Any mods that improve single player experience?

[Iorwerth]

Hi, I am new to Il-2 and am planning to play single player, at least until i think I have a reasonable handle on things. In the sale i bought a load of campaigns and all the modules, bar Odessa, as well as downloaded PWGC. I am thinking I will probably start with one of the campiagns I bought after flying a few quick missions, unless others think there is a better way to start?

What I was wondering about was whether there were some mods I should be using to improve single player experience? I have read that the AI is not very good, so is there anything I should be adding to improve that? 

Basically just looking for advice about getting the best out of Il-2 as I start to get to grips with it. Any adevice much appreciated 😀

[Mark_Krieger]

There are a lot of interesting mods that you can find in this thread of the forum and on the old one. AI is good or bad dependeing on the plane it flies. I would say it is quite good with the 109 and yaks and bad with 190s and planes that loos too much energy when they turn.

Interesting mods that I usually use in single player:
Correct awards
Il2 ship momentum
IL2 train momentum
Multicoloured tracers 1.3.0
Historical Acurate Skins 
Sun lens glow mod
Prolonged fire and smoke for crashed aircraft
AI gunery pilot spawn delay
Static historically correct german (east or west front)
short grass RE
Better Reticles
Rheinland map mods
Moscow map mods

And many more

 

Edited December 29, 2025 by Mark_Krieger

[Iorwerth]

That is great. Thanks!

What do the map mods do?

Is the AI gunnery pilot spawn delay the same as the Ai gunnery mod I have seen which changes the shooting distances for Ai pilots based on their quality?

 

[kraut1]

3 hours ago, Iorwerth said:

Hi, I am new to Il-2 and am planning to play single player, at least until i think I have a reasonable handle on things. In the sale i bought a load of campaigns and all the modules, bar Odessa, as well as downloaded PWGC. I am thinking I will probably start with one of the campiagns I bought after flying a few quick missions, unless others think there is a better way to start?

What I was wondering about was whether there were some mods I should be using to improve single player experience? I have read that the AI is not very good, so is there anything I should be adding to improve that? 

Basically just looking for advice about getting the best out of Il-2 as I start to get to grips with it. Any adevice much appreciated 😀

If you are new to IL-2 I would suggest to do some training, maybe with the quick mission builder, to get familiar with the flight model.
And before you use mods I suggest to use IL-2 as it is. Maybe you will like it as it is.
Every Player has his individual style of flying / air combat.
Some want play like Arcade, others 100% realistic without helpers like HUD, others are extremely gifted dog fighters with lightning fast reactions and others are maybe total beginners or maybe not so gifted.
And if you encounter some issues / shortcommings after using the stock IL-2 we can help you to find a mod that fits to your requirements
 
 

Integrated in stock IL-2:

-Quick Start: select a map:
          -Quick Missions: 
          -Advanced Quick Missions:
          Note: for short tests with quick loading times use the small Lapino Maps
-Career:
Complex Careeer Mode, currently:
Germany 1941-45 + WW1
Russia: 1941-43 (will be extended soon to late summer 44)
Great Britain + USA: 1944-45 +WW1

-Campaigns
  -Official Campaigns
  - User / Self Created Campaigns
-Missions
  -Official single player missions
  -User / Self Created single player missions.
-Multiplayer 
   -dogfight / cooperative mode (I am a 100% offline player)

- Mission Editor external /but included in IL-2
https://forum.il2-series.com/topic/227-mission-editor-and-multiplayer-server-manual-by-jimtm/

 

External 3rd party:

Pat Wilson Campaign Generator:
-Dynamic Campaign Generator with advanced Squadron Management
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/31229-get-pwcg-here/

Easy Mission Generator (EMG) by Vander
-a Advanced Quick Mission Generator with very many parameters for quich / effective SP Mission Generation
-In case of PC performance issues with EMG it is possible to create easily missions with a limited number of planes / ground objects
-suitable for campaign mission generation
https://forum.il2-series.com/topic/140-il2-great-battles-easy-mission-generator/

 

Edited December 29, 2025 by kraut1

[Mark_Krieger]

1 hour ago, Iorwerth said:

That is great. Thanks!

What do the map mods do?

Is the AI gunnery pilot spawn delay the same as the Ai gunnery mod I have seen which changes the shooting distances for Ai pilots based on their quality?

 

The map mods in my opinion improve a lot the visual quality of the map and offer new options for each season. Instead a winter map in Rheinland your have a map with more snow and another map with less snow.

The pilot spawn delay mod just makes that the pilot stays a bit more in the cockpit without disappearing when you kill him. It's a mod done by Stonehouse too (a great modder) that did the gunnery mod, that I find quite interesting and more realistic but makes careers, campaigns and missions really difficult, because editors plan their missions based on the standard gunnery skill of the AI pilots.

[kraut1]

1 hour ago, Iorwerth said:

That is great. Thanks!

What do the map mods do?

Is the AI gunnery pilot spawn delay the same as the Ai gunnery mod I have seen which changes the shooting distances for Ai pilots based on their quality?

 

And if you don't like the default AAA AI suggest to try the AAA Mod by Stonehouse.
 

 

[Iorwerth]

Thank you all for your replies. I really appreciate the advice. i think for the beginning I will just learn the basics without mods and then progress from there - start with quick missions and then try a campaign or two. Was thinking of starting with ten days of autumn, unless another campaign might be a better start?

[kraut1]

47 minutes ago, Iorwerth said:

Thank you all for your replies. I really appreciate the advice. i think for the beginning I will just learn the basics without mods and then progress from there - start with quick missions and then try a campaign or two. Was thinking of starting with ten days of autumn, unless another campaign might be a better start?

I think it's a good campaign, but I myself have not tried it.
https://stormbirds.blog/2017/06/11/reviewing-ten-days-of-autumn/

Another camapign that could be interesting for you is the:
https://forum.il2-series.com/topic/104-official-historical-campaign-kerch-eltigen-operation-bf-109-g-6/
I have started this campaign some days ago and the missions are mostly short range missions close to the airfield.

 

[Iorwerth]

Thanks. I will check it out. I thought I might do campaigns in chronological order - no real reason, but thought it might be fun to follow the air war in that way as planes improve.

Also, I read that reducing gama helps you spot enemies - is that worth doing?

 

[kraut1]

22 hours ago, Iorwerth said:

Thanks. I will check it out. I thought I might do campaigns in chronological order - no real reason, but thought it might be fun to follow the air war in that way as planes improve.

Also, I read that reducing gama helps you spot enemies - is that worth doing?

 

Spotting planes:

-There is a general option in the game Settings for easier spotting / planes are a bit bigger.
-In general spotting planes with Monitor is not a problem, I will see them as small dots in ca. 15km distance.
-With VR spotting of planes is sometimes not so easy. But this depends on your Hardware and the game settings
My VR Headset and my computer are nearly 6 years old, still sufficient for IL-2, but so I don't know what is possible with modern hardware today.

[Scaryflyer2025]

off-winters kuban,autumn,North Africa desert mod is a must have mod,gives a realistic desert scenerio to fly in.highly recommended