TheSaint

I played the BoB campaign before the new changes to the damage modifiers and it was well balanced. Since then it is near impossible as the Brits and a walkover as the Germans. The German HE 111 are just too hard to shoot down with spits.

I've been trying to build up a couple of new national teams and I concur that it is a lot more time consuming especially for the Germans since that don't get an upgrade till 69 xp. My average newbie mission scores about 4 pts so it takes a while if you are trying to get four piliots up. One thing I have noticed is that if you are paired against a team which is much superior to yourself as you mentioned then simply running away to very high taking pot shots with your wingman will net you 5 points (3 pts for the mission and 2 pts for a decent victory). This is actually easier than fighting an equal pair in which you will be expected to down one of the other planes. Whether this is enjoyable is of course a different matter but if your looking to grab xp points harder is better.

Its fine on mine but have you just tried ignoring it - you know, not accepting or declining. I usually ignore it and then it just goes away. This of course is meant to be an interim solution.

I've been playing with two newbies today. There wasn't a lot of people on and it seemed that I have piliots not quite good enough to play with the folks who know the game. Anyway I got one person who only wanted to play 2v2 even though there obviously wasn't enough people on the board so I agreed to a 0 lvl 2v2 using bots. Anyway the conversation went like this newbie>don't shoot me ok? me> newbie>ok? me>your kidding right? newbie>I don't want to die Then it dawned on me I was playing with a kid. The cartoon piliot pics should have been a clue but you get all sorts online. So I agreed and as it turns out it was a good game where the newbie pulled some cracking cards and shot down one and smoked another. I was pulling IMS 1:1 three at a time when they offered to come and help me. To get to the point, they wanted to team up with someone against the bots and help each other out learn the system etc. They also wanted to know if a "friends" list was available for newbies to buddy up. When I thought about it, I would have enjoyed that as a kid. Getting in from school and you and your mate playing as a team against the bots. I think this is common in those online fantasty type games where you form groups and beat up monsters. Anyway not really on subject but I thought I'd tag it on this thread. Perhaps a thread on how to expand the user base would be useful for folks who have encountered newbies and might have some suggestions.

I wasn't trying to make a direct comparision between Battlefront and Google but rather the concept that these new businesses all created success by giving away the software and making money on the service. When I bought DiF for the online facilities I have in fact purchased a service for an unknown time. If I never went near the server for two years would I still be able to sign in and play a campaign? Maybe I would sign on and find a huge selection of new campaigns with a bunch of new features or it might have folded. A non networked piece of software is different in that I could leave for twenty years come back and still use it on the same PC. I don't think there would have been too many complaints if they had sold the game for $36.00 for the downloaded version which includes a years worth of online service. You could have a CD sent to you for an extra $8.00 or whatever. Its all a learning experience but I like the game and hope it continues by expanding to a larger audience with more features for group playing. Anyway I'll shut up and go back to lurking and more importantly, playing the game.

I think the pricing model is wrong. I understand why it was implementated this way because it must have been hard to judge the demand for online play also there was a fan base from the card game which could be used to pay for development costs. The computer industry has been slowly changing, so that some of the biggest (by market cap) are not even thought of as computer companies. These would be Google, Ebay etc. They make there money by providing a service. How many on here have used Google? How many have even given one penny to Google? This company has a market cap of 120 billion US$. I would have preferred paying an annual subscription of $36.00 or $24.00 for six months, instead of $46.00 for the CD. No doubt Battlefront are well aware of subscription based pricing models but for discussion sake here are the benefits. </font> Very low distribution costs The problem with the CD in the mail is of course you need to stock them and send them which is expensive. Why is it that pirates can download the game but paying customers have to wait? Sure some people would still want a CD but at least allow others the option of immediate gratification.</font>Sustainable development The problem with the current model is that to generate revenues you need to either expand the user base or sell a new upgrade (ver 2.0) to the existing users. A subsription provides a steady revenue stream as opposed to the big release method. Also from a development perspective it is easier to develop incrementally. Bugs can be found easier and the development team is more balanced, no rush to release, and the users can get the 'new game feeling'. For example the new upgrade to be released will let seasoned vets have something new to play with. Reading these boards I see this as a big plus since I get the impression folks are more concerned that freeloaders could cause the game to be abandoned rather than morality over the fact someone is not paying.</font>How much is a dollar? Not discussed much but all the big companies charge their rich customers more. Microsoft charges much more for the same product in Germany than it does in China. The $35.00 to a New York office worker is more like $140.00 to the office worker in Warsaw, $200 with p&p. For DiF probably not practical to have different pricing per area but Blizzard have 300k Warcraft users in China and they aren't paying $30.00 a shot.</font>Local and casual users Some people like playing locally and don't want to play online. These could use an activation code which could be purchased. Not perfect but if Microsoft can't stop the pirates Battlefront won't either. For casual users you could purchase a number of piliots at a dollar a piece? Something like that.</font> Anyway I'm sure that Battlefront have been over this many times before but I felt like throwing in my tuppence.