Author Topic: The effects of the changes 2003 to 2004 (Read 2681 times)

Wurger · « **Reply #60 on:** October 20, 2004, 11:49:35 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Killjoy2
AH2 is not fun for me. It's boring. specifically what is boring is the herd mentality of fighting. The gangbanging is boring. I don't do it anymore. OK a little.

AH2 is frustrating for me. Specifically what is frustrating is the flights of Lancs and B17s at 500 feet. They can't be ignored, so you just dive in and kill a few and die yourself. I might as well play quake. It's dumb.

The HTC staff must be Democrats. Only a Democrat could come up with ENY. ENY makes a 3rd world out of the most successful. It takes from the rich but gives nothing to the poor. It promises a better future and ignores the root problems. Maybe HTC is trying to lure more Democrats into the game? Who want's Al Sharpten for a squad leader. Oh crap I'm getting off topic.

AH2 ground game is fun. It's fun because its often man to man fighting. There is team work, you can resupply your friends and the gunnery takes skill. I enjoy the teamwork it takes to capture a base. A lot of others do too.

AH2 now caters to quake personalities and I personally think it's on-the-way-out. I've been playing since WB's .95 or so and I've been through all the stages of getting bored etc. This is different.

What a load of crap...

I like low buffs because they are easier to catch and kill than 35K buffs. If you dont like them, keep killing them and they'll stop coming!

ENY rarely goes into effect now, and when it does, JUST FLY ANOTHER PLANE! I am so tired of the "i can't fly my batfishoflug right this damn minute so I am going to go pout in the corner like a 2 year old" -- unless of course you are 2 years old. There are many different planes you can fly, and maybe, who knows (I am going out on a limb here) YOU MAY ACTUALLY LIKE SOME OF THEM! Get out of your freaking little shell comfort zone and try something different for once. Who knows, it might even improve your skills at the same time...

Bazi

Pongo · « **Reply #61 on:** October 20, 2004, 01:02:18 PM »

Of course you like them. They are easy kills and you dont fly bombers at all.
Your like living testimony to the failure of the formation-calibration bomber change.

indy007 · « **Reply #62 on:** October 20, 2004, 01:08:36 PM »

Now, granted, I've come over from games (counter-strike, q3 team arena) where it is common to switch sides to even the numbers & skill sets, and even have software enforced auto-balance measures to keep numbers even...

but if you're upset that you're limited in your plane selection, and really want to fly a specific low ENY plane, uh... change sides until the numbers balance out and the ENY restriction goes away? I understand why people don't want to change sides (I wouldn't change from Rooks just to fly an LA-7), but the option is there. Especially if you don't play frequently and logon to fly a certain fighter. You'll get to fly your high-performance fighter in very target-rich environments.

IMHO, ENY is a good thing. It keeps the MA honest. It can even be said it draws its theory from RL armed forces. The US Army doesn't need 1 million troops because of the technological dominance. The NK army needs 1 million lemmings because it is using dated, inferior equipment.

Indy007
ShiznotZ!

sidenote: I've been shifting away from the pony & dora over to 109s. higher ENY, more perks, just as fun. oh, and low level/divebombing lancs need to be kicked in the nuts. The lowest drop I've done all month has been 7k, and I mostly drop from 15k. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if there was a bomb release lockout against high angles & low altitude, unless clear of enemy ground targets so you could dump & run if you had to.

XrightyX · « **Reply #63 on:** October 20, 2004, 01:09:30 PM »

Wurger/Bazi, whatever...

Where in Atlanta do you live? I'm about to graduate from Ga Tech!

But, to your comment (and now that I understand the ENY limiter) I have to say I have mixed feelings...

I think it's great for getting people into other airplanes. That has always been my biggest complaint--95% uber planes running around the MA, but...

If people are leaving the game b/c of it, then that sux. I don't really know if that can be true, though, seems to me if they are so unattached to the game/squad/country loyalty stuff, then they could just switch to the weakest country and fly whatever they wanted.

righty

MOSQ · « **Reply #64 on:** October 20, 2004, 04:23:52 PM »

Righty,
The switching sides may not be a big deal for individual lone wolves. But for Squads it is. Can you imagine the inter-squad squabbling we would have if the NightHawks was a dedicated P-51D squad and we had to switch from Rooks to Bish to fly our plane? A lot of folks would not want to make the country switch because we have developed friendships and camaraderie among our fellow Rooks.

That's why some squads have bailed for other games.

There are other solutions to the problem. Multiple long threads were written by other players on what those solutions could be. Do a BBS search and you can spend days reading through all of them.

