Author Topic: Whats the status on Tour of Duty? (Read 1330 times)

FiLtH · « **on:** January 20, 2006, 03:24:40 PM »

Ive seen some posts talking about it being dead?

Bronk · « **Reply #1 on:** January 20, 2006, 03:26:53 PM »

check the AH home page. think its been renamed.

Bronk

rabbidrabbit · « **Reply #2 on:** January 20, 2006, 03:39:25 PM »

2 weeks. I promise.

Karnak · « **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2006, 03:50:41 PM »

It is not dead, they renamed it to avoid potential copyright infringement cases.

They say it is in Alpha or early Beta testing now.

Wilbus · « **Reply #4 on:** January 21, 2006, 03:37:40 AM »

But there are still no news.

Somewhat missguiding on the homepage IMO "Announces Combat Tour"

What should have been posted is that it has been renamed. It was announced, what? A year ago? And it is still "possibly" 6 months away.

HTC ain't feeding us nothing afai am concerned. Combat Tour has become more of an "if" then a "when" for me, which is also the reason I have hardly flown at all lately. At the moment I am still paying but not sure for what.

Pooface · « **Reply #5 on:** January 21, 2006, 06:37:23 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Wilbus
But there are still no news.

Somewhat missguiding on the homepage IMO "Announces Combat Tour"

What should have been posted is that it has been renamed. It was announced, what? A year ago? And it is still "possibly" 6 months away.

HTC ain't feeding us nothing afai am concerned. Combat Tour has become more of an "if" then a "when" for me, which is also the reason I have hardly flown at all lately. At the moment I am still paying but not sure for what.

he's doing that annoying secretive weasel thing

im sure when it comes out (first half of this year) we will all be pleasantly surprised:aok

Wilbus · « **Reply #6 on:** January 21, 2006, 07:34:24 AM »

Quote

he's doing that annoying secretive weasel thing im sure when it comes out (first half of this year) we will all be pleasantly surprised

Doesn't really matter. HTC has taken a move towards what killed IEN in my opinion, meaning not really giving a damn about the community. Atleast when it comes to some things. While they still respond to some threads, much of what once made HTC a great company (when it was still small and had to make its way in on the market) has been lost IMO.

Things being "overlooked" in updates which should have been fixed (or never broken) years ago.

Like I said before, at the moment it is more of an "if" than a "when" for me although I am quite sure they will release it and when they do I will probarly like it alot.

rabbidrabbit · « **Reply #7 on:** January 21, 2006, 09:42:02 AM »

Wilbus there is such as thing as being burried in your own weight. Hence everything crushes to a near halt because the whole thing becomes too much of a burden to bear by the few. I think the whole CT thing sounds great but how do so few handle so much weight? I wish them the best but you are most likey right about the future. With so much to do little gets done and the core business stagnates.

Midnight · « **Reply #8 on:** January 21, 2006, 10:22:07 AM »

I'm with Wilbus on this. We've been waiting so long to hear something about ToD / CT aside from it is coming. I got very excited on January 12 when HTC "announced" CT, almost like it was some entirely new thing. I thought for sure this was a marketing ploy to get new interest in the product from the gaming community at large. So I was thinking that shortly after that "announcement", HTC would be releasing some sort of new screen-shots or game-play movies or something that would draw in new gamers.

Unfortunately, a week has gone by and there has been nothing new. Any potential interest from new gamers or magazines might be shot down when they visit these boards and find nothing to look at other than an "announcement" and several of these threads with us long time players getting tired of waiting.

I am expecting CT to be released (at least open beta) by the end of March. HTC cancelled the 2005 Con stating that the next Con would be in Spring 2006. That was supposed to let them concentrate on ToD development. We'll see...

FiLtH · « **Reply #9 on:** January 21, 2006, 11:27:34 AM »

I can imagine making such a thing as TOD or the mission based thing would be really hard to do, and keep it human. Not all robotic in its nature. Thats why I love FSO. To me its everything I want in this game. The great combat we have daily, but with all the hard work humans put into the planning and stuff that I just cant imagine a program doing.

