il-2 sturmovik - why fly warbirds in FS?

I bought it when It first came out and maybe I was impatient or inexperienced with flight sims but it took to long to find a battle.
I wanted to just go up and shoot. not navigate for an hour to a 5 minute fight.
Still have it on the shelf.

I can recommend getting the following:

linkeh

So you can play online.

Radarman, online on the dogfight servers you can be in the action very quickly indeed, but, you fly FS2004 - a game with, well, no action in it 🙂

Let yourself be immersed in the mission scenario - and it is fantastic, we fly co-ops with full realism settings on, sometimes we don't even see the enemy but because of the campaign engine (scorched earth) if you lose the aircraft, it is lost as a resource for the remainder of the campiagn, it doesn't matter - in fact frequently it is more intense than when a dogfight is going on ans you don't know where the enemy are!

The real air Spitfire for FS2k4 though is amazing and well worth flying.

For actual combat IL2 can't be beaten.

This h/d is too small now with FSX but maybe the next one.
I've never "played" on line, you meet some weird people there.

Hinch, should we maybe dogfight sometime?

hms_endeavour wrote:

Hinch, should we maybe dogfight sometime?

when i'm less pants - seriously, it took me 3 goes to do the first single mission - i kept getting killed when the two planes come, though i shot one down 😀

give me some practice time 😂

RadarMan wrote:

This h/d is too small now with FSX but maybe the next one.
I've never "played" on line, you meet some weird people there.

Hi Radarman,

The online community on IL2 are generally an alright bunch. The dogfight servers enable you to select a base, pick an aircraft, read the objectives and get flying 🙂

Most of the chat will be driven towards whats happening rather than the idiotic "I pwned j00 n00b" crap you see in FPS games online.

Also, If you're lucky enough to find a server with no map icons - you will experience the joys of proper navigation 🙂

Like Radarman, mine's on the shelf alongside Pacific Fighters. Fly for ages, drop a bomb, (miss target), fly for ages,land,exit,uninstall. Thought CFS2 was better (combat wise not graphically) because you can go straight into a dogfight, then shoot, (miss target), get shot down, uninstall. 😞

Welshflyer wrote:

Like Radarman, mine's on the shelf alongside Pacific Fighters. Fly for ages, drop a bomb, (miss target), fly for ages,land,exit,uninstall. Thought CFS2 was better (combat wise not graphically) because you can go straight into a dogfight, then shoot, (miss target), get shot down, uninstall. 😞

_sigh_ this does irritate me, when people discount a game because they have no idea what options are available and can't be bothered to find out.

Quick Mission Builder

Choose X friendly aircraft

Choose X enemy aircraft

Set weather

Set start height

Fly

Instant action

What does fascinate me though - is that people can find a sim with no combat in it (FS2k4) interesting when all they are doing is take off / fly for ages / land / exit.

Yet you fly IL2 and dislike the flight element of the game (sim, sorry Crash)?! It isn't an arcade game you know!

Alright, calm down calm down.Did'nt mean to hurt your feelings! I knew you were going to mention the long flights thing, but i knew that was the basis of FS9 when i bought it. I tried IL-2 for quite a while and some of it's addons like Battle over Europe, but just didnt like it ( and it took about 3 days to load). 😕

Fair enough, you haven't hurt my feelings - you just said you didn't like the game because it doesn't do something that it actually does. That irritates me a bit, it doesn't hurt my feelings 🙂

I realise you buy FS9 thinking there will be long flights, but, I don't understand how you could have expected there to be no element of long flights in a combat flight simulator like IL2.

Since the original IL2 it has improved a lot though, I would say FS2k4 is longer at loading now.

If you don't like it you don't, I can happily deal with that. But, other people reading this forum who have never played it might decide not to based on your incorrect remarks about the game's lack of functionality. I was correcting you to set the record straight - for both your benefit (in case you didn't realise you had been incorrect and might have wanted to play it again) and for the benefit of other readers.

🙂

i can crack all the settings up to 100% and it loads in about 10seconds - another reason why i'm enjoying it.

i found the tutorials to be pretty slow and sometimes buggy however.

hinch

To get used to shooting aircraft down and deflection shooting etc.

Use the Quick Mission Builder and put 4 bombers in as friendly. Then put yourself in on your own in a fighter and make passes at them shooting you down.

Then progress to friendly fighters, then to enemy fighters etc.

I bought it (IL2), what 4 years ago. The newer versions are much better.

