What's so bad with the offline campaigns ?

Worst thing is not in the poll.......That being the ability to switch off the F6 & F7 functions as a server difficulty setting for online play IMLTHO.

To be honest none of the poll options grabbed me.

What I will say though, and I know some will think this is not important, and I apologise if this has been covered before - but for my two cents - the net code and ladder support are absolutely critical for 1C to include in the next incarnation of IL-2. Why? Because in my most humble opinion as a gamer, if 1C does not address this, then some other developer will come along and nail it (ie. the MP code and ladder support) , probably also noting 1C's strongpoints in damage and physics rendering but probably not doing so good an effort. A lesser game, marketed well, could eat away at the player base of IL-2. I don't think any of us want that here.

Rather, if 1C spent a little time on the multiplayer aspect and looked at how things like the much applauded (and also criticised) Hyperlobby have changed IL-2, and made it easier for teams to arrange matches and interact with each other, you could/should/will have an űber-sim so to speak...

I am a former CO of an Australian squadron that constantly had problems with matchups that HL wasn't able to solve. In the end, but principally by other factors, the isolation of infrequent matches killed the Squadron. Now firstly, I am in no way blaming anybody except myself for this, however - had there been a proper matchup system implemented into IL-2 earlier it would significantly improved our chances of staying in the air.

The combat flight sim community has a lot of dedicated enthusiasts without a doubt. What needs to happen is for those people to be able to get into the air as quickly as possible with a minimum of fuss. Ladder support and attention to the multiplayer aspect would go a long way into achieving another long period with BoB becoming the choice of us combat propeller-heads.

I would also really hope that the next FMB editor allow creation of new maps (specifically terrain etc.) for us to contribute to recreation of all theatres of war without having to wait for patch updates hoping that what we desire to have in the game gets released.

I can appreciate that 1C already has a lot on it's plate at the moment, and BoB is already shaping up to be the next generation CFS that we are hoping for - but since I haven't seen anyone in any forum say much about these topics, I thought it was worth at least discussing.

Thanks for listening :D

Agree 100%

Only have external for your aircraft and no padlock of any kind would totally change the sim for the better.

Agree with the comments about the offline campaign being the biggest weakness. But to answer the question about what is wrong with the offline dynamic campaign:

- no atmosphere, each mission briefing is just a matter of 'go here - do that'

- no 'storyline' or drama, just dry technical gameplay.

- often very difficult to guess what the mission objective is, and thus to achieve it. The briefing tells you it's a bomber intercept. But you often have to destroy an unknown (and unrealistic % of a) target formation to succeed. Often to achieve this you have to rely on your wingmen to contribute as there is no way (except with unlimited ammo) you could achieve it on your own.

It is a huge immersion/enjoyment killer to fly a bomber intercept mission, bring down a bomber and maybe a 109 as well, and then be told your mission is a failure! Or to find yourself tangling with two fighter staffel, bring down two 109s, and find you didn't attack the 'target' staffel, so you fail.

- no ability to steer the strategic level of the conflict, you are always just playing at a tactical level and in BOB SOW this would very much limit the joy of experimenting with alternative histories. (BOBII campaign is a nice example of how to model the strategic level of a WWII air war)

Having said that the ability of IL2 MB to allow users to create scripted offline campaigns is fantastic! With all respect to the creators of BOBII I personally don't think anything can match the enjoyment of a well scripted Battle of Britain campaign such as Poymando's Battle over Britain or Cobra427s Hurricane Season/SpitnFire. Yes they both have to use the Gulf of Finland map, but the ability to script the missions, with random elements, makes every mission immersive and challenging.

A big reason these campaigns work however is that while the mission goal is stated in the briefing text, in actual play, the mission is usually deemed 'achieved' by reaching a recon waypoint, meaning the player is free to play every mission with a complete freedom of action. (This is similar to the BOBII campaign in effect, once in the air, you are in control of your own destiny and not punished for making rational choices in the thick of combat).

The mission may be a bomber intercept, but as in real life, if the player gets tangled with Emils and survives or downs a few, the mission is not declared a 'failure' and has to be reflown; the player still lives to fight the next mission. Sure, as the player you know you didn't achieve the objective and stop the bombing raid, but you can make your own judgement about whether you want to refly. Most simmers are grown ups, and this format treats them as such!

This contributes greatly to the enjoyment and I really hope SOW learns from this and gives this kind of freedom to the player in the offline campaign. If you look at the most popular offline campaign downloads you will see they have this free-form format, and there is a lesson in that.

worst thing about this old sim is its, whiney, ungrateful, chartbrandishing, bias accusing, patch impatient, ace hating, cheat hacking, soul sucking online forum community....but I love you guys as much as Oleg does be sure?

right now on a pc screen/monitor the il2 aircraft LoD models at medium and far distances blend in to much with the terrain and background, and they should stand out more !

object visibility distances for spotting, tracking, and identification of objects (trucks, planes, tanks etc..) is 50 to 70 % less than what it is in real life.

we cant be expected to permanently fly in the max zoom view, and should see those objects correctly when we select the "normal" FoV (being "normal" for our specific monitor size).

ideally during initial game installation you should be asked to enter your monitor size , and this would then set the correct FoV for the "normal" default view. you can then still have a zoom view set to another key, and a max view to increase situational awareness when needed.

that should then start people with the correct object visibility (if the il2 objects stand out enough against the 2D terrain being seen on a pc monitor), and they can still go and edit it in the setup options for their FoV if they want to change it later.

I voted for the uber gunners...though i agree with most of the things posted in this thread about other things as well.
Still my favorite sim of all time though.


8)

sounds
 

I voted sounds but I love the game and have never really found a problem with any part of it. but full stero sound or 5.1 or 7.1 surround would be awsome to have in it .. :wink:

For me what is the worst is the distance of sight and objects..

Those overcast clouds and fog together make the peoples not use those kind of weather witch were very very frequent..

Overcast with no haze like we have now that would be great to have the choice.

Snow with the wind settings adjustable same with rain.

this should of be done long agao already..