What happened to all the players?

[CountZero]

On 6/8/2023 at 10:21 PM, BBAS_Tiki_Joe said:

 

I'm confused, why don't you just join a squad? It seems everything you want would be solved by joining a squadron that focuses on teamwork. We have a mix of fighters providing escort bombers all the time in MP with great success.  I'm often on flights with 15+ people all working together on missions in MP all communicating. I think you can get your realism fixed by just reaching out and working with groups that already exist. I see plenty of teamwork all the time. Going solo in a bomber is suicide, I agree with that but there are plenty of groups that fly regularly where you don't have to do that.

when i play i play with tm8, i avoid solo, im talking about behavior of most players who will see what stats award and they will mimic that behavior, so then you will end up with same play style on every server no mather how hard mission maker try to make win map or war or objective as priority, stats system dont award that , stats system promote, stay over your side, be selfish and fly fighters, never go over enemy side. Small group of players that play to win maps dont care about personal stats, and only about objectivces, so they will do suiced runs on targets to get most of them, take 109/yak get flak, crash, take 110/pe-2 to finish targets crash, repete faster then same type of player on enemy side.

[Otto_bann]

On 6/9/2023 at 9:46 PM, Mobile_BBQ said:

Obviously not but, escaping and resetting to complete the mission is a thing, unless you have no resolve.  And besides, GLIDE BOMBING was one of the specific roles the 88 was designed for.  I guess that adapting on-the-fly and switching to a secondary plan isn't acceptable to you.  I mean, hell, if you're going to die anyway, die fighting. 

Like I said, 730kph is the true rip speed (not 670). That's 10kph higher than the listed rip speed for Spit Mk. IX.  Also, if the gunners are "inefficient now" when the closure rates are so slow the target is basically "frozen in place" in you gunners' sights, your luck must be really terrible. 

 

I suggest you to use heavy bombers more often on the 2 remaining main servers... at least when they are full at 50% and more.

 

There is 2 main ways to practice this sim :

 

- ~80/90% of dogfight (shotdown the most planes has possible or fly a fighter for less risk than in a bomber or jabo plane)

- perform the briefing for what it say in, with planes made for

 

This last way is not really possible anymore, except for suicidal or lucky guys : too much fighters, too much unbalance about balistics, unefficient gunners, no cover, etc... At the WW2 aerial war, it's bombers job who won the war, not fighters and their guns...

 

I'm working since few time on STE to build missions and create a server for bombers & jabos only (no human fighter, only IAs) : human dogfight will be impossible in this server, nor in a jabo. Only AI fighters will have for mission, to chase the human attackers. And their amo and skills are controllable...

 

The goal : a best balance and promote the job at ground : diving speed doesn't work against laser and heavy cannons and you can't keep this high speed for long, especially if your bomber is attacked far away from any safe sector.

 

It's a hard and long work (especialy because I never used STE editor before, but I learn it now with a helper team : thanks to them) :  it's the only way (IMO) for create at least ONE special server for level bombers and jabos, where they will not be surrounded so many (too much) time by a swarm of fighters (or sometime shooted at airfield or airstart) for who what the briefing say has no interest at all... they don't read it anyway the most part of time (even if to write it  correctly in the editor is already a real job).

 

For the ones interested by my project (heavy bomber pilots and true ground attack enthusiasts), please be patient... and keep training

Edited June 16, 2023 by Otto_bann

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

7 hours ago, Otto_bann said:

 

I suggest you to use heavy bombers more often on the 2 remaining main servers... at least when they are full at 50% and more.

 

 

 

I would but, Allies have no heavy bombers in the sim and only 3 (technically 2 1/2) models of medium bombers to choose from.  Yes, I know, (blah blah blah), historically Germany never really had heavy bombers, except for some limited production models that were just not good at all.   

 

7 hours ago, Otto_bann said:

 

 

(snip) ...diving speed doesn't work against laser and heavy cannons and you can't keep this high speed for long, especially if your bomber is attacked far away from any safe sector.

