Oleg shared some REAL NEWS today

[Daniël]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

I wonder if they could let mission builders assign ‘missions’ or ‘goals’ to the various squadrons that are available. So that when you choose your aircraft you have some sort of guidelines for the task you need to perform? (I know a lot of mission builders do put this into the mission description, but they tend to be more general team goals and you don’t get that sense of responsibility to stick to the mission at the moment!)

Cheers!

I like your idea about the goals. On TV programme called 'Battlefront' I heard about Spitfires protecting Hurricanes when they were attacking German bombers. Such things will give much more options to use tactics in the game, especcially online.

[ElAurens]

Originally Posted by Daniël

Such things will give much more options to use tactics in the game, especcially online.

I'm afraid that the tactics used online in SoW will not reflect the reality of the period modeled in the sim. There isn't one sim pilot that will fly for the the Luftwaffe that will stay with the bombers like the real guys did, nor will they mix it up with the Spits and Hurris, like the real Luftwaffe pilots did.

Nope.

The sim pilots on both sides will fly their 1939~40 model year planes just like it was 1944.

In essence the RAF will be decimated online.

Hence I'm hoping for real improvements in the AI so that offline may just be worth flying, unlike in IL2/46 where offline is for testing only.

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

I'm afraid that the tactics used online in SoW will not reflect the reality of the period modeled in the sim. There isn't one sim pilot that will fly for the the Luftwaffe that will stay with the bombers like the real guys did, nor will they mix it up with the Spits and Hurris, like the real Luftwaffe pilots did.

Nope.

The sim pilots on both sides will fly their 1939~40 model year planes just like it was 1944.

In essence the RAF will be decimated online.

Hence I'm hoping for real improvements in the AI so that offline may just be worth flying, unlike in IL2/46 where offline is for testing only.

I have not played online since the game was cracked and do not really miss the immaturity and abuse one iota Also online play is very one dimensional with quite a limited plane set and a very limited set of tactics it gets boring. I do miss flying with a squad, that aspect of online play is very good.

On the other hand there are some awesome offline campaigns around for Il2 and personally I doubt I will ever find time to play all the ones that interest me. I suppose realistically online and offline players are just a different type of personality. I find very close formation flying to target challenging and fun for example, many online players would not.

Sooo ... as far as SOW goes are you also claiming that RAF pilots online will not fly in three plane VICs ... or follow orders and ignore the bombers in favor of racking up fighter kills ?

On the down side for the LW will be the manual pitch Emil's which will chew up DB engines like no tomorrow in the hands of online hot rod fighter jocks. I can also see a severe shortage of people wanting to fly Stuka's or other flyable German bombers across the channel just to get shot down a few seconds into combat.

I suspect online will deteriorate into spawn in the air WWI style furballs at historically excessively low levels over South East England and the channel. At least the scenery will look pretty dog-fighting at that height

[ATAG_Bliss]

The server usually brings the type of play you want. Full switch/long distance flights/plenty of objectives. I love escorting the bomber guys. For some reason they have a tendency to attract the bad guys

[TUSA/TX-Gunslinger]

Hi Bliss. Never were truer words spoken. The Syndicate server in ROF, is one of the best examples of how a server and it's missions can control the majority of behaviors - and deliver as much historical accuracy as you can get.

For those of us who've had the experience of hosting Il2-46 and ROF (very large bandwidth required, interface and netcode are worlds apart) - I think we might see it differently. SYN, why don't you tell them how much upload bandwidth your server requires in ROF (if you feel comfortable doing so)?

Such negativity, and this sim we've waited for sooooo long for - is almost on us.

For me, there is extreme beauty in Olegs Il2 netcode and it's efficiency. I expect the same from SOW.

Meanwhile, upload and download bandwidths have increased exponentially worldwide. Except of course, in many parts of the good ol' USA. The good news is that it's never been easier nor more trouble free to fly online with folks from Europe, Russia, Australia and other far away places.

