Online only?

[Nats]

I read that the game will feature downloading pictures from servers for all the vehicles etc rather than have them preloaded into the game or downloaded afterwards as assets. Does this mean the game will require a continual internet connection to function properly?

I just ask because there are times when my internet goes off for hours at a time. I am not that keen on games that require a constant internet connection for this reason. Will there be an option to just download them all in one go as the present game?

Will having to download images when you need them not slow down the game a lot?

Does the game need to be online to use the Tacview program?

Some clarity about the online requirement would be appreciated please. Doesn't mention anything about this in the software requirements.

[strykerpsg]

Originally posted by Nats:

I read that the game will feature downloading pictures from servers for all the vehicles etc rather than have them preloaded into the game or downloaded afterwards as assets. Does this mean the game will require a continual internet connection to function properly?

I just ask because there are times when my internet goes off for hours at a time. I am not that keen on games that require a constant internet connection for this reason. Will there be an option to just download them all in one go as the present game?

Will having to download images when you need them not slow down the game a lot?

Does the game need to be online to use the Tacview program?

Some clarity about the online requirement would be appreciated please. Doesn't mention anything about this in the software requirements.

Having just read through the requirements, I failed to see anywhere the mention of an internet connection needed. The previous generation did not require you to be online at anytime.

Regarding the discussion of pictures, this has been a hot topic for quite some, not in a bad way, but in a lengthy download sort of way. The simulation did not come equipped with unit pictures for several reasons. The first is if the developers included the unit pictures for the thousands of units, you are then talking additional gigabytes of data to download. So, to avoid this, the developers created a community contributed unit picture section on their site. This allowed the community to find and collect pictures either they had on hand or found on sites where no concerns for copyright protection was needed to bypass or pay for.

Which leads to the second reason they did/do not ship with the simulation, Copyright protection. Unfortunately, we live in an era where some people want either financial credit or overall credit for the particular unit picture. This, of course is time consuming and can end up in a court of law to dispute, if not handled properly. So, it was long ago decided that the unit pictures would be a community labor of love. It has since grown from there. It's rather fantastic and I suspect Dimitris and company will continue to use this tried and true method. It's just easier for all involved.

Regarding your TacView question, I cannot answer that, as I do not currently own this software, but will purchase once I secure this particular title, since I really like the AAR tools it has available, to critic oneself.

Hope this answers most of our concerns. No internet required, except to update and pics downloaded seperately, unless I have totally misspoken....DImitirs? :)

[Nats]

Originally posted by strykerpsg:

Hope this answers most of our concerns. No internet required, except to update and pics downloaded seperately, unless I have totally misspoken....DImitirs? :)

Just in one of their recent articles on their website it mentions that unit pictures will be downloaded from their servers on demand, to avoid having to download of the pictures as a large file as they did this time. That suggests to me a constant online requirement for the game?

"Pictures of you, pictures of me

Quiz: What has been (by far) the most frequent tech support request we have since the release of Command v1.0? Answer: “How do I unzip the database image pack on my CMANO installation so that I can see all the unit images?”. This has caught us a bit off-guard, as we underestimated the difficulty this would present to players.

Well fret no more, because now the system is completely automated. Images are fetched from remote servers on-demand in the background (similar to map tiles) and are cached for subsequent access. Never again fiddle with unzipping to the correct directory path!"

As stated on this page about 2/3 of the way down: http://www.warfaresims.com/

I presume the way they are doing the more detailed maps, as well, is the same as this, ie downloaded on demand? But maybe I am getting it all wrong it wouldnt be the first time! But if this is the case it would require online connection to be made whenever you were first to use a new map or image. Then from then on it would be stored in the cache.

Personally I would much rather have the option to download all the map data and images as several large downloads, via free Steam dlc, and avoid the server on demand downloads entirely.

[strykerpsg]

Originally posted by Nats:

Originally posted by strykerpsg:

Hope this answers most of our concerns. No internet required, except to update and pics downloaded seperately, unless I have totally misspoken....DImitirs? :)

Just in one of their recent articles on their website it mentions that unit pictures will be downloaded from their servers on demand, to avoid having to download of the pictures as a large file as they did this time. That suggests to me a constant online requirement for the game?

"Pictures of you, pictures of me

Quiz: What has been (by far) the most frequent tech support request we have since the release of Command v1.0? Answer: “How do I unzip the database image pack on my CMANO installation so that I can see all the unit images?”. This has caught us a bit off-guard, as we underestimated the difficulty this would present to players.

Well fret no more, because now the system is completely automated. Images are fetched from remote servers on-demand in the background (similar to map tiles) and are cached for subsequent access. Never again fiddle with unzipping to the correct directory path!"

