They need to look at F2P games that have worked (LOL being possibly the most famous) the critical bit is their should never be an advantage of a payng player against a free player. So unfortunately that is a fail and the latter 2 pricing bands are mad in todays gaming where subscriptions are becoming rarer.
WW2 Online Battleground Europe now on Steam!
- Thread starter Yozz76
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I watched the video and I'm guessing this is a game for those that like ultra faux realism in their FPS games? I play plenty of games with worse graphics so that side of things doesn't bother me but the wandering around for ages before being insta-killed puts me off a lot.
Yeah ultra realism is its thing. If you put the time in, the armor game and the air game is very rewarding. Ballistics and the flight model is mostly realistic so mastering them takes a while, and you are getting blown up for no good reason you can fathom. Once you do though... The air game is especially fun, going on CAS runs with hurricanes, flying patrols over the UK waiting for bombers, going deep behind enemy lines to catch Jus and Stukas. The graphics for these dont make that much of a difference.
The infantry game is mind bogglingly terrible though. I never had a problem with getting shot out of nowhere and never knowing why, but the skating, the lag and the warping were atrocious. A couple of years back there was a discussion aorund it and basically CRS opinion was that the game was designed to cater for a 56k modem and that wouldnt be changing. I think it has a bit but nowadays it has to compared to a host of other FPS wwii games and nobody in their right mind chooses the wwiiol fps game as something they would play over that. Maybe the free play helps that but I cant imagine it pulls in that many into paying for half the game. As said above, pay to win is a really really bad idea.
Old thread bump but if you don't know already this game has now been released on Steam! http://store.steampowered.com/app/251950/World_War_II_Online/
It had been struggling with player numbers but the community somehow kept it alive and took over from the old devs to get it to this point. I think the Steam launch is absolutely make or break for the game. I understand that if successful they are hoping to totally redevelop the game using the unreal engine. I'm told there have been some rather large and impressive battles since the Steam launch, I'm just not sure how many players will stick around after the 30 day free trial as the pricing plan seems to be putting many off.
Haven't played for a while myself due to the low pop and lack of action but I'll most certainly be giving it another go whilst the player pop increase lasts!
It had been struggling with player numbers but the community somehow kept it alive and took over from the old devs to get it to this point. I think the Steam launch is absolutely make or break for the game. I understand that if successful they are hoping to totally redevelop the game using the unreal engine. I'm told there have been some rather large and impressive battles since the Steam launch, I'm just not sure how many players will stick around after the 30 day free trial as the pricing plan seems to be putting many off.
Haven't played for a while myself due to the low pop and lack of action but I'll most certainly be giving it another go whilst the player pop increase lasts!
will give it a look
update: its like a poor mans Battlefield 1942 for the 21st century with graphics from the 1990's. I fell in the river swam around a bit took 5 minutes to get to the other side and couldnt get out. Ran around a bit tried to chase a tank for a lift which drove off. Shot one of my own soldiers then legged it. Its dreadful.
update: its like a poor mans Battlefield 1942 for the 21st century with graphics from the 1990's. I fell in the river swam around a bit took 5 minutes to get to the other side and couldnt get out. Ran around a bit tried to chase a tank for a lift which drove off. Shot one of my own soldiers then legged it. Its dreadful.
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I remember getting my first broadband connection at home specifically to play this on the day of release back in 2001. I thoroughly enjoyed it for quite a few years, but I just don't have the time anymore to pay and play. I don't care about the graphics, it's the game underneath that I focus on, and when there are a good number of players, it's great fun.
The monthly charge is pretty steep, and I think that and the fact a lot of people can't get past how a game looks, will be the main problem.
The monthly charge is pretty steep, and I think that and the fact a lot of people can't get past how a game looks, will be the main problem.
You are playing it wrong. But it is not your fault. This is one of the fundamental problems the game has, that to get to the exciting gameplay the learning curve is huge. I should confess I am a great admirer of the game, I was there for the beta and for the insanely suicidal launch in 2001 and kept playing through all the crises until about five years ago. Why I stopped I'll get into in a second for anyone interested - but if anyone reading this is going to give it a go (and if any of this appeals to you you really should), a couple of things you should know up front.
This is not BF. The first person infantry game was only just acceptable in 2001 and has only had some cosmetic adjustments made to it since then. It was designed to accommodate players on dial up modems with minimum spec systems (the typical grognard of the time) and has been trapped there ever since. The infantry game is exciting when you are in a squad and working towards an objective - parachuting into enemy towns for instance - but in order to get past the dated graphics you need to be playing the team based / objectives game and that is not something you can jump into, a difficulty the game has never really found an answer to. If you just 'jump in' not having a clue, you will end up swimming in rivers and running after friendly tanks about four miles behind the action. Hopefully someone currently playing will give a brief guide as to how to avoid that.
The air game is really easy to get into (and can be good solo), especially in early tiers where its basically peashooters can be immense fun. Latching onto a Stuka or an Me110 in your spit (I only played allied) was a buzz, especially as *everything moving* was player controlled. The furballs over contested targets would be mad and trying to intercept a parachute laden JU52 through a swarm of defending fighters was an insane adrenalin rush. Once the later tiers develop it gets more experience based, the cannon based aircraft with high speeds can commit murder against noobs, especially when a pilot really knows his aircraft. I liked to switch to bombing when the later tier aircraft supply ran out - A Hurri with bombs attacking a well defended axis outpost. The AA game is also immensely fun as you try to defend against Stuka with your anti aircraft gun.
The Tank game is perhaps the most frustrating for noobs but its a genre for the grognards all by itself. The thing is difficult to drive solo and you can really forget the BF42 'whites of their eyes' combat. Its a long range artillery game and more about becoming skilled at hitting the few pixels in the distance with ranging shots. The satisfaction of seeing an enemy tank brew up though is immense. When you get up close and personal, its generally when all the enemy tanks and AT guns have been knocked out and you are suppressing spawn points. So close range tank to tank combat is rare. the damage modelling on tanks (and through the game) is also madly accurate with a real effect on shell types to damage caused.
There are moments in this game where you suddenly 'get' the vision of what this was designed for. Some moments that stood out for me - Parachuting into an enemy held town whilst a flight of bombers all unloaded at the same time - watching the tracer of the AA, the explosions of the bombs, the surging tank assault... I have never experienced anything else like it because it was all real - the pilot of the plane I jumped out of, the pilots of the bombers, tanks, infantry defending. Amazing. Another moment, me and a another guy patrolling the skies of England for any Heinekels coming in to attack the factories for hours at a time, sometimes never seeing any enemy, but it was so damn engaging.
The real problem is that since 2001 there are other games that really appeal to the core demographic and of course have better graphics and network code. For flyers you have games like CLOD, for infantry- well, take your pick of a host of wwii games. I am not sure about grognard tanking, but of course youve got WOT for the casuals and doubtless theres something out there. Personally I switched because my squad broke up (shout out to 42Commando) and to be honest I found it easier to just do something for half an hour that was immediately satisfying (like BF) or deep dive into aircraft mechanics with games like DCS.
I would live to see the game remade but it would need to address these fundamental channelling issues and I am not sure that it would not just end up like other games such as heroes and generals. But I still retain a fond place in my heart for wwiiol and will certainly give it another spin, but Im flying mostly in VR now, something the current iteration of wwiiol will never be able to do and perhaps exemplary of how far the world has moved on since 2001.