Free to Play First Person Shooter.......

[Motherland]

It doesn't sound like it here, but I could be wrong....

Nothing good is free, and you get what you pay for. I think it's time for the OP to get a job and start paying his bills.

There is nothing in that post that has to do with a first person shooter. Or with the broader future of the game, he only states that the achievement system has no broader implications on gameplay or payment model than what's going on at face value.

HTC has offered a limited version of the game before for free play, and it took a lot of breaches of the security of the game for them to finally decide it wasn't worth the risk. I don't think there's any reason to believe they're categorically against bringing something new to the table which offers free players a taste beyond their two weeks (though I may very well be wrong and I won't say that I definitely believe they're searching for one, whether or not I have a twinkle of memory of HT mentioning something about it).

Hitech has pretty strongly hinted over the past couple of years that they're developing (or at least interested in developing) a first-person-shooter aspect of this game, and as of late the hints suggest have  begun to suggest that they've made some actual progress and are drawing nearer to implementation or maybe at least some sort of beta or alpha. I think it's worthless to discuss the merits of this game having an FPS infantry aspect, because I'm fairly certain that it's already in the works.

A first person shooter, combined arms type of war would likely require a much larger player base of grunts and machine gun fodder to offer any kind of decent experience. Offering the first person shooter section of the game, or maybe the whole ground section, for free could practically offer a non-static ground war that could be implemented without the need for developing an AI for it as has been asked for on several occasions in the past. When people are with a certain regularity getting their days ruined by planes and tanks they have an incentive to pay up and get full access. This is hardly the same as offering base models of aircraft and tanks and paying for the better ones, as the ground war and the air war are to a decent extent separate by nature.

Let's dig up some posts...

[tuton25]

There is nothing in that post that has to do with a first person shooter. Or with the broader future of the game, he only states that the achievement system has no broader implications on gameplay or payment model than what's going on at face value.

HTC has offered a limited version of the game before for free play, and it took a lot of breaches of the security of the game for them to finally decide it wasn't worth the risk. I don't think there's any reason to believe they're categorically against bringing something new to the table which offers free players a taste beyond their two weeks (though I may very well be wrong and I won't say that I definitely believe they're searching for one, whether or not I have a twinkle of memory of HT mentioning something about it).

Hitech has pretty strongly hinted over the past couple of years that they're developing (or at least interested in developing) a first-person-shooter aspect of this game, and as of late the hints suggest have  begun to suggest that they've made some actual progress and are drawing nearer to implementation or maybe at least some sort of beta or alpha. I think it's worthless to discuss the merits of this game having an FPS infantry aspect, because I'm fairly certain that it's already in the works.

A first person shooter, combined arms type of war would likely require a much larger player base of grunts and machine gun fodder to offer any kind of decent experience. Offering the first person shooter section of the game, or maybe the whole ground section, for free could practically offer a non-static ground war that could be implemented without the need for developing an AI for it as has been asked for on several occasions in the past. When people are with a certain regularity getting their days ruined by planes and tanks they have an incentive to pay up and get full access. This is hardly the same as offering base models of aircraft and tanks and paying for the better ones, as the ground war and the air war are to a decent extent separate by nature.

Let's dig up some posts...

Genius.....what I have been trying to say this whole time....

[Motherland]

One of these is actually from another thread tuton posted a few months ago on the subject...
I didn't find anything alluding directly to it being a F2P option, but it's really not a stretch to think that that could be on the table.
There's definitely more, too, just a little while ago he made a post about infantry meshes.

I'm not too hot on the whole "practically separate game" as I'd rather have a seamless transition ("in a perfect world") but I'm not hitech

Wow, now this strikes me as a fun place to do first person shooter action. Imagine, getting the mission together, "para-trooping" in, and having to do battle with opposing infantry to actually CAPTURE the map room. Talk about a gold plated hoot. How about you become an infantryman if your tank is disabled? Then the GVers would have troops armed with bazookas to deal with. How about storming the beaches in LVTs? AHII meets COD?

