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.
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