An Open Letter to the Community

[Heatseeker2K3]

The western release date (early 2k9) seems bad for everyone.

After so many years of work its a real shame they didnt manage to release worldwide and benefit from the holliday sales. A worldwide release is a good way to prevent you know what.

 

But this might not be really that terrible since there is a game overflow betwean now and the end of the year, and DCS BS might have a better chance of catching the interest of casual gamers when there arent so many popular titles in the spotlight (dry season).

 

Thinking about it dry season can actually be a good period to promote and release a simulation and catch the interest of normal gamers.

Sim enthusiasts are guaranteed sales already :joystick:.

[hitman]

Im curious as to why it didnt go as smoothly as Flaming Cliffs did.

[Duke49th]

After so many years of work its a real shame they didnt manage to release worldwide and benefit from the holliday sales. A worldwide release is a good way to prevent you know what.

 

This is not because ED want to. This is because ED have a contract with 1C(still another ***** Publisher in my eyes, because they won't wait)and they want to, because it was a part of the contract and ED have to perform the contract.

 

What I don't understand is, why ED made a contract with a publisher in Russia?!?

In a Post/Thread(or FAQ?) a few month(or years?) ago, Wags(or EB) said, that ED is releasing BS without any Publisher because of the Problems with Publisher (UBI) in the past with LockOn.

 

And what happens when any publisher is onboard is what you actually can see....the customers and the developer are the...you know...

 

 

(sorry for my bad english..)

[joey45]

......What I don't understand is, why ED made a contract with a publisher in Russia?!?

In a Post/Thread(or FAQ?) a few month(or years?) ago, Wags(or EB) said, that ED is releasing BS without any Publisher because of the Problems with Publisher (UBI) in the past with LockOn.

.......

 

good point there.

[drafz]

It is a shame that it got pirated, i felt like they were stealing my work, since you can see how much effort was put in the making of the sim, I just hope ed never gets tired of creating simulators. About the protection thing; I will buy it no matter what system is used, I think that this sim is worth the little annoyances that may appear.

 

lol ?

[Jester_159th]

As I understand it (and I don't profess to be an expert in the software industry), generally the publisher pays the developer an up front fee. I have no idea if this was the case regarding ED/ 1C and I'm certainly not going to speculate on it.

 

Whatever the motivating factor there, it will be firmly in the realms of private business dealings and I would expect it to be very unlikely that ED will feel obliged to discuss it in public...... Which is fair enough since I seriously doubt anyone here with any type of experience of running their own business would disclose that type of information (or if they would, they would only disclose the very basics).

 

ED have been in business for a long number of years now in a market srewn with the wrecks of software development houses. IMHO I think we should take it as a given that when it comes to running their financial business they know what they're doing and also take it as a given that they will make the choices that are right for them (ie will keep them profitable), and so will ensure they're around to make their products.

 

To me that's all that matters. How they choose to do it, is their concern. Not ours.

[Baco]

As feedback for ED: I feel very very unconfortable buying a CD with activations. There are other CP systems, that can be used. Printed materials, codes, disk checks, and lots of other stuff.

 

Lots of combinations that do not render a legaly paid sotware unusable after x amont of time or reinstalls.

 

Simmers are people that allways strive to have a better machine to run sims better. Chipsets and sockets change every six months, so if you want to use the latest CPU tecnology you have to change the Motherborad too... So you loose an activation... And it is a tradition with ED that no present rig can run it´s sims at full glorry, hell I got to run Flanker 2 maxed out two years and three rigs after I got it, LOMAC took two rigs to run maxed out... Now The best sim up to date won´t alowd me to change my rig more than a cople of times? (have to reserve an activations just in case the rig dies or something).... I just can´t agree with that.

 

Another reason: I use my PC to fly on line, and my Laptop to build missions on the train to work and back (two daily hours that I am not taking away from my family) so thats two activations.. what if one of them dies and I have to replace them?... that´s it...