In the ROF community, where we require huge bandwidths - users conducted and posted ping tests from all over the world. I was extremely impressed at European sustained bandwidths to the average user.

I can't say I expect the same things you do El. It's not exactly like it's La-5's vs FW's and 109's. Both the 109 and Spitfire are most excellent mid to high alt performers. On the eastern front, the mid to low alt performance of the Russian aircraft drove the fight low.

On the other hand, if you expect pilots to conform to poor tactical practice - I do think you might be happier offline, or in a COOP where you can get a true "reinactment" type of environment. For me, that'd be sad, cause your a great pilot and used to seem to enjoy Il2 MP a lot.

For me, that's not what floats my boat. The "Battle" has already been fought, 70 years ago, by the real hero's. Me personally, I'm most interested in seeing how it could be fought better, particularly when flying on the German side. When I fly on the Commonwealth side, I'd like to work on better ways to combat more effective German tactics.

A great example is Goring's orders for fighters to fly in very close escort to the German bombers. This caused 109's to have to fly at bomber speeds, near stall during escorts at the later stages of BOB. Gallands comments on these failures are well known.

Why on earth would anyone sane in this new sim, voluntarily do such a thing? The German fighters should be somewhat ahead of the bombers, enaging Hurri's and Spit's in the 109's best performance envelope. What's the outcome of that matchup under those conditions? Spitfires at speed, engaging 109's at stall? It's historical, certainly - but we already know how that ends.

Also, I have no intention of flying in Vic's when on the British side - why on earth would I ever consider it, when a flight of four is more effective (you know, two pair)? Luftwaffe developed that in the Spanish Civil war and the RAF chose not to adopt it, until later in the war. As most squads/teams in the community are organized as pairs - what do you do when 4 of you show up to play? Tell the 4th guy to get lost?

Sorry for the long post, just thought I'd add my 1.5 cents.... I'm way too excited about what I know we will get soon and have been reading over here for the last year and not posting.

S!

Gunny

[ElAurens]

Thank you for the compliment on my flying Gunny. Never thought I was much above average, with an all too rare moment of brilliance.

I am eagerly looking forward to SoW, don't get me wrong. And you know I will spend most of my time online. And I've started rounding up the Pigs and we have been flying some amongst ourselves, with a few guests, to get back in shape.

My comments are based on what the "blue" flyers I know are telling me.

In essence don't expect historical outcomes because everyone will be flying with our long years of sim experience under our belts. I realize we cannot "dumb down" just to fit the historical time period. But just looking at the two main players, Bf109E and Spit Mk. I or II, the 109 is really holding all the cards. It's faster, it probably turns as well or better, it is superior in the dive, and it has far better guns. The only bug in the ointment for the Luftwaffe will be the one historical parameter that cannot be changed owing to the full scale map... Range/endurance. No matter what the 109s will not have much time to do their work, this is the one ace in the hole that the RAF has.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out online.

Hope to see you in the sky over the Channel, Gunny!

[ATAG_Bliss]

Hi Gunny! Thanks for the kind words

As far as bandwidth, ROF is a true hog of it. 30 players in the server is a constant 10mbps UPLOAD speed (ouch!) I checked it with 60 players on and the server was pumping out 30mbps UPLOAD speed. It comes out to around 800 Gig/month of bandwidth (99% of it being upload speed) since the server has become popular. Thankfully the server has a 500mpbs upload/download speed.

But don't you worry, just like our server in ROF and IL2 of old, we have some great ideas for the MP server we are going to run for SOW (full switch/historical/and very objective based)

With our beefy dedicated box, SOW should run like a sewing machine

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

But just looking at the two main players, Bf109E and Spit Mk. I or II, the 109 is really holding all the cards. It's faster, it probably turns as well or better, it is superior in the dive, and it has far better guns.

Where are you getting these 'facts' from? That's not what the pilots who flew in the BOB said.