Il2 Battle of Stalingrad on Steam

[Nefaro]

Congrats on the CH gear, Nef! Do you have them already or are they still on their way?

I have been using my CH Pro Pedals for over ten years now and they're still going strong. Quality gear, that.

Should get all of it next week.   :)

Not sure how well I'll get on with using rudder pedals but at least I'll have a wide all the options. 

Kept finding myself avoiding anything but WWI flight sims lately.  Partly due to wanting more hat switches and buttons available on my HOTAS to govern engine and data management controls.  Even though I'm fine with the lower fidelity sims that just use keyboard commands, I do not like having to do two- or three-finger keyboard shortcuts combos for things that get used as regularly as those.  Actually, even the hi-fi sims are still a pain in the ass with these things, too, if you don't have all the extras on your hardware.

Got some flight sim fever again.   It's been WWI most of the year, so I'll spread out again for a bit.  Not enough hours in the day!

[Father Ted]

Not sure how well I'll get on with using rudder pedals but at least I'll have a wide all the options. 

There will be a transition phase, but stick with it, is my advice.  If you're already using a twisty stick then you probably won't see an actual improvement in your flying, but it is more immersive using pedals

[Nefaro]

Not sure how well I'll get on with using rudder pedals but at least I'll have a wide all the options. 

There will be a transition phase, but stick with it, is my advice.  If you're already using a twisty stick then you probably won't see an actual improvement in your flying, but it is more immersive using pedals

I actually use the big rocker switch on the other side of my throttle at the moment.  It's okay other than being too sensitive, so hopefully the pedals will be less so.

My concern regarding using the pedals relates to comfort.  Having nasty lower back injuries, with matching bolts and beams, may cause problems.  Suppose I could just resell it if that's the case.   

[Yskonyn]

Yes, generally well looked after sim hardware is pretty steady with its price second hand, so if it doesn't work out you should be able to get some decent coin back for it.

What sims are you looking at for now?

[Skoop]

I use these :

http://flightsimcontrols.com/store/available/t-rudder-pedals-usb-eu/

They are definitely a great addition, my flying and gunnery have improved since getting them.  The ergonomics are great, you just push with your toes, don't have to move your whole leg to move the pedals.   Extremely precise digital sensors and metal construction.

I up graded from saitek combat pros which were ok, just not as precise enough.

Your thoughts on the sim are right on, It has a lot of potential, just needs more content.  A revamped editor is in the works, so that may really help the situation. 

I have been on a big flight sim kick lately as well, putting most of my time in Il2 Bos and Dcs mig21.

[Father Ted]

Not sure how well I'll get on with using rudder pedals but at least I'll have a wide all the options. 

There will be a transition phase, but stick with it, is my advice.  If you're already using a twisty stick then you probably won't see an actual improvement in your flying, but it is more immersive using pedals

I actually use the big rocker switch on the other side of my throttle at the moment.  It's okay other than being too sensitive, so hopefully the pedals will be less so.

My concern regarding using the pedals relates to comfort.  Having nasty lower back injuries, with matching bolts and beams, may cause problems.  Suppose I could just resell it if that's the case.

Sorry to hear about your health issues - and obviously I can't speak to those - but I think that pedals will be a definite improvement over a rocker switch.  Another advantage of them (for BoS, not RoF) is toe-brakes - makes taxiing and landing more manageable.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

You may want to look into getting a twisty stick if you've got a bad back.  Resting your feet on the pedals doesn't give you the support you need, especially if your chair is on casters.  If it is, make sure you lock the wheels or you'll end up pushing yourself around the desk a lot.  I've farted around with both pedals and twisty sticks and I find that I get more precision out of a stick than I do from pedals.

[Nefaro]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I didn't expect my Fighterstick and Pedals to come in until Monday, but they showed up today.  As did Warfighter and it's first expansion.  Always nice surprise to get toys early!

As for surprises, I didn't expect the CH Fighterstick to be this large.  Never saw one in person.  It's beastly.  Which is good because it also has a very large throw range.  As for the pedals, it looks like I may be okay with them if I keep my heels on the edge of the base instead of in the cups.  Would just have to slide them up when I need to brake.  Speaking of braking.. do you guys generally set up the toe brakes to both the left and right in your airplane sims or go set all brakes to both for parity?

Those T-Rudder pedals look amazing Skoop!  Hopefully I'll manage with the CH ones.  If it works out but the heel cups get on my nerves, I'll saw them off if need be.  My only current concern (before actually using them) is how loud it is when you move them back to the center detent.  I'd rather have it loud than weak though.

