Hello all,
First for a new beta produced in about 90 days this thing is awesome! I was expecting all kinds of trouble with installation and get it up and running. Nope no problems with installation or setting up the account, and she flew right outta the box. so to speak.
The flight model:
Well to be honest only had one flight in the spit and the 109 but about 30-40 in the Mustang. The FM is fantastic the P-51 feels like it weighs a ton but keep the speed up and she handles like a dream. I tried all kinds of stalls and spins.
Stalls, Look out! When she departs it will be without any warning like mushy controls or that wallowing feeling. Nope, flying like on rails going exactly where you point it, stall warning "rattling"? and all of a sudden bang, a wing goes down and into a spin.
Spins, Seem very well done and realistic to recover from. If the spin has fully developed oppisite rudder and nose down to stop the spin and add power to pull out. One wierd thing though, in one spin it didn't want to stop until I added aileron oppisite to the spin which is backwards from what I thought.
Drag/wieght, This is done very well. I took off with full fuel and 1000# Wow that was hard and the best climb I could get was about 750'/min. I didn't fly around with them for very long so didn't really notice how much speed was effected but the impression was it was severly reduced. Another thing I didn't notice was a small vertical surge when I dropped them. Should I have?
Graphics:
Well I know that the 3D cockpits allow all kinds of features that can't be done with 2D, but I'm sorry I think the 2D cockpits look better. But with all the added features the 3D cockpits provide is worth the hit in asthetics. Speaking of features, the movable head position and the ability to save those views is outstanding, even possibly too generous.
The terrain is beautiful. Yes it's just a bunch of green flat with a mountain range, but those mountains! fantastic shadows and lighting. I can see some wonderful terrains coming.
The cockpit shakey thingy is kinda over done IMHO every movement of the stick no matter how small causes a small earth quake in the cockpit. I have stopped using the zoom feature during gunnery because the cockpit shake throws the gunsite all over the sky.
Now I know that most of all of the SFX are temporary but some of the things I'd like to see changed. First the hit sprits look to cartoony kinda this static little smoke puff. Second the tracers, from the gunsight the're kinda neat but seen from another plane they look like a lazer light show
The prop animation on start up and shutdown, the landing gear sequencing is perfect I love it. The flaps need the same treatment.
Sounds:
The sounds haven't been all added yet but the ones they have are great, with the possible exception of the stall warning. I don't know what it should sound like but the one being used is kinda grating on the nerves
Interface: I like the clipboard, although when moving around I'd like to see it tuck outta the way or add a pilot figure to go with it. Also I'd like to see the clip board return to view after being minimized in the same relitive position in the screen and sized like it was when minimized. I personally like the walking around, but if it's going to stay make it slower. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster moving down the tower. A lot of people don't like it so I think it should be optional but make hyperspacing take the same amount of time as it currently takes to move from place to place to curtail the die/replane/die/replane scenerio.
Accuracy:
As this is a new beta a lot of things are still not implemented but some of the things I noticed. The flaps deploy fully at all speeds and instantly.
Ammo counters, with the obvious special effects that can be done with the tracers I'd like to see these go away, replaced with maybe tracers on all rounds of the last 10-15% of the ammo.
Head postion, although I really like this feature it seems that you can virtually stand up in the cockpit. Something that will get tweaked I'm sure.
Otto, I noticed that the buffs didn't have any
I know that real bombers didn't have auto gunners but is the intention to make the defensive guns on bombers manned only by players, or is otto just not implemented yet?
Overall impression:
The current FE is a 3.5meg download and it contains features and graphics that others ten times it size don't have imagine what this will be when it's a 30meg download
The FM is great, the graphics are gonna be fantasic with a few tweaks, THIS IS GONNA BE ONE HELL OF A SIM! Great job HT and Company and thanks for the oppertunity to play in the Beta.
Im sure as soon as I post this I'll think of something I forgot but this pretty much covers it.
Sharky
