Sims

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Not being an eccentric billionaire yet (lottery ticket failed me again) I don’t have access to a fleet of warplanes for me to tool around in. Thus I enjoy flight sims.

Currently I enjoy Aces High II, mainly because it’s free until you want to play online. I like it because it has a lot of WW2 planes. Assuming it’s somewhat reaistic I’m amazed that the B-17 ever bombed a target. It’s a real nail biter getting that damn thing off the ground. I think it took me 2 1/2 hours to climb to 30,000 feet. Yowza. They have a experimental German rocket plane that’s fun to fly. The designation escapes me at the moment. In 15 minutes of flying time you can rocket up to around 60,000 feet and dive to earth at the speed of sound. Fun. The C-47 is a fun one to fly too. The Spitfire is a real screamer and a handful on a touchpad.

The last time I moved the box that had my computer games in it was lost. I used to have a title called A-10 Cuba that was super realstic. Also had a WW2 sim put out by Microsoft. That was a great game except it was too complicated to navigate. I could never find the airfield again after completing my mission. Thus I always had to ditch somewhere. I’m confident I could ditch any WW2 fighter, anywhere, anytime. The Janes games had poor graphics by todays standards, but you don’t need a supercomputer to play em. The carrier landings were a hoot. In fighters anthology I flew Air Force One (managed to consistently botch the landing) and the C-5 (managed to consistently run out of runway on take off) and had a ball flying nap of the earth in a B-52 over North Vietnam.

Anybody else enjoy flying their computer?

2

Mountain Dew try IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles last release 1946. Its probably the best flight sim out there with about 200 flyable aircraft. In the 1946 version there are some of German proposed fighters. The original game had already the Me-262, and Me-163. Taking off the 262 is hard at first as you have to be light on the throttle or the engines will become engulfed in flames. You can take a He-111 or Beaufighter and launch a torpedo strike, divebomb with a Stuka, Val, SBD or even a Ju-88. There are several versions of the Spitfire, Bf-109, Zero, Italian aircraft, etc. The 1946 set is the complete game.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_vg_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dvideogames&field-keywords=sturmovik+1946&sprefix=Sturmovik

They do plan another expansion out by the fall.

Mike T.

3

Cool. I’m going to Hastings tomorrow and I’ll be sure to check it out. Hopefully it’s friendly to my Acer. I’m hard on laptops so I buy a basement model Acer every year and a half or so from the local computer store.

Acer Travelmate 2480

InterCeleron something or other 420@ 1.60GHZ (whatever that means and why is it in blue?)

512MB with 32 bits.

That’s my current laptop, bought it brand new last July for $395. Already got some burns on it, been dropped a half dozen times. Some paint stains. Runs good though. Only thing that’s slowing it down is my internet connection.

Just so you know that I don’t have one of those state of the art gaming machines and can’t necessarily run the latest and greatest games out there.

4

Mike- Great advice on IL2, may have to get that one. Is it Vista friendly?

I have been playing Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 3: Battle for Europe lately, not a lot of aircraft to choose from but the graphics and realism levels seem very good to me. [tup]

5

IL2 is definitely the best out there. I have the lastest 1946 version and it is awesome. One top of the things mentioned above, you can also fly Mistels and Zvenos, use X-4 missiles, or fly the latest in German technology back then. One of my favorite things to do is launch different aircraft off of carriers and then sometimes turn around and land them. You can create your own little Doolittle mission. One negative though is that you can not fly the big four-engined bombers like the B-29 or B-17.

6

Il-2 takes a fairly “hot” rig to fly anything on… Not a big fan of it for that reason… Frame-rates are in the basement on my rig and the over-modeled smoke-trails from the bullets are annoying as hell…

I also have CFS2 and Red Baron3D, along with MiG Alley… Of the three, Red Baron has the best campaign engine, no sim has come near it, I doubt one ever will. The immersion factor is unsurpassed by any “new” sim… CFS2 is my favorite though, and MiG Alley is about the only way I’ll fly a jet… The graphics are 1990s, but I don’t fly 'em to sight-see, so I don’t really care about terrain eye-candy…

