State of Sim'ing 2024 Survey

[Animl-AW]

Is your ego so fragile and are you so desperate for external validation that I have to do nothing but blow propaganda sunshine up your skirt 24/7?   Wait.  Nevermind.  I can’t believe I just asked YOU that question.

First of all, I don’t build up anything.  Nor do I tear it down.  In all cases I’m trying to call it like I see it.  Fair, but unvarnished.  I have no interest in propaganda.  You see the positive things I say as legitimate, and see any problems I point out as disloyalty to the cult.  I just see both as the truth as I see it.  If I get something factually wrong, please correct me.  But I’ll express whatever opinion I have, any way I want.  Positive or negative.  I accept none of the restriction you want to put on my speech. 

Someone asked specifically what were the benefits the $15\mo got you.  I answered that as honestly as I could.  If they asked me where AH fails and were it is not able to keep up with the market, and why I think it is failing to attract new players, pull up a chair I can equally give you an ear full.  That isn’t was I was asked.

I will never spread propaganda for you.  I will offer my fair and unvarnished opinion and when parts of that are negative, then you’re just going to have to deal.  I made a fair pitch to the 1946 guys because I can look them in the eye and truly argue they would benefit to adding AH as their MP solution.  And I would believe that, and they can tell I honestly believe it.  I will not make that argument to the IL2: GB or DCS crowd because I simply don’t believe the vast majority of them would find AH satisfactory compared to their current sims.  I won’t make a pitch I don’t 100% believe myself.  If someone disagrees, they are free to go make that pitch, it’s just not one I will vouch for.  You can’t see that as an attempt to keep it real and be honest.  Instead, you see that as disloyalty to the cult which I never joined.

As far as what I post here, I see no benefit wasting my time blowing sunshine up your skirts.  Everyone here knows what AH’s good points are.  That’s why they have accounts.  That’s the easy path.  My life would be easier if I went along with the cults and only ever said all the wonderful things about AH and whistle past it’s flaws with no notice.  That would make the cult happy and save me a bunch of grief.  I could be one of the cool kids.     

That would not only be intellectually dishonest, but practically unhelpful.  What this audience needs to hear is where is AH messing up.  Why is AH not able to attract new customers?  Where are the 600 players a night we used to have?  Why has AH never been able to replace them?  What is it that is causing a possibly less than 1% conversion rate on trial downloads?  The sale is not being made, admit that openly.   What are the flaws holding AH back?  How can it be fixed?  Can it be fixed?  Is anyone really interested in fixing anything or is the logic just to let it all slowly rot?

Those are hard discussions.  It’s not positive fluffy substanceless propaganda.  It’s painful sometimes to make a hard honest appraisal of performance, but it’s what you have to do to pursue excellence.
I have never in my life seen serious problems solved by happy-face, delusional, magical, wishful thinking.

No you just make stuff up about people then play lil innocent lamb when they push back. Projecting yourself on to them who did not a damn thing to you? YOU, King IDIOT, started all this riff between you and me, and we can revisit those threads if you like. It's YOU.

see We all it would lead to negative AH

Beat it punk, you make me vomit

[CptTrips]

No you just make stuff up about people then play lil innocent lamb when they push back. Projecting yourself on to them who did not a damn thing to you? YOU, King IDIOT, started all this riff between you and me, and we can revisit those threads if you like. It's YOU.

see We all it would lead to negative AH

Beat it punk, you make me vomit

Back to my sig line, Animl. 

You have no power over me.  Flail all you want.

[CptTrips]

During the Vietnam War Napalm was frowned upon. So the USAF changed the name to Incendigel.

I heard that they promised to only target it against enemy material and equipment. 

Like helmets, uniforms, boots, underwear, etc.

 

[hazmatt]

I will never spread propaganda for you.  I will offer my fair and unvarnished opinion and when parts of that are negative, then you’re just going to have to deal.  I made a fair pitch to the 1946 guys because I can look them in the eye and truly argue they would benefit to adding AH as their MP solution.  And I would believe that, and they can tell I honestly believe it.  I will not make that argument to the IL2: GB or DCS crowd because I simply don’t believe the vast majority of them would find AH satisfactory compared to their current sims.  I won’t make a pitch I don’t 100% believe myself.  If someone disagrees, they are free to go make that pitch, it’s just not one I will vouch for.  You can’t see that as an attempt to keep it real and be honest.  Instead, you see that as disloyalty to the cult which I never joined.

I have felt that cult like feeling too. It's pretty much why I don't post a whole lot here any more. An example was when I mention WT which is the game with the most massive numbers and maybe some ideas to attract some of those numbers and it turns into an attack on WT and how AH is so much better with it's arenas that can hold 500 players that don't.

I was curious why you didn't mention WT? It seems most people that attack it don't know anything about it which I find interesting. People that say it's "gamey" obviously haven't flown the simulator battles where there's no icons on  enemies, icons only appear on friendlies at very close range, things like "friendly" fire are modeled (and penalized) and you have to manage your trim and can't run your engine wide open without burning it up and there is no AWACS for proximity radar.

