Combat Box by Red Flight

[Willy__]

I would love to see that on the new prokhrovk map

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

On 4/23/2019 at 3:22 AM, Haza said:

 

No worries and thanks for your reply! However, with the following in your sig block what did you expect?

 

Mobile_Barbeque - It's who I am. It's what I do.  If I'm not on fire, then something else is!  

Premium quality meats cooked over forum-fueled dumpster fires!  Get yours today!   

Axis salt makes the best beef jerky. - Confucious                   **Bachelor's Degree in Peshkanomics**

 

Point taken.  Eventually I'll fly Axis for awhile and serve up some Yak kabobs.  I'll probably modify my sig then.   Truth be told, at least in my experience, I've seen a lot more salt in chat from Axis-only type players than Ally-only type players.  Of course, I've seen chat malignance from both sides but, more so from Axis.  (That's not to say there aren't other players who have observed the opposite.)  I admit it. Sometimes I can't help but kick the hornet's nest.  As far as "team-ism" goes, I'm not meaning to force salt from Axis players, just have a piss at those that throw out salt automatically.  

 

22 hours ago, Joeasyrida said:

I feel that too.  The i16 and mig3 and occasionally the la5 and p39 are the only red fighters I might not waste flying out.  I enjoy the variety BoX has and wouldn't mind missions spanning it, especially because my ping is great on il2na and its usually occupied when I'm on.  I also like the existing missions and the server settings on here.

 

Speaking of La-5, did I miss seeing it available for the late-war maps that have Russian planes included or, is it not available?  I don't recall when the FN made its combat debut. Was it before or after September '44? 

[Sketch]

2 hours ago, =AVG77=Mobile_BBQ said:

Speaking of La-5, did I miss seeing it available for the late-war maps that have Russian planes included or, is it not available?  I don't recall when the FN made its combat debut. Was it before or after September '44? 

 

Taken from Lavochkin Fighters of the Second World War by Jason Moore:

 

 

[Blackhawk_FR]

8 hours ago, JonRedcorn said:

I just think it feels horrible in this game, makes the plane feel like it's moving through mud or something.

 

The behavior of aircraft in turbulence is really realistic. 

 

17 hours ago, Alonzo said:

I believe we have turbulence enabled on two out of the four maps, and it's at level "1" on a scale of 0 to 4.

 

To me level 1 is ok and enough... it shouldn't be more. 

[Alonzo]

On 4/24/2019 at 4:49 PM, StaB/Tomio_VR*** said:

I think something is wrong on D-Day map.

 

Allies side cannot capture Bagerovo airfield.

I played the map several times and only Zamorsk is captured...

 

Hmm, I will check it out, thank you for the bug report.

[ITAF_Rani]

Hi Alonzo I would suggest a invasion Sicily scenario 1943.

I found same little analogy between the two maps.

You could simulate the landing of allied ships to the south west coast of Sicily.

With a bit of fantasy, the possible scenario could be:

 

Allied planeset with air start:

 

Spit MK 5/9  (more 5 than 9)

P47( waiting the P38)

P40

A20

 

Axis planeset:

 

Mc 202

Me 109 G2/G4/G6

Fw 190 A3/A5

Me 110 E/G

 

Possible air start mission for Ju 52's going to supply fields or drop paras.

 

Allied have to protect their ships, tanks convoy to conquer fields

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by ITAF_Rani

[Alonzo]

I'm pleased to announce that tomorrow, Saturday 27th April at 19:00 UTC, we will be debuting a new map! Operation Eisenhammer is an audacious German plan to destroy Russian power infrastructure. The new map features power-related targets, bomber bases, tank busting wide area combat zones, radar, and more! The scenario is set in February 1945 on the Moscow map.

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by Alonzo

[352ndFG_Ty_]

Ah Eisenhammer will be fun.

 

Alonzo, is Y-29 still in testing?

