I’m three days in to the Battle of Moscow, flying Bf 109F-2 and F-4s with II./JG 52. If you haven’t tried out the new Career mode in Il-2 BOX, you should give it a shot. I don’t know exactly how dynamic it is, but it certainly feels dynamic. The front feels pretty lively, with ground units attacking up and down, and I constantly stumble across friendly and enemy flights unrelated to my current mission.
I’ve also been using the VR cloud and remove-prop-disc mods, which have really improved the VR experience.
I should give it another go, it’s been a while since I played it. [BLATANT FORUM PROMOTION FOLLOWS] @SierraAlphaMike you’re always welcome to write up a quick mission with a couple of pics (or not, the story is the important bit) in Screens & AARs - people love them, they are one of our most visited bits.
This one?
…and this one?
The latter one especially looks really interesting with lots of bits to play with.
Those are them! The cloud mod doesn’t look quite as good as stock (still great, just not AS great), but gets rid of the terrible shimmering. As for the 3DMigoto mod, I haven’t really messed with it much except to map the disable-prop-disc key. It gets rid of bad ASW artifacts in the cockpit.
I’ll try and take some shots from my next mission. Not really a screenshot guy so I can’t guarantee my settings will provide breathtaking pictures but I’ll give it a whirl.
I was wondering what level of activity do you guys run at? There is that setting in the little options section of your career page where you can set the front line activity to I think it’s “sparse, scattered, and extensive?” Something like that.
I run full frontline activity. There are rare occasions where I notice a change in performance but it never gets so bad that gameplay is affected.
Regarding “What makes it so great?” The missions are plausible. There is a sensibility to the action around the player like a war is really going on. The AI is pretty good. These things taken together mean I care about my pilot enough to want to keep him alive. It is still nowhere near as fun as playing on a good server. But good servers are not always available.
I would concur with smokinhole. The missions are varied and in many cases deep. By that I mean you don’t just spawn in right in the heat of battle but actually have to travel to the front with your squadron. This IMHO kind of helps simulate the fatigue one can feel flying hour plus missions in length. You also learn the art of spotting flying over vast distances while trying to stay in formation with your wing. I’ve at times lost them while looking elsewhere or head down in the map and found myself alone all of a sudden trying to find my bearings and move towards where I’m supposed to be. Hoping I don’t get jumped by ENY aircraft or to my delight coming across a gaggle of Stukas all ripe for the plucking.
I’ve been jumped by AI and killed, forced to land, pursued by them until they surprise me while attempting to land and fighting for my virtual life. The land battles going on down below you lend great immersion to the mission and career. Within the career hub menu, you learn about your squadron mates and mourn when they don’t make it while flying your missions like they do matter and your life depended on it.
It is great fun to immerse yourself while practicing flying and shooting in preparation for multiplayer.
You will enjoy it. Be sure when you create your character to take the time and immerse yourself in the chosen biography. I think they (developers) did a good job with this. Also, the unit you join, read the history, someone took the time to actually research this and it gives you an excellent immersive reference point for your imagination as a WW2 pilot. Good stuff, have fun. See you online.