 

Please ED get another way, no activations limit.

[Avimimus]

Just my personal opinion on that matter. Right now ED is one of the few companies releasing hi-fidelity sims, still lets kick them and punch them. Im sure that will motivate them to make more and better sims.

 

On a technical note, it also means the ED is basically all we've got. So, we can't "vote with our feet" without giving up jet sims as a whole (or going back to our old ones). So, it makes people claustrophobic and sometimes a little desperate. We really don't want to see ED fail because of a management decision.

[Rikus]

As feedback for ED: I feel very very unconfortable buying a CD with activations. There are other CP systems, that can be used. Printed materials, codes, disk checks, and lots of other stuff.

 

Lots of combinations that do not render a legaly paid sotware unusable after x amont of time or reinstalls.

 

Simmers are people that allways strive to have a better machine to run sims better. Chipsets and sockets change every six months, so if you want to use the latest CPU tecnology you have to change the Motherborad too... So you loose an activation... And it is a tradition with ED that no present rig can run it´s sims at full glorry, hell I got to run Flanker 2 maxed out two years and three rigs after I got it, LOMAC took two rigs to run maxed out... Now The best sim up to date won´t alowd me to change my rig more than a cople of times? (have to reserve an activations just in case the rig dies or something).... I just can´t agree with that.

 

Another reason: I use my PC to fly on line, and my Laptop to build missions on the train to work and back (two daily hours that I am not taking away from my family) so thats two activations.. what if one of them dies and I have to replace them?... that´s it...

 

Please ED get another way, no activations limit.

 

I pray for that

 

Greetings

[th3flyboy]

I pray for that

 

Greetings

 

 

hooah, fact is that the activation limits tend to scare people off from buying the game or cause them to pirate it in retaliation to the activation limit. Normally in the gaming community, activation limits are seen as treating the customer as a presumed pirate, which is a very bad idea, especially if you want to keep business from the mainstream. While I don't see the hardcore deciding not to get it, it will probably scare off a lot of people who are only just starting out simming. If you absolutely must have some kind of activation required, here's an idea, use steam. If you use steam as a copy protection method, then you can have it so the cd key is used to activate the game, and you have to play it while logged in to steam, or in offline mode, which would require you to have logged in to steam with that key active on your account previously to play it anyway. Furthermore, steam would allow the player, if the disc breaks (its happened to me twice on a game, and i bought the dang collectors edition too) then the player can redownload it off the steam servers. It may cost a bit more to put it on steam, but remember that also you will be getting knowledge of it out there to people who otherwise aren't looking for this kind of game, they will be like "oh whats this" and they may buy it because they are interested, when they wouldn't have known about it otherwise. Finally remember that that individual cd key would be linked to that steam account, and you can't activate the key on a 2nd account, so that would help reduce piracy too, by preventing keygens from being used as much. All in all, your best bet IMHO for keeping your product secure is actually steam. Also remember this, we can get steam to run on linux, but we have to crack a game with tage, starforce, or securom copy protection to get it to run on linux. The reason for that is the cd check doesn't recognise the linux kernel, and won't work with it, where steam has been able to load on linux. That would actually give another benefit because then you are opening it up to the linux community too if the guys over at wine can figure out how to emulate windows properly to run DCS on linux with WINE.

[nemises]

^^ other advantages to steam are

- VAC (Valve Anti Cheat system)..not sure if it's compatible tihe LOMAC though, suspect it needs a dedicated server .exe to operate on and some code in the game...still, worth a thought!

- Automatic Patch management and downloading

- Inbuilt server browsing! .. I mean, HyperLobby's great and all, but could you get any more 16bit ?

- Lots of exposure to folks in the Steam store

- Steam , somehow, lends an air of respectability to a game?..maybe thats just me though?

 

Anyways, it's not as though ED don't know this...just lip flapping until release really :)

[192nd_Erdem]

I believe these series HAS TO be on Steam at some point. Because it's has incredible customer potential, everything is integrated, there's no limitations, and you get in touch with millions of people easily.

