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Originally Posted by ZaltysZ
"IL-2 Sturmovik" should be regarded as different game than the famed IL2 series most people play now. "IL2 Forgotten battles" is sequel (not addon or expansion) to "IL-2 Sturmovik".
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Sort of; FB was distinctly different from IL*2 Sturmovik, but if the graphics weren't identical, they were obviously closely related, a superset of the same planes were present in FB, and the scoring UI from "Sturmovik" has resurfaced in "1946".
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The hole series went so: "IL2 Forgotten Battles" (stand alone), then "Aces Expansion Pack" (not standalone, required FB), then "Pacific Fighters" (standalone or merged with FB+AEP; standalone incompatible with merged), then Pe2 (not standalone, required FB+AEP+PF), then "Shturmoviks over Manchuria" (not standalone, required FB+AEP+PF+Pe2), then (in fact together with previous) "1946" (not standalone, required FB+AEP+PF+Pe2+Manchuria). Almost at the same time "IL2: 1946" was released, which of course was standalone as it was FB+AEP+PF+Pe2+Manchuria+1946 inside one DVD. There was some other DVDs like "IL2 Forgotten Battles Gold Pack" which included FB+AEP and "IL2 Sturmovik Series Complete Edition", which included FB+AEP+PF, however I see them only as re-release of old product.
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You have forgotten that "IL*2: 1946" also includes the missions from the original "Sturmovik" as a career, which is my other reason for including it as part of the IL*2 series. The Complete Edition may have been old product re-released, but it was old product that hadn't been available here (in the UK) for years, you could buy FB, you could by PF, but you couldn't buy the Aces Expansion Pack, and without that you couldn't use FB on the PF flight model.
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In any way, the point is not about releases, but about modularity (or lack of it). For example, PF and FB+AEP+PF was not compatible (people owning merged version could not join pure PF servers), the same with Pe2 addon (FB+AEP+PF and FB+AEP+PF+Pe2 differed only in quantity of aircrafts and maps, still however FB+AEP+PF+Pe2 could not join FB+AEP+PF). Oh, and the patches. FB+AEP+PF had some nice patches, from which aircrafts from different theatres of war benefited, however these patches could not be applied nor to FB, FB+AEP or PF alone. So, the idea of IL2 series: "you will get free updates only until next addon is released". This is different than in DCS or RoF, which are modular. For example, in DCS you will get engine updates for free until the end of series (even if the whole engine is rewritten), only new aircrafts will cost to you (but you will get updates even if you don't buy new aircrafts).
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I only fly offline, so I wouldn't have the foggiest idea about the online situation.