Why you should take the plunge and play online!

[Velxra]

18 minutes ago, [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier said:

Okay I just played a bunch of MP and its such bullshit.

There is always a more enemys than I can handle, they are doing weird turns and turn faster than I can and shoot me down all the time.

 

That is typical in the first few weeks of multiplayer experience. No longer are your enemies just predictable ai who do not maximize the use of their airframe strengths. Instead you have unique individuals in each aircraft with varying degrees of experience and knowledge. Each will do everything they can to maximize their advantage over you like a mind game and if you fall for such traps then the tables turn very quickly. Multiplayer is as much about skill as it is wit and luck. Give yourself a few weeks to adjust to MP and you will get the hang of outsmarting your opponent. It is no cakewalk online! Your struggles now, shall only show how far you will have come in the future. 

[Feathered_IV]

Perhaps take up a more manoeuvrable aircraft if you can and fly defensive sorties within reach of friendly flak zones until you find your feet.  Heading straight out into enemy territory early on can be quite punishing if you are new to MP.

[DD_Arthur]

1 hour ago, Geronimo553 said:

 

That is typical in the first few weeks of multiplayer experience. No longer are your enemies just predictable ai who do not maximize the use of their airframe strengths. Instead you have unique individuals in each aircraft with varying degrees of experience and knowledge. Each will do everything they can to maximize their advantage over you like a mind game and if you fall for such traps then the tables turn very quickly. Multiplayer is as much about skill as it is wit and luck. Give yourself a few weeks to adjust to MP and you will get the hang of outsmarting your opponent. It is no cakewalk online! Your struggles now, shall only show how far you will have come in the future. 

 

Very true

 

@Leon; no disgrace in being shot down - everyone gets shot down

[Cybermat47]

4 hours ago, [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier said:

Okay I just played a bunch of MP and its such bullshit.

There is always a more enemys than I can handle, they are doing weird turns and turn faster than I can and shoot me down all the time.

 

Don’t worry mate, we all got shot down at first. In fact, the vast majority of us still get shot down!

 

If you’re flying something like a Bf-109 or Fw-190, you won’t want to turn with your enemy. Instead, gain altitude, and only attack enemies that you know you can beat. That’s how the Luftwaffe aces did it IRL.

[Leon_Portier]

Sorry I didn´t want to be rude, just had a bad day.

Edit: Thanks for the encouragement, is appreciated!

Edited June 15, 2019 by [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier

[Lusekofte]

On 6/15/2019 at 1:45 AM, Geronimo553 said:

 

That is typical in the first few weeks of multiplayer experience. No longer are your enemies just predictable ai who do not maximize the use of their airframe strengths. Instead you have unique individuals in each aircraft with varying degrees of experience and knowledge. Each will do everything they can to maximize their advantage over you like a mind game and if you fall for such traps then the tables turn very quickly. Multiplayer is as much about skill as it is wit and luck. Give yourself a few weeks to adjust to MP and you will get the hang of outsmarting your opponent. It is no cakewalk online! Your struggles now, shall only show how far you will have come in the future. 

It is not typical. 

To me multiplayer in this game is more a counter strike type of gameplay. 

It is too many only after personal killrate 

no mission objective at all. 

It simply do not attract people with aviation or history interest. 

Nothing wrong with the game its self. 

When it comes to fnbf it is another story, the use of multiplayer and organized event it can be very interesting 

[56RAF_Roblex]

33 minutes ago, LuseKofte said:

It is not typical. 

To me multiplayer in this game is more a counter strike type of gameplay. 

It is too many only after personal killrate 

no mission objective at all. 

It simply do not attract people with aviation or history interest. 

Nothing wrong with the game its self. 

When it comes to fnbf it is another story, the use of multiplayer and organized event it can be very interesting 

 

There is a lot of truth in what you say. Yes many people are just after personal air-to-air kills and do not care about winning the map or even getting home.  On the other hand,  if you fly with a squadron then you are all working towards a common goal and trying to stay alive so you can rtb with your friends.   There is a lot of satisfaction to be had from planning a bomber strike, with or without escorts, taking off together and taking out an enemy target between you and limping home together  or perhaps concentrating on stopping the enemy from hitting one of your own targets.   Even a 40 minute patrol of likely targets that ends up not getting any kills can be fun if you are doing it with friends.

