any more russian opinions ?

[Daimyo]

The recently released patch somewhat improved game's performance, so it runs a bit better on my PC. I didn't notice any other differences..

[Yahoshua]

You're right Sivodsi, your comments are completely unnoticed by the Dev. team. So therefore you and other continiue to ask the same question over and over with the same regurgitated response every time.

Why don't you find something better to do?

[Madmatt]

Now now children, play nice. We do read and listen to your comments, very closely.

I see a lot of comments here with questions like "Will BFC change XYZ to make the game better?" or "What about such and such a feature, is there time for BFC to have that added?", and I can certainly understand why you want to know this stuff.

Here is the thing to realize, if we WEREN'T having some rather big changes made to the game over what is in the Russian release, well then guess what? WE WOULD HAVE RELEASED IT ALREADY!

But we haven't, and why? Because we ARE working with 1c to get some very big changes made to the game. 1c has been very receptive to our, some would say, overwhelming, list of suggestions, change requests, feature additions, TO&E updates, AI behavioral modifications, weapon, armor and vehicle performance data improvements, gameplay/scenario balancing tweaks, even new soldier voice overs AND MORE!!!

So, why havent we given you guys a "specific" list of stuff thats going to change? Well, it's simple really, because we are still testing all of this stuff, and some of it may or may not make it in.

I know thats gotta be frustrating to hear, but thats how its going to be for the time being.

Daimyo, we do appreciate you posting your opinions and info on the Russian Release of Theatre of War, very interesting stuff to be sure, but one thing to very clear on, its the RUSSIAN RELEASE he is playing, not the upcoming Battlefront.com one. With some of the changes we are working on, they should be very different games indeed.

Madmatt

[MeatEtr]

This is great to hear. Hell, take 3 months if you have to. Ship it only when your completely happy with it. It'll be worth the wait and most wouldn't mind waiting for a great game.

[Sivodsi]

Thanks for the post Madmatt, good to get an idea of the magnitude of what is going on. Looking forward to this one.

[crisss]

One thing that makes battlefront stand out from other gameing dev teams . Is they did take onboard many of there potential customers views while makeing CM. And it looks as there doing the same with theatre of war , i tip my hat to them .

Im lucky i did nt know this game was in the works so i have nt had a long wait . But plz battlefront and ic and everyone relax take your time and we will end up with a killer game that will sell for many year , get all the addons etc for years

Everyone wins

[Sivodsi]

Thanks for your comments Yahoshua, but if you had taken the trouble to look at what I actually post you would see that at no point do I ask when the game will be released. I speculate, sure, and what is wrong with that? It is not harming anyone or somehow slowing down the process of the release (and that is what I meant in my last post on page 4 of this thread).

I resent those such as yourself who try to tell others what to do. Did someone appoint you as the forum policeman? If you try to act as one you will inevitably draw sarcastic & irate responses.

By being bossy you are just adding to the noise, not reducing it.

[CaptainBly]

Being RTS it's just not going to appeal to the grogs out here that are pretty much around because of Combat Mission series and Strategic Command. I don't see this as being a very popular game, nor, shockforce either for that matter.

And since COH came out it's going to be very hard to compete with that game both in graphics/design and fun value. Compared to COH, TOW looks like an old win98 game in the graphics dept.

[Reichenberg]

I think for the "standard" 14yrs old RTS kid ToW will be competing with CoH and will most likely loose on that field.

On the other hand you have the hardcore grogs who will compare it to CM and for THEM ToW will most likely loose there too.

But is that all the crowd out there?? There were all the (similar to CM) hardcore grogs that played Close Combat because it was a RTS game. There are all the not-so-hardcore-grogs who are just going for some easy entainment. And there will be some RTS players drawn deeper into the more "realisitc" field of wargames.

I guess there will be a market for such a game in the size of the typical Battlefront market share, maybe even bigger.

An interesting article on Armchair General states some sales figures of the serious wargame market:

Conquest of the Aegan - 3000 copies

CM-series - "well over one hundred thousand copies" (I guess all three games together)

With these sales figures in the back of my head I guess ToW is able to sell pretty well out there. I do not know how often the Il2 Sturmovik series sold but with 1C choosing battlefront as the publisher for ToW they knew that battlefront does not have the potential to market a product like CDV, ubisoft or codemasters could.

At the end all comes down to the sales numbers. Hopefully they can sell enough copies of ToW fulfill there expectations and to make working on the series like they did with 1C and with CM wortwhile.

