We now have several days of simming with the new version and I feel compelled to evaluate
it based on my own limited observations (B-17, P-51, Me-109, Maccii, Spitfire and Nk1).
Overall a nice piece of work. The new smoke and debris effects are stupendous and the addition of stress effects, sounds (including rushing air) have added nicely to what is shaping up as the one sim to beat.
However, some things seem way whacked out.
I understand that more work is needed but I am still uncomfortable with several issues
and hope dearly that things fall into place nicely: The stress failure on P-51s is totally out of balance with respect to that particular FM. Although the P-51 historically shyed away from ground support due to its coolant vulnerability, I cant take this plane into combat. It simply dies too easliy with me at the controls. I enjoy a scrap but if success requires only the bounce and extend then I am not going to be successfull. In any event, having this current stress fatique model without proper drag modeling is simply a disaster waiting to happen in the Z&B 51. The Nk1 is shaping up to be a Ki-43 with A8 lethality and doesnt suffer from any perceptable stress failures that I have encountered. Kudos here to Torque for flying that baby to the edge and beyond in a very respectable manner.
The Spitfire now has the the legendary *climb away* capability that only the 109 has historically had in flight sims previous.
In summary: this version is the best yet but has consequently generated more work needing to be done than any previous release.
Heres to future times!
Yeager