Why you should take the plunge and play online!

[Avimimus]

On 6/6/2019 at 1:32 PM, RedKestrel said:

Are you good enough to play online?

Almost certainly yes.

Let me tell you the skills necessary to fly online in Il-2.
1. be able to taxi your plane without ramming airfield structures or other players.
2. be able to take off and land
3. be conscious of airfield traffic so you don't collide with other players.
4. be able to operate your plane in flight.
5. be able to identify friend or foe (on most servers, there are no icons).
6. For some servers, be able to navigate (this is actually not as hard as most people think, as our maps are perfect representations of the landscape. it just takes practice). 

 

Hmm.... I used to fly online in the old Il-2 with only skills 4 an 5 (and maybe 2).

 

I recall just throttling up a TB-3 crossing the runway, dodging another aircraft and a tree, and then barely lifting wheels off the ground before crossing a small lake. I'm still not sure how I did it (hence the maybe... sometimes it felt like I blacked out and I was airborne).

 

Is, perhaps, this list a bit optimistic? Hoping that people will actually not collide with other players over their own airfields?

 

 

  

2 hours ago, RyanR said:

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

 

-Ryan

 

Are you sure we didn't get old?

[Thorne]

Agreed - online play takes you to the next level. It stands up with any other competitive online experience out there, but with 1000x the immersion.

[TheWarsimmer]

If you're a new online player or go solo, my biggest tip is this:

-Defend your objectives. Don't go out looking for trouble. It is much easier to circle a point you are supposed to defend and wait on enemy bombers, and then bnz them. If you are new or alone, going out and looking for trouble will often end in disaster for you. Besides, you are helping your team by doing this.

-If you see what could potentially be more than one bad guy in the distance, DONT approach and engage. Going 2v1 or more will only end in disaster for you. It's tempting, but you have to know WHEN to engage, and a 2v1 situation aint it.

[CountZero]

1 hour ago, TheWarsimmer said:

If you're a new online player or go solo, my biggest tip is this:

-Defend your objectives. Don't go out looking for trouble. It is much easier to circle a point you are supposed to defend and wait on enemy bombers, and then bnz them. If you are new or alone, going out and looking for trouble will often end in disaster for you. Besides, you are helping your team by doing this.

-If you see what could potentially be more than one bad guy in the distance, DONT approach and engage. Going 2v1 or more will only end in disaster for you. It's tempting, but you have to know WHEN to engage, and a 2v1 situation aint it.

Thats good points, but new players in MP have wrong view that in MP your in DF every 5min and they imidiatly just go from thier base strait line to enemy base so they can get in action fast, low alt or mid at best, if they fly 10min without see enemy its boring so then if they see mullti dots they are tempted to just go there with no alt advantage and so on... they lack patiance needed for MP if you wont to stay alive and fight on your terms, SP spoils you with time acccelerations and hand holding.

Also on 24/7 fast food servers expirianced players wil not go escort their bombers to targets, they will use their bombers as bait at best, so when frendly bomber asks for escort usealy new players go thinkng i help team and ill see action, and escorting bomber in MP is hardest thing to dofor fighter player, new player will get eaten alive, but most of time its them doing this and expert players just farming kills over frendly objective or base.

Edited September 25, 2022 by CountZero

[BOO]

7 hours ago, Thorne said:

Agreed - online play takes you to the next level. It stands up with any other competitive online experience out there, but with 1000x the immersion.

Not sure if it takes you to the next level or refines your abilty to game a particular environment. 

 

The only time ive ever felt immersed is on a closed co-operative server like the old FNBF. Anything else is just fly,die, repeat. You find your own fun though. 

[RyanR]

11 hours ago, Avimimus said:

 

 Are you sure we didn't get old?

 

I definitely got old.

 

Incidentally, I think I've published on Avimimus. Definitely worked on the fossils.

 

-Ryan

[TheWarsimmer]

21 hours ago, CountZero said:

Thats good points, but new players in MP have wrong view that in MP your in DF every 5min and they imidiatly just go from thier base strait line to enemy base so they can get in action fast, low alt or mid at best, if they fly 10min without see enemy its boring so then if they see mullti dots they are tempted to just go there with no alt advantage and so on... they lack patiance needed for MP if you wont to stay alive and fight on your terms, SP spoils you with time acccelerations and hand holding.

