Time to pull trigger on IL2 COD?
 

Hey gang,

It has been a long time, have been away for a while. I figure this is probably the most appropriate section, as my biggest concern would be performance, after COD was released, I kept up somewhat with the early reports, and decided to hold off for a while. I have IL2 1946, and used to fly it very regularly for a few years. I certainly have had, many many hours of great enjoyment out of that sim. My favorite flight sim genre would have to be WWII combat, any theatre.

I have been mostly flying civilian flight sims the last year or so, namely FSX and most recently Flight by MS. But my desire and want for a good WWII combat system, is getting stronger again and I need to do something.

So anyway, to the present. Back when I was checking this forum, was before even the USA release. After quick perusal, it would appear much of the early performance issues have been resolved, and sounds like there is a big update coming here very soon, that will resolve even more? Can one get decent offline air to air combat now, without becoming a slideshow with fairly decent graphics? Is the gameplay at least as good, if not better hopefully, than IL2 1946?
Also, I presume the sim still has to come through Steam as it was early on? I have a Steam account, have not used in a while, never was a big fan of it - but I can live with it. I am really only interested, in offline play if that makes any difference.

My computer specs are listed in my sig, also note that I am probably going to be upgrading my GTX 460 to a GTX 560 TI here in the next couple of weeks.

So anyway, I really want to get back into WWII combat simming, and being how much I loved IL2 I am thinking COD is probably the only way to go.

Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,

Decent OFFLINE air-to-air WWII combat is still probably better handled by Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory from the A2A Simulations site.

That said, IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover runs decently now and hopefully a lot better with the mystical mythical patch coming soon to a computer near you.

It's really a question of good AI. BOB2 has it. CLOD not so much.

My advice is: hold out a little longer.

If performance is important for you, wait for the beta patch and the reactions. If gameplay is important for you, wait a little longer for the release patch and the included gameplay fixes.

first off, if you are planning on a 560 for CoD get a 2gb version- but this may change with the patch. CoD really can use the biggest gpu's if you turn everything up.
can't say what you think are decent graphics but you should be ok as long as you are prepared to drop a little from max.

Offline gameplay has a few things that are 'less than perfect' but you can get some good experiences (imho). Good mission design is key here and that's a skillset that is getting there slowly as everyone gets used to the quirks of the mission builder.
http://airwarfare.com/sow/index.php?...ries&Itemid=73
might give you a taste of what's available.

Steam-afraid so- but the offline mode is relatively pain free.

Personally i think you'll enjoy it, you seem to have reasonable expectations. If nothing else it'll keep you busy for a while learning not to blow up the engines:-P- engine management is a big improvement on IL2

If you like ww2 cfs genre it a no brainer!
 

MS Flight? ahh man I could do that hot air ballon slalem all day long! jk

You like the ww2 cfs genre allready so the price is not even a factor just get it!

Steam updates for you! no more patch dance.

You will be fine on those specs but the GPU upgrade would be nice, just dont upgrade one tier up as you wont see much difference.

Theres so much to learn as far as the operating limits and start up procedure, setting up buttons etc... By the time the patch comes out you might want to be at least a little acclimated to the sim allready.

Most importantly if you can join us on coms at the ATAG server we can help, what good is a ww2 cfs with out a wingman?

See ya in the air!

Thanks very much for the quick feedback gang! I will probably go ahead and pull the trigger on COD, may go ahead and get BOB2 as well just to compare - been a while, have found myself homebound for the next several days due to circumstances beyond my control, will at least have some time to check them out - figure can't have too many good WWII combat sims!

Thanks again,

You can't go wrong getting both :) Definitely give the CoD multiplayer a go and jump on the ATAG teamspeak if you play there. It's a different experience, surely, but can be incredibly rewarding.

Thanks again for the tips - I am indeed going to go ahead and get both, I got some time and figure what the heck...

Regarding startup procedure and assigning buttons, is it changed radically from IL2 1946? Would be nice to be able to use my IL2 1946 profile for my Cougar Hotas, with COD.

