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[SAS~Skylla]

Edit SAS~Skylla 2021-02-19:

End of service notice:

Due to the ongoing problems with IL-2 Great Battles we now stop the operation of our dedicated server.
We've had great fun on this server together with you during the programme's peak time, but since some serious flaws have been deliberately introduced by the developer team over 10 months ago and responses to the question when this state will be fixed vary from denial to straight out ridiculing answers we see no need to keep supporting this business anymore.

Old introduction message will be kept below as reference




















Hi Gents,

we now also have a dedicated 24/7 Server for IL-2 Great Battles (BoX) up and running! The server is called

The Flying Ass Clowns

and can be found in the in-game lobby. Now that we've finished testing, it is open to public and everyone is invited to fly on it.

Right now we have a two sided training mission up in different seasons where you can choose from a wide range of different targets (artillery, trucks, tanks, trains, airfields, bombers, fighters). We furthermore provided air spawn points for bombers, so newbies can take those for an easy ride as well. There are also spawn points for player controlled tanks available on both sides.
Apart from that, a great amount of randomization ensures that you will never know precisely what's coming .. for example how skilled your enemies are

Of course new missions are under construction, and because of the variety of the BoX Mission Editor the possibilities seem endless ...
That being said, making missions for BoX takes even more resources than for 1946, so please bear with us!
Meanwhile, if you are interested in helping us with mission building you are welcome to do so

Below you can find a summary of the server details:

1. Connection details
Server name: The Flying Ass Clowns
Stats page: www.sas1946.rocks:8000

2. Difficulty settings
You can see our server difficulty settings below:

Edit Skylla 2018-09-20: We decided to switch the difficulty settings to 'Normal' (as seen above) in order to make life easier for beginners.
It is still possible to fly 'full real' on the server nevertheless. Players have the possiblility to decide themselves if they want to use the auto engine control options, icon overlay, navigation map and outside views.
Those who do not like those while flying can not use them / turn them off

3. Missions
A list of recently played missions can be found here: http://www.sas1946.rocks:8000/en/missions/
At the time of me posting this, we have the following missions on the server:

• FAC_Training_Autumn
• FAC_Training_Summer
• FAC_Training_Winter
• FAC_TrainStationAttack

More missions are under construction.

4. Busiest Hours
Our weekly FAC Session usually moves from IL-2 1946 to IL-2 Great Battles on Sunday, 4 PM UTC. Everyone is welcome.
We also have a TeamSpeak 3 Server running for comms. Just ask in the chat for connection details.
During the week there's a chance that you'll meet Storebror and / or me between 7 and 8 PM CEST.

5. Server Admins
The Server Admins are

• SAS~Storebror and
• SAS~Skylla.

In case of problems please reply into this thread.

6. Server Rules
So far we didn't need any special rules for the server. I hope it stays that way.
Edit Skylla 2018-07-25: As it seems, certain individuals were confusing "no special rules" with "no rules".
Therefore, the following rules are now in effect on the server:

• Don't be a dick!
  Attacking biplanes with the best fighter available = You're a dick!
  Continuously strafing human pilots = You're a dick!
  Stalking other players, like constantly hunting human bomber pilots across the map = You're a dick!
• Don't be a sissie!
  Disconnect when being attacked = You're a sissie!
  Joining the superior side as fighter pilot (except for when you need to join squad mates) = You're a sissie!

Dicks and Sissies might get booted from the server without further notice!

7. Enable Mods!
Our Server uses "Mods On" mode, therefore in order to see the Server on the list of available Servers in the "Multiplayer" screen, you have to have "Mods Enabled" checked in the Game Settings:


Best Regards
skylla

[SAS~Storebror]

This is how you meet us. Click Screenshots for full size.

First, disable mods mode. If it was enabled before, restart your game when being asked for:
Edit Skylla 18-09-02: Mods need to be enabled now! See first post.

Seconds, click "Multiplayer", then choose "Dogfight" mode and click "Continue":


Scroll down on the Server List (it's sorted alphabetically per default) and find us listed as "The Flying Ass Clowns".
Click the line and click "Join Server" or simply double-click the line to join:


Wait for the game to download Server Files (that's the mission file) and to load up the mission.
When the mission has been loaded, you will be presented with a map, but there's nothing much on there yet.
Wait a bit (up to a minute or so) for the map to be fully loaded.
During this time, you can read the mission briefing on the right already...
The screenshots below show our current training mission.


Finally you will see the spawn points - this image shows our training mission again, left side is germans, right side is russians.
Click on a Spawn Point to see what is available there.
The "Bomber" Spawn Points have airstart, but you can only select bombers there.
The "Modmover" Spawn Points have runway start - you spawn with engine on, lined up on the runway, ready to go. Here you can choose bombers and fighter-bombers with ground attack loadouts.
The "Everything" Spawn Points have parked start - you spawn in the parking position with engines off and will have to start up your plane and taxi to the runway first. Here you have free choice of everything.
The "Tank" Spawn Points let you play in all available Tanks, currently one per side.



Mike

[bomberkiller]

 

[sniperton]

Great news indeed, but I have a few questions (please move them to elsewhere if they do not belong here):

1. Currently we've got a speed bar covering the lower left section. Are there any tricks to hide it client-wise? I mean removing the speed bar without removing icons/labels?

2. Will the FAC server remain a mod-unfriendly server? Current mods (so far as I see) do not affect gameplay, so IMO they could be enabled with no risk.

