Tactical Air War

July 22, 2017

Thanks everyone.

Had a blast flying with everyone. Coordination was great. I'm hooked.

I don't know what to do now.

Sniper, marine, riksen, et al stay in touch. What servers are you going to fly? Sniper maybe add us to discord chat?

Like dr1fter I'd be on random expert but not many folks yet.

July 22, 2017

I'd love to see either a forum, discord, or some medium where squads and individuals can meet up, plan, and execute. A calender to divy out caps and have better overlapping coverage. Might not be feasible until its a full server all the time, but cool if each side could pull it off. Any ideas? Free forum with verification on which side your registered....could be an issue with ability to have multiple accts...Discord chat?? Any ideas to take TAW and kick it up a notch?

July 22, 2017

I'd love to see either a forum, discord, or some medium where squads and individuals can meet up, plan, and execute. A calender to divy out caps and have better overlapping coverage. Might not be feasible until its a full server all the time, but cool if each side could pull it off. Any ideas? Free forum with verification on which side your registered....could be an issue with ability to have multiple accts...Discord chat?? Any ideas to take TAW and kick it up a notch?

We will probably run discord before next campaign.

July 23, 2017

A TAW discord channel wouldbe excellent so people can text, share screenshots, and stay and touch more easily.

On another note...Maybe some support with that il2 mission planner website!

P.S. Banzaii what server are you going to fly on in the meantime?

July 23, 2017

A TAW discord channel wouldbe excellent so people can text, share screenshots, and stay and touch more easily.

On another note...Maybe some support with that il2 mission planner website!

P.S. Banzaii what server are you going to fly on in the meantime?

Prob Random Ex w/ some WOL mixedin

July 23, 2017

To me it sounds like you were alone against those air defenses. If that is the case you are lucky to have survived honestly.

We (the 19//) flew a couple rounds on TAW as Axis the other day and had much luck destroying the AAA at a tank column using 4x BF-109E7's with all the armor. You are going to get hit more than likely and that armor really does increase your survivability.

IMO, if you are going to attack a target alone you need to take the air defenses out before you attempt any attack. By that I mean dedicate a flight just for destroying AAA, no other reason. Take a 109E or 110E with all the armor added, two 500kg bombs (in 110) and dive in on the AAA from a decent altitude. Do not fly over the target, start on the ends and work your way inward with the AAA. Remember to egress low after your strike, I mean treetops, because if you zoom up you are allowing all the AAA guns at the target to shoot at you, flying out on the deck allows only a couple of guns to shoot at you. Once you have gotten out of light AAA range, climb back up to about 1-2km and repeat. If you take a hit it's time to RTB.

That is with cannon's mostly. If you take the two 500kg bombs, and let's say you're attacking an enemy defensive position, then drop the two 500kg's semi-close to each other inside the defensive position, anywhere really, then run. The concussive shock from those bombs will destroy light AAA even outside the blast radius, so two 500kg's can knock out the AAA on one side of a defensive position in one attack. So do that attack twice (two flights) and the dangerous AAA will be mostly gone and you can attack with immunity... until the fighters show up.

To be honest, taking out AAA on the VVS is easier because you can be more aggressive with it. As a LW pilot you need to be strictly disciplined. The aircraft are more fragile but that doesn't mean they are worse. They can egress and climb back up to a safe altitude quicker, so it's a tradeoff.

Also, last but not least... No Heroes!

That means if you have the thought "one last pass" it's already too late for you. Might as well ditch and save yourself the trouble of thinking you can make it back to base.

Actually trees seem to be transparent to AAA. I have flown low level and have been out of LOS for most of the run. The AAA were able to see, track, and hit me well before I was within visual range. I recorded it and reviewed it. They should have had 1-2 seconds between me being visible and me flying over them. Instead they had enough time to destroy my 110. Replaying the track, I got down to the AAA level to see what they would see. Unless there are towers or balloons with guidance systems there is no way that AAA should have seen me.

July 23, 2017

We will probably run discord before next campaign.

If you need help setting it up, just shoot a message. However for the most part its straight forward and much easier than TS.

July 23, 2017

On another note...Maybe some support with that il2 mission planner website!

This would be great!

July 23, 2017

If you need help setting it up, just shoot a message. However for the most part its straight forward and much easier than TS.

