New to IL2, with simple questions?

[Quasar]

Hello,
First let me start off by letting you know that I was an avid CFS3 player, but recently bought IL2 FB AEB and instantly fell in love with this game. It is in my every waking thought.
I have a few questions concerning the gameplay:
1. When flying the Stuka, I have 2 diferent kinds of bombs on it. 1 type is on the wings and another is on the fuselage itself. However, I can only drop them both with the joystick button #3(or #4 I cant remember). Is there a way to individually drop the ordinance with a selected button. ie. the wing bombs with joystick #3 and the fuselage bomb with joystick #4?

2. My manual says that if you have soundblaster Live! you should set the channel number to 44, but the game will only allow you to use default, 16, and 32. Is there a problem with this? I'm not experiencing any sound problems, so I guess I should go with the old mantra "if it aint broke, dont fix it."

3. The new IL2 set which features IL2, IL2 FB AEB, and Pacific fighters, says that you can do missions over Normandy, however, I am only able to fly an Eastern front campaign as either russian or german. Is there a new patch that I'm missing? I have downloaded the official patches from the official website (2 for IL2FB and 2 for the Aces Expansion pack) I can set up a "create detailed mission" with the maps. But can only fly a quick mission with smolensk, islands, and I believe Lvov maps.


Thanks for the help and it is good to see a great community for this great sim. I am also a member of subsim.com which has a great following for all the sumbarine sims out there.

again, thanks. I will post this in the problems forum too.
Mark, bubble-head turned flyboy.

[Quasar]

After reading the patching guide, it looks as though I need Pacific Fighters and the patch 4.04. Will this be the only patch I need when I get Pacific Fighters? or will I need to install all of the 4.0 patches?

thanks again.

[Luckyboy1]

Wait! There is a new version of the game coming out...

http://www.airwarfare.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1108

The current game, at its' most expansive and best capabilities requires you have either...

Forgotten Battles and Ace Expansion Pack and Pacific Fighters all loaded up and patched in the proper order.

or

Forgotten Battles Gold Pack and Pacific Fighters all loaded up and patched in the proper order.

Why so many patches?

Because unlike Cousin Billy, Oleg has experience in actual design of combat aircraft electronics and 1C: Games actually responds to their customer base by making add-ons and patches to an already outstanding game.

I'd pre-order the new version. Why? I'm not sure, but it probably will have some features you cannot have with the older versions.

Why should you pay for this? Well, trust me when I say that you can play this game for three years for several hours a day and never tire of it if you have the brains to know what you are getting. So what are you getting?

Over 200 flyable aircraft and a bunch more AI planes that with a few tricks, you can fly externally at least. There is everything from old, carburated biplanes that if you give them negative g forces, the engine quits to jet powered flying wings. If you can't find several planes you like, you just don't like airplanes!

Stunning graphics capabilities for those with high powered PC's yet so scalable, that no matter what... within certain minimum limits that is... you can tweak the eye candy to get as much as possible out of this game without completely porking the frame rates.

You get carrier operations

Maps from the western front, the Eastern front, North Africa, the Pacific maps

You get a full mission builder that allows you to choose hundred of objects to make an almost infinate number of combinations with weather ranging from clear skies to fog, rain, snow, thundertorms and you can choose combinations of times of day and night along with weather for some great and challenging affects.

It also has ships lovingly modelled like the Turpitz and the Yamato and tanks and AAA and trucks and rockets and artillery.

This IS NOT a game you will pay for and make a drink coaster out of in four hours or even four years. Buy it!

[MaXMhZ]

different type of bombs/positions can't be set to different keys/buttons. they get dropped in sequence by the same button. Another key/button can be assigned to jettison droptanks.
You can't set channels to 44 using setup or sound setup in-game, but default or 16 should do fine. If you ever consider upgrading, make sure to take a good look ast the Creative Audigy 2ZS This is a studio-quality sound card that also will improve gameplay (more fps and better sound).

There is an AdvancedManual on cd 2 of FB in the MANUAL folder. you can read it using adobe's Acrobat reader and it's much better than the booklet that came with the game. Also take a look at the community Created Manual http://airwarfare.com/mediawiki-1.4.5/i ... =Main_Page, don't hesitate to add to it if you have something to contribute Also check out the Guides and Tutorials link on the main airwarfare page

believe me, this is waaay better than CFS3 ... and it costs waaay less money too (what would some 200 planes for CFS3 have cost
version numbers are an easy way to know what patches and games you will need

V1.0 is the original Forgotten Battles
V2.0 is the extra AEPto get the game up to V2.0
together they are packed in the "Gold pack" 3 CD set
PF gameis V3.0 when installed "stand alone
V3.0m is when you merge the PF with FB+AP (all 3 games are needed, or PF+Gold Pack
If you want to play online you will need FB+AEP +PF (merged) and every "merged"patch needed upto and including 4.04m. for an exact list of patches needed see the FAQ link on the airwarfare main page, this will lead you to Patches FAQ (and other stuff)the list of patches is too long for meto kn
ow it by heart anymore. You can patch every main version up till you like what you have, or keep adding untill you're at what most people play (you will find everyone plays the merged version patched as high as they can go - 4.04m at this timeiirc this means fb +aep+pf+3.03m+3.04m+4.01m+4.04m, but better check the faq to make sure;)
You will also find this game is allways actively under developement and loads of stuff gets improved and added all the time (I can't recall a year there wasn't at least one new (free!) patch adding to & improving the game

this is the best flightsim/ww2 combat sim money can buy

[Quasar]

Thank a million. I am going t5o purchase PF right now.
Yea, I agree, after playing FB AEP for about 3 days now, I cannot stop. It is literally in my waking thoughts. I really like the BF-109G-10 right now. But I just finished the outstanding book called "JG-26" which I would recommend to anyone who is interested in the subject(Probably most everyone here)
Also, "Fighter Tactics and Strategy 1914-1970" is great reading too.
again many thanks for the outstanding support.