Like you though, I feel the ultimate online experience is something like the FNBF. Ideally with a squad but in FNBF you can just join an ad-hoc squad for the evening.  I remember years back when I played Warbirds and they had special 50v50 events twice a week I gave up flying public servers completely and just flew the special events and spent the days between writing up the last event and planning for the next one.

Edited June 16, 2019 by 56RAF_Roblex

[Leon_Portier]

39 minutes ago, LuseKofte said:

It is not typical. 

To me multiplayer in this game is more a counter strike type of gameplay. 

It is too many only after personal killrate 

no mission objective at all. 

It simply do not attract people with aviation or history interest. 

Nothing wrong with the game its self. 

When it comes to fnbf it is another story, the use of multiplayer and organized event it can be very interesting 

But thats not how Counter Strike works!

In the default most popular game mode, called Bomb Defusal, you get one life per round. The T - team has to plant a bomb in marked zones under a time limit. While the CT - team wins by either defusing it or making the other team run out of time. Because of the one life per round you can always lose by having all players of your team downed, so you have to play very carefully and talk to your team to stay alive, my dude!

[Lusekofte]

59 minutes ago, 56RAF_Roblex said:

On the other hand,  if you fly with a squadron then you are all working towards a common goal

Yes I miss squad flying. 

But personally I have no time for it and can only devote to ad hoc flying time

Rendering myself to lone wolfing and repetitive demise in mp. 

This ultimately put you in SP category. And that department got little to offer in this game. 

Some scripted campaign and qmb. 

Career mode do not inspire me much

 

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by LuseKofte

[6./ZG26_Loke]

Flying online with Squad buddies, having fun together with others and have a good chit chat is for me the main thing I fly IL2-GB / FC

 

The FC furballs are great fun. 

[Stoopy]

The only down side to MP that I've run into so far is (and I feel bad bringing this up about someone), there's this one poor dude that always flies on the same servers as me that always seems to be injured, kind of a bummer hearing about it but at least he doesn't go into details.  I don't know what side he flies for or how he keeps getting hurt,  he might be banging his elbow on his desk during hectic furballs (hate when that happens!) or maybe he has carpal tunnel from the new startup key presses, but man you gotta really admire his persistence in sticking with the game.  

 

Get well soon, anonymouse dude, S!

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Stoopy

[[DBS]Browning]

I'm lead to beleive, from his other frequent comments, that he is on fire.

Edited June 19, 2019 by [DBS]Browning

[Feathered_IV]

I really don't know why he persists.  If he doesn't find himself wounded or on fire, he invariably runs out of fuel.  Poor chap.

[E4GLEyE]

personally I just play ground pounders... I am a bad shot and non of my friends fly il2 so going up solo in a fighter is pointless... 

So this is my brief experience: Join server, see 40 luftwaffles vs 10 soviets, join soviets for balans komrad... Pick peshka or A20 if I want to do something meaningful, pick po2 if I just want to fly, arm it (if possible as some servers *erm WOL cough cough* wont let me as the beast is too op seemingly to be armed) fly around get murdered 2-3 times... Decide to never again play MP again, at times spill salt on chat (sorry for that) and try again in a few months. I stick to Career and the scripted campaigns and at the rare occasions when my buddy wants to fly fire up a coop server and play a few rounds there... Sorry for boring you.

 

 

 

[RedKestrel]

23 minutes ago, E4GLEyE said:

personally I just play ground pounders... I am a bad shot and non of my friends fly il2 so going up solo in a fighter is pointless... 

So this is my brief experience: Join server, see 40 luftwaffles vs 10 soviets, join soviets for balans komrad... Pick peshka or A20 if I want to do something meaningful, pick po2 if I just want to fly, arm it (if possible as some servers *erm WOL cough cough* wont let me as the beast is too op seemingly to be armed) fly around get murdered 2-3 times... Decide to never again play MP again, at times spill salt on chat (sorry for that) and try again in a few months. I stick to Career and the scripted campaigns and at the rare occasions when my buddy wants to fly fire up a coop server and play a few rounds there... Sorry for boring you.

