IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad Discussion

Started by Grim.Reaper, December 28, 2013, 06:51:32 PM

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Tuna

Yeah, I think by default it is unlocked. JP and W8t actually hopped in a few times this weekend. I also hopped in JPs plane to help him navigate.

But this guy just popped in, un announced and started firing at our own plane. I had to eject after that because of lack of control from the damage. I made the video for the admins, so hopefully they ban him. At first they said they were gonna give a warning, but I said heck no, this guy was an ass! they said they would need a video. I think it was worth the while to get the guy banned. KOTA is a great server. dont need jerks like that.

Tuna

Had some fun flights with w8t and JP this weekend. W8t and I had a couple successful runs in our A20s on the Kuban Map. Later, JP and I got to get lost in the featureless Moscow terrain, a good exercise in Navigation.

In the afternoon, did a few ground attack missions with TBAS squad, TK'd a teammate with a bomb!  :crazy2:.

JasonPratt

Good Lord I got lost.  L:-)

Heck, at one point I dropped a bomb and accidentally switched somehow to the target camera, watching my plane and the falling bomb! And then I couldn't get out of that view (since I didn't know how I got into it to begin with), and watched my JU-88 enter the weirdest stall-spin from which I couldn't recover.

Also at one point I was trying to bomb an artillery position at low altitude and got caught in my own blast radius, which was hilarious.  \m/

I also totally failed to hit anything at all. At one point I even instructed my gunners to fire on ground targets and tried to buzz an enemy forward airport! -- but there were no targets.

In my defense, the places I meant to go hit still showed on the map as having enemy forces there, but upon close examination (at practically ground level) there was nothing there. This seems like a bug on the mission generator code.


On the other hand, I also played my first dynamic campaign mission (starting during Typhoon, October 12th 1941 or thereabouts, I forget exactly), where I followed a cluster of six or seven other He-111 to go strike an artillery post. As far as the mission was concerned, all I had to do was drop bombs at a particular point, but good grief it would be impossible to even line up properly much less see anything on the ground with the heavy cloud cover at 700 to 1000 meters! -- and we were expected to be at 2500 by the time we got there!

So I opted to go for a shallow-slope dive bomb in my 1941 He-111, out of the cloud cover. Worked okay, too, except I forgot to set the controls to automatically drop my second set of bombs all at once so I only dropped the first bomb and one of the second set. Even then I got one arty gun; and considering the computer used THE VICTORY OF ABSOLUTE MATH to turn 90 degrees to the right and drop 7 planes worth of bombs instantly through cloud cover onto a coordinate, wiping out most of the position before I got there, I'm thankful I got anything at all!

My AI leader and comrades then got jumped by interceptors, while I meandered for home in the cloud cover.  >:D But everyone got back safely. My only goof was turning off my engines before clearing the runway, expecting the mission to just end, and then being told to clear the runway as I was blocking other landings!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Good news! -- I didn't get lost yesterday on another autumn east-of-Moscow map!  <:-)

Instead I spent all 3.5 or 4 hours of the match, steadily decreasing the number of He-111s available to the German side, by crashing them into the ground! We started with around 35 craft, and I think I had us whittled down to 21 or 18 or 16 or something by the end of the match!

<:-)  :hide:


....let me explain.

What actually happened was that I used the whole match, since there weren't many people on that server yesterday, as a practical test bed for trying to figure out again how to take off and fly a 1941 He-111 with maximum bomb load (3800 kg!!) and maximum fuel, plus also the two 20 mm anti-aircraft cannon upgrades.

That's a flight weight close to 42000 kgs.  :o

I had worked on this a couple of months ago while teaching myself (along with some tutorials) to fly the thing. In fact, I had figured out how to do so back then! -- but I couldn't for the life of me (the continuously crashing life of me) recreate how I did it.

Eventually I remembered how I solved the problem originally: by using a dead cold engine start.

