Hi all!

An "official" IL2 Forgotten Battles Armorama Arena has been created and for those who want to participate (everybody is welcome) here is a step by step to get you "connected"

What do you need?

A PC, a web connection (if you read this, you have) and the original IL2 FB game (ubisoft). The game must be updated to version 1.22 ( Download here ) and you have to sign up at ubi.com ( link here ) to have an account.

How do you join the Armorama Arena?

Launch the Ubi Game Service application (GS4) within the ubi.com folder on your computer (it was downloaded with the 1.22 patch). You should get online and after a while you should see the picture below. Click on IL2 Forgotten Battles



You will be forwarded to the "multiplayer lobbies" room. Click on IL2 : FB - Doghfight



Now you should see the Armorama Arena on your screen. Click on it and then you will have to enter the password circus (may change in the future)



Your IL2 FB application should now launch (note the version number on the bottom left of the screen)



Congratulations! You are in the Armorama Arena! Now choose a location (red or blue) on the map (may change in the future) by clicking on an airfield. You should also see how many players are based on each airfield.



To choose a plane, click on the "armement" (french version) button in the "map" screen. Then you should be able to take any plane in the list, change the settings etc...



Once you are happy with your plane (in fact you will know later if it was a good choice) you can return to the "map" screen and hit the "fly" button. You will "land" on the airfield you choosed previously!



Now you are ready to take off and fight! To know were you are, hit the map key on your keybord (M). To use the radio, press M to show the map and click on the upper area of the screen. Then enter the message with your keyboard and press return once. If you want to share your message with everybody, press enter again. Otherwise make an alternative choice (send a message to friends only for example) with your up and down arrow keys.

That's it! Hope it's not too difficult!

What are the settings we play with?

Separate engine = NO (all engines start together)
Complex engine = NO (too difficult)
Engine overheat = YES (don't push too hard too long!)
Torque & Gyro = YES
Flutter Effect = YES
Wind & Turbulences = NO (let's say the air is quite)
Stalls & Spins = YES (keep minimum speed!)
Vulnerability = YES (off course)
Blackouts & Redouts = YES (we're human after all)
Realistic Gunnery = YES (this is not to my advantage!)
Limited Ammo = YES (Don't shoot more than 2 seconds!)
Limited Fuel = YES (50% should be enough on smaller maps)
Cockpit always on = YES (this is not an arcade game!)
No external view= YES (you won't be able to watch your plane from the outside)
Head Shake = YES
No Icons = NO (planes will be identified red and blue but at range of 1km only)
No Padlock = YES (no artificial following of the enemy)
Clouds = YES (to escape the enemy)
No instant success = YES (enabled)
Takeoff & Landings = YES
Realistic landings = NO (it's hard enough already)
No map icons = YES (the enemy is invisible on the map)
No Minimap Path = NO (you always know were you are)
No Speed Bar = NO (the speed bar will be visible)

The settings may change on popular demand...

When do we play? (mostly)

Every Friday evening
UK = 6:00 - 8:00 PM
France and Netherlands = 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Finland = 8:00 - 10:00 PM
Singapore = 2:00 - 4:00 AM Saturday
Texas = 12:00 - 14:00 PM
Massachusets = 13:00 - 15:00 PM

Every Saturday Afternoon
UK = 1:00 - 3:00 PM
France and Netherlands = 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Finland = 3:00 - 5:00 PM
Singapore = 21:00 - 23:00 PM
Texas = 7:00 - 9:00 AM
Massachusets = 8:00 - 10:00 AM


Other sessions are possible, so stay tuned!

For any request, just post here or PM me! Thanks!

Jean-Luc

I'll be there, just hope I can get in some practice before kick off
I will, of course go with whatever settings you choose, but shouldn't Vulnerability be YES ?
Mal

Hi Mal!

Vulnerability YES off course! I'll edit that!

To avoid the problems I had last Friday, I'll get the server online right when I'll come back from work. This means it will be available sooner so everybody will have the time to post a message here if something is going wrong (me included).

The Armorama Arena will probably appear at 5:00 PM GMT (UK)... one hour earlier in fact. This will allow the players to fly around, try some machines and get familiar with the landscape.

But I suggest "hostilities" should begin at 6:00 PM GMT (UK) when everybody will be there.

Jean-Luc

This is a cool post you made Jean-Luc...

I'll try to enter tonight, even though it's rather late for me over here. I'll try... *fingers crossed*

Cool! I'll try and hook up with you guys. I haven't flown this program in a long long time. I can't even remember where I put my paper work to help me with all the key pad functions.