 

 

 

Yet, if it's a Pe-2 that is stuck in this situation, all of the sudden it's Superman - if Superman were an airplane.   Please don't ever complain about the Pe-2 ever again.

Also, I was unaware that lasers were a common weapon in WW2.  

Edited June 16, 2023 by Mobile_BBQ

[Otto_bann]

12 hours ago, Mobile_BBQ said:

 

I would but, Allies have no heavy bombers in the sim...

 

Yet, if it's a Pe-2 that is stuck in this situation, all of the sudden it's Superman - if Superman were an airplane.   Please don't ever complain about the Pe-2 ever again.

Also, I was unaware that lasers were a common weapon in WW2.  

You can perform level bomber in PE-2 and A20 yet (very interesting option) and fly Axe side also if you want biger bombs (bad idea : 3 x sc250 are more efficient than 1 SC 1000 - several smaller bombs spread better the destruction rather only a biger one)

 

For laser guns, since last ballistic upgrade, some amonitions have same effect than the ones of Millennium Falcon yet ?

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

9 hours ago, Otto_bann said:

You can perform level bomber in PE-2 and A20 yet (very interesting option) and fly Axe side

 

Yes, I have done both.   By the way, I was being a bit cheeky with the "no heavy bombers" comment.   NEITHER side has heavies in the game.  However, Axis has a much larger selection of bomber variations to choose from.  It's even arguable that the Pe-2's counterpart the 110, which is an attacker/heavy fighter is better all-around than the Peshka.  A20 is decent and somewhat fast but, by Finnish server plane set 4 it's pretty much a sitting duck. 

 

_________________

 

Besides that, I think that there's not as many players as there could be simply due to servers not being able to handle massive numbers of players.  Even in simulation with the available assets, the war just doesn't scale down very well.  There's not enough player slots or ability to handle superbly dense ground positions on a full server to create closer to realistic scenarios. 

For example, it's extremely unlikely that we'll ever see 50+ IL2 with cover swarming vital points on the frontlines or large formations of Stukas or bombers with cover fighters.  Sure, much smaller re-enactments of these scenarios have been done but, most ground attackers and bombers are either solo or pairs with whoever decides to tag along for fighter cover to count on.  So...  I will give it to you that the bomber and attacker portion of campaign servers is just not strong, and most people go to fighters.

 

Just for basics, the most immediate thing I would change about online play is upgrading the netcode so max player count on servers to at least twice as much as current and do any possible optimization so that much more ground targets can be placed and have everything still run smoothly.  It's not the only point that needs work and with the community pretty much left to the responsibility of hosting their own servers, I don't know just how feasible that really is but, there's my 2 cents on the original topic.

[56RAF_phoenix56]

56RAF do a 50-50 mixture of strike missions and fighter sweeps. We have no real problem with "campers", we just don't do dumb things most of the time. We even do a little defensive camping ourselves when we're waiting for squad night to begin.

The better servers ameliorate the lack-of-enough-targets problem by making them suitably scattered over the map, that makes it quite hard for defenders to cover them without getting bored.

The don't-do-dumb-things means: choose your target carefully and think about where it might be defended from; don't fly direct to target, even think about a diversionary move; minimise your visibility by using the ground or cloud; be escorted and probably send the escort in first (it's amazing how the campers get fixated); assess the situation before you attack and even be prepared to abort (we don't often); maximise your exit speed; coordinate your exit route.

If you get shot down by campers because you're on your own, that's reality.

All this doesn't mean we win all the time, we have a set of pretty mixed abilities. But we get plenty of satisfaction.

 

The one thing we don't do much of any more is level bombing. I was thinking about why and came to the conclusion that it's partly the change to rear gunner accuracy, but also because many of us flyers have had enough of early-war and prefer to fly late war aircraft when many of the fighters could carry bomb loads that are comparable with dedicated bombers, or at least the ones in this game. Also, most servers have the destruction threshold for targets set too low high. That means that level bombing a target that already has some damage is unlikely to take it out because you can't select which bits you bomb.