What sims are you looking at for now?

Well.. I am into BOS right now even though it needs more content, even for Multi-player.  Not sure how long this stretch will last because it desperately needs the Difficulty options unlocked, individual Server Settings options, and a Mission Editor to make the Multi-player missions something more than "Air Quake".  They're saying that the Editor will be coming soon™ so we'll see how that goes. 

I've not really played WW2 flight sims much since... ohhhh.. European Air War?  I think that was the last one I played a LOT.  Didn't get into IL-2 Sturmovik back in the day, despite owning it.  The thing had some issues for awhile and by the time I picked up IL-2 1946 awhile back, there were finally mega mods that helped a lot of that stuff.  But then I was still spending more time in jets and biplanes. 

My big hurdle with flying WW2 sims is learning the engine management.  I'd prefer to have custom settings where I can turn off the 3D labels and such, but leave the engine management on auto for awhile until I get used to actually handling the planes and sighting stuff in BOS without assistance.  I am very happy that they seem to have kept the same flight and damage models in the "Normal" difficulty mode.I'm currently just flying that mode rather than spending all the time learning each aircraft model's engine management (too much like work).  I want to learn it but dunno if I should bother yet since I  may not be playing a lot of MP with it until the extras get released and people create custom server missions.


As for the others..

I'll still be doing a lot of WOFF and ROF.  The experience is just more visually and aurally engaging in those old open cockpits and I love the setting.  ^-^ 
Will still be doing some ROF  multi-player, when a Realism server gets decently populated anyway.  Only been seeing between 2 and 8 people on at any one time this week.  I suspect quite a few of the ROF players are doing BOS multi-player right now so I diversified too.

The main reason I also got the throttle, with the umpteen extra gadgets on it, is for flying more modern "study" sims.  Wanted a lot of had switches for the Data/Weapon/Countermeasure HOTAS commands and other such stuff in DCS and Falcon BMS.  That will mean spending a lot of time mapping all that crap, but I'll get to it eventually, once the prop plane cycle has passed again.  I should probably finally get back into Falcon soon after my Throttle shows up. 

If I knew that there were steadily populated DCS multi-player servers, then I would re-learn that stuff.  But last I heard it was ~thirty servers, each with one or two people in them. Kinda meh. 




*Engine Management Rant On*
For some reason I find WW2 prop plane engine management an annoying hassle.  Probably because I mostly got into sims flying jets at a young age where you didn't have to mess with such things.  Flying for the action & tactics and not so much the nuts and bolts.  The WWI engine management isn't a big deal - there are only one or two throttles/cowls you gotta jockey on any single plane.  Some of these WW2 planes have what?  Four? Five? 

Audio and visual cues  have come a long way in flight sims (one reason I really enjoy ROF) but it's not quite so obvious in the these planes due to having a cockpit and the vibrations only becoming noticeable when things are very near a bad spot.  I think of it like driving a stick shift.. if you've done it for a bit, knowing when and how to shift becomes second nature without having to look about, check your instruments, or think on it much.  Some of those subtle cues are still missing or unnoticeable in flight sims, so the engine management takes a bit more focus to do it  properly.  When I want to dogfight or dive bomb.  :D   It doesn't help that there is little official documentation on this stuff for BOS right now, so I'd be left scrounging to get up to speed.
*Rant OFF*

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Brakes are different for German and Soviet planes in BOS.  Germans have both left and right brakes so you can map those to the toe brakes.  The Soviets get by with one massive brake....for RUSSIA!  Just remember to keep your tailwheel locked for take-offs and landings.

I really enjoy the CEM in BOS (for the Russian planes.  Don't like it for the German ones but then again, I never fly the dirty Huns anyway).

[Father Ted]

Will still be doing some ROF  multi-player, when a Realism server gets decently populated anyway.  Only been seeing between 2 and 8 people on at any one time this week.  I suspect quite a few of the ROF players are doing BOS multi-player right now so I diversified too.

The Syndicate server is always worth a look coz their "Active Front" set-up means that there is stuff to do even if there aren't many people on.

[Skoop]

There's some quick guides in the manuals/ guides forum of the official game forums.

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/forum/82-tutorials-and-manuals/.

Might help, the key to CEM is just knowing the range to operate in and use caution when exceeding them.  If your not opposed to flying German planes, both 109 models and the fw190 have all automated engine management, you just control rpm with the throttle.  Just have to keep manifold pressure under the damage setting.

