luthier1

Please explain this to me like I'm 5. What would I do on that livestream? Just sit in my chair and chat away?

Thanks, good point. I have no idea how to do this though? Youtube support says it's under Edit - Advanced, but I see nothing for mobile there. I just tested all my videos on my tablet and they all work there. Is anyone having problems with this?

Thanks. I don't know why I always have a problem with subtitles. A few times I lost them completely, and this time I thought a portion disappeared so I redid it, and now look at that. Youuuutuuuube!!!

I can't say I'm surprised by the results of the poll :)

A day and a half left! This is it! Reminder: we now accept PayPal! This video took a lot longer to make than I anticipated, but I think it was very important to have this out before the campaign ends. A question that gets asked perhaps more than any other is, are you sure you can pull this off? Can you keep all the promises you're making? The answer is yes. First of all, it is a yes because the alternative is unthinkable. Not delivering a product after a kickstarter campaign would not only be fatal to the developer's careers, it would also make them contractually obligated to refund the entire amount raised on Kickstarter to the backers. The team understands the risk, and has chosen Kickstarter as opposed to many other alternatives precisely because we are confident in our ability to deliver. The project was designed from the ground up to be simple and lean. It's largely made up of three types of tasks: aircraft creation, landscape design, and mission and campaign design. All of these tasks are inherently more predictable than many other tasks often involved in game design. The feature list for DCS WWII was specifically chosen to contain as few risks as possible. This way, the project plan is a matter of simple math. We can accurately estimate the amount of time it will take us to make the 3D models of aircraft and cockpits because we're not breaking any new ground here. We can accurately estimate the amount of time it will take to create new aircraft because most DCS WWII tasks follow the tracks laid down by DCS P-51. Looking over the blueprints and technical descriptions of all featured aircraft, we see no major tasks that have a serious risk of falling through or taking too much time and jeopardizing the entire project. The landscape design is also predictable. We know exactly what needs to be done. All tasks can be estimated accurately because they follow preexisting examples. Content creation, missions, campaigns, is again predictable. We are using the powerful DCS Mission Editor, a stable, established program, that again allows us to accurately gauge the amount of time needed for all tasks. All in all, we know exactly what needs to be done. We can estimate all tasks with a high degree of accuracy. Kickstarter budget gives us a comfortable cushion to play test everything and correct any unanticipated problems we may encounter. We are really looking forward to working with our backers, providing constant updates on the development progress, and watching this project take shape. Please watch the video for an even more detailed explanation from the project's sleep deprived lead developer Ilya Shevchenko.

Hey I was going to create this thread! ) We do have the worst name for a coherent logo. The main guideline is that DCS WWII is the series name, and Europe 1944 is just the byline. We need a design that looks good as "DCS WWII: Europe 1944" and can also translate into "DCS WWII: Pacific 1943" and "DCS WWII: Berlin 1945" or "DCS WWII: Korea 1950". With the DCS WWII part remaining recognizably the same, and allowing at least some flexibility with the campaign-year design. Also, I personally prefer simple logos. I look at them a funny way. I zoom out the picture to like 8x8 pixels, and if it still looks unique and recognizable, it's good. Anyway, we definitely need to do a community contest for the best logo, and I should offer some sort of a reward, like an equivalent of the Matrix Tier 8 KS reward plus a special credit for the winner or something like that.

Hey everyone, We had an absolutely amazing day today, and surprisingly, paypal was not the biggest reason for it at all. Paypal and KS combined, today was the third best day of the campaign, and almost three quarters of it came right here through kickstarter. As of this very second, we've raised $1,610.75 on PayPal for the overall total of, $132,650.75 If we continue this way tomorrow and Friday, we will have reached our Me.262 stretch goal by the time the campaign ends Saturday morning! And, over two thousand backers! That's an amazing number! I'm very happy we have this many people contributing to the project. Even if you're one of over 130 backers who only pledged $1, I count myself extremely fortunate to have your support. Simply having people play your product, enjoy it, commit beforehand to want to see it through, that means a lot. THANK you everyone who backed this project, today or any other day. Also, anyone have any idea what I need to do personally to get more people onboard in the next two and a half days? We still can't get any journalists to give us the time of day, and the time is running out, so any suggestions are welcome. I know I have not yet followed through with some of my own plans from earlier, but there just does not seem to be enough hours in the day. I've slept no more than three hours a day since Sunday, and somehow my Kickstarter backlog just continues to grow. And I have done pretty much nothing but Kickstarter for about two weeks now.

