Aviation Experiences

[u35_captain]

Hello all! First new thread - I haven't seen anything like this in the first few pages (I could just be blind) and I'm very curious.

What have your various experiences been with aircraft in SHIII? Default or otherwise.

The Hawker Hurricane (much as I love flying her in every sim I've ever played - far more than the Spitfire.) hasn't come within fifty yards of hitting me. I mostly stay on the surface and let my ack-ack gunners have at them, adding a little bit of renown to my crew and some experience to my gunners. The same goes for the single-engine American planes I've encountered in the Caribbean. (I've spotted one P-38, but it never spotted me)

As for the Liberators...a fearsome amount of bombs, but so far I've made it to December of '42 and they appear to have no aim whatsoever. On balance, they also take a lot of shooting to put to any trouble. Haven't managed to down one yet.

As for the Luftwaffe, I've seen them exactly twice, in both cases stealing renown from my crew. :P Up in Norway in my current campaign, so here's hoping I get to see them help out with a convoy.

Then...there's the the Sunderlands. I don't fear destroyers or frigates, but I fear the Sunderlands. No matter how skilled my watchmen, they always appear out of nowhere, and attack with terrifying accuracy and speed. And bold, too. I was heading out of Lorient, and not even an hour off the French coast a whole squadron showed up. A crash-dive in shallow water saved me, but I still lost 20% hull integrity, and they just vanished as quickly as they appeared.

So, a lot of text, and for what? Because I want to hear your war stories about the dreaded menace from above!

[Frenchy849]

Well,I've only seen aircraft attacks against me in the campaign when I was still on stock SH3!
A couple of Hurri-bombers tried to strafe me but utterly failed.
The last time I've encountered enemy planes in the campaigns was a couple of Hudsons when I was close to the US coast,crash dived.
Other than that,I've been attacked by a Sunderland in the "ALARM!" single mission,it's depht charges damaged my boat while I was crash diving.
I do have IL2 1946 with UP2.01(too lazy to update :D) but I mainly stick with Soviet and German planes.

[postalbyke]

I tend to avoid the flying stuff... I'm playing NYGM, and they can get pretty thick even early on!
So my game tends to be a bit like this:
WO "Airplane spotted!"
WO "Periscope Depth"
me "get depth under keel"
*wait a terrifying second*
me "ALAAAAARM!"

I didn't wait for a reply previously regarding how much water I had under me until I started hitting the bottom on one patrol...:doh:

on the other hand, once that's cared for, I tend to put a camera "on" one of the airplanes and enjoy the show they put on for me! :yep:

[u35_captain]

Well,I've only seen aircraft attacks against me in the campaign when I was still on stock SH3!
A couple of Hurri-bombers tried to strafe me but utterly failed.
The last time I've encountered enemy planes in the campaigns was a couple of Hudsons when I was close to the US coast,crash dived.
Other than that,I've been attacked by a Sunderland in the "ALARM!" single mission,it's depht charges damaged my boat while I was crash diving.
I do have IL2 1946 with UP2.01(too lazy to update :D) but I mainly stick with Soviet and German planes.

I finally got IL2 1946 on Steam. Haven't tried it yet. Is it every bit as good as the legends I hear tell me? :P

[u35_captain]

I tend to avoid the flying stuff... I'm playing NYGM, and they can get pretty thick even early on!
So my game tends to be a bit like this:
WO "Airplane spotted!"
WO "Periscope Depth"
me "get depth under keel"
*wait a terrifying second*
me "ALAAAAARM!"

I didn't wait for a reply previously regarding how much water I had under me until I started hitting the bottom on one patrol...:doh:

on the other hand, once that's cared for, I tend to put a camera "on" one of the airplanes and enjoy the show they put on for me! :yep:

That's me when the Sunderlands show up. Just get under fast, and if it's shallow water, well, brushing the bottom might not be as lethal as they've proved to be :P

[u35_captain]

Adding one.