 

Thanks,

Ty

[SCG_klobuk]

Hi guys, I am really glad that we have another MP server with very good properties. I don't know if there is some special thread for posting cheaters but I had this morning together with my mate (about 6 hours ago) pretty weird sortie. Attacking spitfire was BSS_Sniper, time of that attack is 27.4.2019 at 5:13:14 server time from web stats. You can check the final highlight here: 

I don't know what else I can do but I want to share this footage with you so, you can decide if you will ban him or not. Thanks

 

[56RAF_Roblex]

8 minutes ago, SCG_klobuk said:

Hi guys, I am really glad that we have another MP server with very good properties. I don't know if there is some special thread for posting cheaters but I had this morning together with my mate (about 6 hours ago) pretty weird sortie. Attacking spitfire was BSS_Sniper, time of that attack is 27.4.2019 at 5:13:14 server time from web stats. You can check the final highlight here: 

I don't know what else I can do but I want to share this footage with you so, you can decide if you will ban him or not. Thanks

 

 

Certainly very odd but not necessarily deliberate.   Almost all combat flight sims start glitching when there are too many aircraft in a small space and one symptom can be some aircraft just not being drawn at all.    I don't see many aircraft flying in your video but I did see a lot of icons on the ground just as you hit the sea.   Sometimes games glitch even when not overloaded.  I remember in CLoD when four of us flew Blenheims to attack some ships and one of the Blenheims could not see the ships at all even when right on top of them.  We had to guide him and tell him when to drop and pull up and he never saw a single ship even though we were guiding him to attack them broadside at 50ft above the waves and then not drop until he was about 100m from them and they should have filled his screen.

It is rare for this to happen though so if people see the same pilot do it more than once then it is time to get suspicious.

[JonRedcorn]

On 4/26/2019 at 4:51 AM, ITAF_Rani said:

Hi Alonzo I would suggest a invasion Sicily scenario 1943.

I found same little analogy between the two maps.

You could simulate the landing of allied ships to the south west coast of Sicily.

With a bit of fantasy, the possible scenario could be:

 

Allied planeset with air start:

 

Spit MK 5/9  (more 5 than 9)

P47( waiting the P38)

P40

A20

 

Axis planeset:

 

Mc 202

Me 109 G2/G4/G6

Fw 190 A3/A5

Me 110 E/G

 

Possible air start mission for Ju 52's going to supply fields or drop paras.

 

Allied have to protect their ships, tanks convoy to conquer fields

 

This would be awesome, could throw the p-39 in there.

[=Elite=BlitzPuppet]

Wanted to report an odd stats issue. Failed to take off due to short runway and too heavy, ditched in the trees and ended the mission to fly a 190.

 

16 minutes after ending apparently I got TKed and killed? Not sure how that's possible lol.

 

http://il2na.com/en/sortie/log/29168/?tour=7

 

Fritz:

http://il2na.com/en/sortie/log/29238/?tour=7

[Alonzo]

4 hours ago, SCG_klobuk said:

Hi guys, I am really glad that we have another MP server with very good properties. I don't know if there is some special thread for posting cheaters but I had this morning together with my mate (about 6 hours ago) pretty weird sortie. Attacking spitfire was BSS_Sniper, time of that attack is 27.4.2019 at 5:13:14 server time from web stats. You can check the final highlight here: 

I don't know what else I can do but I want to share this footage with you so, you can decide if you will ban him or not. Thanks

 

Hmmm. That pilot is new to the server and has two disconnects in a row. Maybe that implies something funky with networking. Not quite enough evidence yet but we'll keep an eye on it. Please ping me and the mod team again if you see this pilot online.

 

http://il2na.com/en/sorties/894/BSS_Sniper/?tour=7

 

25 minutes ago, =Elite=BlitzPuppet said:

Wanted to report an odd stats issue. Failed to take off due to short runway and too heavy, ditched in the trees and ended the mission to fly a 190.

 

16 minutes after ending apparently I got TKed and killed? Not sure how that's possible lol.

 

http://il2na.com/en/sortie/log/29168/?tour=7

 

Fritz:

http://il2na.com/en/sortie/log/29238/?tour=7

 

That is extremely weird. To be honest IL2stats is a bit of a black box -- I managed to tweak it to award +100% for landing on an airfield, -100% for death/capture, -50% for bailout and -20% for ditch, but digging any deeper into its code is going to be very murky. Sorry about the discrepancies.

10 hours ago, 352ndFG_Ty_ said:

Alonzo, is Y-29 still in testing?

