Combat Box by Red Flight

[BMA_FlyingShark]

The server doesn't appear on the list in game anymore.

Is something wrong?

 

Have a nice day.

 

[JimTM]

27 minutes ago, FlyingShark said:

The server doesn't appear on the list in game anymore.

Is something wrong?

 

Have a nice day.

 

 

On the CB Discord, admin haluter wrote that the server is unreachable.

[BMA_FlyingShark]

41 minutes ago, JimTM said:

 

On the CB Discord, admin haluter wrote that the server is unreachable.

Thank you for the information.

 

Have a nice day.

 

[Alonzo]

Combat Box 'Apollo' Dynamic Campaign - Alpha 6 "Midwinter Edition"

 

It's back! Next Friday, prepare for the return of the Combat Box dynamic campaign, February 3, 2000 UTC / 1600 Eastern.

 

This is a significant update of the campaign mechanics but not -- yet -- the "career mode" that we have been working so hard to bring you. Career mode will be a few weeks longer, so look out for teasers as we go. We'll release a full change log closer to Friday, but to whet your appetites, here are the main new features:

• more objectives, airfields, convoys, and pop-up targets
• campaign win condition, rather than "run it until the front line breaks"
• seasonal maps, including winter flying December 1944 - January 1945
• soft coalition balancer
• lost aircraft now impact supply at the airfield they flew from
• RAF/USAAF airfield ownership is now set according to history, rather than nearest capturing country
• instant debriefs for pilots on sortie end

There's also the usual raft of bug fixes and small enhancements. We hope this edition of Apollo will be to your liking, please join us starting next Friday for Alpha 6.

[Talisman]

Great news Alonzo!  Very many thanks.  I have spread the news to my squad. 

 

Happy landings,

 

Talisman

[[TWB]80hd]

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by [TWB]80hd

[Alonzo]

Finalized change log and manual for Apollo Alpha 6

 

If you've read the manual before, just skip to the "change log" section. If you're new to the campaign, maybe read the whole thing: https://static.combatbox.net/Combat-Box-Apollo-Project-Manual.pdf

 

Remember, the campaign starts tomorrow! 2100 UTC.

[Alonzo]

Apollo Alpha 6 is now live, and the two sides are already engaged in a massive slugfest.

 

On day one, German pilots knocked out and captured Volkel air base. In return, Allied fliers flattened Deurne and München Munitions depots, capturing Deurne. Now on day two of the campaign the Allies are stuck operating out of airfields in the southern part of the map, leaving their northern flank open. The German 6th Parachute Engineer Division have joined the battle, south of Duisburg.

 

The battle rages on. Which side will you fight for?

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Alonzo

[CIA_Luth]

im having a problem with the apollo 6 map.  the rhineland map. i do not have any runways or taxiways at the airfields. aillied or axis.  the only airfield that renders is the concrete one at vokel.  all the other airfields are just rough open terrain.  this problem is only on combat box.  the maps are fine offline.  and on other servers.  i have deleted the apollo foler, no luck. deleted the specific maps so they would reinstall, no luck.  anyone have a possible solution?

 

this makes takeoffs and landings almost impossible.

Edited February 7, 2023 by CIA_Luth

[CIA_Luth]

well, turning 4k textures off fixed it.  ive been running 4k for a long time, dont know why that would be the problem now.

[Alonzo]

12 hours ago, CIA_Luth said:

well, turning 4k textures off fixed it.  ive been running 4k for a long time, dont know why that would be the problem now.

 

That's weird, almost seems like there could be a problem with your game files. If you're on Steam, can you verify the files? (I'm not sure if there's an equivalent option in the standalone launcher).

[CIA_Luth]

i dont use steam.  as long as turning off 4k textures fixes it, im not too worried.  i wont notice the difference anyway.

Edited February 7, 2023 by CIA_Luth

[56RAF_phoenix56]

Firstly, let me say that 56RAF have been really enjoying the Combat Box Apollo Campaign. We regularly fly it on squad nights.

The changing variety of targets, airfields being legitimate targets and the overall realism is excellent.

More recently, the balancing mechanism has made it more difficult for a squad to join, since a couple spawning at a mid field airfield sometime triggers the deactivation of it.

We particularly enjoy the bigger maps as the great flaw in il2GB is that limited objects means everyone knows where you're going.

 

As I write, 19:25-GMT the map has become very odd, with only 2 allied fields and a single aircraft type at one of them. Meanwhile there are 4 axis fields.

 

Maybe that's the effect of an axis advance, but it does make it hard to operate as allies.

Some tweaking needed, I think.

