Finally going to give it a try

[I_B_Spectre]

Hi, everyone. I'm a longtime simmer that cut my flying teeth on the Commodore 64, waiting until technology had better offerings. On my first Win95 machine, I got the DOS version of EF2000 running and the pursuit continues. Janes WWII Fighters was my first foray into online air combat and things grew from there. I downloaded the pre-release demo of IL-2 Sturmovik and wish I had a dollar for every hour I've spent playing it. Like so many others, I was waiting for the day the sequel would come along and the promise it held. I shared your disappointment with the initial news of the shortcomings of Cliffs of Dover and have held off getting it for a number of reasons. With the advancements thanks to Team Fusion, I think it's time to give it a whirl. I PMed a team member to ask if my obsolescent hardware stood any chance of rendering flyable frame rates and was told that it should. I plan on getting the Steam download in a week or two and have been busy reading all I can in preparation as well as watching the many wonderful YouTube videos. I'm even gathering the components to build a FreeTrack rig to go with my CH Products HOTAS. I always enjoyed mission building for both Janes and IL-2, so Cliffs of Dover gives me another creative outlet. I flew online with a group for many years, but have only done offline gaming in the last four or five years. Still, it's an enjoyable hobby and I'm looking forward to it. Cheers!

[RAF74_Buzzsaw]

Hi, everyone. I'm a longtime simmer that cut my flying teeth on the Commodore 64, waiting until technology had better offerings. On my first Win95 machine, I got the DOS version of EF2000 running and the pursuit continues. Janes WWII Fighters was my first foray into online air combat and things grew from there. I downloaded the pre-release demo of IL-2 Sturmovik and wish I had a dollar for every hour I've spent playing it. Like so many others, I was waiting for the day the sequel would come along and the promise it held. I shared your disappointment with the initial news of the shortcomings of Cliffs of Dover and have held off getting it for a number of reasons. With the advancements thanks to Team Fusion, I think it's time to give it a whirl. I PMed a team member to ask if my obsolescent hardware stood any chance of rendering flyable frame rates and was told that it should. I plan on getting the Steam download in a week or two and have been busy reading all I can in preparation as well as watching the many wonderful YouTube videos. I'm even gathering the components to build a FreeTrack rig to go with my CH Products HOTAS. I always enjoyed mission building for both Janes and IL-2, so Cliffs of Dover gives me another creative outlet. I flew online with a group for many years, but have only done offline gaming in the last four or five years. Still, it's an enjoyable hobby and I'm looking forward to it. Cheers!

We think you'll enjoy your experience. :thumbsup:

Don't forget to check out the single player offerings listed on this site. :D

And of course, remember the game is going to get a whole lot better when we put out the 2nd Team Fusion release, sometime in late August or early September.

[ATAG_Torian]

Greetings Spectre,
Welcome to the forum. Once u sink ur teeth into CloD u wil be hooked. Il2 1946 and it's associated mods are are still a great sim but CloD, particularly thx to TF, will make it hard to go back to. The stunning visuals, flight and damage modelling make the older Il2 series look like leggo animations in comparison. Getting decent fps will be a matter of optimising whatever u have and there are a few tweaks that will get u flying even if it means some of the eye candy gets turned down.
Get onto the ATAG TeamSpeak server and u will find quite a few knowledgeable folk there who will be happy to talk u thru all kinds of stuff.
Hope to see u online soon.
ATAG_Torian

[ATAG_Lewis]

Welcome Spectre to the community...

We have all been disappointed at the initial release of this sim...however many of us could see the massive potential that it had and either stuck with it or like me and you, gave it another try...I am very glad I did as I now have over 700 hours of very enjoyable WW2 flight simming on this sim and look forward to many more...

Recently we have tried to help the new pilots ease into CLOD by including a 'Beginners Guide' in the forums. We hope it is of some help to folks like you . I think with your considerable knowledge and experience of flight sims you will already know some of the criteria to flying this sim, however, the 'Aircraft Control' , 'Finding the Enemy' and 'Ingame Windows' passages of this guide may be of help to you...particularly the 'Dedicating of Essential Keys' which will shave hours of your learning curve..