I remember A-10 Warthog was it. Gave it away.
I did like that and Air Warriors II, I still have that on the shelf.

I like the idea of this ,realistic long flights drop your bombs and back to base .Does anyone know how many bombing missions there are in IL2 forgotten battle and are the aircraft as realistic as fs9 .Also do they implement bombing missions online .(although i don't know how the latter would work)
Thanks .

Combat flight sim is good

Meylan wrote:

I like the idea of this ,realistic long flights drop your bombs and back to base .Does anyone know how many bombing missions there are in IL2 forgotten battle and are the aircraft as realistic as fs9 .Also do they implement bombing missions online .(although i don't know how the latter would work)
Thanks .

Hi Meylan,

You are best off buying the pack I linked to above which includes all of the IL2 series.

There are a number of bonbers available in that pack, only medium bombers though are available for you to fly and they have gun positions on them. The aircraft models are fantastic and the damage models are superb! Control surfaces can be shot off, control wires can be broken etc

Online you can do pretty much anything you like missions wise. There are 2 types of online environment.

Dogfight servers: These are servers much like game servers you see for games like BF2. They have missions in them with specific objectives (almost all of them have bombing elements), the missions are only limited to the imagtination of those who create them pretty much - the mission builder tool is very extensive. If you get shot down and die, you will eventually respawn although some servers impose a set number of lives - once reached you have to rejoin the server.

Co-op missions: These are either one off missions or ongoing campaigns that are flown mostly with human players with varying degrees of realism. The EAF fly with max realism settings, you even have to navigate your way to and from your target. These commonly include both bombing and combat air patrol scenarios.

Thanks for the reply ,realism is the key for me to like any game /sim and this sounds very realistic .I'll be purchasing soon .

Thanks .

Actually i'm going to wait for IL2 1946 to be released .
http://shop.gameplay.co.uk/webstore/productpage.asp?productcode=RM03054&title=il2_-_1946_(dvd_rom)
It includes all other versions of IL2 🙂

I didn't see it before but both games need a DVD drive , i've not looked into them and would like to know if DVD drives are generally compatible with all pc's unlike cpu's and graphics cards with mobo's .
Thanks .

Wow I didn't know about that coming out.

When it does read up a bit to check what previous IL2 content it includes, it looks like it will but double check to be sure 🙂

DVD drives are as compatible with machines as CD drives are really so you should be able to pick up one with relative ease.

You should be able to get a CD / DVD drive combination if space in your case is an issue.

The realism is cracking Meylan. When we fly we don't even have labels on the aircraft as FS does. You are literally searching the sky for tiny black dots by eye - no radar! 🙂

Here is a post I made with a couple of screenshots I took in the game if you're interested:
https://forum.flyawaysimulation.com/forum/topic/21880/got-back-to-grips/

For the longest time I remember playing Jane's WWII Fighters. Boy did I have tons of fun with that game. And considering it was released around 1998 or so, it had amazing graphics and incredible dogfights. As a matter of fact, even though it hasn't even been loaded on my computer in years, I think I will go boot her up again and start shootin' up some more Messerschmitts! 😎

I have IL-2, but I never got around to loading it... it is just sitting collecting dust on my computer game rack. 😕

Insight, i'm going to do something i normally don't do, i.e retract my comments regarding IL-2 (Specifically, Forgotten Battles). But i'm man enough to admit when i am wrong! When i first bought it ,my PC was'nt up to much, and there in i think lies the problem. In other words it could'nt run it properly, although it tried (bless it).Another problem was i discovered Flightsim,IL-2,Lock on and The Mighty Eighth all at the same time.Therefore not giving each the time and consultation they deserved, because rather than concentrate on one i tried to discover them all at the same time( No wonder it would,nt run). So i have taken your comments on board and admit i have probably been hasty in saying it's not very good and the problem probably lies with me, and my not giving the time to learn it's assets that it deserved.I'd hate to be the cause of someone not trying what is an excellent sim just because they have read the comments of an old git that did'nt give it a chance. Thank you for making me realise that you are never too old to learn.
Although ,no matter what i try Pacific Fighters still runs like a stunned slug!

Hi Welsh,

By all means I am not trying to tell you your opinion is incorrect, everyone has their own opinions and they all differ. Variety is the spice of life after all 🙂

I am glad you have reconsidered your thoughts on this excellent game though and see where I was coming from with my somewhat badly presented comments.

The mighty eighth was a fantastic game and I played it alot when it came out. I recently reinstalled it and it seemed so dated!