 

Keep up the good work,

56RAF_phoenix56

[Barnacles]

36 minutes ago, 56RAF_phoenix56 said:

Firstly, let me say that 56RAF have been really enjoying the Combat Box Apollo Campaign. We regularly fly it on squad nights.

The changing variety of targets, airfields being legitimate targets and the overall realism is excellent.

More recently, the balancing mechanism has made it more difficult for a squad to join, since a couple spawning at a mid field airfield sometime triggers the deactivation of it.

We particularly enjoy the bigger maps as the great flaw in il2GB is that limited objects means everyone knows where you're going.

 

As I write, 19:25-GMT the map has become very odd, with only 2 allied fields and a single aircraft type at one of them. Meanwhile there are 4 axis fields.

 

Maybe that's the effect of an axis advance, but it does make it hard to operate as allies.

Some tweaking needed, I think.

 

Keep up the good work,

56RAF_phoenix56

As far as I'm aware, the closure of the a/f doesn't happen immediately, so you should have time to spawn in if there's a few of you, as long as you spawn at the same time.

 

[56RAF_phoenix56]

Thanks for that info Barnacles, will give it a go.

 

If I may make another comment: the mission length is definitely too short, particularly when you're forced to spawn at rear fields.

I would suggest 3 hours. I realise that may cause problems with having targets left, but with airfields available too, it's now less of a problem.

 

56RAF_phoenix56

[Talisman]

I have been a great fan of the Combat Box dynamic campaign but, much to my surprise, the current iteration Apollo Alpha 6 has turned me off somewhat and I am not 100% sure why.  However, the frequency and level of airfield closures together with base aircraft type restrictions has been so severe that upon logging in for some enjoyable flying I have immediately been turned off by what is on offer and left to fly on other severs or flight sim titles.  I now find that I am concerned that the new balancing measures may have been overdone and actually be turning folks away from the server.  Another thing that I have found off-putting this time around is that there is rather too much going on in such a small map area; everything feels squeezed in a small box, so much so that it feels too claustrophobic to enjoy.  Also, I agree with comments above concerning mission time length and would prefer to see longer mission times if possible.

 

Thanks for all the work that has been put in to the Combat Box campaign project and I hope that my feedback may be of help as things progress along the way.

 

Happy landings,

 

Talisman     

[354thFG_Leifr]

As far as I am aware, the size of the 'combat box' will be slightly enlarged for the next iteration - I don't know how much though, that's an answer to come from one of the devs.

 

The server was packed full for EU prime, so I'm not sure I buy the argument about people being turned away. If anything, Apollo has rekindled my enjoymeny of BoX and I thoroughly look forward to the next campaign test. May I ask what airframe you were specifically denied use of?

[Alonzo]

The Axis have won the Combat Box 'Apollo' Campaign Alpha 6!

 

Congratulations to the German pilots who flew a well-fought and strategic campaign to prevail against their Allied opponents. The campaign took 270 "campaign days" to play out, which is just over three weeks of real time. During the campaign pilots destroyed over 60,000 ground targets, shot down 12,000 aircraft, and logged over 11,000 flight hours. You also got to experience the Rhineland scenery through three seasons -- fall, winter, and spring.

 

We want to give a big shout out to all the ground attackers and bombers who took on the dangerous job of pushing the front line, and to the fighter pilots who tried to prevent them. I think we all learned a lot during this run of the campaign, and we'll be back after a couple of weeks hiatus with some improved mechanics and the much-anticipated career mode.

 

Officers will be helping us test the career mode before it launches -- if you'd like to support the server, visit https://patreon.com/combatbox to help out.

 

Combat Box will be back to our regular rotation of hand-crafted missions and Friday Night Flights shenanigans in the meantime. See you in the skies!

[Otto_bann]

It was a great campaign.

 

A suggestion for the next one: in order to promote level bombing, would it be possible to indicate precisely in the briefing, the wind directions (in degrees), their strengths (in meters per second), according to their altitudes (as on the Finnish server)?

 

We need it to set up the high altitude bombing sight. Without this data we can't really use this kind of bombing.

 

Perhaps it would be easier in the mission to set a single wind speed that would be valid for all altitudes? What is important is to have what is needed to set up the bombing sights.

 

Thank you very much for the work already done.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Otto_bann

[Sketch]

I think this is a good idea, but can't you get the info via the bomb sight? Why is the redundancy necessary?

[Alonzo]

On 2/28/2023 at 5:46 AM, Otto_bann said:

Perhaps it would be easier in the mission to set a single wind speed that would be valid for all altitudes? What is important is to have what is needed to set up the bombing sights.

 

Thank you very much for the work already done.