I hope you dream becomes reality.

HiTech

HiTech dream of capture.

1. Drop troops on town creates a spawn.
2. In building 1st person shooter fights to take over the town.

Your very close to my concept except the troops create a FPS spawn to complete the capture, it is entered into in the same game but the sim/combat piece does not interact with each other. I.E. planes can not strafe the FPS guys.

HiTech

I wish AH Had a character animation system so so FPS and troops could be integrated.

I wish AH had support for dual sound drivers so ear phones and mics could be split off from speakers.

I wish AH had WWI planes.

I wish AH had Subs.

I wish AH had spawning arenas with the ability for players to configure and upload there terrains.

I wish AH had a new low level sound system to support midi and mp3 file formats.

I wish AH had ambient sounds in different areas and buildings.

I wish AH had the ability to bump map planes and other objects.

I wish AH had the ability for boats to drive on rivers.

I wish AH had more animation on vehicles as they move across terrain.

I wish AH had an integrated WEB page on the clip board to make event announcements and squad bbs reading better.



HiTech

The concept I have always wanted to implement, but I am short some character animation stuff to do so dancing troops was the first piece, was that when you drop troops on the ground (still npc) it opens a spawn into into an underground bunker complex that you use player controlled troops to  complete the capture or defend the capture.

The aspect that this idea has going for it, is that it isolates the mechanized world I.E. planes & tanks and a huge world graphics, from the solder fighting.

HiTech

[Tracerfi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o19CaOSuD8 sorry but this fits this thread so well

[The Fugitive]

One of these is actually from another thread tuton posted a few months ago on the subject...
I didn't find anything alluding directly to it being a F2P option, but it's really not a stretch to think that that could be on the table.
There's definitely more, too, just a little while ago he made a post about infantry meshes.

I'm not too hot on the whole "practically separate game" as I'd rather have a seamless transition ("in a perfect world") but I'm not hitech
I hope you dream becomes reality.

HiTech

I know that HTC hope to one days have a FPS element in the game. That was NOT the part I was commenting on, it was the "Free to Play" portion. In the quote I posted he says, "If I was ever to do a WOT type payment system, I sure would not choose a realism base WWII aircraft to do it with" . As this game IS based on WWII aircraft my guess is he doesn't plan on doing F2P in this game. As you have posted, he has already gotten burned by "free play" already.

[Sabre]

HiTech has stated for the record (as recorded in an article I did for Wargamer magazine a few years back) that a FPS is a desired goal for HTC. His idea at the time of the interview was to have the M3 or C47 act as a temporary spawn point for players making an assault. The map room would be a spawn point for the defenders, and would be expanded into a multi-room, multi-level complex that would have to be captured to capture the base.  That's about as much detail as he offered at the time.  This was the same interview where he talked about adding bomber formations as an option for buff players; you'll note that we now have this in game.  He also talked about his desire to add submarines, and his ideas for implementing them.  I'd also point out that we even use something of a FPS in this game.  How many of us have upped a Storch from a V-base about to be over run in order to bail out and run to the map room to kill the troops as they attempt to run in?  It would take very little to add the option to directly spawn a soldier, with a rifle instead of a pistol.  Maybe add the ability to switch weapons (pistol/rifle/grenade, with option to take a bazooka instead of a rifle).  Be a quick and easy way to gauge player response and interest before spending a lot of time to make it more realistic.  There's no need to ever make it as realistic or pretty as, say Black Ops III.

[Wiley]

The problem I see with putting in FPS mechanics into this game is, the map isn't designed to be walked over.  To me, the level of detail in the terrain is a bit sparse even for GV play.  It's ok, but not at the level of many other tank centric games.  If people are there to be free to play FPS cannon fodder, it needs to look good.  FPS gamers are among the most demanding for graphics and detail in the environment.

Just allowing a guy to spawn with a rifle in the current towns would not be enough to retain anybody's attention for long.  I can already hear, 'wait, there's only ONE town layout for us to fight in and we can't go into the buildings?'

