I was gonna wait until a few more versions came out before posting what I'd like to see in the game, but I figure, what the hey, this is beta so now's the time to make suggestions. I know of about 30 items that I'd like to see addressed, but I'll stick with my personal top 10, which don't include the "obvious" features that others are clamoring for. I'm sure many of these things are planned in upcoming versions, but just in case anything slips thru the cracks, here's what I'd like to see, sorted roughly by priority:
1. Maneuver kills. These add a whole new dimension to the game and reward smart flying. The addition of the nice hilly terrain we're seeing will make this an even more important (and fun) factor in the game. DoA had 'em, and I miss them.
2. Mutual kills. Not sure how WB does it, but when I blow somebody's wing off in a head on and he blows my wing off as well, we should BOTH get kills, not just the last one who happens to hit the ground. I suggest that whether you die or not, you should get the same credit for any kills in the previous sortie as if you're alive, unless you log off or begin a new sortie. DoA would give credit in the message buffer, but it wouldn't count in the score, which I never understood.
3. Ditch credit. Forcing someone to ditch should be worth something. DoA did not have this at all and it was a real flaw, imho.
4. Icon switch showing friendly plane types. Very important when engaging in a furball to know what planes friendlies are flying.
5. Plane visibility. The hi-res ground textures makes seeing some enemy planes against the base (non-mtn) ground texture very difficult at 1000 down to 500 yards (800 x 600 res with zoom on). This may be realistic, but the problem is that players using the lo-res textures will have an advantage.
6. Colored radio text. Make the radio edit field with a black background and use the same color as will be displayed when the message is sent. I'm constantly sending my message to the wrong channel because it's easy to miss which button is indented when you're in a rush.
7. Documentation. Please document as much about the game as possible, and include it with the download. This is extremely important for newbies, and will be important in getting the community to grow. The Web page is a good start, but there's lots of stuff about this game that we all know from WB and DoA, so we tend to take stuff for granted. Getting a whole new segment of people excited in this game is very important. I see a lot of "newbies" complaining about things that most of us are used to, so it's important to answer those issues right off the bat. Each input key should have a few sentences as to its function. The stuff Indian did is a good start. There's a substantial number of things I don't see in the Game Info section (such as killshooter, the fuel multiplier, and field captures). Also, the Web site is having problems showing the dot commands using Netscape (I'm using version 4.51), so an offline doc is even more important.
8. Less mouse reliance. I know the mouse is more intuitive, but after a few days I shouldn't be forced to use it. Both the mouse and a corresponding dot command should be available. For example, I believe the only way I can bring up a roster in flight is with the mouse (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm already maxed out with my keyboard and joystick, so the last thing I want to do is fumble for my mouse to bring up a roster. I really don't care about who's on when I'm in flight, I'm more interested in the numbers. So typing in ".ros" could just show me the numbers in the text buffer (ala DoA).
9. Sortie score. I dont' believe there's a way to see how you did in the just-completed sortie.
10. Squadron credit. Kill messages should show the Squadron of the killer.
Like I said, I have other issues that are more important, but they've been discussed numerous times on the forum already. Just want to make sure these are addressed as well. Keep up the great work
ko
