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NO.20_W_M_Thomson
Posted

Is combat box still doing flying circus on Fridays? And if so do wee need sign up for that?

 

Posted

I've flown on the Mitchell's Men mission a few times but never seen any B-25s or heard reports on them. Is there a trigger condition required for them to spawn?

Posted

Good question, I can't find anything on their Discord about it conclusively up, down, closed...

Hope it's back soon. 

Hoss

Posted

Alonzo said on the Discord it was apparently a power failure at their provider. 

Posted
On 10/14/2021 at 7:37 PM, RedKestrel said:

Alonzo said on the Discord it was apparently a power failure at their provider. 

 

Yep, that's right. Two hardware failures in two weeks, pretty bad luck. Fingers crossed we're back to better reliability for the future.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Great video from Wim showing how you can use our "CB Radio" voice bot to request call signs, get takeoff clearance, declare an objective and ETA, and then get vectors home. Plus a cool ground strike sequence in some Mustangs.

 

 

 

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  • 5 weeks later...
Posted

Alonzo, do you plan to add tanks to your missions ?

Posted (edited)
On 12/4/2021 at 9:36 AM, Habu said:

Alonzo, do you plan to add tanks to your missions ?



Attention All Pilots!



At 9:00 PM, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and again at 2:00 AM Tuesday, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Combat Box will force roll The Ardennes Counteroffensive mission. This mission has plenty of really cool features, including:

  • Call outs and interaction with our CB Bot on SRS,
  • Playable AWAC planes that give all players near that plane radar on the map,
  • Multiple moving tank and panzer objectives throughout the mission,
  • A challenging landing strip in the South for the Axis,
  • A snowy forest backdrop, that looks beautiful, but is extremely difficult to navigate through,
  • and the newest feature, PLAYER DRIVABLE TANKS.

Now you can be a part of the ground war that took place across the Ardennes forest of 1944. This is the first of Combat Box, and as always, we would love to hear your feedback on the tanks in the #suggestions channel on Discord. See you in the skies, and on the ground!

 

Want to know more? Join our community on Discord, or check out our website at https://combatbox.net/.

--------

The Ardennes Counteroffensive
December, 1944 - Despite being driven back across Belgium and France by the Allies, the Germans have struck a significant return blow. On the morning of 16th December, they achieve a total surprise attack, taking advantage of overcast weather to nullify Allied air superiority. Attacking through the Ardennes, a densely forested area of the front held by inexperienced and tired American soldiers, the Germans intend to split Allied forces in two and to push through to capture Antwerp.

 

 

Ardennes-Counteroffensive-Dec-1944.png

Edited by Sketch
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Posted

Thx Sketch.

 

I'm going to forward the information to our tank players. ?

  • Like 1
Posted
On 12/6/2021 at 8:45 AM, Sketch said:

Multiple moving tank and panzer objectives throughout the mission

 

Are there plans to add tanks to other missions, too? Out of curiosity, will the Allies have only Sherman for now?

Posted (edited)
23 minutes ago, Robli said:

 

Are there plans to add tanks to other missions, too? Out of curiosity, will the Allies have only Sherman for now?

Yes, but not all missions will be able to support tanks. (Such as The Crimean Offensive, where players are battling across the channel.) You can find all the information on tanks and more on our Discord.

 

Here is the current tank line up for all maps. Please note: I do not own the AAA vehicles, so they look locked, but they're available if you own them.

image.thumb.png.01c5578d51449d273a22f6d69a9e18f5.png

 

 

Edited by Sketch
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Posted (edited)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday Night Flights

5htQKvF2YZeCdWDMtz5v5IYAiEUNAOqy_3hoQvQs8RvH_uqopx9uOHnG7hUrYRUvCQTLzbvPIuduu5AJTllVUdmE-12DHabAyykG18cd5FRfUr5JyDpwEreIw30yYACNspEjV1O9zYgB


Date: Friday, December 10th, 2021 (and every Friday!)
Time: 9:00 PM Eastern (0200 GMT)
Server: Combat Box Main Server 
Comms: IL2 SRS srs.combatbox.net:6002 

 

-----

Description:
For this week's FNF, I'm back in the saddle as mission designer, and I bring forth The Battle For Rome! This mission is loosely based off the Allied push against the forces at Monte Cassino in Italy during late 1943 and early 1944. The real Battle of Monte Cassino was one of the most important battles of World War Two. Monte Cassino effectively blocked the Allies route north to Rome and had to be taken despite the difficulties of doing so from a military point of view. By the end, the monastery had been destroyed; a terrible tragedy, but the hill had been captured by the Allies leaving the route open to Rome.

 

Some key features of this mission include: mountainous terrain, low clouds, player drivable tanks, artillery and rocket truck fire, air starts for bomber pilots, and a 30$ bounty placed on Hank "Stilgar" Scorpio, Barnacles and Sketch (up to 90$ total). If you shoot down these community mission builders, you will win real money! Each time they’re killed or captured, the person that caused them to die will be rewarded $30USD. 
 

See you guys out there!

 

The Battle For Rome
December 1943 - With the FEC in the South, the 46th British Artillery hammering the Gustav line, and the 8th Army 36th Infantry in the North, meant that Monte Cassino was surrounded to the North, East, and South. Axis forces did not budge however, they held the River Rapido that flowed South and East of Monte Cassino. Every square inch of the river was protected by machine guns, soldiers, and artillery. 96th Big Wing, 355th Fighter Squadrons, and 352nd Fighter Squadrons, along with British allies began pummeling the religious site and German ground forces. Luftwaffe 2’s I./JG54, II./JG54 and Stab/SG3 were sent in to stop the American forces.

