IL-2/Pacific Fighters: 1946 addon is out

[Skyraider3D]

http://www.pacific-fighters.com/en/home.php

Got mine yesterday and it bloody rocks! :)
Lots of new planes to play with, from the Ki-27 (from the included Stormoviks over Manchuria addon) and Il-10 to the Arado 234 and Heinkel Lerche. The last one is hilarious! The vertical landing is very well modelled and good fun. The flight behaviour of this thing is insane and it's equipped with three X-4 missiles, which are manually guided rockets. Quite tricky to use, but very satisfying when you manage to blow up a B-29 at 4 km distance :)

http://www.pacific-fighters.com/ss/Lerche_01.jpg

Offline I had a go with the Ta 183 with X-4s and took out eight B-29s in succession (four with the missiles, four with guns) until they got my engine. I had tons of ammo left, so I will have a go at it again to get some more! :)

Had a few all-jet dogfights online and it's good fun. I hope now more jets have become available there will be some more online 1946 servers/maps. They're totally different from flying biplanes, but since both are possible this makes for excellent varried gameplay.

The flight dynamics seem to havebeen improved. Taking off is easier now and aiming too. Good news for people with wobbly joysticks (Logitech, X52).

Also a nice bonus to this addon are the countless of skins now available for most aircraft. The Ki-27 for instance has many... Lovely plane :)

http://www.pacific-fighters.com/ss/Ki-27_011.jpg

O and just to be sure... the 1946 pack contains ALL games and addons and patches you need. Just one big install. So whoever wanted to get into this game but dreaded the tons of patches etc., now is your chance to get up to day. In the UK it's only £17 delivered at Play.com, so no excuse in terms of money either. Well worth it as you get about 150 flyable planes and the game is just awesome!

Hopefully we can revive some <MM> players and have some multiplayer games over the holidays? :D

And for those who are all new to this and want an independent review...
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/751/751000p1.html

:cool:

[Danoku]

Ohh this looks tasty, been meaning to pick up PF for awhile, but Red Orchestra has been sucking up what little, very little, free time i have had. Combined arms on the eastern front, hard to pull away. How does PF hold up with lag issues, i would love to fly with you guys, but that whole ocean thing is maybe an issue?

[Skyraider3D]

IL-2 is quite scalable in terms of graphics settings. If you have a fairly up to date computer and broadband, you shouldn't have any problems.

PS. For online play, use Hyperlobby: http://hyperfighter.sk/

[Danoku]

hyperlobby, copy that.

[Skyraider3D]

Just had a bit of fun again with the Lerche... hovering it with the "feet" in the sea, and then see how quick you can "mix" the water without tumbling over.

The Ki-27 is also great to control. Gets airborne at 100 kph and you can do great stunts with it. Coming in at 250 kph, running one wheel over the entire runway, other in the air. Hehe. Then pull straight up and make a looping just tight enough to clear the ground on exit. Fun fun fun :lol:

[bigz]

I have lost intrest in IL2 and its all your fault. I am no longer content with the graphics after seeing the standard set on this site. Perhaps my intrest wil be revived with BOB.

[Skyraider3D]

By the time game graphics have caught up with pre-rendered graphics, pre-rendered graphics will have moved on again! :)

If you thought BoB was gonna come out any time soon, you'll be disappointed. I reckon they aim for Christmas 2007 but I am pretty sure it will be Q1 or even Q2 2008.

[raf]

Been planning to get 1946.
There has been a lot of talk about framerate drop compared to 405. Have you noticed that? I have an average computer but simply don't want to give up that reflective water, it just gives you the best feeling when flying over any water surface.

[Nils]

This look maybe as a much needed vitamine injection to the IL2 Series, I play it seldomly nowadays. It has been sitting on my PC's since first release, dec' 01 and it has grown quite huge with all the extras packed into it :)

Just got me a new PC now, so I'll do a fresh install on a clean PC.

[Skyraider3D]

Yes I have noticed some framerate drop online. Not sure what's causing it. It's noticable on some servers while on others everything is fine...?

One thing that could be causing it though, is that most 407 servers currently allow a full plane set, so people can fiddle about with them, bvefore the usual suspects are banned or limited plane sets are introduced. Having all available planes on the same map may explain the drop in framerate perhaps?

[raf]

My friends and I always make our own server and custom maps, so that, hopefully, won't affect us. :\

There is more about the framerate drop on simhq and ubi forums. They say it is noticable offline also.

Will definitely get it and hope that it won't be such a big deal, but there is no way that I'm going to store before holidays are over.

[arai]

well I finally got 1946. If I see you guys online I'll join. just got it last night so only got to try out the lerche, taking out some b-29s and got a chance to try a few of the new aircraft.

[Skyraider3D]

Look out for people with <MM> in front of their name ;)
Don't forget the airbrakes on the Lerche. Won't land very gently without then! :lol:

[Martocticvs]

That first pic was a real... thing? Interesting!

[Spinner]

That first pic was a real... thing? Interesting!
Never got much off the drawing board I think.