Most multiplayer maps, including the server we've been playing on, don't bother with that because it's a lot of dead time that players don't usually want to bother with. So the servers are set for planes to already start with engines running and warmed up, or at least (like this server) for the engines to be pre-warmed so that after startup they're at nominal maximum operating temp -- for the He-111 that's around 81 or 82 C.

However, the He-111 can actually start taxiing long before then, and even start takeoff at around 40 degrees Celsius.

This is a huge difference because it means I can run the engines for about twice as long at full power before they start taking internal damage. It also means I can take off with my oil and water radiators fully closed, which reduces drag, and keep them closed for longer before my engines start overheating.

(By the same tokens, this process works a lot better on winter maps near or below freezing, once the engines get up to 40 C of course.)

There are a number of other requirements, too, which I was recalling and doing correctly -- except I'm not sure the runway at the bomber airbase was quite as long as the one I was practicing from a few months ago, partly because I was using some of the taxiways back then as part of my runway! But in any case, I was never going to overcome the lack of a dead cold start; and having forgotten that (for at least 2.5 hours), I kept switching up other things thinking I was remembering them wrongly.

Of course, even from a dead cold start the He-111 at maximum possible load doesn't accelerate in the air well, much less climb! In order to get up to a relatively safe bombing altitude (and my goal was 5000 meters), takes about 30 minutes of extremely careful orbits near the airfield. But the 'cold boot' (so to speak ;) ) does allow me to jump up quickly to about 300 meters, maybe even 500, and then level out with some sacrificial height to 200 kph before I have to rpm down and totally retract flaps. (A '41 He-111 at low level can only run a little more than 50% rpm pitch at full throttle before going into dangerous overpower take-off mode.) From there the aircraft will try to 'fly', and its natural lift can be nursed down into a 240 kph speed, from which a decent climb rate (still not great under these circumstances) can be attained.

Even then, it takes a long time to get to 1000 meters; but it takes a lot less time to get to 2500 meters, and less time again to get to 5000 (though by then the craft starts to lose too much lift to climb anymore, due to air thinning out), due to being able to increase the blade pitch incrementally, thus the thrust, as the plane gains height.


Anyway, once I realized I would be permanently handicapped with a 'warm boot' (so to speak), I started doing experiments to see how much weight I needed to shave off, to provide my takeoff with roughly approximate characteristics and success. 10 thousand kilograms worked, but that was like 23% fuel! -- fine for a quick trip to the front line and back, but not for gaining major height first! (Or fine enough for gaining major height but not for doing anything useful afterward.)

I think I ended the night on about 20K kilograms, a little over 50% fuel, which once translated to a 5000 meter travel/bombing height (with a lot of patience!), seems feasible for attacking any target the system might generate on a match. Always granting the targets are still there by the time I get there, of course, and/or are large enough for me to see and target (possibly through cloud cover)!

Still, if W8 and Tuna got together on a flight that way, we could deliver no less than 11 thousand 400 kilograms of explosive and shrapnel to a selected target on one sortie, at a height fairly safe from fighter interception (at least in 1941) and normal AA.

>:D

Whether vaporizing all of a large target at once would be worth the time-result efficiency is a whole other question.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Tuna

In between flying with W8t and JP on Monday, I flew ground attack with the TBAS squad in ME 110's.. Got a team kill with a bomb  :crazy2:




Enjoyed flying with you guys last night, will be on again tonight!

JasonPratt

ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Tuna

Had a real fun run with JP and W8T last night on Moscow map, bombing the port north of Konakovo. Went in solo at first with an ME 109 to take out most of the AA, was damaged  but crash landed and wasn't captured. Then the three of us proceeded to do multiple runs against the Target in JU-88s and JP in his HE-111. Wish I didn't have to stop, or we would've definitely completed annihilated the target. Maybe JP and W8t did after I left! ;-)


JasonPratt

W8t took some further shots at the port, but I'm not sure about the results. My internet connection problems returned (which had scotched my massive score from following up Tuna's Wild Weasel attack, with two 1800kg bombs on the port), and screwed over my attempts to stay in the game. (Worth noting, I blasted 36 items at the port, most of them from one bomb the other falling a little too long; whereupon I discovered my plane was in my own blast radius! The poor craft bucked like a bronco on the way back but I managed to land safely at an alternate base.)