No I'd rather not take any chances. I am also not sure if all the cancellations I saw after that news were people cancelling in order to move to PayPal, or if they just left in disgust. Again, I'd rather not lose any existing backers to ANY reason.

OK, extras-style rewards added to KS. Not closing out any existing rewards. Going to edit in an explanation on the main page now. Just go to the new 80 dollar matrix tier :)

All right, so we already have Kickstarter backers canceling their pledges and re-pledging on PayPal. Please do not do that! This is the exact opposite of what we were trying to achieve. If this are the consequences of adding the matrix extras on PayPal, then I clearly need to add the same exact rewards to KS.

Alpha is the alpha access to DCS WWII. Alpha will be the Normandy map and about 50% of the other content. It'll obviously be the P-51 and Dora since they're much further along, plus we'll see which planes are in the best shape by the time we go alpha. I'm not going to list the planes we have tentatively planned, just in case. The alpha will not be a finished game by any means! That's why it's an alpha. It'll be buggy and incomplete, which is the whole point. We will be doing very frequent version updates during alpha testing and we'll likely keep it going all the way into beta, gradually improving and expanding the game until we get to 100% of the features. I strongly encourage everyone not to opt in for alpha testing if you want to treat it as an early opportunity to have fun. Alpha is a way to offer direct input on the incomplete game as it is being developed, at the cost of working with a work-in-progress application that is by definition incomplete and unfinished and imperfect.

Right, but you can only select ONE extra, not three for $60. You can select three extras for the $100 pledge.

No, how do you figure? $60 gets you all the flyables in DCS WWII, and ONE extra. So, you get all the (hopefully) six planes in a year, when DCS WWII is released, the 109, P-51, P-47, Spit, Dora, and the 262. In addition to that you can select ONE additional item out of the available extras - the T-shirt OR alpha access OR an early DCS World license for one aircraft. The Dora license for the World is only supposed to be available for the $80 pledge or higher to match the Kickstarter levels. If you have already pledged $60 on PayPal (three people so far) I have already marked you as a special case that can choose the Dora in World because it was not specified when you selected your reward.

All right, THANK YOU to everyone who tried PayPal. Seems to work. Going to make an official update on it. I pretty much did this to Kickstarter a couple of days ago, but then never published the changes. This added 15 new rewards (they went up to higher levels than on PP). Old rewards still stayed in there. This created a gazillion rewards in the $1-$100, some available, some unavailable, lots of text, lots of words, this one's available, that one isn't, what's the difference between the old $50 and the new $60, etc. My feeling was that if this is making me the creator all confused and dizzy, it would make the backers' heads explode. And yes. We will offer a modular structure on your rewards for KS as well. Pretty much the same way as it is on the PP page right now, except we won't swap out the DCS World licenses. But, if your reward says Tshirt and you want a manual, or if it says a manual and you want an extra alpha access for a friend, that's fine. I mean, we can have a backer vote right now and try to see if you want the new rewards in there after all so you can select exactly what you need - but I'm afraid cluttering up the rewards even further that will do more hard than good. This will make management a nightmare. I'm the guy who does everything, there's literally no one else managing the kickstarter and now paypal. I'll be the guy doing all the merchandise too, production, shipping, it's all on me. Nothing is preventing you from making multiple PayPal pledges, but I have to say that there exists a chance of me messing something up and processing your upped $20 as two separate $10 backers and just issuing you double the $10 rewards. I'm going to be double-checking everything, especially PayPal related, and confirming things twice before I send them out, but if I miss something on my end, and you're on vacation when you get that confirmation email, you might end up getting eight T-shirts in the mail or something.