 

However, we notice numbers dropping too. It's partly the time of year, but I think also the lack of new game play modes. It's all very well having new 'planes, but that doesn't change the style of game.

 

The devs need to watch the truly excellent work done by Combat Box and make innovation like that easier and configurable within game or through a comprehensive API. Frankly, the CB devs have more ideas than the game devs.

 

56RAF_phoenix

Edited June 17, 2023 by 56RAF_phoenix56
mistake

[Haza]

 

Well for me personally, I may not be up there as one of the best players in an arcade game, but I've certainly spent more than my fair share of cash funding this game.

I have bought just about everything that this team have sold, including a vast amounts of gifts, with no real interest, other than to keep things alive. This interest is no longer there!

The game for me has just become stale and a few extra airframes or tanks in the same theatre, no longer inspires. I think that the writing is on the wall for this franchise, unless something radical is done very soon.

 

Perhaps it's time to either move to another theatre outside of World War 2 to keep things alive, or to introduce four engine bombers. I've spent a number of months away, only to come back to see the same players still doing the same things, which for me just demonstrates that there is nothing new and exciting happening, here in IL2. 

 

If the dev team thinks that racing with a prize at the end is a way to keep interest, than perhaps it's time for me to move over to a new game and take my funding elsewhere.

 

I concur with the post above that CB have gone above and beyond to keep my interest, but as already been said by a number of people, I think that the spark for me has gone, and i will wait for the next WW2 flight sim to appear.

 

Regards

 

 

 

 

[LukeFF]

35 minutes ago, Haza said:

If the dev team thinks that racing with a prize at the end is a way to keep interest, than perhaps it's time for me to move over to a new game and take my funding elsewhere.

 

Things like air racing events are a way to generate interest by taking advantage of things that weren't around when I and many others here started playing flight sims some 20 or so years ago, e.g., Twitch. There's a whole crowd of people out there (not my words, but those of streamers like WD) who are craving something more than War Thunder - and they don't want to bother with signing up on an internet message board. So, you come up with an event that will generate interest, in this case by partnering with a well-known and respected device manufacturer like Virpil and a streamer who has over 10,000 followers. So, that means over the past 2 or so weeks over 10,000 people on just one Twitch channel knew about this event coming up and that it would showcase IL2 - a title that probably a fair share of that 10,000 have not yet looked at for whatever reason. Oh, and that streamer has openly stated that he wants to get more people playing IL2. Why wouldn't you want to partner with someone like that?

 

I'd also like to state here as well that Virpil has recently sponsored air racing events with DCS. Does DCS look like a software title that is stale, uninspiring, and on its last legs?

 

You have to either adapt to the times by embracing new tech like Twitch or respond like the Blockbusters and Sears Corporations of the world and stagnate at best or wither away and disappear at worst. But, for sure, relying on internet message board technology as the primary way to get the word out about your up-and-coming releases is entirely insufficient.

[6./ZG26_Custard]

I don't believe that air racing/twitch is going to stop the rapid decline of player numbers.  Unless there are some fundamental changes I'm really concerned that we won't have a significant player base left online.

[354thFG_Leifr]

Whatever 1C supposedly have cooking, it better be a corker because an air racing update for BoX is one of the lamest ways to effectively end the series - it's an instant turn off.

[LukeFF]

59 minutes ago, 86th_Leifr said:

Whatever 1C supposedly have cooking, it better be a corker because an air racing update for BoX is one of the lamest ways to effectively end the series - it's an instant turn off.

 

An air racing update? Seriously? It was an event on one of those servers that people like to say are never populated. Sooo...this is a way to populate them. 

 

And, to paraphrase Jason from long, long ago about announcements: we can make announcements about whatever we like. Not every week is going to bring a development blog entry.

