Flak 36 - 88cm versus tanks. A WW2OL action report.

[Jammer]

My .02 cents:

WWIIOL has some annoying FPS issues right now (there ARE workarounds that improve a lot but still), there are several bugs, several game play issues, but IMO there are things that outweigh this:

-Immension (f.e. you might ride on a Panzer on the way to the front together with 20 other people when a couple of stukas passes over your head, then you feel sheer joy and happiness. That's immension to me.)

-Best WWII tank sim without competition.

-Unlimited possabilities for teamwork air/ground and eventually naval.

-WWIIOL actually have recognizeable sides in the conflict.

-Map size. Already VERY large.

I understand it may sound as if I'm a WWIIOL cheerleader, but I do not deny there's some serious issues, I do not deny that there were some incorrect info displayed on the retail box, which is of course unacceptable.

But, being a realist, I KNOW it's not the first, nor the last time a developer/publisher will let down it's customers - but CRS is in this aspect pleasant people to deal with; responsive, receptive and courteous(sp?), and if money were an unlimited resource they'd most likely not released the game now. But I'm having a lot of fun playing the game, despite some issues, and that's what counts in my book.

Everyone should decide wether the price/value ratio is adequate for them; some will hate the game, some will love it, some will think it's ok.

It's OK to bash it to your hearts content, tried or not, but you might do yourself a bad favor if you pass on the game simply on other peoples rantings.

If you are at least slightly interested, buy the game, make sure they have a return/refund policy, try it and if you hate it, simply return the game.

If $40 is a lot of money to you, wait for while to see how the development goes.

I guess my final point is that people can squeak and moan and rant how much they want (not pointing any fingers); still some people enjoy themselves while playing WWIIOL, and that's what counts, outside opinions on buissness desicions and PR ethics.

Cheers,

[Vermillion]

So far I think the game has a huge amount of potential. Some of the combined arms (armor/infantry/half track/trucks/ and AT gun) battles I played in during Beta were simply magnificent. I never could really fly (and I too have a Tbird 1.3Ghz system w/Radeon 32megDDR).

But I can't stomach an 8-12 minute load/spawn time. Thats simply ridiculous.

Once I'm in game, my fps are decent enough to play, but when you get screen pauses because the HD is thrashing trying to load virtual memory, its just as bad as having a slow system. Its WAY too memory hungry, and I highly suspect that its still got  some (probably several) memory leaks.

In 3-6 months time, this will be a incredible game, it won't replace AH in my opinon becuase 6 very early war aircraft just do not satisfy my flightsim desires. But its a great armor/fps shooter game.

[Staga]

hmm my load time is about 2,5 mins and spawn times are maybe couple mins, propably less (haven't clock this one, its so short time).

[Gh0stFT]

Vermillion i have had same probs with 256Ram,
somehow ww2o is a hughe rame eater, i upped now
to 512Ram and my spawning times are constant 30sec. and zero HD access, absolute no more freezing pic  

Gh0stFT

btw. the new 256stick was $60 and its worth
not only for gaming!

[Udie]

I'm getting another 256 after work today    I hope it kills the HD stuff, that's what's been killing my FPS.  There was a HUGE and I mean HUGE battle last night that I faught in for about 4 hours at one town.  We took the town under the cover of darkness.  By morning the Germans had about 20 panzers, 5 or 6 88's and GOBS of infantry about 2 miles to the east of the town.

 I could hear the infantry shooting my hull and the occasional panzer round would ricochet off my hull, but I kept going forward to kill those 88's.  I lost my left tread 1/2 way into the field and was immobilized. But that didn't stop  me from killing 2 or 3 truck loads of infantry with my turret mounted machine gun  

 It sucks or not depending upon how you look at it, but HT and/or they guys at CRS have caused every single upgrade I have ever made to any of my 4 computers over the last 6 years.  Everything from ram, video cards to whole new systems (the last bought last july when I got into the WW2 beta I was number 13)   It is after all why I own a cpu in the first place...

 It's all I have wanted to play this week even with all the issues.  I need to get my sorry arse up in AH before you guys think I quit  


 Being on the bleeding edge of technology means you'll get cut from time to time.

Udie

[Staga]

That game rocks  
 http://koti.mbnet.fi/~staga/scrshots/

PIII 700@933, 512mb ram, 1 gig swapfile, WinME, Dx8a, GF2MX prophet (oc'd)

[Jekyll]

Originally posted by Nifty:



There IS no naval aspect right now.  It's just not in the game.  They have said all along it will be included after release, but on time frame.