CFS2 wins with me hands down due to the number of excellently-modeled and painted aircraft you can download for free (if it flies, it’s in CFS2. Even Snoopy’s Doghouse and a Colonial Viper or Cylon Raider). I have over 200 flyable aircraft in four separate installs of CFS2, from a PT-17 to the B-29, plus the Mission Builder allows me to write my own missions and campaigns… I also added my own sound files for “radio traffic” (some of it’s definately “R”-rated)… I have specific installs of CFS2, the ETO, PTO, MTO, and NATO, and a Vietnam install as well with anything from an O-1 FAC to Phantoms, MiGs and BUFFs, as well as SAMs to contend with, plus there’s some awesome WW1 campaigns and scenery as well (try that with Il-2)…

I’ve re-created numerous real-world fights I saw on Dogfights… My personal fav is Swede Vejtasa’s fight against three Zekes flying an SBD…

The CFS2 community is still highly active and runs circles round CFS3… (I bought it, ran it, it’s now a coaster, has been since about a week after I bought it)

It took the real B-17s about that long as well… They flew race-track patterns over the Channel and North Sea to get to altitude before crossing the coast. (although 30,000 feet is a bit of a stretch in those birds… They were loaded too damn heavy to get much above 24,000 feet… The B-24s would go higher, though you gotta stay below your escort’s ceiling ya know…)

7

Mountaindew, I would check out the requirements for IL-2, but I completely enjoy it. Like CFS2 you can add new skins for the aircraft. Unlike CFS2 Maddox Games doesn’t allow the addition of fan aircraft. Go to the forums at Ubisoft under Maddox Games to check out skins, scenarios, and campaign games (static and dynamic) that are available free. You can find also questions relating to technical matters there. One of the skin designers for the Italian aircraft is the author of a popular book on Italian aircraft camouflage.

Oleg Maddox is an aeronautical engineer from Russia who designed the series. The damage functions are great. I fly the campaign games with the “Mission success” always on. This way if I have to head back to base because of damage from other aircraft or Flak, I don’t have to repeat the mission which is more realistic. Sometimes you may have to head out to a mission only to be surprised over your base by the enemy. So do you complete a mission out of ammo? or land and end the mission? Don’t fly a crippled aircraft on Autopilot, it’ll crash it, while you can struggle with the damaged bird back to the safety of friendly lines before bailing out or crash landing it.

There was supposed to come out a completely new version of the system starting with the Battle of Britain, but that has been delayed. Instead a new expansion to the present game is scheduled for later this year. Also, there is a movie making function that is fun.

Mike T.

8

I always have been a sims fan, at least since I have my computer, I remeber I bought my first one in 1991 LucasArts’ “Secret Weapons of the Luffwaffe” of course in that moment I was exited flying my pixeled airplanes over a “3D” world. Since then I’ve been updating my computer processor, hard drive, video card, etc so many times just to play the more newest combat simulator! sigh the ol good times…

And of all the simulators I had, my top favorites are, Jane’s ww2 fighters, despite being kinda old game and you can olnly fly a few airplanes, still thrills me when I play it! it have a awesome music background! when you fly in formation patroling some area you hear this calm music in the background, but when you hear in the com, “BANDITS! 4 O CLOCK BELOW!” it change at this more thrilling music! it keep me at the edge of me seat… ahem… I mean of my parachute!

I also love “Battle of Britain” also a old game, poor texture graphics, but what I love of this game it’s the amount of airplanes that you see flying at your side! some missions you see the sky FULL of airplanes! no metion when the battle begins.

But the top of all my simulators it’s IL-2 awesome graphics, simulation, and you can fly a LOT of airplanes… you can even download skins for your airplanes or even create your own! :slight_smile:

Thanks for this post folks! it remind me to install again IL-2 pacific fighters… I feel like flying a zero! :slight_smile:

9

Anyone remember the old DOS games Aces of the Pacific and Aces over Europe? The graphics were horrible, but I loved the way the historical missions were setup and the campaigns where you could play one pilot from either side over the whole war. The AI was pretty good too for the mid-90s. Has anyone every did anything like that with modern graphics?

10

I have that one - I enjoy the mix of ground attack missions and chances to mix it up in the air. My favorite mount is the Hawker Tempest loaded with 60 lb. rockets. It wastes Panzers and Messerschmidts with equal aplomb! [:D]

I also have Microsoft Flight Sim X Deluxe, but I use that for more boring stuff: keeping up on my IFR procedures and working on my transition to using a Garmin G1000. I do occasionally like to fly the Red Bull Air Race courses in there, though - fun stick-and-rudder stuff.