As stated on this page about 2/3 of the way down: http://www.warfaresims.com/

I presume the way they are doing the more detailed maps, as well, is the same as this, ie downloaded on demand? But maybe I am getting it all wrong it wouldnt be the first time! But if this is the case it would require online connection to be made whenever you were first to use a new map or image. Then from then on it would be stored in the cache.

Personally I would much rather have the option to download all the map data and images as several large downloads, via free Steam dlc, and avoid the server on demand downloads entirely.

Good find! I did not look at their website, just the Steam posts. I then, stand corrected good sir. I feel confident Dimitris will chime in.

[Dimitris]

The images will still be available for a single-pack download. Just don't ever ask us again for support in placing them correctly :) (j/k)

For the map tiles we do not currently have an "offline download" option as the data is quite large in size, but we could think of something if there is sufficient demand for it.

Thanks!

[Nats]

Well many sims games these days provide a low res option for textures in the base game and a high res option as free dlc packs for the user to download as and when he wants them .... admittedly here it might be such a massive combined download that it would take up far too much space on the computer drive.

As long as an offline low res option for textures is there in the vanilla game I could handle the irregular online downloads for the high res textures, I just wouldn't want to be doing it all the time thats all

[Sunshine]

Originally posted by Dimitris:

The images will still be available for a single-pack download. Just don't ever ask us again for support in placing them correctly :) (j/k)

For the map tiles we do not currently have an "offline download" option as the data is quite large in size, but we could think of something if there is sufficient demand for it.

Thanks!

I can already promise you, there is.
People who play these games are often more old school and are no fans of the "always online" thing for various reasons. Many like to have it on a laptop ready to play wherever they go and while most public places and hotels have internet, personally I always prefer the possibility to be offline. Also this would mean lower server usage for you guys, so win/win.

No idea what you mean by "quite large", but we live in a time where games now are often 100GB+, so I would not mind a few dozen GB of data myself.

PS: When WWIII happens, I want to be able to play CMANO/CMO without having to be online and I doubt servers will still be up when that happens! ;D

[Nats]

Originally posted by Sunshine:

PS: When WWIII happens, I want to be able to play CMANO/CMO without having to be online and I doubt servers will still be up when that happens! ;D

Neither would electricity ... or houses .... or people

[Sunshine]

Originally posted by Nats:

Originally posted by Sunshine:

PS: When WWIII happens, I want to be able to play CMANO/CMO without having to be online and I doubt servers will still be up when that happens! ;D

Neither would electricity ... or houses .... or people

It's called diesel generators, power banks, underground bunkers, ... and last but not least: A joke.

[JiminyJickers]

Originally posted by Dimitris:

The images will still be available for a single-pack download. Just don't ever ask us again for support in placing them correctly :) (j/k)

For the map tiles we do not currently have an "offline download" option as the data is quite large in size, but we could think of something if there is sufficient demand for it.

Thanks!

Yeah, it definitely needs to be able to download for offline play. I will happily install a multi Terrabyte drive just for the data if required.

Will be very unlikely for me to buy the game if it cannot be played offline.

[Dimitris]

Originally posted by JiminyJickers:

Will be very unlikely for me to buy the game if it cannot be played offline.

The game can still be played offline, you don't lose any gameplay functionality. You only lose high map tiles fidelity.

[Gerd]

Originally posted by Dimitris:

Originally posted by JiminyJickers:

Will be very unlikely for me to buy the game if it cannot be played offline.

The game can still be played offline, you don't lose any gameplay functionality. You only lose high map tiles fidelity.

There is no mention of this in the system requirements, you should clarify because high map tiles fidelity are a new important feature

[Nats]

Originally posted by Gerd:

Originally posted by Dimitris:

The game can still be played offline, you don't lose any gameplay functionality. You only lose high map tiles fidelity.

There is no mention of this in the system requirements, you should clarify because high map tiles fidelity are a new important feature

One of the biggest new features actually.

It's a shame they cannot be downloaded and retained for future use so you gradually build up the library of terrain stored on your computer.

It would be interesting to hear how much storage space would be required to store all of the high res terrain. Its pretty normal in flight sims like FSX and XPlane 11 etc to have optional downloads for high res terrain should people want to install it.

[Baloogan]

Originally posted by Nats:

It's a shame they cannot be downloaded and retained for future use so you gradually build up the library of terrain stored on your computer.

That's exactly how it works.

[JiminyJickers]

Originally posted by Baloogan:

Originally posted by Nats:

It's a shame they cannot be downloaded and retained for future use so you gradually build up the library of terrain stored on your computer.

That's exactly how it works.

Sweet, that definitely works for me. Can't wait for release!

[NumberSix]

Possibly a silly question but will the existing cmano database images be transferable?