Some of the folks here are clearly commenting about WW2OL without having followed its progress or looking over the sites relating to it carefully, not even to the extent of looking at the FAQs.
The MAIN problem with WB and AH is the underpinning gameplay or lack thereof, necessitating what some correctly refer to as "artificial" formal games being set up in order for participants to get anything like "realistic" combat situations. I happen to like those formal games (like the WB S3s, SLs, EMCs, and the one Snapshot I took part in here) simply because for all their faults, they`re more to my taste than Main Arena weirdness.
Where does the gameplay problem stem from? From games that try to instantly gratify the wannabe killer fighter pilots without having thought things through properly. Why do fighters exist? Because bombers and recconaisance planes exist. And why do THOSE planes exist? Because armies and navies and industrial centres belonging to the enemy exist. So, to create a realistic environment for the fighter pilots, you need to have reasonably realistic incentives to use bombers realistically, which means reasonably realistic targets for those bombers to attack, and recce planes can usefully be added into the mix, too.
Hyper-accurate bombing of point targets to close airfields so that paratroops can be dropped to capture them is so far removed from a realistic way to add in a ground war element as to be a joke. And so, short of people setting up formal scenario games in WB and AH, any claim to realism of the combat in those games is a sad joke. I`m not saying it can`t be enjoyable, and I`m not saying that looked at simply from a 1 vs 1 fighter viewpoint the FMs aren`t any good. They may be very accurate. But the millieu isn`t, and therefore the recreation of WW2-like combat isn`t.
Clearly, Cornered Rat have realised this, and so they`ve started with something that puts the air war in its proper context. It has the added benefit of appealing to a wider range of players than just flight sim addicts. Strategy gamers, land and naval wargamers, and yes, even quake-heads can be encomapssed, although the latter may well find they don`t progress very far in the game, though whether that will bother them is another matter.
Starting with the 1940 Blitzkrieg is IMO the most sensible thing CR could do. We emphatically do NOT need another sim that panders to wet dreams of the US Air force demolishing token foes in the Pacific and late European theatres. We do NOT need another sim that offers only token acknowledgement to the existence of any air forces other than the US, in fact. Nor that ignores the existence of the air war by night. Give AH it`s due, it`s done more than WB has on some of these things.
Starting with an early war setup and progressing by installments through the entire war, CR offer something for everyone - including early war enthusiasts, RAF enthusiasts, let alone L`Armee de l`Air ones (!), night flyers, etc. etc. If WW2OL succeeds, by the time it reaches 1945, it may well have wiped the floor with WB and AH. I sincerely hope that it doesn`t, simply because competition is healthy; I hope that AH continues to expand on its ground element, continues to add aircraft from the USSR, England, Italy, France (and lets have a LW bomber other than the Ju88, for heavens sake! Do217? (anyone who suggests He177 is a dweeb! ;-) <g> )).
It`d be nice to have a CHOICE of good flight sims that give you an environment where you can fly sensible missions. At the moment, bomber pilots are very badly catered for by WB (and I suspect AH, although I can`t be sure as I`ve only had the 2 weeks experience of it online), outside of formal games, and the reason is that they are generally seen simply as cannon fodder for the fighters, rather than as the main OFFENSIVE weapon of aerial warfare.
My best wishes to the AH team in their efforts to expand and improve AH and to bring teh flight sim community new and better features (I still LOVE those clouds! :-) )
Esme
CO, KG2 "Holzhammer" in WB
