4 part interview with Oleg Maddox about the IL2 days

[heinkill]

I recently had the chance to chat with Maddox about his IL2 days, from the late 90s up to and including Cliffs of Dover.

 

It turned out to be so much material I agreed with SimHQ we would split it over four installments.

 

First installment out today:

 

http://www.simhq.com/air-combat/il-2-sturmovik-part1.html

 

Cheers

 

Fred.

[EAF_Paf]

Thanks!

[felixfer]

Very interesting to read, thanks. I'll be expecting the other three parts. Best regards,

FFdC

[Bearcat]

Didn't see this. I just posted this  .. I'll delete my post.

[7./SchG2_v*Athlon]

many thanks  

[Bearcat]

Some interesting points in there tat stuck out in my mind are ...

 

Fred: Did you ever consider commercializing the ability to make skins by releasing skinning tools, or skins packs for IL-2 aircraft?

Oleg: Not really. If users have tools for free, they release more user-made content, and user-made content draws more people to the game; so by keeping the tools free you are in fact making more money.

 

Fred: Another area of much discussion was the entire emergence of, and management of, online gaming with IL-2. Online combat flight simulation came of age during the life of the IL-2 series – how early did you identify that trend? What was the main focus of your team in optimizing IL-2 titles for online play? What were the difficulties or successes you would highlight?

Oleg: We played many games online in the 90s. We made some pioneer games with ground-breaking multiplayer functionality before Il-2 that were very popular in Russia. We already knew what people wanted, and we could really see what was missing from other flight sims. Multiplayer has to be open and varied, and allow a large number of people to experience exactly what they want. We knew it had to be blazing fast, offer many options, user mods, user missions, of course dedicated servers, good interface, and a quick way to find exactly the kind of match you want. It was also very important, and almost no one was doing it at the time, to allow the user to feel unique in a game. Not just a copy of the same model as everyone else with only a different name tag. To allow the user to create himself in the game, to put his own face on the pilot, that did a lot to make online feel more real and more personal.

 

Fred: Hardware / bandwidth advances mean that massively multiplayer combat flight simulation is now possible. Advances in 3D and virtual reality technology will also make the experience even more compelling and realistic. Do you have any thoughts about the future of online flight simulation?

Oleg: Advances in technology also mean that budgets have grown exponentially. At the same time, the genre has shrunk. There are not that many flight sim fans out there anymore. That means that if anyone has the budget to make a really big online game, they will probably not make it a flight sim. And if anyone tries to make an online flight sim, they will not have anywhere near the budget they need to compete. There is probably a future in massive online flying games, but not in realistic massive multiplayer online (MMO) flight sims. Finally, advances in technology mean that computers become more capable of complex physics. And today’s flight sims are still ways off from doing full complex aerodynamics. We’re years if not decades away from doing real-time wind tunnels on complex 3D shapes. Even today’s supercomputers can’t do anywhere near fast enough. So, with all advances, people doing realistic flight sims will probably spend their resources on making flight more realistic, meaning there will not be that much left for massive online. If you have a thousand planes in the air, each is probably using a lot less bandwidth, and therefore is much less realistic, than a sim capped at 32 online players.

So the future? I think there’s a fork in the road. There is a path towards more accessible, more massive, less realistic online – or towards less accessible, smaller, more realistic games.

 

It seems to me that BoS is taking latter path .. while as an example WT is taking the former path.

[Nic727]

Hi,

 

Someone on the Il2 1946 forum posted that, so I want to share you the interview :

 

http://www.simhq.com/air-combat/il-2-sturmovik-part1.html

 

My favorite part is :

 

Not really. If users have tools for free, they release more user-made content, and user-made content draws more people to the game; so by keeping the tools free you are in fact making more money.

 

So it's a great link to my topic : http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/2131-economic-model-bos-and-rof/

If additional planes and tool are free, more players will come... And if you make keys by games instead of accounts, more players will play...

 

More players = More money.

 

thx

[Cybermat47]

It's already been posted, but thanks anyway.

[FuriousMeow]

Kind of backwards, if the keys are free to use on as many PCs as possible at the same time then less people will play as more people can use one key to play at the same time. Pirates love that stuff.

 

Just get your dad's account and use two profiles, although I'm starting to grow suspiscious of if your dad has an account he registered your game with but he doesn't play and for some reason you can't use the account even though the game was purchased for you. Convoluted I know, but that's what Nic727's posts have amounted to so far.

Edited November 21, 2013 by FuriousMeow

[Karost]

"before IL2 they have European Air War" ( community.)

 

still remember European Air War show me  how terrible in  flat spin look like  

Edited November 21, 2013 by Karost

[Bearcat]

There is already a thread open about this.

[heinkill]

My take on it was he was talking within the context of his new DCS WWII project. The DCS platform is very much focused on hi fidelity simulation of a few machines, rather than MMO style gameplay featuring hundreds of machines and tanks etc., so I agree with Bearcat, the world seems to be dividing itself into BoS and DCS sims on the one side (hi fidelity but due to that hi fidelity capped to fewer players), and WT/WoP MMOs with hundreds of players online at a time (in the arcade mode - the full real mode seems to attract very few players so it is mostly player vs bots in there) on the other side.

 

Then we have modded CoD somewhere in between, with online play now able to support 100 players in nicely modelled kites, online simultaneously.

 

It's a luxury situation really.

[Bearcat]

Therin may lie CoD's niche .. but then again we have no idea what the multiplayer will be like in BoS...

[Scarecrow]

I look forward to the rest.

[heinkill]

Part 2 (Forgotten Battles) is really interesting for Il2 nerds I have to say, every time I send a draft to Oleg he adds new material!

 

T

[heinkill]

Imminent.

