IJA Mission Block

[E Hood]

A few days ago I decided to try a career as a Japanese Army pilot. I remembered that in the previous, FB version of the game, the third mission of the first campaign (Singapore area) seemed impossible; there were two of us, early-model Oscars, versus 30-odd British aircraft, about 28 of which were very aggressive Buffaloes and Hurricanes. I was hoping that it might be a bit easier in the 1946 version, and in a way, it was; now there were 6 Oscars against 10 Blenheims and 28 Buffalos and Hurricanes. Once again, after six or seven spectacularly unsuccessful attempts, I threw in the towel, and restarted the career at the second, New Guinea phase. This time things halted at the second mission; there we were again, six Oscars. this time against about 28 P-39s (usually fairly nasty in any event) and 4 P-40s.
Over the past four years of playing Il-2, regardless of the career path, I've always managed to at least survive missions which seemed at first to be deliberately frustrating. I've never been completely stymied before. Has anyone out there figured out a way to either survive or bypass the above-described missions seemingly impossible?

[thewritingwriter89]

Wow, 6 Oscars against 28 P-39...

Well, you sure as heck don't have a speed advantage, and if there are only 6 of you, I would say bring the fight down as low as you can, and wind it up into a low, slow turning dogfight to make use of the Ki-43's incredible (dare I say, impossible?) pitch. And you might consider calling for reinforcements by way of the 'tab' key.

Remember, the Ki-43, especially the earlier models had superb low speed handling, as in... you can turn pretty effectively down to about 130-140 km. Id say your best bet would be to get 'em down low, and get ready for a fight. And use the terrain to your advantage. A low-altitude dogfight near mountains can really give you an edge, especially if they have to keep pulling up to avoid the hills.

TWW89

[wheelsup_cavu]

Run for the hills!!
I know the mission you are talking about and it is next to impossible to survive.
It was one of the reasons I don't play the Japanese career much anymore.

On a more serious note.
This can be added to your config.ini and it will alter the default DGen settings.
Mission4Today Knowledge Base 25: [DGen]

This one should help you get the enemy flights under control.
AirIntensity=Low
Settings are low, medium and high. Default or not having the line in conf.ini is medium. Sets the number of flights, enemy and friendly, that are related to your mission. On low setting, there will be no random flights and it will override the "RandomFlights=" setting in that case, ( see above ). Can dramatically affect frame rates.


Wheels

[E Hood]

I'd like to thank everyone for the advice I've received thusfar; I shall try to modify the settings.
The Oscar is fun to fly, but it is surprisingly slow, almost as slow as the Gladiator, I-16, and Buffalo.
The missions in question are both "scramble" missions, with enemy aircraft coming in from the north,west, and south. There is no terrain to speak of; in both cases, the airfield is beside a river on a coastal plain. Flying at a lower altitude only seems to attract attention, as did trying to leave the area. In fact, I was doing fairly well against the Hurricanes at treetop level, but each time I had the angle on one, tracer rounds from the Buffaloes who'd gotten behind me would appear.
On two occasions, I even attempted to land at the home field while what was left of the furball (most or all of the other Oscars had been shot down) was still in progress. This was simply suicidal.
I do recall once, in the FB version, surviving the initial encounter, but only because I managed not to get shot down before the attacking formations turned for home. I kept flying in the general area, waiting for the MISSION COMPLETE signal. After a few minutes, when I was in an area some distance to the south of the field, new(?) enemy formations appeared - large formations, all to the west and north of the home field, and much closer to the field than I was. There was no way I could get back to the field and land before they arrived, so I hit the Escape button, and discovered that I was going to have to refly the mission again. I was unaware then that if I'd landed after the initial action, this might have activated the MISSION COMPLETE signal.

[thewritingwriter89]

Yeah, the Oscar is a pig when it comes to speed. I set up a FMB scenario with Oscars and I-16s, and they were just racing by me. It was ridiculous. Sometimes you just have to play dirty and make use of the game mechanics, like landing with the "MISSION COMPLETE". That's why I just use the FMB; more fun, greater freedom, bigger battles, and a ton more realistic in terms of what you can do with the overall setup of the mission.

[E Hood]

I ought to have mentioned that although I can handle take-offs and landings, I usually have the "Take-offs and Landings" function switched off. This is because for some reason, in spite of having 2 Gig of RAM and about 85% free space on my hard drive, the game tends to choke during take-offs, especially when I'm in a queue. I don't know if it's the terrain or the activity of the aircraft lined up ahead, but there it is. On principle, as it were, I always return to the home field and land at the end of a mission, even if the MISSION COMPLETE signal has come and gone.
The game also tends to freeze momentarily during heavy storms (especially thunderstorms), or if something explodes on the ground in front of me. This includes crashing aircraft, hits on ground targets, even artillery rounds landing anywhere in the line of sight, including near runways. I can live with it. There is just nothing else quite like Il-2!

[thewritingwriter89]

I ought to have mentioned that although I can handle take-offs and landings, I usually have the "Take-offs and Landings" function switched off. This is because for some reason, in spite of having 2 Gig of RAM and about 85% free space on my hard drive, the game tends to choke during take-offs, especially when I'm in a queue. I don't know if it's the terrain or the activity of the aircraft lined up ahead, but there it is. On principle, as it were, I always return to the home field and land at the end of a mission, even if the MISSION COMPLETE signal has come and gone.
The game also tends to freeze momentarily during heavy storms (especially thunderstorms), or if something explodes on the ground in front of me. This includes crashing aircraft, hits on ground targets, even artillery rounds landing anywhere in the line of sight, including near runways. I can live with it. There is just nothing else quite like Il-2!

What kind of graphics card do you have, and are you running vista or xp?

[beaupower32]

Make sure a anti-virus isnt running in the back ground. Alot of times, that will cause it to stutter, or even freeze up. Make sure you dont have a music progaram downloading in the background as well. Kill all programs first before you start messing with settings, as that will be the most simple and cheapest solution.

[E Hood]

I'm on XP; I've heard that Il-2 might not work on Vista or 7. I'll have to chack to see what type of graphix card is in this thing.
I never use Il-2 with the computer online, or with any other programs running. That said, the defragmenter has actually tried to start in mid-mission a few times. It's been a while since that happened, though. Oddly, it didn't interfere with the frame rate, it just blocked part of the view with that "command" blackboard-looking window. I was able to put the game down on the toolbar, stop the defragmenter, and restart with no trouble. Wierd business.

[Marcel]

Il2 works with Vista just fine. I've run it for years on that OS without any problems. I now use it on Linux with wine which works even better. The lack of need for defragmentation, anti virus and other stuff is probably the causethat it runs faster than on Windows. I really can recommend Il2 on Linux. Haven't tried it online, though.

[thewritingwriter89]

I've had some weird issues with IL2 on Vista. It works fine 90% of the time, but has an apparently random habit of freezing in the menu, and not allowing me to take it down to the toolbar. Happens on the other Vista PC I have, so there are some issues, but they are negligible when compared to the vast majority of the time.

[Marcel]

I've had some weird issues with IL2 on Vista. It works fine 90% of the time, but has an apparently random habit of freezing in the menu, and not allowing me to take it down to the toolbar. Happens on the other Vista PC I have, so there are some issues, but they are negligible when compared to the vast majority of the time.

I had that too, but it didn't really freeze. The problem was that the screen was not activated, thus the mouse didn't move. Pressing alt+tab a couple of times (switching between screens) always solved this problem.

[thewritingwriter89]

yeah, this is almost as if it doesn't load correctly, and hitches up. have to restart the whole computer when it happens.

[eddie_brunette]

Rather Use DCG than DGen!