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Game enquiry from outsider
zakunda
Member Posts: 5
Ok, I'm thinking of picking up world war 2 online, I'm one of the refugees from SWG looking for a new game for me and the remainder of my guild. I have checked out the ww2 online website and have a few questions before i propose the game to my friends from SWG...
What is the community like? we're looking for a largely mature community
The graphics from the screenshots look a little dated, does this detract from the gameplay at all?
I noticed from the website that playable forces are british/french/german, does this mean american is not included? ie is game set in pre 1942? I dont particularly mind because I am british, but the rest of my guild is american and I imagine they will want to play as americans.
The war lasts 4-6 weeks according to the website, after this time when the war restarts, can you play on opposing side or if you chose a faction is this fixed for future games?
Is this game actually any better than just playing battlefield 1942 online? ie is it more of a war game than an mmorpg?
thanks
Comments
The community is mostly friendly. You probably wont be called a stupid noob like in many other games and if you ask people will generally offer you advice or help.
It looks dated because the game as up to an 8 000 metre view distance. If it looked like BF2 or the like it wouldn't run.
No Americans at the moment as the game is set during the Fall of France.
You can swap sides at any time as long as you haven't logged in as the other side for at least 2 hours.
It's a war sim. 1 bullet will probably kill you. Tanks don't have HP but actual armour. If the round doesn't penetrate it doesn't remove health from the enemy tank.
Zakunda,
The game map is huge (no zones), the game play is complex at a specific level and yet the point of view is from first person. From just a lone wolf perspective, the game boils down to spawn in shoot enemy/capture flags/die/respawn type game. At a team level (squad level) there is much more to it. There is also a player run high command for both sides. They make the decisions for where attack objectives get placed, which new units get researched each campaign, or rally the troops for large scale attacks/defend missions. All missions are player generated. The only AI in game is in the form of static defensive guns around towns which are easily avoidable/destroyable.
One cool feature I really like in game is that the research of new vehicles is tied to factories on each side. These factories can be bombed by the other side to slow down introduction of new vehicles. I think this alone assures the players that not every campaign will be played out the same, always different.
About the graphics, true they are not the cutting edge shown in the latest shoebox game, but I don't think they look that bad. See here...http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion.cfm/setstart/1/loadthread/23030/loadforum/526/loadclass/35
Here is a thread I started to try to explane how the armor/balistics work in game. It is an interesting read...http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion.cfm/load/forums/loadforum/526/loadthread/11000/setstart/1/loadclass/35
Did you download the trailer yet? Get it here...http://www.wwiionline.com/scripts/wwiionline/be_media.jsp;jsessionid=EDB927E3565083184396B2B0F2AFDAAF.2
And last, even though the americans are not in game, their equipment is. Since historically the French surrendered in 1940, the developers decided that the French would use the Lend-Lease American equipment if they survived past 1940. So in game the french army gets the Stuart, Sherman, M-10, P-38f, P40b and A-20. Most of these are researched items not given when the campaign starts.
Later
http://www.wwiiol-pilots-manual.com/
The average age in my squad (same as clan) is mid 30's with the oldest players in their 50's. Generally speaking in game behaviour is mature although this agme can get so real that occassionally people get a bit heated. When this happens other players are quick to calm things down.
American only squads exist but most squads are an international mixture. Squads are organized into brigades > divisions > corps > armies etc. We all look fwd to further game development which will introduce the US forces in North Africa.
Graphics are necessarily less fine but I know of no other game that allows for engagements that take place at distances of over 2000 metres. It doesn't take away from game lay, IMHO, but a good graphics card is needed just to render the immense game environment. There is only one map and that covers a good chunk of western Europe including the south coast of England.
The learning curve is steep but many players are only too willing to help out. New players often team up with experienced ones until they feel more comfortable.
The variety of play in this game is incredible. I have participated in joint service operations with airforces doing CAS/CAP, destroyers escorting transport vessels loaded with troops and vehicles (actual players) and paratroopers and glider forces doing advanced attacks and resupply interdiction.
This game is about TEAM and working together. This applies regardless of which side you choose. An individual player can move around between brigades and sides without changing squad affiliation. There are some rules concerning side switching (2 hr delay) and players who demonstrate inappropriate behavior can be corrected by the GM or, in serious or repeated circumstances, banned altogether.
Both high commands operate TeamSpeak servers and some squads have their own voice communications set-ups.
My comments are based on playing this game for 4.5 years at least 8 hrs per week.
