Several questions before purchasing

[jermin]

Have been playing IL2 online since 2004. Seeing the online community of IL2 is about to die out, I'm considering switching to CoD.

Questions:

1. How active is the online play of CoD? What's the max and average number of contemporary global online player in a particular day?

2. What's the most preferred game type among online community? Are most players still playing air quakes in open cockpit with external views?

3. How does CoD deal with dot visibility? Is it difficult to spot distant aircrafts? Can one still use extremely low screen resolution to get bigger dots as in IL2?

4. How many FPS can I expect from my rig in a 40-player dogfight server (with moderate graphics settings)?

i7 920 @4.0G
3G DDR3 @ 1528MHz
GTX 295 stock

5. The cheapest source for the purchase?

Best regards,

[el0375]

1. from what i played in my times of day ( i live in italy) usually evening. the are less players than my older experiences with Il-2 over hyperlobby. however i see often servers such as ATAGS axis vs allies having most of the time over 25 players. over these servers i think i have seen many times more than 40-50. perhaps ATAG can give much more detailed info about the server. there is also Repka that is quite populated , duels however is password protected.neverthess also some of repka i have seen them with many players. there also another pair of servers with a decent amount in order to have continues dogfights in small maps. So it will be much more towards dogfight, however i see coop servers etc, however password protected.

something really positive i have noted is that most of servers run on almost full realism. CEM being really a nice and common example. Servers such as ATAG and REPKA run on full realism ( apart i think antropomorphic control). So in terms of realism its already on a nice advanced stage , personally i would prefer having the outside view of my plane as to be honest i am not confortable moving my camera (also with the mouse) while i have control of joystick( with mine changes too much the angle so i cant really follow a plane). + i am not a good pilot yet. my situational awareness while flying in closed cokpit is really bad ( cant keep track of the target with all the manouvering)
What i have noted is that such realism option really push the game towards cooperation as knowing position of things its a bit harder to know. Consequently its much better if you head over teamspeak , i feel the need to,but i am not admin on my pc and my mic is almsot broke, and the camera mic is useless with the ingame sound.

2. personally flying here and there i have not yet seen a really objective driven play. there are offcourse the objectives however i havent seem many try to accomplish them ( offcourse it is from my point of view)
3. With the visibility there is a problem discussed over a specific thread. In short you can see dots at distance however they dissapear at medium distance and reappear when already on close range.

i dont know in particular what to expect about your rig, my wild guess is pretty decent fps.
I have an i7 2600K stock 3.4 Ghz ( i know nothing about OC), ati 6750 stock, 16Gb ram and for me runs very well, only little problem is during take off with the dust and the mirrors( that dont work and are buggy). for me its matter of engine code optimisation and with the forthcoming patch i hope things get improved.
5. dont know really, weeks ago was on sale with steam. personally i expect it around the 30 $/Euros range or something like that.
P.S for the GPU here around the forums its been told the more Vram you have the better. especially if you move from one Gb to 2 or 3

hope it provides some info.
Anyways, if you buy it i welcome you on COD and hope to see you inflight!

[ATAG_MajorBorris]

Hi jermin,

Well it sounds like your about to buy a new car and not a $30 sim:) All kidding aside, if you love ww2 aviation and flight sims its a no brainer, seriously.

As far as the ATAG Axis&Allies server goes the server admins have spent thousands of hours setting up a stable, objective based mission thats alot of fun when your on coms and both sides are fighting for that last objective dueling back and forth for the victory.

Performance varies based on graphic preference but I think you should be fine but getting a 64bit operating system and min 4gb sys ram should be first(biggest bang for the buck), then optimize your game settings to see if a faster GPU with more vram is what you want or need.

When you do pull the trigger come over to the ATAG forums and get teamspeak3(its free) as we can help you in a tenth of the time it took us:-P and coms greatly enhances enjoyment (teamwork, comradery, wingmen, etc)

See ya in the air!

