There's no main like in AH (old or current). Forgotten Battles is basically a single player box game with an online component. Oleg has said only around 10% of the folks that bought FB fly online regularly. However, on
Hyperlobby you will find 400 - 600 folks online during peak spread across many servers. (currently there are 380 folks in FB on HL).
That said there 3 types of 'online' aspects to FB.
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- Dogfight - max server capacity is 150 human players no AI (bots). Most hosts only average between 32 and 50 human players due to bandwidth. Each server is run by a different host (player - either dedicated server or host machine). The difficulty settings and plane sets vary depending on the hosts preference. Most Dogfight servers run a script to add aspects to game play. For example each side will start with X amount of aircraft and pilots and when these are killed / destroyed the map resets. Some include a ground attack component - i.e. kill all the other sides ground units and the map resets. There's no 'base capture' like in AH.
- Campaign - based off NGEN (Starshoy's campaign generator that ships with the game). These are limited to 32 players max (16 per side plus many AI aircraft). Basically its the off line / single player campaign re-done to allow multi-player online.
- Coop - 32 player max plus AI. This is a single mission with 16 human palyers per side plus AI with scripted way points and goals.
Most folks use
Hyperlobby to find a server but xfire, gamespy and ASE all work.
You will find many servers with many different planes sets - from Pac stuff to eastern front and various time periods. The settings will range from wonder woman (no cockpit external view etc...) to full switch (all switches off - no icons, no plane icon on map etc...).
I only fly full switch and 4./JG53 is a member of
Full Immersion Squadron Community (FISC). However, you will find servers that vary greatly in their settings.
There are some drawbacks to FB. With cockpits forced on your head position is fixed (no setting head positions like in AH - you have snap views and pan views for your hat switch as well as mouse view and 3DOF trackir (no 6DOF)).
For the Folks that have flown air combat game besides AH this isn't a problem. Most folks I fly with (4./JG53 and JG14) flew a lot of Warbirds and the head position stuff isn't an issue. The AH'rs that come over have some issues but most have gotten used to it if they stuck with it. Many just gave up and went back to AH. There's tricks and formations that take care of the 'blind spots' due to the fixed head position.
I don't fly in public servers much (Dog fight or Coops etc...). My squad mate Hitcher is the Admin for
Scorched Earth: Xtreme and we run and build various online campaigns that we fly with and against other squads. In fact I am building a Normandy Campaign Template and Hitcher is build up an '1946 Super Campaign'. This will be on a large map with all main nationalities (German - Japan - Italy - GB - USSR ect...). There will be CVs and each squad 'owns a base' (some share bases depending on time zone). The objective being to attack each other and capture the other sides territory. How this works is SEOW allows for full control over all units (land, sea, air). Each squad / nation will have xxx amount of planes / ground units / ships etc... To advance your units you must first destroy the enemy units. For example to take town XXX you must first destroy the defending units and move yours into occupy it. The ground units will also be fighting each other. Artillery will be firing, tanks attacking each other, ships firing on each other etc...
Each squad will have a CO and each nation a command staff that plots missions and way points for all units (land, sea, air).
The other online war I fly regularly (Tuesday, Friday, Sunday) is Forgotten Skies. This is based on a dog fight server using scripts and DCG to create a 'scenario' like war. These are more open then coop based wars in that on DF servers you can have up to 150 players (FS averages 40 - 64 per regular mission). FS's Normandy Campaign - Phase 1 starts Friday. With the scripts the side COs plot missions for each flight, advance ground units etc...
There's no field capture by 10 man drunks like in AH.
Both AH and FB are great games in their own right but each have different qualities that some may prefer over the other. In FB you won't find anything like the old AH main arena and this is problem for a lot of AH'rs who come over to FB. When I was really into flying AH I could hit 70 - 80 hours over a month. In FB I fly mostly 90 minute 'missions' 3 times a week.
I don't know what type of planes you like to fly but I only fly 109s - In AH I only flew 109s and 190s. I haven't even sat in 90% of the planes in either game so I can't comment on XX plane's FM as compared to the others. I know the 109s in both games are very similar and I fly them both the same. 3cm in AH is a bit more easy to hit and kill with but I figure that's more a result of the simplified DM in AH and the range icons.
The bottom line is you will either like it or you won't - it will all depend on what you are looking to get out of it.
Wotan
