I never liked hacks(mods) for IL2. Before they became commonplace and accepted the online servers seemed much nicer and easier places to fly.

Installation and flying IL2 is hard enough for beginners without boggling their minds with who's mods to use and who's server to fly on.

Originally hacks(mods) were never implemented for any good reason, but selfish or immature reasons.

Someone who was not a good pilot and got tired of getting their butt kicked started hacking the sim, or someone who did not think that the official patches of the sim fit their personal wet-dream of how WWII or their favorite aircraft or gun should perform started hacking IL2, or lastly they simply did not have the patience to wait x-months for new toys to play with, it is that simple.

IL2 was created as a labor of love, hacks were created out of much less noble reasons and will always be the dark-side of the community, period.

So you've said, one million times before.

Repeating something a million times doesn't make it any more true.

Yawn.

There is no reason insulting Storebror, he is asking, we are responding.
You are not helping us this way.
Insulting is always wrong, we must respect all.

You are talking nonsense.
Try to take a look at the name of the first modders, you will have some surprise ....

I never had a problem with hacks and utilities that work with IL2 without compromising it's compatibility or add practical capability. I was pretty clear about what I have a problem with and that is those who thought their aircraft should have more speed etc. and did not have enough patience to wait for it to be done correctly.

The hackers could have worked with Oleg and friends, not splintered the community and helped progress with IL2, but they did not. They created multiple versions of IL2 that are not compatible with the official version nor with each other, and none of which have the quality or stability of the original.

They certainly don't sell it that way to new IL2 enthusiasts though, each of the hackers has done the greatest thing in the world, and much better than the official version if you ask them or those not bright enough to see what was and is going on...

Jumoschwanz -- You are talking nonsense. Most mods are about adding new aircraft, objects, ships, maps and effects. Some of the best of these have even found their way into the official patches. If you personally dislike mods then you don't have to use them.

Simply the best post about mods in IL-2. :grin:

There is little point restarting all the flame wars over hacking. its all childish ego stuff.


Two things are certain.

ONLINE: The many many people that quit because mods came out will not return now if encryption came back. The entire makeup of the online community has changed with mods. A certain sort of player left, and another new type of player started to join because of the mods. There is no turning back time.

OFFLINE: No one really cares. Yes the online people that also play offline use mods offline ... and yes certain historical simmers have taken advantage of modes to make better historical offline campaigns. However overall most offline players, never use mods, never come onto forums, never download anything, often do not even use official patches and play vanilla 4.07.


It really does not matter whether mods and hacking were a good or bad thing for the game, its too late now and going back is pointless.

I really don't understand why you feel you have also purchased the right to access the source code of the game along with your copy of the game itself, just because it was originally conveniently released in a language which could be decompiled once its data files were decrypted without authorisation. Even if most EULAs aren't worth the hard-drive space they are written onto, there will certainly be a provision in the license for Il-2 which prohibits reverse engineering. Regardless of legality I can't think of any marketplace for software in which users expect to receive the source code for the software for no extra charge. Il-2 was not free open source software when you bought it and it still isn't. You had better get used to that. The fact that DT are not obstructing modders in any way should be enough.

Come one people, this is a 10-year-old-game, it does not look good by today's standards, nor is it developed (like official addons and stuff). Why all the hate towards mods? Is it bad someone is working hard to give you additional content for free? Is it bad someone is spends their free time to make the game look better and you don't pay for it?

Let me hit it with another example - you know why a game like Doom made it big? Because of mods! Why can we enjoy Counter-Strike? Because Half-Life was modable, same goes for many other games (Red Orchestra ring a bell?). Modding is a good thing, it helps the old games to stay alive, look up-to-date and more. We wouldn't have games like Team Forthress 2 or various DOTA clones if the original games were unmodable.

While I understand the concerns of people who say modding allows cheats, there is a simple solution - anti-cheat measures! Not locking the games. The whole "officially mods are bad, boo-hoo thing" was done to ensure nobody makes a Battle of Britain mod or Korea, as these were the plans for the next IL-2/Storm of War releases. Now that CloD is out, you can see for yourself where it has lead us.

Another thing on mods/cheating - ever played Gears of War on the 360? There is a powerful weapon there called the Hammerburst. It's a single shot rifle, but if you can press the trigger fast enough it's almost full auto. Now, there are people out there who use modded 360 controllers to shoot very fast, and they own online. Do the players complain to Microsoft to make Razer controllers uncompatible? No! They deal with it, learn to play tactically, be better.

The same goes for flight sims. I don't have TrackIR, and someone who does has an advantage over me. If I fly with a cheap joystick, I will be owned by someone with TM Warthog. It's a similar thing. Anyone complain abuot that? No!

I played many MP games, and there are always people who think, that they got owned because someone is cheating, but it's really hard to determine a cheat. Maybe the guy on Quake Live who beats me every time uses an aimbot, or maybe he just has awesome aim skills? Same goes for flight models. Maybe they are modded, or maybe your flying just sucks.

IL-2 has a large playerbase compared to most sims, and as far as I know most of this playerbase flies offline - for those people, mods are a way of extending their gameplay experience.

All I'm trying to say here, is that if you really think that mods are an online-competitive problem, either play with people you know, or complain about IL-2 having insufficient anti-cheat measures. Opting for a locked game just sets Il-2 back in terms of content and gameplay experience in general. If you don't like the mods, do not use them, but let those who enjoy them, have some fun. Again, if it's an online gameplay concern, just request anti-cheat instead of hating the free "DLC" you get from enthusiasts.