I think ATAG deserve a medal for what they are trying to do with CLOD.
But unless we get COOPs will never get close to recreating BOB battles online, it simply will not happen.

The ATAG server can be great fun, ive had fun on there. Its the best CLOD experience online by a mile, but its not the BOB.

It's a no-brainer tbh. Buy it and be patient.

I'd say its more like dating a bipolar woman with a broken hip but if you can get it cheap, grab it I guess.

Yes there are features that still need work, but I still don't see the FMB options available discriminating between Coop or any other servers. Call your group whatever you want but there should still be options to fly the missions you want to fly, with passwords to stop people not interested in flying your mission.

Once the sim is working properly I can easily see someone setting up a completely historical online campaign where the AI fills all the spots, and aircraft takeoff from historical airbases at the historical time, programmed with the historical mission. The campaign could be used by Coops or otherwise. The Coops could have a password so only those who want to fly a specific mission can do so without interference from renegade human pilots. 24/7 servers could have people or groups of people join the campaign at any time and take AI spots, or takeoff from the appropriate airfields of their choice and attack targets of opportunity. There could easily be options for anything inbetween those two scenarios.

Thanks for the kind words, Furbs! :)

Most of us think of the Battle of Britain as huge epic battles involving dozens of Axis bombers in formation with equally large numbers of escorting 109's perched high above at varying altitudes, with one or two squadrons (sometimes more, sometimes less) of RAF fighters rising up to intercept them. Indeed, this is where COOP missions would shine if 1C properly institutes them in future patching. No question, no argument.

A month or two (or three?) ago Farber and his JG/27 crew hosted a "bomber night". He'd have to jump in here to say how many participated, but I was in a Spitfire Ia squadron that spawned at Manston and we sat warming up while waiting for a squadron of Hurri Rotols to move their lumbering behinds off the runway so we could take off. Our job was to patrol the neighbouring Thames Estuary -- we barely got to 18,000 feet when the sudden appearance of flak alerted us to what turned out to be 6 He111's heading for London about 5,000 feet below us. Easy meat except for the pesky 109's escorting 'em. So......."not even close to BoB", you say? Hah! :)

Hey, even today I spawned in a Rotol at Manston and headed south. "Ribbs" joined up on Teamspeak flying a Rotol out of Lympne, so we hooked up. I had a go at a formation of five AI Dornier 17's at 12,500 feet while Ribbs headed off a 109 looking to interfere with my fun. While they headed to the deck I noticed a single twin engine --a 110 -- overflying my Dorniers headed towards our Comms HQ at G10 (an Axis designated target). Ribbs was finishing off the 109, so I gave pursuit on the fast-flying 110. He climbed to 17,000 feet with me slowly gaining. A quick burst had him instantly kicking over into a hard spiralling dive to the right. On the verge of blacking out I was losing sight of him, so I relaxed the turn, only to find the 110 on MY six! A quick split-S saved my bacon, but it took a few seconds to reacquire visual contact on the now-fleeing Zerstorer. Caught up once again and fired up into his belly. He fell away and dove into the ground. For my part, low on fuel, I landed at Littlestone amongst the Blenheims.

So, "not even close to BoB"? C'mon! ;)

All that sounds great fun Snapper! im sure it is, from me as well, no argument.

But its not the BOB, again not yours or ATAGs fault but that's dogfight servers for you.
Now imagine if we had COOPs, we could get all 19 members of ATAG plus about 10 of our fellas plus public and have a proper BOB mission...now that would be something to see Snapper eh!

Furbs... your telling me a Coop squad couldn't start a server with a group of AI Ju87 covered by a group of AI 109's attacking a convoy of ships, that your squad needs to intercept? etc etc etc

You don't really need a Coop room to start the mission. Your group should be on teamspeak or given an approximate starting time. I here Hyperlobby has COD available now so there might be a team room there. Or you could have a trigger that starts the AI when the first aircraft in your group takes off.

I need to have a better dig around and read of all the stickies to get up to date! Hopefully i'll see you in the skies in '46 and RoF really soon, and maybe CoD! What version are you flying inj il2 46 now?

@ATAG, your server sounds like just the cuppa. Love those long, tense flights, whether as pilot of a bomber or fighter.

Speaking of which, is it yet possible to have a seperate human pilot and human bomberdier? In il2 the pilot was also the bombardier, whiuch was frustrating in coops.

Furbs, what you describe (the 19 + 10 .....and more...) in a COOP format is great. I'd be the first to sign up for a spot. But I disagree that anything short of a COOP format is merely "a dogfight server". That implies absolutely no organization; a virtual free-for-all. That does NOT describe what I regularly see on the two ATAG servers of late. As Chivas mentioned, I see groups on both sides organizing themselves, via Teamspeak, to form bomber flights with specific server-defined targets as objectives. At the same time, calls go out over Teamspeak for fighter pilots to either provide escort OR to patrol over defined targets (ie radar towers at G7 Dungeness and I12 Ramsgate plus Comms HQ at G10 Canterbury) to defend against possible enemy bomber & fighter formations. Not all 40 or 50 players on the server wish to participate - but that's OK since that introduces a dynamic randomness to the respective missions. In fact, that "unexpected encounter" factor adds to the tension, just as undisclosed triggers in a formal COOP mission should have.

I see COOP as one means to bring a group of players together to reenact a particular scenario, with a defined start time. A good thing, to be sure, but by no means does that one format exclusively emulate the Battle of Britain. Those who are holding off from buying or playing CoD "because there's no COOP" are failing to grasp the huge capabilities of such easily utilized organizational tools such as Teamspeak, email, and these forums to get like-minded groups of players into their aircraft in the same theatre of operations. Farber and the JG/27 did it on a large scale, small groups of us do it on the fly every day. And for us, this is as much a virtual Battle of Britain as a formalized COOP mission(s) is a virtual Battle of Britain for you.

Well said Snapper!
Sorry to hear about your unfortunate TS experience Eviljoven.. like Snapper said..give it another try, there is a bunch of great guys in there. Don't let 1 bad experience ruin it for you. I for one am having a hard time waiting for the patch to come, but without the ATAG server, the wait would a heck of a lot worse than it is. The last time I checked, I was born in 1970. Not 1939-1940. I have no idea what it would have been like to be in the Battle of Britain, but Im betting not every day was 100's of Bombers and 100's of fighters duking it out over the channel, or over England. I've also never had the chance to strap into a WII fighter.... So when I jump into the server, and engage a bomber formation, or get jumped by a 109 off the coast of Hawkinge.. I can only imagine what it must have been like back then.....but being on TS and hearing the excitement/ desperation in someone's voice as they are about to engage an enemy, or getting swarmed by a bunch of 109's.. is priceless! It's absolutely a one of a kind experience for sure.
It's Definately worth getting, and its only going to get better for sure!Welcome aboard!.. Hopefully.. haha
Blue Skys! S!