So for me..until it does happen..FSO and the guys who make it happen, are the best this game can be. The MA is just the training arena as far as Im concerned. If you havent tried Friday Squad Ops, check out the Squad Ops forum and get with a squad thats part of it. I look forward to it like I do Sunday football games. It really makes this game have win/lose effects, as compared to the daily real estate trading in the MA.

rabbidrabbit · « **Reply #10 on:** January 21, 2006, 12:23:24 PM »

You can get 90 percent plus of what you would get out of a automated CT with simply running a special events team. What are you missing? Promotions? awards? How hard would it be to make that a part of the current special ops? And you have humans running it. Thats what confuses me. Why spend so much to add so little when you can give what you have some more attention and get the same or better effect for 10 pecent of the effort and coad base. The extra effort then could spill over into the long stagnant MA and breath more life into the core business model and you already have a workforce doing by hand what you want to automate and its free. As you automate some of those functions to enhance the special events you are essentially building CT. The difference being you don't ignore your core business model and you get most of the work done for free.

Midnight · « **Reply #11 on:** January 21, 2006, 01:32:43 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by rabbidrabbit
You can get 90 percent plus of what you would get out of a automated CT with simply running a special events team. What are you missing? Promotions? awards? How hard would it be to make that a part of the current special ops...

Good Points, but I think it's a time issue for players, at least for me. I enjoy FSO, but I haven't participated in a long time, because I can't make the commitment to my squad or other participants every week. My play-time schedule has changed and keeps changing based on RL stuff. If I can't make it to an FSO or other organized event, other player's suffer and it's my fault.

That is where CT will be better. When I have time to play, I will get the feel of being in an organized mission with specific goals rather than the same old MA. If I can't play, some AI pilot will fill the spot I might have been in, so the other players that are there won't feel the loss.

Bring on CT... (But how about some screenies or video or news if it's not ready yet

)

rabbidrabbit · « **Reply #12 on:** January 21, 2006, 02:29:00 PM »

True enough but there are already events most nights of the week. If HTC got involved in the process there could be many more. It still would be cheaper than a couple man years of Coad writing. On one hand you can jump on and fly missions 24/7 and the other you get shot down by real people instead of robots and you experience the realities of war were good decisions and bad play through. My point is humanity is best in its true self rather than coaded. To illustrate that how many complain about auto ack already? Imagine what it would be like if 90 percent of the time you died it was to a random number generator rather than another person. Also imagine how much worse it would be that when you died you had something to lose. Unless CT gets serious enough numbers of real pilots it will suffer dearly, just like out Axis and allies arena. Its a big gamble and that why I'm saying why not run with whats been proven and develop that in the direction you wish to end up instead.

Midnight · « **Reply #13 on:** January 22, 2006, 09:49:45 AM »

True again, however, turnout would still be an issue, no matter how well liked the organized events are. And the stress level goes way up when the CMs are trying to get the thing going on time and the walk-ons that have no clue what is even happening want to join up and play 2 minutes before expected launch time.

Also, in CT, players will be able to expect missions with, as HiTech stated, "hundreds" of aircraft. Without AI to take the vacant spots, that wouldn't be possible to do on a nightly basis, or with new missions starting every hour.

To accomplish what CT should do by using only humans (for CMs, mission planning, order distribution, pilots to fill all expected slots, etc.) you would need a full time staff of paid employees.

Special events are fun, and are probably the best thing to actually get adrenaline pumping when playing a flight sim, but it takes too much effort to do large scale events on a regular (multiple times per day) basis.

rabbidrabbit · « **Reply #14 on:** January 22, 2006, 10:03:27 AM »

Midnight,

You are making valid points from what I see but entertain the thought that the two are not mutually exclusive. What if for the the scenario the CM could add flights of unmanned bombers or fighters to complete the scenario. See what I'm saying? You could build the end product in steps by enhancing what is already there. You enhance what is there and end up with a product that is a blend of the two. From development point you can design and test components and then add to it piecemeal until you have the end product. This is much less onnerous than a entirely separate mega product. The community also sees some sort of progress other than a few smart remarks. Its always better to let the community participate than to lock it out.