Battle of Kuban BIG Update

1CGS/777 just released the big 2.012 update for BoX. I haven't had a chance to fly with it yet, but I'm hearing a lot of good things about it.

More improvements to come as well. I'm going to give it a try this Thursday night.

With summer coming to a close here and everything that goes with that, I should be back on more regularly on Saturday nights.

It looks like I will have to pick up BoK. Wolverine you should really try it in VR. Just use one base station on your desk and see for yourself.

StiC wrote:It looks like I will have to pick up BoK. Wolverine you should really try it in VR. Just use one base station on your desk and see for yourself.

Yes, I intend to do this soon. I've got Friday off so I may set it up for the long weekend.

I still haven't had a chance to set up the VR (should be getting more time now that the summer is closing up) but I have had a chance to fly the Kuban update and I have some thoughts. I'll just bullet point them.

• The FM update is a big improvement, at least when I'm flying the Spitfire. I can get guns on target and keep them there. I can control speed and maneuvers without a problem and flying is as expected without too many surprises.
  
• The Kuban map is great. It's large, it's colourful, and it has working weather. I don't see issues with trees or textures unless I'm looking for them. Most of the time I'm just appreciating how nice it looks.
  
• Effects look good and damage model is good. It's got better structural deformation than CloD but probably not as good systems damage. Still, it's good enough and makes for exciting battles. Wings and things come off, but it looks like that's simply more because most of the aircraft you see in BoX have cannon. I've shot up 109s with the .303s in the Spit Vb and it does pretty much what you'd expect - rattle off the armor with maybe damage to the rads or a small fuel leak. Get a good hit with a cannon round, however....
  
• Mission building is coming along but I'm still waiting for the dserver tool to be able to host missions. Maybe I'll email them again to try and get that moving. I'm hesitant to dig more into building missions if I can't actually host them.
  
• Oh, did I mention that the AI works? And that it uses the same FM as the players? Of the three big sims, BoX is clearly ahead with their AI in every respect.
  

I think it's worth your time and ours. DCS seemed to be picking up steam with its release of the Spitfire and Normandy, but now it appears stalled.

If you guys haven't tried it, the Finnish Dynamic War server is pretty amazing. Sort of like our Warfront campaign but since the ground units work, there's actual tank battles to support.

Plus it has resupply, airfield capture by bringing in troops or para troops (if you can fly the ju52 for the germans), and aircraft manufacture stuff too. Very cool! So there are missions and things to do if no one is on in support of the war. They've got the Spitfire available to fly as well (or any of the aircraft really if you only have BoS or BoM etc.)

I think it would be very very cool to organize a flying night on that server.

I just picked up BoK and took a quick flight in the Spit. WOW!

My sim setup is still in pieces but I might be able to scrape something together for a flight tonight. It turns out taking time away from flight sims involves a lot of house painting. Which is what I'll be doing tonight if I don't show up. It depends on how much I can get done this afternoon.

So I finally had a chance to set up the VR and fly BoX with it. You weren't kidding StiC....

I didn't have to change any of my graphics settings for it to run well. Had a big dogfight in the air with about 16 aircraft and it was beautiful. Flying through the clouds, chasing smoking 109s, very impressive! Even down low it was very good. Sense of speed is great, cockpit looks better in VR than it does on the normal screen. Implementation is truly well done.

Great to hear Wolverine. What plane(s) did you try?

StiC wrote:Great to hear Wolverine. What plane(s) did you try?

The only one I had a go in was a Spitfire. Me and AI wingmen against a whole bunch of 109e and f types.