Uwe

[track]

Being RTS it's just not going to appeal to the grogs out here that are pretty much around because of Combat Mission series and Strategic Command. I don't see this as being a very popular game, nor, shockforce either for that matter.

One thing I have been wondering is where you get the idea that we-go-system is realistic? A real battle won't wait you to issue commands. "Real time" is closer to the real life, but the way it is done in most rts-games - come on...

One thing missing in WWII games is that the fog of war should include own units as well as the enemy. Since a company commander did not know what heck was happening with the out of sight fire team or the third squad all the time.

Camera should also be restricted to the command units point of view etc.

How many would play this kind of game? At same time most players want to have cinematic views and freedom to look down at the battle field at any angle they choose. Perhaps different realism settings could resolve this.

[Salkin]

Originally posted by MeatEtr:

This is great to hear. Hell, take 3 months if you have to. Ship it only when your completely happy with it. It'll be worth the wait and most wouldn't mind waiting for a great game.

Well said MeatEtr !

//Salkin

[Nefarious Edge]

Any of you guys play SC2 while you are waiting? Just got that a month ago. Man, it's alot of fun. Just curious as to what you guys are playing in the interim?

[Fifty Cal']

M2TW

<VBG>

[Yahoshua]

Thanks for your comments Yahoshua

You're welcome.

...I speculate, sure, and what is wrong with that?

Sorry, I just get irritated when people ask the same question over and over ad naseum. It's like being in a car with apassenger asking every 10 minutes "Are we there yet?"

I resent those such as yourself who try to tell others what to do. Did someone appoint you as the forum policeman?

Nope, but I just wanted to try and break the loop a bit (not sure if I was successful though).

If you try to act as one you will inevitably draw sarcastic & irate responses.

Posters draw sarcastic and irate responses for just posting here. Do you care to explain that?

[Sivodsi]

Sorry, I just get irritated when people ask the same question over and over ad naseum.

Yeah, all who hang around these forums do, especially from those who haven't looked around much and post without reading. But what can you do? Best thing is to post a brief answer or a link and move on. Or just ignore it until someone else does.

edit to add:

Posters draw sarcastic and irate responses for just posting here. Do you care to explain that?

lol

errr, people enjoy being sarcastic and irate?

The average age of posters here is a bit higher than most games forums, and they are cranky old b**tards who like to feel superior if they have the chance to put someone down.

And they particularly enjoy being sarcastic and irate.

[ November 26, 2006, 07:15 PM: Message edited by: Sivodsi ]

[Flanker15]

Can you atleast tell us if the Flak 88 has been added to the game? Please!!!

Flak 88 FTW!

[Sivodsi]

Linky-poos says 'yes to AT, NR on Flak'

[ November 27, 2006, 05:01 AM: Message edited by: Sivodsi ]

[Flanker15]

I know they got the Pak 88 in but I'm hoping they put the Flak 88. I mean come on! It's the Flak 88! The most well known WW2 gun there is! Possibly the most famous AT gun in history.

The only reason I thought it wasn't in there was because all the AT guns already in have wheels for being pushed around. You can't push a Flak 88 around but it can be towed using detachable wheels and folding the base up.

The Pak 88 may be better at killing tanks but not having a Flak 88 in a WW2 game is like not having a Tiger tank in WW2 German tank sim.

[ November 27, 2006, 05:26 AM: Message edited by: Flanker15 ]

[Reichenberg]

Just imagine the nightmare of animating all the soldiers you need for dismounting the 88 and make it ready to fire - it was possible to fire it from the trailer but was not the common way for doing so (probably reduced life time of the trailer).

And then the same animations for 7 soldiers instead of 8, and for 6 instead of 8, and for 5 instead of 8, and for 4 instead of 8, and for 3 instead of 8, and for 2 instead of 8...... and 1 soldier would just be busy for the length of a scenario to fire the first shot.....

Sheesh - they kept small 2 and 3 men mortars out in the first place because of to many animations involved and this guy asks for the 88

Uwe

[onodoken]

WE WOULD HAVE RELEASED IT ALREADY!

But we haven't, and why? Because we ARE working with 1c to get some very big changes made to the game. 1c has been very receptive to our, some would say, overwhelming, list of suggestions, change requests, feature additions, TO&E updates, AI behavioral modifications, weapon, armor and vehicle performance data improvements, gameplay/scenario balancing tweaks, even new soldier voice overs AND MORE!!!

