Mh, I've finally registered here in order to show some support. I think a lot of hate here is based on hearsay and in actuality, things are not as bad as "they" make it to be. Sure, there are still quite a few bugs and performance issues, but, overall, I'm having a blast so far!
Just wanted to share my opinion:
Starting with the un-packing of my CE, I was quite pleased. The Spit Manual facsimile looks quite good; the bound manual is really great and the cloth map... well, I hoped it would be some finer cloth, more silk-like, but it's okay.
Then the installation. Well, that was rather annoying. Registering here and there, entering codes multiple times and having to actually download around 500MB was not really pleasant. Ah well, at least this has to be done only once.
Then on to the many config screens ingame. Set everything to realism except that antropomorphic thingy - the description of that option just sounded like a fountain of possible bugs and bug-like behavior, so i left it off from the beginning. And from what I read, that was a wise decision.
I fiddled around with the pilot and aircraft customization features, without having a real clue. The custom pilot stayed so far, but aircraft customs seem to reset immediately. Well, we'll see...
And now to the hard part: Controls. After setting up some Il-2 - like Keyset and after configuring my Joystick with some difficulty (*), I realized that some Joystick axes don't seem to save their settings. This is definately a bug. Not too annoying, but nevertheless.
Finally, the video config. For now, I've arrived at a fairly standard setting, which most users here seem to use, too, and so far, the game runs acceptable with that, land or sea.
Now, fly the damn thing already. I took a cruise over london in the new tiger moth, then made a cross-channel flight to calais. And what can I say: everything looked awesome - the channel area even more so than downtown London, imo. What didn't look very sophisticated is the map window. Just leaving it win95-style looks rather... well, non-polished, imo. At least make the widgets steam-style or something. And I hope that the actual "drawn" map isn't the final version, too
Then went on to the training missions. The first 3 were rather easy, as you all might know, but it took a while for me to start up that hurricane in the "First solo flight"-mission. Oh, and that mission is bugged, too, isn't it? After taking off, the trainer directs you to a ring that, seemingly, doesn't exist, so he's constantly yelling at you from then on. Not that pleasant
Last Training mission worked fine again; I even made a (comparatively) smooth landing! Yay!. That was before I realized how hard the wheelbrakes bite... just a single press and i got a broken propeller
So, yeah, it itches here and there, but, looking at the whole package, this will be the future of WW2 Simulation. Bar none. It's almost that you have to re-learn to fly when coming from 1946 - I didn't think realism could still be ramped up by such a margin.
1C will sort their bugs out, improve performance and add a lot of stuff. Things will be fine, I think.
P.S.: And Who started the rumour that sounds were taken 1:1 from 1946? I can't confirm that, at all. In fact, my hurricane engine sounds awesomly... wrong
. I think I didn't get it right, mixture-wise and such ^-^
(*)This might help some others who have problems with their joysticks:
If your Joystick axes aren't recognized ingame, try this:
-save your custom key profile .ini file
-open it with an editor
-look for the joystick axes section
-insert the correct ones by hand. (In my case (old logitech Wingman Extreme 3d) : X, Y, RZ, -U for ailerons, elevator, twisty rudder, throttle)
-save file
The correct axes should now show up correctly ingame. But remember, some individual axis settings are buggy and cannot be saved over sessions at the moment.