Are you an online or offline user?

[jasonbirder]

I understand need for historical accuracy, but AI is not good enough...dogfighting skills

I tend to think its onliners that are hung up on the importance of dogfighting...if we're thinking of IL2 as a simulation...it simply didn't happen very often...
I'm sure Human opponents are cleverer and more unpredictable opponenets in a maneuver situation...but hey in real life...human opponents were usually stupider and more predictable opponents than we find here vs both AI and online...
Onliners enjoy the challange of a dogfight...because essentially online is a person vs person skill and agility test with little relation to a historic World War 2 aerial simulation (you could substitute WW1 Aerial Combat, FPS's etc etc for WW2 Aerial Combat with little distinction)...it is difficult to make IL2 a realistic World War 2 aerial simulation because the environment we fly in is so sanitised and Oleg has given us a simplified flying experience and an extremely forgiving FM, but merely making your opponents less predictable (where in real life they would have been far more predictable...and far less likely to maneuver at anything like the limits of their planes abilities) doesn't improve it...

And most importantly...and its a big wake up call to the Onliners, but by the time Hurricanes, Wildcats, P40's, I16's and Lagg3's had been replaced by Spitfires, Mustangs, Lightnings, Thunderbolts, Corsairs and La7's...the war had already been won...

[Zoom2136]

Looks like we have a WW2 veteran here LMAO

100% Spits vs 109s... need I say more

[Rama]

Originally Posted by jasonbirder

but hey in real life...human opponents were usually stupider and more predictable opponents than we find here vs both AI .

They were trained for teamwork and usually tried to work as a team... so I disagree with this statement.
Most of the offliners and a good part of the onliners fly and fight solo... which has absolutly no relation with an historic WWII aerial simulation.

Onliners enjoy the challange of a dogfight...because essentially online is a person vs person skill and agility test with little relation to a historic World War 2 aerial simulation

Some do like you say.... but some onliners (not everybody, but more than a minority) enjoy teamwork and try to apply team tactics that you can relate to WWI fighting tactics.
That something you can't do offline in IL2. The colaboration with the AI wingmans is too basic.

[TheFamilyMan]

It's pretty much 50-50 for me. Most of my online time is on a private server with friends. We do mostly coops and occasionally DF mainly for training purposes. I dabble in HL DF servers but in the most part they irritate me due to the gross lack of discipline of most of the participants. As for which, a rant follows.

<soap_box>
I enjoy the simulated WWII aerial combat experience IL-2 can provide, and DF servers IMO have next to nothing to do with actual WWII aerial combat. No WWII pilot took off thinking "Where's that fur-ball...I'll show everyone who's best". For WWII pilots, it was about mission success and returning to base to do it again. And that is the kind of flying I do with my m8s; we're even toying with the idea "you get shot down, your evening is over" to up the ante. I jump onto the HL DF servers here and there and I find that the mindset is really not that much different than in the Unreal Tournament servers I've played. I totally agree it's fun, but it sure ain't much more than that: WWII combat immersion? forget it!

I'd even go so far as to say it possibly dishonors WWII vets to make something into an amusing past-time (especially those shooter games: CoD et. al.) for which they risked and lost their lives in service to their country. I honestly feel a bit guilty about this.
</soap_box>

[Foo'bar]

100% Online. I hate getting shot by bots...