Here is my 111 experience-
Logged in and took the light British tank for a spin. I cruised in the direction of all traffic headed from base (assuming this would lead to action) and was nearing the top of a ridge, looking straight ahead in observer view when I was hit. I popped down into the driver's seat to see a panzer filling my viewport- it had been there but invisible to my observer! I jump to the gun and nail it, thinking I must be a raw newby to have missed that tank so close.
Then I jump into a tank a while later. Same tank, same plan, head to the fight. This time I see the panzer sitting atop the hill, pretty as can be. I put 3 shells into it, no damage. He hits me one ping and I die. So far, just like AH tanks to me.
I decide to try the fighters. I jump into the Spit and, you guessed it, followed the crowd. I wound up in a furball with a few 109's making zooming passes through the Spits. I finally latch onto one that has let a little too much e and alt get away and after a little longer pursuit than I am used to manage to deliver the killing blow. Gunnery is vastly different there! I RTB'd low ammo.
The Good: Graphics were awesome! Watching the tanks smoke, then burst into flame out of every open port was truly something to see. The 109 first spouted oil smoke, then erupted into a large, flame and oil smoke cloud. No mistaking it, he was finished. Contrails on wingtips are pretty cool. Cockpits open and close. Trees and other ground objects are real, and must be traversed or avoided. The terrain is rolling, and travel off road means slower travel. Having soldiers beg rides on your tank is pretty cool, too. The clouds are awesome to see.
The Bad:The "cities" are small, usually only a few buildings. There was clipping visible in some situations on my machine. Sides seemed lopsided, but that might have been where I was located.
The Ugly:No doubt about it, the framerate is abysmal, even after the patch. I have a mid-range system (PIII 733, 256 MB SD133, GeForce 2GTS 32MB) and I saw maybe 10fps max in one of those 15 plane dogfights. Usually when 3-4 planes were in view it was more like 5fps. No fooling, this will have to be corrected or there will be no airwar to speak of.
If you like tanks and foot soldiers this looks to be a pretty good setup, but only the most masochistic pilots (or those with the money to buy the biggest, baddest rig out there) will ever stick with WWIIOnline in its current iteration. I will see what shakes for a while, but I will never subscribe to it as a flight sim if the frame rates don't improve. Even a dumbed-down fm doesn't bother me, but having to guess where the bad guy will microwarp next does.
