Are you an online or offline user?

[FlatSpinMan]

100% offline. I want a sense of purpose, historical plane sets, and a sense of immersion. I haven't tried many co-ops but certainly the dogfight servers don't offer that enough for my liking. What's more, offline you can really make full use of the FMB to create a 'world' whereas this is restricted online due to connection issues and soon.
I freely admit that the AI can be irritating sometimes but usually less so than human players, if the chat bar is anything to go by.

Please make a fully featured, replayable,immersive offline experience. I want to feel like I'm THERE!

[Inadaze]

99.9% offline here.

[leitmotiv]

Originally Posted by FlatSpinMan

100% offline. I want a sense of purpose, historical plane sets, and a sense of immersion. I haven't tried many co-ops but certainly the dogfight servers don't offer that enough for my liking. What's more, offline you can really make full use of the FMB to create a 'world' whereas this is restricted online due to connection issues and soon.
I freely admit that the AI can be irritating sometimes but usually less so than human players, if the chat bar is anything to go by.

Please make a fully featured, replayable,immersive offline experience. I want to feel like I'm THERE!

Agree 1000% I like to leave having to deal with edgy personalities out of my leisure activity (I get enough competition in the real world), I like to design my own scenarios, experiment, learn tactics, and get blown out of the sky without silly guff.

[HFC_Dolphin]

Offline is the most boring thing in IL-2 world.
On the other hand, online can become extremely annoying, since the whole experience depends highly on the people you're flying with.

All in all, what we need from SoW:BoB above EVERYTHING, is a good offline experience.
And this can happen mostly if the offline experience becomes difficult and comparable, so people can compete against each other.
Furthermore, we definitely need some new campaign system. Something to make you want to continue the campaign after the first couple of missions.

[Thunderbolt56]

Online only.

Offline is only spent testing when there's a new flyable or if I want to make a tutorial track, neither of which I've done in the last 2 years.

[jasonbirder]

Those who say they dont play online because of the lack of historical (and realistic) servers... Bad excuse! I know, wait, 2, 4, 5.. 8 of them! (historical missions, no external views)

Bear in mind that there is more to realism than merely flying Full Switch...its about a populated map, an active ground envionment, realistic weather, realistic flight times, sizeable homogonous formations and consistent formation flying, realistic plane sets (Not Mustangs and Spit IX's against 190D's) proper mission objectives...
I am sure that these crop up occasionally online...but I KNOW for a fact if i pick my Offline experience I can get it 100% of the time Offline...Whereas my experince of online (even in so called fumm switch environments) is late 44 & 45 planes flying ad hoc sweep missions against each other on bare maps...i can think of nothing more boring!

[JG52Uther]

99.9% online.

[virre89]

Online only.
Offline simply used for testing out aircrafts and gun practice.
I think a more immersible campaign for SoW would be really neat.

[T}{OR]

Exclusively online, for the last three years. I gave up on IL2 back then when I was flying offline only. AI is just too boring.

Once you try online and full switch there is no going back. No AI can substitute that.

[Thunderbolt56]

Originally Posted by jasonbirder

Bear in mind that there is more to realism than merely flying Full Switch...its about a populated map, an active ground envionment, realistic weather, realistic flight times, sizeable homogonous formations and consistent formation flying, realistic plane sets (Not Mustangs and Spit IX's against 190D's) proper mission objectives...
I am sure that these crop up occasionally online...but I KNOW for a fact if i pick my Offline experience I can get it 100% of the time Offline...Whereas my experince of online (even in so called fumm switch environments) is late 44 & 45 planes flying ad hoc sweep missions against each other on bare maps...i can think of nothing more boring!

True some of the time. But the few times there really is a definitive, diverse mission (a large, spread out ground target that requires multiple sorties to neutralize) and both sides actually fly towards the objectives, it's not even comparable to flying against the predictable AI Haxxorz. And there really is enough of it to measure.

It's just my opinion, but I can fly those "realistic" offline missions 20 times and rack up ridiculous aerial and ground kills and feel absolutely no satisfaction or sense of accomplishment. On the other hand, if I fly one ground attack mission online and make it home to land (sometimes regardless of my mudmoving success), I feel like I've beaten the odds and look forward to doing it again.