Chuffy's Flying Circus

For anybody who wants to flesh out their BoX collection - BoBP is on a flash sale for $12.49.

Wan't quite sure where to post this as it's technically part of the IL2 BoX series, but also the successor to RoF.  Anyway, so if you want you can stump up $70 for this new product and fly a Spad XIII and Dr1 around WW2 Russia whilst they flesh out the rest of plane-set (the usual suspects) and develop a fresher map of a part of Flanders fields.

It's much more an evolution of RoF than a revolutionary new sim:  basically all the new bits of BoX ported into the Roffverse.

Update 3.001 is live.  Lots of goodies in it (eg draw-distance increased 4-fold), but perhaps most of interest to us is the inclusion of a MP coop mode and the ability to host a mission whilst in game (like we used to do with IL2 46).

Looks like it could be time to jump back in: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/12826-game-updates/#entry503128.  Apart from the cosmetic effects (though I really like the idea of proper cockpit shadows), the list of FM changes in the "spoiler" portion of the post would seem to make the sim much more pleasant to fly.

I have no answers to the problems Woof experienced tonight, but he may be able to take small comfort in the fact that it seems to be a widespread problem:http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/26141-patch-2005-second-joystick-not-recognized-game/

One for Fitz, really this:https://www.projectargo.net/.  You just signup on this page and appears for free in your Steam library.  Haven't tried it yet, but looks intriguing...

The next BoS will be BoK - the Battle of Kuban . This rekindles many happy memories of scraps in "our" Kuban map.  They've also said that they're heading to the Pacific after the Kuban - "Are you in a left-hand turn over the Crescent Island?"

This vid is from today's Developer Diary: https://youtu.be/CMILz8dgyP8.  When Bounder, Woof, Conky and I had a bash at this sim a while back, I found the taxiing to be unbearably fiddly, and the landings inexplicably difficult (of course the other three weren't so inconvenienced).  In fact it put me off going back to it, despite the great feeling of flight, wonderful graphics, and numerous nice details.  Once this patch comes online I may buy BoM, because it seems that they've addressed exactly my concerns with it.

Well worth watch to get you started:

https://youtu.be/lRu1fZsjyB4

Probably only of interest to Fitz, but it might be worth taking a look at PS2 again:https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/04/29/goin-up-planetside-2-adds-base-building/

Today I did some scrabbling about on the Wings of Liberty server.  Having thought that I had come some way towards being able to taxi/take off, I had one effort in which the Yak failed to get above 100kph and I ended up blasting up a  blast-pen.  On trying again I observed that my mixture (left at 100% on my controls) was 50% on the screen "techno chat".   I have found in RoF that all controls need to be waggled to get them to "register" at the start of each flight.  It seems that the same applies to BoS.

For the Yak, before I engage the autostart, I waggle each slider, and then set mixture, RPM (pitch), and the two rads to 100%, but the throttle to 0% - checking that the value is indicated by the sim.  Hit "E" and wait for it to do its stuff.  Once you get "Inert valve closed" (I think), you can then assume control.  If the mixture is not set to 100% at this point, the engine will switch off and you have to do it all again.  Don't throttle up too aggressively as you roll, and you only need to go for 85-90% to get her off the ground. Once safely airborne, pull the mixture back to 85%, and the throttle/pitch to 65-70%.  Leave the last two much higher than that and you very quickly overheat and kill the engine.

...unless you use this mod:  http://www.armanam.eu/downloads.html.  I'm definitely giving this a go.  Don't know how many missions there are, but a squad patrol through the Vietnam jungle is very high on my list of things to do in  a PC game

This is a mod of Battlefield 2.  Various sources say it is the go-to game for MP tactical shooters.  I've never played it as I've never owned BF2, but it is now available as a (free) standalone download, so I'm going to take a look...

I'm using 1920 x 1080 (native) on a 27" monitor @144Hz.  Overkill for IL2, but I bought it for RoF/BoS because of their "zoom" function.

Just bought Angels Fall First, will let you know how it goes once I've played a bit....

Seen the trailer Fitz?

This just popped up on my radar: http://www.groundbranch.com/introduction/.  Looks quite interesting

I've been having a look at this: http://www.norbsoftdev.net/.  It ought to be more of a "proper" wargame than the Total War version.  I've not tried the original ACW game but it is highly regarded.

http://www.justflight.com/product/english-electric-lightning-f6-download

Seems we'll be getting summer and autumn maps:  http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/14433-developer-diary-part-87-discussion/