 

We're sort of in "thinking" mode on the map. Did you like it? It's very different to normal maps -- the Allies are on the back foot and essentially victims of airfield vulching for the entire map. If they lose local air superiority over a field, they need to realize to take off from another field. And the only way for Allies to win is to defend their airfields for the complete time of the map. I like the map a lot from a conceptual perspective (recreate the amazing story of Y-29) but am a bit worried about whether the gameplay is actually any good.

[Alonzo]

We are doing a short survey on what people like/don't like about Combat Box and how we could improve. This is a (another) chance to make your voice heard. Survey is just 9 questions and should take about 5 minutes to complete. Thanks in advance!

 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SLPL9ZN 

[STG77Jeeves]

Sortie: 28.04.2019 - 03:02

 

I was team killed by this pilot:  III./JG5_ppph

 

I am sharing this information in case any one else has trouble with this person.  Within seconds of me dropping bombs on a Soviet target while flying a Bf-110, he killed me point blank in a 109.

 

There is NO way he could have misidentified me, considering the fact that he watched me drop 1,000 lbs. of ordance on a Soviet target.  I'm enjoying the server but this sort of behavior is unwelcome.

 

 

 

 

 

[Sketch]

I'm no admin, but looking over the guy's stats; it looks like it was an honest mistake. @III./JG5_ppph doesn't have much stats on Combat Box, but hasn't intentionally team killed anyone on Wings, for the month of April, in 85 sorties.

 

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

Are there 2 versions of Attack on Paravane in rotation?  I could swear I've played 1 version with La5s available and 1 version without La5s.  This might be why I asked about La5s earlier in the thread.   

[Sketch]

18 hours ago, =AVG77=Mobile_BBQ said:

Are there 2 versions of Attack on Paravane in rotation?  I could swear I've played 1 version with La5s available and 1 version without La5s.  This might be why I asked about La5s earlier in the thread.   

I played this map last night (version 1.0r), and these are the load outs that were available:

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by ACG_Sketch

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

So I was originally right.  This is a late war map that includes Russian planes but excludes La5s. 

[Alonzo]

21 hours ago, =AVG77=Mobile_BBQ said:

So I was originally right.  This is a late war map that includes Russian planes but excludes La5s. 

 

You're right, it does look inconsistent. Since this is an Allied raid on the Tirpitz, we tried to keep Soviet planes to a minimum, but we're also trying to be inclusive (you should still be able to fly on the server if you don't have BoBP or if you want to fly Russian birds). I've added a small number of La-5FNs to one of the airfields, and at the other two have added the Yak-1b.

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

2 hours ago, Alonzo said:

 

You're right, it does look inconsistent. Since this is an Allied raid on the Tirpitz, we tried to keep Soviet planes to a minimum, but we're also trying to be inclusive (you should still be able to fly on the server if you don't have BoBP or if you want to fly Russian birds). I've added a small number of La-5FNs to one of the airfields, and at the other two have added the Yak-1b.

Thank You!  I do visit CB and do want to be a regular there.  I think Allies are going to be in for a bit of rough road until BoBp is fully released. The more powerful Russian planes could be a bit of an equalizer until the P-47 crowd either figures out whether or not the model is truly off, or they're just doing it wrong. There seems to be evidence of both but, I'm certainly not an expert. After the BoBp full release, I imagine that full Western Allies plane sets could be used and some Russian stand-ins could be phased out. That said, I'd still like to see Eastern Ally (Russia) scenarios as well.  

[RedKestrel]

Had a great time on this server last night! Actually managed to get more than one kill in a flight which is stellar for me, though I paid for it with my life. The IV./JG51 guys had their revenge!

I also flew a couple missions attacking the naval targets on Operation Paravane. I really like these targets, although I imagine I would have had better survival chances if I hadn't done it solo! One Pe-2 run on the northern naval targets damaged and eventually sunk a cargo ship. Flak nailed me pretty hard, damaged both my engines and heavily wounded the pilot. I managed to limp back to friendly territory after losing one engine and holding full right rudder to keep it straight.

Second attack was on the Tirpitz. I like how that target is set up, especially with the smokescreen! Made picking the target out a challenge. Unfortunately for me the Flak nailed me just before release. Pretty sure all my bombs missed their target, and the damage I got meant it was impossible to pull out of the dive in time.

