The A2A Simulations Community

Rock Paper Shotgun PC gaming blog published a series of The Very Important List Of PC Games articles. Latest part is about simulators, BoB2WoV is mentioned as one of the four most important flight simulators, together with Red Baron, Flight Simulator and Falcon 4.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/02 ... sims-ever/

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Mike

A2A Simulations | my twitter | my website

Here is what he had to say about BOBII:

"A significant portion of the people currently paid to produce flying games seem to think the fire button is the most important part of a joystick. Pack enough soft targets into a small enough chunk of sky, and, bingo, joy is forthcoming. These people are misguided and dangerous. They need Battle of Britain II in their lives. Based on Rowan Software’s 2001 swansong, BoB2 is a sim that dishes out glory with a teaspoon, and fear, excitement, and failure with a ladle. If you return from a sortie with one Heinkel, Stuka, or Bf 109 under your belt you feel genuinely elated and, probably, utterly exhausted. Thanks to peerless AI code (massaged post-release by a band of official modders) every dogfight is different. Thanks to a campaign approach similar to Falcon 4.0′s, every victory makes Goering that little bit angrier. If the purpose of a combat flight sim is to simulate combat conditions and pilot emotions as well as machinery and flight behaviours, then BoB2 is a strong candidate for genre zenith. Breathless, breathtaking, gritty and gruelling… it will be interesting to see how Cliffs of Dover measures up."

WOW, he states, "peerless AI code , (massaged post-release by a band of official modders) every dogfight is different".

Does "peerless" mean the AI is the "best" WWII offline AI?

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Buddye

Intel I7 920 processor (2.66GHz, 8MB cache), 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel @1333MHz, 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295, Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Sound Card, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit , CH Fighter Stick & Pedals ,TrackIR4 Pro thanks to BobII crew.

I think so.

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Cheers,
Mike

A2A Simulations | my twitter | my website

Buddye.
That chap knows what he is talking about,this is a serious combat Sim,and that is what BOB2 was all about,not looking at the scenery,and i doubt whether any other Sim out there will ever come close to the A1 in BOB,and that is what makes it exciting,thanks to the BDG chaps,and a certain chap named Buddye.

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Well, I certainly agree with that article Buddey and with Marines comments. With buddies improvements. I think this has put BobII right in the forefront of any thing else, and I suspect for a long time. I do sometimes wonder how this would compete against a military simulator.

I only ever play the single player campaign. But, a few times I've come across a 109, where I've had a hell of a job to get on his tail and keeps there. Let alone get enough bullets in him to shoot him down.

All I can ever say is thank you to the BDG and everybody else concerned. Thank you.

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Prem.

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I think the writer nailed it. I fly cfs3 eto, maw, pto and korean skies and they're also great sims, especially with all the add-on work done by a talented bunch of folks with a real desire to make it as historical as it is fun.

I think the accuracy of the flight models and the way the AI's behave in BOB II is better, though, and that makes this at once a tougher sim and a superior one.

That is of course due also to the dedicated bunch of folks who continue to tweak and improve to make it better for the rest of us.

To them, thank you!

I agree, the enemy pilot AI in WoV is just superior to anything I have ever played (combat flight simming since 1988, so if it was out I probably had it ). WoV has taught me not to take the enemy pilot AI for granted.....ever. Many times I would be scratching my head at my mission debriefs knowing with all confidence I downed a couple of Emil's, but sometimes I only got credit for one (sometimes none). At first I thought it was a game bug, but after reading a post here awhile back I started watching (conditions permitting) these so called "sure kills" in my mind. To my surprise a couple of times I watched a smoking Emil going down, sometimes looking out of control, only to watch jerry pull out at the last minute and scoot for the French coast .

Buddye and the BDG group did a really wonderful job with the 109 ai and just the tiniest bit of advice from "gretchin"

We cannot forget this «ancient» Best ever review.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/16/the-100-best-pc-games-of-all-time/6/

I think is still a great honor to be among so many great games (air sims or not)

I just leave here part of the comment (for those who don't care to look at the URL above): «Only one, this one, manages to make those dogfights feel earth-shatteringly important.»

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One only starts to live after seeing the Elephant.

I'm surprised to see it linked with Falcon 4. I bought both at the same time and loaded both. I played F4 first and thought that was OK.
Then I played BoB and was absolutely blown away! F4 was uninstalled and has been gathering dust ever since.

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POTR
"Only birds and fools fly and even the birds don't fly at night"

There is a long thread over at the COD forum about COD players wanting better AI. Here is what Mysticpuma (one of the best movie makers IMHO who made two movies for BOBII) said about the BOBII AI.

"Said it before and I'll say it again, the AI in BoBII WoV is the only AI I have competed against that made me actually think I was against a real player.

At the point I ended up in a Rolling Scissors against a 109 I was really hooked!

If you want to experience true Flight Simulation AI, load up BoBII WoV and then compare it with the AI in Clod.

BoBII is like playing chess against a Grandmaster while Clod is like playing against your mate who thinks he can use the Pawn's to jump over pieces and remove them from the board!"

Here is a link to the thead where I have made several post (if interested in reading the posts):

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=25973

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Buddye

Intel I7 920 processor (2.66GHz, 8MB cache), 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel @1333MHz, 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295, Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Sound Card, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit , CH Fighter Stick & Pedals ,TrackIR4 Pro thanks to BobII crew.

Yes. Peerless means without peer, or unmatched.

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I thought it meant there are no Lords or Ladies in BDG!

But hats off once again to Buddye because no matter how the graphics engine ages, his AI code is still best in the sim genre...

Creating missions in BOBII all I have to do is put the enemy within visual range of each other, and white knuckle mayhem will ensue. In CoD I have to set them within 500 feet vertically, preferrably head on, with skill settings 'just so' and a minimum of two aircraft in each flight and even then I have to keep playing with the waypoints just to get the buggers to engage each other. Then, when they do, they fire their entire ammo load in a couple of long bursts and then bolt off home!

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Looking for BOB missions, campaigns, and historical resources?

http://bobgamehub.blogspot.com

PC Gamer's 'best PC games ever' is apparently an annual thing. This month's (UK) PC Gamer has the 2012 list...they have BoB II WoV at 37:

From Tim Stone again:

"Steel Fury gave me an inkling of what it was like to command a T-34 on the Eastern Front. Silent Hunter III thrust me into the dank, claustrophobic world of a U-boat captain. But only one game, thus far, has given me an idea of what life was like for those 1940 RAF pilots, who, emerging from cloud cover, found themselves gazing at a firmament teeming with Luftwaffe planes."

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There is no better AI in any flight sim. Period. No question. My first flight sims were on an Tandy T1000, so I've seen a lot of 'em. If the the Russian developers of CLOD had any sense, they'd have looked at WoV and known what they needed to do. Then maybe the latest piece of **** from them wouldn't be the totally sterile, soulless technical masterpiece that is may turn out to be. No Eagle Day, but by God you can drive a lorry!