[354thFG_Leifr]

Great then, I look forward to the air racing event bringing back the thousands who have since left. ?

[SharpeXB]

8 hours ago, LukeFF said:

it would showcase IL2 - a title that probably a fair share of that 10,000 have not yet looked at for whatever reason.

Since Virpil makes combat flight sim gear, I would imagine anyone who follows them already owns IL-2. 

Edited June 18, 2023 by SharpeXB

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

IL-2 is just kinda stagnant at this point...I made a modpack for this game and I think I've played like once or twice in 2023. Just kinda tired of it and ready for something new. Also life.

[LukeFF]

11 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

Since Virpil makes combat flight sim gear, I would imagine anyone who follows them already owns IL-2. 

 

Not necessarily. Again, I refer to what people like Wingaling Dragon - a guy who streams not just IL2 but other flight sims as well - say: there are a substantial number of people out there who, for whatever reason, have never picked up IL2. Don't assume that just because someone has higher-end gear they are automatically also owners of IL2.

[6./ZG26_Loke]

On 6/18/2023 at 10:21 AM, 86th_Leifr said:

Whatever 1C supposedly have cooking, it better be a corker because an air racing update for BoX is one of the lamest ways to effectively end the series - it's an instant turn off.

If I wanted to race, I would buy a Formular 1 or like simulator. 

[DBFlyguy]

I definitely understand and commend the team trying to get word out about the game.  I (and it appears a lot of others) just don't think a race was the best way to go about it.  People bought this game for combat, not racing.  There may have been more interest in a combat oriented competition of some sort....  1v1, 2v2, squad v squad...etc. I'm an avid twitch watcher and "Wingaling Dragon" did the best he could with what he had but the event itself was just...boring.  Also why were more well known IL-2 personalities ( Shamrock, Wolfpack345, Sheriff) not invited/used? Also, some sort of charity/non-profit addition (doesn't have to be military related) would have probably been a nice addition and a good way to get more eyes on the event, even if people aren't into the racing aspect, people like a good cause.   DCS and MSFS have some really good examples to get inspiration from:

 

 

 

 

Not a competition but another great way Asobo involves their community:

 

 

As far as multiplayer numbers, I got on berloga for the first time in a while last week, definitely notice a decline in numbers from the last I was on months ago but maybe when the team finally decides to start communicating clearly the about the future of this series, that will eventually lead to people coming back to the game?

[LukeFF]

2 hours ago, DBFlyguy said:

I definitely understand and commend the team trying to get word out about the game.  I (and it appears a lot of others) just don't think a race was the best way to go about it.  People bought this game for combat, not racing.  There may have been more interest in a combat oriented competition of some sort....  1v1, 2v2, squad v squad...etc.

 

Several hundred people apparently disagreed with you and signed up to participate in the event. ?

 

2 hours ago, DBFlyguy said:

I'm an avid twitch watcher and "Wingaling Dragon" did the best he could with what he had but the event itself was just...boring.

 

See above. My crystal ball is in the repair shop today and so I cannot predict the future, but I highly doubt this is the only sort of event you are going to see down the line.

 

2 hours ago, DBFlyguy said:

Also why were more well known IL-2 personalities ( Shamrock, Wolfpack345, Sheriff) not invited/used?

 

I did start by asking someone in the community, but he declined, so others were recommended, and WD is the one I decided to work with. No offense, but I personally am glad I found someone outside of this forum who is enthusiastic about combat flight sims in general and IL2 in particular. There's a whole world of people out there, outside of this forum, who are passionate about flight simming but don't care one bit about talking on a message board.

 

2 hours ago, DBFlyguy said:

Also, some sort of charity/non-profit addition (doesn't have to be military related) would have probably been a nice addition and a good way to get more eyes on the event, even if people aren't into the racing aspect, people like a good cause.   DCS and MSFS have some really good examples to get inspiration from

 

You gotta start somewhere, right? ? With MSFS, well, they have resources that vastly outstrip pretty much every other software developer out there. DCS is DCS - they have their connections, and we are still building ours here.