I think Paravane is my favourite mission type, a good concentration of targets to keep the action hot, but there's still enough of a long run in a bomber to the primary targets to make it feel like a good sortie. Loving the server, thanks guys!

[Sketch]

Also, on Paravane... If the radar facility is up, then the enemy know where you are via radar messages. Better to destroy it first, then you can be sneaky. ?

Edited April 30, 2019 by ACG_Sketch

[JG7_X-Man]

On 4/29/2019 at 3:01 PM, =AVG77=Mobile_BBQ said:

Thank You!  I do visit CB and do want to be a regular there.  I think Allies are going to be in for a bit of rough road until BoBp is fully released. The more powerful Russian planes could be a bit of an equalizer until the P-47 crowd either figures out whether or not the model is truly off, or they're just doing it wrong. There seems to be evidence of both but, I'm certainly not an expert. After the BoBp full release, I imagine that full Western Allies plane sets could be used and some Russian stand-ins could be phased out. That said, I'd still like to see Eastern Ally (Russia) scenarios as well.  

 

Yeah as much as we all want BoBp here yesterday, we have to wait. In the mean time Alonzo if you could please give us some early war maps or mix some Russian Russian aircraft in with the late war stuff in between until we get BoBp, then you can go crazy  and I will be down for some clowning too!

[Alonzo]

Hey folks, I got a PM from one of the forum moderators. I need to remind you all that accusations of cheating are not allowed on the forums. If you think someone is cheating, please contact me, Psyrion or Talon privately or find us on our Discord. We will gather evidence and send it privately to the developers, if warranted. Future accusations of cheating will be deleted by the moderators.

 

In happier news, welcome to a new tour of duty in May! We've overhauled scoring on missions to generally increase the amount of points you will receive for destroying ground targets. Notable tweaks include:

• industrial objects (warehouses, factories, fuel storage, etc) now earn triple points
• bridges 40 points (was 5)
• penalty of 50 points for shooting parachutes
• ships points reduced significantly, due to 1-bomb ease of killing them
• "fairplay" friendly air kill penalty increased to 30% (was 10%)

We had 1428 active players in the last two weeks of April, and 1584 players in the "launch tour" first two weeks. I want to say a giant "thank-you" to everyone who participated -- you've really made the server a great new option where people can find late-war fights and interesting missions. Congratulations to all, and especially the pilots who managed to stay alive and build strong streaks in the tour. Check the leaderboards and your own statistics here: http://il2na.com/en/?tour=7

 

Our current map lineup remains at 5 maps, each with an "alternate weather" version that also comes up in rotation. As always we are working on more maps to keep the players interested. Join our Discord to chat directly with the server admins, map-makers, and your fellow players. If you want to wing up, we also have "looking for wingman" and voice channels for people to coordinate sorties.

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

Not sure what happened here but....   I shot a D9 in the tail from the La-5 I was flying.  A few seconds later, he went in and broke to pieces on the ground.  There was no message that in chat at all.  I was having a lousy night and I thought that the server itself 'cheated' me out of the kill (it's happened before on other servers).  So, I just exited about 3 minutes later.  I didn't bother to land.  I wasn't in combat or anywhere near some action.  I was not damaged by any fire in the slightest.  But, I did get a sortie Disco in my stats page.  Is there any way I can get that wiped?

 

That 50 point chute penalty is going to be a bit of a hairball for you Alonzo.  There's been many times I've jumped from a plane right into the stream of bullets still trying to smash it to bits.  The shooter(s) didn't have time to react to let off of the trigger or even know I bailed until the body flew past them.  Most were nice enough to apologize even though really, it wasn't even their fault or mine. Chalk it up to war is hell.   

That said, I don't chute kill (unless it's a particularly trollsome vulcher - then sometimes my trigger 'malfunctions') but, I don't think a penalty should be assigned. That's just my opinion.  Let's not create a 20th thread about it here.  

 

As for the ships, I'm pretty sure the mission builder can set the toughness values of ships.  On other servers, most tankers will sink or burn-down with 4 - 6 100kg direct hits but getting a 1 bomb kill off of them is very weak.  Granted, if the Germans are using the 1800kg then even a modern aircraft carrier would be one-hitted.  

 

Ah, the dilemma of a server op.  How does one balance a purposely unbalanced thing like a (best as can be accurate) war simulator?