 

----- 
Do I need to register?
No registration required, though we would prefer if you'd sign up via #fly-out-events through the Apollo bot. We will be on the main Combat Box server, and the map will roll at exactly at 9:00 PM sharp. You can meet us 30 minutes earlier in the Mission Briefing Room voice channel for a quick mission brief and preflight discussions.

 

-----
I want a detailed mission brief!

Here is a detail mission brief of this week's mission:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nCDGhU2u4Ck9G6TL9prZhBWjMdgVl5eg-1jQBv-86Ks/edit?usp=sharing

 

-----
I need help with SRS!
Here's how to set up SRS: 

 

 

 

Here's where you can download SRS for IL2:
https://github.com/ciribob/IL2-SimpleRadioStandalone/releases/download/1.0.1.4/IL2-SRS-AutoUpdater.exe

 

Here's how to use the Combat Box SRS Bot (which is freaking cool):


Here's more information on the CB Bot:

https://combatbox.net/en/info/#cb-radio

 

----- 
Will there be tanks? I need my tanks!
Sorry, no tanks for this mission.

 

----- 
Where do I go to find help before the event starts?
Head over to the Combat Box Discord, and ask your questions in the #general channel. 

 

-----
How do I get my money?!
If you have earned money, then you will need to provide proof of the kill (via the stats page) and DM an admin. We will do our best to contact you, but you are ultimately responsible for your winnings. Note: Like all rewards, the real moneys will be transferred via Paypal and subject to rules and all that. We admins reserve final judgment. If you have any questions, please let an admin know.

Edited by Sketch
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Posted

I have a feeling that amount of AI planes was significantly increased on all maps?

Was there any notice/info that I had overlooked?

Posted
4 hours ago, Batzet said:

I have a feeling that amount of AI planes was significantly increased on all maps?

Was there any notice/info that I had overlooked?

 

I found a scenario on Market Garden a couple weeks back where the spawn zones in one part of the map overlapped, and I managed to trigger them all rapidly, resulting in a cloud of 109s swarming me and causing server overload messages.  I wouldn't be shocked if there were a few other cases where this is happening.  If you can identify the map and location, the admins can see if there's a problem with the mission setup causing too many AI to spawn.

Posted (edited)
21 hours ago, VBF-12_KW said:

 

I found a scenario on Market Garden a couple weeks back where the spawn zones in one part of the map overlapped, and I managed to trigger them all rapidly, resulting in a cloud of 109s swarming me and causing server overload messages.  I wouldn't be shocked if there were a few other cases where this is happening.  If you can identify the map and location, the admins can see if there's a problem with the mission setup causing too many AI to spawn.

Didnt know it was possible to trigger enemy spawning. 

Myself, I dont remember particular maps and locations ?, just  generally I meet now times more AI enemies than I did before( say 1 - 2 months ago). Not talking about formations of transport planes or bombers that play a map scenario, but for example two attackers escorted by one fighter, or those VVS Spit Vs  circling above the targets.

 

Edited by Batzet
Posted (edited)

Ai planes were added during low player population. If a particular side has less than X players, then that side will get ai to help support that side. When a side has enough players, then ai will stop spawning in. Ai planes are randomly generated and include, planes that will run combat patrols over the front lines, planes that will attack objectives, and planes that respond and defend their objectives. You can get the latest information, not here in this forum, but on our Discord. We have also added playable tanks to many of the missions.

Edited by Sketch
Posted

Thanks for your explanation, Sketch. Personally, I dont like to meet any AI online, but I can live with that. 

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Friday Night and Saturday Encore Flights

Operation Spear

 

unknown.png
 

 

Date: Friday, December 17th, 2021 and Saturday, December 18th, 2021
Time: Friday at 9:00 PM Eastern and Saturday at 3:00 PM Eastern
Server: Combat Box Main Server 
Comms: IL2 SRS srs.combatbox.net:6002 

 

-----

Description:

This week's mission was made by Cass! Be sure to give him a big thank you!!
 

RAF and RCAF have pushed as far as Nijmegen, and are attempting to continue the push East before winter sets in. However, the bridges to Gennep have been destroyed by German forces in a sacrificial move to slow the Allied might. The Canadian Combat Engineers have a plan in mind, but they need time to complete their plan. Meanwhile, Axis forces setup defensive preparations in Weeze, as they ready for another attack from ground forces. In the South, 16th USAAF Combat Engineers being rebuilding the bombed out airfield at Petit Brogel. Supplies have also started running, but will it be too late? Join us for Operation Spear! Where RAF and RCAF pilots take to the skies against the Luftwaffe aces! See you in the skies!


----- 
Do I need to register?
No registration required, though we would prefer if you'd sign up via #fly-out-events through the Apollo bot. We will be on the main Combat Box server, and the map will roll at exactly at 9:00 PM sharp. You can meet us 30 minutes earlier in the Mission Briefing Room voice channel for a quick mission brief and preflight discussions.

 

-----
I want a detailed mission brief!

Here is a detail mission brief of this week's mission:

MISSION BRIEFING

 

-----
I need help with SRS!
Here's how to set up SRS: 

 

 

 

Here's where you can download SRS for IL2:
https://github.com/ciribob/IL2-SimpleRadioStandalone/releases/download/1.0.1.4/IL2-SRS-AutoUpdater.exe

 

Here's how to use the Combat Box SRS Bot (which is freaking cool):


Here's more information on the CB Bot:

https://combatbox.net/en/info/#cb-radio

 

----- 
Will there be tanks? I need my tanks!
Sorry, no tanks this time.

 

----- 
Where do I go to find help before the event starts?
Head over to the Combat Box Discord, and ask your questions in the #general channel. 

