IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad Discussion

[sandman2575]

Whoa, those are some impressive guides!   Thanks for the tip.

[Nefaro]

Also:


Requiem's IL-2 BOS Aircraft Familiarization vid series


A quick way to get to know each type and how to take off & land them.



Chuck's Guides have a bit more detail regarding some things.  Such as the special way to steer Russian aircraft on the ground (short brake then rudder input), and such.  But those vids hit the main points.

[Tuna]

Are the nations mixed in MP like our favorite DCS server? Or GE one side SU the other?

[DoctorQuest]

Is this really worth it if I have IL-2 1946? I've been impressed that gig has the latest and greatest updates for that sim.

I don't play MP.

[Nefaro]

Are the nations mixed in MP like our favorite DCS server? Or GE one side SU the other?

Probably depends on the server setting, like DCS, but I'm pretty sure most of them are German vs Soviet sides.   O0  The ones I played on were.

Is this really worth it if I have IL-2 1946? I've been impressed that gig has the latest and greatest updates for that sim.

I don't play MP.

Over 1946?  I think so.  The flight and damage modeling is FAR superior to that of IL-2 1946.  The older one has been regularly described as feeling like flying "on rails" through the sky in comparison. 

BOS is made by the Rise Of Flight devs, using a related engine, and ROF has a great reputation for the feel of it's flight modeling.  This one is also much prettier.

But it's single-player is a mixed bag.  The AI pilots are rather stupid, just like they were in ROF.  I recall them only knowing two moves; a constant left or right turn, and a Split-S.  Their logic is probably the same in BOS.  Of course, the 1946 pilots have their own problems, ignoring the physics restrictions placed on player pilots & such, being able to pull inhuman Gs without any issue for starters. 

While there is a dynamic campaign mod out for BOS, I've not yet tried it.  I used the similar one for ROF, and it was an impressive mod.  However I'm more about the multi-player so I can't say how well it turned out for this new one since it's still limited by the mission generation, and other such stuff, in vanilla BOS.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

SP in Battle of Stalingrad is lackluster.  You can use PWCG as a 3rd party add-on to generate somewhat decent missions but the biggest problem with the SP game is the ridiculous leveling system the devs put in place.  Each time you succeed, you gain XP which were used to unlock skins and additional weapons loads (thankfully they did away with much of that foolishness).   As you gain levels up to a maximum of 10, the AI gets tougher.  Sadly, this doesn't mean more skilled pilots with a wider repertoire of maneuvers on hand.  It just means they can fly with perfect e-retention and fire golden BBs of death with unerring accuracy and there's no real way to control this.  Your XP level is global so once you hit level 10, you stay at level 10 as there's no real career system in place.  You can't start over with a new virtual pilot.

[RyanE]

From a content standpoint, I consider BoS about where the original IL-2 was at the Forgotten Battles release.  As to gameplay in SP, I only play single missions and consider it on par with the original IL-2.  Its the feeling of flying and the atmosphere of combat where BoS starts to surpass the original IL-2.

1946 and the 3rd party mods has so much damned content its hard to compare it to anything.  But when I actually go back and fly 1946, its feels sluggish and vanilla.  But where else, for now, are you going to get that balance of content and combat flight simulator than with 1946.

Frankly, I have flown 1946 maybe 2 hours this year.  I have flown BoS a couple hundred.

[Father Ted]

Frankly, I have flown 1946 maybe 2 hours this year.  I have flown BoS a couple hundred.

...and I'm the other way about, but that's mainly because my squadmates are stuck with the older game and I'm a MP kinda guy.

I would point out, though, that BoS is half-price  til tomorrow.  Definitely worth getting at that price even if "just" for SP.  As others have pointed out, it is a step-change up from IL2'46 in terms of FMs and gfx:  IMO you'll get many hours entertainment learning to fly the crates and looking out the windows, even before you start trying to shoot stuff.

[DoctorQuest]

Thanks for the feedback but I think I'll pass. I have doubts my rig would be able to run BoS and I have no immediate plans to upgrade. I find it hard to believe this will be the last sale ever.

Could not disagree more with the FM discussion, though. "Flying on rails"????? What settings was this person using? They may not be perfect but "flying on rails" is a bit of an exaggeration in my opinion. No, I've never actually flown any of the aircraft modeled (I have flown a T-6) but 1946 seems to do a decent job of modeling FM compared to other sims I have. I am NOT saying BoS may not do a better job on FMs but 1946 gives me enough challenges to keep me happy, thank you very much.

Good discussion.

[Nefaro]

The taxi'ing is still a damn nightmare to learn.

It's easier taking off and landing than to taxi.  Notably the Russkie planes. 

Just using mostly brakes & throttle in ze German ones can be gauged after some practice.  But having to keep tapping the brakes in order to get your rudder turn to work one direction or another, in the Soviet ones, takes extra learnin'. 

Wouldn't be so bad if getting one tire in the snow/grass didn't pretty much prevent you from moving again.  :o


Anyway..