[Cybermat47]

Therin may lie CoD's niche .. but then again we have no idea what the multiplayer will be like in BoS...

Probably like RoF: nothing really groundbreaking for the most part, but some very interesting looking campaigns here and there.

[Hadwell]

I hope BoS is like RoF, WW2 planes in the RoF engine will be awesome, been waiting for this forever :D

 

thanks

Edited December 5, 2013 by Hadwell

[Cybermat47]

I hope BoS is like RoF, WW2 planes in the RoF engine will be awesome, been waiting for this forever :D

 

 

You mean since 2009 

[FuriousMeow]

Pretty sure I heard about that. The mountains are the ground, and since the AI weren't directly programmed to not see through the ground, and mountains are the same thing, then of course the AI doesn't know about it.

 

There are a lot of things in the Il-2 series that are pretty much kludges. It was all thrown together and "worked" but there was more duct tape and plaster holding it together than a solid foundation. Which should be expected considering it was originally only for the Il-2 and the rest of the aircraft were thrown in after the fact without being planned to be flyable.

Edited December 20, 2013 by FuriousMeow

[heinkill]

Yes it seems there was always a little more behind the scenes...

 

Pacific Fighters episode shows some of the same insights... the way I work is to write it and then send it back to Oleg to add any more detail he thinks relevant (which he does!) - part 3 is in layout now.

[Skoshi_Tiger]

Thanks for going to all this effort Hienkill. It is really fascinating to look back and hear about what was going on behind the scenes.

 

Cheers!

[Emgy]

Very interesting interview!

About mountains: if you make them opaque to the AI, you also need to give the AI some kind of memory and a routine for "look for pesky human player that just disappeared under a mountain ridge."

[heinkill]

Preview of Part 3 - pacific fighters...

 

- what was maddox games biggest fight with Ubisoft?

- why did Afrika and the Med never get a map?

- IL2 Korea, myth or reality?

- why the Battle of Britain to kick off the new platform?

- which episode was the biggest seller?

- what did Oleg regret about making aircraft skinnable?

 

 

H

Edited December 23, 2013 by heinkill

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

You post it yet waiting?

[Cybermat47]

You post it yet waiting?

Good things come to those who wait.

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

I read so fast, though.

[heinkill]

It is in layout...while you wait, you can make your own answers to those questions...

[352nd_Wheels]

Both were great reads. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

You are using the Pe-2 Peshka addon trailer in the article instead of the IL-2 Forgotten Battles trailer though.

The uploader at YouTube has it misnamed. 

 

This is what is in your article.

Here is the Forgotten Battles trailer from 2003.

 

I have that video and it is named Pe-2.

 

 

Wheels

[heinkill]

Both were great reads. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

You are using the Pe-2 Peshka addon trailer in the article instead of the IL-2 Forgotten Battles trailer though.

The uploader at YouTube has it misnamed. 

 

This is what is in your article.

I have that video and it is named Pe-2.

 

 

Wheels

Thanks, it was the editor who threw that in there - I have pointed out the error to him...

 

H

[JG4_Sputnik]

Nice interview, thanks HeinKill.

Cant wait for more to come.

[JG27_Chivas]

Preview of Part 3 - pacific fighters...

 

- what was maddox games biggest fight with Ubisoft?

- why did Afrika and the Med never get a map?

- IL2 Korea, myth or reality?

- why the Battle of Britain to kick off the new platform?

- which episode was the biggest seller?

- what did Oleg regret about making aircraft skinnable?

 

 

H

 

 

Some educated guesses

 

biggest fight with UBI...... probably UBI's cut of the profits.

 

BOB, Africa, and the Med were being saved for the COD game engine

 

Luthier and his own development team were making Korea for the COD game engine when they got called in the help Oleg finish COD.

 

Battle of Britain was an Iconic high profile battle relatively early in WW2, can't think of a much better place to start a new series of WW2 theaters of war.  examples of the Battle for Poland or France wouldn't have the intial draw or recognition that the Battle of Britain would have.

[heinkill]

Nice guesses! All is revealed...

 

http://www.simhq.com/air-combat/il-2-sturmovik-part3.html

[FlatSpinMan]

Halfway done?! Who knew it was that close? What a shame.

[Feathered_IV]

Thanks for putting that together. I'd like to have learned something of the still unexplained ten month delay of the completed AEP addon, or Pacific Fighters development/Northrop-Grumman.

[heinkill]

Yes...There were a few 'no go' areas - Northrop Grumman among them...

[79_vRAF_Friendly_flyer]

Some words of wisdom from Oleg regarding the FMB. I hope 777 manages to make a more user friendly interface for theirs.

[heinkill]

And in the final installment...

 

- why did OM break his long held policy of non collaboration with modders to work with Team Daidolos?

- will he admit they improved on something he said was already as good as it could get?

- what does he feel about the whole Cliffs of Dover saga, now that the dust has settled

- how did he get involved in the DCS WWII project and what is his role in it

- how exactly is the tie up with DCS/ED structured?

- what is his short and long term vision for DCS WWII 

 

and

 

- what will be the next theatre after Western Europe?

 

H

[Rama]

- why did Afrika and the Med never get a map?

He forgot to say it's also because no third party did them...

On the "core maps", Normandy, Ardennes, Norway, Burma, Desert Map and Bessarabia were all done by third parties.

 

So to your question "Why Bessarabia", correct answer should have been "because third party did it".

[Oesau]

Heinkill - looking forward to the final part, been a good read and has brought back a few memories - what was probably the most profound impact that the IL2 series had on me was MP - I'd been into flight sims from the early to mid 80's but it wasn't until IL2 came along that I really got into them into a way I would never have thought I would.