Surfaced to use the deck gun on a T3 Tanker (how lovely that such a large ship had no guns) and as I finished her off a single Catalina showed up.

It did two bomb runs, in which my ack-ack wounded her - and apparently stuck the other four bombs on her racks, because she came back with machine guns.

Shot her down, but that was one brave Catalina, flying into two twin guns and a heavy flak cannon.

[Luno]

The airplanes are quite brave and fly very strangely in the stock game. It seems that the accuracy goes up later in the war. It's nice that the early Hurricanes are so bad at shooting because those 20 mm can openers weren't really introduced until '41 (Hurri Mk.IIc).

After an attack, planes will do this odd hammer-head wing-over that defies physics. When I tried GWX on my good computer, it did seem to fix this, and gave the Hurris more speed.

Right now, I fear Swordfish more than Hurris. They are slow, and easy to hit, but they are tough, and pretty accurate with their DC's. Even if one is on fire, it will still attempt a run.

What I really don't like is how aircraft never give up. If my plane was on fire, and if I wasn't being fried to a crisp, I would ditch it right away to avoid a deadly explosion. If I knew I was getting hit, I would turn for home - no telling if fuel or oil is leaking or if some structural component is damaged.

This is especially bad with Sunderlands. One of the single missions gives you a Type XXI dual twin-flak turrets. Because the batteries were damaged and fuel was leaking, I was stuck on the surface. I hit a Sunderland multiple times, but it just kept coming around again and again. I really wish my 20mms had explosive shells like the fighters!

1946 is a great game. I prefer the hard-copy because the Steam version has some kind of bug (check Il-2 ubi or 1c forums for more info). There's also zero copy protection, so you can simply copy-paste the game folder a few times for a backup, vanilla, and modded installs if you so prefer.

Current version is 4.11. More patches are still being written.

Although it lacks true engine and systems management, it has plenty of aircraft to chose from, pretty accurate flight models, and good "feel" of flight that I haven't gotten from other sims. It's really not good in the naval/merchant department though, if that's your cup of tea. There's only two cargo vessels and a trawler, but there are lots of warships. There is no ship AI, convoys, etc. Subs are stuck to the surface only.

Il-2 is also not built for modding as SHIII was. However, several big mod packs exist, but the quality of material varies (some great, some crap). I suggest playing with the stock game for some time before expanding to mods as there's a ton of material to start with.

Have fun with it! :up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Neka58JplAQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ9jM7txEzw&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_kbsuGyOus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApczKz6450k&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p0F4ocPav8

PS - if you have a good computer, try Cliffs of Dover, the sequel to Il-2 1946:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGhoj1vGwPE&feature=relmfu

[u35_captain]

Heh, I was wondering about the planes doing those insane turns. I knew the B-24 is an impressive aircraft, but it couldn't maneuver like a fighter as far as I know :O:

The Sunderland's toughness is, apparently, historically accurate. The things used to shrug off the Luftwaffe sometimes like it wasn't really a big deal.

And I used to play the old Microsoft Combat Flight Simulators, and those were gorgeous programs. Adaptable, moddable - heck, the 2nd one came with a built in mission editor. Great damage profiles, too, in that one. Never got around to the 3rd one, so I don't know how well it did. But that there wasn't a fourth tells me something I suppose.

I remember there being a mod, too, where you could pilot a u-boat - and pressing the spoiler key submerged her to periscope depth'. Heck of a feat in a game that originally could just about tolerate seaplanes landing.

