Praise be! My impressions on latest builds.

[Mmaruda]

I generally don't do this and my relation to BOS has been such a swing of opinions, but! I'd like to thank the devs and congratulate them, since this is finally starting to become the sim I was expecting. So a few bullet points (keep in mind, I am not following the development on a daily basis, so some thought my be a bit dated):

 

1. The new landing gear simulation is a gamechanger. I can finally land with confidence and not soil my pants on each approach. Yes it is easier, but it does feel more realistic, since I can "feel" how the plane is behaving and make corrections, so it's no longer the old game of either perfect approach all the way or ditching into the boonies. Taxing is still awesome and ground handling keeps you on your toes - best on the market.

2. The Yak-1b is awesome and finally, the Russian side has a plane that is not a uphill battle to fight in (ok there is the I-16, but in case you want something with a gear that is not operated with a hand-crank...)

3. The multiplayer experience is still consistent with no lag-warping and weird stuff happening, also KUDOS for them dudes walking around airfields pretending to do stuff.

4. The Peshka is quite fast and landable now.

5. Just as in ROF, playing bombers in MP is the way to go, if you have some friends to fly formation with and some other dudes to do cover.

6. New gun sounds are totally not realistic and totally awesome (who the hell cares, .50 cal needs to sound badass and it does).

7. I can finally stop worrying about joystick device IDs.

 

Enough with the praise. Three things:

1. AI is still horrible - they can hold the plane on the edge of stall forever, wobble around the sky like doped and turn on a dime even on the easiest setting. Needs some fixing at least for novice level AI. I get it, they use real FMs, same as the player, but when I am getting blasted at a crazy angle by a guy that has lost his right elevator and his left wing looks like Swiss cheese, something is off.

2. Minimap on hardcore difficulty needs to be available - seriously, that is not unrealistic, real pilots have knee-boards with map and stuff.

3. When parked on the ground, regardless of difficulty, the player should be able to have the external view available. Either that or give me charts for each airfield in the game. Seriously, I'm tired of driving into the boonies.

 

Bonus points:

1. This game deserves a manual. Really, it does. One with historical background, cockpit descriptions and technical detail. I'd actually pay good money for something that is 200+ pages and printed.

2. With BOK coming, do some livestream or something, get the hype on!

 

Anyway, I am really enjoying the game. Hopefully, this will eventually outgrow 1946 in terms of content.

 

Cheers!

[TheNotoriousFNG]

I can't believe I'm the first one replying to this, but seriously...thanks for sharing. I agree with everything you're saying, despite not having a lot of time to fly as of late (plus being distracted by arcade releases such as Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, ha!).

 

I agree with your sentiments on the last part...I hope this series eventually expands to deliver the level of content 1946 does. However, I'm blown away with the feelings of authenticity they have managed to deliver. I've never felt so immersed as I do jumping into any of the high quality aircraft released, and that I feel is worthy of praise on its own. Well done devs!!

[ShamrockOneFive]

Well said! I love these kinds of posts... Some great stuff that has improved and some constructive critique of stuff that hasn't lived upto expectations.

 

Thanks for sharing and I hope to see more of you on the forums here!

[=WH=PangolinWranglin]

To the devs, working tirelessly every day (but not holidays, we want you to enjoy life): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll9nfNlDLII

Edited November 17, 2016 by =DF=spaceman1999

[No601_Swallow]

For the mini-map thing, I just use the briefing map (I've mapped the "Briefing" function to a joystick button). I actually like that it takes up the whole screen, because then you have to switch between the map and looking around you (a bit like RL, I suppose). Also, with the new and improved maps, if you zoom in, you can see the layout of your airfield, and if I know which direction my nose is pointed, I can usually work out where I am.

 

Otherwise, I agree completely too!

Edited November 17, 2016 by No601_Swallow

[Asgar]

 

 

2. The Yak-1b is awesome and finally, the Russian side has a plane that is not a uphill battle to fight in (ok there is the I-16, but in case you want something with a gear that is not operated with a hand-crank...)

 

 

I feel like the Yak-1 and La-5 are pretty well suited to fight the LW fighters. I don't have anything against the Yak-1b, i have it myself. just saying

[SCG_Tzigy]

Agree! Great post.

