Am I missing the North American players?

[Uriah]

Five months have past and fishing season is mostly done.  So I get back to this game hoping that I would see people on team speak on the channels Jason provided between the hours of 6 PM to 10 PM USA times.  I am in the central zone with is 6 hours behind London.  

 

I see very few people on and they are scattered about often when I go to chat with someone they are gone from their PC.

 

So are there just so few US based players on?  Are they using some other channels than what Jason provided?  

 

I miss the company from the old IL-2 1946.

[SC_Manu653]

​You know Uriah we are a lot of American players but most of us use our own channel on TS (from squad).

[coconut]

​You know Uriah we are a lot of American players but most of us use our own channel on TS (from squad).

 

I started hanging out in the BOS official TS when running playtests of my missions. I find it's a good way to meet new people and attract players to my server. Running my own TS is kind of counter-productive. I'm thinking maybe more squadrons should do the same. It's up to everyone of course, but it might help break that feeling of loneliness. I know having your own TS has a nice touch to it, like having your home, in some sense. It's also nice inviting friends and people to it. However it can also prevent reaching "critical player mass", so to speak.

 

Maybe there's a day when using a public TS becomes a nuisance, but I don't think we have reached that point. The community is pretty small and rather nice on TS, probably nicer than what some of the heated discussions on these forums might lead one to believe.

[Uriah]

I will be looking for you coconut.  

And Manu653, if you feel like it send me the needed info and I will sign in.  But I do agree with what coconut wrote.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Uriah

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

That's one nice thing about TAW is that people do seem to use it's common TS more frequently. I've started going on the Official TS server but usually when I am on it is pretty much completely empty.

[Uriah]

TAW?

[SAG]

TAW?

 Tactical Air War... 

 

its a dynamic 24/7 campaign server that runs for 3-4 weeks and has its own TS server. it is down at the moment but expect it in about 1-2 weeks

[ACG_KaiLae]

There are people on, you just need to know where to look for them. I have something like 5-6 TS channels and a discord channel bookmarked where I find players logged in; it is kinda annoying.

[BlitzPig_EL]

There just are not enough people online, period.

 

And I'm as much to blame as anyone, I have not flown online in weeks.  The rest of my squad is now chasing another squirrel (Elite Dangerous) so going out there alone is not much fun.

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

so going out there alone is not much fun.

 

Exactly, jump on TS and wing up with a random or two. It could go two ways, either they are not up to the same level as your squad mates and you get to help out and teach them something - or you are surprised and you do just fine or even learn something from them.

 

If you don't like the people you find in TS that occasion, try again another time.

 

 

Only issues with a full TS server is that general chat can sometimes overwhelm the communications channels. Rare right now that this is a problem though.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Tripwire

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

It you fly Allied you probably will see more pilots on the Allied English channel. Axis English is normally totally empty especially evenings in Pacific time. 

 

[JG13_opcode]

There just are not enough people online, period.

 

And I'm as much to blame as anyone, I have not flown online in weeks.  The rest of my squad is now chasing another squirrel (Elite Dangerous) so going out there alone is not much fun.

Same with me. Most of the people I used to fly with got scared off by the unlocks. It's just me and one other guy now and the rest don't really seem interested in coming back now that they're invested in other games.

 

Honestly I feel like they kinda torpedoed the sim with that stupid unlock system.

[ACG_KaiLae]

Same with me. Most of the people I used to fly with got scared off by the unlocks. It's just me and one other guy now and the rest don't really seem interested in coming back now that they're invested in other games.

 

Honestly I feel like they kinda torpedoed the sim with that stupid unlock system.

Funny thing is, if they had the RoF singleplayer in the game from the start instead of adding it now, this wouldn't have seemed so odious.

[Brano]

We need ingame voice interface. So people don't have to run 3rd party external programs to communicate. You connect to any server and you have 2 main radio frequencies at your disposal (red/blue) + command interface with ground observer station to check on actual situation on the battlefield + command interface with home airfield to help get direction and organize traffic (landings/takeoffs...)