3. Are any measures planned against vulchers? I was on training, and could not even taxi due to some LW vulchers firing at me when my nav lights were on and my engine warming up. I depleted 4 to 5 airplanes as a sitting duck until I could finally get airborne. Easy kills for them, but no joy for me. Maybe more AAA to make it a no-fly zone?

[SAS~Storebror]

1.) Hit "I" key to get rid of the so called "Tech Chat" and the Speedbar
2.) Problem with Mods is that the online world is separated in two parts. Clients with Mods enabled can only see Mods enabled Servers and vice versa. As soon as we enable Mods, we lose 99% of potential users.
3.) AAA is extremely inefficient against fast planes and the Luftvulchers know that fact. The airfields are actually crowded with AAA already. We'll take a look at that.


Mike

[SAS~Skylla]

3. Are any measures planned against vulchers? I was on training, and could not even taxi due to some LW vulchers firing at me when my nav lights were on and my engine warming up. I depleted 4 to 5 airplanes as a sitting duck until I could finally get airborne. Easy kills for them, but no joy for me. Maybe more AAA to make it a no-fly zone?

Looking at the situation on the server lately from my own experience I recon that our test mission has attracted a few of those "heros" who like to fly the most capable planes, but in a very cowardly manner.
Their only goal seems to be to trace other players down, especially if they're flying "easy targets". Even better if they catch them busy: right after take off, while landing, on the ground.
I find that despicable. When making that mission, Mike and me provided as many (different) targets as possible, with AI planes refreshing constantly.
This doesn't mean that you mustn't shoot at players, but our server is thought of as a place where everyone can have fun: fighters, bombers, mud movers, aces, newbies.

All that being said, how should we react best on this? Sure, we could introduce a rule set which prohibits attacking player AC under certain conditions. But I never was a fan of such rules, because the individuals for which these rules are made don't care for them anyway and for everyone else, especially if they are new, a huge set of flying rules can be quite off-putting.

In any case, I will be looking out for unwanted behaviour on the server in the next days and confront players about it.

Does that sound good to you?

Best Regards
skylla

[sniperton]

Yep, I really don't grasp the fun involved in strafing a human player when there are plenty of AIs around, all the more so, as I tried to get airborne in a MiG, while those guys were flying G-14s and A-5s, so that I would have been easy meat anyway. Possibly I should have sent them a massege, 'You are like a cat who doesn't let the mouse out of its hole, maybe out of fear that the mouse would catch the cat?' 

Anyway, I don't think that much can be done against such behaviour, other than declaring that it's regarded as childish cowardice and will be dealt with as such by the voodoo sorcerers behind the Ass Clown mask.  You know, curse of the pharaoh, etc, etc. 

It would be too complicated (or even impossible) to include in the personal statistics if someone shot down a plane (1) occupied by a human, (2) having the nav lights on, (3) being within an N meter circle around the spawn point. 

BTW thanks for the server and the excellent mission design!

[sniperton]

1.) Hit "I" key to get rid of the so called "Tech Chat" and the Speedbar

I'll have to check it online as well, but offline it works just the other way round.
If 'Simple gauges' is checked in Difficulties, you have the full Speedbar by default (together with icons and the technochat).
If you turn it off by pressing 'I' ingame, it hides the whole Speedbar and all unit icons/labels, but the technochat is still displayed.
Am I wrong assuming that there's no way to hide just the Speedbar?

[SAS~Skylla]

If you turn it off by pressing 'I' ingame, it hides the whole Speedbar and all unit icons/labels, but the technochat is still displayed.
Am I wrong assuming that there's no way to hide just the Speedbar?

Unfortunately you assume right as it seems

[SAS~Storebror]

Am I wrong assuming that there's no way to hide just the Speedbar?

Ah, now I understand.
No sorry, that isn't possible.
Something to a similar effect has been requested here, but I doubt the devs care too much for anthing that happens in the english forum.


Mike

[SAS~Storebror]

I might have an idea how we could change the situation regarding constant strafing of airfields.
Before I start trying to implement it, I'd like to have your feedback on the idea:

In a nutshell, it consists of a checkzone (technically two checkzones, but from a logical point of view let's say it's one) which detects when enemy planes get close to the airfield.
When the first enemy plane enters that zone, a timer will start and once the timer elapses, all medium AAA on the airfield will be set to "high/ace" level.
When the last enemy plane leaves that zone, another timer will start which on elapse will reset all medium AAA on the airfield to "low/normal" level.

The zone would e.g. have a range of 5km / a diameter of 10km. The timer for switching AAA to "high/ace" level would be set to 2 minutes.
This means a plane can travel through the airfield's airspace at 300km/h or more without getting caught be the ace AAA. However if that plane turns around to strafe again, it will get humilated.

The 2nd timer (reset AAA to "low/normal" level) would be set at e.g. 5 minutes to give players enough time to takeoff.

I think this would also cope the real life situation where when you'd attack a heavily defended zone like an airfield, you would plan your attack wisely, come in quick by surprise, drop your load and get the hell out of there. You might return, but only much later and from a different direction. That'd be exactly what would still work here, too. But the constant strafing would definitely become deadly.

Your feedback please gents


Mike

[SAS~Storebror]

*bump*
We could even go a tad further.
For instance, player planes could be set "invulnerable" until they took off.
Heck, even AI planes could be set the same way... just let me know what you think would work best


Mike