Wow, I actually expected to return to this thread to find the flamethrowers had been brandished. Even if you disagree with me, I appreciate the way this thread has been run. ( Forums classic mode engaged ? ).
And John isn't going to step back any more than any other member of the design team. We built the original mod, the original Ostfront... Yoshi has made your case and I'd say we're answering it fairly well. But to ask a senior member of the team to "step back" because you disagree with a decision he was party to (i.e. was agreed within the team), is fairly unlikely (to be polite about it).
We design as a team, work as a team. The "Classic" mode is a team effort. That's just the way we work.
Well, I have no problem admitting my own fault. In this case I have been told by a few particular people that some decisions were made excusively by Ramm. Second to that, when posts are made on the forum they are often written as a " I decree this ", instead of "the team voted thus". I have no problem saying 'my misunderstanding' here.
This still does not invalidate what I was driving at in the OP. The appeal was to whoever ends up making these decisions, and once again I can see these decisions contradicting what is being asked for. Let me see if I can generalize with some discussions that have happened on these forums over the last few months to drive at the point.
( Sorry, I will pick on the mkb in this example ).
Ex1
Community:" We would like a realism mode with no Mkb, as we view this to be more realistic"
TwiDev:"we are of the opinion the community desires a classic mode, not necessarily a realism mode, because much of what is asked for is not realistic"
Community:"Soo... MKB still here?"
TwiDev:"Yusse!"
Ex2
Community:"We would like a more realistic mode, without some of the gamey features such as being able to stop on a dime and aim. The lack of sway after running full out. The lack of sway after injuries. Being able to indefinitely hold breath with no penalties. ( In general make it harder to shoot )."
TwiDev:" We are going to basically revert as much of the game to Ro1 as possible for the classic mode, then start making improvements from there based upon your suggestions"
Me:" Well I hope you like re doing 95.999% of that back to RO2 standards and then changing that last few % that we asked for changes to the first time..."
I feel like there is still a great divide between what has been asked for and what is being promised. Now I guess I could just sit on my hands until the beta comes up, and then participate in the suggestion process to modify it from there. But in all honesty, I don't want to start that process at RO1, I would much rather start it at RO2. Why? Well because almost all of the great long 'realism' suggestion threads were suggesting tweaks and small changes to HOS. Perhaps the most heavy handed of them being to just escape the stats system and play on a level field with skill being the only weapon under a players belt. Going back to Ost, then making what would be more than 50% of the changes back to Hos is a waste of time and money. When others and myself made comparisons between RO 1 and 2 it was not because we held RO1 to be perfect, but because it was our base point to judge from. I've said before RO1 had a 'gameplay flavor', I desire to see that flavor propagated again in RO2. The flavor exists independent of its component parts, and it can be attained by a different mixture. I frankly would like to see a different mixture this time, if I really want RO1 again, I've still got it installed.
Now perhaps you might say I am over reacting to this. But in its base form this is a miscommunication going on here, which is arguably been a big problem around here for a while.
Here, pulling this one good example out of the old Ramm thread.
http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showpost.php?p=946560&postcount=1010http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showpost.php?p=946560&postcount=1010
Posts like these were at one point all over the forum asking for more realism. Now I see posts saying " well, you guys get a classic mode, because we don't think these are realistic requests ", I read that and I shake my head. It is no good for the community or the Developers. The community isn't about to get what they asked for, and we have been through this slugfest once already.
Whether it gets me - rep or not, I could care less about that, I'd like to see both sides on the same page; and as an added bonus get an actual realism mode out of this. The one that people exhausted their typing fingers asking for.