Some might say that simulator mode has a lot more realism then AH3 in that just like IL2 there's a really good chance you will get bounced if you're not paying attention. Engine management was a big part of flying WW II planes as well as having to identify a plane that doesn't have an icon with range showing 5 miles away. 

I agree with you that there are things that can be done that would make it more attractive to the people who play the other sims but I've given up on putting any advice here as I know it would be attacked by the cult

I am very curious about the WT thing though. Is there a specific reason you left it out when it has such massive numbers?

[hazmatt]

Double posted. No option to delete.

[CptTrips]

I am very curious about the WT thing though. Is there a specific reason you left it out when it has such massive numbers?

I'm confused.  What did I leave it out of?  It's mentioned in those surveys.  Enigma recent did some interesting videos on it lately. 
It's a huge money maker.

I haven't played it.  I tried it very briefly a couple of years ago but I hadn't realized about the sim mode.  I didn't like the arcade mode.

[Edit]  I assume you realize that is not my video.  I didn't run the survey.

[Brooke]

I’m not the only one who thinks if its not MP I’m wasting my time

That's me, too.

I don't desire -- at all -- to have air combat vs. computer opponents.  Single player has no appeal to me.

Multiplayer is a whole extra dimension.  Multiplayer to single player, to me, is like a prime-rib dinner vs. McDonald's cheeseburger.

Scenarios a whole extra dimension above that.  To me, as much more fun than regular multiplayer as regular multiplayer is above single player.

I started playing on-line multiplayer air combat in 1988.  I still love scenarios so much, that they are still my main hobby.

[Eagler]

There is the customer that doesn't have the needed internet connection for MP gaming and only has offline play available...

AH can't compete with IL2 or DCS in that arena

Eagler

[AKIron]

I remember when IL-2 first came out. 2001? Chatting with an AH squad member and told him I thought the IL-2 graphics were better and would like to see AH and IL-2 collaborate. He didn't agree and of course there was no collaboration. Graphics are important, to almost everyone. So is realism in both modeling and physics.

[CptTrips]

I remember when IL-2 first came out. 2001? Chatting with an AH squad member and told him I thought the IL-2 graphics were better and would like to see AH and IL-2 collaborate. He didn't agree and of course there was no collaboration. Graphics are important, to almost everyone. So is realism in both modeling and physics.

As I've stated before, the three biggest headwinds I see holding AH back, in order of relative importance:

1.  Graphics that no longer compete.
2.  A monetization model that is a real hard sell nowadays, and out of alignment with current preferences and expectations the market has formed.
3.  A lack of any viable SP content.

3 is not a deal-breaker, but doesn't help at all.  Enigma's survey is just really a survey of his YT viewers which would be DCS\MP skewed.  We know from comments made by William's that from their direct hard internally tracked data of the IL2 client base, the vast majority of their customers were SP only or VERY SP centric.  That's a nice fat paycheck from a reasonably quite and reliable customer base that keeps buying your new versions.  You get their revenue up front and don't have to hope they don't get bored and cancel after a month.  SP funds MP.  They probably couldn't have survived off MP alone.  Same for DCS. And having built an MP product, you've built half of your SP already anyway.

WT can get away with it, but they have other strategies that overcome that disadvantage like their FTP design which AH also doesn't have.

IMHO, $0.02, etc, etc.

[AKIron]

Same time frame. We've come a long ways in 20 years.

https://www.combatsim.com/memb123/htm/2001/07/aceshi107/

[Spikes]

I remember when IL-2 first came out. 2001? Chatting with an AH squad member and told him I thought the IL-2 graphics were better and would like to see AH and IL-2 collaborate. He didn't agree and of course there was no collaboration. Graphics are important, to almost everyone. So is realism in both modeling and physics.

Have you tried AH and IL2 with max graphics in VR?

[AKIron]

I had a CR1 Oculus Rift and later Quest 2. I tried AH in VR but not sure I tried IL-2. I have neither now and no VR. VR resolutions are much better now but I'm happy with a 2D screen and probably won't ever go back to VR.

[AKIron]

I'll consider a mixed reality headset when performance and cost make me an offer I can't refuse.

Brother nearby has a Pimax Crystal and a 4090 to drive it. Performance is good and clarity is very good. He has pointctrl which works well enough but all of it's just not worth the trouble for me.

[CptTrips]

Have you tried AH and IL2 with max graphics in VR?

I haven't, but I'll add a data point.

I was recently doing a review of the current IL2-1946 with the add on community mega-patches.  You have to include the upgrades from the mega-patches because AH has also had it's visual upgrades over the years.

A fully mega-patched IL2-1946 looks very similar to me to current AH III.  Why I immediately thought, man, people could hop back and forth comfortably.  They are very similar.  The differences are mainly a wash.  1946 has better terrain and cities, AHIII has better clouds and atmospherics.

I don't think AHIII can meaningfully compete with current IL2-GB or DCS or WT in the graphics realm, IMHO.