Originally posted by sradel I haven't been able to play for a few weeks but I will give it a shot...
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1. I can not find any information on what planes are available to what countries. Are they all available to all countries at the same time? I prefer limited plane sets if possible. Or better yet rolling plane sets that change over time. Other wise I have seen no incentive to fly the early planes when all the uber planes are available.
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There are (usually) 5 arenas in AH.
- Main Arena: 3 Generic countires, everyone gets to fly any plane, except for certain unbalancing planes like the 262 and Tempest that must be earned with perk points which you then risk when you fly it. This is the most popular arena by far and can hold over 700 people.
- Combat Theater: Ususally 2 countries with a historic plane set up and (I think) shorter view and radar ranges. This is for people who like limited plane sets and can't bear the thought of a Corsair fighting a Mustang.
- Training Arena: For training, guns cause limited damage, lead-computing gunsights available, etc.
- Dueling Arena: fields set up for duels.
- Special Events: This is for things like Historic Scenarios, Squad Operations, and other special events. Click the banner ad above.
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2. Are the physics toned down in some arenas? Or are they all set to realistic? I prefer as much realism as possible.
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Most of our real-life pilots say AH has a realistic flight model.
Some parts of it are up to the user. You can set the following:
- 'Auto take off' lets you avoid fighting torque going down the runway and retracts your gear.
-'Stall Limiter' generally prevents the plane from entering high speed stalls (I think). Just about everyone leaves this setting *off*. Having it on might prevent some spins and crashes for a newbie but it will make you less competitive.
- 'Combat Trim' lets the computer manage your trim settings. I usually leave this on, unless I am flying certain planes like the P-38 that are susceptible to compression.
- There are lots of autopilot options that are not necessarily realistic but this allows you to get up during a long climb out and gives the game a good beer/mission ratio.
I know that FA has monkeyed with flight models to 'balance' their Nations at War arena, something like that would never happen in AH, and players around the world bring historic research to HTC so they can make the models as accurate as possible.
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3. I see that you can submit new skins. Does this mean that skins with squadron marking are acceptable as long as they are realistic?
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Must be realistic to be considered for use on the server and subject to approval by HTC, check the skinning forum for the policy. All squads can place their own custom nose-art on planes after submitting it to HTC.
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4. Are there out of cockpit views available? I would prefer that they weren’t, but can live with this one.
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Only for bombers, or if you are watching a film of a previous flight. Fighters do *not* get external views.
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5. How does the map work? Can you see all your enemy location on the map? I would not care for this one. I don’t mind a target loc, but having a little arrow pointing at the nearest enemy or all the locations of the enemy on the map would kind of annoy me.
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There is a general indication of the amount of friendly and enemy planes in each 25x25 mile sector. This is important for finding someone to fight and is indicated by colored bars. Big red bar = lots of enemies in that sector.
Close in to bases, assuming the local radar is undamaged, you will get 'dots' that indicate the positions of friendly and enemy planes. You can also set custom icon and radar colors for squadmembers or wingmen so you can find them quickly.
These settings are changed for special events, which usually have no radar at all. But in those situations you have an assigned mission are not just cruising around looking for a fight.
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6. Are the plane sets available on carriers realistic?
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In the main arena, only CV-capable planes can take off from a CV.
In the combat theater or special events, there are more restrictions on what planes can use them.
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7. Can I get an idea on what you guys think on not using real countries? How does this affect game play? This is one of the reasons I and a bunch of friends have not joined in the past. Seemed kind of hockey to fly for a country called the Bishops. But I am very open to comments on this one.
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It doesn't affect game play. You see, in the main arena, Aces High (and FA, WB, AW) aren't really WW2 simulations, they are aircombat games with WW2 aircraft. Yes in AH, hellcats will sometimes be fighting against spitfires, yaks, or even other hellcats, but this adds variety for me. If you are interested in a plane, it is fun to take it out to see how it does against non-historic adversaries. Country-limited plane sets (to me anyway) get stale fast. I can only fight Spits vs. 109/190s so many times.
If you insist on, say, only flying your 109s vs. spitfires or mustangs, you can try the combat theater arena. Gameplay there isn't really different from the main arena, except the plane sets are limited.
If you *really* want to get into WW2-type situations you need to join special events like Historic Scenarios. These are often based on actual battles and often have limited or even single lives per event, which adds to the 'pucker factor'. These are often large and very organized events, which each group having its own mission as part of an overall battle plan.
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8. Is there more than one map in play at the same time?
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Each arena has its own map. The main arena rotates maps every week, unless a country manages to 'win' by driving another country off the map and forcing an arena reset which changes the map. The combat theater map gets changed every week with a new setup. Special events often use custom terrains.
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9. If any one out there has played Fighter Aces I would like to know how they compare the two games.
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I played FA 1.0 I think, so my experience is probably not relevant. From what I remember about FA -
- AH has no newbie arena with unlimited ammo and external views. There is a training arena, but that is for training only.
- AH has no persistant 'nations at war' set up. NAW is kind of neat in concept, but really isn't a simulation of WW2 and has all sorts of balance issues that are usually addressed by the developer monkeying with the flight models of the planes.
- AH has no magical padlock that finds the enemy for you or that can see through wings.
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10. And last is information. Does Aces High keep you appraised on what they are doing to improve the game, Such as upcoming fixes or new features? Trying to get any information from Fighter Aces is almost impossible. They will ignore any questions posted on these subjects in the forums.
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They are on here everyday, and they answer lots of questions, but usually not things that have been beaten to death 1000x before or asked in a rude manner. You can search for their posts, look for Hitech and Pyro. It is nothing like FA with some mysterious Russian programmers that no one has ever spoken with.
HTC's office is in Texas and they will answer the phone if you call. HTC isn't owned by EA, Microsoft, Strategy First, or any other big publisher. They make only one game, and try to make it the best in the genre.
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Thanks for any information any one can shed on these questions and sorry for the long post. I will continue to dig through the forums.
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Download the FE and get your controls set up. Go to
http://www.netaces.org if you need help getting set up or have more questions. Once you are set up offline, sign up for a two week free trial, no CC# required.
Hope you check it out. Maybe if Shaden or one of the other ex-FA guys sees this they can give you a better comparison.
