Been gone along time

[Grey_Mouser]

Hello all...I used to play online (hyper lobby) until about mid 2008.  Career and life in general pulled me away from the game though I occasionally patched game, flew offline, and have been somewhat aware that development  continued.  My current version is 4.13.4m and I see there are many other off shoots of the game.  What is the latest version available and where is best to find it?  Some of the other games like cliffs of Dover and others...are they stand alone or do they build off this version?

 

I apologize in advance for asking questions that likely exist right here in this forum but as I started reading through threads, I just can't easily piece together what all has transpired in almost 12 years.

[Art-J]

1) Il-2 1946 is still officially supported by Team Daidalos, although at a small and slow pace. The last version is 4.14.1, links can be found here:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=230316

 

Most popular custom mod packages for the game are based on lower version numbers, however. Since they're not official, you'll have to check other forums for more info, Like that one for example:

https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php

 

2) Il-2 Cliffs of Dover is a separate franchise, first developed and released in 2011 by the same guys who did 1946 (minus Oleg Maddox, who moved on to other career), abandoned shortly later, modded unofficially later for years, revived officially not long ago - now under active development by Team Fusion studio (you might have noticed their Tobruk payware expansion pack released for the game recently).

 

3) Il-2 Great Battles (Stalingrad/Moscow/Kuban/Bodenplatte) is also a separate franchise, under long time, active development of 777 Studio, know previously for their Rise of Flight simulator.

 

All three products share "Il-2 Sturmovik" main title (strictly for recognizeable trademark / publicity reasons) and the same publisher - Russian 1C corporation, but are otherwise unrelated.

 

This particular website and forum are mostly aimed at 2) and 3) players, so unless you intend to start playing these two newer games next to (or instead of) old '46, you won't find much info about whereabouts of latter over here.

 

In practical terms:

a) '46 is still played but only by relatively small community of dedicated veterans, simply because despite its greatness, it's just outdated product by today's standards.

b) Great Battles series has kind of become a new "standard" and successor to '46;

c) revived Cliffs of Dover tries to catch up with Great Battles, but is more of a complement rather than competition. Both have their weak and strong points.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Art-J

[Grey_Mouser]

Thank you very much...I was trying to convert my version to a lower one so that I could try the SAS material but I'm not sure the "downgrade" worked and the files I downloaded from the mirror on SAS website said file was corrupt so I took a break from it...besides, I've found my Saitek X52 is kinda screwed up in the rudder and pedals seem to be malfunctioning too...I might pony up for a new Joystick but holy crap has it gotten expensive!

[Jumoschwanz]

I have just kept flying the standard version of IL246 with the latest official patches over the last 20 years. I was never into the hacks that are popularly called "mods", but someday if I get a newer computer maybe I would try COD or GB. I am still running the same XP computer I ran a dozen or more years ago though and it works great.

 

 If I feel like flying online there are still servers that run the standard official patch of the sim, not like in 2008 when Spits_vs_109s had 4000+ different pilots each month, but you can still easily find a dogfight server and have fun no problem. If everyone had kept running the official patches the community would not have splintered and there would be more populated servers, but the kids went for the novelty and eye candy instead of putting the good of the sim and the community first, typical.

[[TFA]Wolf_XIII]

I play all three, IL-2 GB with friends online, IL-2 1946 mainly offline for the great campaigns and IL-2 Cliffs of Dover both on and offline as it's not perfect but I really like it's depth.

Also I like the spotting the most, and the clickable cockpit is great.

 

1946 has the best AI control off all of them, you can see some of the issues with GB using an engine originally optimized for WW1 flight sims as basis in the fact that the radio system is not integral but rather tacked on. You can only control your wingmen via Radio and the Chatter with the ground control is just canned.

You can't ask for takeoff permission, you don't organic radio messages just some that are obviously triggered by some states as reaching a waypoint.

