[Tikigod]

Originally Posted by Immacolata

But none of the games had all of these features at once.

yes, they do, I just listed them. play the above games and you will see.

You are out of touch with todays harsh reality of commercial video game developement. The demands you line up sounds to me it will be super complicated and a night mare to implement and playtest, debug.

They are not as complicated as what has been done already or being done with other games.....Im not saying all this stuff needs to be in at once by one team...it should be patched over time....if you have seen the complexities of falcon and its dynamic engine....or the open ended aspect of operation flashpoint (where alot of new games have been generated within the game after it was released: CTI where you can buy equipment and build bases, or battlefield 1985 where you capture towns and flags, etc) All of this stuff went far beyond what developers did or for what the original game was intended....because it was open ended (they coded modular with further development in mind).
The developers for OFP are even using same engine for armed assault that will be released this year as well as parts of it that will be going into the next upcoming engine for operation flashpoint 2 where it will have fully destructible environments as well as a role playing aspect with characters and a.i. (this game by the way is a first person tactical game and it will be introducing role playing on top of the complexities of everything else....it is setting yet another standard)
Other features that are already in this game include:
-huge maps where whatever you see in distance can you can go to it (its not some backdrop or dedicated path you have to go by)
-multiple vehicles, weapons, and equipment that keep being added
-laser designated targeting for air support where you can fly and drop bombs on the lasers path or be the person holding the laser ont he target
- functioning artillery support where you can be the FOB or the artillery itself
-you can parachute out of a plane enter a vehicle or run around as infantry at anytime with out loading back in... you aren't stuck tor limited to being one type of unit
-you can be a part of a mortar team.
-there is simplistic radar functionality this can be designed to be knocked out if attacked.
-functioning lights in cities that can be turned on and off or knocked out with explosives.
-illumination flares, smoke, and other unique items can be used.
-boxes ammo caches and other supply areas
-expendible fuel that is used over time as you travel that you can recover at a fuel station or depot
- repairs that can be done on turrets tracks and other parts of vehicle
-a huge battlefield environment
-multiplayer
it has a ton of code all in one package that is complex as anything yet it was implemented...and a ton of people bought it and are still buying it...

I would agree with your statement if you said it was because of the way ubisoft or ea games handles development because that is there style of development they hire on a per project basis...so the focus never continues like you see with IL2 series with maddox, or falcon 4.0, or operation flashpoint....or any of these other games that people continue to play because of the quality.

As far as being out of touch with todays games I suggest you try more of the games I listed above to see what's out there.

I read forums too where people buy whole new machines for playing a game. But its rather few these days. With the dwindling interest in the pc platform, there is dwindling interest for people to invest loads of money in very expensive pcs that plays 3 games. Thats for hardcore nerds. And we are few today. Most people settle for EA trash games and other twitch fodder. And given a choice between an iPod, a Xbox 360 _OR_ One (count 1) graphics card from ATI, they go for the pod or the box.

I wouldn't say there is a dwindling interest...what I think is the case is you have piracy for pc games at an all time high with sites like piratebay and other access to bittorrents, etc. therefore it is in companies interest to stick with a platform that would require more work to pirate....the sales numbers aren't very accurate to determine the demand....but, these are what companies are forced to go by......If you look at the amount of pc downloads on pirate sites they are high....so there is a huge interest.... its just not documented properly....

Your best hope is that they leave the code wide open so ppl can mess about mod it so. There will never be a commercial sim like that.

Like you said above it all depends on market behavior...all it takes is someone to set the standard...if you asked me back during atari days or aces of the deep for pc if there would be a sim like sh3 I would have told you no. the current market is sticking to consoles...because its easy to dedicate hardware to rather than working around resource hogs like windows and they have more control over how you access the internet through charging you extra services like xbox live which you normal would get for free through pc. As far as leaving it open....I think its the only way to go to se ehow far a game can go...the engine will always outdate itself...so companies won't lose out on it...peopel will always buy the newer engine.....if anything they will have a robust identity that continues beyond what they pay into for marketing in the short run...people identify operation flashpoint, falcon, and others because they have been around forever and have strong community support....that is the best marketing you could possibly have and its free because the time and effort they put into the quality of it sells itself.