How large of maps could we see as being feasible for those short intense dogfights? Something like the short channel jump from southern UK to Northern France (the shortest gap over the channel) would likely appease some people for a simple MP yet historical map.

Personally think the included small dogfight maps are great, and got a really kick out of cross and roundel. I personally apologize for the vehemence this forum has became over the last few days. I've (although not against the Maddox team) spewed my own vehemence here. I think most of us, and hope others would agree, are just becoming anxious with the release so close.

Thank you for the hard work and all the bending over backwards the team has done to appease this community.

i guess you didnt wrote the manual.

If the manual is not correct, than i apologize 100% !!

Thanks for popping By Luthier, can you give us an update as to whether you are working on solving the SLI ? Crossfire problem?

I don't think the channel map is playable as a dogfight map. There's still at least a 10 to 12-minute flight from base to mid-channel where the battle is likely to take place, and with the airfields rather spread out along the coast, and the improved i.e. reduced plane visibility it's quite possible for two groups on full real to fly past each other while a few miles away and not spot the enemy.

I.e. there's no reason to split it off at all. You can fly over the large map just as well. The server can create a mission where only Calais and Dover bases are available, and that pretty much does the same as splitting it off.

Once again - small maps are for mindless FFA. Large map is for meaningful coop. It makes absolutely no sense to split it up into parts since the parts would be completely useless for FFA and still mostly useless for historical wars because they would only limit your possibilities without offering significant performance improvement.

The maps are split into regular "blocks" and you only keep a few blocks in the memory around your current position. The difference memory- or performance-wise when flying over online or offline map is insignificant.

The large map only becomes an issue if you have 128 planes starting at 128 airfields all over the map and you begin to Ctrl-F2 through all of them. Then you'd constantly be loading and unloading blocks into memory.

Luthier,

With more and more positive reports from users coming in, I am eagerly looking forward to getting the sim here in a couple more weeks.

Thank you and Oleg for all the years of hard work.

Luthier...do you know what condition will the western version will be released in, compared to the russian version.

You have to admit luthier, he has got a point there. If the official manual advices against using the only historical map it is just natural that there is an uproar.

90% of all credible IL-2 servers exclusively use historical maps and that is for a reason. Just take the UKdedicated server group. It operates three different servers, catering to all skill levels, yet all run historical missions on historical maps and would never dare to resort to any of the dogfight maps.

Or take the amount of gratitude towards the creators of the beatiful Slovakia and Bessarabia maps. That is the kind of map that this community is after and should be realized by a developer who is with this community for 10 years now.

That is exactly why people are "dumbstruck" to find not a single historical map catered to the needs of dogfight servers besides the 1:1 full map that you yourselves advice against using.

Something like these 2 areas woulda been good tho. I will still do online coops on the large map. I liked the fantasy maps in FB they were good fun, for a mess about. But really, FB/IL2 etc have always shipped with a smaller map or 2, historical that one can play online.

Franky has the best idea i think IMHO. Not that my opinion matter, but then, i am a customer...

Thanks for the explanation Luthier.

Must add that the manual, at least the english one, hints something different.
when you read it, it sure translates as "don't try to fly online on the main channel map, it's too heavy, performance-wise"

What you are saying is quite different.

+1 very well put Zorin.