[janpitor]

You may need to lower your resolution with 1GB card. Other option is to reduce textures quality considerably

[ATAG_Snapper]

Hi jermin,

I have little to add to el0375's excellent response above. You are welcome to visit us at ATAG over at http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/forum.php to further your research. The ATAG Server is full switch, full realism and mission driven with clear objectives for both Red (Allies) and Blue (Axis) bombers and fighters alike. That said, anyone is free to fly the experience he wants ie. if you just want to fly a quick sortie looking for a dogfight - great. If you want to hook up with some other pilots to fly the specific missions -- great. If you have a squadron and want to enter as a group -- great.

ATAG also runs a Teamspeak server that any and all are welcome to use. The is no password for the server, there is no charge. Basically the only "rule" we have is that everyone show respect for the other with obviously no swearing or abuse over the chat window. This is a full war server - there are no rules re vulching, shoulder shooting, wheels down no-shooting, etc etc. If you find you're being repeatedly ground strafed, respawn at an inland airfield.

Not sure how well your system will run with a 40-plane scenario (not common in the ATAG server, but possible). Best results are gained with Win 7 64-bit and 6+ Gigs of RAM. Although CoD is a 32-bit system, things will get backed up a bit with CoD using up to 3 Gigs of RAM with the myriad of background processes that Windows 7 runs. Players that run XP do run CoD, but frequently suffer performance problems.

Your GTX 295 card is a good one, unfortunately CoD is not optimized for SLI (yet). I was able to run CoD quite well on a 285 card at medium-low settings; my 560 Ti card made a huge difference in performance. CoD does have a memory leak resulting in a crash to desktop with annoying frequency. A workaround is to delete the cache folder prior to each session - with varying results for each person who does this.

Don't know the cheapest location to buy CoD -- prices seem to vary tremendously.

Good luck and hope to welcome you to the ATAG server.

[Troll2k]

Steam,Getgamesgo,Justflight have had sales at different time.I have seen as much as 60% off.At the moment though,it appears they are at list price.($49.99)

In my opinion get the digital download.From what I understand the DVD is nothing more than a Steam installer.You do not gain anything from a boxed copy as the game is not on the disk.Unfortunately the Collector's Edition is not available in North America.

[pupo162]

1. How active is the online play of CoD? What's the max and average number of contemporary global online player in a particular day?

- not awfully bad, but i think its not enough. about 1/4 of il2 1946 nowadays. 2 full servers if you are lucky. if you want to play anytime you will be able too, but it will be the same 2 servers, with the same kind of gameplay.

2. What's the most preferred game type among online community? Are most players still playing air quakes in open cockpit with external views?

-mostly airquakes on full real/ icons on, and 1 full real server who hosts a mid channel dogfight. the first is a funny thing, the second as issues due to 3.

3. How does CoD deal with dot visibility? Is it difficult to spot distant aircrafts? Can one still use extremely low screen resolution to get bigger dots as in IL2?

- ATM there is a bug with dot visibility where planes disappear at mid range, that makes dot sighting and following next to impossible at some distances. there is a work around, but for me it renders the game even more unplayable. other than that, i believe doughts seem to be far more interesting, tough not perfect. there was a thread explaining how to improve this back in a while, i hope it was took in in consideration.

4. How many FPS can I expect from my rig in a 40-player dogfight server (with moderate graphics settings)?

i7 920 @4.0G
3G DDR3 @ 1528MHz
GTX 295 stock

-Be prepared for stuttring, every single system stutters every now and then. and memory leaks seem to cause a crash very commonly. hopefully this issues should be gone next patch.

5. The cheapest source for the purchase?
- dont know, probably steam.

[SlipBall]

Have been playing IL2 online since 2004. Seeing the online community of IL2 is about to die out, I'm considering switching to CoD.

5. The cheapest source for the purchase?

Best regards,


What's 10 or 20 bucks in today's world:confused::-P

You will never fly 1946 again...its really awesome, the new sounds are incredible. I hope that you enjoy!

[5./JG27.Farber]

Just take the plunge, bugs and all its better than 1946 fb...

