Battleground Europe (WWIIOL) worth it?
 

A simple question; is it worth the monthly fee?

I've been following it's progress from pretty much the beginning, but never got around to subscribe, I'm looking to make a change to that. :hmm:

My experience with the game is very outdated, but I have played, and I'll happily offer my opinion.

When I was subscribed the game was very very strong in some points and very weak in others. On the good side, the vehicle and weapon modelling was exceptionally detailed and accurate (with some minor quibbles) and the variety of 'rarely seen in a game' units is awesome. On the bad, it could sometimes take quite a while to find bad guys to shoot at, and the learning curve was horrendous.

The best thing about it was that it really is a virtual battlefield. You're not gonna run into the edge of the zone, or find that you never get to shoot your tank's main gun at a target farther than 30 meters away. I've had gun duels with hostiles who were over a kilometer a way from me and drove my painfully slow Matilda for miles to return to base after the place I was defending was overrun.

I know they've added a lot since I played, aiming to get people into action quicker, and to put both sides in close proximity of each other. I don't know how well it's worked. I'd love to try it again, but my current connection won't allow it.

Final answer? Well, I probably have more singular 'never forget' moments from WWIIOnline than any other massively multiplayer game, so I have to recommend trying the free month, at least. On the other hand, I'm not sure whether it's appeal would stand up if their were other games like it.

If you wanna hear some war stories, btw....lemme know. I got plenty.:D

Thanks Vlad. Doesnt come as an surprise that I'm gonna aim to the role of an fighter pilot. I've seen tons of vids of the huge airbattles and bomber formations, how common it is to see a big airbattle in WWIIOL? And overall, how is the player situation? Am I to except hundreds of players? Like you said, it is a real virtual battlefield and that's what fascinates me. I want to fly low in my 109, make a pass over convoy of friendly forces going towards the front and wave my wings to let them know we flyboys are there to support them. ;)

Oh and yes, warstories are always welcome. :up:

The air action was what I was originally interested in, but my computer at the time wouldn't handle aerial warfare on that game too well. Ironically, now that it will, I can't play due to net stuff.:damn::D

There were plenty of 'squadrons' at the time, and on their squad nights, you could see some pretty impressive aerial action. For a long time, it was strictly tac air, as there were no strategic targets to hit, but that changed when they introduced R&D and the factories it requires. A group outing to bomb an enemy factory into pebbles and charcoal was a fairly common thing after that, and naturally the other side wouldn't just let that happen. Bridges are destrucible now, too.

One thing I don't know if they've changed: When I was playing, there was no 'loadout' screen...for anything. You couldn't trade a couple grenades for more ammo...and you couldn't not carry the bombs that 'come standard' with a particular aircraft. Kind of a hassle to have to jettison your ordnance every time you take, say, a P-39 up, and also irritating that you a Bleinheim couldn't lug around something besides the 25-lb eggs that made up a good chunk of their loadout.

This was why the Allied flyboys got so happy when the P-39 was introduced (USA isn't in the game, btw, but they introduced US equipment as 'lend-lease' stuff for France since they had no post-41 stuff). A lot of the Allied planes had very small bombs, but the Bell had a nice, fat 500 or 1000 lber.

Right now, I don't know. Been too long since I played. Prime time, back in the day, you'd see all sorts of people. 4am, not so much, though there's always someone on, naturally.

I've had wings waggled at me for just that reason. I've also told a flyboy that couldn't see his target where a good place to drop his bombload would be. I've had German fighters chased away from my gunboat by the 'just in the nick of time' arrival of two French Hawk 75's. Etc.

Excpect a PM.:D

I was very disapointed in WWIIOL.

Red Orchestra only involves ground combat (infantry and armor) but it's much better and does not cost a monthly fee to play online. You can download it from Steam for around $20.

I have RO and didnt like it that much.

Operation Flashpoint has several WWII mods made for it. I haven't tried any of them myself but they're definately worth take'n a look at.

Tried that too.

Well Call of Duty World at War will be out soon. Looks like use'n the flamethrower will be fun. :D

:huh:

Its fun, but it takes a bit to get into, I played it for awhile, kinda fell out of it though and cancled my sub.

I remember one time, I was on this paradrop mission and we had some sort of issue, maybe we got shot down, so we landed, everybody was ok... So we just walked to the target! :rotfl:

Having now played it for 4-6 sorties in a BF110, I must say it farcking rocks! :rock: The flightmodel is of course more arcadish than that you see on pure flightsims, but it isnt hard to get the planes to spin/stall. The amount of players is one thing that amazes me, I dont even notice the average graphics, the fighting is too intense to start looking at anything else than the enemy. Other thing I like very much is the constantly updating 'News paper' on the front page telling you pretty much anything you'd think should be told. Hero stories (real events, that the game automatically notes and puts to the paper), general situation reports, production reports etc. etc.