[Edit] Not beta any more. Please only use PayPal if you are unable to plegde via Kickstarter! Please click here for PayPal option for DCS WWII. Please note that your PayPal pledges will not be automatically added to the kickstarter total. These will be tallied manually and published about twice a day. The PayPal total will be added to the kickstarter total for the overall project pledge amount. The biggest difference is the fact that the reward matrix shown on the PayPal page is a bit different from Kickstarter rewards. The add-on rewards are ANY combination of the items listed below: PHYSICAL EXTRAS Strategy Manual (available Sept 2014) Plane Manual - P-51 (available Dec 2013) Plane Manual - FW-190 (available Feb 2014) Plane Manual - Spitfire (available Sept 2014) Plane Manual - P-47 (available Sept 2014) Plane Manual - Bf.109 (available Sept 2014) Plane Manual - Me.262 (available Sept 2014) Project T-Shirt (available Dec 2013) Project Poster (no frame) (available Dec 2013) DIGITAL EXTRAS Alpha Access to DCS WWII (available Feb 2014) Copy of DCS World: P-51D Mustang (available Oct 2013) SPECIAL: Copy of DCS World: FW.190D-9 (available Feb 2014). ONLY AVAILABLE WITH THE $80 PLEDGE OR HIGHER. Any combination means exactly that! If you select a reward tier with four extras, you can make it four different items, or four copies of the same item, or three copies of one item and one of the other, or any other combination you can think of. Why are we not adding the same matrix to Kickstarter? We are not doing another reshuffling of the rewards because the system is already confusing as it is. We cannot remove or hide existing rewards. The only change available is to add another set of rewards, and that would make the list even more confusing to choose from. If you feel strongly about the matter and you think we should add another dozen rewards to the Kickstarter, please let us know. If there is strong backer support for it, we will definitely do it. Our main goal is to make all our backers happy. This includes rewards. If you wish to swap out your selected reward for another one, PayPal extras style, we will certainly be happy to accommodate. There is going to be a process available to backers after the campaign ends that allows you to select reward options, such as T-shirt size or the type of plane manual, as well as your shipping address. We will also work with you to make sure you receive exactly what you want for your rewards. What exactly are you getting? You are pre-purchasing DCS WWII: Europe 1944, an upcoming flight simulation. The simulation will be released in fall of 2014. Any digital rewards, such as flyable aircraft in the initial release, DCS World aircraft, or beta access, will be delivered to your email as product keys. Any physical products will be shipped to you when they are available. Availability date is listed next to each extra. How much is the shipping? Domestic or international shipping is included and averaged out in each reward tier. For international users, all physical extras will be shipped in a single package, at the time when the last ordered item becomes available. For domestic users, we will do a maximum of two packages, in case you select one item available this year, and another item available next fall. How do I select my extras? We will contact you soon after the DCS WWII Kickstarter campaign ends with instructions on how to specify which extras you would like to receive. You will be able to specify the extras themselves, as well as any other options, such as a T-Shirt size. We will contact you again before we ship out your physical extras to give you an opportunity to change your mind. How do I specify my shipping address? What if it changes? We will contact you soon after the DCS WWII Kickstarter campaign ends with instructions on how to specify which extras you would like to receive. If you specify physical extras, you will be able to specify a shipping address. Since some physical items will not be mailed out for almost a year, we will contact you again before we ship out your physical extras to make sure you are still at the same address. Will I be able to access the Kickstarter backers-only section? Sorry, there does not appear to be a way for us to give you access to the backers-only section on Kickstarter if you are not a Kickstarter backer. We will have a closed forum section on our official site, to which all PayPal and Kickstarter supporters will receive an invitation. I don't understand the DCS World P-51 and FW.190D-9 Extras DCS WWII will come out next year. DCS World is available now. You can already fly the P-51 in DCS World, while the FW.190D-9 comes out early next year, well before the release date of DCS WWII. If you wish to fly these aircraft earlier, you can select these rewards now. The P-51 license will be issued to you soon after the Kickstarter campaign ends, while the FW.190D-9 license will be issued early next year when the DCS World version of the aircraft will become available. Please note that the FW.190D-9 license for DCS World is only available for an $80 pledge or higher due to the fact that the product is not yet released. What are my options for the Total Flyables column? You can choose the appropriate number of flyable aircraft out of the following list: Republic P-47D-28 Thunderbolt; Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX; Messerschmitt Bf-109K-4; Messerschmitt Me.262A-1 (if kickstarter stretch goal is reached); Focke-Wulf FW.190D-9; North-American P-51D Mustang. Please note that the FW.190 and P-51 aircraft here are the same planes as the available digital extras. The only difference is access date. The aircraft listed in Total Flyables will be available with the main release of DCS WWII, or with the alpha or beta versions if you opt in for the testing program. Selecting these aircraft in the DCS World application simply allows you to fly their release versions before DCS WWII: Europe 1944 comes out. Why are we not adding higher pledge options to PayPal? Simplicity. If there is strong demand, we can reconsider. The drop-down we have can only have ten options, so we'd need to have multiple drop-downs or a dozen separate buttons, one for each option. When will you stop accepting PayPal? When we reach our 150K combined goal via the two sources. Can I change or cancel my PayPal pledge? Sure. Please contact us for a refund at any time before your rewards are sent out. Please click here for PayPal option for DCS WWII.