Madmatt [/QB]

BAM! and there it is. Best post on the ToW forums, good luck with all the changes, I am sure it will be well worth the wait.

[Sneaksie]

Biggest flaw in Russian version imo is scenario composition. I mean, when you play Russians, you get overwhelming German attacks and barely live through the scenario with heavy casualities. Ok. You begin to think that this mission played from the German side would be the breeze and you are very very wrong:) From the German side you face similar hard to impossible odds. It's pisses me off because its wrong - two sides can't be strong and weak simultaneously. There are some bugs with crew survivability (sometimes Pz4 is alive and kicking even after several front hull and turret penetrations) and this is going to be fixed in next patch. This adds to impossible odds i've mentioned - it seems that enemy has terminator crews, not you. Yours Pz4 kicks butt much faster than enemy's - not always, but it happens. Which part of it is due to a bug (such bug is confirmed) and wich part is due to mission design (maybe mission designer set all enemy crews to elite) - i don't know. Game needs scenario editor badly, and it's coming soon. But, as in IL2, you can't make maps themselves.

Inspite of all that, i must say that game has something... which keeps me playing it (though now i switched to old lovely Echelon flight sim until next patch which will fix, hopefully, knockout glitches, esp. in Pz4). I was hoping for a new CC (as you know, CC sequels like Squad Assault were generally crap, though you may disagree) and i'm sure most people here were hoping for a new CM. It's not CC nor CM, its TOW. No slow pace of CM (you can pause and give orders, but it's different) and no prolonged close fights of CC. Troops are wiped out and scared away faster, which leads to rapidly changing situation on battlefield. Troops run away in panic, rally and attack again (usually with reinforcements).

[Sneaksie]

There are things that amazed me, i must say.

First of all, real damage model, esp. when inaccuracies will be fixed. Shurzen flying high after being hit. IT'S THE FIRST GAME when off-map artillery is not just some randomized explosions, but completely modelled thing, with flight path of each shell being calculated. You order barrage, short after that you hear distant guns fire FROM CORRECT DIRECTION, then you hear increasing bzzing of shells and then BOOM BOOM BOOM, they hit the ground. If you have decent speakers, your entire room is BOOMing too:) Shells have correct trajectory, so shell can hit and destroy a village house instead flying further to the intended destination. Bombers are even cooler - roaring of falling bombs is very believable and you can see them. Air dogfights (if you or enemy called for fighter cover). IT'S ALSO THE FIRST GAME where each tank have it's own unique number painted on turret or hull. When you play against Germans, you quickly learn to recognize and fear Tiger's gun KABOOM and count seconds when you see it's turret's turning and estimate who will be faster - german gunner or your driver in T-34 rushing for cover;)

[SirReal]

This game could be awesome. I just hope BF.com manages to push 1C to indeed make this realistic and with a wicked AI (as opposed to arcade and scripted lameness).

[Lochar]

I guess I need to google more, because ever since this left Codemasters forums all I ever had was 1c's site to get any blurps.

Daimyo thanks alot for posting, and I really do hope to see BFC make some changes.

Button/Unbotton

Transportable HMG

I am still not sure how much customization the infantry is having compared to the old FAQ where you could equip the soldiers.

Or units carrying over experience, from the looks of the campaigns it seems they jump over a bit and so not sure if anything is static.

Now that I gotten my account back, I will be watching this forum closely as I been waiting for this game since its announcement.

While I did enjoy the CM series, I did want to see a more non turn based setup for awhile and see how it pans out.

[Sneaksie]

You can equip soldiers on battlefield - if he is close to dead bodies with weapons you can drop his former gun and pick up whatever you want (grenades, MG, various ammo) from fallen troops. But i did this only a couple of times - infantry is usually wiped out quickly. Maybe it's neccessary in Allied campaign where in early missions you have no tanks.

Soldiers accumulate experience and you can give them medals, promote them, and increase their gunner, driver, recon skill manually. Other skills like marksmanship from small arms increase on their own. But there are many who dies in each mission and you can build up elite soldiers only if you specifically watch them, usually they're tank crews. One guy playing Germans had crack crew in one of his Tigers to the end of the war consisting of colonels and majors having all the possible iron crosses with all possible stuff like swords and leaves and such; all their attributes were maxed out and they still had several thousands unused XP left. In reality they should be in charge of army groups, not sitting together in some silly tank:)