IL-2 Great Battles is now fantastic!

Had to pretty much give up flight simming for the past 6 years due to family health issues, including my own, but now I'm back and all I can say is WOW! Jason and the 1CGS team have done an incredible job!

For anyone reading this who is still on the fence about switching over from IL-2 1946 BAT, now is the time. The single player campaign is great, as well as the scripted single player campaigns (both the 1CGS payware and the community designed freeware).

IL-2 Great Battles is now rich in single player content, and the breadth of aircraft and activities is fantastic for the theaters covered. For me, IL-2 Great Battles has now replaced IL-2 1946 BAT for any of the theaters and time periods covered by Great Battles...it's not even close.

IL-2 Great Battles is FANTASTIC, and there is still more to come

Playing IL-2 Great Battles in VR is truly an awe-inspiring experience.
If you get the chance you must do it. The cockpits are superbly modelled.

I'm glad to see you are enjoying it Kodiak. I don't have VR yet but I play IL-2 every week both in solo and coop modes. It's a fantastic flight sim indeed.

My reading rotation has lately included many books on the air war in Europe. Clostermann's Big Show, Caldwell's JG 26 War Diary, Kershaw's The Few, Johnson's Thunderbolt, and a number of others. These are all re-reads, but they work their way back in eventually, after a few years. As a result I have been thinking of getting a prop sim. Haven't flown one in years.

What I want, or hope to find, is a prop sim with a realistic environment. A Falcon 4-like sense that your flight or mission is one of many in the air at that time, each going about their own business to their own objectives. I was a huge fan of Il-2 of course, but it's biggest drawback was exactly this, that the airspace was too sterile, all that existed was your flight and those waiting at the objective. There were not other aircraft doing their thing, on strike missions or capping targets, where you could catch a section in the landing pattern or scrambling just as happenstance.

How does this game fare in this light? What's the battle space like? If not this sim, which one has the most dynamic feeling airspace?

For me, Il-2 BoX has a long way to go before it can complete with IL-2 DBW or IL-2 CUP (haven't tried BAT) in terms of sheer scope and breadth of single player experience, and the visuals and general immersion are still at least good enough for me. BoX is better than on first release - Il-2 on steroids, I think somebody said - and with successive additions has improved scope but it still feels to me a bit like RoF ported to WW2, largely lacking the 'wider war going on' feeling...although the original release made some effort by putting the campaign's progression through the distinct phases of the Battle of Stalingrad.

For the experience that you're flying missions in a wider war that's going on around you, no WW2 sim I've played comes close to bettering Battle of Britain II, whose dynamic campaigns really do have the Battle being fought all around you.

This sim most certainly does NOT have a "living battlefield" dynamic campaign where success or failure in one mission can affect the overall strategic situation of the campaign. To be fair, not a single flight sim to date has had the same type of dynamic campaign that Falcon 4 has. Having said that, IL-2 does have two major types of campaigns. There are the historical scripted campaigns where you fly a specific set of missions and then there is the "Career" mode where you play as a specific pilot where you have dynamically-generated missions but those missions don't have any connection to each other. Whether you fail or succeed in a mission you will not see any obvious change on the campaign map when you start the next mission. I guess the best way I can describe it is that "Career" mode is a bunch of dynamic missions strung together while your pilot stats are tracked and you can manage the personnel of your squadron once you achieve a high enough rank.

Thanks guys, and I don't expect these sims to match F4 in this regard. But I do want one where it feels like my mission isn't the only one on the map. I used Falcon 4 as an example because it is the best at this. But I don't expect any prop sim to match it. But I do want that sort of feeling that you are a small piece of a much larger war, and not the sole focus, which is what Il-2 felt like. I used to use Lowengrin's DCG to mitigate it and get more stuff in the air, but that was a half-measure at best. I'm going way back I know, but I haven't flown props in years.

Maybe one of the WW1 sims would be better for this? Or maybe WotR? I'd like it be more comprehensive than the BoB, and also be WW2, but in the end I think I'd rather find one that gives me the best single player experience even if the setting isn't the one I would choose first.

I have the best rudder pedals I've ever owned by a wide margin now, and I'd like to put them to use in a good stick and rudder type flight sim. Some time ago I saw one of the WW1 sims had a very detailed pilot career, which one was I looking at?

Hey Derek,

Nearest i could find to a falcon style ww2 sim would be BOS.

The career mode is really good and with pat wilsons third party dynamic campaign generator it becomes really good.

Check it out...

My personal opinion fwiw ..i have to respectfully disagree somewhat with KodiakJac and Phoenix's post. I found IL2's "career" mode to be very poor Pats done a fantastic job with his Gen but..you never feel part of the war. I commend what 1C-777 have achieved and continue to improve but i believe the series is more focused on MP not SP. The A.I although improved is still at times for me massively frustrating, in fact i often fire IL2 up hoping that after each patch there's significant improvements and im gutted when i see very little or even no advancements in this issue. Phoenix hopefully will offer his advice and knowledge on why he enjoys the series ..it's great to have different but respectful opinions on things.