Lets start from the bottom. Besides that WWII Online is a WWII game is it nothing like Battlefield 1942. It is a very realistic game that demands alot thinking from the players. Since it is a realistic WWII-simulator does it demand a very high degree of cooperation from the players. Both on the ground (infantry-tanks-artillery), as well as between the ground and the air. And if you operate by the coast, also between the navy and the ground and air.
I would say that normally will a Campaign last between six to ten weeks. A four weeks Campaign is rather short and not that common. During this time can you change side when ever you like. But to change side demands that you haven't been logged on for two hours.
No american forces until the North African theatre is released (proberbly in 2007), but the french Lend-Leases US equipment. Most of this equipment was already ordered or even delivered before France surrended. Other Equipment that wasn't ordered - like the M4A2 (or the Sherman III as the british named it) is Lend-Leased along the same historical pattern.
I would say that it is only due to that the graphics look like it does WWII Online has such a unique gameplay. The graphics allows hundred of players to not only fight in the same area, but also give them a sight of view for 4000 meter on ground and 8000 meter at 1500 meters altitude. The graphics also allows to bomb and hit targets from +6000 meters altitude.
Add to this the magnificent doppler sound that allows the players to hear other players heavy artillery at several kilometers distance, just as they can hear engines from aircrafts, trucks and tanks at several kilometers distance as well. The players also hear small calibre arms at distances up to 500 meter and troops running around at some 30 meters. And since it is a doppler sound can the players pinpoint opponents just by the sound.
These feature (graphics and sound) would take its toll from any game that might look "nicer" then WWII Online and lag them to death. Hence most games has reduced the sight of view to a few hundred meters and limited the sound so the players only hear what is just very close to them.
The avarage age is slightly above 30 years. I would say most players is very mature. Even the younger once. To play WWII Online and enjoy it do you need to not only be a teamplayer, but also to have lots of patience. Something that most Yopaks* seems to lack.
Finally, as the others already have meantioned above. WWII Online has a quit step learning curve. It is not just to jump in and think you know it all. Be prepered to die alot. And I mean ALOT. But you will learn, and if you ask for advice from the older players will they show you the ropes. Best advice I can give you and your friends is to join an already existant Squad (Clan/Guild). Many Squads has over 100 members, and they play regularely each week, and they will take care of you and you will learn to stay alive (longer) rather quickly.
*Yopaks = Young punks and kids
Sparre has no more basis for saying NA "probably" in 07' than when CRS dangled it before the suckers for 05'/06.
It was a LIE then, and it's a LIE now.
If we wanted baseless propoganda we would go read Mein Kampf, not your posts. Shoo birdy.
Everyone who doesn't play and wants to take note! plummerx doesn't play the game! He just goes around the net to every forum that discusses WW2OL and tells people not to play.
Why? Who knows? I use to play DoD and then one day I figured I didn't like it anymore. Did I go to their forums and say the game sucks? Did I join dozens of forums where they talk about it just so I could tell them it sucks and accuse anyone who likes it of being a fanboi? No, of course not.
Makes you wonder why plummerx does.
Can anyone tell me how big the player base is for WW2 these days? Is it worth me starting to play now? Or should i look for another MMOFPS style game?
I played Planetside for a year before moving onto EQ2, but have always wanted to see what WW2 was like.
NA has a couple of renders.
No game engine.
No terrain generator.
Work basically ceased on it half a year ago.
Seven rats are now gone in a matter of weeks.
The euro release was botched.
The USA release was botched.
And if you DARE to hold out the possibility of A new theatre and the American forces in the next two years, YOU are a LIAR.
ZERO has changed since CRS told the BIG LIE about north Africa over a year ago, except that the subscriber base is smaller, CRS's dev team is smaller, and CRS's financial condition is very probably even MORE DESPERATE.
You forget that:
A lot of quirks of the old engine are fixed and it is running better than ever after the initial problems with 1.20 (Initial being the key word)
Some employees are gone but obviously not all of them because the christmas patch is far from come up short.
The releases are delayed but far from botched, even matrix games is soon selling a copy of the game on-line for those that wish to take that route.
Brigades are physical entities on the map now
infantry got a new class
etc etc etc
The game is moving forward fine, any work on a new engine would mostly be kept quiet because people like you will try to use any shared info against the company since it isn't perfect; well duh, that's why they are working on it. When we see it and how it turns out can wait, who cares, the game is fun the way it is.
Playing a game online isn't an investment into what the game might be or what their new engine is. The current engine works and the game is great fun and only getting better, it is fun and worth signing up for what is going on now. A lot of people see this because player numbers are higher than every before, not lower. If you'd even played the game you'd see there are an enormous number of green tags and a lot of old familiars too. It's hard to log on without finding someone who is trying out the game after a break because of how far 1.20 and AOs and such have advanced the game.
