PDA

View Full Version : Reminiscing about Janes Combat Sims


vfrex
10-28-2006, 04:05 PM
So who misses those awesome games?

Advanced Tactical Fighters
US Navy Fighters
Fighters Anthology
Israeli Air Force
World War II Fighters
US Air Force

Their flight sims pushed the graphical envelope like no other games I knew of. I remember when 688i Hunter Killer came out and required MMX and 100 megs of hard drive space. That was HUGE!

I played Fighters Anthology online a lot, and I'm not sure that any online gaming experience has ever touched it. The squads, the fights, the sites. Maybe it was all great because I was young and it was all new to me. But there was a solid community of people playing that game online years after its release. I was going to start playing USAF online once I got a computer that could catch up to it :roll:

This is the primary reason why I hate EA. Janes had the market for combat simulators, and they were continuing development when EA killed it off. Remember that article about a MMO type simulator game that they were developing? I think it was something like people could buy USAF and take part in the world as a flight sim. People who bought subsequent games (sub, naval, tank, etc) could take part in the world in their respective preference.

My dream was that they would develop a persistent world that evolves with their game releases. So the beginning would be a world with a few air bases scattered across the/a planet. Squadrons could take over an airbase by, say, destroying it with bombs. Then a tank game is released, which allows squadrons of tanks to attack and take over air bases as well, which would be needed for refueling and rearming. This would probably result in alliances between tank squads and flight squads. You can see how the possibilities start to grow exponentially here. You could have a governance game based around building cities (ala sim city?) within established territories and controlling expenditures (buying missiles/weapons, dedicating money to R&D, etc). That could also control what R&D should focus on (faster engines, more efficient engines, better tracking A-A missiles, better bombs, etc). That could then improve the base effectiveness of the missiles produced by that country and used by the pilots. Of course, naval simulation games come into play with water areas of the world. Add in a FPS that deals with small, elite task forces. So, an assault on an enemy munitions store might include flight support, tanks assaulting, and a night drop of a task force to plant explosives. All people playing their speciality/preference in different games.

OK, so that is a pretty far fetched dream. But, the seeds were planted with Janes's development of that MMO simulator framework. Have there been any online petitions to EA to bring back Janes? If not, anybody game to start one?

XJnine
10-28-2006, 04:14 PM
My dream was that they would develop a persistent world that evolves with their game releases. So the beginning would be a world with a few air bases scattered across the/a planet. Squadrons could take over an airbase by, say, destroying it with bombs. Then a tank game is released, which allows squadrons of tanks to attack and take over air bases as well, which would be needed for refueling and rearming. This would probably result in alliances between tank squads and flight squads. You can see how the possibilities start to grow exponentially here. You could have a governance game based around building cities (ala sim city?) within established territories and controlling expenditures (buying missiles/weapons, dedicating money to R&D, etc). That could also control what R&D should focus on (faster engines, more efficient engines, better tracking A-A missiles, better bombs, etc). That could then improve the base effectiveness of the missiles produced by that country and used by the pilots. Of course, naval simulation games come into play with water areas of the world. Add in a FPS that deals with small, elite task forces. So, an assault on an enemy munitions store might include flight support, tanks assaulting, and a night drop of a task force to plant explosives. All people playing their speciality/preference in different games.



That sounds a lot like WWII Online http://www.wwiionline.com/scripts/wwiionline/index.jsp

It was a really cool game but in the beginning there were a ton of bugs. I haven't played it in a while though. (Actually your post inspired me to re-install WWII Online and give it a shot again, thx!)

vfrex
10-28-2006, 09:30 PM
haha, thank you. I haven't seen that game before, but it certainly looks promising.

XJnine
10-28-2006, 11:37 PM
It's been out for quite some time so don't expect top end graphics but the gameplay is still pretty good.

After just playing it for a bit I can tell you that it looks a whole lot better than when it was released though.

Null
10-29-2006, 03:40 AM
So who misses those awesome games?
Remember that article about a MMO type simulator game that they were developing? I think it was something like people could buy USAF and take part in the world as a flight sim. People who bought subsequent games (sub, naval, tank, etc) could take part in the world in their respective preference...

...But, the seeds were planted with Janes's development of that MMO simulator framework. Have there been any online petitions to EA to bring back Janes? If not, anybody game to start one?

Jane's World War

Take on the world by land, air and sea in Jane's upcoming massive multiplayer war sim.
by IGN Staff

April 29, 1999 - Last week I reported on USAF, an upcoming survey flight simulator from Jane's. In closing the article I said, "Jane's USAF will be the first combat sim to utilize Jane's World War, a massive online combat experience that promise to be like no other." I also promised that I would tell you a little bit more about Jane's World War this week ... so here it is...

http://pc.ign.com/articles/131/131587p1.html

Online war simulations: the future or just more hype?

Jan-Albert van Ree
Published: May 18, 1999

A few weeks ago, Janes released a press statement in which they announce their new online war concept, called "World War" Plans are to use their next release USAF as a beta for the World War concept. This is the next big step to a virtual battlefield...

http://www.3dgamers.com/articles/more/12/

Sadly, and unfortunately, Jane's World War never mad to fruition. EA killed Jane's. I guess they hadn't thought about putting ads in their games yet. That's just what I wanted to see; a Long John Silver's ad on the conning tower of a Seawolf class sub. Or maybe an F-22 Raptor towing a banner for Tetley Tea. :???: