Strike Fighters series 2

Hyper Staff Joined: Jan 14, 2004 Posts: 506 Location: USA

The Strike Fighters 2 series (Third Wire) includes Strike Fighters 2, Wings Over Vietnam 2, Wings Over Europe 2 and Wings Over Israel 2. They are improvements over the older first series. The first series had multiplay capability, but it was buggy and connecting to other people a tought thing to do. Series 2 fixed that problem by removing multiplay entirely. Yah, you read it right, they took it out completely rendering the sims single player only and congradulating themselves for such a great fix. Really makes one wonder why the person who coded those sims skipped his business management classes in college. It really is a crying shame because those sims had so much potential. So if you are looking at those sims and want to play multiplay, I suggest you spend your money elsewhere because it's not going to happen.

CombatAce was one of the major sites that supported those sims, offering all sorts of addons and mods. CA was a great place at one time, but it's been taken over by the single player people and anyone mentioning multiplay are demonized there. They are no longer MP friendly. The MP communtiy tried to make a positive change in all this but have been effectively silenced. They've given up and have moved elsewhere. It's to bad because all those really nice mods and such have no showcase, no online advertisment. There's just a handful of modders there now telling themselves how great they are and nobody using thier creations. I can only imagine what might have been if the multiplay and single play communities embraces one another.

One can only hope this will turn around someday. But it probably won't happen till Third Wire faces bankrupsy. And CombatAce needs to change their attitudes towards the multiplay community. If those two things can happen, then we'll have something extremely exciting. Until that happens, there is nothing there for anyone here.

But this old dog has given up. He's jumping ship on the next boat out.

Hyper Staff Joined: Jan 14, 2004 Posts: 506 Location: USA

Streakeagle recently posted this at CombatAce compairing Falcon 2, LOMAC, and the Strike Fighter series. I thought I'd copy his posting here before some there didn't agree with his opinion and had it removed. It's a good honest evaluation of the 3 sims.
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Graphics
Falcon 4.0 has addons to enhance graphics, but anyone who has played modern games can see F4.0 is a generation behind.
Likewise, SFP1 series has limited detail for terrain compared to modern sims, but the aircraft/ground object details and textures are unbeatable.
LOMAC set a new standard that slowed down even the best hardware available when it was released and still drops framerates substantially with max quality settings in certain situations.
1) LOMAC
2) SFP1/WOV/WOE
3) Falcon 4.0

Difficulty/Realism (especially avionics)
Falcon 4.0 set a standard that has only been challenged by Jane's F/A-18.
LOMAC is done well, but lacks the clickable cockpit and dynamic campaigns.
SFP1 series is called a "sim-lite" by its own creator, but certain elements are actually capable of being more realistic than any sim currently available, but not out-of-the-box.
1) Falcon 4.0
2) LOMAC
3) SFP1/WOV/WOE

Gameplay
Falcon 4.0 is very scalable, toned down it is as easy to play as SFP1 series. Scaled up, it is the most challenging combat flight sim ever released (thought Jane's F/A-18 runs a close 2nd).
SFP1 is fun and can be very challenging, but the AI has its limitations which can destroy immersion and make the game too easy even on hardest stettings.
LOMAC isn't too much different than Falcon 4.0 or SFP1, but the environment seems more sterile and the modern avionics/weapons make air-to-air combat a boring stand-off BVR fight between missiles, radar, and ecm. If you can get in close for a good gunfight, it is fun. Air-to-ground operations are fairly detailed and interesting.
1) Falcon 4.0
2) SFP1/WOV/WOE
3) LOMAC

Multiplayer
LOMAC is so solid for online conectivity that it is used by the virtual Thunderbirds. The built-in ability to fly opposing sides provides a good environment for squad vs squad fights.
Falcon 4.0 is pretty good for online in its latest implementation (Allied Force), but leans toward co-op with its focus on flying F-16s.
SFP1 series simply does not provide enough multiplayer options to hold interest for most online players. Connectivity has its issues as well.
1) LOMAC
2) Falcon 4.0
3) SFP1/WOV/WOE

Variety
SFP1 series is king here: almost no limit to what you can fly or where you can fly. Number and quantity of addons is unbelievable and most are free.
LOMAC out-of-the-box isn't bad, but doesn't leave much room for addons beyond reskinning unless you enjoy flying aircraft that have the same cockpit/capability of a stock aircraft while using a different 3d model.
Falcon 4.0 has tons of addons and to a certain extent allows you to fly other aircraft, but clearly this sim is focused on flying Falcons and at this point those marketing Falcon 4 Allied Force don't want anyone distributing the kind of mods that kept Falcon 4 around for so long.
1) SFP1/WOV/WOE
2) LOMAC
3) Falcon 4.0

While I own all of these sims (and many more), the combination of limited time and personal preferences leave me playing primarily the SFP1 series and WOV in particular.
I like the historical flavor and much prefer flying F-4s, F-105s, F-8s, F-100s, A-4s, etc. I also prefer using older weapons that are unreliable and have limited release envelopes that require far more flying skills and tactics to hit both air and ground targets.
I have done full-blown ramp starts with Falcon 4.0. I think the level of detail is awesome. But I don't have the time to waste and I am bored by air combat dominated by the use of all-aspect heat-seekers (AIM-9L/M) and AMRAAM. For others, Falcon 4.0 is the ultimate in gameplay (hence my labeling it #1 above), but for me, I almost never play it.
I enjoy flying the F-15 in LOMAC, but I am not too excited by using AIM-9L/Ms and AMRAAMs nor by facing opponents equipped with the same or better weapons.