RO:Ost was great because it wasn't mainstream. The only people that played were the devoted, skilled, mature fans. I understand trying to break into the Crap of Duty market for financial purposes, but leave us vets a chance to play RO as we know it.
This!
I have loved playing RO1 for the past 5 years and have enjoyed playing it because I was in the more narrow group of players for whom this game had great appeal; mature, interested in realism, interested in the history of WW2 and sticklers for actual realism.
I do love playing RO2 so far in terms of gameplay. But...the sense that it is a game meant for a NON-mainstream, realism based, mature playerbase is gone.
To be realistic for example, on a 64 person server you will have 32 players per side. Amongst those 32 players should be about 20 bolt action rifles, about 6 to 8 MG's, a handful of PPSH's and that is it for the typical grouping of 32 that would have been found in Stalingrad. Give or take a bit for all those numbers there may have been some ofthe other weapons, the SVT etc, but not in numbers that would be represented in ANY way inthe game as is now.
I suppose all we can hope for is for the mapping community, as they did in RO1, to craft fine maps that take place in the historical context of the 6 to 8 months the game covers and the better servers go with those maps.
That being said, the tank system needs a HUGE refit. As it is now, tanks are completely broken as far as RO goes. The large combined operations that took place around Stalingrad will make some great maps, but as of now, the tanking system itself seems like some tank games I played back in the Commodore 64 days; with better graphics of course.