And congratulations on your upcoming graduation. My Dad graduated from GT in June, 1941, ROTC. Was assigned to the AAF, Panama Canal for the expected war with Japan. Everyone expected the Japanese to attack the canal as it would have greatly affected our abitiy to wage war in the pacific. He was there on 12-7-41.

Anyway, he's a huge GT alumni booster still. I grew up going to every game at Grant Field, and even went to GT for two years myself before transferring to FSU.

Clifra Jones · « **Reply #65 on:** October 20, 2004, 04:26:03 PM »

Whew! After reading these 2 pages of posts I'm exusted.

A little history. I started Air Combat sims last year is CFS2 which I liked but hated all the cheating online with all the moded planes. I got a copy of CFS3 (from a friend with every intention of paying for it) and absolutly HATED it.

So I said, let me try AH. I dl's AH in May and started practicing. Wasn't paying attention so when I thought I was ready to go online I see that I need AHII to play online.

Installed AHII, had to update my video driver. Now works fine.

I'm in my 2 weeks and have played in the MA for the last 4 days. Here are my observations. (remember my AH was all offline practice)

1. I really like the new flight models. I thought the rudder in AH was weak. I almost never had to use the rudder unless I wanted to swing my nose side to side. The new model is more close to my CFS2 experience. I realise I have pedals and some may not. I still need to tweek my stick some more. Trimming is still a skill I need work on. I tried combat trim but it seems to get in the way more than help. It is helpfull for a quick trim-up but on full time just tend to irratate me more than anything.

2. Gunnery seems fine to me. It seemed to me that the guns in AH were a bit to strong, especially the 50cals. Again, not much experience to go by.

3. Balance? Seems the times I was in the MA there were far more friendlies than nmy. That could be attributed to my not knowing how to find a good fight. One thing I didn't want to do was dive in on a 8 on 3 and look like a kill stealer. When I did get into an engagement I died pretty quickly, which is to be expected being new and all.

4. Fun? Yeah, I had fun. Haven't killed anything yet but my rear end is full of bullet holes. Yeah, I had lots of fun.

Anyways, this is a bit of a scary thread for a new guy coming into the game. I always seem to come into things when they are in a downward spiral. I hope this isn't the case because I really like this game and so far am happy with AHII. I really tried to do my homework before going online so I wouldn't appear as such a dweeb though I do need more practice in AHII.

So far I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick it out and subscribe. In fact I'm positive I will.

So if some folks are leaving because of the changes, I think others like me will come in who don't have the prejudices that flying AH I might have instilled in them.

Now I just need some folks to fly with so I don't feel like such a lone wolf out there.

ClifRa

humble · « **Reply #66 on:** October 20, 2004, 04:37:15 PM »

I dont know that AH is on a "downward spiral"...it simply has evolved from a "flight sim" to more of a "war sim". For those of us who "grew up" in the knights of the air" phase of the genre this is actually a big step back in many ways...however for many it may be a big leap forward. Real war was probably alot more like the MA now vs the FR (full realism) arena I "grew up" in back in Air Warrior. The average new fighter pilot (german) survived less than 5 missions in 1944. Sounds about right for the MA:)

MOSQ · « **Reply #67 on:** October 20, 2004, 05:15:02 PM »

Welcome to the game ClifRa! All this teeth gnashing is because we all love the game and want to improve it. Don't let it scare you.

HTC looks at these threads and makes changes to the game. Some work out great, others not so well. That is to be expected.

Downward spiral? Not yet. In the above stats you've exhausted yourself on you'll see the numbers of kills are down in almost every category from 2003. I attribute that to the new more difficult gunnery model. I also think it's a good thing. We lost a few old vets who didn't like it (Steve please come back!), but the new folks don't know the difference. Probably the same will happen over time with the ENY limiter, new folks will just assume that's the way it is.

And the dive bombing Lancasters I'm sure will be addressed. In the old days of AHI we had "car bomber" buffs. If you spawned on the runway in a buff you could drop your bmbs and blow yourself up. Of course you would do that when two enemy planes were right on top of you, so they would die too. A neat way to eliminate vulchers. HTC fixed that insanity, and now I'm sure they'll fix this one too.

So welcome to the MA. Look for me in Rookland, our squad will be glad to help you along.

