Other flight sims

[flyer01]

I fly CFS3 and the Expansions and FSX.

What flight sims other then CFS3 or non-flight combat sim do the rest of you enjoy.

In your opinion is CFS still the best WWII flight Sim? And why.

The reason I ask this is---------- there is not near the activity on this fourm as there was when I first found SOH.

Thanks in advance,

flyer01

[italflyer]

I'm flying CFS3 most of the time, specially ETO and MAW. Then I fly FS2004 and FSX from time to time. FSX is a bit heavy on my old machine, so I don't spend much time with it.

I've got BOB II and IL2 on my HD too, but I only fire them up to find out that I like CFS3 better.
BOB II is quite nice, but too limited to the BOB-aircraft. And It's veeeery hard to survive a dogfight (at least for me).:gameoff:

[ndicki]

I fly CFS3 and Strike Fighters 2 - two sims which are pretty similar in moddability. That's important for me. Strike Fighters is very good for post-Korea air war, with all the AIMs and GBUs and suchlike, and realism settings that go from arcade to incomprehensible without RAF or USAF pilot training.

I had IL-2 1946 installed, but it's boring rubbish. You can't do anything with it. The only good point was that the AI enemy really do bore right in to get you. I'd like to see that in CFS3...

[loverboy1]

cfs3/ eto/maw/pto ..the family farm of ww2-era imho is the best


had others suck ...in plain english


fsx is in constant evolution and oneday will be all in one wonder in years likely ....but they need direction and common direction ....they are a wonderful sinulator for flying before a test for your pilots license ...

and yes you need a system that is able to be upgraded monthly almost to keep up on fsx .....or a
flexiable cash flow for buying systems to catch up to the spped and need for fsx


lb/joshua

[flyer01]

cfs3/ eto/maw/pto ..the family farm of ww2-era imho is the best


had others suck ...in plain english


fsx is in constant evolution and oneday will be all in one wonder in years likely ....but they need direction and common direction ....they are a wonderful sinulator for flying before a test for your pilots license ...

and yes you need a system that is able to be upgraded monthly almost to keep up on fsx .....or a
flexiable cash flow for buying systems to catch up to the spped and need for fsx


lb/joshua

FSX is a payware developers sandbox it would seem. There are lots of freeware also if you can find them.

As for Pre-WWII/WWII Combat sims CFS3 still must be the best. I have not seen anything to change my thoughts yet.

Thanks for posting,
flyer01

[ndicki]

The reason I ask this is---------- there is not near the activity on this fourm as there was when I first found SOH.

flyer01

Actually, this forum was first-rate until ETO came along; I think they must have their own forum somewhere, because they don't come here much any more. If you want my honest opinion, that's it. What happened to half of the people you can think of?

[flyer01]

Really I thought there may be a better WWII flight sim on the market and some felt it to be taboo to talk about on this forum. Probably not the case.

SOH is still the main melting pot of CFS3 and all the Expansions.
I first noticed the drop off when OFF relocated and the MP was relocated.

Could it be that there is more flying of the Expansions and less posting. LOL

flyer01

[ndicki]

Really I thought there may be a better WWII flight sim on the market and some felt it to be taboo to talk about on this forum. Probably not the case.
flyer01

Not that I know of... In some cases, you just go and do other things for a while instead.


SOH is still the main melting pot of CFS3 and all the Expansions.
I first noticed the drop off when OFF relocated and the MP was relocated.

Could it be that there is more flying of the Expansions and less posting. LOL

flyer01

Could be.

[HouseHobbit]

Well there ia an great number of flight sims out now..

Perhaps when there wasn't the amount there is now.. CFS/2&3/ by MS did have a commanding lead in drawing the fans of Combat flight sims..And flight sims in general..

Now there are so many flight sims out the community is very fragmented..
Each Sim drawing away from CFS (2/3) many who once flew it..

I have taken Note very few younger men are helping with all of this too..

Many are in their 40's and 50's and older who are fans here, And develop everything..
Don't see alot of teenagers or twenty somethings...Involved with it all..
And I am amazed by this...

[Autothrottle]

Before I came in to CFS3 I was playing CFS1 the original air combat flight simulator. It was awesome when it first came out in 1998 because of what you could do with it. Little does anybody here know, but I tried my hand at CFS1 repaints awhile back, I couldnt stand the stock paint schemes they had for the sim, it was just too generic if you ask me.

When my first PC crashed, taking my CFS1 with it for a ride, I tried out Flight simulator 2000 for awhile, but I ound it to be so boring flying from Heathrow to Paris, I wanted some combat in my sim. A pilot friend of mine told me about CFS3 and I was amazed at the high graphical details, and the faster framerates it had over CFS1 and CFS2. I only fly pure CFS3 stock. I hate to be bothered with so many different addons that takes so much time to calibrate, I just like to get straight into the action. The repaints are awesome, Kudos to Nigel and others who painstakingly risk eye strain for us guys who just wanna look pretty sitting in our Messerchmitts.

Househobbit, the vineyard is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
That's my Five cents.