[6./ZG26_Custard]

So now the air racing tournaments are an "established" thing, I wonder, is that going to bring hundreds of players into the multi-player servers or is great battles going to now morph from a world war two combat flight simulator to an air-race  simulator?

3 hours ago, DBFlyguy said:

that will eventually lead to people coming back to the game?

I genuinely hope you're right but time will tell.

[BraveSirRobin]

J5 does an Oktoberfest with various challenges, including races, obstacles, navigation, etc.  It’s a lot of fun.  Getting upset about this particular race might be the most ridiculous thing that I’ve seen on this forum, and that bar is pretty damned high.

[Guest deleted@83466]

32 minutes ago, BraveSirRobin said:

J5 does an Oktoberfest with various challenges, including races, obstacles, navigation, etc.  It’s a lot of fun.  Getting upset about this particular race might be the most ridiculous thing that I’ve seen on this forum, and that bar is pretty damned high.

Oh, of course!  That explains why Flying Circus has such impressive multiplayer numbers…

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

So now the air racing tournaments are an "established" thing, I wonder, is that going to bring hundreds of players into the multi-player servers or is great battles going to now morph from a world war two combat flight simulator to an air-race  simulator?

 

I'm going to ask this again: does DCS look like a game on the decline, since they also participate in air race tournaments with Virpil where the contestants can earn hardware and cash prizes? Oh, wait, did I also see an MSFS air race video up there as well? Is MSFS on the decline as well, are people leaving in droves there too?

 

You guys act like this has become some sort of mandatory event and that all development energy is going into this and nothing else.

[LukeFF]

24 minutes ago, SeaSerpent said:

Oh, of course!  That explains why Flying Circus has such impressive multiplayer numbers…

 

You know, maybe it's sometimes just about people having fun with like-minded players?

[BraveSirRobin]

33 minutes ago, SeaSerpent said:

Oh, of course!  That explains why Flying Circus has such impressive multiplayer numbers…

I suspect that attendance at Oktoberfest is unrelated to multiplayer numbers in any way.  It’s just a fun thing to do.

[Guest deleted@83466]

19 minutes ago, BraveSirRobin said:

I suspect that attendance at Oktoberfest is unrelated to multiplayer numbers in any way.  It’s just a fun thing to do.

 

I agree and for me personally, I don’t care if they have community events like this or not.  But ultimately it’s the developers’ choice of game content and their ability to deliver it in a timely manner that’s going to determine the future.  
 

Edited June 19, 2023 by SeaSerpent

[BraveSirRobin]

15 minutes ago, SeaSerpent said:

 

I agree and for me personally, I don’t care if they have community events like this or not. 
 

‘I was commenting about the people who are complaining.

[6./ZG26_Custard]

1 hour ago, LukeFF said:

I'm going to ask this again: does DCS look like a game on the decline, since they also participate in air race tournaments with Virpil where the contestants can earn hardware and cash prizes? Oh, wait, did I also see an MSFS air race video up there as well? Is MSFS on the decline as well, are people leaving in droves there too?

I couldn't care less what happens over at DCS or MSFS for that matter I'm more concerned about Great Battles. What I'm seeing is traffic in the forum decreasing rapidly and an even more rapid decline in online players. I wonder if you have any plans afoot to fix this as Community manager?  

[Guest deleted@83466]

Drinking games are always fun.

[ST_Catchov]

8 hours ago, SeaSerpent said:

Oh, of course!  That explains why Flying Circus has such impressive multiplayer numbers…

 

The solution is simple. Fix the Se5a's bleeding revs/energy loss problem and watch the MP numbers rise to unprecedented levels.  Everybody will be happy and content  .... except perhaps sgt_fresh, a conundrum for which I unfortunately have no answer.

