IL-2 Sturmovik

[xxmikexx]

I would like to expand these discussions to include the pros and cons of specific games.

For example, the first one I'll be working with is IL-2 Sturmovik. The only reason I picked it to be first is that a friend from RealWorldATC.com invited me to fly with the the Sturmovik squadron he commands, so I needed to purchase the game.

But I don't know very much at all about IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, which is the latest version. If anyone has experience with it, please post here so we can start a conversation about it.

If anyone has a different game they would like to start a conversation about, please open a thread, the title for which will include the name of the game.

[BrettVisionSLR]

I've flown every version of the IL-2 Series since 1.04, and have loved it all along the way.

There are of course issues that come and go with the hundreds of addons and updates that have come from Oleg and 1C (I didn't count' but I'm pretty sure that if I did it would be in the hundreds). I have no trouble saying that this is one of the best flight simulators ever produced. The flight physics are better than most sims out there, particularly for aerobatics. The netcode for online flying is the best there is, LockOn is a close second, and everything else is far less capable. I flew with a few different formation aerobatic teams in IL-2 and LockOn and they are the only ones capable of supporting tight formations with multiplayer connections from around the world.

The damage modeling and weapons ballistics modeling is quite good. The clouds, sky, and sun provide a visual experience more akin to real world flying than other sims, even though there are fewer objects and details than you might be used to as an FSX pilot (consider the time period is partially to blame for this).

The online community of IL-2 is still quite active too. The only downside to it is that a newcomer to the online realm will be flying against lots of guys with 5 years of experience. . .my advice, get a wingman!!

Flying online as TX-EcoDragon or TUSA//EcoDragon


http://www.gozr.net/iocl/

http://www.txsquadron.com/

[xxmikexx]

BrettVisionSLR,

I must have messed up the installation but I don't want to change anything without hearing from you ...

The box came with a maroon DVD and a black DVD. Maybe I only installed one of them. Anyway, what I seem to have running is an expansion pack of some kind rather than the game I was expecting -- lots of different aircraft, lots of different missions, and so on.

The box says "Five Games In One". What should I be seeing if the installation was in fact done correctly?

[xxmikexx]

I've been so busy playing with ini file tweaks that I failed to notice that the vast majority of the game is located in the "Mission Builder" section.

So there's nothing wrong with my installation after all.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What kinds of changes have I been making? They're experimental in nature so I don't want to discuss them until I've had a chance to test them out in the context of offline combat.

[munnst]

Hi,

I started playing IL2 many years ago when the first demo came out.
Wow what an experience. Just trying to get the Aircobra off the ground in the demo was an experience. I stalled out many times until I got the feel of the aircraft. The most realistic flight dynamics I have ever come across (i've yet to try FSX).
Version 1 was most fun for Strumovik drivers and the IL2 could hold it's own with a 109 in the turn. I had much fun online running ground attack, straffing bases and turning with fighters. But that was what this sim was about, at first. Then the patches came. The first couple improved the sim with better sounds and muzzle flashes. IMO too many patches came out and it was hard to keep up. The Sturmovik flight chracteristics were tamed until it was near impossible getting to the target let alone hit it. But there were other aircraft added and some of the early jets were quite amazing both in performance and cockpit ambiance (I can only explain this as the ear ringing and clock tick you get in the 109 with the engine off, truly amazing).
Then pacific fighters came out with carrier landings and many, many more aircraft.
Best points of this sim. Amazing flight characteristics. Great sounds (although lacked a merlin sound). Unusual aircraft types. Excellent VC cockpits as standard. Immersive dogfights. Visions from the cockpit that look real, the sun seems to glare, how?. Just firing at water is fun to watch the bullet strikes. This is the only sim to scare me. Flying at 18'000 feet, in a darkened room with the volume up. I leapt out of my chair when cannon started flashing over the canopy quickly followed by a 109!
Bad points. None rearly. The only thing which sometimes spoiled an offline game was the gay abandon your wingmen seem to have when in range of the enemy. Straight in they go well beyond visual range without waiting for your command which foils any attempt to place your flight with a tactical advantage.
If I had to rate this game I have to give it 9/10. Can't give it 10/10, that's reserved for Battle of Britain (If Oleg ever manages to get it released).
Ted.

[xxmikexx]

munnst,

I have the original IL-2 but didn't do much more than start it up. Ditto with Pacific Fighters -- I own it but haven't flown it much yet. However, is Pacific Fighters based on IL-2 or on IL-2 1946? Or is it simply a different program by the same author?

EDIT: And is he the author of Lock On as well?

[munnst]

munnst,

I have the original IL-2 but didn't do much more than start it up. Ditto with Pacific Fighters -- I own it but haven't flown it much yet. However, is Pacific Fighters based on IL-2 or on IL-2 1946? Or is it simply a different program by the same author?

EDIT: And is he the author of Lock On as well?

I believe Pacific Fighters is the same game engine as IL2 fully patched.
The difference is the theatre and new aircraft not available in IL2.
With IL2 and Pacific installed I think (from memory) you get both games rolled into one. So you can still fly all the aircraft from IL2 as well as all the extras from PF. I got bored with PF as ground attack was what I liked with IL2 and with the later patches which added Beaufighter, B25, Mosquito etc my ageing PC started to struggle. Carrier takeoff and landing was fun. The best way to enjoy IL2 is offline (unless as somebody else mentioned with a team or at very least a wingman for online) flying the IL2 or commanding a flight of Me109's against the ruskies.
Incidentally we used to fly online air racing with IL2. Racing sturmoviks was great fun. Anyone remember that? Haven't flown online for a while. Is there still a large online community?

