OK. Thinking of Taking the Mod Plunge. Recommendations?

[Treetop64]

So here's the thing. Been sitting on the fence about this for years.

I'm not generally against modding. There are outstanding mods of professional quality for other games. For example, I never run Silent Hunter IV without the Real Fleet Boat and Run Silent, Run Deep mods. Dangerous Waters would have long since been deleted and collecting dust if it weren't for the LWAMI realism mods. The Power & Glory mod for GTR2 is a product of consistent and extremely high quality. However, I've long resisted installing mods for IL-2. Why? There are many reasons for that but here are just a few:

> IL-2 is a game that still(!) enjoys robust official support and gets new and improved content with each update. The vanilla version of 1946 is already full and rich out of the box, and it gets richer when infused with v4.11.1. Yet more goodness is inbound in the form of v4.12. IL-2 left unmodded is still a very good piece of kit any way you look at it.

> The particularly fractured nature of modding within the IL-2 community turns me off from using the mods, frankly. Usually you witness modding unite as well as expand a community, especially for games that no longer enjoy official support. Not here. The community has certainly expanded but the unity that used to make this community stand out has dissolved. Now you have different "camps" that seldom communicate with each other, except here in the yellow room on occasion.

> Many of us have read countless discussions over the years on how such-and-such aircraft flies and one's opinion on how it should fly, regardless of the abilities (or lack thereof) of the person flying the aircraft. The last thing I want to install is someone's idea of how their favorite aircraft should fly.

> One of the things that I truly appreciate about the entire IL-2 series is it's smoothness of performance, and near-total reliability. It's nice to be able to open an application and use it until your head falls on the keyboard from exhaustion, and not ever have to worry for a second about issues of instability. I can count on one hand how many times IL-2 has crashed since I first got version 1 back in 2003, and most of those times it was caused by something else on the computer, not IL-2 itself. Visiting the various mod site forums gave me the impression that I would spend more time tweaking than flying if I installed any of their work. Or suffer huge hits in performance because someone doesn't know how to make something suitably efficient while still having the same desired effect, or adds a ton of needless fluff - which leads me to a final point...

> More doesn't necessarily mean better. Just because one pack boasts more stuff than the other doesn't mean it's any better. I value quality over quantity. I'd rather possess two or three nice things than twenty or thirty mediocre ones. I live by this mantra.

The concerns stated above are the main reasons why I haven't committed to any mods. I've tried a few and seen others but mostly came away unimpressed, seeing that it changed something but didn't necessarily improve what it changed, and it's not worth the trouble. That was a while ago however, and I've noticed an appreciable leap in quality in some mods lately. I still prefer an ala-carte approach to installing individual mods. I'd like to steer clear of the large mega-mods as I'm afraid it's going to introduce a lot of stuff I either won't notice, or don't want or need.

Having said all of that, what mods would moddites recommend to someone like me, now exclusively an offliner? Which individual mods do you think are the absolute, gold medal, "can't live without" essentials to enhancing the IL-2 experience? If someone shoved a barrel of a .38 in your ear and forced you to pick a mega-mod, which one would you pick, and why?

Thanks for reading!

[fruitbat]

HSFX 6.

Its imo by far the best option.

1) its 4.11 based.

2) nothing else is, and to make custom installs and making sure everything is compatible is a pita sometimes.

I highly doubt you'll be disappointed with HSFX 6 from reading your posts over the years, (it also has 2 ways of using it, without expert mode enabled, all stock stuff is stock regarding fm/dm).

EDIT Pm sent.

[Bearcat]

What he said...

[GF_Mastiff]

yea treetop you will enjoy it.

[Asheshouse]

HSFX6 is currently the way to go, cause its the only mod pack which can be installed on v4.11

Best way is to copy your existing installation into a new folder and rename it IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 - HSFX6 (or something like that)

If your OS is Win7 do not nave the installation in the Program Files folder.