Also on 24/7 fast food servers expirianced players wil not go escort their bombers to targets, they will use their bombers as bait at best, so when frendly bomber asks for escort usealy new players go thinkng i help team and ill see action, and escorting bomber in MP is hardest thing to dofor fighter player, new player will get eaten alive, but most of time its them doing this and expert players just farming kills over frendly objective or base.

Patience is the big one- I'm still prone to engaging when I'm outnumbered or lack energy/altitude advantage, even when I have the chance to break it off. You have to remind yourself, "Is it really worth getting shot down and having to start over? Because that's what's going to happen if I do this"

[Lusekofte]

On 9/24/2022 at 6:17 PM, BlitzPig_EL said:

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.

Yes you me the same. I guess early days enthusiasm has gone.

I bought a G2 to replace the Rift R, has not bothered yet, 6 month it has just been sitting there. I blame myself, I intensly hate flying fighters online, boring, loose my focus, and boom Blown off the skies my a sneaky opponent.

This game is fir fighters all else are target drones. I wish for late war bombers in late war maps, this way fighters have to loiter in all altitudes. I wish for more complex DM, so not all end as fireballs. I wish for more complex systems , so piloting would be more piloting. 

 

 

[MAJ_Raptor]

I highly highly recommend the SRS App and Combat box   I always have a blast getting destroyed on that Server. 

[Avimimus]

13 minutes ago, RyanR said:

 

I definitely got old.

 

Incidentally, I think I've published on Avimimus. Definitely worked on the fossils.

 

-Ryan

 

Ah neat! I originally picked it as a handle for the obvious reasons... I actually got interested in basal oviraptors much later. I do wonder if they are secondarily terrestrial (deriving from an arboreal or flying ancestor). It is one of those questions which sits uneasily in the back of my mind - the idea that there might've been more than one case of movement up into the trees and then back down (if conditions were right for it to happen once, then why not more than once?) Anyway, I really appreciate the quality of description that Avimimus has received - so your labour is definitely appreciated.

[kestrel79]

SRS app and Combat Box is amazing. Wish I had more time to play and a better PC to play smoothly online in VR.

[RyanR]

Not a thing has changed in 25 years with online combat. The tech has changed, but it's otherwise the same old stuff. Furballs, and flying around to a battle that won't be there anymore when you arrive. Still a great way for people with hours to waste to waste those hours.

 

-Ryan

[BraveSirRobin]

2 minutes ago, RyanR said:

Not a thing has changed in 25 years with online combat. The tech has changed, but it's otherwise the same old stuff. Furballs, and flying around to a battle that won't be there anymore when you arrive. Still a great way for people with hours to waste to waste those hours.

 

-Ryan

unless you fly an attack mission coordinated over comms with other people.  Then it’s absolutely nothing like that.  

[RyanR]

33 minutes ago, BraveSirRobin said:

unless you fly an attack mission coordinated over comms with other people.  Then it’s absolutely nothing like that.  

 

Yup. We did that 25 years ago, too. That gets old after a couple years, too.

 

-Ryan

[BraveSirRobin]

44 minutes ago, RyanR said:

 

Yup. We did that 25 years ago, too. That gets old after a couple years, too.

 

-Ryan

Ok, you don’t like MP.  Why are you posting on a thread about trying to get more people to play MP?

[Guest deleted@83466]

4 hours ago, BraveSirRobin said:

unless you fly an attack mission coordinated over comms with other people.  Then it’s absolutely nothing like that.  

 

Do you miss me? ❤️
 

 

[BraveSirRobin]

6 minutes ago, SeaSerpent said:

 

Do you miss me? ❤️
 

 

 

If it was about you I would have talked about the good times when your wingman has a tantrum blaming you for the fact that he was shot down.

[Guest deleted@83466]

Well, if you weren’t such a moron always half paying attention to the Bruins in the background, it wouldn’t piss me off so much.

 

edit: this thread should be retitled “Why you shouldnt take the plunge and play online.”?

Edited September 28, 2022 by SeaSerpent

[Youtch]

On 9/24/2022 at 1:41 PM, Props said:

I often find myself flying solo because I can't find anyone on SRS

It is a pity that with combat box having such a nice SRS implementation, there are still so few people using SRS. The other day the server was full with 84 players and there were less than 5 people on Axies side on SRS.

[JonRedcorn]

On 9/24/2022 at 12:17 PM, BlitzPig_EL said:

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.