I'm sold, that's all I can say. :up:

I hate BF110's. They're always flitting around, looking for a nice, fat patrol boat to shoot up, and their 20mms are very effective against a wooden motor launch so you might as well write off your naval career if one gets a good run on you.

On the other hand, most of my Fairmille B kills were BF 110s. One of them I got with the 2lber gun on the front. You know, the one you're supposed to shoot other boats with.:D

I hate the me110 in WWIIOL too. Unfair, the germans have the 110 as their starting fighter for low ranking players, the RAF has 2 Hurricanes! :nope: Needless to say, I jumped sides and am now flying for the RAF until the 3rd promotion when I get my hands on to the 109. ;)

Oh, had my first paratrooper mission today. Damn, that was cool! Was night, tracers flying past our C47 and them twut germans shooting at us with everything they had as we were floating slooowly down after the jump. Great game!

Suggestion on ranking up in the 110 is to...well, look for boats to kill. They're extremely vulnerable to 20mm fire if you know where to aim. Now that crewmembers on boats don't die (something I wish I was able to enjoy), your best bet is to aim for the center of the boat, just under the stack. If you set the engine ablaze, the boat will sink eventually....no damage control, alas.

Also, early war, the 110 makes a passable tank buster. Won't do jack to a Matilda or a Char B1, but A13s, and any of the light tanks, the 20's can easily punch through top armor.

Might wanna try the French Air Force, too. A lot of people hate the Hawk 75, but I found it pleasant to fly in offline mode (all my computer at the time could handle).

It was nice, but it lacked alot if you ask me. It had some realistic views on it, like the ability to lean your gun to a trunk of tree to aim more steadily. What I would've wanted to see from the beginning of RO, is more vehicles. We have tanks and halftracks. Some of the maps are huge and would've been great for anti-tank guns or even aircraft. And this is the area where WWIIOL makes it more enjoyable. Everything expect artillery (well you have those small one man mortars) is there. And the realism is slightly better, for example, you can set your sights for different distances in some weapons.

Anyways, I came to post an AAR from my best mission so far; Paradrop to the coastal city of Kamperland with the Fallschrimjäger 1.2:

Farcking love the game! :rock:

In the other versions of CoD, the flamethrower was pretty whimpy it seemed like.

I really enjoy this game from the broad tactical perspective. My friends and I sign up from time to time to play for a month or two. The graphics and engine are dated but, the experience you get from the game is worth signing up at least once to try.

Best Features:
Huge Terrain and Map Scale - Although there aren't any sharp elevated mountains the terrain is very well designed and makes approaching cities, objectives, and finding enemy a fun challenge. You still have valleys and rolling terrain but, most are gradual.

Sound Behavior - direction and distance. The game really shows the importance of sound in combat. The dstances are so great between areas of conflict that you could be driving for miles without seeing or hearing any enemy. When driving armor etc. You find yourself consantly stopping and shutting down your engines just to listen for enemy movement.

Roles: Any of the classes you choose to enter the game with you can use for multiple roles. When flying you can spend time actually collecting useful intel of enemy positions and movements rather than just going out to kill enemy.

Objectives: The entire map is a linked resource point supply chain. As towns and forward bases are captured resource points are changed gradually (as the structures come back online for other team) and accordingly (based on the location and linked nearby towns/forward bases). So if you lose a major city to enemy you lose a good portion of production of the equipment you can spawn in with to fight enemy. So all objectives have an actual value (unlike most games). A great feature of this complexity is the length fo tiem it takes to attack and defend assets. There are so many times I have spent a Friday or Saturday night ro even a Weekend defending or trying to capture just one town. I have yet to see another game that allows you to join in progress throughout any given time to reenter an ongoing battle at this scale.

Damage Modeling: For as bad as the graphics are the damage modeling is pretty decent. Each unit has weak areas and is damaged according to where it is hit. Tracks get damaged, engines die, crews can get killed from weak or light armored areas, well placed shots can kill crew through turret openings, infantry die from headshots and vital areas or get wounded and bleed out in others.

No Healing or Repairs: If your vehicle is damaged you pretty much sit and fight to death or you despawn. If you don't despawn at a base location you will not get credit for kills. So, the game does give people an incentive to live and not just rush in to die. Infantry are the same. Except with infantry if you are injured or bleeding otu you can have a friend rush you back to base to despawn for credit before you die.

There's a reason for the dated graphics. The game map is over 28,000 square KMs, no loading in between the different areas etc. Today's graphics would need a PC yet to be made to run the game. ;)

But the graphics dont bug me at all, the atmosphere is just great along with the best teamwork I've seen in a long long time. At the time of writing this, I'm in a JU52 with my new squad, the 1stFJ on our way to relief our surrounded squadmates in a enemy city they jumped into. :up:

I wouldn't mind resubbing, though I can only play in the dead of night or I lag out constantly.

Is there a Subsim squad going?

"Dowlies Death Divers" Perhaps?