The maps would need a complete rework, and from what I've read in passing the low map detail is one of the main reasons the game can be played by many of the older systems people have.  I wouldn't expect it anytime soon, that's for sure.

Wiley.

[Torquila]

Based on current designs, the FPS side of this game would be too repetetive tbh: Unless they made it feel something like the original Rainbow Six, it wouldn't stand a chance vs whats out there.

From everything I have seen HT just doesn't have what it takes to give it a proper "feel", because hes all about numbers (by his own admission). The FPS genre is mostly about giving a "feeling" because how deep it is buried in gaming culture.

[Torquila]

As you have posted, he has already gotten burned by "free play" already.

When and how exactly did the free-play arena modes cause problems?

[Wiley]

I do have to admit to curiosity how it would play out if they were to go to combined arms starting from the vehicle angle they have here, rather than most other combined arms games that add vehicles onto an FPS.  Any other combined arms games I've looked at, the flight side of it felt tacked on over a weekend.

Wiley.

[Motherland]

I know that HTC hope to one days have a FPS element in the game. That was NOT the part I was commenting on, it was the "Free to Play" portion. In the quote I posted he says, "If I was ever to do a WOT type payment system, I sure would not choose a realism base WWII aircraft to do it with" . As this game IS based on WWII aircraft my guess is he doesn't plan on doing F2P in this game. As you have posted, he has already gotten burned by "free play" already.

I really don't think you could conclude that this would be a WOT type payment system, because it's... well pretty much completely dissimilar, you're not paying for access individually to more equipment, you're paying for access to a completely different facet of the game.
Also, while HTC was burned by H2H, they had to be burned several times before they removed it. I think that this showed a real reluctance to ditch a free facet of the game. I also don't think that the same problems would arise from using this model, since it's not tucked away in untrodden places.

When and how exactly did the free-play arena modes cause problems?

Right before it was removed it was used as a test bed for hacks that were used in the main arena.

[The Fugitive]

The problem I see with putting in FPS mechanics into this game is, the map isn't designed to be walked over.  To me, the level of detail in the terrain is a bit sparse even for GV play.  It's ok, but not at the level of many other tank centric games.  If people are there to be free to play FPS cannon fodder, it needs to look good.  FPS gamers are among the most demanding for graphics and detail in the environment.

Just allowing a guy to spawn with a rifle in the current towns would not be enough to retain anybody's attention for long.  I can already hear, 'wait, there's only ONE town layout for us to fight in and we can't go into the buildings?'

The maps would need a complete rework, and from what I've read in passing the low map detail is one of the main reasons the game can be played by many of the older systems people have.  I wouldn't expect it anytime soon, that's for sure.

Wiley.

I think HTC said something about it would almost be a game by itself where the FPS and the flying would not interact other than it would be the way the bases were capture. I could be wrong tho....old guy. However if that was the case, once you slipped in to FPS mode of the game it wouldn't be the terrain the fliers are on. It would be another almost dimension, each town/base could be any number of of configurations. Either a number of "maps" for each, of say half a dozen pods that are randomly thrown together to create that mini play field to capture the base.

When and how exactly did the free-play arena modes cause problems?

HTC use to supply server space, for free, to create your own 8 player worlds. My guess is it exposed too much of their game code and it was hacked. HTC closed off the free play arenas and then closed of the area of code the hacker got to. It was years before they felt they had things tight enough to allow custom arenas again.

I'm sure they have even better code in place now and a F2P set-up wouldn't be a problem for them, but HTC has said they wouldn't do that with this type of game. As this is the type of game business they ARE in I'm guessing that F2P isn't in the cards. 

[Torquila]

By the time HTC decides to move on the f2p wave, its going to be too late.

The world of gaming moves much faster then it used to.

[Ack-Ack]

By the time HTC decides to move on the f2p wave, its going to be too late.

The world of gaming moves much faster then it used to.

Not all games suite the F2P business model.

ack-ack

[Torquila]

Then those games will die, no?

Expectations evolve faster then one can imagine.