Really appreciate the feedback gang,

Hey guys, quick question:
I have purchased IL2 COD from Steam, it is showing in my library with an " install" button to click. I would prefer, this not install to my system drive, ie my program files on the C: drive, I want to install to a seperate hard drive.

I am not that familiar with Steam, I thought I might be given a download option and be able to save the install file to my hard drive - if I choose " install" from the Library screen in Steam, will it give me option to select where I want to install it to?

Steam will only install games where steam is installed. You will not be given a choice where to install it. The workaround for this is to install steam in the location you want the game to be. If all you have is IL2COD for games, steam will not require much additional space.

I know several people, like me for instance, that have 100's of gigs worth of steam games. When I want to put a steam game on my ssd, I'll install steam again in that location, but will only install the game from that install that I want. Therefore I can click one steam shortcut for the C: drive and have 95% of my games, or I can click the SSD short cut for steam and the only thing showing in my library is what I installed in that location. And yes, you can use the same login for steam (same steam account) for both locations on your pc.

Thank you very much for the quick response ATAG, that helps me out a bunch.
I took a look and Steam is installed on my E: partition, so all should be well- if I understand you correctly though, if I wanted to install it to any other partition or drive, all I would need to do is download and install Steam to that drive, and just run the steam executable from the that particular drive as well.

Good info to know, thanks again!

You can install the game via steam and then move the entire directory to another drive by using the junction or mklink command. Essentially, Steam will think the game is on C: but you've actually moved all of the pertinent files to D: (or wherever). I've done this to put CloD on one of my SSDs.

There's a few tutorials on how to do this on the net. Search should find them pretty easily.

Yes Sir - That's correct!

Oh and if you like the online flying bit - make sure to hop on our team speak. Plenty of nice folks on there will get you up to speed in a jiffy with some good performance tweaks, tactics, teamwork, flight basics, and always good fun :)

Edit: Should've have known there's another way ;)

Good decision
 

Don,

Glad to here you made the leap into CoD. Once you get into it I think you'll come to see the extensive possibilities for this sym. Still relatively new with a few quirks here and there, you will quickly see the potential. Don`t form an opinion of the sim based on the campaign, frankly it`s lame. But I'm sure you're desire for a solid and realistic WWII sim will be realized once you learn the basics of mission builder. I also flew MS Flight Sim but have not touched it since getting CoD as the challenges of air combat and the ability to create my own scenarios, far outweights the experience in civil air flying. Most of the complaining you read within this forum comes from individuals with their own computer issues (e.g. lower end units), and while there are still issues with memory leakage etc, all of us are hopeful that Luthier and the guys will fix these and add some impressive new features. I've been working for several months now on creating the BoB day by day modelling each air air engagement along with historical text/photos in my mission builder briefings. It adds an incredible sense of realism when you can link real people, squadrons, ships and events into your scenario and in some small way see and hear some of what the actual participants may have. Not to get too serious, the sim is bags of fun and can be very challenging using complex engine management (e.g. I used to fumble around trying to set airscrew settings during dogfights and always forgot to adjust my radiator to keep engine temp under control, but now I do all this automatically). And flying a carborated Spitfire has it`s own challenges and rewards. Visually I don`t think you`ll find much else out there that will compare and if you invest some coin to upgrade your rig, you won`t be dissapointed. As the man said, it is a no-brainer.

dnr
__________________________________________________ _______
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Thanks for the info, I may check that out! However after looking at my drives/partitions, it may be best anyways to go ahead and install it on my E: partition, still have lots of space on it and that is where I already have Steam installed.
Btw - is there any advantage at all, having it installed to a seperate hard drive? My E: partition is on the same physical drive that holds my system partition... if not, I will just go ahead and install to E:

Thanks,

Thanks for the invite ATAG - quite honestly multiplayer does not really appeal to me very much, at least at this time. Couple of reasons - First, I used to be an extremely hard core racing guy, Nascar racing primarily - spent so much time online with various leagues, plus beta testing for Papyrus, I think I pretty much burned myself out online.
Secondly, whilst I have found myself homebound for now with my circumstances, I just had surgery yesterday - I will be back in the real world again before too long - and my work is very demanding in the travel area, so my time will then become much more limited.
But who knows, that online itch may come up again as I get more involved with COD - I did do a little online with IL2 way back when, and certainly enjoyed it for the little time I did it.