Edited September 27, 2016 by Brano

[Jade_Monkey]

Ive hopped on TS and found no one. So I've stopped going on TS and do lone wolfing. Not much fun tbh.

 

Squad TS channels may not help but like someone said, there are not a lot of people to begin with.

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

Ive hopped on TS and found no one. So I've stopped going on TS and do lone wolfing. Not much fun tbh.

Keep logging on and then you will start to see others use it and stay.

 

I regularly catch the same people on TS and find flying without others on comms very dull.

 

I find lots of people login and check to see if anyone else is on but don't stick around which probably just makes it worse.

[JG13_opcode]

We need ingame voice interface. So people don't have to run 3rd party external programs to communicate. You connect to any server and you have 2 main radio frequencies at your disposal (red/blue) + command interface with ground observer station to check on actual situation on the battlefield + command interface with home airfield to help get direction and organize traffic (landings/takeoffs...)

 

My experience is that all the "built-in" voice systems are always worse than using Teamspeak or Mumble in terms of both convenience and functionality.

 

Ive hopped on TS and found no one. So I've stopped going on TS and do lone wolfing. Not much fun tbh.

 

Squad TS channels may not help but like someone said, there are not a lot of people to begin with.

It used to be that every major server had a public TS and you'd just hop on there. Most of the time on WOL or 1C TS I just find 2-3 people in the English channel speaking German or some other languages that I don't speak so I just avoid them now.

[TheNotoriousFNG]

We need ingame voice interface. So people don't have to run 3rd party external programs to communicate. You connect to any server and you have 2 main radio frequencies at your disposal (red/blue) + command interface with ground observer station to check on actual situation on the battlefield + command interface with home airfield to help get direction and organize traffic (landings/takeoffs...)

1946 had this. It's something I've continually suggested since I believe that it would allow a more readily available ability to quickly communicate with others on the server. Squads can still keep their private third party chat to only communicate amongst themselves, but having the ability to communicate with anyone tuned to your channel via an in-game VOIP would be nice. Furthermore, an effect could be applied to the transmissions to add to immersion, but that's just my 2 cents.

 

I actually bought the original Il-2 Sturmovik, skipped FB and AEP and came back onboard for Pacific Fighters. Thanks to the built-in VOIP, I talked with a few people who convinced me to go merged and I ended up buying FB+AEP. Haven't looked back since then!

[coconut]

 

 

My experience is that all the "built-in" voice systems are always worse than using Teamspeak or Mumble in terms of both convenience and functionality.

... but it's better than no voice system at all, which is what most random people use. A few years back I played a lot of PlanetSide 2. Our outfit had its own teamspeak, and so did many other groups. We still used the in-game voice chat despite all its defects to communicate with random non-members. Even if they did not have a mike set up, we were able to talk to them instead of having to constantly type in the chat.

 

I will be looking for you coconut.  

And Manu653, if you feel like it send me the needed info and I will sign in.  But I do agree with what coconut wrote.

 

Unfortunately (?) I'm not American, I'm on evening EU times.

[6./ZG26_Emil]

Why not join a squad?

[SAG]

Try and join or fly with a squad that is fromyour general area (timezone) here is a russian one from the US which i belong to http://www.simulatedaircombat.enjin.com/19thguards

 

there is also jg52 which is pretty much the same but for the LW

[6./ZG26_Emil]

There aren't many serious teams who want to be on a public TS where you can get interupted at critical moments by people who've just got home from the pub or forgot to take their meds :D

[6./ZG26_Emil]

Hey Emil, glad you're back!

 

Some reasons:

 

Squads vary greatly in what they do, their rules, or openess etc. you may want the freedom to fly what you want, how you want and when you want and a squad may not necessarily work well with what you want.

 

There may be someone you simply can't get on with in a squad, a class of personalities.

 

You may enjoy meeting random people and hooking up for a flight, squads can limit that 'meeting new people' angle; particularly if most time is spent on a seperate TS as in the OP query

 

Your time may be very limited and/or random, arranging squad time may be nigh on impossible.

