Il2 Battle of Stalingrad on Steam

[Nefaro]

In related news.. this CH Fighterstick is da bomb.  Certainly lives up to it's reputation.

Sooo much more precise than my old inexpensive T-Flight.  Between that and the CH rudder pedals, I've experienced a huge difference.  The range of motion is is crazy.

O0 O0


When I get the Throttle, I should have all the gadgets available to map anything needed.   

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Landing in IL-2 is tougher than other sims.  I find it a lot harder to judge distance when lining up on the runway in this sim compared to others.  Maybe they could introduce depth of field or something.

As for torque when taking off, make sure your tail wheel is locked (most planes have a lever but for the FW-190, you need to pull fully back on the stick to lock it) and don't throttle up too quickly.  Kick opposite rudder as you start to feel the torque pulling you left or right (I think all the planes but the La-5 pull right). 

If you play full length missions, remember that you have to taxi off the runway itself to get the full XP award.  If you shut down or ESC out while still sitting on the runway, it's counted as an emergency landing and you get a 50% Xp hit.

[Nefaro]

Landing in IL-2 is tougher than other sims.  I find it a lot harder to judge distance when lining up on the runway in this sim compared to others.  Maybe they could introduce depth of field or something.

As for torque when taking off, make sure your tail wheel is locked (most planes have a lever but for the FW-190, you need to pull fully back on the stick to lock it) and don't throttle up too quickly.  Kick opposite rudder as you start to feel the torque pulling you left or right (I think all the planes but the La-5 pull right). 

Will do.  I've made sure that the rear wheel is actually locked, but I just started adding some back pressure on the run-up to be sure it's dragging properly.  Being on 'Normal' mode for the moment, it starts locked by default when you load in on the runway.

I'm pretty sure the 109s pull left (due to their engines being upside down?) but I could be wrong.  I've been slowly raiding the throttle and trying to slowly increase the opposite rudder with it.  For the most part I'm taking off okay, despite having to hold the rudder over halfway or more down the whole runway.  It's the lift-off that gets a bit alarming at times because the torque just disappears and my heavy rudder inputs take over.  As soon as the wheels leave the ground.   :o   I was thinking maybe there's something wrong with the FM in this transition, as the planes always go directly into a sideslip as soon as the wheels leave the ground.   Doesn't seem like the norm when there isn't much wind but maybe I'm wrong.   

Can manage the take-offs right now as long as I don't have to dodge anyone or anything on the runway.  Unfortunately your AI wingman right next to you begins taking off when you do in the single-player Missions.  That has lead to some alarming moments during my heavy rudder battle down the runway.  ;D

If you play full length missions, remember that you have to taxi off the runway itself to get the full XP award.  If you shut down or ESC out while still sitting on the runway, it's counted as an emergency landing and you get a 50% Xp hit.

Thanks for confirming this.   I kept seeing the "get off the runway you bastard" notifications on the UI and they seem pretty urgent.  Thus far my landings resulting in an undamaged aircraft usually end up rolling off one side of the runway before stopping anyhow.  So that just kinda works out, being off the runway, even if I'm not on the proper taxiway. 


Man... I thought the damage modelling in ROF was superb.  This thing is crazy.  When I get noticeably damaged in single-player, I'll pause and check it out up close.  I've seen individual machinegun bullet holes doing expected damage to the exact part of the aircraft they went through.  Including to my pilot.  Also had a couple close calls with a bullet passing through the window right in front of my face, getting a "POP!" sound as it does so along with the new hole there and the loud airflow through it.  Damn fine job on the atmospherics.   

Pretty sure a couple AA bullets went through my IL-2's right wing and then through the side of my cockpit to hit my pilot once, while circling around a ground target.  Got that red vision with blood speckled on my goggles.   Could see the exact holes lined up just right after looking in external view.

[Yskonyn]

Sounds like you are having fun, Nefaro.
Post a picture of your 'pit' once you have all the toys, will you? O:-)

[Skoop]

I put some time into this yesterday, flew mostly the pe2 and il2 in the campaign to get everything unlocked.  Those to aircraft are great, 2 of my favorites of the game.  I love being able to level bomb and dive bomb in the pe2, it's pretty versatile air frame.  You can bomb, dive bomb, ground strafe with mg and rockets, even do a heavy fighter role like the bf110.

The il2 is great as well, some tips I figured out with it:
When attacking armor use flaps to do a nice shallow slow dive and adjust with rudder on the target.  You can get deadly accurate with the cannons against tanks, snipered 12 panzer4s and stopped a whole armored attack on a ground support mission.  It seems that the 23mm with ap almost does more damage than the 37mm due to less recoil and a 4 to 1 rate of fire ratio.  Cool that you do have to get flank shots or rear shots to do damage.  Also cool that some hits will just mobility kill the tank and it will smoke for the whole mission or explode after 5 mins, just random which one.  Sometimes you will get a catistrophic hit and the tank will go up in a fire ball. 