Thx Sheriff. ;-)

July 23, 2017

Thank you for this great campaign.

July 23, 2017

As far as my impression goes, there is still a huge untapped potential for TAW. It does add a huge layer of depth to an otherwise pretty shallow game that BoX is in its current state. It's a selling point on its own and the server is in my opinion able to reach beyond your usual BoX playerbase, drawing otherwise uninterested players back to the game and directly onto TAW server.

One huge asset TAW has is an already pretty dedicated community around it. There are youtubers making videos from their gameplay on the server, there are players who precisely look forward to playing this server, there are entire squadrons that play the server extensively, bringing teamplay competitiveness element to it, there are diplomas for best players, there is a sense of persistent collective awareness regarding the server, apparent in posts like "this is the fiercest campaign so far" that everybody agrees with. The start of the campaign is an event itself, the end of the campaign is also an event of itself. It's all very much alive. Those are all traits of a very well conducted recurring event - like universally, not just gaming-wise - indicating that a significant 'client base' has been built and a certain level of relation was developed. Well done!

Transitioning to Discord will help emphasizing and building upon those traits, as this is a very community-oriented communicator. That said, there is one issue with all this community activity and dedication, that makes all of it heavily underutilized regarding the growth of TAW - it's all internal. The videos are made by TAW players for TAW players, the hyping up is not really happening that much beyond this thread or BoX forums for that matter, the squadron activity is, well, pretty much limited to the squadron itself, etc. This is not an accusation by the way, this is purely a marketing perspective, something players understandably don't usually think about.

That said if the server is to grow, 'penetrate the market' so to speak, it needs to go beyond and tap into those yet to be reached audiences that either aren't aware of TAW existance or don't really understand the appeal behind it, because it's not that well conveyed outside. I can speak for myself that even though I've seen TAW videos made by some youtubers I follow, they didn't really go out of their way to explain why this server is so special and worth playing, it looked like a regular multiplayer game. I had to make an effort and discover it by myself and that's something you cannot expect from your average viewers. And going beyond IL2:BoX community, for example I've seen some pretty darn disillusioned players on SimHQ forums that just didn't enjoy the shallow gameplay. Of course there are some inherent issues and controversies with the game itself, like spotting, flight feel that some refer to as kiting, or upgrade unlocking (not even sure how up-to-date those complains are, but awareness of fixes may be lacking as well with some players), but many players just got bored with the framework-level-of-depth gameplay and I'm sure they just don't know something like Tactical Air War exists.

And while the server is usually pretty populated in EU primetime, it's admittedly lacking in other timezones. This may be the way to fill those ranks. Reaching out to some popular sim youtubers from other timezones and encouraging them to try out the server during the next campaign and extensively covering it if they like it may help as well. I don't really think there's a prominent youtuber that would say no to an opportunity for interesting content, even if he has some issues with BoX game itself, and TAW provides a great base for interesting content, because it's an interesting server - simple as that. If the content - and that's regarding every type of content, not only YT - is branded as TAW content, emphasized as special TAW content, having this particular TAW context behind it, it will build a certain awareness of TAW being a special kind of server. Then this content needs to reach not only TAW players, because that's preaching to the choir, but those who are potential TAW players - WW2 simmers who seek a deeper gameplay. That goes for videos, screenshots, impressions, campaign start, campaign end, campaign turning points, diplomas - all the things that make TAW seem alive and exciting needs to reach those outside TAW or BoX community for them to be attracted to the server and the game altogether. Facebook, Youtube, other forums, websites, discords, twitch, reddits - so many channels that can be used.

I mean, this will be the tenth edition, right? Which one will be more worth of going out hyping it up with a bang, if not this one?

Of course that is if that's what the dev team wants. Maybe you guys want to keep it as compact as it is. But if not, I think a collective, coordinated effort for promoting the server could be very effective. I, for one, am willing to help with that if that's the course to be taken.

Sorry for inability of being concise.

July 23, 2017

@Kathon If possible can you provide the campaign stats as a excel sheet again?

Yes last time I had no time to work on that sufficienty. But if its not a big deal for you it would be great to take a look again at some raw numbers.