[56RAF_Roblex]

7 minutes ago, =AVG77=Mobile_BBQ said:

That 50 point chute penalty is going to be a bit of a hairball for you Alonzo.  There's been many times I've jumped from a plane right into the stream of bullets still trying to smash it to bits.  The shooter(s) didn't have time to react to let off of the trigger or even know I bailed until the body flew past them.  Most were nice enough to apologize even though really, it wasn't even their fault or mine. Chalk it up to war is hell.   

 

Do we know that being hit as you jump counts as a chute kill?   At that point you are neither at the controls nor in the chute so I don't know how the game classes it.

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

I'm pretty sure that, for simplicity sake, once the pilot leaves the cockpit, a bail is a bail - chute open or not. 

[Alonzo]

1 hour ago, =AVG77=Mobile_BBQ said:

As for the ships, I'm pretty sure the mission builder can set the toughness values of ships.  On other servers, most tankers will sink or burn-down with 4 - 6 100kg direct hits but getting a 1 bomb kill off of them is very weak.  Granted, if the Germans are using the 1800kg then even a modern aircraft carrier would be one-hitted.  

 

Ah, the dilemma of a server op.  How does one balance a purposely unbalanced thing like a (best as can be accurate) war simulator?

 

Indeed, dilemmas abound. Let's try the chute penalty as it stands and see what happens. You're making a significant assumption that a pilot counts as a chute during bailout animation. I'd guess the other way around myself, but we wouldn't know for sure without testing. Either way this is an edge case (until it isn't, in which case replays and links to sortie stats are always appreciated so we can make changes).

 

As for the ships thing, the mission editor does not let you change durability values for any vehicle. You just get whatever that vehicle has been provided by the devs. Most buildings you can alter durability, but not vehicles and not bridges.

[56RAF_Roblex]

9 minutes ago, =AVG77=Mobile_BBQ said:

I'm pretty sure that, for simplicity sake, once the pilot leaves the cockpit, a bail is a bail - chute open or not. 

 

Sure but how does the stat system know it was a chute kill and report it as such?   

 

It looks to me as if there are four stages to a bail :-

1) Recognise CTL-E has been pressed and decide if a bail is possible eg will the canopy open.

2) Run a bail-out animation that is common for all bails from that aircraft. I doubt any separate physics is applied to the bailing pilot during this.

3) Run a second animation showing the chute opening.  
4) Apply chute physics to the pilot & fully open chute.

 

At some point a flag will be set showing a change of state to 'in the chute'  but does it happen between 1 & 2 or between 2 & 3 or maybe not until the chute is open at 4?

I am not arguing either way.  Just saying that neither of us can say 100% that the pilot is officially 'in the chute' at step 2 and if it happens at 3 or 4 then it is unlikely (not impossible) that anyone will accidentally shoot the pilot while aiming at the aircraft.

[69TD_Hajo_Garlic]

I don't think chute shooters care about stats and just want to be trolls or are angry enough to not care.  As bbq said I have bailed straight into gunfire as well.   Hopefully it works well and I'm just pessimistic.  Early in this game I spent my time in 109s and I've gotten enemies off my 6 by releasing my canopy while hurling towards the deck and pulling out and also have even defeated an opponent when my canopy hit their prop.  I hope this doesn't lead to that kind of stuff on a regular basis, chute shooting actually happened but the stuff I pulled I doubt.

Edited May 1, 2019 by Joeasyrida

[invis]

I would like to take this time to apologize to the Admins and the people that I have offended in game. I understand the severity of my actions and have learned from my mistakes. I let a bad day get the best of me and I also understand if i'm banned from the server forever. I just wanted to take this time and apologize to everyone here. Life is to short and I would like to clear my conscious. I hope ya'll can forgive me of my wrong doings. Anyways, hope the best for everyone here.

[JG7_X-Man]

1 hour ago, ORKAS-CM said:

I would like to take this time to apologize to the Admins and the people that I have offended in game. I understand the severity of my actions and have learned from my mistakes. I let a bad day get the best of me and I also understand if i'm banned from the server forever. I just wanted to take this time and apologize to everyone here. Life is to short and I would like to clear my conscious. I hope ya'll can forgive me of my wrong doings. Anyways, hope the best for everyone here.