There's pretty much one game engine at this point. What works in DCS WWII works in DCS World, at least on the developers' machines as of this very second. You can theoretically create anything you want, but I really have nothing to do with DCS World as a product line. The reason why we are talking about the SDK now, the reason why we're releasing it when we are, is DCS WWII specifically. I personally am interested in garnering and supporting a large-scale community effort to create new WWII content. Here, my main goal is to make sure we have as many talented, dedicated people working on this as possible, and that they enjoy doing it and want to keep doing it long enough to finish the process. If we just put hurdles in their path, prevent them from seeing their own work, or provide poor support, then this entire effort is wasted: me making that video, discussing this now, us making the effort to create the SDK for external consumption, future discussions with backers, writing tech specs, etc etc etc. There's no point in us doing any of that if we'll give you the kind of SDK that people play with for a while, shrug their shoulders, and go find something better to do with their time. This I guess should be a more important point than any technical details. Not what we're doing, but why we're doing it.

Right. $1 backers aren't getting the game's alpha or beta, so that means they will only be able to fly over their own creation at release. I'll need to check on this once the more knowledgeable people wake up. I know we're using 3D Max. No clue about any other formats. I know this is a big deal, so I'll try to have an answer as soon as possible. Guys, we have an SDK for a game that's not out yet. Even if we were to release the EDGE source code as freeware, you'd be in the exact same boat. Build, create, compile, and then what? Until you have at least the DCS WWII alpha, you have no game in which you can fly over your terrain. We cannot release an even earlier build than our alpha. The SDK comes with its own landviewer, which is the app in which I did all the footage in the latest vid. That's where you'll test your landscape. I'm sure we'll have the outstanding questions resolved well before DCS WWII hits alpha. Once we have an official stance on commercial use of EDGE by 3rd parties, everything else will follow naturally. With non-commercial use, we're obviously interested in having a large amount of user-made content. We're also a very small team and we can't be the quality control or the publisher for everything our users make. The only reason to release an SDK is to help your product grow. No one on this side has any desire to be the bottleneck in that process.