 

Squads can upset the balance of a server if a couple come on for the same side for example without others on the opposition, to me it usually ends up with lone wolves moving over and just getting mullered by them then!

 

As I said above, if squads are on seperate comms it makes it hard for other sqauds and loners to communicate.

 

Don't get me wrong, squads are key to a decent online experience, and for the individuals within they help massively to provide a decent, enjoyable MP experience; but if they close themselves off on coms I beleive they actually hinder the options available for other squads, and non-squad people in particular. FNBF is ideal in my opinion, mostly people in the same TS but in different channels, with whispers to the other squads/bombers etc.

In an ideal world where people can behave I'd agree unfortunately some can't and when you have no admin rights there is nothing you can do when/if disrupted.

[Uriah]

It has been a while so I may not remember right but I thought there was a way in TS that you could mute people you did not want to hear.

Do the squads play on the list of servers that show up under multiplayer?  Or is there a way that a game could be up that does not show up there?

What I am thinking about is that if say some squad does have people on a lot and they fly in say Wings of Liberty then at least I can see where people are at.

 

And it would be nice to see who is on any particular server when it is up.  

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

http://il2stat.aviaskins.com:8008/en/online/

[6./ZG26_Emil]

It has been a while so I may not remember right but I thought there was a way in TS that you could mute people you did not want to hear.

Do the squads play on the list of servers that show up under multiplayer? Or is there a way that a game could be up that does not show up there?

What I am thinking about is that if say some squad does have people on a lot and they fly in say Wings of Liberty then at least I can see where people are at.

 

And it would be nice to see who is on any particular server when it is up.

Yeh u can mute and all that stuff but it's a pain to do mid flight. I don't know about other squads but we're either talking technical stuff or general BS....why would we want to be interupted.

 

Jason alluded to the idea of creating a hyperlobby style in game lobby which would be awesome but still...join a squad and that way you can have like minded ppl to talk to every night

Edited September 27, 2016 by 6./ZG26_Emil

[ACG_KaiLae]

TL/DR: You can fly with someone nearly all the time, but you're going to need to learn the addresses of a lot of channels first.

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

They did try it in the original Il-2. I thought it worked OK though the voices sounded a little digitized/robotic. I think everyone tried it once and went back to teamspeak, kind of like manual engine startup. 

[curiousGamblerr]

I see absolutely no reason to try to cram voice traffic over the DServer when dedicated applications exist. It wouldn't be worth the development time and would be a waste of network resources. Not to mention TS etc. are the accepted norm for PC gaming in my experience.

 

If fracturing the currently flying population is the problem, there are other solutions. For example, let server admins identify the server's TS in the DServer config and have the game client show the TS list in the map screen.

[kestrel79]

Haven't had as much time to fly, getting older sucks Getting married in a few weeks, band plays out most weekends, leaves only so much flying time I usually just do free flight or quickflight these days. But coming this winter I should be able to be on more, would love to do a Friday Night Bomber mission one of these days...

[=WH=PangolinWranglin]

I'm in North America but I don't use teamspeak. I really dislike its interface and much prefer Discord right now. 

[Asgar]

I'm in North America but I don't use teamspeak. I really dislike its interface and much prefer Discord right now.

Discord could be amazing if they would finally wake up and implement simple yet important features like shouting and whispering. With those missing there is no way to use it for big missions or coordinated teams. In that regard TS is king

[JG13_opcode]

Mumble is actually much better than Teamspeak as well, especially since the server is free and you don't have to rent one.  We have a private JG13 Mumble server and it's excellent.

 

Lightweight, minimalist, without all the irrelevant crap.  Who needs an avatar on a voice chat program that stays minimized?  Things like that.

 

Free/open-source goodness  

Edited September 28, 2016 by JG13_opcode

[Gump]

as usual, no simplistic solution.