 

 

 

Some servers are crazily imbalanced at times, its true. I find that CombatBox is often much more balanced and quite a few players there will switch sides to balance teams. KOTA is often OK balanced but is more often skewed towards the axis side. I haven't played WoL in a long time because those two servers are much better for me for the way I like to fly (realistic nav, slightly farther targets, seems to be a more positive environment overall).

If you decide never to play MP again after a frustrating time that's your decision, and you should do what is fun for you. If the game is stressing you out its not doing its job.

 I'm going to add a but here...

Playing solo is deadly and ground pounding without an escort is doubly deadly because you're going to get tagged by the AA as well as any fighters loitering in the area. As I calculated earlier in the thread, my loss rate is easily 75% or more, and its probably higher on ground attack aircraft. If you're flying A20s or Pe-2s survivability goes way up if you drop your bombs quick and head for home so line up your attacks to drop all your ordnance in one high speed pass, then egress on the deck as fast as you can. Anyone coming down to attack you pretty much has to come in at your direct six o'clock and has to watch their speed so as not to ram into the ground during their attack, prime territory for your gunners to be useful.

I think the thing that helps the in MP is actually being LESS competitive, at least at the outset of playing. I'm generally not a very competitive person in general - I like to win, but losing doesn't bother me much as long as I get to play (vulching ticks me off even if it shouldn't). If you come to MP with a competitive nature or disliking the early defeats are going to sting more. I think in the long run being a competitive player will make you a better MP pilot because of the drive to do better, but at first it makes getting killed doubly frustrating. Its not that being competitive is good or bad, its just how different people approach the game. 

Anyway, I'm glad you at least gave it a shot. 
 

[Stoopy]

2 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

I think the thing that helps the in MP is actually being LESS competitive, at least at the outset of playing. I'm generally not a very competitive person in general - I like to win, but losing doesn't bother me much as long as I get to play (vulching ticks me off even if it shouldn't). If you come to MP with a competitive nature or disliking the early defeats are going to sting more. I think in the long run being a competitive player will make you a better MP pilot because of the drive to do better, but at first it makes getting killed doubly frustrating. Its not that being competitive is good or bad, its just how different people approach the game. 

 

 

Could not agree more!

 

Back in 2002 and for several years onwards I was highly active in MP in other combat flight sims, and somehow ended up as c/o for a really great virtual squadron (a different JG300 than the group that is active in this sim) that still keeps in touch today.  We were a couple dozen of highly competitive, fiercely proud types but we tempered it with a fun "LoLwaffle" attitude.   Nowadays I'm the only one flying in MP in IL2 BoS and miss squad flying, but I'm content to fly solo since I can't bring myself to "abandon" the spirit of our old gruppe of Wild Saunen (and it would be wrong to use the old squad handle when there's another group with it already here). 

 

Point is, after being shot up so much by the best there is, so many times, it's just part of the expectation to eventually die a nasty fiery death, nobody lives forever online and there's certainly no reason to ever take it personally.  That Yak driver has no idea who you are. 

 

Save the grim determination and competitive attitude for when/if you ever get in a tournament (although no one has 'em anymore from what I see).   Relax and enjoy the ride for what it is, there can be moments of brilliance, hilarity, comraderie and teamwork among strangers with a common goal interspersed between the mundane, and really irrelevant, defeats.  And some of the acquaintances and friendships you end up making can last for (literally) decades.

 

 

 

 

[Bremspropeller]

5 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

Playing solo is deadly and ground pounding without an escort is doubly deadly because you're going to get tagged by the AA as well as any fighters loitering in the area. As I calculated earlier in the thread, my loss rate is easily 75% or more, and its probably higher on ground attack aircraft. If you're flying A20s or Pe-2s survivability goes way up if you drop your bombs quick and head for home so line up your attacks to drop all your ordnance in one high speed pass, then egress on the deck as fast as you can. Anyone coming down to attack you pretty much has to come in at your direct six o'clock and has to watch their speed so as not to ram into the ground during their attack, prime territory for your gunners to be useful.

 

Solo ground-pounding is survivable, but it highly depends on your strategy and chosen route.

The direct route won't always get you to the mission-objective the quickest :)

 

Flying with other people is first and foremost way more fun.