 

Edited by Sketch
  • Upvote 2
Posted
On 12/12/2021 at 4:05 PM, Sketch said:

Ai planes were added during low player population. If a particular side has less than X players, then that side will get ai to help support that side. When a side has enough players, then ai will stop spawning in. Ai planes are randomly generated and include, planes that will run combat patrols over the front lines, planes that will attack objectives, and planes that respond and defend their objectives. You can get the latest information, not here in this forum, but on our Discord. We have also added playable tanks to many of the missions.

It is a shame yours and even the Finnish server numbers have been dwindling and will only get worse.

It's obvious it is the large plane ability advantage the allied side enjoys mid to late war.

The early war period is the only somewhat close fight, that is why Wings of Liberty are back from the dead.

As they concentrate mostly in the early to mid war period.

If you want to see a resurgence in your player count there is only one hope.

Put the OP Typhoons, Tempests on an availability program like the me262.

 

  • Haha 3
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Posted
11 minutes ago, vembugordon said:

It is a shame yours and even the Finnish server numbers have been dwindling and will only get worse.

It's obvious it is the large plane ability advantage the allied side enjoys mid to late war.

The early war period is the only somewhat close fight, that is why Wings of Liberty are back from the dead.

As they concentrate mostly in the early to mid war period.

If you want to see a resurgence in your player count there is only one hope.

Put the OP Typhoons, Tempests on an availability program like the me262.

 

Maybe you're right. It's got to be very obvious to us all that those two planes are overpowered. It's all over the forums and in every community Discord about how overpowered they are! "We should put the overpowered Typhoon and Tempest on lockdown! There's only one hope for player resurgence!", is all I hear day in and day out. I bet even Jason is tired of it. What will the community do?

 

But before we do all of that... Where are you getting your statistics from regarding the Allied advantage of mid to late war planes? What proof do you have that the Typhoon and Tempest are well overpowered compared to other planes; especially the Axis planes? 

 

For my part... And hear me out... I went ahead and took some screenshots the plane stats for Combat Box. Which, as of this writing, we're 14 days into the month. And you can find the plane stats here -> https://combatbox.net/en/all_aircraft/?tour=41

 

 

According to my research - for this month only - the Tempest and Typhoon have a very low KDR (Kill To Death Ratio). As a matter of fact, there are some German planes that are doing better than the Tempest and Typhoon. And what about the Me262? It has a 6.0 KDR! WOW! Are you sure the Allied planes are overpowered? Lets investigate further!

 

image.thumb.png.b6d7d6a5721a6227996f3122ee25507a.png

 

Maybe the month of December was a fluke in the stats? Let's look at last month's stats. I'm sure it'll prove that the Tempest and Typhoon are superior! 

 

 

image.png.e8f6f9676451b38d3f02fc20258882c4.png

 

Well look at that... Still a very low KDR for the very overpowered Allied planes! Not even a 1.0 KDR for the supposedly overpowered Typhoon. Again, I ask where are you getting your information? Is it anecdotal? I bet it is. However, I am sure October's stats will prove differently...

 

image.png.680aa47ba24a63a239b4cf2c441677bb.png

 

 

.31 KDR for the Typhoon?? Barely 1.52 for the Tempest? The G-6 late has a better KDR? Okay... Okay, maybe it's Combat Box??? I'm sure Finnish, will show that those planes are far superior to their counterparts! Let's take a look at this month's stats so far for Finnish:

 

image.png.611eefae5969fe2015cffc209b2b60a8.png

 

Well those stats look better, but still very similar to it's counter parts. And the Typhoon still doesn't even have a 1.0 KDR. It seems to die a lot for being so very overpowered. Maybe last quarter's stats on Finnish will give a different report. 
 

image.png.bb41b29be1eefb2602377d81181a990c.png

 

 

Not too bad, but most assuredly not overpowered.  We can look at every month/quarter for the last year for both Finnish and CB, and you'll notice that the Typhoon and Tempest have a very low KDR. As a matter of fact, most German planes have better than or equal to the Tempest and Typhoon. Furthermore, the Me262 has had over 5.0 KDR for each month. That makes the Me262 nearly five times more deadly than the Tempest or Typhoon - according to my facts. The difference is so huge, that it makes you look silly saying "Put the OP Typhoons and Tempests on an availability program like the me262." 

 

image.thumb.png.6e41a7911a0e28c2e2fafc2636bc3e87.png

Combat Box's plane stats for the month of December. Me262 with 6.0 KDR! Tempest... not so much.

 

image.thumb.png.457e02aa1243da68663527cfbc31f329.png

Combat Box's plane stats for the month of November. Me262 wasn't flown at all (because certain players hunt them down and kill them before they take off - just like in WW2). The best plane? LaGG3! What the heck? The Typhoon isn't even on the list!

 

image.png.d42ca216ee609163757a843772e3461e.png

Finnish's plane stats for December. Maybe we should look at the Yak-9? How the heck does it have more KDR than the Tempest? Me262 with nearly a 5.0 KDR!!

 

image.png.ac3e395c7fa0b9a6dcb17e56ec33f273.png

Finnish's plane stats for last quarter. The Me262 is at nearly 4.0 KDR, and double the KDR of the Tempest and Bf109G6 late - which are very close in KDR. 

 

 

 

 

 

Well regardless, thank you for your suggestion. I appreciate your time in writing feedback, and we'll file it in it's appropriate place.

 

giphy.gif

 

 

 

PS: If you can't tell, stuff like this just gets under my skin, because it undermines the mission builders, the admins, the players, and especially the community as a whole. You're just hurting the community with your misunderstandings. Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that; maybe you're a purple pilot and you have proof that those planes are overpowered and I've missed it. If so, please prove it with facts, and I will apologize for my rant.