[ndicki]

Well, the download figures are revealing. My original Bf109 upgrade (White 9) has been downloaded 218 times since I uploaded it at the beginning of the summer. That's pretty poor for an aircraft that you'd expect every CFS3 user to want. That, by the way, is my most successful upload since SOH re-arranged the site. The Fairey Battles go between 70 and 150, and they've been up since January. That's poor.

Back when I started all this, you could hit 500 downloads or more within a similar time period, even with things of limited interest.

Admittedly, skins get less downloading that stand-alones, simply because a lot of people appear to hesitate to learn how to use them - but stand-alones now are downloaded about as often as skins some years ago.

By comparison, FS2004 and FSX have some real success stories - the Skyraider for FSX is over 800, for example - but overall, the figures there are similar to those for CFS3, as far as I can tell from a quick overview.

But then I'm not convinced that the customer base is the same. I also tried FS (2002, in my case) and nearly died of boredom.

[NachtPiloten]

I was looking at some Catalina download figures and it was sobering, a bit over 200 for one model. I remember when some of my work would get 1500 or more downloads (one model). I released a series of Dorniers a while back and in total had nearly 6000 downloads. Now barely an interest. I have adopted the mind set that I do this for my relaxation and the satisfaction I get from making the planes and not so much from how they are received or how many are downloaded, if I did I would never make another plane or add on. Maybe when we introduce a few new theaters things will liven up, but again I fear we will never return to the days of 1000 or more downloads of new planes and addons.

It has been a great ride and a bunch of fun over the years and as with all things interest waxes and wanes. I have met a bunch of great guys and gals from all over the world, all wonderful to a fault. It retrospect, maybe that is half of it, the community itself and satisfaction of being part of a friendly and supportive group. :applause:

Off to run a few multi-level logistic regressions and dazzle my self with my limited knowledge of statistics!:banghead:

[ndicki]

CFS2 seems more alive, but when you look at the download figures... it isn't really. But they do have what I think we're starting to find here, namely a solid hard core of users who want to run that particular sim, and nothing else. I have to say that if CFS3 had not come along, I'd probably still be with CFS2 myself. It has a lot of good features...

[ndicki]

I was looking at some Catalina download figures and it was sobering, a bit over 200 for one model. I remember when some of my work would get 1500 or more downloads (one model). I released a series of Dorniers a while back and in total had nearly 6000 downloads.

I know what you mean... My rework of Corrado's old Blenheim got more than 3000 hits...

[HouseHobbit]

LOL..LOL..
I just reloaded CFS2...
I doubt I shall go back to it..
It would require a lot of time to re learn it all..

And I shall admit I am Hopeful for Our beloved CFS3, with the Work done by so many,
It has come a long way..
I also shall admit, I do enjoy wrecking everything in CFS3, ETO/PTO, MAW, BOB very much..:applause:
The list alone is an example how far it has came..
And I am very grateful..
I don't do this for Numbers if I did, i'd be very disappointed..:frown:

Just to give back, and I do enjoy building missions..:applause:

[Led Zeppelin]

About number of downloads, I'm not agrre with you.

Yes, at SoH, number of downloads have decreased but, the interest in CFS3 si still there.

Just have a look there:
http://www.simviation.com/simviation/index.php?ID=338&page=1000

1938 downloads for the Fokker DXXI and 1809 downloads for V-1 London Blitz Mission. Both have alos been released at SoH and I haven't checked but I'm sure it's much less.

SoH is fantastic for it's forum community and the quality of the downloads but, unfortunately, the download section is not as much known.

[wsmwsm]

My two cents.

I think there is some unnecessary pessimism here. There is an alternative explanation for the decreased download numbers of any given aircraft. That is, since the number of available aircraft is steadily increasing - and therefore there are so many more to choose from - the numbers for a particular aircraft my appear to be low. Moreover, since this forum was first up and running, there has been an expansion of the basic CFS3 sim itself - DPC, OFF, MAW, PTO, ETO, MAW EF and now BoB. That, by itself, suggests growth.

[ndicki]

Hmmm... Not convinced. Some of the aircraft we're talking about have been the subject of discussion in the community for years...

[greycap.raf]

Don't see alot of teenagers or twenty somethings...Involved with it all..

That's oddly very true. For what I remember there are only two "participating regulars" below 30, them being Luca "SixGhost" Festari and me. Perhaps the younger generations just can't see the greatness of propeller aircraft.

[ndicki]

I actually think it's something else, more societal. I also do WW2 re-enactment, and it's the same thing. 20 years ago, we were all 20-25 years old (right bunch of Walts, I know!) and now, we aren't. We're all 40-50, which is bloody ridiculous when all is said and done. The old farts outnumber the youngsters about 5:1! It seems to be much the same across Europe, at least.

I think in fact that we're watching a decline of interest in WW2, real war in general, and history in general, possibly because it's perceived as boring, Grand-dad's stuff, and it doesn't involve weird sci-fi things like aliens or whatever you get in things like World of Warcraft.

What of FS? Are they all 40 years old? Got a feeling... Simming is no longer for young people. They want not the "virtually real" but the totally unreal.