 

ORKAS-CM - we all have days like that, the idea is to take out your anger on AI (i.e. offline) 

Can we get this guy unbanned please. 

Edited May 2, 2019 by JG7_X-Man

[Alonzo]

It was a one-month ban issued a couple of weeks ago. I've hit the 'unban' button but the server software has not given me any feedback on whether that worked or not. Hopefully it does.

 

In other news, the server stats page now displays the current map and estimated time remaining, in case you'd like to see what's going on on the server without needing to log in.

 

Map status is that we pulled Operation Paravane from the rotation due to mysterious server hangs, so we're down to 4 maps in rotation. I'm working on rebuilding Paravane with absolutely fresh logic to try and avoid that server issue, and we have a couple of other maps in the pipeline. All the maps have an "alternative weather" version which will let you try the same mission but in slightly different conditions. For example, Battle for Kalinin occurs in the evening leading up to sunset, with heavy clouds. That makes for some spectacular visuals but of course also a lot of glare on the canopy and use of the sun to escape enemies. The alternate weather version of Kalinin is closer to noon, with less cloud, so you get a different experience like that.

 

As usual we love feedback and suggestions. You can join our Discord and use the suggestions channel here: https://discord.gg/Rcjj33E

[Chopper]

I would like to report user Lolazzo for deliberately ramming friendly airplanes.

 

He rammed me twice today right after takeoff. I only have the second incident recorded since I was caught off guard by his actions.

 

You have made a good server that would be even more enjoyable without trolls like Lolazzo onboard.

 

[Alonzo]

11 hours ago, Chopper said:

I would like to report user Lolazzo for deliberately ramming friendly airplanes.

 

Thank you for the report. User banned permanently from Combat Box.

[Alonzo]

Video from StrawLegacy and the GEMINI squadron, this shows off one of the targets on the new Operation Eisenhammer winter map. StrawLegacy reports: "=GEMINI= sortie tonight over blue airport on Combat Box server :6 A20, target destroyed in a single run, many hits on us but only one loss."

 

 

[GOA_Walter_Nowotny]

Hi Alonzo:

Today , GOA Squad was attacked by a friendly Focke Wulf flying by (PDX_Pilot) over our base in Ivanovskoe AF.  MAP: Operation-Eisenhammer-Feb-1945.

Waiting our land and attacked us. With two of our pilot downed by him. Is too sad to finish a group mission like this.

This type of people should not be welcomed in this simulator and should be banned for more than 6 months. It does not work a couple of hours because he does it again. Only exemplary punishments will keep these excellent servers with good reputation.
I also entered the Combat Box page to check "online pilots" and PDX_Pilot does not work the link to the profile. All other online pilots can see their profile by clicking on it. Then it is a bot or it is a hack I think.

Thank you Alonzo

Edited May 8, 2019 by GOA_Walter_Nowotny

[Alonzo]

18 hours ago, GOA_Walter_Nowotny said:

Today , GOA Squad was attacked by a friendly Focke Wulf flying by (PDX_Pilot) over our base in Ivanovskoe AF.  MAP: Operation-Eisenhammer-Feb-1945.

Waiting our land and attacked us. With two of our pilot downed by him. Is too sad to finish a group mission like this.

This type of people should not be welcomed in this simulator and should be banned for more than 6 months. It does not work a couple of hours because he does it again. Only exemplary punishments will keep these excellent servers with good reputation.
I also entered the Combat Box page to check "online pilots" and PDX_Pilot does not work the link to the profile. All other online pilots can see their profile by clicking on it. Then it is a bot or it is a hack I think.

 

Sorties take a little while to show up, it's a few minutes after the map is finished. Here is the sortie where he unfortunately shot down your squadmates: http://il2na.com/en/sortie/log/41213/?tour=8

 

There is no place for this kind of behavior. Sometimes there is a grey area, like mis-IDing a target over enemy territory, but this guy shot down two friendlies over a friendly airfield. Not a mistake, clearly griefing. I'm sorry this happened to you, that pilot will not be back on Combat Box in future. PDX_Pilot banned permanently.

[von_Tom]

 

 

An interesting server - thumbs up from me along with thanks to those that have arranged it.

 

von Tom