 

 

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Posted

I think there's a natural ebb and flow to player interest in IL2, and like many games a lot of it is based on game updates. We saw a lot of players checking out the new clouds tech, which is really great. I think we'll see a lot of players when the Normandy expansion is released, and Combat Box will be ready for that with lots of new and interesting stuff to do on our server.

 

No-one on the admin team wants to see Combat Box anywhere other than the #1 server, and yeah, it hurts a little to have lost that crown. But at the same time, I don't think we should just copy features from Finnish. If the IL2 multiplayer community only has enough players (right now) to populate one server, well, there's only gonna be one server populated. That's not our fault and it's certainly NOT caused by some BS about imbalanced planes.

 

Posts like the one above (not Sketch's, the one before) puzzle me. That person clearly wants CB to be doing better, but then dishes out a "you must" and "you're obviously idiots" type of post. Like, does that work with your friends? Do you tell them they're a dipsh1t idiot and then they instantly take your advice? How about coworkers? Does aggressive feedback work with them?

  • Like 1
  • Upvote 10
Posted
2 hours ago, Sketch said:

Maybe you're right. It's got to be very obvious to us all that those two planes are overpowered. It's all over the forums and in every community Discord about how overpowered they are! "We should put the overpowered Typhoon and Tempest on lockdown! There's only one hope for player resurgence!", is all I hear day in and day out. I bet even Jason is tired of it. What will the community do?

 

But before we do all of that... Where are you getting your statistics from regarding the Allied advantage of mid to late war planes? What proof do you have that the Typhoon and Tempest are well overpowered compared to other planes; especially the Axis planes? 

 

For my part... And hear me out... I went ahead and took some screenshots the plane stats for Combat Box. Which, as of this writing, we're 14 days into the month. And you can find the plane stats here -> https://combatbox.net/en/all_aircraft/?tour=41

 

 

According to my research - for this month only - the Tempest and Typhoon have a very low KDR (Kill To Death Ratio). As a matter of fact, there are some German planes that are doing better than the Tempest and Typhoon. And what about the Me262? It has a 6.0 KDR! WOW! Are you sure the Allied planes are overpowered? Lets investigate further!

 

image.thumb.png.b6d7d6a5721a6227996f3122ee25507a.png

 

Maybe the month of December was a fluke in the stats? Let's look at last month's stats. I'm sure it'll prove that the Tempest and Typhoon are superior! 

 

 

image.png.e8f6f9676451b38d3f02fc20258882c4.png

 

Well look at that... Still a very low KDR for the very overpowered Allied planes! Not even a 1.0 KDR for the supposedly overpowered Typhoon. Again, I ask where are you getting your information? Is it anecdotal? I bet it is. However, I am sure October's stats will prove differently...

 

image.png.680aa47ba24a63a239b4cf2c441677bb.png

 

 

.31 KDR for the Typhoon?? Barely 1.52 for the Tempest? The G-6 late has a better KDR? Okay... Okay, maybe it's Combat Box??? I'm sure Finnish, will show that those planes are far superior to their counterparts! Let's take a look at this month's stats so far for Finnish:

 

image.png.611eefae5969fe2015cffc209b2b60a8.png

 

Well those stats look better, but still very similar to it's counter parts. And the Typhoon still doesn't even have a 1.0 KDR. It seems to die a lot for being so very overpowered. Maybe last quarter's stats on Finnish will give a different report. 
 

image.png.bb41b29be1eefb2602377d81181a990c.png

 

 

Not too bad, but most assuredly not overpowered.  We can look at every month/quarter for the last year for both Finnish and CB, and you'll notice that the Typhoon and Tempest have a very low KDR. As a matter of fact, most German planes have better than or equal to the Tempest and Typhoon. Furthermore, the Me262 has had over 5.0 KDR for each month. That makes the Me262 nearly five times more deadly than the Tempest or Typhoon - according to my facts. The difference is so huge, that it makes you look silly saying "Put the OP Typhoons and Tempests on an availability program like the me262." 

 

image.thumb.png.6e41a7911a0e28c2e2fafc2636bc3e87.png

Combat Box's plane stats for the month of December. Me262 with 6.0 KDR! Tempest... not so much.

 

image.thumb.png.457e02aa1243da68663527cfbc31f329.png

Combat Box's plane stats for the month of November. Me262 wasn't flown at all (because certain players hunt them down and kill them before they take off - just like in WW2). The best plane? LaGG3! What the heck? The Typhoon isn't even on the list!

 

image.png.d42ca216ee609163757a843772e3461e.png

Finnish's plane stats for December. Maybe we should look at the Yak-9? How the heck does it have more KDR than the Tempest? Me262 with nearly a 5.0 KDR!!

 

image.png.ac3e395c7fa0b9a6dcb17e56ec33f273.png

Finnish's plane stats for last quarter. The Me262 is at nearly 4.0 KDR, and double the KDR of the Tempest and Bf109G6 late - which are very close in KDR. 

 

 

 

 

 

Well regardless, thank you for your suggestion. I appreciate your time in writing feedback, and we'll file it in it's appropriate place.

 

giphy.gif

 

 

 

PS: If you can't tell, stuff like this just gets under my skin, because it undermines the mission builders, the admins, the players, and especially the community as a whole. You're just hurting the community with your misunderstandings. Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that; maybe you're a purple pilot and you have proof that those planes are overpowered and I've missed it. If so, please prove it with facts, and I will apologize for my rant.

