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Cliffs of Dover


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  • Aerosoft

I was a huge fan of IL2 and the first stage of the Second World War has been a topic I got a lot of interest in (over 2 meters of books on that topic). So you understand that I was very excited about Cliffs of Dover. Today I decided not to wait for my press copy and to buy it on Steam. But to be honest I can not advise you to follow my lead. Bit strange as we sell it but let me explain.

See my (sub $1000) system handles FSX fine, it's rare I see less then 20 fps on our own products with settings that are very acceptable to me. But even on the 'low' setting CoD gives me very low and very stuttering frame rates. Only way out over the Channel and without any scenery to speak off (the water effects are AMAZING though) the game is playable for me. And even then the cockpits, other aircraft and the environment simply are not on par with FSX and way below Rise of Flight. Now I was surprised about this so I started a search online. Well I am not the only one. Forums are full of people eagerly awaiting solutions. They all seem to accept the bugs and crashes but I found nobody who was happy with the fluidity and speed. The official comments are more or less agreeing with the comments. They speak of errors in the last weeks before release that wrecked serious stuff like multi-core use etc. They also promise quick updates and optimization.

For now I will leave the sim on my system and will check every week if there are worthwhile updates. I am sure this will be a killer sim for those who love big engines and low wing loading combat. And I am sure the community will sort out a lot of the silly issues (like the very weird sound that is heard when you fire the guns, I heard these guns fire and they just do not sound like that). For now however, I would advise you to wait a bit and see what will happen. The people around Maddox got a great reputation and I am sure they will sort things out.

I's also a great lesson for Jet Thunder! Framerates remains at the top of the list for us there. When we got the FPS we can add features and expand.

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If I may suggest a simple tip when buying any type of computer software: bookmark the support forums for the product you are interested in. Then, wait for a few days after release, and browse the forums. Look for issues, common problems, etc.

I've saved myself a lot of headaches this way, - even if I wait to buy the product until a patch is released - at least I know one is coming via the forums.

Mathijs, sorry to hear CoD is a "not recommended" at this time product.

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Mathjis,

this doesnt sound strange to me, your recommendation to wait with COD, it fits into your company attitude to deliver realistic hardware specs to the product. I appreciate that and Aerosoft opinions have a better credit for me then from company´s with a story of too optimistic specs (with this machine you can fly a single plane and a view distance of 1000 meters...).

About FPS and the upcoming Falkland sim:

FPS and stability is one of the most important features, where in my opinion the scalability is the key too success. With Red Viper and Free Falcon 5 testing we had 200+ FPS, but what really counts are the FPS when every unit is active. Try to get every exotic hardware and driver combo in the pre-release team, rockstable for the Beta team doesnt necessarely mean for all customers.

Cheers

Jaeger

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It is the same information I gathered from forums around the world, so I held off getting it. I got me a copy of RailWorks2 instead to keep me busy at times when I have nothing to do..... duh!

Meanwhile I'll wait for updates and user experience - the bleeding edge users, that is - to revise my purchase decision.

Fortunately I am usually too busy to play any sim anyway, so no big loss currently ^_^

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I remember "Battle of Britain" all the way back to the EGA graphics days, so I was also eager to fly the new CoD - but what a shame that the performance seems to be so bad. :mellow:

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I remember "Battle of Britain" all the way back to the EGA graphics days, so I was also eager to fly the new CoD - but what a shame that the performance seems to be so bad. :mellow:

would that be Rowan Software's Battle of Britain? Or the one that came ut before that, but the name slips my mind

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would that be Rowan Software's Battle of Britain? Or the one that came ut before that, but the name slips my mind

Nah! That would be 'Their Finest Hour: Battle of Britain' by Lucafilms. The game with the code wheel as copy protection !

We copied the code wheel physically so as not to wear it out ! Must have flown over a 1000 hours in that sim ! :lol:

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Nah! That would be 'Their Finest Hour: Battle of Britain' by Lucafilms. The game with the code wheel as copy protection !

We copied the code wheel physically so as not to wear it out ! Must have flown over a 1000 hours in that sim ! :lol:

I never had the LucasArts game. Though I did have Secret Weapons of The Luftwaffe dry.gif

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European Air War EAW had huge formations flying against Engeland, then there was CFS 1 too.

Opinions in the Forums about COD are quite low and disappointed. Really devastating are comments like, the modded IL2 is better and / or its the same core from IL2. No idea if it is true, but not a good sign if customers get this impression.

The Battle of Britain lives from the huge Bomber formations, 100+ Bombers and an equal number of Fighters in the air. WW2 fighters at there altitude limits, only available IFF is the Mk 1 eyeball. Getting into an attack position and only close to weapons release ID friend or foe. That is for me the Battle of Britain in an simulator, i dont care if the Tower Bridge is accurately build down to the last poly or the cars use the correct plates, hey i am busting with 500 km h in low level.

They say all the planes are down to each and every bolt correctly modeled, engine management, flight model. Great, but give me an immersion that works on todays PC.

cheers

Jaeger

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  • Aerosoft

Good to hear. Keep us posted Mathijs !

Right now I can keep more or less stable 18 fps while it looks just below what FS2004 can look like.

But when I just took the first flying lesson I aimed for the hoop I had to fly through only to hear the instructor tell me he'll take over and land. Tried a quick mission and flown around for 45 minutes without seeing anything but sea. It's really hard to keep a positive spin on this and I am not at all surprised to see scores of 4 out of 10 in major reviews. I feel sorry for the developers.

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As an admirer of anything Spitfire-like and having collected many war diaries of former Battle of Britain fighter pilots on both sides, I too was looking forward to seeing this one release. I can only say I am glad I have held off, as the reviews and comments I found are exactly as Mathijs' personal experience. The community seems to be a little divided with a number of fanboys whose experience is in no way limited, and the majority who can barely get the game to run without stutters over even the most basic of settings...

I'll sit back and wait on this one. The Spitfire experience I get in the A2A Accusim version is enough to keep me sane :)

Andrew

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A real shame, although I wasn't planning on buying it. I have the complete IL2:1946 set via www.gog.com (GOG = Good Old Games), made working again in Win7 x64 after my transition to that OS.

That still can not be topped by any other ww2 aircombat game, except maybe the ancient European Air War, which will not run anymore in Win7 x64.

Level bomber, dive bomber, fighter, fighterbomber... If it flew in Russia or Pacific, it's there. The only thing that I feel is missing are more campaignmaps in the Pacific and Torpedoplanes in the Pacific.

But other than that: best ww2 aircombat game ever!

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Correction, the MK1 Spitfire had very early IFF equiptment ;)

Welllll, before you say "correction" you should do a bit of reserach. The UK had indeed an IFF system, but only the groundradar could interrogate them. In the scenario ME 109 vs Spitfire/ Hurricane visual ID was necessary. There was never ever during the Battle of Britain, during the dogfights a request or confirmation that one particular plane is hostile or not. The system of this time was good enough to identify a formation or a patrol as hostile or friendly. Which was of real value.

IFF didnt even work flawless during ODS, in the 90´s.

cheers

Jaeger

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Still had IFF, which is why I corrected you. As if we read from what you said

<snip> only available IFF is the Mk 1 eyeball. <snip>

We would be lead to belive IFF was non-existant. :blink:

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