Everytime I go to my local EB the number of WW2OL BE boxes is changed. They go from having heaps to less, to a few, then back to heaps again. Hopefully that means they're selling them.
I'm not sure I understand how you define a lie. Maybe I'm a dreamer, or that I, in opposite to you, have first hand experience from what CRS have accoplished the last year with these three major patches (1.19, 1.20 and 1.21) and therefore don't think it would be totally impossible to deliver a second theatre with in two years time. I would say it is an educated guess. Or an "estimation" if you don't comprehend the word "guess".
Next time you use such difficult words as "Lies" and "Dare" do I think it is better if you first look them up in a decent dictionary so you can make any sense. And don't use the Monty Python Dictionary you used this time because Monty Python is very well known to be pulling peoples legs.
But I think you are at least right on one thing sport. During most of the time when CRS worked on 1.19, and proberbly 1.20 (this is not a lie, it is I that makes an assumption. Do you see the difference yet?), has no one worked on the North African theatre. That is at least what CRS said last spring I think it was. But that doesn't mean that CRS wont start to work on it again, and proberbly already has (Another guess, not a lie. Maybe someday you too will comprehend the subtle meaning between these words.).
plummerx seems to be under the delusion that every other computer game in history was released on time, with everything promised and with 0 bugs. WW2OL was a first in all these areas.
He should play WoW. When it first got released it was jamming and crashing on mine constantly. I could get no support from the WoW team (except to be told it must either be dust or broken RAM) and they locked any thread I made asking for help.
All 3 problems I've had with WW2OL I've quickly recieved tech support.
Oh, here he comes I bet to flame me for being a fanboi. Only those who detest the game and spend their entire lives trashing it are to be trusted.
Here's how I define a LIE in this case sparre:
Fanboys who continually blather on about the future of a game that clearly has no future.
Fanboys trying to entice new subscribers with wild eyed fabrications that have very little to no hope of ever seeing the light of day.
Fanboys deliberatly misleading potential subscribers as to how many people are actually playing this game at any given time.
None of you, not one, is willing to make a truthful reccomendation, and that is:
Try the game. if you like it, fine, if you don't, that's cool to. But never, ever take CRS at their word, and never expect anything more than what you have right now.
And don't give me this crap about refinements to the current engine. CRS has already stated North Africa will require the unity II engine (that doesn't even exist)
Work commenced on this game in 1999. It is now nearly 2006. This game's engine is SEVEN YEARS OLD, and shows it. That doesn't mean it's bad, it's just extreemly limited in what it can do, and it looks every bit as old as it is.
Hey plummerx? What do you know, you don't play and for some reason don't seem to admit it on this forum. Wonder why?
Why do you spend your entire life trolling the internet for forums to join to tell people not to play this game? Did the game murder your mother?
Don't even try to pull that crap wdy, it's a common fanboy ploy to try and disqualify the remarks of a person based on their current subscription status.
It's a simple diversion, often employed by you guys who have zero logical arguements left on which to base a defense of this game.
Using your logic, nobody but an active player may comment on the NFL or Major league baseall either.
All i know is,
Brigades = Fun to watch maps
BUT
Brigades = lots of boring gameplay time.
That is unless you like jumping around from Brigade to Brigade until you find the good fight or two happening at that moment.
A common fanboy ploy is it? Oh well, I guess not playing the game you would indeed know more.
At least someone who watches baseball or NFL can actually observe a game. You on the other hand don't, do you?
See everyone how he doesn't defend what he says by claiming to play the game? That's because he doesn't play the game. I recommend everyone take what he says with a grain of salt.
Even though plummerx claims to be this huge expert of all things WW2OL, he in fact doesn't have a clue about the current state of the game. There are a few of these guys who haven't played in 6 months, a year, whatever, but they all spend their entire games surfing the net trying to convince people not to play. It's rather pathetically sad.
If you don't like the game plummerx fine, but why spend your entire life making sure others don't?
A common fanboy ploy is it? Oh well, I guess not playing the game you would indeed know more.
At least someone who watches baseball or NFL can actually observe a game. You on the other hand don't, do you?
See everyone how he doesn't defend what he says by claiming to play the game? That's because he doesn't play the game. I recommend everyone take what he says with a grain of salt.
Even though plummerx claims to be this huge expert of all things WW2OL, he in fact doesn't have a clue about the current state of the game. There are a few of these guys who haven't played in 6 months, a year, whatever, but they all spend their entire games surfing the net trying to convince people not to play. It's rather pathetically sad.
If you don't like the game plummerx fine, but why spend your entire life making sure others don't?