Install the HSFX6 files over the new copy of the installation.

Follow the instructions with the pack.

[CWMV]

Yes but if as you said you don't want to use the large packs then 4.10.1 with SAS modact is the way to go.
Installing mods one at a time let's you learn the process better then just extracting a modpack and then enabling via jsgme.
It's howany of us got started using mods. I didn't want anything that effected the FM's but I did want effects and sounds and maps. Modact let me do that.
Then I realised that most of the stock fm's were questionable, and then I started getting into the good stuff.

[Bearcat]

Not for nothing and no disrespect towards the above poster or SAS ... but stick with HSFX. If for no other reason than it is compatible with 4.11.1 and from my understanding will always be compatible with the stock version. It is also designed with online competition in mind.. From where I sit HSFX is the best chance there is to bring some kind of uniformity to this whole thing and a true best of both worlds scenario. UP, DBW & SAS as good as they may very well be as products.. (I always thought that graphics wise UP had the better product.. I don't know why bit it just seems to pop to me.. not that HSFX does not look very good as well.. ) the fact that they are not compatible with the stock sim makes a huge difference to me because TD+HSFX=One very large relatively unified block of material for the sim that s always going to be pretty much current with official versions.

That to me is more important than having each little mod that want or 79 variants of one plane..

[CWMV]

Well he is an exclusivly off line player, his words not mine.
Your preference for HSFX is based on a critera that he doesn't need.
If the OP must have 4.11 then he does have the option of HSFX or customised modact install. SAS has a set of beta buttons and modact working well, and it seems that the majority of the more "important" mods work well in it.

The funny part is that the mod community is already pretty well.unified and working together. SAS and UP are now two sides of the same thing, UP for online and DBW for offline. And now Beowulf has freemodding going full steam ahead working in cooperation with both SAS and UP.

And then theres HSFX over there by its lonsome self.

Bearcat, respectfully I think you may be misleading him with one part of your statement in that you talk of HSFX compatibility with the stock game. I'm not sure what you mean. One could easily take that as meaning HSFX is compatible playing with people who are running the stock game online. Not quite sure if that's true. Otherwise it is exactly the same as any other modpack, it alters the game for a specific goal: DBW for offline, UP for dogfight, and hsfx for coop.

[Bearcat]

Nope that's not what I meant by compatibility .. point taken.. and I think that he knows that .. stock is stock.. but you have a good point.. To clarify, when I say compatibility I mean that it works on top of the now most current version of the sim.. correct me if I am wrong but doesn't UP currently only work with 4.10.1? I read where there were issues trying to get it to work right with 4.11.. some mods worked and others did not.. ? HSFX is not all by it's lonesome.. For me.. the fact that it works with the stock sim .. is important .. As I said not to take anything away from SAS, UP or DBW or B Dub.. who is a longtime time friend of mine and actually opened up the door for me as far as skinning goes by taking the time to explain it to me on Vent one night.. but I think staying connected with the stock sim is important.. and I also think that HSFX is just as good in DFs as UP or the SAS MA..

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by CWMV

Bearcat, respectfully I think you may be misleading him with one part of your statement in that you talk of HSFX compatibility with the stock game. I'm not sure what you mean. One could easily take that as meaning HSFX is compatible playing with people who are running the stock game online. Not quite sure if that's true.

Oh it is true!

Any stock 411.1 server can be joined with the HSFX 6.0 mod enabled..

The only time you can NOT join a stock 411.1 game is when you have the EXPERT mode also enabled, and/or if the server enables the crt=2.

That is the neat thing about HSFX sticking close to the official TD/1C updates

Where as UP decided to go their own way making their own version of the game..

A true fork in the road..

That is to say with each official TD/1C update UP gets further and further away from the stock version of the game..

So it is inaccurate to say that HSFX is over there by its lonesome self..

Because HSFX is on the same side of the fence as the official TD/1C version of the game..

Which IMHO is good company! S!