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5058&p=52711

Any questions you have can be answered in these forums as the folks here are very good when it comes to Q and A with new players....

Anyways I hope you get as much enjoyment out of this sim as we have...and see you in the skies

...lew...

[kopperdrake]

Hello and welcome Spectre - you won't regret it, the CloD community is astounding :)

If you happen to want to fly a Hurricane (really only for the discerning gentleman, as opposed to the slippery types that slide over to the Spitfire) then I've just made some basic flight procedure videos to help anyone getting started in this simulator. Some, if not all, will be well beneath your level but there may be some game-specific tips that could be useful :)

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs4B3fmThwb88kLPGv0XnlQ

See you in the skies!

Bunny

[DUI]

Welcome to the Cliffs of Dover community, I_B_Spectre!

With your background (nicely written!) you surely will enjoy the flight simulation.

Never tried it but as far as I heard there are a lot of great community-built SP campaigns and, of course, the professional Desastersoft campaigns. But as - to my opinion - the real dogfight experience can only be found in MP: hope to see you in the online skies soon! :salute:

[ChiefRedCloud]

Welcome to the group buddy .... look forward to flying with you ....

http://imageshack.us/a/img577/9586/wdjf.jpg

[I_B_Spectre]

A most excellent and hearty welcome, indeed. I thank you all for your kind words. I am looking forward to giving it a whirl and thank you for your encouraging words. I am in the midst of building a FreeTrack system to enhance my flying experience and expect many hours of sim fun to come my way shortly.

[ATAG_Lewis]

Spectre.....FYI ..theres a chap making something called the 'DelanClip' in the UK on ebay...(not sure where you are from)...He's been selling them on ebay for the past year....cheaper than trackIR but you still need to make a webcam with out filter....Good Luck...I'd be interested to know how well your freetrack works when its done..

...lew...

@Chief....nice welcome pic...~S~

[Surfbird6]

Good morning. I have also been a flight sim junkie for quite a while. When the first videos of iL2 CLoD came out, I was really looking forward to the game. But, like many, I was totally disappointed when I tried my best to get it to run. I shelved it...cursing... Recently, I decided to try again after seeing so many YouTube videos that were excellent. So, I have beefed my already strong "Falcon" system up to 16G RAM and a 700 series Nvidia video card (2G). The game is definitely running more smoothly on quite high settings and that is great...but when the mission ends or I end it by pressing "Esc" button, it crashes totally out of the game. I have seen others remark about this issue and am wondering if someone could help me with this. I know this may not be the right thread to ask...if so, please direct me to the correct one. Also, the patch 3.0 and 3.1...are they just for multiplayer use or do they also help in single player mode? I really need to brush up on how to operate the aircraft before I go multi-player and just clutter up other players' fun. In single mode, I could at least get a little better. It is a bit intimidating to watch the videos and see how good some people are. And, finally, the 3.0 patch...I am no computer guru by a long shot...the video that helps installation looks very good...I will have to steel myself and do it...any other tips on that issue?
Thanks for your help. Very glad to see that modders have come forward to keep this excellent game going.

[Old_Canuck]

:salute: Surfbird. The best thing to do even if you plan to practise offline for awhile is get on Teamspeak and make yourself known to the players. My first time on ATAG server, a gentleman stayed on the tarmac and was vulched repeatedly while he helped me sort out some issues. Needless to say, I was impressed and was able to get into the air a lot faster.

Regarding the crashes, you need to find the "cache" folder and delete its contents after each session. It will rebuild itself each time you start the game. Not on the computer right now so I can't give the full filepath.

[ATAG_Lewis]

Welcome to Cliffs of Dover and the Community SurfBird..

Don't forget to checkout the Beginners Guide here..:

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5058&p=52711

Usefull tips and stuff....Also I would get online and fly...Thats where most of us learned...Nobody minds new pilots in the server and there's not much damage you can do to your team mates when your on the runways anyways...so thats where I think I would start....

See you in the skies....~S~

...lew...