XrightyX · « **Reply #68 on:** October 20, 2004, 06:28:39 PM »

Never trust a man named for a pest. J/K

Mosq, can you send me those buff Avatar's again? Somehow I lost them...can't find your email address right now either...

righty

Clifra Jones · « **Reply #69 on:** October 21, 2004, 07:57:42 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by humble
I dont know that AH is on a "downward spiral"...it simply has evolved from a "flight sim" to more of a "war sim". For those of us who "grew up" in the knights of the air" phase of the genre this is actually a big step back in many ways...however for many it may be a big leap forward. Real war was probably alot more like the MA now vs the FR (full realism) arena I "grew up" in back in Air Warrior. The average new fighter pilot (german) survived less than 5 missions in 1944. Sounds about right for the MA:)

I didn't mean to say it was. I just thought that new guys might get a wrong impression from this thread. I actually thought it was very informative. The downward spiral was actually a comment on my recent history of getting into things.

ClifRa

Clifra Jones · « **Reply #70 on:** October 21, 2004, 08:09:16 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by MOSQ

Downward spiral? Not yet.

As I said, this was more a comment on my own bad luck/timing in other areas and my hope that AH will continue to go on strong.

The last few days I've been in the MA has been pretty active at least from my inexperienced eye. I actually did find a good fight last night on my last sortie. Unfortunatly I caught a wing in the water trying to escape a bandit in a low turn fight. He had a friendly on his tail and when I tried to set him up I wasn't paying attantion to my alt. Rookie error but I'll learn. (like running out of fuel, did that twice, and forgetting to drop tanks.

)

"Death is such a wonderful teacher"

straffo · « **Reply #71 on:** October 21, 2004, 08:46:50 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Clifra Jones
As I said, this was more a comment on my own bad luck/timing in other areas and my hope that AH will continue to go on strong.

You are just learning

from time to time after 4 years in AH I've this incredible feeling that I'm again a newbie and I being allways in the bad luck/timing period ...
When I started it was the case for all my sorties now it's perhaps one or two time per month

The only difference is that when I was newbie I was clueless about the sequence of event that bring me in deep doodoo now that I'm more experimented I realize I will die sooner but I still die

TMAST · « **Reply #72 on:** October 21, 2004, 09:48:32 AM »

First let me say "Thank You" to the welcome backs I've recieved. I've always enjoyed the AW/AH Community and am glad to see that courtesy is still a part of it.

Next, I flew about an hour Tues Night and.....fun was had Found a couple of furballs, had my niki (yes, nikidweeb and proud of it) got some kills and even land them:D Even had one Hi P38 jump me, turned the tables on him and shot him down, always enjoyable. Then was chased 3/4 of the way back to my base by an LA7, turned on him and killed him too So it appears that all is not completely lost in being able to find fun in AHII.

Still a few questions remain:

1)Fuel: Whats the talk I'm hearing about the change in fuel? Have fuel ranges been increased? This could have great bearing on me as my time online is shorter so my flights tend to be short as well. No need to be lugging around anymore fuel than is needed.

2)Flight Model: Whats been changed here? I've only been able to fly 2 nights for an hour each night and so far I'm still trying to get my video/screen res's comfortable for me and still getting my stick and rudders calibrated properly. Some things seem a little different but its impossible to tell how much of it is new modeling and how much of it is just being rusty.

Some things I like so far though:

New damage modeling looks real nice. Oil on windsheild is pretty cool and I think it does add some realism in that "Oil all over my windshield??" Hmmm time to park this puppy." And the bullet hole through my wing Tues night was also pretty cool

One thing I dont like though is that the airfield seems to be constanly redrawing itself. Its a pain on the eyes not to mention quite disconcerting to see ones runway disappear/reappear/disappear and then reappear again as you're trying to line it up for a landing. I've tried fiddling with res/video to try and stop that but so far no luck.

Looking forward to getting some more air time, learning the new lil quirks and rejoining the Unfriendly sky's.

TMASTodon

Clifra Jones · « **Reply #73 on:** October 22, 2004, 09:32:47 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by TMAST
New damage modeling looks real nice. Oil on windsheild is pretty cool and I think it does add some realism in that "Oil all over my windshield??" Hmmm time to park this puppy." And the bullet hole through my wing Tues night was also pretty cool

TMASTodon

The blood (my own) splattering all over the inside of my canopy last night was pretty cool too.

JB73 · « **Reply #74 on:** October 22, 2004, 09:51:49 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by TMAST
1)Fuel: Whats the talk I'm hearing about the change in fuel? Have fuel ranges been increased? This could have great bearing on me as my time online is shorter so my flights tend to be short as well. No need to be lugging around anymore fuel than is needed.

the fuel burn multiplier has been turned UP from 1.5 to 2, so you run out of fuel much quicker

a 109 is usless withough a minium of 75% fuel, even then a 5 min flight to fight, 5 min fight, you will have to throttle back and conserve fuel to RTB.