Hyperlobby is just a ghost town...

[ElAurens]

I poked my head in there several times this weekend and never saw more than 200 people on the Lobby, with only about 150 in game at any time.

This is on a weekend.

So sad.

[CWMV]

Id bet many are probably just waiting for the large modpacks to be updated to 4.11
Besides its summer, most are probably a bit busy with real life summer weekend activities.

[Treetop64]

And what about the southern hemisphere where it's not quite so "summery" right now. :)

Yeah, it's a long way from what it used to be years ago, where you would find several hundred in Hyperlobby on a weekday, and nearly a thousand (or more) on weekends, even during a particular region's summer months.

Definitely not the same now.

[JtD]

Which is a pity because the game was never as good as it is now.

[fruitbat]

Which is a pity because the game was never as good as it is now.

agree with that, both stock 4.11 and HSFX6.

Hyperlobby isn't the be all for online flying though, theres still a very healthy SEOW community where i do a lot of my online flying.

[ATAG_Dutch]

I poked my head in there several times this weekend and never saw more than 200 people on the Lobby, with only about 150 in game at any time.

Yeah....., well.

Some people (maybe a lot of people), were expecting 'Cliffs of Dover' to be a new generation of combat flight simulator. Maybe they looked forward to it like a starving man shown a t-bone steak (cooked rare, with all the trimmings) looming over the horizon.

All he had to do was keep aiming for it, trudging on, thinking 'I know it'll be great when I get there!'

And he trudged and he trudged, and when he finally got there it was just a quarter pounder with cheese, and the guy who cooked it kept taking it back saying, 'Sorry, I'm taking back the tomato sauce.'

Then - 'Sorry, I'm taking back the pickle'.,

Then - 'Sorry, I have to take the sesame seeds off the bun.'

Then - 'By the way, you have to eat it cold and you can't have the cheese'.

Which maybe kind of put people off T-bone steak altogether.

I know that the whole fiasco has put me off flying any combat flight simulator game/sim.

Maybe there are some others who feel the same.

[ElAurens]

Valid point Dutch.

And I still cannot help but think that the fracturing of the community caused by all the different mod packs, and frankly mods in general, have also been a big reason.

Ah well... It was fun while it lasted.

[CWMV]

Yes be ause forcing people to one obsolete option is the way.

[Untamo]

S!

You need more than 200 people to fly with to go fly? I was on War-Birds-FH every night this last weekend and had ~10 pilots in there the whole time and had much fun. Don't stare at the total, there's plenty of servers with more than enough players to join and fly with.

[Luno13]

Well, it couldn't have lasted forever.

However, I'm enjoying plenty of Il-2 action offline. The new AI is great, and they don't call you names when you can't shoot. :-P

[Feathered_IV]

I must admit I'm still very much enjoying Il-2 as well. As much as a creative outlet for making mods, as well as for pure gameplay. I never did go in for multiplayer that much. All those guys lol'ing and saluting each other tends to spoil the immersion somewhat.

[-=MadCat=-]

The confusion with all the mods sure plays a not to be underestimated role in the declining number of people showing up on hyperlobby.

But in my eyes, another reason is the overwhelming number of "arcade" servers on hyperlobby, what drove away many pilots, including me.
Guess we all know the situations where it would've been impossible for your "designated target" to spot you, making for a sure kill, and yet he did see you, be it wonder woman view or just F6.
I sure got tired of that, but still show up once in a while on hyperlobby, just to be around.
It just isn't anymore what it was some years ago, sadly.
Sure the game is as good as never before, thanks to TD, but many of the "old" people just "grew out of it" now and likely will not come back again.

Just my personal oppinion.

[ATAG_Dutch]

And I still cannot help but think that the fracturing of the community caused by all the different mod packs, and frankly mods in general, have also been a big reason.

QFT.

As far as I can tell, you need three installations, one 'vanilla' patched to the latest 4.11.1, one for Ultrapack, patched to 4.10.1 then install the other 13gb, and one waiting in the wings to apply the new HSFX when it's ready.

Roughly speaking, that's probably going to end up around 40-50gb of harddrive space. :!:

ATAG are setting up a server for Ultrapack, but personally speaking I only uninstalled ultrapack and the old AAA mods a couple of months ago through lack of use. So I'm loth to re-install it all again.

I've got the vanilla version still, but one look at the cockpit of the P-47 and well, it's just old hat, plus most of the vanilla servers are too 'arcadey'. :(

So I confess to having a pretty good time with RoF's Career mode at the mo. Online I'm just not flying the old buses well enough to cope. But the Bristol F2b is a useful bit of kit! :grin:

It makes me feel like a bit of a traitor to the cause, but there it is.

[Asheshouse]

Only need two.

One for UP3/DBW/4.10.1 with SAS Selector to switch between the three options.
One for 4.11.1/HSFX6 with SAS Selector to switch between the two options.

[Fenice_1965]

The game is good as it has never been now, but we cannot pretend that all of the people Who flew it for years are not bored.
It is normal that people change interests, if they do not find new stimulations.

[T}{OR]

And I still cannot help but think that the fracturing of the community caused by all the different mod packs, and frankly mods in general, have also been a big reason.

That. And Euro 2012 + HSFX 6 that just came out.

[vpmedia]

We could turn this around and say that not the mods but the lack of significant online and other improvements in the stock game causes the low user numbers at hyperlobby.
Imo we all should be playing CoD online by now. ;)
Btw are there 1000 CoD players online?