 

 

LMAO at the 'OP' Tempest just barely beating out the 109G-6. It's a whole 0.07 better! PLS NERF!

The Typhoon, on the other hand, is actually OP, but only because people make sloppy bounces on fighter bombers and fly right through their prey's gunsights, or burn their energy coming around for another attack. 4 20mm Hispanos are God's punishment for hubris.

Posted

I think that Combat Box is a really great server, with many nice and unique features. It is just a shame that current multiplayer player base is nit big enough to regularly populate multiple servers. I also like Finnish a lot, but often think that would be nice to have a couple of sorties on Combat Box, but when I check the numbers and Finnish has 80 players on and Combat Box has 12, I also end up joining Finnish, because that is where the action is. If the MP community was just a bit bigger, so that it would regularly populate the third server behind Finnish and Wings of Liberty, I would probably spread my time quite equally between Finnish and Combat Box, with occasional appearances on Berloga.

So just keep up the good work on Combat Box and I hope and believe that people will come and I will come then, too.

  • Upvote 2
Posted
23 minutes ago, Robli said:

would be nice to have a couple of sorties on Combat Box, but when I check the numbers and Finnish has 80 players on and Combat Box has 12, I also end up joining Finnish, because that is where the action is

 

Right, and every other player who gets online is making the exact same decision, and Finnish remains at 80 and CB at 12. I'm not faulting anyone for this, but it does make the whole thing a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

The thing we suggest to players who like Combat Box is that they should try to bring a few friends to 'seed' the server. Often once we get 20 or so players online, people see that there will be action and join CB instead. Quite a lot of players would pick CB over Finnish, but not if the server is empty.

 

By the way, now that we have Ai flying sorties on most of the CB missions you likely will get action even at lower player counts. I'm sure most people would prefer to fly against human opponents rather than Ai, but it does bring some life to the server and helps to fill in until we get to about 20 players or so.

  • Like 2
  • Upvote 3
Posted (edited)

Between the SRS ground controller and low pop AI, CB plays very nicely even with just a handful of players.  I’ve been close to 4 kills/hr this month on fighter sorties (and mostly humans instead of AI) despite the fact that I’m rarely on during the most populated times.  There’s plenty of action to be had - even if the population seems a little, get on SRS and come join us some time.


 

edit - just as an example, I jumped on CB right after I posted this.  There were only about 17 players on, and in 35 minutes using the SRS bot as a guide, I encountered at least 6 enemies (2 humans for sure).  You can definitely find a lot of action using the available tools, even if there aren’t too many players online.

 

3 hours ago, Robli said:

I think that Combat Box is a really great server, with many nice and unique features. It is just a shame that current multiplayer player base is nit big enough to regularly populate multiple servers. I also like Finnish a lot, but often think that would be nice to have a couple of sorties on Combat Box, but when I check the numbers and Finnish has 80 players on and Combat Box has 12, I also end up joining Finnish, because that is where the action is. If the MP community was just a bit bigger, so that it would regularly populate the third server behind Finnish and Wings of Liberty, I would probably spread my time quite equally between Finnish and Combat Box, with occasional appearances on Berloga.

So just keep up the good work on Combat Box and I hope and believe that people will come and I will come then, too.

 

Edited by VBF-12_KW
  • Like 2
Posted
5 hours ago, vembugordon said:

It is a shame yours and even the Finnish server numbers have been dwindling and will only get worse.

It's obvious it is the large plane ability advantage the allied side enjoys mid to late war.

The early war period is the only somewhat close fight, that is why Wings of Liberty are back from the dead.

As they concentrate mostly in the early to mid war period.

If you want to see a resurgence in your player count there is only one hope.

Put the OP Typhoons, Tempests on an availability program like the me262.

 

The "Russian bias!" meme was funny back in the day but 2004 called and wants its delusion back. 

  • Haha 1
  • Upvote 1
Posted
On 12/14/2021 at 2:17 PM, Barnacles said:

The "Russian bias!" meme was funny back in the day but 2004 called and wants its delusion back. 

really buddy?...the flight modelling/ballistic/damage modelling in this game are so inaccurate.

i don't understand why some Einstein has not come up with

a software program where you can digitally scan the dimensions of a plane,

add in the horsepower output of the engine and

get a REAL/ACTUAL/UNEQUIVOCABLE flight performance modelling.

pls, don't even think of saying .... why don't i do it,

if i could i would, but know this, by asking that

you should STFU.

  • Haha 7
Posted
4 hours ago, vembugordon said:

if i could i would

There is your answer, this task is just not that simple. Good manners on the other hand... ?

  • Like 1
Posted
10 hours ago, vembugordon said:

really buddy?...the flight modelling/ballistic/damage modelling in this game are so inaccurate.

i don't understand why some Einstein has not come up with

a software program where you can digitally scan the dimensions of a plane,

add in the horsepower output of the engine and

get a REAL/ACTUAL/UNEQUIVOCABLE flight performance modelling.

pls, don't even think of saying .... why don't i do it,

if i could i would, but know this, by asking that

you should STFU.

 

How OP was that Typhoon when you flew it?  Turned you into an instant ace did it?  

 

A piece of advice - the learning curve in this hobby is very steep.  Everyone struggles a lot when they start.  The best path is to try to engage positively with your fellow players - a lot of people will be happy to fly with you and help you improve.

Posted
14 hours ago, vembugordon said:

add in the horsepower output of the engine and

get a REAL/ACTUAL/UNEQUIVOCABLE flight performance modelling.

 

When you get ducked by enemies while flying your precious 109K4 which i assume you do because you have a K4 as profilpic(the dcs one)

then you should really think about the possibility that you are not as good as you think and stop blaming the sim.