 

[Guest deleted@134347]

personally, I can say that 1 or 2 very positive MP experiences (with squad mates or without) can tilt the scale towards liking the MP scene in general.  After that you're hooked. You'll looking for that one elusive and awesome mission where everything just fits and it's just perfect. Like in a movie. Good bye, free time.

Edited June 21, 2019 by pomdeterre

[Quax]

On 6/7/2019 at 1:23 PM, BlitzPig_EL said:

I have to agree.  A 550mph aircraft in a 10km bubble...  What could possibly go wrong?

 

Did you ever try to identify an aircraft type at more than 10km in RL ? 

 

WW2 pilots I talked to said, they took the position and direction of an aircraft to make a judgement, and took every plane as unfriendly until proofed otherwise.

 

[Bremspropeller]

2 hours ago, Quax said:

Did you ever try to identify an aircraft type at more than 10km in RL ? 

 

I do it all the time, looking up at airliners (they are about an order of magnitude larger than ww2 planes, though).

[CountZero]

2 hours ago, Quax said:

 

Did you ever try to identify an aircraft type at more than 10km in RL ? 

 

WW2 pilots I talked to said, they took the position and direction of an aircraft to make a judgement, and took every plane as unfriendly until proofed otherwise.

 

There is no need to be able to id airplanes from that far, but when you know something is there and you see it as small dot then yur able to be more tactical in your aproch either to enemy airplae or to target. And most players online base is that enemy or not by coms, behavior of dot or its position on map and hdg...

Most of time i know who is enemy and who is frendly without even id contacts, and when your limited to only 9,5km you need to look around more offten as that distance can be covered realy fast with ww2 airplanes, and now jets have even bigger advantage as enemy your sneaking on to has less time to notice you as your speed is mutch higher... 

[Bremspropeller]

The problem of not seeing far enough is much more evident when looking for ships. If you could actually ID them as vessels as far as the horizon (and possibly have smoke-coloums give away their position), ship-hunting would be much easier.

 

Now it's hit or miss when going for ships over a larger body of water than your backyard swimming-pool.

[CountZero]

28 minutes ago, Bremspropeller said:

The problem of not seeing far enough is much more evident when looking for ships. If you could actually ID them as vessels as far as the horizon (and possibly have smoke-coloums give away their position), ship-hunting would be much easier.

 

Now it's hit or miss when going for ships over a larger body of water than your backyard swimming-pool.

whit airplanes you can have ppl saying 9,5km is more then enought or its not, but when ships come in question then its clear that its just comicly to short having it at 9,5km and you probably wont have anyone trying to explain that its normal that you dont see ships from more then that. Doing any dlc that heavy involved in ships use would have to fix this bug atleast for ships.

Edited June 21, 2019 by 77.CountZero

[Ehret]

The 9.5km contact is inadequate for BOBP's planes set - just consider possible closure rates and altitude differences to see why. It was bad enough after the P-47D and K4 were available but it's just comical after the 262. She can do 9.5km in under one minute - that's less than 30s to scan whole 360 degrees around, spot and to react in any way.

 

Of course if someone likes to fly straight to the nearest furball then it doesn't matter much.

[RedKestrel]

Please stay on topic guys. If you have issues with the render distance or something else it can be discussed in another thread. 

[Bando]

Way more fun then flying online.

I remember that the few times I tried to fly online, I either was told (by the SYN clan, who were in their numbers) to go to another server, or on another occasion some brats flying their planes into mine, or..... Well, you know what I mean.

I do not like the mentality online.

Everyone tries to hide behind the anonymity that comes with internet and does not regard others.

The rat is within us all I guess. 

I'll stick to single player.

[ST_Catchov]

I have to say the times I've flown online I've never been met by bad behaviour. In fact the players I interacted with were helpful and encouraging. Mind you they were WW1 chaps who are a different breed. . That said. the AI really needs improving for SP guys. It's really crap.

[BOO]

3 hours ago, ST_Catchov said:

I have to say the times I've flown online I've never been met by bad behaviour. In fact the players I interacted with were helpful and encouraging. Mind you they were WW1 chaps who are a different breed. . That said. the AI really needs improving for SP guys. It's really crap.