Just flew a sortie in the Bf-109F4, on the Wings Of Liberty server.

Enjoyable time despite a 110 spinning into me in one taxi attempt and only seeing a couple friendly bombers while I was up. 

Very much reminds me of playing ROF on the Full Realism servers, having to navigate by landmarks while looking for little specks in the distance.  Pretty much the same game engine, so the terrain & such look very similar.  :)

[Father Ted]

Could not disagree more with the FM discussion, though. "Flying on rails"????? What settings was this person using? They may not be perfect but "flying on rails" is a bit of an exaggeration in my opinion. No, I've never actually flown any of the aircraft modeled (I have flown a T-6) but 1946 seems to do a decent job of modeling FM compared to other sims I have. I am NOT saying BoS may not do a better job on FMs but 1946 gives me enough challenges to keep me happy, thank you very much.

Good discussion.

Ah, dear old FM discussions...My take on '46 v BoS is that the latter gives me a greater sense of sitting behind a powerful engine in a plane designed to be inherently unstable.  Whether that is down to the FMs or the graphics or the sounds, or a combination of all three, I don't know.  It's obviously an entirely subjective viewpoint: I'm not saying that one better FMs than the other, just that the newer game is the more immersive experience - for me.

[sandman2575]

My take on '46 v BoS is that the latter gives me a greater sense of sitting behind a powerful engine in a plane designed to be inherently unstable.

This is a really interesting insight. While I'm not a hardcore flight simmer, I have definitely found BoS to be more challenging than either Il-2 '46 or Cliffs of Dover, purely in terms of mastering flight characteristics.

I spent many hours in Cliffs of Dover trying to master the 109 Emil -- eventually got pretty decent at it, even in the E-2 (?) that doesn't offer automated prop pitch.

But by comparison, I find the 109F in BoS to be a *lot* harder to fly. "Inherently unstable" seems right to me. Take-offs in the 109 are definitely harder in BoS than in Cliffs of Dover (although I think the latest Team Fusion patch upped the difficulty in CloD). Landings seem harder to me too, as the 109F seems more prone to stalling/spinning out as I approach the landing strip if I'm not super delicate with the rudder.

Anyway, picked up the FW 190 and the La-5 on the BoS sale. Who knows if I'll ever figure out how to fly them though!

[Father Ted]

My take on '46 v BoS is that the latter gives me a greater sense of sitting behind a powerful engine in a plane designed to be inherently unstable.

This is a really interesting insight. While I'm not a hardcore flight simmer, I have definitely found BoS to be more challenging than either Il-2 '46 or Cliffs of Dover, purely in terms of mastering flight characteristics.

I spent many hours in Cliffs of Dover trying to master the 109 Emil -- eventually got pretty decent at it, even in the E-2 (?) that doesn't offer automated prop pitch.

But by comparison, I find the 109F in BoS to be a *lot* harder to fly. "Inherently unstable" seems right to me. Take-offs in the 109 are definitely harder in BoS than in Cliffs of Dover (although I think the latest Team Fusion patch upped the difficulty in CloD). Landings seem harder to me too, as the 109F seems more prone to stalling/spinning out as I approach the landing strip if I'm not super delicate with the rudder.

Do you have a rough idea of your hours spent in CloD v BoS, sandman?  It may be that the 109F in BoS is different to fly rather than harder if you've got your muscle-memory sufficiently invested in the CloD version.

I certainly have no RL flying experience (beyond a fair amount of gliding when I was a Tedlet), so my observations are really just hearsay.  For instance I  find the F4 in BoS to be a bit more wallow-y than what I'm used to in '46 (where it's a bit more on rails, dare I say  ;)), but I can't say which is the more "accurate".  I guess what I was getting at initially was that BoS  matches my imagination of what of flying and fighting was like then better than '46. 

[Tuna]

Thanks for the feedback but I think I'll pass. I have doubts my rig would be able to run BoS and I have no immediate plans to upgrade. I find it hard to believe this will be the last sale ever.

Could not disagree more with the FM discussion, though. "Flying on rails"????? What settings was this person using? They may not be perfect but "flying on rails" is a bit of an exaggeration in my opinion. No, I've never actually flown any of the aircraft modeled (I have flown a T-6) but 1946 seems to do a decent job of modeling FM compared to other sims I have. I am NOT saying BoS may not do a better job on FMs but 1946 gives me enough challenges to keep me happy, thank you very much.

Good discussion.

Does your rig run RoF ok? BoS seems to do pretty good on my system, very smooth. I'm AMD FX-6300 8 Gig of memory and I think a GTX 660. DCS and FSX do not run as smooth.

[sandman2575]

I have a lot more time logged in CloD than BoS -- according to Steam, 95 hrs. vs. 12 (!) hrs. So I'm sure you're right that that's coloring my impressions a bit. Still, I can't help but feel that the 109F in BoS is more temperamental than the 109E in CloD. It just feels more unstable to me, where CloD's 109E feels more predictable and forgiving somehow.