[Supah]

where do you guys play? I'd love to have some dogfights with you, especially now that my favorite Hayabusha got upgraded :D

[Skyraider3D]

On Hyperlobby, UK Dedicated 1 (no cockpit) or 2.

[arai]

I've been joining more coops these days, I've played the dogfight servers for awhile, and while still fun, I'm currently enjoying taking off in a big wave and having a task to accomplish over 1 flight, whether its ecorting bombers or strafing a runway full of enemy aircraft.

[Skyraider3D]

Some of the best games I had were coops. Currently I am getting a bit bored of the dogfights. If you fly them properly you're invincible. Basically take off, fly away, climb, come back at 3000m, pick a solitary target and attack. Always keep up your speed and altitude. Watch the skies behind you so you never get surprised. That way I achieved a 20:1 killratio :)

Coops are more exciting, especially when played full-real. You never know exactly what's gonna happen next. One of the best coops I had was with P-39s and Il-2s against ground targets, defended by 109s and 190s. We completely mauled the defenders (I was leading the P-39 flight and got three), with minimal losses.

If you don't care too much about realism, stats, etc, and just want to have mad fun, try a 1946 server with Lerches. It's hilarious! :lol:

[arai]

haha I'd love to but most of the 1946 servers I've found dont even run a do-335 or jets, let lone a lerche.

[Skyraider3D]

Yeah it's a pity, all the "fun" birds get banned instantly. But some do have mad jet arenas. I had some excellent dogfights in the Yak-15 against He 162s. Good stuff, and definitely not easy.

[arai]

had a couple great missions tonight. First was a ground attack sortie in an a-20, with beaufighters and a mossie or two in support with some seafires launched off a carrier as escort. it was crazy over the target, with aa flying everywhere as we hit a supply depot, with me109 prowling around. there were probably 15 friendly aircraft on the attacking force and it was mayhem, almost took the paint off the bottom of my a-20 on a few of the straffing runs.

then joined up as a corsair for a bomber escort (b-25s) on a nice little map. Found a few tony's and zero's beating up some b-25s and on a single pass got a leader and his two wingman. Later found some jap dc-3's trying to make it to an airfield without escort, and finally on my rtb ran into 2 more tony's. By the end of it I had a 1200 score and had a blast

[Demons7th_Delta]

I thought it might have been because of all the dirty "extras" out there now. What I mean by dirty is that not everyone takes the time to make their add on's or modifications efficient as far as files go. I think also this must play a little havoc with networking code. I seen this happen in CFS2 which over time as more and more "cheats" came out that ultimately ruined a lot of peoples fun. I claim to be no expert though as I'm just stating an opinion here based on experience.

[Skyraider3D]

I thought it might have been because of all the dirty "extras" out there now. What I mean by dirty is that not everyone takes the time to make their add on's or modifications efficient as far as files go.You might well be right there! I've seen cases of artists not assigning smoothing groups to areas that should be smoothed (such as the M.C.200 cockpit - or was it the G.50?). This gives a severe penalty on performance as a break in smoothing group means a break in vertices and effectively those particular vertices need to be calculated 3 or 4 times, rather than 1 or 2! Nothing too dramatic if it happens here and there, but if it happens a lot, and a lot more similar problems are present, it could indeed kill the performance of the game.

[Demons7th_Delta]

You might well be right there! I've seen cases of artists not assigning smoothing groups to areas that should be smoothed (such as the M.C.200 cockpit - or was it the G.50?). This gives a severe penalty on performance as a break in smoothing group means a break in vertices and effectively those particular vertices need to be calculated 3 or 4 times, rather than 1 or 2! Nothing too dramatic if it happens here and there, but if it happens a lot, and a lot more similar problems are present, it could indeed kill the performance of the game.

Yes exactly what I was refering to as not "efficient".. It's those little things that add up... no biggie but it could cost frame rates IMO.

[raf]

Can anyone tell me what would one need to make a dedicated server for 1946. Guess that one needs separate installaton disc for it.

New expansion definitely runs slower on the same machine and is more sensitive to connection quality than 405. Even with old planes and maps. :\

[Skyraider3D]

You need to download the dedicated server setup from the IL-2/PF website. Not sure how it works from there on. Best drop Zorin a private message as he may know.

[Gotardo]

I think it looks cool
I only ever played with the IL-2 demo, but this expansion rules.
I saw a YouTube video, on the "Tigers of Terra" section, on Antarctic Press forums, about footage of the game. Cool, you have AA missiles, lol! :)
Btw, i reccomend the "Luftwaffe 1946" and the "families of Altered wars" comics, they're great. Also the "Twilight X" by Joe Wight, absolutely gorgeus military comic. One of the sweetest ever.
Well, no more propaganda, here's the YT link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cklXJA4HcQ

[Zorin]

http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/1107/ju88newjc4.jpg

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/3193/greausderwstegm5.jpg

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/7885/p40ju88mp8.jpg

http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/5470/thededicatedno1an6.jpg

[Zorin]

Do you like the artwork posted above or not?

[Skyraider3D]

I like the last one - it reminds of an old magazine cover :)
Price should be in Shillings and Dimes though ;)