Com-Central.net

I am a regular poster on AFV and sometimes I post here (A few sheep pictures!) I am interested in getting back into doing flight simulations and airial combat. It has been 10 years or more since I have "flown", with that being one of the original A-10 sims. Any ideas as to what would be a good system to start with and what sim should I consider buying? I hope to improve my skills enough to join one of the squadrons. Favorite planes are P-47, P-40 and FW-190.

You have come to the right place for flight simming, Tanklord...combat...or the "dark side" of "peaceful" flight simulation!

Don't ask how I know this....

- Doug_Kibbey

You have come to the right place for flight simming, Tanklord...combat...or the "dark side" of "peaceful" flight simulation!

Don't ask how I know this....

Yeah, what he said...and coming from someone who was reputedly an awesome CFS3 P-38 jockey ('til he succombed to some ugly armored vehicle fetish).

Com-Central has it all...name yer flight sim preference and you'll find eager and qualified participants that will help you find your "niche". A lot of folks here used to be primarily combat simmers who jumped the rails and got into Flight Simulator 2004 "Century of Flight"...you don't get to blow stuff up, but the aircraft available and the detail out there now is amazing...and there are warbirds if you can't give up those stinky cockpits.

Speaking of stinky, if you have the right odoriferous qualities, you might talk to those guys at the "Pig Sty", but then I'm biased. You can always hook up as a independent and see if those are the sort of swine you gravitate to. Not recruiting here...just blowing our horn...we're picky about who we let in, but we've been known to be flexible in our standards.....they're low, but they're there.

I suggest visits to the flight sim forums to see what the folks here are into...and be sure to check out the FS2004 forums...we have various group activities and such...multiplay is available in the sim.

Well Tanklord,

as Ascout allready stated there is plenty to choose from hre at Com-Central, you could get your self a copy of fs2004 to get the hang of it again, slight point to keep in the back of your mind id that by the end of this year it's successor will be released and rumour has it that that will need a fast rig to run it
So there is some food for tought as what to acquire for a puter with what specs

I'm shure others with far greater knowledge on the puter subject can shed some light in here to "advice" what to get.

Another is what is your budget that you have to your disposal


fled

Budget...whatever I can hide from my wife! Actually for a rig, I think I can have a decent one built for $1200 to $1500. However a lot of my time is spent on drilling rigs. Usually have a fairly decent satellite connection, but would need a portable rig to run system. Sounds like FS2004 is what I need to start. I think it will be around a while before any newer version takes complete control.

"...whatever I can hide from my wife!"...ROFLMAO...

Do you know what connection the satellite has?

Also, you should do some research on Laptops as the newer models can handle FS2004 or IL2 very well, but some older or less expensive models can't quite handle them.

How much time do you spend on drilling rigs?

- Tanklord

Budget...whatever I can hide from my wife! Actually for a rig, I think I can have a decent one built for $1200 to $1500. However a lot of my time is spent on drilling rigs. Usually have a fairly decent satellite connection, but would need a portable rig to run system. Sounds like FS2004 is what I need to start. I think it will be around a while before any newer version takes complete control.

What a perfect setup for uninterrupted flight simming!

You can pick up FS2004 for a song these days...$20-25 and its loaded with features. And unlike combat simming, it's loads of fun in single play (AI in combat sims get predictable real fast...multiplay is where it's at in combat). Even when the next verision comes out, you don't have to upgrade to it right away...I held out for nearly a year before getting FS2004 (and if some aspects aren't backwards compatible, I'll still keep it loaded, even if I get the next version).

There is so much free stuff available for download to enhance the sim you really can't imagine...scenery, aircraft, whatever...the basic package you buy is just the start...there are literally thousands of worthy downloads (for free!) that you can gussy it up with. I virtually never fly the aircraft supplied in FS2004 anymore...it's all addon's like Milton Shupes stuff, and various helicopters from many sources...

For Bushie!

I spend more time than I care to out on the rigs. Normally 2 weeks at a time. As for the satellite speed, I know it is much faster than dialup, almost the same as my DSL connection at home.

