A POLE: How long have you been flying IL-2

[FS~Phat]

For me since release. I've been a hardcore WWII combat sim junkie for years!
Was playing EAW, CFS2 and Rowans BOB prior to IL2 in 2001 and BOB II & CFS3 through the early/mid 2000s but I spent most of my time in IL2. Before that it was the wing commander, privateer and X-wing/star wars era. (Now just getting back into X universe and a new one called SOL Exodus which is a great indie space title thats even enjoyable with "mouse" .... anyway i digress...

BOB II wings of victory got me in for quite a while on the strategy side of things and the flying was "different" than IL2, having large formations and the like was completely different to IL2 and the BOB II WOV graphics was in some part better and others not... but I enjoyed all of them for the different nuances they brought to flying in a WWII sim.

Not that dissimilar to my enjoyment of COD for what it is now while still enjoying the odd 46 outing and time in WOP. They all offer differing nuances but it's COD that I still keep coming back to and have the greatest overall satisfaction in. Over time I believe COD will bring a lot of the best elements of all those early IL2 competitors, especially when the SDK is released and 3rd party development matures.

My current favourite SIM though is STO (star trek online), which I just couldnt get into on release but a couple years on its got a whole different feel and Im hoping just like STO, that COD will mature into something we all adore!

PS. An interesting tidbit of amusing information, SOL Exodus has a bunch of zealous religious extremists called The COD.... I kid you not!

[Flanker35M]

S!

Since beta..logged heaps of hours during the years until burned out on flight simming altogether. Took a break and now waking the interest again, but with less intensity as in the "crazy years"

[Gribbers]

Since the demo in 2001...downloaded to my laptop overnight and used to play a few sneaky single player games (with keyboard and mini mouse) during lectures.

Can't even remember how I first heard of IL2, never had any passion for flight sims before, but was hooked by the fact it was difficult to play at first, took me many attempts to take off successfully (again using keyboard and mouse only) and felt so rewarded just making a basic flight around a populated airfield (take-off, circuit and landing).

Bought my joystick (Cyborg Pro Evo) a year later and it's still serving me well.

[Untamo]

S!

Tested in 2001/2002, but did not have proper machine to play it on any settings. Had no Internet connection so didn't know anything about the huge community it had created :-/

Tested PF when it got out, then I had a better machine of course so played some single player, but still no Internet connection

In 2008 when I got my first job, I talked about sims with my work buddy, he had similar interests so we decided to try and see what this online playing had to offer. Bam! We were in a squad and have been flying actively since then

-LLv34_Untamo

[LcSummers]

Originally Posted by _79_dev

Since demo... By the way the very first flight sim I was using was ACE on my commodore C64

The same for me!!

ACE on Commodore C64

IL2 since demo

[SFF_Vellu]

Hello!

My first experience of flight simulator was The Finest Hour The Battle of Britain in year 1990. Computer what I used then was AMIGA and if I remeber right I haven't joystic that I flew using keyboard and mouse. After that when I had PC I flew CFS1 and CFS2. Before IL2 I also flew Rowans Mig Alley and I started IL2 in the Winter 2002.
Since Winter 2002 I have flown all versions and mods of the IL2.

[brando]

Half a dozen of us in the same squad quit from flying Warbirds and Dawn of Aces on-line and migrated over to fly IL2 Sturmovik when it came out. And never looked back!

Funniest thing I ever saw was in a Cross-country team race. It had no externals On and we had to land and search for clues to the next waypoint. We were in Corsairs I think, and had to all land in a Japanese town: the clue was located in a Japanese temple. One of us taxied up to the temple, folded the wings, and rolled inside, where the grid reference was to be found. He got it and we all wrote it down. Three of us (out of four) had taxied into side roads to keep the main road clear for him to take off first. He taxied out and rolled....and rolled.... and, just as he was saying "Jeez, I can't get any lift?" his plane hurtled past us with its wings still folded.

I'm ashamed to say that we three just hooted with laughter - my sides hurt just thinking about it - and our mate ended nose up in a rice paddy on the edge of the town. We lost our first place and came second overall - but we didn't care. It was just another Saturday afternoon spent having great fun with a bunch of friends from all over the world, in the best flightsim going

[carguy_]

Fantastic story, brando. And what creativity on the user`s side.

Easy to say I had the same laughs with me squadmates when one of us crashed into the whole flight in front of him - that`s what TrackIR does to people

[zakkandrachoff]

A POLE: How long have you been flying IL-2

nop, il2 nop, only all version 109, yak, 162, D-9, early p51 and hellcat

jej
i change the old flanker 2.0-2.5 (mig-29, sukhoi27) in 2003-2004 for il-2

[kyletiernan]

I cant remember the year but probably 2001, i remember playing the original IL-2 on my friends pc whenever i went to his house. Then in 2007 i bought IL-2 Forgotten Battles and Pacific Fighters and then shortly after i bought 1946. Modded the heck out of it and loved playing it. Safe to say most of us here are veteran IL-2 Pilots ;D