Also, you can play the campaign in normal difficulty and add complexity with hotkeys, check the controls for which keys turn stuff like labels or engine management on-off.

[Nefaro]

Thanks for the info SDR and Skoop.

I forget that some of the icons and auto engine management stuff has toggle hotkeys.  As for the German aircraft's automatic stuff, do you have to turn them on at the start of a mission or are they already turned on when you start the engine?

The Syndicate server is always worth a look coz their "Active Front" set-up means that there is stuff to do even if there aren't many people on.

I was on the Syndicate server for awhile last Sunday.  It was fun because there was around 30-40 people on too!  Unfortunately that was the only day I saw anyone there in the past week.  It's cool that there are some AI aircraft in there for doing Co-Op stuff too, if you can find them. 

During the week, I had more luck finding a handful of people on the Wargrounds server.   It's custom missions have much more airplane variety to choose from than Syndicate server and more ground attack, photo, and artillery support missions too.  For the same reason, player and AI aircraft tend to be a bit more scattered around the map so a small server population is more like a long game of hide & seek.  While there are some AI planes in it, I don't see them quite as often as Syndicate but that could be my inconsistent visual sighting.  I was there when quite a few people were on once, however, and it was superb.

Been waiting for another ROF sale to come  up because I still want to get a DFW 2-seater.  I have the Halberstadt 2-seater, which is a nice plane, but it's not an option to fly on the Syndicate server for Recon.  I've kinda enjoyed running solo Photo Recon over enemy territory and the only type available for that on Syndicate is the DFW (in most missions?).  I have the Steam version, however, so I will end up having to pay for a 4-pack of airplanes just to get that DFW.  Which means I'll be watching the upcoming Steam sales.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

German planes default to auto settings.  Also, you can't map axis or knobs to some German plane settings like prop pitch.  Theirs go in stages so you need to map it to an up/down toggle and bump it up one notch at a time.  Soviet planes use wheels to adjust pitch and stuff so you can map those to knobs and wheels.

[Nefaro]

I would just focus on flying German 109s to make the initial engine management easier, but that's usually what the majority is flying in multi-player. 

Then again, I haven't done much MP anyway.  Have a helluva time landing in this sim.  While WWI and jet aircraft all seem to require a slow descent, flare, and a drop onto the runway  at near stall while nose high, I keep getting more bounce than I expect.  Nasty bounce, even.   After watching some vids of other people I'm obviously not the only one with this  issue.  The couple I've seen do it with decent touchdowns didn't really flare much at all, with their nose almost level to the horizon, and came in rather fast.  ???

Probably even more odd is the torque effect during take-offs for some of the fighters.  While on the ground with the engine running high, the yaw can get ridiculous.  So much so that I've actually not been able to fully counteract it with full opposite rudder on a couple occasions.  The real kicker is when you first lift off while pushing your rudder halfway in the opposite direction.  As soon as your wheels leave the ground, the heavy yaw caused by the engine is immediately dropped to very little and your counter-rudder instantly takes effect pushing and rolling you far too much.  I think the ground yaw is too strong.

Had one crash and one complete computer freeze while playing BOS thus far.  Only happened on the 'Ultra' setting, so it's probably gfx effect related because I didn't experience it on the High setting.  Framerates are as good or even better when I have it set to Ultra so it's ..  odd.

This thing has some drawbacks and obviously needs further work.  But the ROF engine's flight & damage modelling translates wonderfully and still gives that exceptional feeling of flight.  Crossing fingers in hopes development continues for a good long time, but if 1C is running the show then that's going to be in question.

[Skoop]

Take offs can be tricky to get used to, I usually throttle up to see where the torque is going to pull, then brake and apply rudder.  After enough time in certain aircraft you will just know how much rudder to apply.  Lock the tail wheel by pulling back on the stick.

109 flys like a dream in the sim, I think that's why it's so popular.  I actually like the 190 with all it's firepower, I like to use the 4 20mm like a shotgun effect.  Can't miss, but it's harder to fly than the 109 because it has no slats for low speed turn fighting.

For landing tips watch the requiem you tube videos.

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/3625-air-combat-tutorials-tir-profile-g940-controls-sweetfx-updat/

As a rule of thumb I always shoot for a touch down at about 150 to 160 ballpark and start pumping the brakes to slow down. You usually won't bounce too much at that speed.