Timeline for CM Normandy?

[MikeyD]

Lets not forget poor BFC found itself boxed into a corner by *certain obligations* on the initial release. Circumstance they're most likely never going to repeat. When you're at the mercy of other parties stuff happens. Just because you find youself the victim of a collision on the highway doesn't mean your idea of a big road trip was inherantly flawed.

[Redwolf]

Lets not forget poor BFC found itself boxed into a corner by *certain obligations* on the initial release. Circumstance they're most likely never going to repeat. When you're at the mercy of other parties stuff happens. Just because you find youself the victim of a collision on the highway doesn't mean your idea of a big road trip was inherantly flawed.

Depends. Not speaking of BFC in particular here but if you are 2 weeks away from having to declare bankruptcy then an "early" release might make the difference between closing shop or not.

(of course creditors including publishing partners often deliberately create that situation to "motivate" developers)

[Battlefront.com]

We're not interested in a doing a beta release in any form. We did that for CMBO out of desperation and it slowed things down. Demos slow things down as well, but we've found out how to have demos available by release time (though not much before that).

As we've discussed, at length, many times before the release of CM:SF was a sort of perfect storm of different problems:

1. Clearly the game needed more time in the oven. But deadlines were pushed as far as they could be and pushing them any further was not an option. And by that I mean Paradox was just as much hostage to the date as we were. People with a first hand understanding of how retail works will know what I mean. It's really not flexible, which is why most games are released before they are truly ready to be.

2. We got some very strong negative reaction from people that, despite 3 years of discussion here, expected CMx1 with modern units and prettier graphics. Things always go badly when there is such a huge gulf between expectations and reality. NOTE!! I'm not talking about bugs or higher level features, I'm talking about core gameplay.

3. Definitely negative reaction for this or that "missing" CMx1 feature. Different than #2, there were people who expected a Blue Bar or QBs with Cherry Picking or identical camera controls or some other feature which rode on top of the gameplay. Sometimes people obsessed over one thing missing, while others didn't but did get upset about something else.

4. The game was modern and not WW2. Some of our most vocal critics pounded us and hadn't so much as played the game even! They were still bitter about the fact that even if the game was perfect they weren't going to like it. There were many people who bought CM:SF holding their nose because of the content, so they weren't hard to get upset. They were READY to be upset.

5. Technical problems with various hardware/software combos resulting from going from a couple dozen test systems to thousands of customer systems overnight. We got bit VERY hard by an ATI bug that was previously not experienced and was completely out of our hands. We had multiple problems with nVidia 8800 cards that weren't our fault and we either had to work around them or wait for nVidia to release new drivers. There were also some Windows problems which shouldn't have been there, but were thanks to Windows being made by Microsoft And of course there were some technical issues within the game code that manifested themselves only on certain configs.

It's always difficult to release something as big and complex as a CM game, but it's especially hard when the situation starts out with the deck stacked against us. Even if CM:SF was "bug free" internally, we still would have had several routes for significant customer complaint.

Going into CM:Normandy will be very, very different because:

1. We have allowed ourselves far more control over the release date than we had over CM:SF.

2. People know what the core gameplay is like. If they don't like it they will likely stay away from Normandy and therefore won't be a factor. If they do like it they won't be inclined to complain since they're getting what they expect. Much like how the Marines release wasn't controversial in this regard.

3. The stuff that currently sits on top of the gameplay will also be expected, therefore by definition not a shock when released. Several of the things people felt were missing in the initial CM:SF 1.01 release have already been added in subsequent released. Other things have been promised and will most likely be viewed favorably overall. Nothing is viewed with 100% favorability

4. The game is WW2 Normandy. 'Nuf said there!

5. We've worked through the technical glitches already. Since this is a game engine the only thing we have to be wary of at release time are new "gotchas" that video card makers and/or OS makers throw our way.

Even if we did nothing more than swap out arid setting for temperate, modern equipment for WW2, and put in a few basic WW2 specific features we'd probably be looking at a relatively smooth release compared to CM:SF.

Steve

[General_solomon]

Steve:

with everything you talked about, will you tell us if we can expect the game by this fall??

[Battlefront.com]

We're saying sometime in 2009, that's all at the moment. Progress is going very well, but we're really not going to start in on the potentially time consuming stuff (like the new QB system) until after British Forces ships. Once we get a couple of the intensive coding things done we'll have a better idea when Normandy will be done.

Steve

[Stingray]

Thank you for keeping us informed. Do not rush. I'd rather have the game done right.

The British module will keep me busy while waiting for Normandy.

I am excited for the WW2 game. I think the opposing forces are more balanced.

Thanks again.

Stingray

[Fenris]

Will the heer clown car be in??

But seriously, am pleasantly surprised to see talk of a WW2 title here. Will look forward to it.

-F

[patboy]

Steve, some screenshots pls !!! and thanks for posted it !!!

Pat