Most everyone that's upset over the game expected an all aspects playable game out of the box.  That's nowhere near the case right now.  Infantry and tanks are do-able, flight isn't.  I dropped to under 5 FPS when I got over friendly troops, IMO, NOT playable.  I tried disabling some of the eye candy, but not one setting I changed stuck.  I'll play with it more tonight, but I couldn't tell any discernable difference in the screen at 1280x1024x32 and 800x600x16.  Must mean that setting isn't working right either, even tho it says 800x600x16 in the settings now.  They've mentioned a settings patch and a performance/loadtime patch coming this week, I'll report on the air stuff again after that happens.

Until then, I'll tweak the settings again, and if air is still FPS challenged, I'll stick to infantry/armor.

btw, my system specs are Athlon 900
Asus A7V
384mb pc100 ram
hercules prophet II 64mb (original, not pro or ultra)
sb live! platinum (original, not 5.1)
win 98SE
dx 8.0a
nvidia 12.40 drivers
Saitek 36F, and CH pro pedals USB.  

Not a screaming processor, but it's still a -good- system.  The thing grabs 70+ fps in 1280x1024x32 in AH offline flying against the drones in fighters (don't remember what the AH B17 benchmark scores were.)  Regardless, far better 13FPS (that's what I get when no one is around me in WWII, the 5 FPS is when other people are around).

[ 06-11-2001: Message edited by: Nifty ]

Then Nifty, if you are serious when you say you get those framerates.. something seriously sucks in your system!

My system.. Duron 650
Geforce 2 MX
512 Mb RAM

Here's an 'in combat' screenshot

 

If I can get 25 fps in combat and you can only get single digits.. well, I suppose some people should stick with pocket calculators  

[R4M]

K7 700MHZ
Gforce2 MX 32MB
512mb RAM


 

[Staga]

Heh almost 4000 players online right now  
 

[Westy MOL]

Well, it's been almost a two weeks since release. A couple of tepid patches. Some folks with sub Cray PC's are loving it. Others are trying to hold on. <S> that tenacity gentleman.
 Here is an AAR that seems to becoming more common on the boards and in some emails I've gotten. There's a a new theme that seemes to be rising from those posting - and who can actually play. Apperas to be many new complaints about a lack of direction, of poor cooperation and next to no organisation. Who would have thunk it, eh?  "WWII 'All Generals, All the time' Online"       I should open a Palm Reading shop    

 I hope you beta testers get these bugs and gameplay worked out soon!


""I just watched Signey on Server 7 get taken and lost 4 times in a row.
 Everyone was real gung ho to take the town but as soon as it was taken
everyone went blazing off to take the next town down the road with only
a couple of people willing to stay and defend it against the inevitable
counterattack. So of course it was lost, then taken back, then lost,
then taken back, etc.
 If people don't realize that this is more than just a "WWII Deathmatch"
then this whole concept of recreating WWII is going to be a really big
flop. For about 10 minutes early on I actually saw a group of tanks
cooperate and they rolled into Signey and took the town in a few minutes.
Of course as soon as that happened everyone scattered to head off to take
something else. The town was retaken in less than 15 minutes by two tanks
and one infantry. I watched as over a dozen people spawned in the town
just before it fell and only one of them bothered to stay and help.
Everyone else was out the gate and heading across the fields towards the
next town as the town they spawned in was being taken right out from under
them. At first several of us were guarding the roads in blocking positions
to watch for enemy counterattacks. Within a few minutes though I guess it
must have gotten boring and most of the others took off to attack the next
town. As a result when the enemy counterattack came there were only two of
us left and none of the people spawning would bother to help. Repeatedly
I sent "Enemy Tank On Road N of Signey" "Enemy truck heading sounth into
Signey on road" As I and one other tank took the Char under fire, I
watched 6 other tanks spawn and go rolling out the gate headed West
towards the next town. Not a single one of them bothered to look around
and see that the town was under attack. So of course the French took
Signey and started spawning tanks and we were history.
 So it fell again. I guess it'll be retaken yet again and then abandoned
yet again. It's really sad to see such a great concept as WWII Online
being wasted and used like a "deathmatch" clone.
 As for me. I think I'll go play Panzer Leader or Operational Art of
War. At least the AI in those games have sense enough to defend what
they seize."
 
   --Westy

[ 06-19-2001: Message edited by: Westy MOL ]