Thanks again for the info, that workaround by installing another copy of Steam to another hard drive , would not have occured to me. I am glad I asked, I did not want to choose the install button hoping it would give me a path option, and then end up with it installed on C-Program Files and having to uninstall and do it over again. As mentioned in another reply, I think I will just go ahead and install where Steam is now, my E: partition - same physical drive as my system partition though...

[QUOTE=dnr;399036]Don,

Glad to here you made the leap into CoD. Once you get into it I think you'll come to see the extensive possibilities for this sym.
<snip>
And flying a carborated Spitfire has it`s own challenges and rewards. Visually I don`t think you`ll find much else out there that will compare and if you invest some coin to upgrade your rig, you won`t be dissapointed. As the man said, it is a no-brainer.

dnr
_______________

Thanks for the detailed response and great info dnr!
I remember some of the most fun I had with IL2 1946, was with user created missions that had been uploaded - I had a blast with some of those!

I am even more excited and looking forward to trying this out - regarding equipment, while I have a decent rig right now, I think i previously mentioned I am going to upgrade my video card probably next week, from my GTX 460 w/ 1gb of ram, to probably a GTX 560 with around 2gb of ram. I know the 600 series are bout to come out, but when the do they will be limited quantities, and who knows the price- I don't mind spending money on good hardware, but I just refuse to spend 500 bucks on a video card.
Later in the year, when Ivy Bridge is release and the early reports are in, I will probably upgrade my mb, cpu, and ram at that time as well...

Btw, no issues running COD on Windows 7 64 bit? Seems like there was something I had to work around, when installing IL2 1946 on it...

Thanks again for the info, very helpful!

I completely understand. It was just a suggestion for a couple reasons. If you haven't figured it out, the game has quite a few bugs ;) and many of us online have spent 100's if not 1000's of hours playing it and figuring out how to work around certain things. For someone new to the game, it can be very frustrating finding this stuff all out for yourself, let alone how to do this, that, or well anything tbh. I think I initially spent 2 weeks just setting up my controls to give you an idea.

We fly it virtually every night in a really laid back environment. But there's no better way of learning all about the stuff than hoppin on coms. All I can say is once you're up to snuff on some simple flights, just give it a try. We also have some really good tutorials on our forums. Unlike some here, we actually like the sim ;)

Thanks ATAG, once I start to get my arms around it, I may very well do so! Will have to dig through my stuff to find my old headset LOL.

Wow, two weeks to set up the controls? Yegads.
Btw, did I see in your sig somewhere you have the new Warthog HOTAS? How do you like it? I fly with the Cougar, modded with the U2 NXT gimball mod and hall sensors, really like it and have been flying it modded this way since 2004. I have been eyeballing the Warthog though, I like it's looks and especially the fact, if I understand correctly and it works right, the Cougar handle can be interchanged with the A10 handle on the Warthog. But it would be hard for me to retire the Cougar setup as I have it now.

How are the control assignments in CLOD compared to IL2 1946? Would be nice to be able to use the IL2 profile for my Cougar for CLOD - if not radically different could use as a good base line anyway.

Thanks again, you have been a big help!

I'm STILL setting up my controls and I've been flying nearly every night for a half a year :P

Darn Blenheim :P

Ohhh crap, what have I done? LOL
:shock:

Hi Don,

First off, you can call me by my surname: Snapper. There's a bunch of us with the same mom who named us all after her pet tortoise, ATAG, but fortunately we each had a different father. Mom was quite a gal in her day.

My guess is that you would be happier to stick with your modified Cougar since it has the Halls sensors like the Warthog, but probably has a smoother action near the center detent with your gimbal kit. I actually removed the huge center spring from my Warthog joystick (there's a You Tube how-to; very easily done) and utilized the four small inner springs to provide the centering action. Not perfect, but it's much, much easier to make fine aiming adjustments now.

All the control assignments in CoD are re-assignable, so you shouldn't have any trouble reproducing the majority of oft-used commands from 1946 to CoD.