I used to fly WarBirds for a couple years and most of the other flight sims out there. I'm a big fan. My set up broke and the wifey bought me an MS Flight Stick for xmas and ever since my flying has been history. I'm a hotas man, I need pedals, throttles, stick, gimmie buttons! But, I'll try and get it running today and lets see if I can remember how to do this.

EasyOff.

Cool to have even more people flying today! I just remembered one thing. If we're flying on the same mountain map as always before, I suggest we should use these airfields as they have a proper solid runway:

It's cooler if all planes on one side take off from the same field, and those solid runways are nicer to take off and land on.

See you tonight on the virtual sky!

Hi all!

I agree with Eetu. We should use the same airfields. It's fun to see other while taking off and landing!

There are some nice ground targets in those two airfields as well. Nice scenario would be that one side bombs the other side's airfield! Stukas and He111 are available for axis and Sturmoviks for soviets. I would like to fly a Sturmovik if I'll get cover!

Tomorrow I will be able to do a second session from 1:00 PM GMT (UK) to 3:00 PM GMT (UK). Maybe some American friends can join as well...

By the way, the Armorama Arena is already running by now! I'll check back again here before 6:00 GMT (UK) just before "hostilities" begin!

Jean-Luc alias Spogek in IL2 FB...

P.S. Thanks for all the "cools"

Hi,
I got my game running with the correct patch with no problems, I gotta stick workin, its not the best stick, but it works and I can fly. I put in 6 hours flying tonite trying to get framiliar with the game. I never put much interest into it. So far, no problems, all is well. The graphics look great, I more or less got the hang of what keys to press and I met some nice people playing. Question for ya, what time will you be playing US Eastern Time?
I played today and I gotta tell ya, I do like labels. At least you can get an idea where to fly. We played a couple hours without them and everyone was lost, I completely understand loose site, loose fight theory, but this IS only a view screen. But hey, its your ball, your bat, you own the bases and I'm very adaptable.

PLAY BALL!

I hope that I catch you guys tomorrow.

Jb

Hi EasyOff!

Next session will be today 1:00 PM GMT (UK)

Saturday Afternoon
UK = 1:00 - 3:00 PM
France and Netherlands = 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Finland = 3:00 - 5:00 PM
Singapore = 20:00 - 22:00 PM
Texas = 7:00 - 9:00 AM
Massachusets = 8:00 - 10:00 AM

Like yesterday, I may start the Arena one hour earlier so everyone can make some test flights...

EasyOff, what do you mean by labels?
If you mean icones on the map to know were the enemy is, this feature is enabled in our settings. If you mean the identification of the ennemy's plane in the sky, it's also enabled. These settings may change in the future, but unless we play on pre-defined scenarios, it is best to see where your opponent is rather than fly around for hours without seeing someone!
Yesterday the Arena was available for more than three hours. Emeritus, Mal and me were the only ones to fly... did someone else tried to join? If yes, post a message to inform us what did go wrong...

See you in the skies...

Jean-Luc

Hi all!

Arena should be available in a few minutes from now on. It will be running for a least three hours... give it a try!

Jean-Luc

Jean,
I'll be there. Tee hee you guys will be blowing me out of the sky... wearing big smiles and having a good old time.

In Warbirds, I used pretty much only used the P51, yep, its a bear to handle as it is in this game. But, I'm going to stick with it and see if I can't get used to zoom and boom all over again. So far, I haven't been having much luck. But hey, i'm only 6 hours into multiplayer and its been a couple of years since I've even flown. What memories it brings Viva la IL2!

I'll be flying today too. Currently waiting for the server to start.

Is the server running already? I can't see it.

Hi Eetu!

Server is running... I'll start it again to see if it works better...

Jean-Luc

I'll be there in a few minuets.

Hi all!

The last session on Saturday afternoon was the most sucessful as we managed to be six pilots in the arena: Dumbdog (EasyOff), Emeritus, Holdfast, Kancelot, Spogek (me) and Umustb (in alphabeticall order)...

It's definitely more fun when there are a lot of planes in the sky! We still wait for the Armorama Arena "baptême du feu" of some who showed interest in the past: almonkey, bren, dogload, Jurjen, Procrazzy, ptruhe and Tigeriv. Merlin also wants to participate but has to get his spine right before joining...

Anyone still interested (or not) should post a message here so we can "assist" him to get online. So if you have questions, just post them here!

About yesterday's session, I must say it was fun to fly with all of you guys! If you have an "after battle report" to write, do it here as well. Emeritus, I think you had problems trying to get to the Armorama Arena, what were they? EasyOff you talked about image quality loss after I restarted the Arena to let Emeritus join, what was that?

If someone has a question about handling the planes (on the ground and on the air), don't fear to do it. Because we are all beginners, we should share our experience (not our tactics ) with the game.

