The year: 2008.  Here's a word worth saying here..Upgrade..for the love of God.

Upgrade what? My computer? Nay, it handles WWII Online very well I think.

I meant the game engine/graphics. I fail to understand why so many people settle for products way behind the curve; and continue to pay for it. Game strategy, realism, community...all great things here. But the rest? <crickets>

It's actually ahead of the curve. At least as far as a non-instanced, real-time war simulation can be - technologically speaking.

The reason you hear <crickets> is that most folks who play this game understand the technical constraints of a game this size. This topic has been beat to death on these forums already, but I'll explain it again...

"Shoebox Shooters" - FPS games like the BF series, CoD, MoH etc..- can have very detailed graphics because they use small, closed maps. High polygon models and heavy duty textures are major cp process hogs. On a small, arena style map this isn't so much of an issue. On a map the size of a U.S. State, with multiple pitched battles going on both on the ground and in the air with millions of calculations being made...it's a very big issue.

The games I mentioned above are great, action-packed, tactical shooters. I love em. But I don't play WWII Online for the eye candy - and I think I can speak for most players here - neither does anybody else.

What The Rats have created here is so mind boggling that the graphics (which I find to be perfectly adequate) are actually a non-issue in the overall scheme of things.

Not asking for COD graphics at all becuase I understand the tradeoffs required. How about Day of Defeat level gameplay/graphics at least?

again day of defeat is small maps.

simulations (google some and see how limited the graphics are) take a hell of a lot out of systems in the first place.  a trade off for the great game play, seamless world and opportunities (like having several battles going on at once that have real time consequences for example) is always the graphics.

havent played WWII online but i see no one has thrown up planet side so idk...maybe that will help your judgement on graphics?

I do believe CRS has a graphics update in the pipeline at some point, but it's not a priority right now. We modelers and texturers are an expensive lot to have onboard, and CRS doesn't have a Sony-sized budget.

BTW, I used to play TR in Planetside, had some very memorable battles.  At the time, it did indeed have better graphics - although it had no towns, just bases here and there. I can remember thinking it would bump off WWII Online at one point...

While it was fun in it's own way, Planetside's system was much simpler from a calculations standpoint. For instance, vehicles took the same amount of damage no matter where they were hit - there was no physics for damage modelling at all. Same for infantry. Hitting somebody in the foot was the same as hitting them in the face. It all came down to "Armor worn" vs. Type of Gun Used".

Then there was the whole "Cone of Fire" thing. Your aim was never truly true. Certainly not true enough to take a man down at 200 yards with a single shot.

It did look good though. I particularly liked the animations when getting in vehicles. You don't have that in WWIIO, but the vehicles are fully realized (they have interiors, engines, fuel and ammo storage, etc.).

The thing that requires such a huge hunk of processing is shown here:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/34/view/videos/play/1231

If ww2ol had standalone graphics such a CoD there would be no machine capable of playing it. 3k distance model for each round fired..tracked till it has zero velocity or traveled 3k. Mimiimum view distacne for infantry is 3k..tank and planes see up to 8k if I remember correclty. CoD standalone..have 200 meter by 200 meters maps. That can be the size on one Army Base in one small town and there are over 400 towns and cities last count. Maximum view number is 128..that is in view..look left..128..right 128..and even thos you cant see someone their rounds and presence is modeled. What you cant see can easily see you.\ and kill you. It is the depth of gameplay that keeps poeple playing for 7 years, it has never been the eyecandy.

This is in another thread..The video won a contest several months ago...who thinks the graphis are so poor as to overshadow the depth of hte gameplay?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOoS0AVQIAo

I hadn't seen that yet, it's very well done. Captures the gameplay perfectly...

If you think the graphics are bad now, you would have been horrified by what we had at launch.

There is an engine update coming, but it's going to be a while before we get it. As others in this thread have stated, it's not really so much about the graphics as it is the depth of gameplay. As a veteran of both MMOs talked about in this thread, I can definitely tell you that Planetside doesn't have it.

Actually, the dire graphics is what made me stop playing after trial.  Do the maps have to be so big anyway?

I get the premise of the game having huge territories to fight over, but that only becmes feasible when there is hundreds of players online fighting.

I ran around for ages, never seeing another soul.  And when I did get involved in the fighting, it was all in one small area anyway!

It's much easier to get into the fighting now. Every town that is being contested will have either a red or a green outline around the name, signifying it has either a green defense order (meaning the enemy is attacking it) or a red attack order (meaning your side is attacking them). You right click on that, select "Go to BDE", and you're there.

Mobile spawns were also put into the game to make it much easier to get into the fighting. No more having to beg for rides on tanks from the FBs. How close you are to town entirely depends on how close the truck driver decided to risk coming before setting up the spawn point.

As for the size.. yes, it would be a really lame WW2 simulation if you only got to fight over a dozen small areas, like in Planetside. It can take upwards of two months for one side to win right now, with the course of the war changing direction a dozen times. There's a huge strategic level to the game which no other game has even attempted. Of course, most of us in the front lines never get to see it, but it's there.

And yes, there are definitely times when there are hundreds of players fighting at the same time.