Make sure you join us on ATAG's Teamspeak channel when (and you know you will :grin:) you log into the ATAG Server. As you can readily see, we're a HILARIOUSLY funny group of guys! :D

You got it Snapper, thanks for the feedback on the Warthog and info on the control mapping in CoD! I certainly would have hate to spend those kind of bucks on the Warthog and found it dissappointing in feel compared to my Cougar. While I was tempted, the reason I was not tempted even more is I just could not imagine getting a stick that actually felt not only as smooth as what I now have, but even better, and this thing has been rock solid and unchanged since I modded it all those years ago. In fact I have hall sensor in the throttle, and even in my Elite rudder pedals as well, just wish I had toe brakes.

Who knows, you may very well see me on your Teamspeak channel before too long, especially once I get this thing actually installed and start messing around with it.

Thanks again,

Good stuff, Don.

Actually, I go offline on a regular basis to evaluate different ammo loadouts/convergences, a change in my control assignments (an always-evolving process), or even just to practice side-on high deflection shooting attacks on cooperative friendly bombers. :). I always recommend those new to this sim to get their bearings in the heav(ier) workload cockpits in offline practice before heading online. The ATAG Server is "full switch"; meaning Complex Engine Management and Engine Temperature Effects are switched on in addition to almost all Realism features are turned on, likewise. (exception: anthromorphic controls are turned OFF)

We frequently get newcomers on the ATAG Server and it's a pleasure welcoming them onboard, especially if they've taken the time to install Teamspeak. We have full directions on how to quickly set it up here: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.co...w-to-set-it-up!

We even have a separate channel for one-on-one cockpit training so two pilots can chat back-and-forth freely without hogging the "airwaves" of the regular channels. Actually, some of my most fun missions has been done from this channel as two of us head out over the English Channel as I give a "guided tour" of the local hotspots. One "student" even shot a 109 off my hapless tail -- much to his delight. How does it get better than that? LOL

Keep us posted on how things go.

Snapper

Will do and thanks again for all the great information. I think I mentioned I had surgery two days ago which is why I have some time right now, as soon as my pain subsides to a little more tolerable level I will install it and get going on it.

Now I am curious, I have seen you and others comment on how control assignments are such a long and tedious process, why is that - because there are so many and a large variety I assume?

long, yes.

This comes from a couple of things:-
alot of possible controls- both axes and buttons
different aircraft use different controls (and often in a different manner).

this tends to mean the best way is to have several ingame controls profiles designed for different aircraft so as you try different aircraft you keep (re)building controls.

You mention surgery, can i suggest (from experience) you keep the ability to use autopilot- then if it becomes uncomfortable you can let the computer take over for a while.

Anyway, you've got something to stop you going 'stir crazy' during your hopefully short recovery;)

Indeed, thanks for the tip and the feedback bolox!

Allright gang she is finally downloaded and installed!
I must admit, when the install process began and I got a message it was " repairing" my Net Framework 4, then had to reboot the pc when it completed that, I got a little nervous. I have always kept my Win 7 64 bit updated through windows update to include all net framework versions - at least all the ones that windows update offered.

All seems well though - the sim launched and took me to the main menu screen just fine. I took a quick look at some of the menu items, especially the controllers and realism menus, and it certainly can seem quite daunting. Looks like as has been mentioned I got some real work ahead of me. As I continue to improve on the pain level in my recovery I will get more into it. I think I will start in the meantime with some reading up of the faq here and some of the threads here to see what knowledge I can gain in the meantime...

Now, it is my understanding that since this is through Steam, my install after completed will already have all the updates that have been released and will be current?

I want to thank y'all again for all the help and feedback so far- it has certainly been a big help to me so far!

you should be current- will say"version 1.05.15950" bottom rhs of main menu screen if up to date.

Some reading is a good idea and there are some good video tutorials around.
One final bit of advice is to stick to one aircraft to learn on at first (109E-3 or Rotol Hurri would be my suggestions).
Then, when you are confident in that, start leaning other aircraft.

Yep just checked that is what my version number shows.
Thanks for the tip on aircraft to start out with - I will be sure I use one of those.

Thanks,