Next week-end I hope we will be even more! What do you think if we play on scenario in the future? For example a "Stuka" attack with Me 109 cover while soviet Yaks are trying to defend their base...

Thank you again guys and see you next Friday or Saturday...

Jean-Luc

Yes Jean-luc it was great. I had 2 problems 1 of which I have solved. That was I thought re-spawning was automatic but it seams it is not, hitting Esc brings up a menu. My main problem though is I can use the map but if I attempt to comunicate I get locked in the view I'm in and although I can manouver, I cannot operate engin controls. Hence my appearing ignorant and not "speaking" and disappearing sometimes. So I will join in but, at the moment will keep shtumm (Quiet) I will join whichever side has the least players, or if equal the side that doesn't have Eetu on it. I have been having a bit of practice, mainly to develope a defence against Eetu's head on attacks. Watch out Eetu, the phrase "dead duck" springs to mind
I like the idea of setting up an attack on the enemy airfield, with fighter cover and fighter protection for the airfield. That flak is deadly, can we send in the SAS first
If we are plying today I might not be available unless it is at 18.00, as I'm off to a show.
Mal

Hi Jean Luc,
Heh, I've got to agree with you, I sure had fun yesterday. The graphic issue I spoke of can be discribed like this.

When you restarted the server on the very same landing field that I was on before I could look across the horizon and the trees that once stood out as trees before looked fuzzy. Then I had trees, heck a forest appear out of no where when I tried to land in a field, it shredded the plane.
What do I think it was causing this? Could be memory/buffer issue. I don't know if you rebooted totally when you restarted the server or just restarted the server. But, I think if you did a total reboot THEN restarted the server it may have have cleared the memory. Just a guess. I can't say if it was my comp or not because shortly after you left, I left as well and restarted my comp before I played another game.

I'm looking forward to seeing more folks. We need voice coms, get those boom mics everyone, lets party! Its so much easier to say, "lets group up guys, we'll go in all at once instead of watching someone go into the hornets nest by himself a moment after you just got killed if ya know what I mean

I'd say Jean Luc, time to leave the server up more I'm addicted! Its running through my veins! I need more, more I tell you!

EasyOff

That problem I had was just that I didn't see the game room in Ubi.com's lobby. When the server was restarted, everything worked ok.

Holdfast:
I think when you bring up the chat screen, you can't use some buttons (like numbers for controlling throttle). For example, you can't switch on/off the map because it's usually binded to M. Fo some reasons, I only communicate when I'm relatively safe! (that's good practise for that one-hand typing technique...)

You can select refly from the menu if your plane has been destroyed or you have landed.

About those reports. I got one to tell. Yesterday I was once hit pretty bad. First time this has happened to me. My throttle was stuck to where it was at the moment, full. I was already about to try a belly landing to stop my plane, when I remembered I could still turn my engine off!

On Friday I had the most unlikely lucky shot ever. It was right at the end of the session. There were only Tedmamere and me. We agreed to have one more fight before calling it a day. I had spent most of my ammo. Then, we had a head-on encounter. When I thought I was on range, I squeeshed the trigger. My guns shot a couple of rounds before I ran out. I thought "okay, I'm dead without ammo" Then I realized that I had hit Tedmamere's plane, killing the pilot! That about pure luck.

... that's why I ended up with a black screen! :-)

My "moment of gloire" was as I shot down two planes in a row... First was Emeritus! I was behind him and noticed he was chasing someone so he didn't noticed me. He was right in front of me as he disapeared just under the gunsight. I shot one burst and hit him directly thanks to the deflection. As I saw him again he was in pieces! Few seconds later I shot down umustb wich Emeritus tried to get away from the attacks of EasyOff and Holdfast. I was faster and got him before my comrads wich made all the work! "I don't think that will happen again!" I said...

EasyOff, I think I know what your graphic "problem" was. In fact, the trees you mention are not 3D objects but layers of bitmap pictures. Viewed from the sky, they look like dense forest but viewed from the ground they look all but like real trees! I think that's what you saw... but you probably didn't noticed the first time in "the heat of the battle".
The developpers found solution that to speed up the game. It's not a problem when you fly! And in the end that makes 99% of the game!

Jean-Luc

Yep, my problem though is that if I click in the typing bar the map gets locked, I can't get rid of it, that means I'm also stuck in what ever view I was in when I clicked on it. Several times I had started the engine, opened the map, clicked to talk and there I was stuck. So I can't chat with anyone. One other thing, when I clicked on the typing bar, against 1. (on the drop down menu) the word "ALL" appeared and against 2. something like "My army", "ALL" also placed itself in the typing bar and I couldn't get rid, any ideas?
I'm not suggesting that anyone is cheating, because I wouldn't have thought it was possible, but several times I saw the message "cheating has been detected" I could do with a cheat to help me land, at the moment
Mal

Hi Mal!

