4 part interview with Oleg Maddox about the IL2 days

[Feathered_IV]

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

Those are some excellent questions. Saved the best til last. Looking forward to it!

[Bando]

http://www.simhq.com/air-combat/il-2-sturmovik-part4.html

[Mastermariner]

Thank you

Good to hear from the Guru

 

Master

[Bearcat]

A great read.. I agree with his assessment of IL2 as well.. We will not see it's like again I am afraid.. and I think it will be on HDs a decade from now.. not as many .. but it will still be used.. These were the parts that stuck out to me most.

 

 

Fred: The Team Daidalos collaboration was seen in many discussions, as an attempt to compete with work being done at the time (and since) by modders. Was this in fact a motive? Surely the modded versions of the game enabled you to sell even more copies of IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946, because they all required the player to own a legitimate copy of the game? Or was it more a matter of securing the quality of future work on the game?

Oleg: It was rather simple. These guys just really wanted to do things with the game, and they would have done it either way, with our or without our support. With our support, they could do things easier and they could do more. We were extremely impressed with what they were doing. Since there was no commercial conflict at all, and we really liked those guys on a personal level, the relationship formed very naturally.

Fred: Team Daidalos has continued their work, with version 4.12 now released and a wish list started for version 4.13. Has that development met your expectations?

Oleg: It more than exceeded it. I am absolutely amazed by what people were able to do with my old IL-2.

Fred: IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover after the final patch is now a highly playable, impressively detailed and very entertaining game. Now that you are looking back from a distance, what are your reflections on that episode in IL-2 history?

Oleg:  If only we had more time and more money to fully polish the game before release, and do a lot more than ever made into the final patch, everyone would have been a million times happier today. Us, the fans, and especially the management. It could have been a great hit. It should have been a great hit. Of course, no one is blameless, but really releasing it in the state it was released in was a very bad decision. As you can see by the final patch, we were fully capable of doing a good product; the final patch was done purely out of personal desires of the team, while the team was supposedly fully engaged in working on a sequel. If we did not work on the sequel, and just worked on improving Cliffs of Dover, we could have done the work we did in much less time.

This is extremely painful for me to write. I really wish we had more support from our management, more understanding of flight sim realities. With only a little more investment and a little more time, Cliffs of Dover would have been a huge hit and made everyone involved very rich. Well, it’s all in the past now, and it’s best to keep it there.

Fred: The series will start in Normandy in 1944 with British and Luftwaffe fighter campaigns, and a U.S. ground attack campaign. Shevchenko and yourself have said you are most motivated by working on the Eastern Front and VVS aircraft, so this is a major departure.

…If successful, will we see this new series move to the Eastern Front in the future?

…If successful, will we see this new series move to the Pacific Theatre in the future?

Oleg: Clearly. There’s not too many directions a WWII simulation can go.

We see a clear progression through the theaters over the next few years. We however don’t have a specific plan yet. It’s too early to decide whether the very next one is going to be Russia or Pacific or the Mediterranean. We’ll see how the first one goes, and we’ll see what the people most want.

[Zmaj76]

what a brave sent

 

 We will not see it's like again I am afraid.. and I think it will be on HDs a decade from now.. 

What a brave sentence to be put in here.

 

OK Im just kiddin Bear, hihihi

Edited January 14, 2014 by Tvrdi

[Feathered_IV]

I see plenty of people who swore they'd never touch Il-2 again after clod came out are still at it. Still excited for what's ahead.