Ya BUT, AW was NEVER about amazing graphics, so that point is moot. While they were pushing for superior graphics just before it folded, graphics was second to the game promoting pure fun. Everything staff or GAs did, me included, was promote *fun* at every turn. The more the players had fun, the more the community bonded, even during scuffling.
It was one of the first games where the players didn't keep everything that made game play more winable as secrets. In those days, gamers kept what kept them on top secrets. In AW almost everyone helped everyone else get better performance, and with better performance fun was there.
AW, if it returned, would never be the same game without the people who ran it behind it again. The game didn't make itself, it was the way it was setup to be played is what made it fun, and those people deserve just as much credit as the files for the game itself.
Without those people Like Kelton, Blue Baron, Moggy, Mage, Culero, Grey Eagle etc.. that game would have been just another sim when the others came to be. You had many minds behind it's concept, with the focus on FUN first, graphics second.
I don't think AW's return would be much more then just another sim unless it was setup the same exact way, with improvments.
The only thin AW needed at the time was a new graphics engine, which was being built when it was shot dead by EA.suck .
Owell, life goes on. AH is the King Biscuit now, everyone needs to get on the "have fun, promote fun" bandwagon.
Anim
Originally posted by KurtVW
You know... You guys are clinging to a dead dream.
First of all, and lets be frank... AW - All versions were buggy and night-mareish on even the meanest fast computers around.. The AH software is far ahead of AW in every way.
Kesmai and its later iterations never kept with the times and kept the product modern... It fell more and more behind with each release. AH may yet run into the same problem as even today it requires a hell of a computer to run a graphics engine that isn't exactly blowing anybody's socks off...
HT says the engine can do a lot more though, and I'm willing to be patient and see if he's right.
But lets get to the Game Play issue... It seems there is a common agreement in this thread that the game play and the players in AW were far superior in fun-factor and community..
Yes - Absolutely... That is 100% true. HOWEVER, it will never happen again, and this is why;
Back in those days, Internet (or any other form of multiplayer) was a niche.. Only a very limited audience... Today every game is internet playable... The audience is huge.. So no longer to we see only the most dedicated flight simmers in the game.. You now have simmers, FPSers (quake), little kids, old men, pilots and nonpilots all looking for their own unique brand of good time.
The only way to reproduce what you found in AW is to find a like minded squad, and ally with other like minded squads and forget all the 'quake' pilots.
If AW came back today it would be bloat-ware and we all know it, so lets just enjoy what we have.
Originally posted by KurtVW
You know... You guys are clinging to a dead dream.
First of all, and lets be frank... AW - All versions were buggy and night-mareish on even the meanest fast computers around.. The AH software is far ahead of AW in every way.
Kesmai and its later iterations never kept with the times and kept the product modern... It fell more and more behind with each release. AH may yet run into the same problem as even today it requires a hell of a computer to run a graphics engine that isn't exactly blowing anybody's socks off...
HT says the engine can do a lot more though, and I'm willing to be patient and see if he's right.
But lets get to the Game Play issue... It seems there is a common agreement in this thread that the game play and the players in AW were far superior in fun-factor and community..
Yes - Absolutely... That is 100% true. HOWEVER, it will never happen again, and this is why;
Back in those days, Internet (or any other form of multiplayer) was a niche.. Only a very limited audience... Today every game is internet playable... The audience is huge.. So no longer to we see only the most dedicated flight simmers in the game.. You now have simmers, FPSers (quake), little kids, old men, pilots and nonpilots all looking for their own unique brand of good time.
The only way to reproduce what you found in AW is to find a like minded squad, and ally with other like minded squads and forget all the 'quake' pilots.
If AW came back today it would be bloat-ware and we all know it, so lets just enjoy what we have.