During the remaining time I was in, I experimented with trying to fly to the nearest player-opponent airport to plaster it with bombs! -- since no one was on the Soviet side so no one would be ticced off at me spawn camping. ;) While my approach was decent, I discovered that 2500 meters was too low to safely line up for level bombing, and I got completely annihilated by the base's AA. (No doubt they could hit me with flak at 5000, too, but their aimed shells would fall short, and I'd be able to drop from much farther away.)

With only 40 minutes remaining, I nursed the next 111 up to 2500 meters again and tried to hit the Soviet railway station across the river (following the tracks from Kalinin, our captured city near the airbase. The same tracks happen to lead to the Soviet player-base, by the way.) The railway station was so small, outside its nearby city in some woods, that I don't know why it was even listed as a target, but at least I could see its one somewhat large building. Unfortunately, I ran into the dreaded bouncy-bombsite bug for the first time (Tuna had the same problem a few days ago), and I totally missed despite persevering through epileptic bomb-fits.  :buck2: Made it back to base with a few minutes to spare, though I broke one of my landing struts racing in.

One thing this game needs is recon photo capability to share with players on the same side.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

W8taminute

Quote from: JasonPratt on February 21, 2019, 12:03:43 PM
...One thing this game needs is recon photo capability to share with players on the same side.

Actually I saw a YouTube video the other day in which one guy flew his fighter over a target, took a screenshot, then shared it on Discord with his team mates.  They then followed up with a pretty good bomb run.  Maybe we can try this out next time?

I flew a Peshka last night all alone.  No one was on the server.  During mid flight to the target someone joined in on the German side.  Although I still had quite a way to fly to the target I figured I could make it there without incident.  Well it turns out that right after a bombed the target taking out some buildings a 109 showed up just as I was turning to head home.  He was on my 6 low but climbing fast.  I was at 2.5km high and noticed my rear gunner started firing so I figured at that point the 109 must have been at my level.  The Peshka's rear gunner cannot aim low as he sits in a top mounted blister bubble.  Anyway I started jinking and weaving and then abrubptly went into a dive to guarantee my gunner could keep the enemy fighter above us so my gunner could continue firing.  After about 45 seconds of playing this tactic my gunner shouted out saying that the target was no longer in range. 

I then started watching the chat log and saw a message that my assailant had died!  Looks like my rear gunner managed to damage the 109 just enough to force him to crash land.  We did not escape unscathed however.  My number two engine took some damage but I was able to nurse the plane back to the nearest friendly airbase and crash land safely.  Got the whole thing on video which I'll share once I get a chance to upload it.   :)
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

Tuna


W8taminute

Nice video Tuna!  Actually it's quite helpful too because I didn't realize how to skip bomb but now I do thanks to the footage you shared.
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

Tuna

Quote from: W8taminute on February 22, 2019, 11:01:14 AM
Nice video Tuna!  Actually it's quite helpful too because I didn't realize how to skip bomb but now I do thanks to the footage you shared.

Look forward to flying together again this weekend!

Sir Slash

That looks like a lot of fun guys. Great video! :bd:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Rayfer

Quote from: Sir Slash on February 22, 2019, 11:50:54 AM
That looks like a lot of fun guys. Great video! :bd:

+1  I enjoy these vids..well done!

JasonPratt

Tuna flying under me was hilarious!

Not as hilarious as me wiping the port off the map ten minutes later with THREE MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND GRAMS OF HIGH EXPLOSIVE WRAPPED IN SHRAPNEL, but still genuinely hilarious.  :D

(Also hilarious, the number of 111s I buried in the dirt trying to learn again how to take off and fly with nearly four million grams of etc. ::) )

(Also hilarious, crippling my own bomber wiping the port off the map because I caught myself in the shockwaves.  :coolsmiley: )

To be fair, I was able to come in so low on the port thanks to Tuna's sovereign efforts removing the AA first.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!