Which is a part where both 1946 and Cliffs of Dover are Superior. The AI Commands in the latter don't always work that well, but partially they do, and you will get regular information broadcasts from ground control, on bandits for example.

 

Only in 1946 are you currently able to control a whole squadron, in Cliffs of Dover that might or might not work.

 

 

1946 Modded, is also hands down the best when it comes to AI, the AI can really challenge you and fly their aircraft to the best of it's abilities. If you're not on top of your game and you given them the chance to shoot you down, even for a second.....you're going down!

 

Cliffs of Dover is second in that, pretty good with the german birds but not that great the british ones. So not quite as consistently great. Fighting 109s with the Spit can be really, really frustrating, as you can get bounced from above by a full flight or more of 109s while they resolutely refuse to be trapped into a turning fight. They can be enticed into errors though.

 

GB really let's itself down there, which is a pity given the Career mode, the AI tends to not use the aircraft to it's strengths and turn a lot, even with aircraft that you should not use as Turnfighters (190s, P-47s, 109s in most Circumstances.)

 

Immersion I'd say Cliffs of Dover wins, the Weapons have a good deal of kickback, the aircraft really groans in tight maneuvres, like in IL-2 1946 and everything is clickeable.

Also certain systems like the Spitfire's directional Gyro/Compass system have all their idiosyncracies modelled.

 

@Artful_Dodger the best version to buy is the GOG version as the unupgraded 4.12 is included as an extra download.

 

@Jumoschwanz You're missing some of the best content for IL-2, especially in regards to the AI.The AI non-modded is just boring to fight, whereas the Modded AI is a proper challenge that can be more dangerous than the average human players in some games like War Thunder! ? I'm not joking!

[Jumoschwanz]

On 1/21/2021 at 9:41 AM, Wolf_XIII said:

 

@Jumoschwanz You're missing some of the best content for IL-2, especially in regards to the AI.The AI non-modded is just boring to fight, whereas the Modded AI is a proper challenge that can be more dangerous than the average human players in some games like War Thunder! ? I'm not joking!

 

  Sure,, if you have three or  four thousand dollars to buy me a new rig, so I can sit on my butt another 20 years and shoot everyone down again let me know. Otherwise I will just keep on with the IL246 on Windows XP that has been doing well the last dozen or so years. 

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

On 1/22/2021 at 10:58 AM, Jumoschwanz said:

 

  Sure,, if you have three or  four thousand dollars to buy me a new rig, so I can sit on my butt another 20 years and shoot everyone down again let me know. Otherwise I will just keep on with the IL246 on Windows XP that has been doing well the last dozen or so years. 

The mods don't affect performance much generally. I recommend y-pack for flight models and fidelity and BAT for content. You really don't know what you are missing as stock 1946 is pretty bad in terms of flight models.

[NO.20_Krispy_Duck]

I have modded 1946 with VP Mod. I'm trying to remember if I added a stand alone AI mod or not, I don't recall because I put VP on awhile back. The enemy planes have a huge array of AI behaviors. I did a mission in New Guinea with P-40s vs Ki-43s last night. One set of KI-43s flew just defensively and then tried to climb away, but got caught. The other group were very aggressive and had to be pressured the whole time to keep them at a disadvantage.

I've never tried Y-pack or BAT. Does Y-pack offer a stand-alone AI improvement over VP Mod?

 

The best AI I've ever fought against is in Wings Over Flanders Fields Platinum. Second best is IL2 1946 with mods. I'd put IL2 BoX in the middle somewhere. It's not bad, just you can tell it's not a person flying. IL2 CLOD and Tobruk is nearer the bottom - the last mission I flew, half the enemies just stalled and crashed on their own. Only a couple were in the fight.

Edited February 20, 2021 by NO.20_Krispy_Duck

[Hapo54]

...I tried to play the STEAM version and get locked into a tiny display...

 

...it seems to crash my system too...I have to reboot to get the normal display back...

 

...it was only $9.99 but I really want to play...this system won't support the new versions...