What attracts you to combat flight sims

[JG52Krupi]

I have played a load of different games from FPS, RPG's down to Strategy games... but I always find myself coming back to Combat Flight Sims, IMHO the reason for this is that the genre makes you learn the ins and outs of each aircraft to truly master it no other games requires you to get so involved with getting to grips with the basics before you ever fire a weapon in anger... its not just mindless button smashing that I find most ever games boil down to when you are in a tricky situation.

This allows you to show off your skills/what you have learnt in a way that no other game truly allows, sure FPS's allow you to show how quick your reactions are and strategy games allow you to show a great deal of cunning (until you opponents stumbles on your massed up hidden troops or you find he has built a virtually unimpenetrable fortress ), flying is not just about learning your aircraft its about situation awareness, knowing when to fight and when to run... no other game genre except some exceptional RPG's and the occasional "once in a blue moon" well written FPS's games have grabbed me in a similar way.

So what is it for you, what brings you crawling back to the most under rated and, in comparison to others, unpopular genres out there?

Oh all that and my undying love for anything that has wings

[JG52Krupi]

BTW Kudos to V/JG27 and there "one aircraft per go system" it really adds to the immersion factor.

[ACE-OF-ACES]

WRT learning..

LEVEL 1 Dogfight: Not only do you have to learn the pros and cons of your aircraft, but the pros and cons of your aircraft relative to the other aircraft. For example, in WWII, F4u vs. Zero. In this match up the F4u would be wise to use 'boom and zoom' tactics, in KOREA, F4u vs. MiG 15. In this match up the F4u would be wise to use 'turn an burn' tactics. Thus it should be clear that there is not a set tactic for a plane, it all depends on the plane your mixing it up with as to which tactics to use.

LEVEL 2 Tactics: One of the things I find rewarding about flight sims is that when I apply real world tactics (Boelcke dicta) they actually work! Which makes me appreciate not only history, but the men themselves. In that chuck said it best, it is the man not the machine! Thus the man who wins is the man who 'knows' which tactics to apply per the situation. Granted you need a flight sim with a good flight model that mimics the real thing pretty closely to make use of specific historic tactics, for example the BoB era 109 vs. Spit, where the 109 uses the nose push (red out) tactic to evade the Spitfire. If the sim does not simulate carb cutout you will not be able to make use of this 'specific' tactic

LEVEL 3 Team Work: Another thing that I find rewarding is when you get a good group of guys together who have mastered levels 1 and 2 and have worked with each other enough to almost know your next move before you go to the trouble of saying it over team speak. This is where it all comes together and makes for an experience that should not include the word 'game' anywhere in its description!

That is why I feel sorry for the Quake types of flight simmers who know nothing but the wonder woman dog fight servers.

You know the types, they are the ones that feel the need to defend the wonder woman view by any means necessary. Never stopping to realize that they are short cutting the flight skills needed to maintain SA vs. simply looking 'through' the glass floor to maintain SA. Those poor fools will forever be locked into the Quake mind set where thier definition of an air battle happens below 5kft between two air bases that are so close to each other that you could toss a rock at the planes taking off at the enemy field from your own airfield.

Not that there is anything wrong with that! To each his own, but, they just don't know what they are missing IMHO

For me: I just love historic aircraft and then: fighting it out with somebody (that's why I prefer mp) outmanoeuvering and outshooting him in three dimensions (well, trying to)

[Sven]

The ultimate combination of realism, teamwork and competence resulting in thrilling but also most satisfactory gameplay.

That's why I like flying WWII sims.

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

not as dependent on reactions as judgement.

That sums it up perfectly IMHO!

[addman]

Right now? Italian aircrafts...

[Richie]

The immersion factor of being in that Bf 109. That's why I don't really like coms that much because if I hear someone whining about this or that it spoils the effect. I want to shoot down an enemy over the channel and I want it to be as real as possible.

[=CfC= Father Ted]

For me it's all about the cheery, optimistic forums that seem to spring up around such games...

But seriously...A lot of the replies above talk about applying real world tactics and team work to be successful. To that I'd also add the satisfaction of employing a hard-earned skill.

I'll also confess that what drew me initially to the genre was the chance to live out boyhood fantasies. That's the baseline interest. Of course, I've found that it's all a lot harder than I imagined it would be, but I'm enjoying the challenge of learning.

What keeps me coming back, though, is multiplayer. Before the internet became what we take for granted now, I had lots of combat flight sims, but soon got bored of each of them - AI was always too tough or too easy. Once you get to peek "behind the curtain" of videogames they lose their lustre. Throw real people into the mix and it's a whole different game. Add in a bit of social interaction via TS and I have a recipe which has seen me put in lots of hours on IL2 - way beyond what I would have on my own.

I'll be honest and say I've put in about 10 hours on CloD - and I bought it on release. That's mostly because I haven't got around to MP yet. I fire it up, marvel at the graphics, have a dogfight, restart the mission, have another fight and then...meh

[Sternjaeger II]

I have a bit of a mixed feeling about sims.. I mean, I like flying with simulators, and the more accurate the better of course, but there's always a couple of elements that are missing which really affect the realism of the combat experience: fatigue and attitude.

No matter how advanced, a sim will hardly wear you down like flying on a real plane, and I'm not talking just about tiredness, but stress as well, which links with attitude: we tend to take more risks and do crazier stuff on a sim that you would do in real life, simply because we're not there, and if you die, you're dead only in the game.