 

I would love to have an external view on the ground.  I absolutely dig the detailed graphics, love the planes and paint jobs and I know my satisfaction/happiness would jump off the scale if i could browse/lurk around the planes a little before each takeoff..

 

I do not use minimap and all the servers i have been on have the full map available, so not sure about that..

[Czar66]

well said OP! Sums up in great part my experience as being back once again into the game.

[Gambit21]

+1 on the ground external view idea. If people are concerned about max realism perhaps it could be limited to when the engine is not running.

 

I can't tell where the taxi-ways are usually without looking around externally.

[Dakpilot]

All charts/airfield layout  Stalingrad and Velikie Luki are available for download 

 

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/15105-bos-airfields-reference/

 

lots of other resource in 3rd party apps and utilities printable Maps etc.

 

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/forum/62-3rd-party-apps-utilities-tools-and-other-content/

 

but as said you can zoom in on map/briefing

 

User Manual with cockpit guides 72 page PDF

 

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/16752-il-2bos-user-manual-released-first-edition-english/

 

Newest aircraft available in manual section example below by Luke FF

 

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/18463-p-40e-1-cockpit-diagram-and-engine-operating-limits/

 

Aircraft Tech/performance info is included now on Tab in game on aircraft set up page

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[smink1701]

1. AI is still horrible - they can hold the plane on the edge of stall forever, wobble around the sky like doped and turn on a dime even on the easiest setting. Needs some fixing at least for novice level AI. I get it, they use real FMs, same as the player, but when I am getting blasted at a crazy angle by a guy that has lost his right elevator and his left wing looks like Swiss cheese, something is off.

 

Yes, yes and again ... yes.  It's a flight sim and opponents should be better simulated.  Currently, you are fighting an unrealistic bot which kills the immersion. 

[seafireliv]

6. New gun sounds are totally not realistic and totally awesome (who the hell cares, .50 cal needs to sound badass and it does).

I don`t understand this logic at all.

 

If they didn`t sound like that in real life, then why do they need to sound so loud in a sim to sound bad ass? They were bass enough in real life. Shouldn`t that be enough?

 

I guess that`s why kids like seeing buckets of blood in games, cos a small puddle from reality isn`t `badass` enough.

 

Just demeans the reality of what the real people had to go through in WW2. But you probably don`t care.

Edited November 18, 2016 by seafireliv

[Rolling_Thunder]

I don`t understand this logic at all.

 

If they didn`t sound like that in real life, then why do they need to sound so loud in a sim to sound bad ass? They were bass enough in real life. Shouldn`t that be enough?

 

I guess that`s why kids like seeing buckets of blood in games, cos a small puddle from reality isn`t `badass` enough.

 

Just demeans the reality of what the real people had to go through in WW2. But you probably don`t care.

That was quite a leap! I'm thinking, after reading that and your weirdo post you may be taking your roll playing a bit too far. Chill out its a game.

[LLv24_Zami]

I've been around from the BoS early access and sim has been going forward constantly. Small team with limited budgets has done a great work. And now with Jason in helm and revised plans things are looking very bright imo.

 

What comes for things to improve mentioned here, I hope new career allows custom difficulty settings so people can have outside view if desired.

 

And for AI the biggest problem is the ganging up on player, I hope that gets addressed asap.

[DD_Arthur]

@seafire;  you don't think taking this

 

6. New gun sounds are totally not realistic and totally awesome (who the hell cares, .50 cal needs to sound badass and it does).

 

To produce this

 

Just demeans the reality of what the real people had to go through in WW2. But you probably don`t care.

 

might take such a leap of logic as to suggest to the casual reader of these forums that you got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning and gave the cat a good kicking?

[ShamrockOneFive]

Remember, sound is a powerful tool in game design and in our case where the real life pilot would have felt a lot of the sound that we experience its important to have the auditory feedback to fill in blanks where we do not get the vibrations and seat of the pants feel that a real pilot would have. The team has obviously done this really well for things like pulling turns where you can hear the approaching edge of the stall (and then the stall too) but also with the weapons.

 

I really like the work they have done on the weapon sounds recently. Really well done.