I noticed the "cheating has been detected" also... but in french ("tricherie détectée"). I don't know what that could be. I use frequently the map to see where the enemy is, even if I don't use it in the middle of a combat, maybe this is considered as cheating!? Another possibility would be that some are playing in outside view. The later I only use to see battle damage on my plane. The last possibility is watching the other planes in the game. You can do it by hitting the appropriate button on yout keyboard. I use this to see other players while landing with their damaged plane or to watch other dogfighting. I don't know what else could cause that message to appear...
I think all these "/features" can be disabled...

I experienced the same problems with my radio... once the message screen is visible, you MUST write a message to be able to exit the Map and take control of your plane again I noticed. Another thing to avoid is to click directly on the message! Sometimes you get back and see the previous ones! This results in the messages to appear with a delay. So better click below it.
I don't know how to post a message with the MY ARMY thing... I also tried to click on it but get the ALL to appear in the message box... I'll check that out the next time... or maybe someone could help us on that.

EasyOff, the voice com. would be a good thing but I'm not sure all would install such a device for technical or financial reasons... we schould begin with the simpliest setup as a lot of people do not have "up to date PCs". Mine is more than two years old but IL2 FB runs like a dream on it! With voice com. I don't know!?
We should first try to enlist as many pilots as we can. I fear some won't give it a try if the setup is too complicated. Is it possible to have voice com. and normal radio? Some would hear messages while others would have to write the messages?

Jean-Luc

I'm pretty sure the cheating thing could be one of two things. One, if someone in the game alt tabs out of the game to use windows, either that or maybe a low bandwith. But I see it too. I don't believe that its anyone cheating, Ubi Soft is pretty well proteted of that. I think its bandwith. ie, your behind someone and zoom... they warp away might be the cause.

Today I played with a fella called TheRudy in a room that only allows 6. The game is set to FULL realism and I've got to tell ya, after a 4-5 hour session of that, you get pretty used to not knowing who is red or blue, but by getting close enough to see axis or alied markings. Woe, was that fun. Anyway, TheRudy and I used voice coms, he set up a team speak server, its free, all that you need is a microphone and an Ip number to connect to. Very easy. You can get a boom mic for 15 dollars and hang it around your neck. The voice coms will not affect the typed messages at all. The voice com runs behind the game, so, basically, before you join the game, you turn on your voice com, most use Team Speak, put in your IP address of the host, which would be provided by the host, then start talking. You'd start the game after just like normal. Its So easy! I know its intimedating for the newbie, but I gotta tell ya, its so so easy. Here's a link to the download site. I don't host, so someone would have to read the server info to get a clue. I'd be willing to work it out with them during the day to get it going, no problem at all. Another answer would be, 10 of us could be on team speak, you'd create a room for the blue, and another room for the red on the same server. 20 people could be in the game and 10 won't even be affected by our voice coms... that is unless we're plotting against you. Muaah aah ahh.

I agree, to get more people, we should keep it easier. I was just telling you about my experience. Remember yesterday I was all for red and blue identification. (today, well, now that I'm a pro, that's another story hahahha) just kidding. Jean Luc, if you'd like to try team speak, just download the client version and when you and I are on at the same time we can link up to TheRudy's server (with his permission of course and give it a try, see if this is something that you can explain better than I) You ARE da man Jean Luc, after seeing this forum message you put together, you can explain anything!

http://www.goteamspeak.com/downloads.php if you want to be the server you'd have to get the server file.

If you need to get rid of that chat message bar, just hit esc. Instead of entering the menu, it cancels the message. The text you were typing is there again when you open the chat again. You can select between "ALL" and "MY ARMY" with up and down arrow keys. After typing the message, you must select whether to send it only to your own side, or everybody. The game remembers the previous setting.

I have wondered about those "cheating detected" messages too. If the some features are not disabled, using them should not be considered cheating. And if they are, they don't simply work.

Landing is tricky, but all it takes is practise. I recommend taking the plane you usually fly and practise landing with it. Experiment with different speeds, angles and approaches. From my experience, the most common problems for landings failing is too high airspeed and too steep angle of approach.

Also, I found if you completely shut off the engine it will help once on the runway. Use your B key if everything is set to default for your ground brake, but be warned brake to hard to long and you'll flip over. So, like a real vehicle, apply the brakes, let off, let the plane regain its composure, brake again.... repeat. I also find using the runway helps hahaha. Those trees are worse than using the brakes to hard, (rubs sore ass).