[ZachariasX]

7 hours ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

I couldn't care less what happens over at DCS or MSFS for that matter I'm more concerned about Great Battles. What I'm seeing is traffic in the forum decreasing rapidly and an even more rapid decline in online players. I wonder if you have any plans afoot to fix this as Community manager?  

I don‘t think it‘s something community managers can do much about. After the departure of Jason and AnP, this forum basically had its ties to the programmers severed and became just the message board. Granted, the community managers can pass on requests, but there‘s a fine line between a dev reading some of these ramblings in here (and sometimes reply to them) or just having an email sent by the community manager.

 

Having been relegated to „here is your dogfood“ doesn‘t help the popularity, especially, someone is working the hype train in another place.

 

Also, it doesn‘t help to openly no care too much for what one is selling. I wonder if anyone is really grateful for porting RoF aircraft in the current game. Actually, it is something for them to sell that makes for their salaries. I buy it if I like it, else I don‘t. If they decide to sell us old implementation errors „because that‘s all we ever get“, then as a customer as well as a hobbyist meant to spend us precious and limited time  in these places, then that is a data point to be considered. „Russian service mentality“ is one thing if the product is perfect, but if it is not… I still can‘t understand that the devs don‘t fix at least one of the two American planes it can sell to the American clients it has. Seriously, they don‘t have to implement three different engines for the SPAD (although it would be the cheapest thing to do for added coin and given all the info gathered on this board it‘s just dumb not to do it), but being happy with the other that has little in common with what it should be… well, we do get the message. They further proved that sometimes they really do need help in reading source material to implement it in FM, as the latest patch for the Siemens-Schuckert showed.

 

Also, it doesn‘t help if „the game is correct“ when it allows for ahistorical behavior like zapping five B-26 in a lone 190. It didn‘t happen back then. Even with the Experten. That it could have happened doesn‘t help either. I feel the game should replicate the expected result of back then and in this game. And if that means to toughen up some planes, then be it.

 

It doesn‘t appear to me the dev team is really sure whether they make a game that is actually fun or just a simulation that is always right. Because I see both attitudes materialized.

 

Han better find a hype train somewhere, because on other tracks, there are. The „eat your dogfood hypetrain“ usually has many empty seats. That‘s normal.

[Bars-]

Guys, let's be very careful with all that negative talking. We all fear news are not going to be good. News could be terrible. But for now developer team executives are able to use our disappointment as an excuse for some decisions we`re not gonna like. Let's be smart and not give them any excuses for any unpopular steps the could be planning at the moment. 

 

 

[LukeFF]

17 hours ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

I couldn't care less what happens over at DCS or MSFS for that matter I'm more concerned about Great Battles. What I'm seeing is traffic in the forum decreasing rapidly and an even more rapid decline in online players. I wonder if you have any plans afoot to fix this as Community manager?  

 

Right, so you're dodging my question(s) yet again. Tell you what: when you want to debate in an honest manner and have access to the true numbers of players logging in and playing the game every month, then we'll debate this further. Until then, that's it.

[LukeFF]

10 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

I still can‘t understand that the devs don‘t fix at least one of the two American planes it can sell to the American clients it has. Seriously, they don‘t have to implement three different engines for the SPAD (although it would be the cheapest thing to do for added coin and given all the info gathered on this board it‘s just dumb not to do it), but being happy with the other that has little in common with what it should be… well, we do get the message. They further proved that sometimes they really do need help in reading source material to implement it in FM, as the latest patch for the Siemens-Schuckert showed.

 

I shared a while ago that the team just doesn't have the time or resources to update any of the old WWI flight models with which people have issues. That's just the current reality of where things stand. None of the flight models were ever promised to be updated when they were ported over to FC - that's something Jason himself stated upfront and was reiterated by Han.

[Avimimus]

29 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

I shared a while ago that the team just doesn't have the time or resources to update any of the old WWI flight models with which people have issues. That's just the current reality of where things stand. None of the flight models were ever promised to be updated when they were ported over to FC - that's something Jason himself stated upfront and was reiterated by Han.