July 23, 2017

As far as my impression goes, there is still a huge untapped potential for TAW. It does add a huge layer of depth to an otherwise pretty shallow game that BoX is in its current state. It's a selling point on its own and the server is in my opinion able to reach beyond your usual BoX playerbase, drawing otherwise uninterested players back to the game and directly onto TAW server.

In my case you hit the nail on the head. I purchased BoS on 6th Feb 2016.

Up to the beginning of July I'd played it for about 6 hours over a 1yr 5 month period.

I found out about TAW from a youtube video (Darbzy's - How to play TAW server) at the beginning of July.

From the 11th to 21st July I've played 36 hours over 10 days.

24 of which were on the TAW server, the rest was either praciticing new aircraft or watching replays.

Not only has TAW given me many hours of enjoyment but for me its also saved BoS from vanishing into obscurity.

Since then I've bought the Fw-190 collector plane and planning to buy BoM with the discount code once payday rolls around. So in my case TAW is benfitting developers too.

The base game is "ok" but it really shines in envirenonment like TAW.

Thanks again to the LG team

July 23, 2017

Hey gents! New guy here. Been tooling around in the offline mostly, I played a few flights on the server last week sometime, and it was the first server I went looking for today! I can't wait until you're back up and running!

July 23, 2017

GREAT campaign

thanks to all of you

July 23, 2017

Thanks TAW Team for sweetening up our lives.

July 23, 2017

Next campaign might have a mountain map....just sayin.

July 23, 2017

Next campaign might have a mountain map....just sayin.

Not really. Probably next campaign will be released before game update besides if we would have kuban map week or two before campaign start we would not add it. Building a map takes a lot of time that's why. But no worries we will finally add it !

July 24, 2017

Great TAW, thanks to all who played and made it awesome!

BUT, WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH MY FREE TIME NOW?!! I guess I'll have to spend time with my wife....

July 24, 2017

If you are craving this type of flying, there is something just like TAW but doesn't get enough attention....Random Expert. It gives us a second full real server for tbe breaks in TAW.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Banzaii

July 24, 2017

Exactly. Without any offence or disrespect to the TAW staff, there are many features on RE+ which make the server more "challenging" than the TAW itself. Bigger distance between airfields and targets, wider range of target types and more targets as such as well as no automatic plane supply for your combat missions to mentioned the few at least.

July 24, 2017

Finally finished the campain, congratulation to the Reds, you do efficient on ground attack.

Season IX was a great campain, now we are training as VVS pilots while waiting for the season X.

Thank you for providing a wonderful server!

July 24, 2017

First, thx to LG team for another great campaing.

Thx for all players , and expecially thx to MK boys ( they have the hability for win a map i 2 days and this edition dont do it ) this help for to the bad calling " balanced " of campaing.

And please , forget aproximations to RE, are 2 differents kinds of competitions.... on TAW we have action and have to fight face to face for archive objectives.... on RE is a Navigation around kilometers and kilometers... for select objective dont protected and make super stats..... over objectives whit a very very poor AAA. .

See on next edition

thx again

July 24, 2017

Thx for all players , and expecially thx to MK boys ( they have the hability for win a map i 2 days and this edition dont do it ) this help for to the bad calling " balanced " of campaing.

So thx to the Mk guys for not playing :D

July 24, 2017

Talking about too accurate AAA at our server. Have a look at this video for better understanding how AAA works and how to make evasive maneuvers. Quite helpful.

July 24, 2017

In the absence of not playing on TAW I made another video.

July 24, 2017

Hey Kathon & TAW team-

If you want to integrate with il2missionplanner, I've developed a pattern with Crusader from Random Expert which is now being used by the Finnish Virtual Pilots server as well. You can see those examples here:

http://il2missionplanner.com/#randomexpert

http://il2missionplanner.com/#virtualpilotsfi

If you'd like to do something similar for TAW, let me know. I can describe the process in more detail via PM, but its as simple as generating a JSON representation of the map when the server flips over (every ~1h 45m, when you regenerate the map image on the website) and exposing that via HTTP for the mission planner to consume. The trickiest part is translating coordinates to the system used by il2missionplanner, but Crusader and the guys from Finnish Virtual Pilots got it working and I'm sure would share their technique with you.

Anyway, PM me if you're interested in pursuing this!