[Skoop]

Another note, when the campaign came out, I think the AI got heavily criticized.  After getting up to level 9 at the end of the campaign, the AI definitely ramps up each level.  AI fighters are more aggressive, AA is deadly accurate at this point.  Also a lot more activity on the ground.

[Nefaro]

Yeah, I'm enjoying it.  Although it has some drawbacks.

I had a couple d-bags exit the multi-player match right in front of me, after getting and staying on their tails.  Not sure if your score remains if you just exit straight out of the game while flying MP, or whether they could log back in and still keep it.  I felt robbed either way, especially after the long process of countering a 109's energy fight in my lil Yak and finally getting the advantage.  >:(   

The exit timer is only something like 5 seconds IIRC, if it works for completely exiting at all.

[Father Ted]

Yeah, I'm enjoying it.  Although it has some drawbacks.

I had a couple d-bags exit the multi-player match right in front of me, after getting and staying on their tails.  Not sure if your score remains if you just exit straight out of the game while flying MP, or whether they could log back in and still keep it.  I felt robbed either way, especially after the long process of countering a 109's energy fight in my lil Yak and finally getting the advantage.  >:(   

The exit timer is only something like 5 seconds IIRC, if it works for completely exiting at all.

Well, to be fair, you'll get d-bags (took me a minute to get that btw) trying to game the game in any online environment.  The exit timer in RoF is a server setting I think, as I played an online war where it was set at 30s (possibly to stop the behaviour you're describing), but it's usually 5s.  Hopefully we'll soon start to see clan servers and the like, so the MP experience will get a bit more refined

[Skoop]

Your score does remain if you exit, I think this is in place In case you get dropped from a server due to tech problems, you can rejoin and continue on.  Unfortunately dbags will use it as an exploit, it's more noticeable on the air quake style servers.  Haven't seen it yet in the SYN or LD servers.

[JudgeDredd]

So the base game is £40?

[Nefaro]

So the base game is £40?

Yeah, $60 here.   That wasn't a bone of contention for me.  It was the two release day DLCs with some of my favorite aircraft.  For an insane $20 each.   ::)

I really want to check out the La-5 because it's probably  my favorite Dubya-2 Russkie fighter, but have resisted picking it up.  I'd feel dirty condoning such questionable marketing practices.  The Fw-190 would also be nice.  But $100 for the whole thing?  Maybe if it were full-featured in all areas but right now there's not much variety regarding single-player missions (the "random" missions have less variation than the ROF campaign ones) and there is little to no customization of the multi-player servers yet allowed.

I really hope they continue to expand this thing, and not drop it after some cursory patches.  The core sim mechanics are fun. 


EDIT: 
I actually ended up doing some campaign missions in ROF last night, and a short multi-player stint, because I needed a break from the repetitive random mission generator in BOS.  As with ROF it's way too formulaic and, most notably, has little variation from one to the next.  You'll reach the target area.  Your target will spawn somewhere ahead of you.  After you've achieved your mission goal, there is a chance that a flight or two will spawn somewhere around reaching the halfway home point.  For a "random" mission generator, there isn't much randomization and it's even worse than the stock ROF beta campaign one.

[Skoop]

If you wait on the la5 and 190, you may get them discounted down the road.

The la5 was great in the original il2, but I think the yak is better all around in this sim.  Might be because this is the early model la5. 

[Nefaro]

If you wait on the la5 and 190, you may get them discounted down the road.

The la5 was great in the original il2, but I think the yak is better all around in this sim.  Might be because this is the early model la5.

I also feared the performance on those add-on birds.  They're early versions, which were usually under-powered in some way. 

Despite the 109s having the energy advantage, I've done fairly well against them with the Yak-1 online.  That may  not be the case when I start managing the radiators and prop pitch (I can be very OCD when it comes to keeping something like Engine Temp juuuust right all the time).   It's not a bad aircraft.   Rather short on cannon ammo though.  :'(  That's one thing about the La-5 .. it has two cannons with a lot of ammo for them.  And wasn't the Fw-190A models mostly used for ground attack?

The 109s feel a bit 'wobbly' to me at times, even in level flight.  Must be due to the torque pulling the opposite direction.  Not used to that.  They also don't have aileron trim AFAICT, unless the key commands just don't work for it.   Gotta admit  though.. all the aircraft are fun to fly.  Been having tons 'o fun with the IL-2 and Pe-2 in ground attack.  The AA can be damn murderous!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The Yak is definitely more nimble than the La-5.  La-5 is decent at climbing and it is air cooled instead of water so you don't have to fiddle with settings as much.  The visibility is pretty poor due to the massive engine cowling and the cockpit set way back from the nose. 

[Skoop]

The 109 has pitch trim, in the key controls it's called stabilizer.  It works for both 109s and the 190, you have to map it separate to the generic trim controls.