Fighting Irish Forums

Hi, My name is Mark Randell and I'm a intensive care nurse from Cheshire. I've been looking to get back in to IL2 for awhile but have struggled to find time to do it justice, I'm hoping that I can tag along onto someone's 6 O'Clock and get some online flying experience. Not had a proper chance to fly online before as I didn't have broadband. My one experience flyinh online was with CFS1 and I had dial up connection, as you'd expect I got blasted before I even knew I was blasted! Now I have broadband I hope things will be different! Is there anyone that is able to fly during the day GMT time because with shifts and family this is sometimes my best time to get on.
This does seem like a friendly site so I will be logging in again soon with some more questions.

Thanks

Mark (sparky_uk)

Hi Mark, and welcome.

If you want to fly online you need to get hold of a piece of software called "Hyperlobby" (assuming you don't have it already), as there are many people from around the world hosting games through here all the time. I would try some of the public servers on there first. If you see any people on Hyperlobby with an :FI: or =FI= prefix then introduce yourself.

We have 3 regular squad sessions each week but non of them are during the day GMT: Sunday evenings 7.30pm GMT(or BST ) for Coops; Saturday mornings 2.00am GMT Historic Encounters (for US members and European insomniacs ); Wednesday evenings 8.00pm ish for coops.

Hope this helps.

Hey Mark!
Welcome to the forum!

You can watch out for members of the Fighting Irish squadron on Hyperlobby. We're wearing :FI: or =FI= Tags.
Also some of our members, are online during the day GMT, try to log in to the Teamspeak Server and you can talk with us.

Regards,
Airway

thanks guys, I did install hyperlobby and talked to mikester and he was a big help!, the problem is my laptop, the display driver keeps freezing during an online game, off line its fine but whenever I connect to play, within 5 mins its locks and i have to reboot!!! so it looks like i won't be able to fly online anyway which is a big disappointment!, unless anyone has ideas? I have a 1.6GHz Intel Celeron processor and an Nvidia graphics card and as I say if I play the game off line its fine, so I don't know what to do now?

Thanks anyway for the messages

Mark

Hey Mark.

Seem your computer is overchallenged with Il-2
If you wonder why it is only while online game? Maybe because the mission builders have added more objects and theres more to calculated.

But I would give it one more chance.
In il2setup.exe check if audio hardware support is disabled.
And maybe reduce your settings a little bit in the graphic section.
Are all your drivers up to date?

One last question - are you using a joystick for steering or something?

Airway

Hi, I've changed a few settings, made the video options a bit lower. Had a dry run offline and things still looked good, terrain etc, so went for a online op, I only managed about 5 mins as I had to go out but I crashed several times trying to take off finally got airbourne and for as long as I was able I flew around and it didn't freeze, I'm not saying it's fixed but it;s a good start.

Success! I've been playing online for over an hour without any freezes or hang ups. I've joined several different servers and played a 1v1 as well. My problem now is 1. getting airborne! and 2. once aborne trying to saty up long enough without getting my tail shot off! but hey that's what practice is for right!

Still hoping to meet some more of you online!

Bye for now

Mark (sparky_uk)

Glad to hear you've managed to get online a bit and have your PC behaving itself.

This is is a tough sim to learn, but well worth the effort of practice. A lot of guys in the squadron have been flying this and other flight sims for years, and Mikester is one of our best (possibly THE best but don't tell him as we don't want him to get too bigger an ego ), so if you go up against him in a 1v1 thats going to be a tough one!

From a practice point of view I would advise you to pick one aircraft and learn how to fly that first rather than trying out all the planes in the sim, as they do have different characteristics. Practice take off and landing in that plane until you can do that OK (remember, if you do ever get to the point where you survive combat, you want to be able to survive the landing as well ). The right aircraft to start with is an emotive subject, and you might have some personal favourite, but these are some of the things to consider:

1. Some of the planes have narrow undercarriages eg Bf109 and Spitfire, which make them tricky to land and takeoff in. Others, like the Hurricane and FW190, have wider set wheels which makes their take off and landing characteristics a bit more forgiving.
2. What is your personal style for combat, do you like to bank and turn, or hit and run. Bank and turn is more exciting, but hit and run will see you survive more of the time! Different aircraft have different strengths but pick one that suits you.
3. Do you want to learn to be a ground pounder rather than a fighter pilot?

A good all rounder might be the La5, or it's big brother the La7 - if you find that suits you and you get to grips and start to understand how to fly it then practice in that, if not switch to something else.

The Sunday coop sessions which a lot of us fly in are currently using the Spitfire, the FW190 or the Me210 (which is from the modded version) so you could try them.

sparky_uk wrote:My problem now is 1. getting airborne!Mark (sparky_uk)

Aaaaah yes the take offs. Sparky I use to have the same problems, but once I got the hang of that I realized it was the LANDINGS that were difficult, and since I got/get shot down lots I had little time to practice landings while online.

Anyways happy hunting and welcome to the forums.

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll get to grips with that as soon as possible! It might have to wait for a bit because I'm away next week, (my girls are on school hols) but I'll be right back to it after that. I'll check the forums as often as I can & I'm grateful for the advice and help from everyone I've spoken to so far, hopeful I will be able to fly with some of you soon.

Mark