[dmaloof]

I fly cfs 3,2 strike fighters series and il-2-46 UP edition 2.01. I am waiting for a helo simulator in Combat helo when it comes out and The falklands simulator jet thunder whenver they release.

[hairyspin]

Interesting thoughts about ETO, since my only upload so far was the installation guide I did with Kasey. Certainly there's lots more aircraft in the 1.31 package than anything before and that, together with the vast choice of missions available now, may explain the numbers for model downloads these days.

How many downloads of ETO have there been? For 1.20 it's been nearly 4000 as of today, but I think we CFS fans are a gently declining population. The great thing about CFSx is that it's so modifiable, which is more than can be said for anything XBox or similar. PC games are a declining, specialist market these days and I remember the old days when shop shelves were stuffed with them. I also remember the titles and genres which were so popular 15 years ago and more, but the one genre I still see commanding a price on the shelves is FSX and its add-ons. Flight sims still have a future, even if it's general aviation - anyone seen the sketchy trailers for MS Flight?

Me, I plan to keep my interest in CFS3 - old fart or not. I'll keep up my interest in FS9 and FSX too - they're all modifiable and can be added to without spending megabucks on development tools. That's what keeps the interest going.:gameon:

[olaf1924]

I enjoy fsx and cfs2 along with BOB II . I now enjoy wings of prey for on line combat. I would like to see wings of prey combined with either cfs2 or cfs3. WINGS OF PREY looks fantastic and it delivers great fps. rise of flight is a great sim for world war 1 if you have a powerfull computer.

[Autothrottle]

In truth, CFS3 is the original Combat sim with tons of potential. Personally I blame the advent of other sims, like my aforementioned flight enthusiasts said. These other sims took the flavor if you will away from CFS3 into other fields. There have been too much combat sims over CFS3. Some of them erroneously innacurate.

[flyer01]

As more post are made, it shows that CFS is not the only show in town as it had been and flight simmers are flying other sims. That is fine.
But that is one of the reasons for the decline in this forum. I'm sure there are some that have quit flying flight sims altogether and enjoying other types of PC entertainment also.

As for now CFS3 is the WWII combat flight sim that I will fly. I will also fly FSX and see what happens with that flight sim. The main reason is I have the flight sim. LOL

flyer01

[alain95]

In Combat Flight Sim I, there was in impressive effect when your plane was near the flak clouds it started shaking form every sides ! :bump:
Even if we have stocked a big amount of visual effects with CFS3, this CFS1 one is still missing me
(as for the bullets impacts in the cockpits... )

As there is an influence of the weather clouds, could it be possible to reproduce this flak effect on our dive bomber planes ?

:engel016:

[Murray Cod]

I fly ETO/MAW/PTO offline once or twice per week, and I'll test a Hobbit or Beaubrummie mission whenever they give me the opportunity.

I fly IL2 online with the Boys of 60 at least once a week.

I give Rise of Flight a go about once per week / once every 2 weeks.

I give FSX a go about once every 2 weeks now after a long time of not touching it.

I fly BoBII about once a month.

And now I am giving Bioshock a try just for something different.

My flying time extends to about 6 hours per week.

If I wasn't working I'd be flying more.

cheers
Murray

[Talon]

I fly PTO & MAW of the CFS3 series. I still do missions for them and I'm on the ETO/PTO team.

I also fly CFS2 and do missions and campaigns for it. I just like that it has more planes,ships and scenery for Pacific missions and campaigns.

I also fly IL-2 1946 online with the BOYS of 60. I do some of the online missions for them.Carrier ops of course.


Talon

[Doc]

I am mainly flying OFF at the moment. I also fly IL-2 1946 and CFS3 ETO sometimes. I think CFS3 ETO particularly has its niche in representing western Europe, with more British aircraft, for example, than IL-2.
OFF is my main thing at the moment because I haven't flown any WW1 since 'Flying Corps' wouldn't work when we got a new computer.
I may well download the BoB package that has been released.

Doc

[Pat Pattle]

Apart from CFS3 I only have BoB2 on my HD at the moment and I rarely fire that up - it has some marvellous facets but always looks 2D somehow. The ai and campaign are truly excellent though.

CFS2 was great and is probably the best combat flight sim of all time, for me all that was missing was useable turrets and some decent scenery. I loved the way that from one install you could fly anywhere in the world.

CFS3 still has potential, I don't think we've bottomed out what is possible yet.

Oh I do still use Grand Prix Legends occasionally!

[ndicki]

What got me about CFS2 was the 90 aircraft limit. If you think about it, I'm the one who has every single variation of every single aircraft I can get in each theatre of ops, so 90 entries - if you have two skins in the same aircraft cfg, that's two entries - is a real drag. That and not being able to use the turrets, as Clive says. (Which also makes holes in using Strike Fighters for WW2...)

The very best thing about CFS2 was the Mission Builder - dead easy to use, you're working directly on the gsl scenery so things are exactly where you put them, and you can fly the mission straight from the MB interface. Fantastic stuff! I did some ace missions, with loads of triggered events and things...