Matrix Games Forums

Bringing this discussion into a new thread to keep the State of the Air War in AE thread on
topic.

ORIGINAL: janh

ORIGINAL: LoBaron
The follow up release, Battle for Moscow is supposed to bring the content that CoD severely lacked, but TBH I will wait until
I can assess if this is really true.

The word about the CoD quality spread so quickly that after a short while I didn't even bother checking patching progress anymore.
Instead I finally bought the IL-2 compilation, much cheaper and, as far as people wrote, way better in many aspects. But due to WitP,
ARMA, lately WiTE, and the bugger called real life I have not even yet installed it, and that is after a few years? Still looking
forward to buying a new flightstick set and playing it, I had been an avid flight sim fan in earlier years (various Jane's products
AH64 Longbow, Falcon, and a lot earlier stuff starting with original Gunship on C64!).

ORIGINAL: LoBaron
It is currently nowhere near where IL-2 was in the end - though I was no fan of the 1946 addon with the jet fighter sci-fi flight model.

Do I read that right that the flight model for jets in IL-2 is a bit goofy? In what respects?

I was a fan of the Falcon series as well and did play Gunship although I am not really into the copter stuff. For
whatever reason it does not fit into my understanding of flying.

Concerning the jet IL-2 flight model:

Yes, goofy is about right. From Me-262 onwards the models are too nimble, the ability to retain and regain
energy is much too high and the high speed behaviour is out of whack. Also, IL-2 had always difficulties to
simulate high altitude behaviour accurately, and this lack is more prominent with the jet fighters.

This was a known issue - the compressibility effects were modeled by the TAS and not the IAS or Mach number while air thickness and temperature for other flight model calculations were correct. I think that was fixed a year or so ago.

If you flew against AI jets, AI used to be (and still is to some extent) "cheating" with some of the flight dynamics rules, including G stress limitations, blackout/redout etc. which made all AI flown aircraft more nimble than player flown, especially at high speeds. Take a look at what all was fixed, changed and introduced in updates 4.10, 4.101 and 4.11 especially. [;)]

Admittedly the last time I touched IL-2 when I still had my my old desktop, which was about 3-4 years ago.

I played 1946 in combination a lot with Lowengrin´s DCG, a wonderful piece of work But the last version I flew
was 4.08m or 4.09, so I missed the last patches. Then I began to tune FSX to my new PC and to be honest this killed
IL-2 for me.

I simply cannot adapt back to the old graphics. Pretty difficult when your other favorite sim looks like this:




This is why I put high hope into the developement of CoD and it´s expansions. It will probably take 1-2 years until
it develops into something that can really impress me but it is on a good way.

Do you still play it a lot?

up until my move from Corpus Christi to Norfolk and then to bahrain I was a daily participant on the Warbirds of Prey Servers that ran full real IL-2 Maps. The community was great and the competition was even better. They had a Pacific and a European server which had dramatically different characteristics. Just because you were Ace of the base in a Zeke didn't mean you would be in a Spit in Europe. Very steep learning curve and the best part was No AI!!! Loved it. They have recently added a CloD server as well, but I have yet to get back to the Sim since I got situated here. Soon though!

Best place for a Zero vs. Wildcat debate would be on one of their servers. Only flying the real thing would be better to demonstrate how helpless you can feel in either plane, depending on the circumstances...

ORIGINAL: LoBaron
Do you still play it a lot?

Il-2? At the moment. [;)]

(Stock) Il-2 cant quite match FSX in eye candy but where it loses in graphics it still wins in flight and especially damage modeling IMHO... Just flying around isnt as fun as flying around and making things explode! [8D]

Some pics from last Friday and Saturday(reviewed sorties from diff camera views to take screenshots).



http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/1217/il2fb2012031116183563.jpg

ORIGINAL: Erkki

http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/1217/il2fb2012031116183563.jpg

The guy waiting for the chute to open is the owner of that Russian crate searching for horizontal stabilisers, I presume?

Those screenshots are all from the IL-2 series? I've never played them, but I've heard good things.

None of the more recent flight sim releases seem to be all that good. Cliffs of Dover was an unmitigated disaster on release and isn't even good for sightseeing now for the majority of people until they optimize the engine some more. IL2 1946 is still the far better game.

Similarly, Microsoft Flight Simulator X isn't going to be beaten anytime soon by the new Microsoft Flight. When they can't even be bothered to include a cockpit for their planes, and with their overpriced regional-terrain DLC and cutting out 3rd-party developers, I can't see anyone but they most casual (and rich) players going for it.

The only bright spot is Third Wire's just-released Strike Fighters North Atlantic. The F-14 alone is worth the price-tag.

ORIGINAL: LoBaron
The guy waiting for the chute to open is the owner of that Russian crate searching for horizontal stabilisers, I presume?

Yep. I shot at him at a pretty high deflection, didnt pull quite enough lead but 2 landed HE shells at the roots of each stabilizer, they were both torn off from the root. [:)]

I do have some self made videos in the youtube too. PM me if you want the address. [;)]

Iain, do you know if the CoD server is populated around the clock, or is it mission based within a certain timeframe?
Big compliment if someone flying this stuff for reall gets into a sim.

Grotius, what has always grabbed me on IL/CoD community was, 1C was never really able to deliver a complete game, or better, simulation. It always has been
the works of detail-fanatics forgetting the overall product. But because of this the details are absolutely stunning, and as soon as the community
got to work and started modding around and delivering third party tools, it usually started to improve.

IL-2 was a game that required roughly two to three years after realease to get some basic stuff into the menus, more than a few small maps, a non-linear campaign
that works, and an AI which at least tries to emulate real pilots (which it still does only so-so). And many of the stuff that finally made it great was the works
of not the devs but of the huge and very knowledgable modding community (Team Deadalos is only the tip of the iceberg).
It is still the most accurate WWII airial combat sim around, now surpassed by CoD in detail (haha, surprise) but to beat IL-2 content wise theres a long way down the road.

