New To Sim's

[mike240se]

Hey I am new to sim's, I am just getting into it after building a new pc that can actually run them... I have FSX and some joysticks, etc. I am very interested in touchbuddy and am quite excited about it. I found the posts about where to get touchscreens and although they are mostly from overseas, I did find a couple in the US, thanks to the guy who just posted to ebay seller for $175 shipped.

A couple questions I have is basically which sim's you guys fly with touchbuddy?
It seems there arent many and some are crap with no following. The ones I found that it seems like you guys use is Falcon 4 Allied Force but I heard that was less than one cd in size so is it very last gen graphics?

Also I saw lock-on and IL2. Lock on is russian so I was a little worried about that, usually things made russian lose something in translation... So anyways what sims do you guys like, which do you recommend? Thanks...

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Welcome Mike!

Most of us here fly Lockon, and Zorlac (the guy who thought up TouchBuddy) started the whole idea on the Lockon forums at www.Lockon.ru.

IMO the most popular combat flight sims today are Lockon, IL2/Pacific Fighters, and Falcon 4.0 Allied Force. There is a cheap package out if you don't want to spend a lot of money right away that has Lockon 1.0, IL2 & Pacific Fighters all for $19. But the most recent versions of these games are Lockon Flaming Cliffs, which is an addon to v1.0, and is called 1.1 (patched up to 1.12a). And IL2 Forgotten Battles with the Ace Expansion Pack, and Pacific Fighters. IL2+AEP+PF are all from the same company and can be installed as a 'merged install' into the same folder for one more expansive game. They are really the same game engine, just covering the WW2 European and Pacific theatres.

Lockon and IL2/PF are both made by Russians, and lose nothing at all in translation. There is no problem there at all. But in the aircraft expect it to be realistic. You wll see German words in German aircraft, Japanese in Japanese, and Russian in Russian aircraft. But that's the to be expected. These games are the best combat sims out there.

Falcon 4.0 was a game that came out about 9 years ago. It's old, but it was/is the most full featured combat flight sim available, even today. It has clickable cockpits (which most sims don't have), and a great dynamic campaign, and a good learning curve (lots of fun stuff to learn). The graphcis for Falcon 4.0 have been greatly improved, but still (at low altitudes) are not as good as todays sims. But the graphics have been so improved that it is still looking very good. Do some searches on Google Images for F4AF or Falcon 4.0 Allied Forces and see what you think.

Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to post any questions, and welcome to the forums...

WBK

PS:
If you are serious, and want to dive in to these sims and have the latest version, get these:
1) Lockon v1.0; Lockon Flaming Cliffs Addon v1.1 (patch with v1.11, v1.12, v1.12a)

2) IL2 Forgotten Battles; AEP; Pacific Fighters (confusing to patch correctly, ask and I can help)

3) Falcon 4.0 Allied Forces

There may be bundled packs for some of these, I don't know for sure what's what.

Also, do you have a TrackIR? It's a must have! Both Throttle & Joystick, TrackIR and TB are fantastic devices for flight sims.

[ruggbutt]

I fly Lock On almost exclusively now. You can pick up Lock On Gold which has Flaming Cliffs on the second disc. Be aware that when Gold was first released the publisher (Evolved Games) fuxored the Starforce on the second disc so you had to send it in for a replacement. If you pick Gold up from a store that has plenty of "turn over" for it's software you should be in good shape. I picked up a copy of Gold at Fry's Electronics two days ago for one of the 3sqn guys in Australia. I installed it on my rig to make sure the second disc worked (I have 2 OS installs, one for gaming).

[169th_PoleCat]

LOMAC goodness. Nothing will ever be the same!

The proper patch order for Lomac would be LockOn 1.0 direct to Flaming Cliffs 1.1 and then straight to 1.12a. No need for the patches in between.

When you patch from Flaming Cliffs 1.1 to 1.12a be sure to download the correct patch for your version. There are seperate patches depending on the version you decide to purchase:

One for LockOn gold two disc set.
One for stand alone addon Flaming Cliffs CD
One for the download (Web) version of Flaming Cliffs

A lot of people make a mistake here and install the wrong patch.

Out

[Primaryman]

The latest version of IL2 has been released as a completly new DVD which contains ALL previous versions of IL2 (Original, Forgotten battles, Aces expansion pack, Pacific Fighters, PE2, Manchuria, 1946).

It is called "IL2 Sturmovik:1946" and is a one stop install complete with every patch (up to version 4.07) plus there will be one more free patch v408 which will be the last patch before the developers move to their next sim "Battle of Britain". I bought this for $80 NZ dollars and is a great deal since to get to the same level of install by buying all the individual products would cost more and take forever downloading and patching.

IL2 is the definative WW2 simulator. There are hundreds of flyable and AI controlled planes. Everthing you can think of and some you've never even heard of. There are single player historic scripted missions, plus single player dynamic campaigns (these are for all nationalities, german, russian, RAF, USAF, RNZAF, RAAF, USMZ, JAAF etc...). But the feature I use most is the online aspect. I play with a great bunch of guys here in NZ and we have a great time with up to 20 players. Talking over the net using Teamspeak gives you a great feel for real combat, you quickly learn that to survive you have to fly as a team. I like flying the bombers since I generally suck at fighters.