Online the issue is probably less bad behaviour (switch off chat ::-)) and more gamey behaviour when the objective is the least important thing and stats/winning are everything. Different servers produce different behaviours. Running up against an organised squad is never fun if you are playing alone and coms are very hit and miss. Often though non of that really mattered to me as I was flying with a squad and with friends- it was more a socal thing. 

 

Tips FNBF where perhaps the best online experiences I ever had on GB. TAW and Wings of Lunacy the worst for their own different reasons. 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2022 by BOO

[Rjel]

I think we can all find enjoyment in this sim in different ways. If flying online suits one’s idea of fun, realism or even masochism that’s their choice to make. There have been a few guys in the past even make the comment that “real men” fly online. Personally, I find that proposition laughable.  With the right group of folks, flying online was great fun. But flying with and against some real twits was nothing less than frustrating and tiresome. 
 

This sim has much to offer other than simply being an online combat sim. More and more, I prefer to spend my time creating a new skin and then using it in a screenshot for my own purposes. Trying to make the takeoff by the book and then greasing the landing are also enjoyable to me. Just flying the plane on instruments through the heavy clouds BoX now features can be exhilarating. It can also startle the Hell out of me when I exit a cloud inverted and rushing towards the ground when I screw up. 
 

Whether the servers are loaded up or not, that really doesn’t represent the user base as a whole or the overall strength of the sim in general. Just as the number of us who frequent this website are likely a smaller percentage of the overall number of users who own the sim but don’t feel the need to join in discussing it here. 

 

[Lusekofte]

When I fly online, I do it because I have a urge flying aircraft not very suitable for coop and SP. Like JU 52 or po 2. 

I lately tested JU 88 c6 , Mosquito and ME 410 survivability. 

Mosquito got about the same chance as a fighterbomber as FW 190. If smart   you survive.Them other two looks like coffins.

But have not tested enough yet to conclude. Normandy map is really nice. A real good job

[Props]

Yes, there's a bunch of options when it comes to IL2 GB servers. Some can be almost arcade and others like Combat Box can be full real (which I have always preferred) with the full real servers being more deadly of course in some ways 'cause they attract the "more serious" players. With the number of options we have it's no surprise that some servers have larger populations than others. There is also the matter of ping rates for some of us as I cannot join some of the servers I would like to fly on simply due to the laggy results incurred by the huge ping rates (I live in Ecuador) so I have found CB to be my fave hangout.

 

We all die, especially while making the shift from SP to MP early on. You have to adapt your mindset and flying to the new circumstances of facing other humans some who are quite good and well versed in MP tactics. There will always be a few who abuse the system too, but you shouldn't take that personally, after all your just another target as far as anyone is concerned.

 

I highly recommend you use SRS if it is available (I wish more pilots would at least monitor SRS in CB so coordinating combat would be better) but you can also find many folks on Discord too, especially squad affiliated members. No matter what, you should always try to join someone's wing as this will enhance your survivability a bunch. I often find myself flying solo because I can't find anyone on SRS and it is always much tougher to get home alive. Spend more time pulling CAP over friendly target areas till you find some wingmen and that will help your survivability too.  

 

Hang in there and you'll get over the hump.

[Lusekofte]

3 hours ago, BOO said:

Online the issue is probably less bad behaviour (switch off chat ::-)) and more gamey behaviour when the objective is the least important thing and stats/winning are everything. Different servers produce different behaviours. Running up against an organised squad is never fun if you are playing alone and coms are very hit and miss. Often though non of that really mattered to me as I was flying with a squad and with friends- it was more a socal thing. 

 

Tips FNBF where perhaps the best online experiences I ever had on GB. TAW and Wings of Luncacy the worst for there own different reasons. 

 

 

Taw was ruled by hard-core squads. 

I cannot bring myself to shoot a crash landed plane. I just flew away from it and he switshed on and off the nav lights. ? 

And his mates came and shot me down in my I 16. 

I got one honest win over a 109 in my I 16. 

That was my last taw mission. If one need to be a ashole in all ways to stay alive, I rather stay out. 

And this is my feeling you have to be online, a cynic mindset. Sneaking in and run away. And patience.

I rather fly general purpose and have a mission and try to survive. This is no good in the long run online.