 

For example, just take a look at Tripwire, developers of Red Orchestra Ostfront 41-45. They won the contest, polished up their mod and released it over Steam. It couldn't have been more successful. Though if they released it on only retail with an unknown budget publisher, it'd have faded out by this time.

 

You can even include your so beloved Starforce protection with Steam but you can cut out the activations as the Steam does that job for you.

 

If ED wants to maximise their sales, I'd suggest them to consider it rather than trying to create a limited-reach market as they did with FC.

[rapid]

Glad to see more and more people agreeing with me about steam.

[Stephy]

Also remember this, we can get steam to run on linux, but we have to crack a game with tage, starforce, or securom copy protection to get it to run on linux. The reason for that is the cd check doesn't recognise the linux kernel, and won't work with it, where steam has been able to load on linux. That would actually give another benefit because then you are opening it up to the linux community too if the guys over at wine can figure out how to emulate windows properly to run DCS on linux with WINE.

 

 

Woot on Steam then ( linux is my new fav OS. ) so Wine its getting better now? have not played with it for long now, maybe a update on wine an see what it can now.

 

But Im back with buying it if it comes on Steam :thumbup:

 

P.s sorry for shorting your quote Flyboy

[RedTiger]

- Steam , somehow, lends an air of respectability to a game?..

 

Not to mention built-in advertising.

[Prophet]

Would Steam allow you to have the mods we have now? Or doesnt it check the file integrity?

[Wags]

As has been mentioned before and is still true, we are in testing/evaluating the SteamWorks tools as an additional option. We just cannot say one way or the other yet; it has both advantages and disadvantages. Once we have made a final decision, we'll let you know.

 

Thanks,

Matt

[zaelu]

Thanx for heads up Wags. The sooner the better (imho)... the delay on trying to make a demo first is costing you. Make 3-4 more cool movies and Steam the game and will suffice.

 

:joystick::pilotfly:

[Kuky]

Thanks Wags... I hope it works out... for all of us

[192nd_Erdem]

Not to mention built-in advertising.

 

That "built in advertising" is just a news pop-up window opens once in 1-2 weeks after you exit a game. It includes important notices, game updates, and new releases. Nothing to bug you out.

 

Would Steam allow you to have the mods we have now? Or doesnt it check the file integrity?

 

Yes, you can have full mod support including altering games original system files.

 

As has been mentioned before and is still true, we are in testing/evaluating the SteamWorks tools as an additional option. We just cannot say one way or the other yet; it has both advantages and disadvantages. Once we have made a final decision, we'll let you know.

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

That's great to hear! :)

[rapid]

As has been mentioned before and is still true, we are in testing/evaluating the SteamWorks tools as an additional option. We just cannot say one way or the other yet; it has both advantages and disadvantages. Once we have made a final decision, we'll let you know.

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

Sounds good to me Wags.

[leafer]

As has been mentioned before and is still true, we are in testing/evaluating the SteamWorks tools as an additional option. We just cannot say one way or the other yet; it has both advantages and disadvantages. Once we have made a final decision, we'll let you know.

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

Can someone list the advantages and disadvantages of Steam?

[RedTiger]

That "built in advertising" is just a news pop-up window opens once in 1-2 weeks after you exit a game. It includes important notices, game updates, and new releases. Nothing to bug you out.

 

You're forgetting the fact that thousands of people visit Steam's website on a daily basis. Finding this sim while browsing Steam could be the first time they've ever heard of it. It could make people aware of it that potentially would have never heard of it otherwise.

 

Also, I read that pop-up! :) There have been some games that I never knew existed that I learned about from that pop-up! :)

[Prophet]

IMO I would think that Steam would def result in more sales.

 

I couldnt say for certain, but I would think when that window pops up and people see it, there may be more than a few that think about buying it.

[Kuky]

Is this pop up on steam website or something that would come up when starting/installing the game?