A grudging respect for at least one part of AH2

[Wanker]

In all honesty, I have been completely unimpressed with AH2, and am just hanging in here because I love my squadmates and can't stand to be without them on a Friday night.

That being said, I did have one fantastic fight so far in AH2, with Wespe last Friday night. He was in a P-38L, I was in a C205.  We engaged with similar energy and got into this really strange, looping fight where neither of us could gain the advantge over the other. After about 5 minutes of this, an FW190 showed up on the scene to help Wespe out, and this FW eventually got the kill on me.

It had to be one of the strangest fights I ever had in over 4 years of AH. We must've went through 25 loops(if not more) before the FW showed up.

So, I am starting to appreciate the new FM's. I like them from what I've seen so far.

As for the graphics and other elements of AH2......well, my mama raised me to not say anything if I can't say anything nice, so I'll just zip it for now. Wonder how many others are just zipping it for now, too?

[Westy]

Won't open til Christmas or TOD...whichever comes first

[Hyrax81st]

(I am "zipping it" because I came from AW2, AW3 and AWMV so anything is an improvement, graphically).

I agree with your assessment about more intense fights. I have had some 5 and even 7 minute fights (1 on 1) where neither of us could get a gun solution until the last moment when 1 of us made our 1st and last ACM mistake.

Landing 1 or 2 kills after some of these battles is a moment of great pride. I don't begrudge a 2nd plane coming in to nail me if it's obvious that I am interrupting a mission or base capture effort. I do hate it, though, when we are the only 2 over the water 10K from land and someone comes out to cherry-pick.

C'est la vie...

[Stang]

Zipped    

[MOIL]

Zip:rolleyes:

[TweetyBird]

I agree with the better fights. With more people, they're a little harder to find (gota dodge the hordes) but they're worth looking for. Found two last night, and the best one, I think I only landed one ping, but it was intense. It started out a 1vs 1 but ended as a 3 vs 3. I was toast, but a squadmate and another firendly came in to bail me out. I dunno how long it lasted but it felt like 10 minutes

Also had a few very short fights last night. Kept running into this guy called Lizard. I hate Lizard (j/k)

[Jasta]

My favorite thing is still bouncing unsuspecting enemies.

I got some sweet gun cam footage of a bounce on 2 F6Fs attacking a Vehicle Base... they never saw t coming. But then they came back 10 minutes later and nailed me.


And there are a few fights to be found.

[gofaster]

I've noticed more people in C.205s.  Did the gunnery improve in that thing?  It flew well enough but the guns really sucked in AH1.

[Eagler]

to appreciate the graphics you really need a setup that pushes 1280x1024 at a decent fps

huge improvement over AH1 at that res

[Wanker]

Originally posted by Eagler
to appreciate the graphics you really need a setup that pushes 1280x1024 at a decent fps

huge improvement over AH1 at that res

Eagler, I wish I could agree, and I'm running at 1600x1200x32@ 85 hz with 4x FSAA and 8x AF.  With my rig at these settings, I'm getting consistent fps in the low 80's.

I just don't see any real major sense of graphical improvement over AH1.  Not yet, anyway.

Edit: I should add, btw, that I do like the new gunnery model. It's seems more realistic and has cut down on the spraying & praying.

So, now there are two things I like.

[715]

I would respectfully disagree.

On the ground, the graphics are way better and the ground war is infinitely more interesting with all the extra polygons giving places to hide.  But many people ignore the ground war, so what about the air...

Of course, when you're in the air graphics are much less important.  The ground is far away and all that extra polygon resolution is of little importance.  This is especially true because the terrains we have now are, I believe, just modified version of AH1 terrains, with re-routed (and more realistic) roads, forests planted, and some extra small scale resolution in humps and bumps.  Give it time- I would hazard a guess that when the first terrain comes out that is designed specifically for AH2 (rather than being modified from AH1) the eye candy will be better from the air as well as the ground.  The new graphics engine affords more opportunity to designers to make better terrains.  Some early choices aren't ideal in my opinion (for example, town buildings are rather dark and monochrome).  But that will probably change as time goes on.

When it comes to plane eye candy- that really only counts when you're offline and F3 (or you look out at your own wing textures).  When you're in a fight, even photorealistic graphics would be pointless since what your are attacking is just a tiny fast moving blur anyway.

The only other graphic elements important from the air are clouds and smoke effects- and here too I think AH2 is way better than AH1, at least for clouds and ack bursts.

Apart from graphics, the enhanced flight models and gunnery has made dogfights substantially more intense- I now have to pull inside of 200 yds to get a kill.

The only thing I am not a super fan of is the high fuel usage (and short range).  I suppose I will get used to that with time by changing my tactics.

In my opinion AH2 is a significant enhancement over AH1.

[LePaul]

It seems to be getting there, slowly yet surely.

For me, the bugs and various glitches are outright annoying to the point of saying goodbye for a while.  Account deleted, program uninstalled.  We'll visit again in a few months.  The fun factor isnt there for me.

[Wanker]

Originally posted by 715
I would respectfully disagree.

On the ground, the graphics are way better and the ground war is infinitely more interesting with all the extra polygons giving places to hide.  But many people ignore the ground war, so what about the air...

 

You have a point there, 715. But whenever I try to be impressed by the ground foliage in AH2, I end up logging into WW2OL and comparing the two. There is no comparison, of course. CRS' graphics engine blows the AH2 engine totally out of the water.

[Eagler]

the sun glare

icon change

better skins - different - just cause the p51 is green doesn't make it a B

cockpits seem higher def on som planes, like the way the sun glints off the gunsight leather in the cane and others

planes look fantastic in zoom mode

oil graphics better

ships smoke and fire graphics is improvement

3d trees, ground stuff

everything about the bases, from the new buildings/radar tower to the layout - better looking and more fun

stop your whining banana and see the glass as half full instead of half empty
 

[Wanker]

Originally posted by Eagler

stop your whining banana and see the glass as half full instead of half empty
 

Ok, ok. Fair enough. You make some valid points. I did try to point out that AH2 was not a total disaster.

But,  log onto WW2OL sometime and come back and try to tell me that their terrain/foliage is not the most realistic environment graphics you've ever seen.