A map in EDGE actually has real-world coordinated connected to a virtual globe. It has constraints. You could create your own landscape project that borders an existing map. Then you could just join the two projects together, and have them combined. That's how, for example, you could join forces between multiple creators working on the same map. Just split it, then join it. Theoretically you could do silly things like take Normandy, make Scotland, and make Ruhr, then join them together. You'd be able to take off from Scotland, climb, fly over barren nothing below, cross over pretty Normandy, fly over some more nothing, bomb a factory, and then go back home. We're fine with anyone doing what they like, as long as they don't release it commercially. Commercial EDGE maps are theoretically also fine, but that kind of thing needs a separate discussion. Biggest problem is splitting up the community. Say company A makes a commercial North Africa add-on, and company B makes a commercial Kursk. What then? Everyone has to buy it, or they can't play together; or did they buy maps that cannot be flown over online? Our tentative not final temporary up-in-the-air answer is that perhaps commercial map packs cannot happen. Same reason we won't really be selling AI-only planes. If we have a new plane out, everyone should be able to see it, not everyone should be able to fly it. That's fine for MP. If Joe bought the new A6M Zero but Bill didn't, Bill will still see Joe zip around online since he got the external model for free, just not the cockpit. If Joe buys Iwo Jima, but Bill doesn't, what happens then? Until we figure this out, with backer and community input, we don't want some enterprising fan running off and releasing a half-baked Sicily for 10 bucks. Secondly, EDGE is kind of a stand-alone engine that creates an all-around landscape model in an open format. Theoretically, you could take that landscape you created and put it into any other game. I don't know if we can prevent that altogether, but for now, let's just thread lightly. Until DCS WWII alpha is available to backers, you won't really have anywhere to put your landscape anyway. And until it's released, the general public won't be able to fly over it either. As it stands right now, the only product that supports EDGE and that can use landscapes created with SDK is Europe 1944. In short, we're not opposed to people doing what they want at all! We're just not sure how to approach a commercial side of those projects YET, so we'll err on the side of caution for now. Like I said above, you'll have all the tools. It's just where would you put your landscape once it's released?

The SDK does not have its own modeling tools. You will need to import a 3D model created elsewhere. The amount of time and effort people put into this SDK is surely worth something non-monetary. Portions of landscape design, especially 3D modeling for objects and 2D art for landscape textures, require a lot of pre-existing skill and experience. If we limit terrain making to people who put in a lot of money into the project, especially so close to the KS campaign closing, we'd be shutting off a huge crowd of potential contributors. Everybody loses. On the other hand, we can't just freely release the tools to the public for obvious reasons. This is the landscape editor. All its features will indeed be revealed. However the ability to compile the final map and to let tanks drive or planes fly over the new landscape will not be released out. So, many features that relate to the terrain's implementation within the game will not be a part of the SDK. The page is ready, putting together the instructions and the news item and so on. We'll have a backer discussion about this once the campaign ends. We'll figure out what we're doing, when we're doing it, who's doing it, and then we'll deal with NDAs. We don't have the SDK ready yet, and it'll be some time before there's anything for anyone to sign.

You've asked for it. We've discussed it. Now we're very happy to announce that we will be releasing the EDGE landscape engine SDK to Kickstarter backers. The SDK can be used to create new landscapes for the DCS WWII project. It's an all-in-one tool that combines a 3D object library, texture manager, and a landscape editor. With a full 24-hour day cycle, options for multiple seasons and time periods on the same map, and industry-best level of detail, EDGE is designed for and tested by real pilots to ensure it meets the highest standards of realism. Please note that the Normandy landscape shown in the video is an early mock-up using temporary stand-in objects, mock-up trees, and low-quality placeholder textures. We're really hoping that the community can organize a concentrated effort to design and create one or more new landscapes for DCS WWII. With the amount of time we have before the initial release, it should be possible to have them completed for the day-one release of Europe 1944! A more detailed look at the tools and the technical details of the design process will be released at a later time. The SDK itself should be available later this year. Please note that the SDK will be released to project backers only and / or will require a signed NDA to use.

