My biggest issues with IL2 and DCS multi-player right now is there is no action on the map and it makes it very tough to find where the action/fight is. And then it's no icons so I have to go blind trying to figure out which one is friendly vs enemy in the furball. By that time my SA is already compromised. Something I'm still getting use to. I stare at a computer all day so staring more at planes with no icons is tough for me.
I don't disagree there. No icons is kind of unfortunate and worse as a VR player with an entry level headset. It's very difficult to ID planes and often can't tell until you're at the merge with them. My only wish for Combat Box is to have some sort of icon that identifies friendly or enemy. Like, all I want is a blue dot over a plane so I can tell that guy's on my team. The game does tell you when certain targets are being attacked, and when enemies are close to airfields, that appears on the map. But there is no AWACS radar like Aces High. Actually, I take that back as some setups have the A-20 or Ju 88 with literal radar onboard that you can fly around and provide dot-dar for your team.
I haven't tried the newer IL-2 stuff but is it not an option to build your own server any longer? If it is possible, maybe a server with icons, all the micro management stuff toned down or turned off with settings similar to AH maybe? I don't know. I know I do prefer to find battles, not have to micro manage everything.....although, I think it'd be cool if you couldn't fly around all day with the throttle at 100%. Anyhow, point being, maybe there's a way to get something similar to what we have here with a server and settings.
Yes it's quite easy to host a private server (I do). Though, the mission/server editor is a different story. I've yet to dive into it much. I don't believe the icon system is very intuitive, at least not like all the various options we have with AH. As far as I know they're just sort of 'on' or 'off' and the icons in IL2 aren't great to be honest. Like I said above, I'd prefer just an option to put a little dot over a plane to denote friendly or enemy.
It's a bit different from AH in that you can't look at the map, find 20 red dots, and take off from that field. But, anyone who says they can't find a fight in IL2 has clearly never played in one of the popular Multiplayer servers like Combat Box. And yes - having to deal with some minimal engine management is an intriguing concept and is a nice breath of fresh air from the relative braindead gameplay of AH (that being auto-climb, full throttle all the time, etc, etc).
I tried a long time ago and had a hell of a time getting my snap views set up the way I wanted, I guess they figure everyone’s moved on to Trackir/VR or I’m just bad at setting things up. I’ve always appreciated AH’s low cost/equipment barrier for entry.
I found the view system to be not great but I also utilize the F8/pan function heavily in AH and that isn't really an option in IL2 as you need to cycle through the view options to reset it. I fly IL2 exclusively in VR which has its own issues (as stated above).
