Jg2. OUR last UNmentioned game together left us with a bad taste in our mouth. PLzzzzzzzzzzzzz Zak we know you. Get us a world we can really fly and compete in as squadrons not ..............1,2,3,4...................I wont say it

[0lv]

May God hear you 4brkfast, hope this dream come true

Edited October 31, 2013 by [JG2]D4rk_FalcoN

[[JG2]Surf]

Ditto.

[=LD=4brkfast]

If the focus is truly in an offline game, that's quite disappointing then. Having a good single player is good(hopefully unscripted, Red Baron 3D had it right).

 

But for real, true longevity of a game like this, it must provide freedom in an online game mode.

 

There is a reason why people -still- play a 14 year old flight sim game. It's not because of graphics/singleplayer/etc, it's because of an online simmer environment.

[4Shades]

We musn't forget off-line players either. Current data suggests that there are still many more offline players in IL-2 now than online players. But of course we need both modes of play in BOS.

 

My 2c worth is that numbers of players in an online game is one thing, but quality of immersion and continuity in the online game is just as important.

[SeaW0lf]

When they say offline, they might be considering building a better career mode, which in ROF was a beta thing, very limited and with only a few missions. I only played it once (one mission).

 

But what I consider much more important for both the online and offline crowd is the mission builder, because it fits both niches. In fact, if they create a good mission builder (friendly) and have a balanced rate of planes and ground objects available, realistic flak included, the rest will unfold by itself, because they know how to create detailed graphics, engines and such.

 

If they keep the same mission builder of ROF, the horizon will be narrow, because then we are with our hands tied, and this is an awful perspective for the simmer community. And I have no idea, but it seems to me that nowadays a strong online community is a reflex of a healthy and successful game, no matter how big is the offline numbers. The opposite don't look that promising.

[=LD=4brkfast]

When they say offline, they might be considering building a better career mode, which in ROF was a beta thing, very limited and with only a few missions. I only played it once (one mission).

 

But what I consider much more important for both the online and offline crowd is the mission builder, because it fits both niches. In fact, if they create a good mission builder (friendly) and have a balanced rate of planes and ground objects available, realistic flak included, the rest will unfold by itself, because they know how to create detailed graphics, engines and such.

 

If they keep the same mission builder of ROF, the horizon will be narrow, because then we are with our hands tied, and this is an awful perspective for the simmer community. And I have no idea, but it seems to me that nowadays a strong online community is a reflex of a healthy and successful game, no matter how big is the offline numbers. The opposite don't look that promising.

Totally agree. A good mission builder means anybody can host an event, a scenario or historical snapshot, etc

 

I'm not going to throw other sim games up here, but despite some of their flaws, they had some really nice qualities.

 

The community would host weekly events, some of them small, some of them larger and more coordinated. Like a 'This Day in History' type of thing that was ran once or twice a week in the old days, where a sortie or event was taken from encounter reports and replicated into an evening 'snap shot' event. They were random, from day to day, you never knew what would be available(depended on the date usually, ie, the week of December 7th may warrant a Pearl Harbor snap shot), sometimes it was a cool 109G6 vs Yak9 sortie(generally evenly matched), other times it was something from the pacific or another theater.

 

I understand this game will be Eastern Front and that's perfectly fine, especially considering the variety of aircraft that will eventually be available, IE, lend lease, etc.

 

So providing a dynamic mission builder will allow players to host events.

 

My favorite part about these events was you never knew who you killed(or hopefully not, who killed you) until the game logs were uploaded. There was nothing like looking over your log and seeing who you were fighting while thinking back on the sorties. Nothing put a bigger grin on my face than guessing how many kills I got and looking later, to find I was awarded more kills than I suspected!

 

I have nothing against offline gamers, I enjoy a good single player campaign too no doubt, but a community of players with dynamic creative abilities can really boost the games replay-ability and fun factor!

[FuriousMeow]

I really like those arenas that have larger numbers of players in there. 250+ players.

 

BUT, something to remember and keep in mind - only 32 objects would be viewable at a time and led to many a strange thing such as tracers from invisible planes, being shot down by invisible planes, or aircraft in your sights quickly vanishing.

 

So, just keep in mind that there are still limitations that can lead to less than favorable results.