  • Upvote 1
Posted
On 12/14/2021 at 9:41 AM, vembugordon said:

It is a shame yours and even the Finnish server numbers have been dwindling and will only get worse.

It's obvious it is the large plane ability advantage the allied side enjoys mid to late war.

The early war period is the only somewhat close fight, that is why Wings of Liberty are back from the dead.

As they concentrate mostly in the early to mid war period.

If you want to see a resurgence in your player count there is only one hope.

Put the OP Typhoons, Tempests on an availability program like the me262.

 

 

 

Interesting you'd favor the time period that axis have have an immense advantage over allied.

 

 

Interesting indeed..

Posted

Attention All Pilots!

Combat Box is proud to announce not one, not two, but four new missions added to our lineup. These missions were originally created for our special Friday Night Flights and Saturday Encore Flights events, but have been converted to include all the cool benefits that a regular Combat Box mission would have. This includes: the addition of low population AI flights, randomized weather, SRS integration, balancing of plane sets, more consistent durability of block entities, scoring to determine which side won the mission, and much more! 
 

 

Operation Iron Horse by Stilgar

August 1944 - The Allies have seized a beachhead in the Netherlands. Axis forces are rallying at Cologne and the RAF is doing everything it can to disrupt that effort. With its best fighters occupied further West, the Luftwaffe is unable to muster anything but reserve forces to defend the airspace around Cologne. All Luftwaffe pilots are ordered into the air immediately with one objective: protect German army units and materiel moving by train into the fortified city of Cologne, with whatever equipment is available. Meanwhile, Tempests and Typhoons from RAF 3 Squadron, alongside Spitfires from other RAF units are hurriedly sent in to prevent the Wehrmacht from consolidating at Cologne. Fieldmarshal Montgomery has issued strict orders that damage to railroad infrastructure must be avoided. Therefore, the railroad stations and bridges are not targets.

 

LvLAOgWsjgIMbfMSOLWBCZZ8B6IqTlPz2iyyrm8ENrQ7z8A7S1b2-NxaJX646kP_yokPniV11b31ey9pzKiwo3GIN6uVaUbFX67ZndkG7xJS2oZiUH7tACYoKUoSS1ANJaUCmP4mJ1Rk

 

 

Operation Spear by Cass

October 1944 -  Dear Holly, I’ve got the afternoon off so I should at least be able to finish this letter even if I don’t do anything else… The weather is gradually growing worse as the winter comes on, and it gets more and more difficult to fly. But they are not cutting down on work any. Every day it seems as though I do twice the work I did the day before. It’s a far cry from the beer and skittles back home. Instead of that, we do all our normal training duties, land navigation, first aid, and meteorology training, and I still have to supervise the guards at night. I have been getting on an average of about three to four hours of sleep. For meals we just get time to run in and gulp a plateful of food down — damn rotten food at that — and then we race back to work. Because of this, my stomach packed up about two weeks ago and I was sick as hell. Late last afternoon, we got one of the enemy squadrons that bombed the industrial area of Lommel, but we lost quite a few men in the process, and Lommel took a beating too. They say that the attack was nothing compared to what will happen when the Luftwaffe come in force. So far we have been lucky, and have pushed North to Nijmegen. My kite flies just as strong as it did the first week of the war. Tomorrow we will push East, while the American bombers pelt the bridges in the area. It should be quite the spectacle! I hope that you and your mother and father are well. I’ve missed you a hell of a lot since I came over here. The really funny part of it is that the longer I’m away the more I miss you. I hope I haven’t bored you; I'll write again very soon.  Ever yours, Reginald

 

Yl8uKMzX8nQvVpJ6-pfJuGsKGON6dVO8aKPoQbANFcAvHsaAIJXcvO7PAwHV24o4I5MDW6_rDVgI4vXykr2RjAZNuz8qpifvcEkS_nZB_kLwQ5yzhusecr5-IuEEFIc_KoAHVlec54RD

 

 

End Game by Barnacles

Spring, 1945 - In a "what if" scenario, the Soviet Union has advanced along Germany's poorly defended Baltic coast. German High Command has retreated to Frankfurt, in hope of consolidating their forces in the more mountainous parts of the Third Reich and forcing a cease-fire. In the West, foreign conscripts are forced to march into Soviet-held territory in hopes of capturing precious oil refineries. Meanwhile, along the front, both German and Russian ground forces duke it out near Munster proper. Neither side able to take much ground. Luftwaffe command has ordered the support of the ground forces in the area and has provided their best planes to date in support of that order. Will it be enough?

L3tXfURPJ9N_3vXRURvPaFBcTucT3hADy-seZl3KD6nFtKzKiHFEZXkcNl0UZLIgp60OqmVPRW1qiWXLL_PZi5KW5cYmtxdQ_TvcRN4RVcSMFS_rPty64iX7yoWpbqsH74URj0yEvuFN

 

 

The Battle For Rome by Sketch
December 1943 - Monte Cassino effectively blocked the Allies route north to Rome and had to be taken despite the difficulties of doing so from a military point of view.  The move to assault Monte Cassino started in December 1943. The British 46th Artillery began hammering Monte Cassino and the surrounding area, while the US 8th Army 36th Infantry advanced North. The French Expeditionary Corps commanded by General Juin achieved the first success. Within his command were men from Morocco and Algeria. Both were skilled in mountain warfare. They flanked the enemy from the far South. With the FEC in the South, the 46th British Artillery hammering the Gustav line, and the 8th Army 36th Infantry in the North, meant that Monte Cassino was surrounded to the North, East, and South. Axis forces did not budge however, they held the River Rapido that flowed South and East of Monte Cassino. Every square inch of the river was protected by machine guns, soldiers, and artillery. 96th Big Wing, 355th Fighter Squadrons, and 352nd Fighter Squadrons, along with British allies began pummeling the religious site and German ground forces. Luftwaffe 2’s I./JG54, II./JG54 and Stab/SG3 were sent in to stop the American forces. 