It isn't that he dislikes the game or that he has played it in over half a year. It's that he simply despises the developers and has a personal grudge against them.
Hobbit is in the difficult position of denying that this game has one foot in the grave, after the loss of seven more of the dev team in a matter of weeks, right on the heals of a re-release intended to re-populate the game and expand the dev team.
So the personal mission of himself and a few others is to try and pump up this game to the unknowing. He cannot simply say "try it for yourself". He has to resot to fanboy hyperbole and attacks on critics to try and mask the desperate situation CRS now finds itself it.
You aren't going to get a fair review of this game here, or anywhere. The feelings about it are THAT polarized. You are just going to have to risk if that's what you want to do.
But these are known facts:
This game has been in development for seven years now.
The developer has gone bankrupt once already.
It has been re-released twice .
With the recent loss of seven of the dev team, the signs of financial distress are again manifest.
Or....
The game is so good that it has lasted 7 years, a long time for any MMO, and it is only getting stronger.
The developer recovered well out of bankruptcy instead of going under.
It's been re-released to make the game more readily available since cds in stores get more word out.
The loss of the dev team doesn't even necessarily represent financial distress, but of course you want to make it look as bad as possible. You don't know why they are gone or if they are replaced by others etc etc etc.
You're just a lonely person who wants to put down a game because you can't follow simple rules and can't get along with others, you break code of conduct policies and spread misinformation and complain while contributing nothing to any community. Your insults and blatant disregard for common sense are a bane to anyplace and sure to drive off the people any community would want (helpful, hardworking, and friendly people).
1. The game has not lasted 7 years, its 4 1/2
2. The loss of the dev team does not represent financial distress? I suppose CRS just decided to get rid of 7 of the dev staff a few days before Christmas on a whim, right? Even CRS has admitted they had to let part of the team go for financial reasons.
3. If the game is so good pnhobbit, why haven't you played for a month?
I do NOT agree with all plummerx is saying, not by a long shot. However there IS a dark cloud hanging over the game at present as a result of the failure of the recent release and the loss of a goodly proportion of the dev team.
Couple that with the dramatic changes wrought by 1.21 (some people love it, some hate it) and the atmosphere in Bedford Texas would best be described as 'tense'.
Hopefully CRS can survive and keep the game going. It's a 'one of a kind' game ..... nothing else comes close when its good, but unfortunately for some the good is outweighed by long periods of sheer boredom.
I think most players like the direction the game has gone. If you look at it this is probably the result of all those polls they have asking people what they want, if they like it, etc. I doubt they do those polls for kicks.
But with only a small subscriber base (who knows the actual numbers?) even a small % deciding they don't like it will have a drastic effect on the finances of the company.
Then those small % who dislike it think that because the game might be struggling (I thought it'd been struggling since release so maybe it might last years yet and i believe they've fired and hired other people over the years) that the majority are like them.
Maybe if WoW suddenly nose dived you could make that assumption, but not with a game played by few.
And I would actually love to know where the hatebois
get all their figures from since no one else ever seems to find them.
Anyone who hasn't played this game should definitey check it out. You should have a Flightstick(not a gamepad. they dont cut it) to fully experience what the game has to offer. It is near impossible to drive a tank or a plane without one. The first time you log in and see the tanks rumbling by with infantry running around while anti aircraft guns are firing in the air at planes dogfighting overhead and realize that there is a real person controlling each of those vehicles is a truely awe-inspiring experience. That was a serious run on sentence, but that is how awesome it can be.
There are a few haters out there(even in this thread) that will tear apart everything about the game. Sure the infantry game is a bit clunky and the graphics are past their prime, but if you have been playing computer games since the 80's, you realize that graphics aren't everything and it is the gameplay that counts. As for the problems on the developer side... who cares? I don't work there, I play the friggin game. WW2Online offers a unique game that may not be for everyone, but there is nothing like it anywhere else.
Hey,
This is my first post, I d/led the trailer for BE and it looked pretty fun, I like strategic games where people will actually use strategy and work together. Graphics seem alright, I look forward to purchasing the game and giving it a full test.
I've been lurking around the forums and have yet to come across anything that states whether this game supports mic chat. So does it? Or are you stuck hosting your own TeamSpeak server or one like it.
How many players are usually on at any given time? How about at high traffic times? And are you able to play over a LAN?
Plummerx- From what I've seen, you seem to be dis-satisfied with the game, so what? A lot of other people are enjoying it, so I'm not sure why your posting here.
PS-Trials are given out every month or so I saw, but if I went to my local Bestbuy and bought BE will it come with a month of free play like most MMO's do?