[zygoma]

I suppose it might kinda count as cheating, but I do *a lot* of in-game saves, either after I've passed through a couple of zones uneventfully, upon finding any targets, and every time I get alerted to aircraft. I like being able to go back "not too far" and retry something I've done wrong.
Fighting against aircraft is nearly the most fun I know how to have with my clothes on.
Sunderlands and PBYs seem to have the same attack profile: they cruise towards me, then go into a shallow dive to strafe and bomb (as available). I usually man one of the ack-acks myself, and even when I set the fuselages or wings afire, they typically continue on in. It seems they won't crash until after they've completed their attack runs, although once or twice I've shot off a wing and the airplane politely fell into the sea before arriving overhead.
I've only downed a couple of B-24s. They appear to be able to stand off far enough to drop their bomb loads while they're rolled into a turn and pulling back on the yoke to maintain altitude as they spray their bombs out to the side, nearly guaranteeing that one or two will hit my boat. Even with my qualified and promoted flak gunners and a flak gun officer, I can typically only bring them down if I catch them just before they would have released their bombs and continue shooting as they pass over. I haven't yet figured out how to use the ranging rings on the iron A-A guns' sights, and the tracers only let me know if I'm shooting without enough lead, as I can sometimes see them track across "my side" of the airplane. And, of course, they've got all those turrets and waist gunners bidding farewell after they pass overhead, too...
I agree, most of the airplanes seem to have aerobatic mods, and the pilots are all accomplished at hammerhead stalls and other feats of legerdemain. It doesn't look like they've got nearly enough altitude to recover from some of the stuff they do, but I keep forgetting they're not flying Cessna 152s, either.
And the Hurricanes seem to think they're invincible; I've had more kills on them than any other airplanes so far. It may be that they often come in as singles, rather than a whole squadron, so I get to bring all my armament to bear on one guy with one engine.
And if I count (or guess) wrong, and get bombed into metal confetti, I exit, then reload a saved career and try something different.
"Aircraft spotted!"
"Wheeeee!"
"Knock it off, Bernard! That's *not* what the cosmoline is for, anyway. Go help load for the gunners."
-- Zygoma --
__________________________________________________ __
May the number of your surface activities exceed your number of dives by exactly one at the end of your career.

[Osmium Steele]

I almost never stay and fight aircraft.

We ran across a Hudson early in the patrol and decided to take a couple of shots at it. It ran away trailing smoke and we all cheered!

So...

In the western approaches to Gibraltar, we spotted a tiny Swordfish in the distance. Feeling cocky, we manned the flak gun and I told the gunner to open fire.

Nothing.

Check the settings, he should be firing. He's not.

As the bombs dropped, he woke up, fired a few rounds, and promptly died.

The Swordfish flew away, leaving my turm a burning wreck. I could still use it, but the uzo and both scopes were destroyed.

I almost never stay and fight aircraft. :down:

[Luno]

Heh, I was wondering about the planes doing those insane turns. I knew the B-24 is an impressive aircraft, but it couldn't maneuver like a fighter as far as I know :O:

Yup, and it kills the believability a bit.

The Sunderland's toughness is, apparently, historically accurate. The things used to shrug off the Luftwaffe sometimes like it wasn't really a big deal.Sure, it can be tough, but a fire is a pretty big deal. Basically, the fight is over right there: if you put it out, you go home, if you can't you have to ditch or bail.

And I used to play the old Microsoft Combat Flight Simulators, and those were gorgeous programs. Adaptable, moddable - heck, the 2nd one came with a built in mission editor. Great damage profiles, too, in that one. Never got around to the 3rd one, so I don't know how well it did. But that there wasn't a fourth tells me something I suppose.CFS1 was my favorite flight sim when I was 12 or so, and still didn't have a joystick! I haven't tried CFS2, but I've heard more than once that Il-2 surpasses it in damage model, flight model, etc. I have tried CFS3, and Il-2 definitely is an improvement over that one.

I remember there being a mod, too, where you could pilot a u-boat - and pressing the spoiler key submerged her to periscope depth'. Heck of a feat in a game that originally could just about tolerate seaplanes landing.That's cool. Aces High has PT boats and tanks, but I think it's pay-per-month. It doesn't seem to play nice with my system either. Oh well.