i fancy some flying action,suggestions? [Archive]

View Full Version : i fancy some flying action,suggestions?

nick_cfc

13-11-2005, 18:08

Hello, i used to play alot of flight sims when i was younger, and i quite fancy playing a few again, but have no idea which are the best ones at the moment?

Im after a modern combat flight sim and a WW2 flight sim. or if you have other suggestions im open to them.

the newer the better, im a sucker for good graphics and decent phyics

thanks in advance

TimEG

13-11-2005, 19:00

I've played IL2-Sturmovik - Forgotten battles and it's not bad. I quite like a good flight sim myself but I think they're very 'niche' market and I've not seen many good ones recently.

nick_cfc

13-11-2005, 21:25

hmm, ill try that one out then,i remember playing it a while ago, didnt get a proper chance to have a good go at it though.

are there any decent multiplayer air combat sims?

TimEG

13-11-2005, 23:10

You can play IL2 multiplayer...

I know it's not a flight sim but BF2 is great for multi-player air fun... The physics may not be great but for shear arcade enjoyment it can't be beaten I reckon!

Sub

14-11-2005, 00:13

have to agree with that.. bf2 is good for modern-ish air-to-air air-to-ground combat :) and theres nothing more satisfying than bombing the **** out of a tank that's gankin' your team, and low runnin' it and using only the cannon, while targetting a chopper covering it with the heat seakers and taking them both out in one swoop knockin' up a nice 4 kills in 1 run :D

nick_cfc

14-11-2005, 01:19

yeah, clanned in BF2, was 3rd in Clanbase as well, we gave it up though.

ill look into il2

BUFF

14-11-2005, 01:59

Falcon4 AF & LOMAC are the 2 "hardcore" modern sims with Strike Fighters as an "easier to pickup & get into" option.

Wizard

14-11-2005, 02:33

Forgotten Battles has a fairly large online community. As I type this there are about 450 players flying in various rooms at Hyperlobby. However you will without doubt need a bit more than just the FB. Most of the online players are using a merged install of Forgotten Battles, Aces Expansion Pack and Pacific Fighters. The manufactures are still producing updates and adding planes but they are now doing it for either PFighters or the merged product.

Modern day combat sims - one of the best of breed is Falcon4:Allied Force from Lead-Pursuit. Distrisubted in the UK by Horizon. The graphics are not exceptional by todays standards (its based on a relative old engine) but if you want to fly an F16 thats the one to get. It has a great capaign model which can be flown online (real time)

LOMAC + addons - also very good, visuals are stunning but has had stability/performance issues. Cannont comment on the current state of affairs with the improvements made with the new addons as not tried them.

There are several websites I would recommend if you want to find out more

Firstly http://www.netwings.org (well I would say that as I run it) :D
http://www.sim-hq.com (Forums for virtually every flight sim there is)
http://www.sim-outhouse.com (mainly the Microsoft sims)

Hope that helps a bit

nick_cfc

14-11-2005, 02:59

well tonight i tried MS Flight Sim2004. managed to do a loop the loop in a boeing 747, which i thought was odd.

played the IL2 demo, i love the physics, got a great vid with fraps of me cutting someone up and losing my wing.

was playing with keyboard though as i have a crap joystick, and i dont know where it is

what game is this?

http://forums.netwings.org/gallery/files/7/fs552_original.jpg

found it on the forums on your site, people doing multiplayer flying, im up for some of that. although if its MS Flight Sim,i dont like the phyics when you crash, im all up for smashing stuff up.

Wizard

14-11-2005, 03:08

nick_cfc

14-11-2005, 03:22

im bidding on ebay now for IL2, FB, PF and AEP.

can you recommend a decent, fairly cheap joystick?

Wizard

14-11-2005, 10:12

Not used one myself but the non wireless version of Saitek Evo is a well recommended one

TimEG

14-11-2005, 10:26

brumster

14-11-2005, 10:30

I used to play Air Warrior (in various versions up to 3) online - back in the days of 28.8kbps modems. It was one of the first massively-multiplayer online games in existence, back in 1994/5. Forget 64 players - we are talking hundreds :) all online on a Sunday night re-creating WWII battles. The graphics were secondary; the flight physics were incredibly accurate and the focus was on tremendous gameplay.

I really miss it, to be honest. I was a member of "The Flying Kraits" Squadron :p still got an arm patch somewhere. Sad muppet ;)

nick_cfc

14-11-2005, 13:11

lol.

ive ordered a saitek evo.

thanks for everyones input, cant wait to get in the skies online. i remember playing FA/18 hornet on LAN with my dad on a Mac in about 1996.

also got a bid on a trackIR on ebay :) they any good? the vids ive seen from IL2 look cool

Wizard

14-11-2005, 14:40

Once you get use to it you will love TrackIR! Its a totally different experience and works very well with FB. I have TrackIR3Pro with the 6Degrees of Freedom expansion and with sims that support the 6DOEF such as FS2004 and Battle Of Britain WOV the ability to move your head in any direction and have the screen display pan and zoom as you do it is fantastic. FB doesnt support 6DOF as it would require extensive 4D modelling changes to the ****pits but as I said does support the straight TrackIR pannings. Most "Serious" online combat flyers use it and would not do with out it.

When you finally install FB/AEP/PF be prepared for an extensive amount of downloading of patches - I think the current count is 3 of about 100Mb as different versions are incompatible on line and everyone online will be using the latestest and greatest (currently 4.02) The patches are not just bug fixes but additional planes (flyable and non flyable), maps, ground targets etc. There are also an extensive number of addon plane skins out there depending on your tastes as well as a wide array of single user missions and campaigns available. I think at the last count our library had about 400!