No sim does it has good as F4 doubt the'll be one that ever will DBond. Im a big fan of OBD,S sims i make no bones about that..BHAH II feels like you part of a war, detailed squadrons/Jastas Real aces..7000 historical skins and it's just received a Platinum award from PC Pilot.I personally think it's the closest thing we have to F4 albeit be in a WW1 theatre. There's no "spawning" in of aircraft the AI are doing their own patrols ect in the sim.. You're not going to affect the outcome of the war because...We all know how the great war ended There's a DID campaign thread on the WOFF forum have a read mate and hopefully enjoy the shots and reports that some of the lads write ect ..here's a link if you're interested .. D.I.D Thread.

WOTR is currently being added to/improved on ..its a bit bare bones at the moment but im certainly looking forwards has to what the OBD lads can conjure up il certainly be keeping a watchful eye on their progress. Best of luck in your simming mate

EDIT: saw Lima's post after i posted and agree with it totally. BOB II patched is a absolute belter of a sim not sure if there's issues regarding WIN 10 or if they were fixed?

EDIT 2: Cheers Lima for the post and link below, il certainly have a look thanks pal

O/T now but Felizpe's patch - details on the BoB2 forum at A2A, here: https://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=68917 - enables BoB2 up to 2.06 to run on Windows 10 without the CTD on quitting a mission.

And not just MP but specifically "Dogfight" MP. Even on Sundays and Saturdays when I go in the sim and look at the server lists in the MP browser I see a paltry amount of COOP servers. I rarely ever see more than 5-6 COOP servers and often times some of them are empty. "Dogfight" servers however I will usually see a full page or more.

Yeah

When i got BOS itself i wasnt exacly chuffed.

The career mode even with pats gen didnt really feel like i was in the middle of a major war?

Then i got the Battle of Bodenplatte dlc and for some reason this gave me the fix i was looking for.

BOB2 is a great sim but i just got fed up with it sadly.

Good stuff, thanks for the comments gentlemen.




What are these acronyms? OBDS and BHAH? I prefer WW2, but a good WW1 sim with a detailed pilot career would do fine. If I'm honest I'd really prefer a WW2 prop sim that let me simulate a career in II/JG 26 from 1940 through 1945. Does that exist?

Sorry DBond..OBD, is Old Brown Dog the developers of both WOTR (Wings Over the Reich) and BHAH II which is Between Heaven and Hell 2, a successor to Over Flanders fields and Wings Over Flanders Fields..they have a Wings Over Flanders Fields forum right here on SimHQ.

Second part of your question, not too my knowledge maybe there's somebody out there that can offer some information regarding your question, i believe II/JG 26 could be in WOTR but at the moment its the Battle of Britain only (After the success and release of BHAH II, i believe their now continuing work on WOTR) so hopefully soon we'll have some extra flyables/theatres ?

Thanks, and yes the II/JG 26 thing is very specific and I didn't expect any sim would cater to it. But it is what I'd like to do. I'd love a career where I could fight on the Channel Front with the Abbeville Boys, transferring around to the historic bases, and transition through the right aircraft models as the war goes on. A career mode tightly tied to history, but with enough latitude that it writes its own story.

Dream on, man.

In the meantime, I appreciate the help and info, and I will keep looking at these various sims and pick one that most closely matches my vision of what I want in a flight sim. Focke-Wulf 4.0 if you know what I mean, would be ideal

I'll see which one seems the closest match.

Here's perhaps an odd question that just came to mind...

Which of these sims has the best clouds, and weather? I remember Il-2 when it came out had the first 'puffy' clouds, but they were more mirage than anything. They only appeared at close range, and had little effect on combat. A step in the right direction, but in the end quite disappointing. Do any of these sims have an impressive and realistic weather and cloud simulation?

IL-2 Great Battles has had multiple major updates over its life and weather effects like rain, fog and wind are fully implemented. The clouds of course are not DCS level of quality but they look darn good compared to the way they looked in IL-2 1946.

For Il-2 '46:

...right unit, short period..

https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=77

...different units, right period:

https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=14

https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=15

https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=16

My question about clouds and weather is coming mostly from a combat perspective. Part of this equation is how the AI deals with it. For example can the AI lose the player's aircraft when it enters cloud? Or does it magically track it, meaning the cloud is only a visibility detriment to the player? Can clouds obscure formations that would otherwise be close enough to spot and engage so that they fly right past each other?

Realistic weather (and its effect on sighting, tracking and attacking) is so important in combat flight sims, but I can't think of many that do it right, if at all. But then I've been out of the prop game for a while

Falcon 4 BMS has it, though for me it took some time to get it set up right, and to have control over it for my campaigns. This thread gives a little insight in how it works there, and the effect it has on prosecuting combat sorties. Of course in modern jets the visibility part is less important, since you have more acquisition and tracking options than the old Mark 1s you're limited to in prop sims simulating an earlier era. But it still makes a significant difference even in BMS. Combat altitudes , ordnance types and effectiveness of targeting pods are all affected.

https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4389453/1

Beyond that there is just the cool factor of realistic weather environments. Heavy weather too, has an effect on airmanship, especially takeoff and landing right? It should affect navigation as well.

Check this shot. This is me on approach to Taegu in Iron Fortress. Forgive the jet intrusion in a prop forum! In BMS I make custom weather maps. I want heavy weather, storms, snow and lightning. I love it. One of the effects of this heavy weather is high winds. In this screenshot of this final approach you can see the flight path marker is completely off the HUD! That's a 54 knot crosswind (I have the DED set to display this). Real seat of the pants stuff. I was able to grease it down, with the FPM only covering the threshold when I was over it haha

Thanks lima33!