 

On 2/28/2023 at 6:17 AM, Sketch said:

I think this is a good idea, but can't you get the info via the bomb sight? Why is the redundancy necessary?

 

It sounds like players want to plan/brief, and some planes don't let you get 'into' the bomb sight on the ground.

 

I've added wind speed to the mission briefing, and we'll look at getting it added to the web site. Bearing was already there. Winds in Apollo are constant all the way up, at the moment, they don't vary based on altitude.

[Otto_bann]

Great! Thanks a lot ?

[DerShrike]

What's this new career feature that's getting rolled out with the next iteration of Apollo?

 

[Sketch]

When we are ready to reveal more about the career mode for our Apollo campaign, we will make an announcement on our Discord, which you can find here https://combatbox.net/en/ 

[ROCKET_KNUT]

The perfect skin for "Rush to Berlin" doesn´t exi... ?

[Talisman]

On 3/9/2023 at 11:44 PM, Sketch said:

When we are ready to reveal more about the career mode for our Apollo campaign, we will make an announcement on our Discord, which you can find here https://combatbox.net/en/ 

Any chance of more information on this forum for folks who don't get involved in Discord and follow Combat Box through the IL-2 forum?

 

Thanks in anticipation.

 

Happy landings,

 

Talisman

[Sketch]

Honestly? Not really. Our platform is Discord, not these forums. You're welcome to join the community. (There's a lot going on besides Combat Box news on our Discord.) Or not... That's okay too. 

 

But we have no obligation or desire to switch platforms. Having said that, we do try to post Combat Box news here too. But the latest will always be on our preferred platform. I hope you can understand.

[StiIgar]

Apollo Tech Alpha 7 - Career Mode Edition
Date/Time: Friday, March 17, 2023 12:00 PM EDT
Server: Combat Box
Comms: IL2 SRS srs.combatbox.net:6002

Project Apollo returns, this time with Career Mode! In addition to the persistent campaign, players will fly missions in the campaign as an RAF, USAAF or Luftwaffe pilot. Join us this Friday and help shape Project Apollo with *your* feedback.

Major changes include:

• Mordrac made a new trailer!)
• new career mode UI, powered by Next.js, with Discord Login
• solo and group operations via mission cards
• mission outcomes affect the campaign
• supply system overhaul
• AA overhaul
• better convoys
• updated manual

To see the entire list of changes go here: https://static.combatbox.net/Combat-Box-Apollo-Project-Manual.pdf

You can find the trailer here:

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

[Alonzo]

Trailer as an embed for anyone who hasn't watched it five times already. HYPE.

 

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Alonzo

[DerShrike]

Awesome, can't wait to test out the new mission system.

[kestrel79]

Very cool guys! Looks awesome. Wish I had more time to sink into this. I have a little request for next week...

 

Tuesday is my 40th Birthday, I have off all week. Friday March 24th I would love to really sink into IL-2 on Combat Box with SRS as a little birthday treat. Due to work, our band playing on the weekends, a 3 year old, and another child on the way I haven't been able to fly or game as much as I wanted last couple years. Such is life. But next Friday I'd like to change that.

 

I am by no means an awesome pilot, not to mention I'll be very rusty but would be nice to get a bunch of people on and fly some bomber / attack aircraft missions during the day Friday while I'm off work. US Central time zone maybe from about 12 noon to 5pm...and possibly later that night after kiddo bedtime 9pm-midnight. So if you're flying that day I'd love to tag along and do some fun missions with you guys if you don't mind. Let me know where my bombs and rockets are needed thanks!

 

I've never been on Discord, wow that looks really cool. I'll have to sign up and start reading that stuff.

[Alonzo]

1 hour ago, kestrel79 said:

I've never been on Discord, wow that looks really cool.

 

Come join us, we have cookies and a #looking-for-wingman channel to help you find folks to fly with. Or jump on SRS when there are lots of players on, you should be able to find some people to tag along with, drop down to a dedicated radio channel, and have fun.

[easterling77]

1 hour ago, kestrel79 said:

Very cool guys! Looks awesome. Wish I had more time to sink into this. I have a little request for next week...

 

Tuesday is my 40th Birthday, I have off all week. Friday March 24th I would love to really sink into IL-2 on Combat Box with SRS as a little birthday treat. Due to work, our band playing on the weekends, a 3 year old, and another child on the way I haven't been able to fly or game as much as I wanted last couple years. Such is life. But next Friday I'd like to change that.