We've had a very lively discussion after my update yesterday. Thank you everyone who chipped in. We are going ahead with the changes we've suggested. It appears that a large majority of current backers support it, and many people who have not yet backed the project are also for it. The change does not affect ANY backer of ANY level. Your pledge, your rewards, and the planes you receive in the initial release are exactly as previously stated. This is a change only to the free version of DCS WWII available to non-backers. We strongly believe that making this change will, in the end, provide for a better WWII flight sim series to all project backers. Why do this? A decision is only as good as the data it's based on. Based on what we projected before the campaign began, we believed the old way was the best way to go. Seeing the campaign as it actually ran, we realized a change was needed. Why do this now? We would have likely reduced the number of free aircraft in the initial release in any case. Doing it while the Kickstarter campaign is still gong is the most transparent way to do this. We are letting you know what the project is exactly so you can make the most informed decision about backing it. If we were to make this change six months from now, some backers and many non-backers would surely wish they had backed this project differently. Will this change again? No. If you'll notice, none of the changes made during the kickstarter affect the actual development in any way. We are making the aircraft, working on the landscape, writing single-player scripts. That's the actual project development. None of that changes. A kickstarter pledge is a contract between the backer and the developer. We have to deliver the features and the rewards as promised. We have to deliver the product you backed. The features, the plane list, the number of flyable aircraft you receive per pledge, all those things are set in stone and will not, can not change. In the end, our overall obligation is to the project. It is envisioned as a start of a new simulation series. This is what we want. I'm sure that this is also what the backers want. Our job is to ensure that not only do the backers get the sim as described in the initial release, but that we also deliver a healthy product that will survive and grow and give our backers a better, longer, more varied flight sim experience. That is the main reason for this change. So, the free non-backer version of DCS WWII will now contain one aircraft, to be voted for by backers after the kickstarter ends. THIS CHANGE AFFECTS ONLY THOSE WHO DO NOT BACK THE PROJECT. If you back the project at any time before the funding period ends on October 5th, your content and all rewards will be as previously stated. Here's what you'll be able to fly: $0 (non-backer): ONE aircraft (either P-47, Spitfire, or Bf.109, to be voted for by backers) $1: THREE aircraft (P-47, Spitfire, and Bf.109) $20: FOUR aircraft (P-47, Spitfire, Bf.109, plus one more of your choice) $30: FIVE aircraft (P-47, Spitfire, Bf.109, plus two more of your choice) $40: ALL aircraft (all aircraft in the initial release) Let's get that Me.262! The stretch goal is well within reach. We're almost half-way there already! If you have not yet pledged, now is the time to get up to SIX DCS P-51 level aircraft for only $40. Only four days left! Also, we're working hard to have PayPal options ready for those who cannot pledge via the options available on KickStarter. We're working to have an easy storefront interface and streamlined rewards.

I think it'd still look worse if we do it after the KS. A promise is a promise is a promise. "I did not back the project because I only want to fly the 109 and it was coming out free anyway" is a perfectly good stance. If we did not promise a free game that'd be one thing. We are however promising something for free, so, while probably not legally bound, you could still make a case for a moral obligation. In other words, even if we kept the KS as it is, we'd probably cut down the number of free planes before the release anyway. Doing it now, while new people can still come in, and existing people can still come out, just seems more fair.

Yes, very well aware. I guess we'll deal with it as it happens. I doubt we'll raise a large enough sum on PayPal where not having it immediately available would impact the project in any way. Other kickstarter projects did get their money released pretty quickly, such as Yatagarasu just a few days ago, a project with exposure and funding levels rather similar to ours. Oh definitely!

Thank you everyone for your opinions. Let's move across to the poll: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=114846

Good morning, The discussion in the other thread has gotten very lively. If you're not sure what we're talking about, please read my earlier suggestion. Here's the text I'm about to edit into the main kickstarter description: My fear is that this will have more of a negative effect than a positive one at this point. This can cause existing backers to cancel their pledges. This can give people on the fence a negative opinion of the project, and cause future pledges to slow down. Most importantly, this has the potential to win us a battle but lose us a war. There are some very valid points raised by some in the other thread. If we release the F2P version with a single flyable, that may not draw enough people to the game to keep it running in the long term. So, let's do a poll. PS PayPal options in the works. It's more complicated than it seems. I don't want to just give out a paypal account and say, hey guys, send in the cash! Need to set up some sort of a storefront.