746RIHZRvtexhl8xD5pAvPsQDvBfv3vAzVvVP3QTpk1Rv7oJYhNCRW6GpwubWiLe9ehSGlIvdJU8svRov2iAsl_aj-jqHeZI5cyAonIZGsmlFYoANcQHzfRI3hery8rp1ykEoTZ8Umfp

 


Don't forget these missions also have tanks to drive around in, and AAA vehicles to destroy enemy planes with!

Want to learn more about these missions? Click this link to read the mission briefings for each of these missions.
Read Mission Briefings

 

As always, if you have suggestions, comments, or questions feel free to join our Discord. See you in the skies!

 

  • Like 1
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  • Upvote 1
Posted

TRAINPULSE

!!!!!!!!

  • Haha 1
III/JG52_Al-Azraq
Posted (edited)
On 12/14/2021 at 7:22 PM, Alonzo said:

I think there's a natural ebb and flow to player interest in IL2, and like many games a lot of it is based on game updates. We saw a lot of players checking out the new clouds tech, which is really great. I think we'll see a lot of players when the Normandy expansion is released, and Combat Box will be ready for that with lots of new and interesting stuff to do on our server.

 

No-one on the admin team wants to see Combat Box anywhere other than the #1 server, and yeah, it hurts a little to have lost that crown. But at the same time, I don't think we should just copy features from Finnish. If the IL2 multiplayer community only has enough players (right now) to populate one server, well, there's only gonna be one server populated. That's not our fault and it's certainly NOT caused by some BS about imbalanced planes.

 

Posts like the one above (not Sketch's, the one before) puzzle me. That person clearly wants CB to be doing better, but then dishes out a "you must" and "you're obviously idiots" type of post. Like, does that work with your friends? Do you tell them they're a dipsh1t idiot and then they instantly take your advice? How about coworkers? Does aggressive feedback work with them?

 

Please keep Combat Box as it is because you have an amazing server offering a late war scenario (soon mid-war as well) with curated and always interesting mission the a superb SRS integration. Players will come, the III/JG52 is starting to fly here again and we very happy and it was also nice to see our TBAS friends still kicking ass with their 110s. I've seen so many servers copy others and fail... also why offer the same as others? It is nice to have variety.

 

Finally, I also think that this server will explode in population once Normandy releases because with the German and Allied planes we have not only in BoB and BoN but also in BoK and BoS, 1942 - 1945 scenarios can be done

 

It is going to be amazing.

 

On 12/14/2021 at 10:20 PM, Alonzo said:

 

Right, and every other player who gets online is making the exact same decision, and Finnish remains at 80 and CB at 12. I'm not faulting anyone for this, but it does make the whole thing a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

The thing we suggest to players who like Combat Box is that they should try to bring a few friends to 'seed' the server. Often once we get 20 or so players online, people see that there will be action and join CB instead. Quite a lot of players would pick CB over Finnish, but not if the server is empty.

 

By the way, now that we have Ai flying sorties on most of the CB missions you likely will get action even at lower player counts. I'm sure most people would prefer to fly against human opponents rather than Ai, but it does bring some life to the server and helps to fill in until we get to about 20 players or so.

 

I was like you and usually jumped into whatever was the most populated at that moment but don't this make you think? We are two potential Combat Box players that are not playing just because the population was low at that moment. How many people out there are itching to play Combat Box but don't join because they see 12 people on it? What if we start joining the server anyways and seed it? I guarantee that in a few days the server will be full and that's the approach we are taking now.

 

There were only 12 - 14 people on Sunday when we joined, but less than an hour later we were more than 60 and the cooperation over SRS was amazing.

Edited by III/JG52_Al-Azraq
  • Like 2
  • Upvote 1
Posted
On 12/20/2021 at 5:00 AM, Sketch said:

Attention All Pilots!

Combat Box is proud to announce not one, not two, but four new missions added to our lineup. These missions were originally created for our special Friday Night Flights and Saturday Encore Flights events, but have been converted to include all the cool benefits that a regular Combat Box mission would have. This includes: the addition of low population AI flights, randomized weather, SRS integration, balancing of plane sets, more consistent durability of block entities, scoring to determine which side won the mission, and much more! 
 

 

Operation Iron Horse by Stilgar

August 1944 - The Allies have seized a beachhead in the Netherlands. Axis forces are rallying at Cologne and the RAF is doing everything it can to disrupt that effort. With its best fighters occupied further West, the Luftwaffe is unable to muster anything but reserve forces to defend the airspace around Cologne. All Luftwaffe pilots are ordered into the air immediately with one objective: protect German army units and materiel moving by train into the fortified city of Cologne, with whatever equipment is available. Meanwhile, Tempests and Typhoons from RAF 3 Squadron, alongside Spitfires from other RAF units are hurriedly sent in to prevent the Wehrmacht from consolidating at Cologne. Fieldmarshal Montgomery has issued strict orders that damage to railroad infrastructure must be avoided. Therefore, the railroad stations and bridges are not targets.