I am using a laptop with the following specs:

AMD 2.0 GHZ Athlon 64
1280 RAM
NVidia GeForce4 440 Go 64M
15.4" XVGA Screen

Think this can handle FS2004?

WOW..2 week stretches? Hmm..gaming time!...lol

It sounds like your connection is fine and your laptop has the 'horsepower' and RAM to run FS2004 or IL2 with the exception of the video card. That is the weak link in your system and you may have to cut the settings back to have acceptable frame rates which may in turn take some of the 'eye candy' away.

Of course, the real test will be to try it and see and as Ascout pointed out, the FS9 (FS2004) game is getting cheaper by the day and the add-ons available for it are staggering...

I tweaked the video card with updated drivers from Omega, and I can play Call of Duty 2 with no problems. I think FS9 should not be a problem then.

Cool! If CoD2 will play, FS9 should be no problem then...

Guess I will need a joystick. Whats a good one to start off with. Sounds like that x-52 is a little too much for me.

You'll want a joystick that has a rudder axis (the stick twists left and right)....this is very handy for rudder control in airplanes and also needed for helicopter flight, which might be something you aren't necessarily thinking of at first but is one of the more rewarding aspect of FS2004.

Logitech makes a decent USB stick, the "3D Pro"....has everything you might need for about $40 going rate.

FWIW I also run FS2004 on a laptop with a 64MB vid card and find it to be quite decent and get good frame rates. Makes a nice backup system to fly with when my main simming rig is unavailable, and I've even done a Sunday flight or two with it for hours on end online.

Thanks for all the input guys Looks like a trip tomy local Best Buy when I get off this rig. Found they have both the FS2004 and 3D joystick available! Look to the skies soon where you willl see a "Crazy Cajun" doing amazing aerial manuevers!

~S~ All
Ok now it is my turn to promote my fav sim lol.
If you are looking for off-line combat flight simming, then MS buy CFS2 is the way to go. It is easy on a new machine and has great graphics right out of the box with tons of scenery addons ready for dwnload, and it cannot be beat for off-line play.
Buy CFS2 allows you to dwnload planes with a little tweaking fm CFS1, FS98, FS2002, FS2004. Without tweaking fm FS2000, and of course almost every type of Military A/C you would care to fly has been built or converted for buy CFS2, there are 1000's of A/C ready to go for this great sim.
As I said with the diff scenery, addons, effects, and even several types of ships this sim will hold it's own with anyother sim. With hundreds of Missions, and Campaigns that span from WWI right through Korea, and Vietnam.
For Hops, and Civil flight siming, just add airfields and you can fly around the world. The best of both.
For on-line gameing buy CFS2 is purley a dogfighting sim. You can do hops, and simulate bombruns but in the end it is a dogfighting sim.
The community for online is small, games can be found but it is not very active with the Zone haveing gone away.

If you are looking for a civil flight sim for online play with a large community then you will have to go with FS2004. (No shooting here though ).

If you are looking for an online Combat flight Sim then MS offers CFS3. I am not sure of the size of the community but I belive they are still around and the CFS3 community has just gotten itself a very nice WW1 addon that I hear is great.

If you are looking for an online Combat flight sim that has a huge community then you will have to go over to the dark side and purchase IL2-FB-AEP-PF. This is three diff install's that you will have to patch to play online, but there is a huge community and plenty of squads.

Last but not least if you want to fly a classic Combat Flight Sim that you can still find online games for, (The Zone was still up and running a few weeks ago for this one.) then find you a copy of CFS1. There are still allot of A/C, Missions, and Campaigns for this classic to be found for dwnloading.

In the end it will just be a matter of what you are looking for.
1. A large online gameing community for either a flight sim or Combat flight simming then go with FS2004 or IL2-FB-AEP-PF.

2. For offline gameing with the best of both then buy CFS2.

3. CFS1, and three will just be a matter of taste.
Hope you find what you are looking for.
~S~