CoD had the same horrific start, but people often forget that IL-2 was a similar catastrophy, only it was 12 years ago...

Erkki, PM sent. [;)]

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

Iain, do you know if the CoD server is populated around the clock, or is it mission based within a certain timeframe?
Big compliment if someone flying this stuff for reall gets into a sim.

Grotius, what has always grabbed me on IL/CoD community was, 1C was never really able to deliver a complete game, or better, simulation. It always has been
the works of detail-fanatics forgetting the overall product. But because of this the details are absolutely stunning, and as soon as the community
got to work and started modding around and delivering third party tools, it usually started to improve.

IL-2 was a game that required roughly two to three years after realease to get some basic stuff into the menus, more than a few small maps, a non-linear campaign
that works, and an AI which at least tries to emulate real pilots (which it still does only so-so). And many of the stuff that finally made it great was the works
of not the devs but of the huge and very knowledgable modding community (Team Deadalos is only the tip of the iceberg).
It is still the most accurate WWII airial combat sim around, now surpassed by CoD in detail (haha, surprise) but to beat IL-2 content wise theres a long way down the road.

CoD had the same horrific start, but people often forget that IL-2 was a similar catastrophy, only it was 12 years ago...

Erkki, PM sent. [;)]

You'll laugh at why I did. I've owned it (and all the add ons)since the first IL-2 came out, god, what 2000? 2001? I played around with it and did some gunnery but never went online because I didn't have a great internet connection and lacked the controls necessary to be really effective. Then in 2009 I was in a desk job and I tried it out again and even went online. I was hooked. I got my ass handed to me. Imagine how I felt? Some 14 year old kid put a whuppin on me over the internet. I was pissed to say the least. I invested in rudders and a real stick/throttle, then it was Track IR and THEN I got comms so I could talk to people when I was screaming for help. Then it all made sense. In order to survive online in a full real environment you had to talk and work with at least a wingman if not more than just one wingman.

Next thing I new I was leading divisions of Hellcats against A6M5s, all of us on Comms all familiar with our aircraft, each other, and the Zeke, and it was magical. That is when I started climbing the leaderboard. Even held top spot from time to time, depending on how much time I had. I never joined any squadrons or anything, though once people got to know me and I let slip what I did for a living the invites started rolling. Still I could never devote the time.

Then I tried the Europe server...whole new ball of wax. Learning curve started all over again.

To answer your question, the server IS populated around the clock, I've seen people from every continent, race, religion etc. even a guy from Iran believe it or not. Nice guy too...but it tends to be busiest when Europe is up, and the US. Lots of Brazilians too...

I haven't logged on in months, but I check the website to see who's on from time to time. WBOP servers use the UC mods. Amazing stuff really. Lots of new flyable aircraft. A lot of people get discouraged by the continuous updating of the mods, all of which have to be installed correctly in order for it to work, but when it does, man what a beautiful thing....

this is a video made on the WBOP Zekes vs. Wildcats server when they hosted the weekly Bomber night. Just before I started frequenting them, but they did this sort of thing every friday night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO8968rBIY0

What kind of rig does this latest flight simm require for good performance?

This is a montage from the guys at 4H. Joop is a well known pilot, but around the time I got involved the 4H was becoming less visible, not sure why. At one point you'll see a division of hogs get bounced, BSS Vidar is the "XO" of that squadron and is a former S-3 Viking pilot. Also a GREAT wingman. Once he and I found each other we did some serious damage. BSS stands for Black Sheep Squadron and they specialize in Corsairs and USN CV ops. They once invited me to a private CQ evolution where we flew F9F Panthers in formation and according to US Navy CV NATOPS. Quite fun, but nothing to shoot at. I'll post one of their vids in a minute...

ack!! forgot the link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSbM6nXX ... re=related

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

What kind of rig does this latest flight simm require for good performance?

Hey Nik, LOL, this sim is quite old. you can find it on line these days for about 9.99. That is the initial investment. To be effective you REALLY need a stick, throttle, rudder combo, and Track IR. I'll assume you know nothing about this sort of thing.

My rig is a Asus Mobo, with a AMD Athlon Phenom Quad core black edition 2.7 jigawatts etc.
I currently run a Nvidia 470 fermi Graphics card and 8GB Ram on Win 7. Have no problems running the game and all the mods/graphics update.

Saitek X52pro Stick/Throttle - $150
Saitek rudder set - $100
Track IR 5 - $150
Flaming an A6M2 is a high speed roller...priceless

I am trying to find this one bomber night video that I was actually a part of...OPERATION PEDESTAL...just a tick

This is a VERY well made OPERATION BODENPLATE vid. Not on WBOP servers but high quality and with mods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdr1ttt4eKU

OPERATION PEDESTAL

This is taken from the cockpit of a guy by the handle Pdog, he was an old hand when I was testing European waters after finally figuring out the planeset in the Pacific. If you watch closely in the top left corner, you'll see my name...PDog really knows that Macchi...it is the European equivalent of the Zeke, very light, not terribly fast, extremely maneuverable, and lightly armed, but once the get on your tail you are in TROUBLE...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atOTlKD4h1c

BSS doing their thing. Take not how they fly in formation and emphasize flying around the CV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l88LiVMC55s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHeL35Gj ... ature=plcp

ORIGINAL: TheElf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atOTlKD4h1c

How do you say in the US? I guess ******* awesome is outdated? Nice dance.

Thanks for spamming with those vids.

This video isn't gripping, but you can hear the comms on teamspeak. Only the Blue team can here this. Allies have a seperate freq

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3QBSsl4 ... re=related