I was curious as to how I was doing, so took a look at my name under the "player vs any" category.
"Frlancer has 30 kills and has been killed 61 times"
Now, this isn't right... I told myself. Then I got to wondering how this is kept. Not too long ago I had like 15 kills and 64 deaths (might have been 61, I concede, but was in the 60's). I know I didn't get 15 kills any time soon. I got one as I was along at 20k in an isolated map grid (dunno why, but why question it?), got 1-2 on fighters, but I got shot down at least 6-8 times that night alone!
So I started checking by plane... And there were some discrepencies....
It said I had no kills no deaths in an n1k. But I did fly the plane, like twice, and was shot down both times. Maybe 3, don't remember, stopped flying it. I flew the F4uC and D, and was shot down in them both, but no record of either (again, no kills
)
Anybody else got any similar discrepencies?
On a side note, I think my 2-week trial is up. Probably won't be able to log in tonight. Don't have the cash to pay for it, but I would if I could. 'Tis a fun game HTC has here, but if I can make some comments on the gameplay and whatnot:
From my 2 weeks, I've noticed:
1) Lack of coordination in players. It is a very team-based game, but most people lone-gun it in fighters. I've done it myself. But it makes capturing anything impossible. If you have even 3 pilots coordinated, you can take a field in minutes. Rarely does this happen so well.
2) "dweeb" planes... Nothing makes them "dweeb" planes except the fact that you don't need as much skill to do it. That doesn't mean if a good pilot flies one he's a dweeb. It just means the good pilot knows how to use it better. I was still pissed when the dweebs got me, tho'
3) Too damn far! Takes way too long to move any armor anywheres.... Some go downhill, sure, but some places just can't get armor from any nearby v-fields. And I am pretty sure that tanks in WW2 typically had a top speed of 40, NOT 24mph... Good GOD the panzer sucks in there... Not to mention Osty aim kinda sucks... Need to make spawn points from v-fields in reasonable locations where we have a flat path, or at least NOT up hill, to the base, so that we can floor it. Also, need to be LESS than 25 miles away (one full map sector) because that's just over an hour's drive time for nothing. (24mph)
4) Needs better documentation. It has none right now, but the stuff on this webpage is minimal, and not too helpful to the seasoned gamer.
5) It's not as hard as you think. Flying itself in here is easy. Actually moving from point A to point B is a breeze. I've had flight experience before in multiple sims, so that had a minimal learning curve. What really is hard is gunnery. That has the longest learning curve I've ever seen. And why is it a B17 can shoot you down at 1k while you, with the same guns, can't hit it til 500yards?
6) when I've gunned for bombers, I could never unjoin. Every time I typed ".unjoin" it would pop up a box saying ".join <userid>" like it thought I was trying to join somebody and was mis-typing it. So I could never leave a bomber pilot, even after he was done bombing. (P.S., Did the Lancaster really have such LOW ammo counts???)
7) The action itself is rather fun once you're settled in and all comfy with the flight engine, but you still wish you had wingmen dedicated to clearing your six. Or you wanna be a wingman to clear your pal's six. There's almost no formation flying. I did watch a practice of some Italian squadron (was for a scenario) and they formation flew Ju88's, which was a fresh change. But most bombers are strung out, undefended by any escort. Most large encounters devolve into huge furballs with nothing but fighters at every altitude... If there was any teamwork, they'd be cleared and the field flattened and captured. Instead, the base is repeatedly pounded by bombers, but the fighters shoot those down, and the base is never fully shut down, and, etc. While this can be fun for the die-hard fighter pilot, it sucks for gameplay. Trust me. I went in swinging, sure. I'm not without fault.
I took a pony in and killed an n1k that was rtb, sure. It felt good too, cause it was a "dweeb" plane
(and some jerk in a dweeb n1k was chute strafing me the previous day -- revenge is sweet)
8) sounds are much better than WB, which I have played HTH and offline. (WB offline cheats like hell tho, no physics involved with it, planes making 90 degree turns while nosing down into the ground at 500mph and pulling up without hitting or taking stress damage.) But, need to fix them so that you don't get 10-20 blaring-loud seconds of gunfire hitting you when you've already returned to the tower (ow! my ears!!! argh!).
The game has potential, it truly does. For me it's too expensive, however. Much like Tribes pubbing, it's uncoordinated and more lone-wolf than team-oriented. However, with a larger player-base, I think that would probably change. With more players, people would simply *have* to coordinate, or die. Right? So, with 200/300 players, we might really see squadrons being formed and playing at the same time. Bombers flying in formation to cover each other with guns. Fighters flying long escort for those bombers. That would just rule. Now, I make a disclaimer: I know it's not WITHOUT teamwork. I have seen some effective teamwork. But it may just be isolated missions/incidents/the occasional squad night. On the whole, in general, is what I mean. I dunno why, but I prefer the drilling aspect of squad-night flying, the "I know what my mission is, you know what yours is" feel.
Well, that's all I have to say for now. Really wish I could stay, get to learn gunnery better, maybe some decent ACM (mine suck)
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-Freelancer