[Chivas]

COD is unfinished and buggy. The developers are still working hard every day optimizing and making improvements, and will add further patches when ready. There aren't many flying COD on line yet, but this will change when the sim is better optimized to allow players a more stable platform.

That said, I've flown IL-2 since the beta test days and find COD even with its warts, a more enjoyable experience especially with CEM enabled. BUT you will need a highly optimized gaming system to run COD with high settings until its optimized. COD needs your investment now not later, and buying it for 9.95 won't help them. Maybe buying it from STEAM will give the development the most benefit. The sim was released unfinished so it will take time to finish, but hopefully you will invest soon to give it a chance to possibly be the next benchmark in combat flight simming.

[ramstein]

What's 10 or 20 bucks in today's world:confused::-P

You will never fly 1946 again...its really awesome, the new sounds are incredible. I hope that you enjoy!

your'e joking right?



are you speaking for you or all of us? most of us fly IL-2 even with COD.. COD is many years from taking the place of IL-2..

[ATAG_MajorBorris]

your'e joking right?



are you speaking for you or all of us? most of us fly IL-2 even with COD.. COD is many years from taking the place of IL-2..

I could never go back to il2, its so 2001. I loved it but the CEM and the DM alone are worth switching to CoD, the rest will come.

[KG26_Alpha]

Jermin

If you want a Dogfight game .................. this is for you.

:grin:

[Thee_oddball]

Jermin

If you want a Dogfight game .................. this is for you.

:grin:

hmmmm whats with all the eraser dust in the air...;)

[SlipBall]

your'e joking right?



are you speaking for you or all of us? most of us fly IL-2 even with COD.. COD is many years from taking the place of IL-2..



Yes, somewhat...will depend on the individual

[robtek]

I, for my part, have deleted 1946 from my computer.

Couldn't go back, regretfully not all of my squadron can/will make the switch.

[Chivas]

I, for my part, have deleted 1946 from my computer.

Couldn't go back, regretfully not all of my squadron can/will make the switch.

I also haven't flown 1946 since loading COD. Most people will eventually migrate to COD, but not until the sim is optimized enough to be stable for everyone from high end systems to average systems. There will always be people flying 1946, atleast until they upgrade, and their favorite aircraft or theater is modeled in the sim, but the majority will move on to the far more immersive new sim. You can't stop progress. :)

[CWMV]

I have a much more beastly pc than the op, and have never had problems running the game.
That said I don't see myself playing it for a long time. The several hundered hours I had on ATAG et al just made 46 look that much better to me.
As of now DBW is a far better alternative.

[tintifaxl]

... There will always be people flying 1946, atleast until they upgrade, and their favorite aircraft or theater is modeled in the sim, but the majority will move on to the far more immersive new sim. You can't stop progress. :)

The bad AI and missing radio comms make it so non-immersive for me, I don't fly it anymore. Sorry, but for me CloD is a big disappointment in this regard.

[=CfC= Father Ted]

Hats off to those brave few souls who are keeping this sim alive until it works for the rest of us. In a year or two no doubt it'll be stable enough and users' PCs will be caught up enough that a healthy MP community can be supported.

No doubt I'll leap on the bandwagon that you have kept rolling, but until then I'm going to carry on selfishly enjoying IL2.

[carguy_]

I also haven't flown 1946 since loading COD. Most people will eventually migrate to COD, but not until the sim is optimized enough to be stable for everyone from high end systems to average systems. There will always be people flying 1946, atleast until they upgrade, and their favorite aircraft or theater is modeled in the sim, but the majority will move on to the far more immersive new sim. You can't stop progress. :)
I don`t care much for the memory leak bug. I care for the coop-ware and online functionality. I could even run this sim on 1200x760, medium details no problem. The thing is, as it is, I don`t have much to do with my 109 in this game yet. I can come up with good fps and I really love the realistic gunnery and CEM. What I can`t come up with is the missions to play and players to shoot.

[ATAG_Keller]

I can't go back to IL2'46 either, feels like an arcade game and looks like a cartoon to me.

Those of us that are flying CloD now will just be that much more ahead of the curve when the majority deem it time to leave '46 and join us. ;)

[robtek]

I can't go back to IL2'46 either, feels like an arcade game and looks like a cartoon to me.