.

uriah, i am in the same time zone. i notice the same situation. i havent played (worth mentioning) for 2-3 weeks? other irons in the fire. lots of good weather, lots of local and state events at this time. maybe we'll see more of NA players come winter? maybe not. ppl losing jobs has also been a factor, and might continue.

.

 i can understand the reasoning for personal or squadron comms. i have seen the distractions, personality conflicts, waiting to talk frustration, differences in comm protocol, speak conflicts because of differing missions, etc. IMHO, the comms are scattered because pilots have found better ways to communicate than being in a shopping mall commons. 

.

THAT SAID, i believe that such scattering also has the negative side affect mentioned previously - in that it diminishes overall game participation. and that is a seriously bad side effect. the game will have natural attrition, so anything that adds to it's accessibility will/should attract players and keep the lifeblood flowing. access to pilot communication is a big deal in this game, as we all know, since flying deaf is like flying blind. making it hard (whether intentional or not) for lone wolfs and noobs to find, and participate in, decent comms is self defeating. flying a squadron against nobody isnt that much fun, and neither is it all that much a proof of any skill to defeat seriously handicapped (deaf, noob) opponents with skilled, coordinated (by comms) tactics. 

... 

on a side note, i get frustrated with TS sometimes because i cant get it to show over my game screen. ive tried to load/install the 'overlays', but cant seem to succeed. unless i am somehow familiar with the voice of a pilot, i dont know who is speaking. i do the 3d setup, but ppl come and go and mess it up. i cant seem to make my TS work like mr x's, and not knowing who is speaking is a huge hindrance. i 'might' eventually get it 'fixed'? but it is too flippin hard.

.

after all, i agree with some of you that something needs to be setup to make comms more accessible while still allowing clarity, and we could really benefit a lot from knowing who's on the game where.

[Asgar]

Mumble is actually much better than Teamspeak as well, especially since the server is free and you don't have to rent one. We have a private JG13 Mumble server and it's excellent.

 

Lightweight, minimalist, without all the irrelevant crap. Who needs an avatar on a voice chat program that stays minimized? Things like that.

 

Free/open-source goodness

All you need to do is send one email if you want a free server license of TS for non-commercial use

[6./ZG26_Gielow]

I think all North American were shot down already.

[wtornado]

There just are not enough people online, period.

 

And I'm as much to blame as anyone, I have not flown online in weeks.  The rest of my squad is now chasing another squirrel (Elite Dangerous) so going out there alone is not much fun.

I can fly for a long time in Elite Dangerous and not see anything you can have a shower cook dinner watch the news

sort of like flying a HE-111 in some servers.

 

 

 

I think some like me are waiting for 2.004 the mother of all patches to be released with all the fixes.

[wtornado]

I am still praying for a FMB ''Lite'' version with just one click object placing for example putting

down a flak gun and not having to hold it by the hand and tell it everything it has to do.

 

Just place it ...shoot at the damn blue or red aircraft with a simple altitude firing  specs from 1000m to 6000m.

 

Put down a plane on the map tell it to fly at 3000m from point A to point B and attack the enemy planes

with just one click.Take off-fly-land instructions with one click settings to put the aircraft in the mission

and one click waypoints and landings.Attack air/ground targets nothing fancy just one click instructions.

 

It is nice to dream.

[BlitzPig_EL]

I am still praying for a FMB ''Lite'' version with just one click object placing for example putting

down a flak gun and not having to hold it by the hand and tell it everything it has to do.

 

Just place it ...shoot at the damn blue or red aircraft with a simple altitude firing  specs from 1000m to 6000m.

 

Put down a plane on the map tell it to fly at 3000m from point A to point B and attack the enemy planes

with just one click.Take off-fly-land instructions with one click settings to put the aircraft in the mission

and one click waypoints and landings.Attack air/ground targets nothing fancy just one click instructions.

 

It is nice to dream.

 

 

+10000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

The sim needs this more than it needs new aircraft or theaters of operation.

 

Be sure.

[Uriah]

I send out a big thanks to Manu653 for inviting me to a squad 19th GIAP with the SAC group using TS and flying in the USA evening.