July 24, 2017

Hey Kathon & TAW team-

If you want to integrate with il2missionplanner, I've developed a pattern with Crusader from Random Expert which is now being used by the Finnish Virtual Pilots server as well. You can see those examples here:

http://il2missionplanner.com/#randomexpert

http://il2missionplanner.com/#virtualpilotsfi

If you'd like to do something similar for TAW, let me know. I can describe the process in more detail via PM, but its as simple as generating a JSON representation of the map when the server flips over (every ~1h 45m, when you regenerate the map image on the website) and exposing that via HTTP for the mission planner to consume. The trickiest part is translating coordinates to the system used by il2missionplanner, but Crusader and the guys from Finnish Virtual Pilots got it working and I'm sure would share their technique with you.

Anyway, PM me if you're interested in pursuing this!

I think we will use your help but later after we finish our work with new campaign

July 24, 2017

Hey Kathon & TAW team-

If you want to integrate with il2missionplanner, I've developed a pattern with Crusader from Random Expert which is now being used by the Finnish Virtual Pilots server as well. You can see those examples here:

http://il2missionplanner.com/#randomexpert

http://il2missionplanner.com/#virtualpilotsfi

If you'd like to do something similar for TAW, let me know. I can describe the process in more detail via PM, but its as simple as generating a JSON representation of the map when the server flips over (every ~1h 45m, when you regenerate the map image on the website) and exposing that via HTTP for the mission planner to consume. The trickiest part is translating coordinates to the system used by il2missionplanner, but Crusader and the guys from Finnish Virtual Pilots got it working and I'm sure would share their technique with you.

Anyway, PM me if you're interested in pursuing this!

That would be an awesome addition for sure!

July 24, 2017

Hey Kathon & TAW team-

If you want to integrate with il2missionplanner, I've developed a pattern with Crusader from Random Expert which is now being used by the Finnish Virtual Pilots server as well. You can see those examples here:

http://il2missionplanner.com/#randomexpert

http://il2missionplanner.com/#virtualpilotsfi

If you'd like to do something similar for TAW, let me know. I can describe the process in more detail via PM, but its as simple as generating a JSON representation of the map when the server flips over (every ~1h 45m, when you regenerate the map image on the website) and exposing that via HTTP for the mission planner to consume. The trickiest part is translating coordinates to the system used by il2missionplanner, but Crusader and the guys from Finnish Virtual Pilots got it working and I'm sure would share their technique with you.

Anyway, PM me if you're interested in pursuing this!

Yes Please!

For those saying TAW vs RE, please stop, that was not the intention. Its another full real server that does things similiar to TAW without turning into Airquake. Its a decent alternative until the next round for those who dont want radar available.

July 24, 2017

Glad you guys like the mission planner idea. Sounds like we might do it for the campaign after next, so maybe in a few months!

Talking about too accurate AAA at our server. Have a look at this video for better understanding how AAA works and how to make evasive maneuvers. Quite helpful.

I really enjoyed that video. Some really cool information and it gives me ideas about creating a "flak simulator" game- shoot I could use some of the mission planner map tech to make a little web game where you planned a route to a target evading flak areas based on intel and the it ran a simulation to see how many of your bombers got hit. Probably a pipe dream but the video was great and has me dreaming

July 24, 2017

Thanks Gambler

July 24, 2017

An impressive work by the LG guys, one of the best editions best achieved and complicated to win, personally it was a pleasure to fly with my friends as always tumu, miji, tofolo and ECV56_necator among other good friends that made it easier and Fun this edition, once thanks for all your hard work in the editions and for making us enjoy this great simulator, a strong hug and greetings.

Edited July 24, 2017 by ECV56_Black_ice

July 24, 2017

I saw the video a few days ago. Very interesting stuff.

July 24, 2017

Hello Gents!
The 9th TAW season had become history. We want to thank everyone who took part in this exciting struggle. When we are checking forum, we see many positive and exemplary feedbacks from all of you. That`s very encouraging and simply nice. We can promise that we will develop our project as best as we can, to give you the best impressions in our little virtual sky world. We are preparing season no. 10 so stay focused. Ofcourse we need a little time now, but we can ensure you that it will be worth it.
Now the season 9th diplomas and medals.
We have changed two of reds medals because previous ones were historically inaccurate - they were post war. Now all of them come from right time.
Greetings!

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