[ElAurens]

I wish it were true sir.

Our avocation seems destined for the dust bin, I hate to say. There just isn't much in the way of piston engined combat simming on the horizon should CloD fail.

I still enjoy IL2, but it hit the limits of what it can do, in a general sense, years ago. I appreciate all the fine tuning and other things that TD are doing, but the engine is still very limited.

Beyond that there is nothing.

Eagle Dynamic's DCS series is so enamoured with "modern" air combat, (understandably because of what they do to really make money), that I have no hope of them serving up a fully fleshed out WW2 sim in the next 5+ years.

I wish I had an answer. We've all been around this sim for so many years that watching it slowly fade away is really like loosing an old friend. Well, lot's of them actually.

Sad times.

[Luno13]

We could turn this around and say that not the mods but the lack of significant online and other improvements in the stock game causes the low user numbers at hyperlobby.

Why is anyone playing stock if this is the case?

Look, mods are not a bad thing, and no one is arguing that. There is nothing to 'turn around'.

The problem is options, and the fact that not everyone can run every version at the exact same time unless they have three computers with three controllers, and three hyperlobby windows up. Players have their preferences, and the single community fractures into sub-communities. However, this reduction in size means friends are lost, servers are less full, and because of this, missions are less interesting. That's all. It's a positive feedback cycle that works until only the most hardcore online fans are left.

[Bearcat]

Valid point Dutch.

And I still cannot help but think that the fracturing of the community caused by all the different mod packs, and frankly mods in general, have also been a big reason.

Ah well... It was fun while it lasted.


I don't see it that way.. Those who want to enjoy this still good sim stock or modded do so.. I think that many have just moved on and they use mods as an excuse.. because it's easier than just manning up and saying the thrill is gone.. Yes mods did have an impact.. and a negative one.. especially at first to some degree.. but at this point in the sim's development just between the two major mod packs and the stock sim alone ... for online play it can be what you want it to be.. but you have to want something.. you cant just sit and cry in your beer and throw up your hands and do a Joe Besser.. "It's to haaaarrrrrrddd".. and it is still fun if you want it. I don't get to fly anywhere near as much as I used to .. those days of having 2-4 hours 5 nights a week to fly are long long gone and will not be returning anytime soon for me... but everytime I do get to fly especially online with the guys.. it is just as much fun and there as just as much smack talk as ever.. just not the same participants..

[Snake]

These days the European Football Championship is on going, so this might be a good explanation why HL is so ...empty.
On the other hand, I fly online using HL for almost 3 years and I can say during summer time, at least on European time, you'll not find too many players. In the winter time, in the evening, there are much more.
Looks like russian servers or russian players are more active, so I suggest you install Xfire and select as your favourites the busiest servers. There are 4 or 5 servers where you can find at least 20 players each almost any time of the day.

[KG26_Alpha]

We could turn this around and say that not the mods but the lack of significant online and other improvements in the stock game causes the low user numbers at hyperlobby.


The since v4.11 there has been a significant increase in stock servers and CooP's at the Hyperlobby.

If TD could make a gui selectable sound plug-in that relinquishes the copyright shackles there would be even less using mods.



.

[K_Freddie]

Looking for a decent authentic 'full switch' server...
I played around on HL and only found 1 that's open, but not that busy.

The problem is that I'm in 'darkest africa' and my minimum ping is >150.
I'm currently un-modded, but if mods are required i can look into it..

:grin:

[Untamo]

Looking for a decent authentic 'full switch' server...
I played around on HL and only found 1 that's open, but not that busy.

The problem is that I'm in 'darkest africa' and my minimum ping is >150.
I'm currently un-modded, but if mods are required i can look into it..

:grin:

"Spits vs. 109 mod" and "Kampfverband 13" are quite good. If not 100%, but almost full switch with something like short range friendly icons (on spits vs. 109) and own plane MAP icon (on kampfverband) if I recall correctly. Both use UP3.

And I like to advertise the War-birds-FH server also, although it is frozen in time and still uses 4.09+UP2. What is it about, click here. (http://forum.war-birds.com/index.php?action=page;id=9)

[K_Freddie]

And I like to advertise the War-birds-FH server also, although it is frozen in time and still uses 4.09+UP2. What is it about, click here. (http://forum.war-birds.com/index.php?action=page;id=9)

That looks interesting.. even if it's older.
Thanks

[Snake]

Anybody know what's happening with HL? It's down for 2 days!

[Dusty88]

Since Hyperlobby is down, I have the FUN~4~ALL servers listed on Xfire.com. There are 110 other IL2 servers listed on xfire too, some were never listed on Hyperlobby.

These are good as of July 1, until my IP changes at any time.

Server Name: FUN~4~ALL~411
Server IP: 67.5.81.12:21101

Server Name: FUN~4~ALL~JET
Server IP 67.5.81.12:21044

Here are a few tips for Xfire, more soon..

https://sites.google.com/site/metaservers/fun4all

Thanks, ~Dusty~

[Pfeil]

Does Xfire have IP tunnelling functionality these days? Like Hamachi?

Because the IP's you list here are LAN only. I.E. within your own home network.

For other people to connect to those servers they either need a tunnel(vpn) or be plugged in to your network. Unless you set up port forwarding from your WAN IP.