still playing?

[revenge 0]

Does any1 still play this Series and had it woking on windows 7 with multiplayer?

[Icarus999 70]

Lots of us have series one installs. The AI is good enough since the 08 level patches that i find plenty of challenge in a dogfight. Those who do multiplayer run at the 8/06 patch level. You might want to PM Doghouse to set up some MP contacts if you decide to go that route.

[revenge 0]

aaahh thanks dude...

 

wow sounds like there isnt that many if there is a list of ppl now... even though AI is much harder now for dogfights it still feels pretty lonely in the skies nothing says it best after a dog out when its a bunch of other ppl.

 

is the SF2 series any challenging when it comes to dogfighting? like on the border line of insane difficult no win situations?

[+streakeagle 871]

I am a long time veteran of the series. I have owned every version of this game since the original Walmart Strategy First release of SFP1. Up to the 083006 patch level, the best AI dogfighters were in SP2a. They could actually aim and hit with short bursts of their guns. WoV introduced carriers, but killed AI effectiveness and broke many flight models. Enemy AI could barely hit anything and friendly AI was pretty much defenseless. By 083006, the AI was still short of the effectiveness seen in SP2a. WoI reintroduced AI that was aggressive and accurate. Friendly AI is still somewhat ineffective if you use HARD settings which bumps up enemy AI's likelyhood of having proficient pilots and gives friendly AI a higher probability of novices.

 

Now for the direct answer to your question: SF2 AI out of the box is capable of shooting me down. Most of the time, they don't come close to flying like aces, but they can and do get behind me and shoot me down. AI is currently on par or better than SFP1 SP2a in air-to-air dogfighting. I have had MiG-21s using early AA-2 Atolls hit me. This almost never happened in SP2a and absolutley never happened to me in WoV or WoE at the 083006 patch level. However, I can still engage and beat MiG-17s while flying F-100s, F-105s, and F-4s with relative "ease" if I am free to use external views (like player to target) to maintain perfect situational awareness. Part of that is my level of experience. Part of that is that the AI still plays a mostly 2d turn-n-burn game that is predictable and therefore defeatable even in lead sleds like the F-105. I use the word "ease" in quotes because I have seen posts from plenty of people that have great trouble turn fighting MiGs in heavy US fighters. Even if you restrict me to 2d turn fighting, the MiG-17 can be beaten using aggressive scissors. Whereas, when a human pilot in multiplayer flies a MiG-17 against another human player, the only chance the heavy fighter has is if it has superior acceleration and climb to control the engagement, otherwise, the MiG-17 will eat you alive. So, even at its best, the AI doesn't come close to a skilled human player like doghouse, but the AI in SF2 is better than a lot of the people I met when I hosted SFP1/Wov/WoE/WoI online.

 

One more reference: I posted and SF2V mission at Third Wire with four loaded F-105s getting jumped from behind by four MiG-17s. I had to set both the enemy and friendly AI to max skill to even get close to historical results, otherwise, I could clear the skies of MiG-17s and take no losses every single time. With the mission as released, if I stick to using the in-cockpit view with TrackIR (no padlocks or <T> key, etc.), the results vary each time I play, but come pretty close to reality.

 

Now, jump into SF2I with the expansion pack and fly P-51Ds versus Spitfires. Neither side has the vertical performance of an F-104, F-4, or F-15. This is perfect for the AI's turn fighting skills. If you do not personally cut down the number of Spitfires quickly, they will eat the P-51Ds alive. But, as in F-4 vs MiG-17 fights, with a lot of practice, you can get to where the Spitfires are killable.

 

I much prefer multiplayer, but this sim never supported multiplayer that well and the community was always pretty small. Now SF2 doesn't even have multiplayer and I am not really interested in giving up any of the refinements in SF2 to play multiplayer in SF1.

[revenge 0]

Well exactly the cause i feel AI to be extremely predictable and very 2 dimensional when it comes to dog fighting...

 

As to why i prefer player vs player.. when u challenge a player time and time again whose better then u, u eventually improve and become even better then

ur opponent that u were loosing to time and time again.

 

But as u say SE1 series most multilayer games u hosted the players were weak and the AI offered much more a form of challenge.

 

So u preferably choose SE2 over SE1 even though it has multilayer capabilities?

 

 

I preferbly prefer Jet based engines to Propelled Rotor based engines. i played a lot of IL2 and some of lockon back then and now i just wanna focus on jet engines, i played F22 Lighting 3 for 4 years of my life

and no game has made me feel the bases of that excitement i used to get from it til now. Lock On was too complex u could never really reek all the rewards of the game unless u had an x52 saitech or CH hotas cougar

at the time as well as using trackIR. unfortunately i dont get any of these components in my country. they have recently launched the Logitech G940 but thats way above my price limit.

 

this game offers more enjoyment and bit more skill based from what i seen and research then having to rely on heavy expensive joysticks and trackir components to enjoy it like i did with F22 Lighting 3.

I am getting this game regardless of multiplayer or no multiplayer. I do prefer multiplayer but if the SF1 series isnt that much of a high traffic online game because of SF2 then i rather get SF2..

 

In ur position what would u do? i love multiplayer but i also just would love to play a damn good simulation thats not as complex as lock on and blackshark dcs but the dog fights are extremely challenging despite it being AI.

 

SF1 or SF2?

 

thank u for u response most highly valued..

Edited September 11, 2010 by revenge

[+streakeagle 871]

My solution is to own them all and play as I see fit. You will be hard pressed to find multiplayer opponents for the SF1 series, and aside from multiplayer, the SF2 series is so much better. If you can only afford one, I would go for SF2. But SF1 games are pretty cheap, so why not buy one game from each series and figure out which one you like best.