Which career and campaigns should I go for?

[andysonofbob]

Hi

I have a proper first world problem here and would be grateful for some guidance.

I have slowly collected all of the maps but there is no way that I will be able to complete all of them.  I love the sound of careers as I like to roleplay but see there are campaigns too.

If you were to pick one career to get immersed in and maybe a couple of campaigns too, which would you recommend?

I quite enjoy spectacle and I recently upgraded my PC, so any map that shows of what IL2 can do visually, in VR would be great.  I'd rather not have to travel too far but appreciate that I can select squadrons closest to the action. I think I like missions where I have to attack bases, infrastructure etc the most.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[sandmarken]

I would go for campaigns. The missions, made in great detail by hand, are just 10 times more interesting than the career mode generated missions. Do them all! The free ones first, then the community-made ones, and if you still want more, do the paid DLCs. I'll recommend starting with Hürtgen Forest, Wild Mustang, and Russpoli at Odessa first! Or just find one for a plane and setting you find interesting. They are mostly all very good campaigns.

Edited June 13 by sandmarken

[AndreiTomescu]

Scripted campaigns.

I've tried several careers, on all the maps: each mission is a somehow "go-there-meet-enemy-do your job-come back". The world is .....not there, around you. It didn't catch me. PWCG is a tad better, but still....not quite my hopes.

Scripted campaigs: it's like your acting in a war movie. There are zillions of things all over the place. The world seems alive around you, and independent of you.

Sandmarken's stories: better than a book, afterwards you've felt like you've lived that .

Vendigo's constant surprises: anything can change everything.

Black6 's incredible world, with tons of ground and air assets.

Jaegermeister's resurrection of each plane's model adventures.

Juri's persuasion for bringing each plane role into action.

AEtheltaedUnraed's inventions that actually modify the hole game experience.

Samson's, JadeMonkey's ,Tip's Veteranen's, Saldy's older campaigns that set the standards and are fully awesome even today.

All those elements from above, in different quantities but in max quality, you'll find in a GOOD scripted campaign (not all are that good, some are career level).

But in some campaigns, the level of immersion, induced by those elements, is huge. 

These guys making hand made campaigns, they spend hundreds of hrs into making one. And that's obvious from the start.

 

 

Edited June 14 by AndreiTomescu

[AndreiTomescu]

To choose a campaign, i'd chosee a favourite plane, then map, then timeframe.....

If you want i can give some hints based on your preferences. I've done them almost all, some several times. Of course i have my favorites.

[Kubert]

I tested some careers with various difficulty settings. It is possible to make them immersive enough, sometimes even more than enough.  They give a player freedom which campaigns don't, so I wouldn't discard them completely. Especially when you play as a squad leader, you can tweak a waypoints, number of a planes, their armament, pick a pilots with various experience (rank) for easier or harder missions and like that affect their survival a little bit. You can fly completely out of planned path if you encounter any obsticle, like big clouds in a way, or something and mission still works. Another benefit of career is, you can bail out or do emergency landing behind friendly lines and still progress to next day, without mission restart.

Of course some careers are more immersive then the others. Depends on battlefield and aircraft. For example, P-47 career need some improvisation in planning and proper difficulty settings to be more or less immersive. If you leave everything as it is, your flight will be slaughtered very often in low level turnfights. But, for example BF-109 career si self balancing. You can let every difficulty setting on medium and it will work perfectly with reasonable losses to kills ratio.

I currently make my way through official scripted campaigns, with half of them already finished. Once career mode for a new maps will be finished, I have intention to survive entire war in it, in Iron man mode. Can't wait for that.  

I don't  know what would I recommend. It very depends on your preferences. If you are more into Luftwaffe, Red Air Force or Western allies and what role you prefer to fly.

[Varibraun]

Hi @andysonofbob

I would 2nd what @Kubert says above about Careers.  I also recommend trying both Career and Campaigns.  Here is how I am currently playing Careers for immersion and to get a "full" WWII experience of the aircraft and theatres you have purchased.  Plus you should seriously consider adding @Arrow_1974's Career/Campaign Tracker mod if you want the most squadron level immersion I have ever seen:

1.  Start your career in the earliest timeframe available to you (I actually start 2, axis/allies and switch off each month if your pilot survives that long).

2. Check the Ironman block (i.e. dead is dead) and chose random settings under options (or match your skill level if necessary).

3.  Chose the option for Rapid career progress.

4. Choose a squadron close to the lines if you want quicker action.

5. Play your pilot until killed or captured, then restart another career at the beginning of the NEXT chapter in that theater to keep things moving forward in the war (you can choose the same squadron).

6.  Use transfers if necessary to continue to carry your pilot's career forward into the next theatre if he survives. 

7.  Rinse and repeat to fly through all the theatres you own to experience the entire war and watch the aircraft tech improve as you progress.  You will also have a feeling of accomplishment the longer you can keep your pilot alive and a sense of danger about being killed or captured that I find makes my flying probably somewhat more realistic regarding my virtual life.

8.  As an amazing immersion bonus, using @Arrow_1974's recently developed mod, you can keep continuity with your wingmen, have additional promotions & award descriptions that match the events in the career, and even develop an entire personal and squadron narrative (optional).  Here is that thread:

Happy flights!

[AndreiTomescu]

Next level in campaigns, making them dynamical, would be LuftManu's project: the PvE world. but I haven't had the guts to go there yet. Still, it might be the next level, since the world is fully populated: it's frustrating otherwise to veer from the path and find an empty world. To this aspect, i truly believe Korea and its successors to be a step forward. 

[Kubert]

50 minutes ago, Varibraun said:

chose random settings under options

Can't random settings generate insane difficulty spikes from time to time? I don't really understand how this randomisation works. It is just lottery from difficulty settings or it is somehow based on map and timeframe?

Edited June 14 by Kubert

[Varibraun]

7 minutes ago, Kubert said:

Can't random settings generate insane difficulty spikes from time to time? I don't really understand how this randomisation works. It is just lottery from difficulty settings or it is somehow based on map and timeframe?

Yes, but my philosophy is know when to get out and abort the mission and hightail it for home.  But as Dire Straits said..."somedays you're the bug" in the immersion game.

[spreckair]

5 hours ago, Varibraun said:

Yes, but my philosophy is know when to get out and abort the mission and hightail it for home. 

This!!!  When your mind is as a gamer, it is easy to forget that in real life dying is forever.  If you are as immersed as you can be, then fleeing can be life.

[Cardolan]

I'll always pick dynamic careers over scripted campaigns. The variety they provide is unmatched and if you decide to play them in ironman mode, the challenge and immersion given are unsurpassed.

To put it simply, I would not have bought the game if there were only static missions to be performed in sequence, no matter how well scripted they were. With a dynamic career feature, the devs gained a full supporter for this western corner of the iberian peninsula.