 

LvLAOgWsjgIMbfMSOLWBCZZ8B6IqTlPz2iyyrm8ENrQ7z8A7S1b2-NxaJX646kP_yokPniV11b31ey9pzKiwo3GIN6uVaUbFX67ZndkG7xJS2oZiUH7tACYoKUoSS1ANJaUCmP4mJ1Rk

 

 

Operation Spear by Cass

October 1944 -  Dear Holly, I’ve got the afternoon off so I should at least be able to finish this letter even if I don’t do anything else… The weather is gradually growing worse as the winter comes on, and it gets more and more difficult to fly. But they are not cutting down on work any. Every day it seems as though I do twice the work I did the day before. It’s a far cry from the beer and skittles back home. Instead of that, we do all our normal training duties, land navigation, first aid, and meteorology training, and I still have to supervise the guards at night. I have been getting on an average of about three to four hours of sleep. For meals we just get time to run in and gulp a plateful of food down — damn rotten food at that — and then we race back to work. Because of this, my stomach packed up about two weeks ago and I was sick as hell. Late last afternoon, we got one of the enemy squadrons that bombed the industrial area of Lommel, but we lost quite a few men in the process, and Lommel took a beating too. They say that the attack was nothing compared to what will happen when the Luftwaffe come in force. So far we have been lucky, and have pushed North to Nijmegen. My kite flies just as strong as it did the first week of the war. Tomorrow we will push East, while the American bombers pelt the bridges in the area. It should be quite the spectacle! I hope that you and your mother and father are well. I’ve missed you a hell of a lot since I came over here. The really funny part of it is that the longer I’m away the more I miss you. I hope I haven’t bored you; I'll write again very soon.  Ever yours, Reginald

 

Yl8uKMzX8nQvVpJ6-pfJuGsKGON6dVO8aKPoQbANFcAvHsaAIJXcvO7PAwHV24o4I5MDW6_rDVgI4vXykr2RjAZNuz8qpifvcEkS_nZB_kLwQ5yzhusecr5-IuEEFIc_KoAHVlec54RD

 

 

End Game by Barnacles

Spring, 1945 - In a "what if" scenario, the Soviet Union has advanced along Germany's poorly defended Baltic coast. German High Command has retreated to Frankfurt, in hope of consolidating their forces in the more mountainous parts of the Third Reich and forcing a cease-fire. In the West, foreign conscripts are forced to march into Soviet-held territory in hopes of capturing precious oil refineries. Meanwhile, along the front, both German and Russian ground forces duke it out near Munster proper. Neither side able to take much ground. Luftwaffe command has ordered the support of the ground forces in the area and has provided their best planes to date in support of that order. Will it be enough?

L3tXfURPJ9N_3vXRURvPaFBcTucT3hADy-seZl3KD6nFtKzKiHFEZXkcNl0UZLIgp60OqmVPRW1qiWXLL_PZi5KW5cYmtxdQ_TvcRN4RVcSMFS_rPty64iX7yoWpbqsH74URj0yEvuFN

 

 

The Battle For Rome by Sketch
December 1943 - Monte Cassino effectively blocked the Allies route north to Rome and had to be taken despite the difficulties of doing so from a military point of view.  The move to assault Monte Cassino started in December 1943. The British 46th Artillery began hammering Monte Cassino and the surrounding area, while the US 8th Army 36th Infantry advanced North. The French Expeditionary Corps commanded by General Juin achieved the first success. Within his command were men from Morocco and Algeria. Both were skilled in mountain warfare. They flanked the enemy from the far South. With the FEC in the South, the 46th British Artillery hammering the Gustav line, and the 8th Army 36th Infantry in the North, meant that Monte Cassino was surrounded to the North, East, and South. Axis forces did not budge however, they held the River Rapido that flowed South and East of Monte Cassino. Every square inch of the river was protected by machine guns, soldiers, and artillery. 96th Big Wing, 355th Fighter Squadrons, and 352nd Fighter Squadrons, along with British allies began pummeling the religious site and German ground forces. Luftwaffe 2’s I./JG54, II./JG54 and Stab/SG3 were sent in to stop the American forces. 

746RIHZRvtexhl8xD5pAvPsQDvBfv3vAzVvVP3QTpk1Rv7oJYhNCRW6GpwubWiLe9ehSGlIvdJU8svRov2iAsl_aj-jqHeZI5cyAonIZGsmlFYoANcQHzfRI3hery8rp1ykEoTZ8Umfp

 


Don't forget these missions also have tanks to drive around in, and AAA vehicles to destroy enemy planes with!

Want to learn more about these missions? Click this link to read the mission briefings for each of these missions.
Read Mission Briefings

 

As always, if you have suggestions, comments, or questions feel free to join our Discord. See you in the skies!

 

 

Thanks for the new missions. The Syndicate squadron flies Combat box a lot.

A bit of feedback from a fellow mission designer: Please make sure you use the latest scenery templates. I have seen missions where the railyards have not yet been added. Yesterday I few the ' Iron Horse' mission. When I returned to base I thought it fun to flow below Remagen bridge, but it wasn't there!

  • Like 2
  • Upvote 1
Posted

Thanks for the feedback. I'll make sure our mission builders take a look.

Posted

The bridge you mentioned is out of bounds of the play area, hence why it was removed from the mission:

image.thumb.png.4a7145e9e8bf3a33e9aaa268e1b33507.png



I suppose it's out of bounds in real life too. (Or maybe too many Axis pilots flew under it and failed?) This is all that's left of the bridge today:

 

image.thumb.png.7bf970e7f9c2255444b01f72f374eec9.png

 

 

However, Combat Box won't be deterred by such nonsense. We have added the bridge back into the map as requested. Go have fun flying under the bridge, upside down, with your landing gear out, and blow yourselves up in the process!

image.thumb.png.cf30e94767a7da5cb49ab5b23a7a1154.png

 

Again, thank you for the feedback.

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