 

I am by no means an awesome pilot, not to mention I'll be very rusty but would be nice to get a bunch of people on and fly some bomber / attack aircraft missions during the day Friday while I'm off work. US Central time zone maybe from about 12 noon to 5pm...and possibly later that night after kiddo bedtime 9pm-midnight. So if you're flying that day I'd love to tag along and do some fun missions with you guys if you don't mind. Let me know where my bombs and rockets are needed thanks!

 

I've never been on Discord, wow that looks really cool. I'll have to sign up and start reading that stuff.

I can feel the abscence of time for flying as much as wanted too (not for children but for horrible workload)

But 24th march you said? first day of my leave ? so may I can teem up

Im +6 hrs to yours (CET) but maybe I can adjust this...would be nice to hop in again after some weeks off.

 

But for now have a good one an best fortune for the offspring

 

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by easterling77

[kestrel79]

Ok thanks guys I'll look for you online. I'm not picky Axis or Allies don't matter to me, I'll usually play on whatever side needs numbers. I'll try to get on Thursday the night before and practice make sure all my hardware and software is working ok.

[Alonzo]

Attention all pilots of Combat Box!

 

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our newest campaign, Apollo 7! This version is packed with exciting features and updates, and we can't wait for you to experience it.

Apollo 7 is more than just a campaign - it's a journey. With our new career mode, you'll be able to build your fame within community and the Apollo museum, as you progress through increasingly challenging missions as the war progresses. This feature also allows you to select custom missions and share them with your friends. We believe that this feature adds an exciting new dimension to the gameplay experience, and we encourage you to try it out.

 

But that's not all. Apollo 7 also includes a range of new features and changes that will enhance your gameplay experience. From the improved supply system to the overhauled anti-air units to better convoys and much more! This version has something for everyone…

 

To learn more about all the new features and changes in Apollo 7, be sure to check out the user manual here -> https://static.combatbox.net/Combat-Box-Apollo-Project-Manual.pdf   It's packed with information and tips to help you make the most of your gameplay experience.

 

While you are learning how to navigate the career mode and share the missions with your friends, we have reduced the idle timeout; so that you will not get kicked from the server as soon.

 

So, what are you waiting for? Strap in, start your engines, and get ready to take off into the thrilling world of Apollo 7. Let's make history together!

To start your career in the campaign go here -> https://campaign.combatbox.net/

[56RAF_phoenix56]

I'm sorry Alonzo, but requiring a Discord account for Career Mode is a serious mistake and I can't see why you need to do this.

 

Personally, IMO Discord's business model sucks. Specifically, it's your data they suck.
Whereas the Teamspeak business model is fairly benign, people pay them to run their software on servers, the most data they get is your email (as long as you appropriately opt out).
Sadly, there are plenty of gullible people who don't look beyond the "it's free."   They're the same people who believe the "news" they get on social media.  So Discord's business model, designed to destroy Teamspeak, will win in the end.

 

It's also a notorious haven for distributing software with malicious implants.

 

56RAF_phoenix

[354thFG_Leifr]

Plenty of people are enjoying Apollo and the CB Discord. The career mode is completely optional; it is a carrot rather than a stick, and no pilot is required to use it to fly on the server or participate in the Apollo campaign. If you want to emulate it for yourself (without the Discord requirement), grab a pen and paper and make up your own missions, it's the same thing basically. ?

 

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by 86th_Leifr

[Otto_bann]

Level bombers are not used enough in your missions. I suggest  to promote them with airstarts (should be best if their fighter cover can do it too).

 

For the moment, too long time is needed to climb and navigate to objectives, those planes are toooo slow and so, neglected they stay on the ground.

 

At last just a question. AA seems most devastating on this new campaign : just a bad feeling (or bad luck - > I got direct hit each time in few seconds) or it's wanted?

[JG4_Moltke1871]

On 3/18/2023 at 5:01 PM, Otto_bann said:

Level bombers are not used enough in your missions. I suggest  to promote them with airstarts (should be best if their fighter cover can do it too).

 

For the moment, too long time is needed to climb and navigate to objectives, those planes are toooo slow and so, neglected they stay on the ground.

 

At last just a question. AA seems most devastating on this new campaign : just a bad feeling (or bad luck - > I got direct hit each time in few seconds) or it's wanted?

Don’t make the mistake implement airstarts. Let’s be a flight sim and not just a video game!!!

I am a passionate Bomber Pilot, to take of and climb is my job, don’t steal it away!!!!

 

[Otto_bann]

2 hours ago, JG4_Moltke1871 said:

I am a passionate Bomber Pilot, to take of and climb is my job, don’t steal it away!!!!

 

But... I don't suggest to fly bombers only by airstart but ALSO by airstart for those who want to do it. You'll can continue to TO and climb with your bomber like now...: don't force everyone to fly like you do