Kevin

11

I do remember those games! haha oh memories!

Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat was a good DOS game too! I remember I played it from my 3½ floppy disk! :slight_smile: it had a pretty good graphic and simulation for that time and the missions and AI were also pretty good for me. After all Yeager was a technical consultant in the game and digitalized his voice for the game. I could’t believe that this game came im just a single 1.44Mb disk! while a bunch of another games with poorest graphics and sound cames in 3, or even 6 disks. By the way, there’s some places where you still can download this game for free! :slight_smile: I recommend this game for vintage gamers!

12

One of the problems that the flight sims are having is the licensing issues with the aircraft manufacturers like Grumman just like the plastic modeling companies. The License fee to add flyable versions of certain aircraft like the TBF Avenger is very high and the flight sims work on a very low margin.

Mike T.

13

Ha!

I remember playing AOE and AOP. I played the whole campaign of AOP on both sides. Great game. The only flight sim I enjoyed more than that was European Air War. I loved EAW simply because it had the Battle of Britain, midwar and late war campaigns. I played that sim more than any other. Nothing like the massive air to air battles of the Battle of Britain.

I played IL2 but ran into a problem that the rudder would get stuck to the side and there seems to be no way to fix it short of starting a new campaign. Annoying to say the least. Great game but the glitches are brutal. They may have fixed it since I last played it years ago. I was playing the original game too, not forgotten battles or 1946.

14

I used to play EAW. I don’t want to even think about how many hours of flight I logged on that game. Play online a whole bunch with the same group of guys. That game had a ton of user made add ons also.

I now play FSX, Wings over Europe “Cold war gone hot” and IL2.

15

deeve - there was a generation gain in the system. The original IL-2 was superceded by the Forgotten Battles game engine and series. The two systems are not compatible. There were major improvements in IL-2 FB over the orignal system which called for an entirely new game engine. The present game engine is a hybrid towards the third generation which I believe will be called Storm of War (?) and intially will be centered on the Battle of Britain time period. Each additional release will add new aircraft, maps, etc. To expands the theaters and time periods. This is what has been done with IL-2 FB to its latest release IL-2 FB 1946.

Flying the P-39 in the game shows alot of challenge. That 37mm cannon can really wreck a bomber’s day, but they have the trajectory set so that it is like “throwing a grapefruit”. But those Japanese planes tend to burn easily.

Some of the Battle of Britain campaign games have formations of at least 30 bombers plus defending 109’s and 110’s. Those bombers seem to know who you are and act accordingly and way too accurate! One of the campaigns I am flying right now is over the Eastern Front in a BF-109 F-4. My opponents are Yak’s, LaGG’s, I-16’s, various bomber types including the Il-2 as well as I-153’s in the fighter bomber configuration. You tend to fall very close to the ground in the twisting and turning combats over the low hills south west of Staingrad. The campaign started flying Bf-109 E-7’s at the start of Barbarossa and will end over Berlin (flying Me-262’s). This unit should tranistion to Bf-109G-2’s giving some better hitting power.

Mike T.

16

Gentlemen,

Since a great deal of the policing of this forum is done by its membership…

This topic belongs in Odd & Ends. Help keep things nice and tidy by posting a topic in its appropriate category. [:)]

17

I’ve been playing AHII for about 4 1/2 years (SKJohn). I also have the IL2 series, and CFS 2 & 3. For graphics I think that IL2 is by far the best, but for gameplay and flight modeling I like AHII. I also prefer the view system in Aces High over that of IL2.

Yes, I remember many hours spent on Aces over the Pacific and Europe. I much prefered the Pacific version. I also had the Red Baron Games, and wish there was a modern IL2-like game set in WWI. Never got to play Mig Alley, but did enjoy Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat. WOuld love to see an updated version of that one.

18

Ah! IL2 online

Nothing beats the feeling of sneaking in on an enemys low6 unnoticed and pull the trigger Hartman style! Or powerclimb away from a P-51 in a brand new bf109G-14, or those high g gut wrenching close dogfights where you’r tumbling all over the sky just inches apart, or engaging heavies at high alt. dodging the escort

the list goes on…