Storytelling in F4AF and Il-2

Although the majority of my published AAR's cover Il-2, i also posted AAR's based on F4AF. In today's post I'd like to compare the two flight sims and how well they are suited for story-telling.

First of is Falcon 4 Allied Force: its the oldest sim of the two. By default a button is allocated to take screenshots (essential for an AAR). Those screenshots are stored in two separate directories: \Pictures\UI\ and \Pictures\Simulation\. The UI directory contains all screenshots you take from the user interface like briefings, maps, weapon load-outs. Screenshots made during flight are stored in the directory Simulation.

If you want take a screenshot during flight, you are forced to pause the game, select the camera angle and take the shot by pressing the print screen button. You could try to do this without pausing, but that would mean leaving your aircraft unattended while you are setting up the shot. So with each screenshot, you have to consider whether you want to risk your plane (and mission) for that elusive shot. Also when things get hot (you are dodging a missile or are right on the tail of a MIG) you have not much time to jump out of the cockpit. To make matters worse, frequently pausing the game also breaks the fun and immersion.

Story wise, there is not much to work with. After each mission you have a set of screenshots, some of which are great while others are plain waste of hard disk space. Out that heap of shots you have to force a storyline, which is not easy. In Charging Dragon I solved this by using the 'journalist mode', the story is told by the pilot to a journalist (or historian). In other words, the screenshots dictated the story I would tell, limiting the fantasy I could create. Because of this, F4AF stories tend to be screenshot-diaries.

This will certainly apparent with my latest series of F4AF AAR's that I am writing, where I decided not tell any story, just plain facts. These AAR's are not yet published although I am considering releasing 3 or 4 stories right after my next IL-2 storyline.


Compared to F4AF, Il-2 is a dream to write stories. IL-2 has a build-in recorder which allows you to tape entire missions and play them back afterwards with all the FX as they appeared in the original flight. As a result I can fly the mission without worrying about screenshots. I just tape the important parts (take-off, landing and combat). Afterwards I can replay the mission, pause the play-back and take those shots I want, hence the writing process is completely different from F4AF.

Usually I first fly all the missions of a campaign, recording each mission and taking notes of those missions with memorable events. Afterwards (and sometimes duringgame-play ) I choose a storyline. This can be inspired by the storyline provided by the campaign-maker or it can be a fabrication of my mind. I then replay the missions that suit the storyline and take the screenshots that I want. The missions do influence the story I choose, but they have far less impact compared to F4AF - storytelling. Also Il-2 stories have far less screenshots and those shots are usually used to stress the written story (in F4AF, the text is more commentary to the shots).


If you want to see the difference, check out the Charging Dragon Series or the latest entry in Mosquito Ace, which can be found at SimHQ or at my blog-novel.

Next week I will discuss why so few if no flight simulations make it to console games.

Happy Reading