There are two TB profiles available for IL2. I use the one by Wraith since it has all the commands I need, but the one being developed by WBK and Co looks like it will be the profile of choice when finished.

Welcome to flight simming. You should really get used to parting with your hard earned dollars. To get the best of simming you really need the fastest machine you can afford (sounds like you have that already), a TIR4, a really good HOTAS system like a Saitek X52, some good heaphones with a mic, a nice touchscreen, preferably a 15" one. And if you really really get into simming what better than to build your own cockpit!!!

[mike240se]

Wow you guys rock! Thanks for all the help. I wasnt expecting so many replies when i logged on. I should have mentioned, like you guys, I dont plan on simming half assed, I have been shopping and ordering for the last month since I got started and have x52 hotas from saitek, track ir 4 pro, headset and I am thinking about pedals, probably ch. I also just ordered the CH yoke for flying regular planes since the joystick wasnt a good feel. I started by buying FSX and of course my p4 2.4ghz pc was way too damn slow so I upgraded to e6600, 2gb ddr-800, wd raptor 10k rpm drive, evga 7950gt 512mb ddr3 ko video card and a benq 21 inch widescreen monitor. I got a nice cpu cooler and case cooling plus good gskill ram and mobo so I can soon overclock my e6600 to 3ghz... So YES this is getting VERY expensive, very fast! I also bought Falcon 4.0: Allied Force cause I too flew Falcon 4.0 when it first came out which I could have sworn was before I had windows 3.1, and i loved it but i was too young to enjoy it since it was such a sim, but i still loved it. I also am ordering the IL: 1946 with all the packages for $50 which seems good, so I will hopefully I will have that soon.

The main thing is Lock On now, I dont have it yet and you mentioned something I forgot about before which was the reason I didnt buy Lock On which was cause of starforce, I remember hearing it was real bad and buggy and was like spyware, is it really that bad? I heard stories of people saying it even slowed down their system. Your lock on info was very helpful, the patches and waht not seem like a pain if you dont know the best way to do it. So now I just gotta figure out how to buy it, it makes sense I guess to get the latest lock on with flaming cliffs. I havent been able to find a store that sells lock on here in northeast us, as in nj. We dont have a frys
Any other stores you know of sell lock on? I assume there is a lockon package with all the versions included kinda like il:1946??? Just to confirm, Lock ON Gold has everything including the original base and flamming cliffs?

I defintely have alot to learn, these sims arent exactly kids games, i am going to print the manuals at work so that should help... Its going to take a while to learn and program the saitek good too, I have it programmed for FSX but thats no where near as complex.

Now I was thinking about xkeys or the new ch mfd thing but your touchbuddy blows them away! Ruggbutt was hyping it like crazy on ch-hangar and thats how I found you guys... I was going to order a 8 inch display but primaryman says to get a 15 inch?!?! How much do they run? Is there any chance of putting the working radar displays on the screen so they look like the displays in the cockput? I thought thats what ch's mfd did till i realized it was just a picture!

PS. I just bought Blazing Angels from compusa for the PC, I thought it was cool on the box and was $20 a compusa, now I am thinking it was a waste and is crappy, I guess thats correct? I will return it and use the $20 for lock on i guess.

[mike240se]

Ok quick update, I found the $19 package with lock on, il2 and pf in one package at bestbuy. Now I dont think I can find the lock on gold locally, so can i buy the flight package with lock on 1 and then buy/download flaming cliffs and the patches and be flying the latest updated version that you guys fly? If so I will go buy it and that way I can start flying lock on right away instead of waiting for a while from amazon.

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Hey Mike,

Since money doesn't seem to be a problem. I mean, you've spent a lot of your setup, so your not going to skimp on the sims. That package bundle probably isn't the way to go since you sound commited.

You should go with Rugg, Polecat, and Primaryman's recommendations I think. You can sure get them somewhere.

That bundle pack has IL2 and PF, but not IL2 Forgotten Battles, AEP, Pe2, and 1942. And trust me, the patching is way crazy. I have instructions and the files saved and can easily help if you go with IL2FB+AEP+PF. But I don't have the Pe2 or 1942. Which I would definitly go with from what was posted here.

[mike240se]

Originally Posted by Wild.Bill.Kelso

Hey Mike,

Since money doesn't seem to be a problem. I mean, you've spent a lot of your setup, so your not going to skimp on the sims. That package bundle probably isn't the way to go since you sound commited.

You should go with Rugg, Polecat, and Primaryman's recommendations I think. You can sure get them somewhere.

That bundle pack has IL2 and PF, but not IL2 Forgotten Battles, AEP, Pe2, and 1942. And trust me, the patching is way crazy. I have instructions and the files saved and can easily help if you go with IL2FB+AEP+PF. But I don't have the Pe2 or 1942. Which I would definitly go with from what was posted here.

Oh, the reason I was going to buy the package was to get the base Lock On so I can download flaming cliffs and then have the full lock on. I already ordered the 1946 package with all the latest il2 stuff so I would only be buying the bundle for lock on 1.0 so I can get going with lock on. I dont have the original lock on so I cant use the $15 download of flaming cliffs.

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Maybe I'm confused, but from what Rugg said, Lockon Gold includes the base v1.0 Lockon and also Flaming Cliffs v1.1 also, so it is the Full Lockon as of today when patched. I don't know if the patches are included in it though. But either way it's the full Lockon as you say.