 

I do wish that they would assign a developer to this though. Perhaps if a 3rd party take on a Flying Circus Vol. IV and it is profitable and already necessitates creating new flight models, the developer doing the coding for those flight models could introduce updates to the other ones... one can dream.

 

But I agree - nothing was promised in that regard.

[Guest deleted@83466]

I can’t speak to MSFS, since I don’t have it.  I can speak to DCS though.  They can have whatever contests or community building events they want, and it’s not as likely to be met with skepticism, because they are delivering very exciting content to their customer base.  Eagles, Tomcats, Phantoms, Corsairs, and Apaches create their own PR hype.  And they keep old customers coming back for more and more.  As I re-read this thread, the malaise is clear:  The game is perceived as becoming more and more arcade-like, and an event like an Air Race can easily seem like a cynical bread and circuses approach to occupy the bored and the restless, in lieu of genuine improvements.
 

Why is it that when I look at some of the FC server stats, I see guys with 20 AI air kills in a single map?  Bad mission design?  Yes, but then I looked at a guy who shot down 14 airplanes in one sortie, without even landing and rearming.  Now that’s just pure arcade.  And so now an event is held to get the good word out to the people of War Thunder?  It shouldn’t be hard to see why some people are like wtf?  I’m sure the Air Race was well intentioned, but it can’t substitute for game improvements and exciting new theaters and aircraft.  Some longstanding customers are awaiting an announcement about what the “new thing” will be, and they are clearly getting tired.  Airborne Assault Gliders, BubbleSpits, and RoF ports can only appease so many and for so long.

[LukeFF]

23 minutes ago, SeaSerpent said:

And so now an event is held to get the good word out to the people of War Thunder?

 

C'mon, is that what you took away from all of this? ? The idea was to partner with someone who is knowledgeable about IL2 and loves combat flight sims. I honestly knew nothing about WD before this event, so any idea that I was trying to find a streamer who's trying to bring people over here from WT is patently absurd nonsense.

[Guest deleted@83466]

11 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

C'mon, is that what you took away from all of this? ? The idea was to partner with someone who is knowledgeable about IL2 and loves combat flight sims. I honestly knew nothing about WD before this event, so any idea that I was trying to find a streamer who's trying to bring people over here from WT is patently absurd nonsense.

 

Please re-read “I’m sure the Air Race was well intentioned, but it can’t substitute for game improvements and exciting new theaters and aircraft.”  The main thing I’m taking from this thread (and other threads) is that there is a genuine and growing crisis of confidence that will not be fixed by anything other than solid development efforts that give the existing customer base the things they want, plus more transparent communication of future plans.  Clearly there is a growing impression that GB already passed its culmination point at Normandy.  

[SharpeXB]

1 hour ago, SeaSerpent said:

the malaise is clear:  The game is perceived as becoming more and more arcade-like

How is that? This has always been a mid-fidelity sim. It’s somewhere between War Thunder and DCS. Which is fine, that’s what most people like about it. That focus hasn’t ever changed. So why the perception?

1 hour ago, SeaSerpent said:

but then I looked at a guy who shot down 14 airplanes in one sortie, without even landing and rearming.

Well if real WWI pilots could accumulate 10 years and thousands of hours of combat experience they’d probably have stats like this too. Such things are inevitable in games. 

[Guest deleted@83466]

Well, SharpeXB, go ahead and just brush it all off…thats fine by me. 

[SharpeXB]

11 minutes ago, SeaSerpent said:

Well, SharpeXB, go ahead and just brush it all off…thats fine by me. 

I don’t think any of the posts here explain a drop in the players if there is one. They all just seem like personal gripes. 
If anything it’s because DCS just released a very good looking Normandy map. And yeah new content gets attention. But all the things people say here have been part of this game from the beginning. They’re nothing new.