I have been guilty of the same thing with Lock on, while it isn't generally an area of interest to me I installed the game, struggled to get started on it and gave up as I didn't have time to find out how to play it. Maybe I will manage to find the time to look at it again some time 🙂

With regards to the issues you are having with PF, what are your PC specifications?

What sort of performance issues were you experiencing with PF?

Maybe I can help you get it running better?

S!
Insight

Thanks Insight, the main problem with PF was the frame rate when taking off the carriers it was like one frame every 2 seconds.
AMD Sempron 2800+
512 RAM
60G HD
NVidia 6800LE graphics
I think i need a new PC.
I loved the Mighty Eighth it was great for its time.(Could'nt get the bombsight to work properly though,sometimes i'd plaster the target and other times i'd miss by miles).

Hmm,

Your RAM is quite low but with the correct settings you should be able to play the game.

There are some settings that you can change in an ini file that don't appear in the graphics settings GUI. I will look them up and post them for you to check.

I didn't find the bombsights too bad in the mighty 8th, I got to some of the later missions and got stuck on one particular mission which I seem to recall featured Me262's flying at me alot and me having to bail out.

It would be nice to see someone do an updated version of that game and add a multiplayer element to it.

hmm you mention new versions - would you reccommend a particular add-on/expansion/update or is the link you gave the best one?

i'm getting a bit annoyed now with the resolution as by default you can't select 1280x1024 but i'm sure with a mess in the config i'll do it.

The second screenshot looks amazing ,can i ask are the planes in that shot AI or online players .
Thanks for the info on DVD drives .

it took me about 4 seconds to get the resolution i want..beautiful now.

anyway i've been doing some fights (with advantage) one of four (i being the one) vs bombers then i moved up to a very smoky german fighter - not sure what it was but it took about half an hour and i eventually took them all out, even shooting one plane when it had landed on the ground on fire and then taking out a guy who had ejected - harsh, but nazi 😛

i love it!

upgraded now to 1.2 so i think i'm up to date.

Meylan wrote:

The second screenshot looks amazing ,can i ask are the planes in that shot AI or online players .
Thanks for the info on DVD drives .

In that shot they are AI as it is an offline campaign.

The Heinkel is a flyable aircraft though and I have seen it used online.

Online campaigns can use a combination of AI and human players too to make up the numbers 🙂

Also ground targets can be programmed to do certain actions, so you can go train busting, see tank battles occurring in the fields, watch naval action from above and all sorts of things.

One mission someone made to be played online was a rescue mission. The story was that a B24 (i think) had been downed on its way back from a mission. A lone B25 was sent in to fetch the crew which was escorted by a flight of Spitfires.

My squadron mate piloted the B25 and made a landing in the field where the rescue was set to take place. The person who created the mission had put a B24 in a destroyed state at the spot, to fulfil the mission requirements he had to stay landed in the rescue zone for a certain time. I was in one of the escorting Spitfires and we even had to do some ground strafing to take out some nearby AA guns before he could land.

Here are links to some of the pics I took in the mission, my Spitfire shows my Squadron markings of QJ I.

Here is me doing a low pass over the B25 picking up the crew:

🙂

Excellent stuff there Insight, thanks for the shots it sure does look and sound pure simulation . Finally Insight i'm definately buying the game/sim but wondering if there are many people online .
Thanks

Nice screenies Insight, i may just load it up again and have a mess about with the settings!

Meylan wrote:

Excellent stuff there Insight, thanks for the shots it sure does look and sound pure simulation . Finally Insight i'm definately buying the game/sim but wondering if there are many people online .
Thanks

Hi Meylan,

There are hundreds online every night usually. They all use this lobby software: http://hyperfighter.sk/

Install it first if you like to see (it is free). Make sure you get the combined installation. There has also been a recent addon named PE2 Peshka that is available for about a tenner.

Nice one , Thanks 🙂

i've been looking around to see if there are any FS versions of the planes. i found the simTech version of the (rather good looking) p-39 availible for free. search for 'simtech_p39_400.zip'

or go here:

http://volftp.tiscali.it/i/j/flight.jsp?year=04&month=oct&p=7

i always thought you had to pay for fsplanet but it seems not...

anyway this version is very good. when installed it's about 700mb because the textures (though reeeeeally good) are in 32bit mipped format. DXT3 some of them and delete the liveries you don't like and you'll be fine. the gauges are default (i swapped them with the f1 172 gauges) but it looks fantastic. the flight model is pretty similar to il-2 : a bugger.

😀