Cliffs of Dover Blitz - SOW announcement

[Admin (Reddog)]

As many of you know IL2 Cliffs of Dover Blitz edition was released last week. The Storm of War admins have been testing and reviewing what changes have occurred with a view to relaunching Storm of War using this updated platform. We know that at least some of you have valued what we did and what we offered and are possibly waiting to see whether we relaunch before downloading/installing/playing Blitz.


Unfortunately it is our opinion that this release has done nothing to address some of the fundamental problems SoW encounters when trying to run the large scale campaign missions we’re widely known for, and in fact has introduced a number of new issues which mean that it is highly unlikely that we would get even the same performance as previous campaigns.


We know that this is not what you wanted to hear, but while the performance is so low (both in terms of FPS drops and online desync/lag/banding), the AI is essentially as untouched as it was, and there remain (and have been introduced!) numerous bugs and inaccuracies in both the aircraft and map we feel we cannot invest the time, effort and resources it takes to run SoW. We have discussed rolling back to TF4.312 but that will just put us back in the hole we were in last year. None of us have the enthusiasm or drive necessary with the game in the state it is and have little faith that in the long term that Cliffs of Dover has much of a future.


This is a pity because as we have discussed numerous times on the SoW Forums, the alternatives also show great shortcomings. However, we think it is inevitable that the future of SoW (and indeed WW2 combat flight simming) will likely lie with either the IL2: BoX series or DCS. Neither will in their current or short term be capable of offering the environment that Cliffs of Dover did, but they are both being actively developed and have significantly higher player bases than Cliffs of Dover.


We will continue to investigate the possibilities offered by these platforms and will monitor the coming developments such as the DCS "merge" and BoX 3.0 etc. Should there be a substantive patch or fix to Cliffs of Dover Blitz we will of course take a look at that too and reassess.


In the meantime the SOW Admin wish you and yours all a happy a healthy festive season. We hope to see you in 2018!

[Admin (Philstyle)]

This shouldn't come as a surprise.. With other servers disussing (or even having now decided to) rolling back to 4.312 its safe to say that 4.5 has been a bit of a mess, especially with respect to multiplayer - which is supposed to be the jewel in CloD's crown.

SoW could not run in the current situation. The lag and the problems with multi-crew and desync would crush the server. There would be frequent, lock ups and crashes.
The A.I. isn't going to be given any attention until TF 5, which we know know wont be out until Q4 of 2018. Even if CloD 4.5 were running properly, can SoW really run the same old campaign for 12 more months and expect to keep people interested?

There are still a host of other issues that are a disappointment;
1. Tree collision which is dependant on client video settings
2. Mission-maker-placed statics still be visible well beyond the maps native visibilty rendering distance
3. Disappearing buildings which are detrimental to any kind of high/ medium level bombing effort
4. Controller bindings issues which loads of people are now reporting despite the intended fixes
5. Ongoing munitions issues

I'm certainly not interested in investing the 5 to 10 hours per week required to keep an SoW campaign oiled (let alone the at-least-double-that which reddog and dietrich put in) under the current situation.

As a player (and not a server operator) there are other options now. Fligth sim fans are fond of saying that having options is "good" for all the sims. In a world where we all have infitnite time on our hands to play them all that sentiment works. However, I don't. I'm not going to spend many hours in CloD, not while I can enjoy some very fine combat and civil flying on other platforms. Having options simply means I have to cut out the options that are less appeailing so I can enjoy the ones that give me the most entertainment.
Indeed, if CloD's multiplayer scene is going to offer little more that furballs over a small geographic area, then there's really little difference between CloD and any other combat flight sim. Being "set" during the battle of britain is only a draw card if the environment simulates what it was like to be in the BoB.

[Ibis]

Thank you both for the explanations, they make perfect sense.
Hopefully one of the other platforms will meet our needs in the not too distant future and thanks for taking the time to evaluate CLOD BLITZ.
Regards
Ibis

[22GCT_PlaN]

I hope that in the future, maybe on the Mediterranean theater we can fly the sow again!!

[71st_AH_Gamecock]

I am really taken aback by the product that has been released by the powers that be who touted this as the next great thing. How do you release a product that fails to live up to the hype- AGAIN. I for one am very disappointed. In the least, I was expecting an update that was no worse, with slighly better graphics. I do not blame you guys for not spending time and resources on this disappointing Mod that has failed to deliver the goods so to speak. Is CLOD cursed???? Maybe instead of banning people the powers that be should actually listen to the folks in the trenches. I for one appreciate all your time and effort and look forward to flying in SOW again. Thank you guys for your time.

[Kling]

Just to add.
The net code seems fixed.
AI bombers are a lot more difficult to bring down in 4.5.
This means bomber pilot stand a much higher chance to surivive a mission and also bomber formations no longer will be brought down by a single fighter like before. This can indeed change the whole campaign outcome.

I do understand a SOW campaign is extremely time consuming however.

[EAF79_OD_]

Fixed for everyone? Has Cliffs been updated through Steam? I've not seen anything announced anywhere. If telling me to change my network settings to 56k is the solution then it's not fixed.

[Admin (Reddog)]

Just to add.
The net code seems fixed.
AI bombers are a lot more difficult to bring down in 4.5.
This means bomber pilot stand a much higher chance to surivive a mission and also bomber formations no longer will be brought down by a single fighter like before. This can indeed change the whole campaign outcome.

I do understand a SOW campaign is extremely time consuming however.

Player bomber gunners are reportedly not as useful however.

News on a network fix is welcome, I'd be interested to know how it happened and what the fix actually is

[Admin (Dietrich)]

The net code seems fixed.

When will the fix be rolled out?

[Mysticpuma]

Once the test completes, the fix has to be sent to. 1C and Steam. 1C okay it, then it is made available through Steam. Could be ready tonight, may not be ready until Boxing Day, depends on steam and 1C.

Reports are the fix works. I will post info. later, once I get back to my Computer. Nothing to do with the SC, just a line of programming....