Those of us that are flying CloD now will just be that much more ahead of the curve when the majority deem it time to leave '46 and join us. ;)

Pssst, dont tell them!!!

I think they will feel like the Luftwaffe rookies did in 1944 :D

[Chivas]

The bad AI and missing radio comms make it so non-immersive for me, I don't fly it anymore. Sorry, but for me CloD is a big disappointment in this regard.

I couldn't agree more, the AI, and COMMANDS etc are imperative for good offline play. The fact the sim was released before it was finished didn't help. Optimization, and game play issues have to addressed soon before any migration to COD happens. That said online doesn't have many of the same issues, and have found online far more immersive, than the original series. Offline play will catch up at some point.

[Force10]

I couldn't agree more, the AI, and COMMANDS etc are imperative for good offline play. The fact the sim was released before it was finished didn't help. Optimization, and game play issues have to addressed soon before any migration to COD happens. That said online doesn't have many of the same issues, and have found online far more immersive, than the original series. Offline play will catch up at some point.

+1

I have a feeling that if/when they iron out the AI/comms etc. that they don't plan on enhancing the offline experience much for COD. Would be nice to have ranks, medals, etc. but I don't see that happening. It's a shame because Oleg had stated that the offline campaigns is what generates the most sales, not so much the multiplayer.

[Chivas]

+1

I have a feeling that if/when they iron out the AI/comms etc. that they don't plan on enhancing the offline experience much for COD. Would be nice to have ranks, medals, etc. but I don't see that happening. It's a shame because Oleg had stated that the offline campaigns is what generates the most sales, not so much the multiplayer.

Personally I have no doubt that the offline experience will be improved both by the developer and the community. Its just that multiplayer benefits the most from an unfinished sim as it doesn't require as many finished features to work well. When the sim is finished the offline community should be much happier. Actually the sim will never be in a finished state as long as the developers and community are adding theaters and features. The only down side is we will be constantly upgrading our systems to play more demanding features, much like we had to do in the original series.

[Blackdog_kt]

I don't have time to read the entire thread but i see most of the questions have been answered.

The one thing i have to add is that i have quite a similar system:
i7 920 @ 2.7 Ghz (stock)
3GB RAM
Ati 4890 1Gb
win7 x64

It runs well with most settings on medium, but keep in mind that my monitor runs at a lower resolution than most. I'm using a Dell 22" 16:10 aspect ratio monitor for the increased vertical space (helps during dogfights :-P) and it runs at 1680x1050, so my resolution is easier to manage with my current graphics card.

The other issue is that the sim really needs a lot of RAM and video RAM. Not only due to the current memory leak bug in multiplayer, but in general.

What i find is that even with the textures on medium, in some aircraft i get blurry textures at some instruments because i don't have enough RAM plus vRAM to load everything and it "downsizes" the texture resolution.

This only happens in certain parts of the bigger, twin engined bombers though: the bombsight reticule in the He-111 an Ju-88, the bombsight instruments in the Blenheim and the stencils/marking letters on the external textures of the aircraft.

I have a suspicion that if i add another 3GB of RAM to get to a total of 6GB, then it will be easier to load textures into RAM, which will also help "shuffling" them back and forth between RAM and graphics card when it needs them, so it might solve my blurry textures issue. In any case, that doesn't stop me from flying because i can still make out what the instruments display and use them effectively.

As for performance, unless you are staring at a group of clustered burning wrecks with the zoom view (lots of smoke/particle effects), i get smooth gameplay at most altitudes.

My video settings are:
1680x1050 resolution
AA off
Vsync on
model detail high
forests low
roads, grass and shadows (the three tick-boxes) are on
land shading on high usually, medium if i feel i want the extra frames per second
everything else medium

I can get anywhere between 30 and 50 FPS with this setup in a somewhat more graphics intensive aircraft like the 110, while flying over populated areas at low altitude, so it's good for most types of flying i usually do.

If i upgrade anything it will definitely be the RAM.