I have checked with Sean and that particular screen shot was taken of an online flight on our FS2004 server and both planes are from the excellent Shockwave Wings of Power addon. Think is probably "stock scenery and clouds" in this case but with the use of various addons you can get even better looking visuals. Some guys spend their lives composing screenshots

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Ferror/Flightsim/A10_07.jpg

If you are not worried about the "shooting" side of things FS2004 is a tremendous sim, it has its downsides and X-Plane in some cases is better but there is a wealth of high quality freeware addons for it which can keep you busy for months. I know many flyers whose FS2004 directories on hard disk are over 40Gb. I am quite conservative - mines only 17Gb

Wizard

14-11-2005, 14:46

I use the wired Saitek Evo.. Great joystcik for the price. It's over a tenner cheaper than the wireless one but then I'm not a huge fan of wireless stuff after the troubles I've had with my P3000 gamepad.

If you have more money to spend get the X52.. Amazing joyxtick but rather pricey!
:D Not graduated to the X52 I still have a trusty X45 which is also an excellent HOTAS system

I know one guy with a Evo wireless joystick and it was great until he took it to a Lan party. The guy next to him was playing Counterstrike with a wireless keyboard and just as the flyer was lining up for a nice kill on a German bomber his plane suddenly climed, engine cut out -> crash. Thanks to wireless keyboard next door :rolleyes:

Fireblade

14-11-2005, 15:04

Class :D

I doubt that was the player's reaction mind :eek:

Wireless is OK at home... but I wouldn't wanna risk it at LANs... for reasons such as that ^^!

nick_cfc

14-11-2005, 23:08

thanks for that Wizard.

I dont suppose you could point me in the right direction of the exact patches i need. size isnt a problem as im on 10mb, i just wanna make sure i got the right bits.

in terms of playing online, ill download that lobby thing you mentioned once im up and running.

and with FS2004, howdoes online work? Do i need to get a server ip list? Does everyone just start on the ground and go for a fly? anyone do any stunt flying in red arrows or anything?

i got bids on ebay for IL2, IL2 FB, IL2 AEP and Pacific Fighters. Is that all i need to get online? do i just install them all, and the correct patches and thats it, because to me they are 4 seperate games surely? which one do you go online with.

sorry for so many questions, but you seem willing to help which is really kind of you, much appreciated

Wizard

15-11-2005, 09:57

You dont need IL2 that was the original release which has long since passed into history. You need IL2 Forgotten Battles (in effect IL2 - version 2), Aces Expansion Kit (for Forgotten Battles) and Pacific Fighters. I will post patch details later - we have most of them in our library and I keep meaning to add the missing one.

As regards flying online in FS2004. There are several ways of doing it, the standard peer to peer with your mates or connecting to a dedicated server. We happen to run a dedicated server at Netwings which is fairly active. This link (http://www.netwings.org:8080/) shows you who is online and where they are, this link (http://forums.netwings.org/forums/showthread.php?t=691) will give you some idea of the protocol and this link (http://forums.netwings.org/forums/announcement.php?f=4&announcementid=1) gives brief instructions on how to connect. We also run a Teamspeak server for voice comms

Most of our "customers" are USA based so its more active later in the day UK time, you can either potter around by yourself, find a group to fly with or do whatever you want! There is one group currently doing a Sourth to North Pole flight who are always happy to have an escort, there is another group practicing for a round the world race and they again are always pleased to have company.

Dont be afraid to post on our forums - there are lots of guys there willing to help :D

nick_cfc

15-11-2005, 10:13

cool, ill sign up on your forums later, and ill definately try and get online in FS2004, my joystick should come today, been flying with a PS2 pad as thats the only thing i have plugged in at the mo.

Wizard

15-11-2005, 10:58

All the patches you need can be found here (http://www.netwings.org/library/Forgotten%5FBattles%5Fand%5FPacific%5FFighters/Patches/)

Installation order is critical!

1. Install Forgotten Battles
2. Install Aces Expansion Pack
3. Install Pacific Fighters - this can either be installed as standalone or merged with FB/AEP. Install as merged version
4. Download and install 3.03M
5. Download and install 4.01M
6. Download and install 4.02M

nick_cfc

15-11-2005, 13:14

excellent,i really appreciate the help.

got my joystick today, i suck so much at IL2, only way i can kill things is by flying into them.

Wizard

15-11-2005, 17:08

excellent,i really appreciate the help.

got my joystick today, i suck so much at IL2, only way i can kill things is by flying into them.
Be warned! A LOT of the online servers run with hard settings or "full real" as the fanatics call it. This means complex engine management, no icons,no padlock, no external ****pits and no map icons. So not only due you have to learn to fly and fight you have to navigate as well :D

nick_cfc

15-11-2005, 21:29

so im stuffed then lol.

i understand everything else, but no icons? how do you know who is who?

anyway, again thanks for the help,i hope to be online in IL2 soon

PQuiff

16-11-2005, 21:02

HARDCORE!!!!!!

btw...european air war!!! w00ts never has a game had so much trumpet music since that game!!!

TimEG

16-11-2005, 21:14

All this talk of flight sims has got me in the mood for a little flying action.. Gonna get me a copy of Aces and PF so I may see you in the skies soon!!

nick_cfc

16-11-2005, 22:40

i remember european air war, i had to wait a year to play it when i bought it as my current comp wouldnt run it. those were the days when my comp couldnt even run a simple football game that came free with a box of Frosties

Wizard

17-11-2005, 15:08

Never flew EAW, its one that peaple still reminisce about now :p

nick_cfc

17-11-2005, 21:36

had a great time on your server last night, started playing with some guys from USA called flying fogies or something, had some air races, was good fun