Coop multiplay for 3?

[Dhansak]

Hi all

 

I am thinking of buying my first IL2 game, but am primarily interested with playing coop with 2 friends (who I would have to persuade to try the game if I think the gameplay fits the bill).

 

1) Is it possible to play with just the 3 of us on the same side with the rest of the pilot roster filled by AI?

2) If it is doable, would one of us have to host locally or rent a server slot?

3) Is there any difference between buying the products here on the website or Steam? I prefer the latter due to the 2 hour refund poicy.

4) Can the Steam/Website purchases mix & match e.g. say I buy a game on Steam and a new plane from here - would the plane appear in Steam?

5) Can Steam owners play seemlessly with non-Steam owners?

 

Oops more questions than I initially intended lol. Question 1 is the critical one - with Q2 obviously heavily related! All other help greatly appreciated too.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

1 yes

2 local or dedicated , you choose

3 don't think so

4 I think so

5 yes

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by 1PL-Husar-1Esk

[=621=Samikatz]

Coop missions can be hosted locally. Suggest you let the person with the best machine host so the AI don't cause problems. I would highly suggest using this tool to generate the missions if you are new, it's very quick and easy

 

https://sites.google.com/view/il2-great-battles-emg/home

[[N.O.G.F]_Cathal_Brugha]

1 yes

2 one of you can host locally

3 if you buy from steam you must get BoS first as the base game, the other modules are then like dlc as far as steam is concerned. If you buy from the IL2 store you can get whatever one you want and add any other modules on whenever. You are probably going to go over the 2 hr limit for steam returns just to really get going on the game, not to put you off by that.

4 yes see 3.004 update info

5 yes

[The_Doctor_B]

I would suggest looking at Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator, you can use it to host Co-op careers with persistent pilots for all of your users. I use this and it is a wonderful piece of software.

[Hipsu]

14 hours ago, Dhansak said:

4) Can the Steam/Website purchases mix & match e.g. say I buy a game on Steam and a new plane from here - would the plane appear in Steam?

 

I do it like that, I bought Stalingrad from Steam but everything else here. DLC bought here will appear and work in the Steam installed game no problem, but it will NOT show as "bought" DLC in your Steam library.

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Hipsu

[[RBRI]Khaela]

Mind that there might be some fiddling with port forwarding on your router to be able to host a coop mission. I know from experience that my friends aren't as patient when it come to such things, so it's a bit tricky for me to introduce them to new stuff. 

So do a session with your more patient friend first where you just get the mission running

[FlyingNutcase]

Re. 3: Buying off Steam puts a big fat chunk in Steam's pocket. Buying direct form the IL2 web store puts 100% in the devs bank account, where it does us all most good.

[Dhansak]

Thanks all for the info - it's all great news to hear and sounds very promising.  The mission and campaign generator look fantastic - I guess they can be used with any of the Battles?

 

By the way - I am fine with router config for port forwarding - will dig out the tcp/udp info, but may ask for the specific IP:ports  if I have trouble finding them! I hope that my PC (I7 8700 with 16GB RAM and 6Gb 1060GTX) may handle the hosting load?

 

Another thing i would like to understand is the game settings regarding the simulation aspect. The 3 of us are spread over the gaming pilot spectrum. One of us is a proper simmer (but not averse to simpler flying for the purpose of more general multiplayer fun). Another is almost (but not quite) "I just want to fly and shoot things". I am somewhere in between!

 

So I guess the question is how customisable are the flight settings?  I am hoping that it is possible to turn everything complex off and start at almost arcade mode then turn up the complexity a step at a time as we learn the ropes?

 

Thanks again for your help - much appreciated

 

 

[=FEW=fernando11]

You can turn most dificulty settings off. But I recomend at the bare minimum to have a joystick.

And to really enjoy the game to play it as close to simulation as posible.

[Dhansak]

Thanks fernando 11. I have a Thrustmaster 16000m HOTAS gathering dust - perhaps finally time for time for it to come out and play!

 

Good to hear that the settings are very customisable. I think our issue is that between us 3, we have a sliding scale of appreciation of what is enjoyment and challenge vs work and frustration. All very subjective I know. I am hoping that we can tweak the settings and find a lowest common denominator that is enjoyable for all of us, and work up from there. A big ask for any game!

 

 

Think I'm just going to bite the bullet - buy a Battle, try it out and report back to my friends.

 

I am trying to decide between Kuban and Stalingrad - are the planes from these packs a similar level of flying difficulty?

[The_Doctor_B]

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong but I think you need to buy Stalingrad from steam if you wish to link your accounts? I believe it treats that as the base game and the others as DLC. 

If you do that, you can link your account and buy the other packs from the developer website and they will all show up in steam. 
Also, as far as I am aware, only the host needs to forward ports, the other users should be fine. 
 

PWCG is an incredible tool for co-op and certainly suits flying with others who have varying degrees of skill ??

[Dhansak]

Thanks The_Doctor_B. Think I will start with BoS from Steam - at least i can do the account linking thing at the beginning. If I like it will buy more stuff directly from this website.

 

Are the extra planes in the deluxe edition worth it? - or would they be appreciated by enthusiasts only?

 

Thanks

[The_Doctor_B]

2 hours ago, Dhansak said:

Thanks The_Doctor_B. Think I will start with BoS from Steam - at least i can do the account linking thing at the beginning. If I like it will buy more stuff directly from this website.

 

Are the extra planes in the deluxe edition worth it? - or would they be appreciated by enthusiasts only?

 

Thanks

It very much depends on how much you like the collector aircraft. With the packs on sale, they are all incredible bargains for what you get. At £9.99 for a standard pack, you get an incredible amount of content for your money. I bought most of mine when they were a fair bit more expensive and I don’t regret it one bit. I have more content than time at the moment but will I undoubtedly keep adding to my collection. 

[Dhansak]

Thanks for that - will stick to the standard package as I am not really familiar with the collector edition planes.

[=FEW=fernando11]

On the long run, buying standard editions and colector planes is more expensive.

But at the start, buying A standard edition to see if you like the way they do things is normal.

 

Welcome to this comunity by the way

 

 

PS: also the Fw190A3 is my favourite plane. So buying BoS premium is a must!

Edited February 23, 2020 by =FEW=fernando11

[[RBRI]Khaela]

 

[Dhansak]

Fw190A3 recommendation received - will investigate!!

 

Khaela - thx for pointing me in the right direction for port forwarding - appreciated!

 

Thanks Pilots