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I flew Lancasters and B-17s in the online FIGHTER ACE for awhile. I even flew a Japanese Bomber. But I never saw more than about sixty people online at the same time.
What I didn't like about it, and what eventually decided me on going back to AI boxed Sims, was that there was no sense of a concerted battle plan going on. Everybody seemed to be doing their own thing. I kept sending messages out asking for fighter support,or Bombers to join me, or Bomber flights I could join, but I got little response. So I'd just take-off on my own, maybe run into an enemy fighter and let my AI gunners get him , or maybe get shot down. If I got to the target I could usually do enough damage in one pass to make it capturable. But since I had no back-up, it would rebuild before I could get back with a C-47 full of paratroops. Most people just seemed to want to fly to the middleand dogfight each other without any sense of a strategic plan. Effectively I was flying on my own, just like I am in CFS3 - apart from the fact that when I take my B-17 up in CFS3, I have five other AI B-17s flying with me, and if it's the right mission, some P-51s flying escort too.
FIGHTER ACE is just a game, with little realism, whereas CFS3, and IL-2 for that matter, are very good simulations of their own theatres of War. I haven't flown ACE HIGH, so maybe you meet a better class of online pilot over there, and maybe they do work together. But from my experience of FIGHTER ACE, I'll take CFS3 AI or IL-2 AI over SOME of the dipsticks flying online any day.

The "Fly Bombers" promise in PF is a bit of a rip-off too, because for the allies, you only get the B-25J - the one with the heavy nose armament and no Bombardier Compartment.  So allied level-bombing doesn't happen.

In CFS3, of course, you get the Mitchell C model, along with B-24s, B-26s and the Mosquito, plus third-party B-17s.  This means that for aficionados of multi-engine aircraft performing medium and high-altitude bombing, then CFS3 is the Simulation of choice. 8)

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We will if you will.

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I use a trackball so you're both wrong! nyaah nyaah!

My apologies, I was wrong about the B-25J Mitchell. In PF, it is a Bomb-nose version. In reality, a lot of them were converted to gun-nose, beacuse Medium-level Bombing wasn't too much use in the Pacific, so they were converted for low-level attack, where the Bomb-sight became redundant.
So yes, you can level-bomb for the allies in PF. Which I think is fantastic.

A few more questions:

Why are there key assignments available for magnetos, in PF when the magneto switches in the cockpit don't move, and the only way to tell is by a pop-up message on the HUD. In CFS3, Magneto switches move.

Why does the PF Corsair Flaps lever not move when you operate the flaps? It moves in CFS3.

Why are their keys available to select 8 separate engines, when there are no 8 engine aircraft to fly?

Why can you fly all night in CFS3 and get consistent frame rates, but in PF you start to get slowdown and stutter?

Just wondering.

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Under special dispensations, only.  Proper requests were made in this case. 




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I prefer to think that "maybe" the PF engine will be used for other "what ifs" and situations.  Just because it's there doesn't mean it has to be used.  Maybe "looking ahead to an 8-engined bomber scenario"


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This is where the CFSx/IL/PF series doesn't hold my attraction.  FOr an online sim, I prefer less eye candy (I don't need a superbly modelled aircraft when a simpler 8 sided fuselage will do) but give me better frame rates.  Again, to with, Aces High (which is my regular poison) will have anywhere from 200 to 500 people on at the same time, and I still get reasonable frame rates (typcially 25-29, although other setups get 50+), and that's with people spawning in and out.

It's been interesting reading some of these posts, and to be honest, there are times when I prefer to read the "why" something was done as it was (I really would like to know why 8-engines are modelled when none use it ... ) rather than "the modelled gun opening in PF14 is more accurate than the one in CFS17 "

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You have a point, there.

I remember that in Air Warrior (1987-1999), there were "hit bubbles"  Hit calculations in Aces High  appear to be closer to averaging the projectile 'stream' and where on the target it hits.  One can lose parts of the plane - ailerons, flaps, elevators, etc. - so I would venture that target-specific calculations are done.

Even in Aces High there are people that "swear" by PF, as well as those that "swear at" PF (more evidence that the "best" sim is whatever the user likes more -hehe)

I like the compromises taken in Aces High for the sake of accuracy v playability.  You are, however, forcing me to reach out and buy PF, if only to "find out what it's all about".  Then I'll be able to give an better subjective opinion of my likes and dislikes.

(Note:  Any "box" sim that the AI can easily shoot me down is not a "good" sim in my opinoin!     which at this time is my main gripe against IL2)

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"averaging the projectile 'stream' and where on the target it hits" is a very smart compromise to conserve CPU cycles, and made IL-2 playable on a lot of machines that can't run PF.  It works great too, with AC that have high ROF weapons (MGs).  In fact, with all the peashooters on the early Hurricanes, it would be overkill to track every hit. 

The problem ppl had in IL-2 was with the  slow firing cannon like the P-39's 37mm. 
You could get 50m behind a FW-190, pop off a single round right into its wing, and it would fly on as if nothing happened, because there weren't enough projectiles to average out what the results would be (I guess).

The AI has certainly "evolved" in PF, but it is still to be avoided.  Here's an experience I had just a couple of days ago:

I was practicing off-line in the F6F-3, 8 v 8 against A6M5a's.  After all the Zekes were down, I went back to my carrier and went into the pattern.  The hole in my right wing threw off my first attempt, so I gave her full power and passed the boat on the left, slightly below the level of the deck.  My AI wing man stayed in tight formation with me the whole time, and smacked right into stern of the boat.  The explosion blew off my rudder and right aileron, but luckily no fire on the carrier.   I did manage a decent trap on the next attempt, so all's well that ends well