[xxmikexx]

munnst,

I believe the answer to whether there is still a large IL-2 online community is yes. I just went onto Hyperlobby and saw about fifty games in progress, with roughly 150 players in chat and roughly 850 in <whatever>.

At present I really don't know anything about this stuff so I can't answer your question any better than I have just done.

[xxmikexx]

Folks,

I'm sorry this is taking so long. My position with RealWorldATC.com as Member Services Coordinator leaves less time for military flying familiarization than I would like.

That said, I think I've finally come up with an ini file setup for IL-2 Sturmovik that is worth my giving a serious try in-game ...

First, I'm right handed. Since I intend to use the mouse for view control, I have no choice but to plan to use my right hand for that.

Second, since my right hand will be occupied mainly with the mouse, it follows that I must fly with the joystick in my left hand.

Finally, there are indeed some things I will need to do from the keyboard, and I am still playing with their setups. For example, because trim will be in constant use I have assigned the pitch and roll trim functions to the arrowpad keys where I can find them by feel. (I use Ctrl+arrowkey for rudder trim, again findable by feel.)

So in a day or two I may actually get some flying in. I'll first do single engine prop, then multi-engine prop.

Stay tuned.

[joea]

BTW IL-46 is all the previous games (Forgotten Battles to Pacific Fighters and soem of the addons) and patches rolled into one, you just need one more patch 4.08 (one more in the pipeline) you can get off the UBI site and you're good to go. Much more handy and convenient to handle actually. You can fly from Mongolia to Normandy and many places in between. My favourite combat sim ATM.

[xxmikexx]

joea,

I'm curious. Do you belong to any of the online IL-2 squadrons?

[joea]

Sorry for the late answer but, no.

[johnost]

Forgive me if this is old stuff, but I used to enjoy IL-2 Forgotten Battles Gold Pack on a Win XP computer, but with a new machine running Vista Home Premium (32-bit), I have given up trying to install/run IL-2 - too many problems.

Has anybody suceeded with IL-2 and Vista?

[CoNa]

Forgive me if this is old stuff, but I used to enjoy IL-2 Forgotten Battles Gold Pack on a Win XP computer, but with a new machine running Vista Home Premium (32-bit), I have given up trying to install/run IL-2 - too many problems.

Has anybody suceeded with IL-2 and Vista?


Hi, It works just fine. You just need to install with the correct file.
Try to launch the "a.exe" directly on the CD/DVD instead of using setup.exe, and do it as administrator and you should be fine.

[johnost]

Thanks for your encouragement - problem solved. The Gold Pack contains 3 CDs, Disk 3 is the "Ace Expansion Pack". I installed all 3 without problems as Administrator in Win XP SP2 mode, but when it asked for a CD in startup, I only got an error message trying both Disks 1 & 2. I finally tried inserting Disk 3 at startup, and - lo and behold - it runs just fine now in Vista, but who would have thought you need to use Disk 3.

[maniaspeed]

THis thread is kind of old now, but I think at least for '46 in Vista you need to install it somewhere other than the "c:\Program Files" directory. Something about additional security placed on programs in that folder that interferes with the sim. I don't have Vista but I've read that a number of times.

I actually bought all of the IL2 games but never got a chance to even install them (this is a bad pattern I have), then 1946 came out. It's all of the games (except the original IL2) plus all of the patches and 1st party expansion packs merged together into one big game. I got it on sale for ***$9.99***. It's worth it alone for the time saved needed to patch and update / merge all of the other original games. Plus there are several payware and an enormous amount of freeware missions and campaigns to add. There is enough content out there to probably take years to get through. You should see some of the movies people have made using IL2 - amazing stuff.

I keep trying to get started with '46 but real life keeps getting in the way. Anyway SimHQ (which is just a great site in general) has a very good IL2 forum. I've gotten lots of helpful advice over there - I just need to find the time to put it into practice!

[johnost]

Thanks for the info, maniaspeed. I currently run the IL-2 Goldpack in C:/Program Files without any problems. I will keep an eye out for '46, as it seems like a bargain, and I will keep your advise in mind.

John

[munnst]

Hi,

I'd like to review my initial comments about Il2 which were from memory.
After replying this thread I decided to purchase the complete IL2 series on one disc (can't remember what it's called but it has a Red Start and Jet on the cover - in fact it's called Il46 [edit]). This disc contains all the IL2 series plus all the patches.

Now, I loved IL2 when it first came out. After installation I was quite surprised at how old the sim is looking. It must be 3 or 4 years since I last played it, maybe more. Then it was the dogs danglies compared to FS2000 and CFS2. Now comparing it to FSX it looks very, very dated. In fact as I couldn't get it to work with my Saitek throttle and because it looked so dated after two or three goes I've removed it.

This isn't a dig at IL2 just a comment on how much all the other sims have improved since it's release. Now FSX is the best.

Anyone know if Olegs Battle of Britain will ever arrive?

Thanks,

Ted.