But it is rather fun in AQMB. Witch is one of the better upgrades in this francaise 

 

Edited September 24, 2022 by LuseKofte

[TheWarsimmer]

The skill ceiling online is quite high and people get discouraged. It's really that simple. It can take a long time to even learn how to fly and land and shoot... you finally get it all down and learn to shoot down a trio of ace ai all by yourself. So you hop online and expect to at least be somewhat competitive... wrong. This is especially true for players that are flying solo. I consider myself a decent simmer and have flown for years. But I do solo online and I would say in 2/3rds of all combat situations I am outnumbered at least 2:1 because people tend to fly in squads or pairs. I don't mind it, or the low k/d that comes with it, but boy I can only imagine how discouraging it can be for new solo online players.

[Denum]

Nope I love flying online.

 

That community is more important then the game to me.

 

If multiplayer wasn't an option I would not play the game. 

 

Last week I had 4 sorties across the channel and died on every single one. (Most were in a 110, I'm not surprised)

 

I still had a fantastic time with my wingman on SRS. 

 

 

[RNAS10_Mitchell]

Warning..  it's very addictive..?

[DBFlyguy]

I get online every once in a while, it is fun but I can definitely understand the frustration some are expressing.  There really isn't a lot of variety in online choices, especially compared to DCS... you either jump on Berloga for some mindless  "Air Quake" or Combat Box or Finnish.  That is really it, the majority of the other servers are ghost towns the majority of the time (at least for us playing in the states after 5PM EST). 

 

With the Normandy map out, hopefully that'll add a couple more active and populated servers with more variety but we'll see... This game still has a major visibility problem compared to what else is on the market which in evidently leads to less people being willing to make that jump into playing online, I would compare this game and its online population to Post Scriptum, a fun game but no one really knows it exists either compared to its main competitor, Hell Let Loose.

[BlitzPig_EL]

In the Original IL2 the BlitzPigs would have a server up online almost every day.  I can't imagine how many hours I had in Oleg's IL2.  Then we flew a fair bit in CloD when it was released, but it grew old quickly. Same old map, same plane set, same thing over and over again...  So our numbers of active players dwindled.  Now there are three or four of us and I will host one or two nights a week, maybe, in this current iteration.  Mostly we fly missions of my making against the AI.  I have ventured out a few times on WW1 and Finnish, but since I am alone and not at all in the same league as the majority of online players now, my time is spent sneaking around the enemy backfield trying to hit ground targets of opportunity, and avoiding contact with enemy aircraft at all costs.  It's not really that fun, though it can be exciting at times.

 

I miss the fun and good times of the online of old, but as essentially now being a lone wolf in a sea of deadly hunters, it's not all that enticing anymore.

How to fix it?  I have no real clue.  Dedicated in game coms would be a big help, but having to DL several different voice services, depending on the server, is a no go for me, and apparently many others.  I've used Team Speak  for literally decades now, I host it for the Pigs, it's what I know.

[RyanR]

I used to do online in the 1990's, long before IL-2 was a thing. It got old.

 

-Ryan

[CountZero]

8 hours ago, Motivated said:

 

Variety is everything. Combat Box is strictly late war Western Front, FVP and Berloga belong in the same category, and Wings of Liberty probably won't see a resurgence in players for quite a while. That leaves the Eastern Front and early war scenarios almost completely out of the picture which is a large portion of the game. If I had the time and resources, I would love to create a server which covers the entirety of the content that we have available equally.

CB with channel map got chance for 2nd life, if they dont focus on that map ppl will just leve server, heck when they switch back to bobp mission numbers drop compared to Channel at same time, no way they gona run some east front missions, they are not that crazy. Most plyers left in game online are hard core ones that played this game for ages, they played east front only for years and years and then got crapy bobp map to play on... now we finaly have a liitle better map and west airplanes with working guns... no wonder ppl dont play on east front, and servers dont run east front. Also if you create your own server you better have 30-40 frends who will populate it 24/7 as no other way to even get ppl to check your server, ppl just open DF lobby and go on server with highest numbers, there is planty servers with better misions, more historical enviroments and no one even check or play on them...

Also TAW started and even they dont bather with east front lol east front is done for some time. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by CountZero

[Guest deleted@83466]

LOL, there are probably guys running ROF servers who haven’t been visited in years!