Been begging for in game voip for ages, people are vehemently against it for some reason.

Also I think WW2 has lost its domination for a long time now, the cold war serves on DCS are stacked constantly. Enigmas Cold War server is literally full 24/7. The younger kids these days just aren't as interested in ww2 as we all were. It's starting to become a long forgotten conflict, we all loved ww2, the new generation loves cold war since its much closer to them. I enjoy it as well and once DCS gets all these new modules out the cold war scene is going to be incredible. I really think that's the biggest thing. The same old guys can't keep a genre alive for 20+ years. You need fresh new blood and all that fresh new blood is going to DCS and cold war era. Also these days people think you need a 300 dollar setup just for controls to even get started, when back in the day you could get a 30 dollar joystick and be right in the game. Times have certainly changed, and so have tastes. It's a real bummer in my eyes but I have started to enjoy DCS and the cold war era a lot and that only seems to be getting bigger.

 

Also want to add, Enigma just hosted like a 100 man server in Il2 1946 with a pacific mission and it was literally jam packed. Think there was some 90+ people on the server. I think great battles needs to make the stride and go pacific or face a tough future ahead.

Edited September 29, 2022 by JonRedcorn

[Guest deleted@83466]

7 hours ago, JonRedcorn said:

Been begging for in game voip for ages, people are vehemently against it for some reason.

 

That’s swell, JonRedcorn.  You’ve read the translated Q/A and learned the fate of “Air Marshall” and how much net code would have had to be re-written?  And they did try apparently.  I seem to remember a discussion a few years back in which you were like “what’s the big deal?”  I guess you were wrong.

 

Edit:  The trend even then was everyone was going SRS and Discord.  Didn’t need developers to spend resources on something like that.  Wingmen are a special thing, and people want to fly with their friends on their own, and it was amply provided by 3rd parties, if they chose to use it.  (Just to clarify within the context of the thread and how MP comms -really- work)

Edited September 30, 2022 by SeaSerpent

[357th_KW]

8 hours ago, JonRedcorn said:

Been begging for in game voip for ages, people are vehemently against it for some reason.

Also I think WW2 has lost its domination for a long time now, the cold war serves on DCS are stacked constantly. Enigmas Cold War server is literally full 24/7. The younger kids these days just aren't as interested in ww2 as we all were. It's starting to become a long forgotten conflict, we all loved ww2, the new generation loves cold war since its much closer to them. I enjoy it as well and once DCS gets all these new modules out the cold war scene is going to be incredible. I really think that's the biggest thing. The same old guys can't keep a genre alive for 20+ years. You need fresh new blood and all that fresh new blood is going to DCS and cold war era. Also these days people think you need a 300 dollar setup just for controls to even get started, when back in the day you could get a 30 dollar joystick and be right in the game. Times have certainly changed, and so have tastes. It's a real bummer in my eyes but I have started to enjoy DCS and the cold war era a lot and that only seems to be getting bigger.

 

Also want to add, Enigma just hosted like a 100 man server in Il2 1946 with a pacific mission and it was literally jam packed. Think there was some 90+ people on the server. I think great battles needs to make the stride and go pacific or face a tough future ahead.

 

It’s an interesting point.  I grew up in the 80’s and spent a lot of time around my grandfather who was a WWII vet.  But then again my dad was a Vietnam vet so that felt closer in a lot of ways.  But at the end of the day, the thing that I always found so compelling about WWII is the enormity of it all.  More aircraft were shot down in air to air combat in single weeks or even days of WWII, then have been in every war since.  Aircraft were flying combat missions all over the globe, in all sorts of environments from arctic blizzard to tropical island to arid desert to the middle of the ocean to over the streets of London, Berlin and Tokyo.

 

I’m hoping that the next BoX expansion we see pushes in a new direction (away from the eastern or western fronts) and continues to expand the horizons of the game to capture more of that hugely varied experience that was WWII.

[Trooper117]

5 hours ago, 357th_KW said:

I’m hoping that the next BoX expansion we see pushes in a new direction (away from the eastern or western fronts) and continues to expand the horizons of the game to capture more of that hugely varied experience that was WWII.

 

Sounds good, me too... One thing on the Eastern Front still interests me however, and that would be a Murmansk map... I enjoyed the campaigns and missions for that map on the old IL2 and would love to see it reproduced in the BoX series.