Let me ask this question then since you didn't answer my last one. Exactly how long have you been flying on-line flight sims?
Many of us have been around since the early to mid '90's, some as far back as the '80's with on-line flight sims.
The ones most popular have always featured "open arenas", those which allowed you to fly whatever you wanted to. Likewise, they have all featured three countries. These two factors alone seem to be key ingredients to on-line success and nessesarily rule out the historical accuracy aspect. Because of that, each of them has also included scenarios to bring that aspect into play for those that want it.
I have been flying flight Sims for over 10 Years, since I was around the age of 13, which goes back into the 90's for me.
Now let me ask you a question, why does it really matter how long I have been around flight Sims or been flying them? Even if people have been around a little bit longer or a lot more longer than I have that doesn't mean that my opinion does not count or isn't as important as the other person - I am still a paying customer.
As I stated before, my beef is not with the game play it is with the graphics ( if you can call it a beef). My point about the game play is this, this style of game play (all planes for all sides) tends to attract people who really aren't as serious about flight Sims as the rest of the crowd. It tends to draw people who are only hungry for the action of a ww2 flight Sim and who aren't entirely interested in the flying part of it. As an example, in il2 servers most the players attempt to work together, fly formation with one another and work as a team. The most teamwork I've seen in this Sim so far (at least on the big arena's) is people helping get someone off another players six. And yes I realize that in the special events that teamwork does happen... but what my opinion is, is I don't believe that it should take a special event to get teamwork to happen in a ww2 Sim, because ww2 was based on teamwork, its the only way the war was won by the allies... which is why I believe that a good ww2 Sim needs to concentrate more on teamwork than anything else.
Again this is just my opinion on the whole matter and I'm not trying to get it changed.As to the flight models, I'm not a real world pilot but you, I'm guessing, have never flown a WWII fighter either. Therefore, the only guage as to which is more realistic is matching the models in the various sims to real world test data for each specific aircraft. You mentioned that you've done your research. Have you really? Visit the Aircraft and Vehicle forums. Scroll through the topics. Actual test data vs. AH modling is discussed regularily. The players keep the heat on HTC to model these things correctly. That said there is room for improvement in specific models, but I'm convinced that when I hop into whtever I hop into that it's as close to the real thing as I'm going to find in a flight sim.
Whether I've flown a ww2 fighter or not (which btw, I have had the opportunity to go up in a trainer from ww2) the physics that act on a aircraft are all the same physics, all that changes is how the specific aircraft can handle those physics acting upon the aircraft and the performance level of that said aircraft. I have not bothered to read through the aircraft and vehicles forum yet, I haven't gotten to it quite yet but I will in the future I'm sure.
Alot of people who haven't flown a real world aircraft can hop into a Sim of their choosing and instantly say "Its real, it acts like a real plane does" because they haven't had the experience of a real world flight. But until they do hop into a real airplane and take a real flight they really don't have a clue about how a real aircraft works in midflight. (Not hitting on you, just a general statement).
I do believe that they have become very close to accurately portraying the real world aircraft counterparts but some things still need some work.
Relative to graphics, is there room for improvement? Yes. Is it nessesary? In my opinion no. I will lobby as I'm one of those with an antiquated machine but in other games they provide graphic options which still allow me to play, albeit minus some of the eye-candy, and I'm sure they could do the same here. But that's not the issue in my mind. I'd like to see HTC spend their limited resources on further developing the plane-set/vehicle-set and enhancing gameplay than spending it on developing a new graphics platform that is just fine the way it is, and that has been what they've done in the past.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not trying to rip on you but I've been around for a long time and for me at least, it's the balance between diversity, playability and immersion. I've never seen it all but HTC does a great job in balancing these things. Why do you think all of these people who have been around so long have all gravitated here?
I'm merrily just attempting to get HTC's opinion on this matter and everyone else's input as well to see what the future holds for this Sim and whether or not it can compete with the larger Sims coming out on the market soon. Because I do believe (and this is my opinion) that when the larger Sims come out on the market with similar game play and much better graphics (SW:BOB) that it will pull a bunch of the player base from this game. Because like stated before, not everyone is a buff for just simply game play and graphics really do matter to people.
I understand the whole part about the balance between the three rules of a game and how to make it popular and I do believe that HTC has done their Homework so to speak and have done a good job with this Sim. It is still my opinion however that this style of game play takes a whole lot of experience away from a player. For example, in IL2 (which is AvA based) when I go up in a p40-E and run into an enemy KI-43 I actually have to work for my kill and it is a great challenge to shoot an enemy plane down. Reason being when you engage an enemy airplane in IL2 if you do not know the stats of that aircraft and how it performs you simply do not shoot it down unless the pilot makes a really stupid mistake.
This is the immersion part of the game, as in ww2 a fighter pilot had to know his enemies aircraft just as well as he knew his aircraft, so he could exploit the strength's and weakness's of the enemy aircraft and come out the victor in the battle.
I feel that in AH2 this does not happen nearly as much because dogfights take place on such a large scale and against so many different aircraft you don't have time to sit and think "ok this ones a f4 well I know that its fast, so my p40 cant really keep up with it, oh and I know I can turn tighter so my options are short" you see the f4 you engage and in seconds the dogfight is over with and then your next target is something completely opposite such as a fw190 or a 109 or usually in AH2 its an American or British aircraft coming at you.
heres what I'm getting at, with this style of game play that the game uses (air, ground, sea) it wouldn't take a special event to recreate the biggest battles in ww2 if the arena's would operate AvA (I can imagine it right now, mass formations of b17's escorted by squadrons of p51's getting jumped by a group of fw190's) (or a large formation of he-111's on their way to bomb out Britain and getting jumped by squadrons of hurricanes and spits) Thats the style of game play im talking about and like I said before yes I realize this happens within the special events but I hate to think thats the only time it happens.
Your argument is you wish a game with nicer looking graphics. Translating that statement to mean "a better game" is not necessarily true. So no you do not wish a better game, but rather just make an argument for your wishes and then make a claim about only wanting a better game. And then try claim that all other people do not wish the same thing.
IMHO AH2 with a extreme graphics overhaul would really increase the quality of the game, thus bringing more players to the game, thus benefiting HTC in an increase in monthly funds, thus making them happy. Like I stated before, alot of people don't fly this sim because of the graphics. One of my own squadmates is a prime example, he refused to play this game because the graphics sucked or so he said. Yes he is one of the people who likes graphics.
Oh and about the immersion part, don't you guys believe that having better graphics would provide a more immersive feel for the game? Giving the player a better experience? Obviously HTC does or they never would have produced the High Res pack.
Some discussion we're having here, but I would like to request people to attempt to keep it clean... and please try not to flame each other... this is a rather interesting and intelligent discussion but it all can be ruined by flaming... so please if you do not have something to say on the subject of the topic at hand please don't say it at all? That way the discussion can move on (yes I'm a person who likes to have a good debate every now and then)
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Well, if they are it is pure luck. HT does not report to me what his plans are, what he can do, what he is whilling to spend to do them, etc etc. Maybe he does report to them.
My point is that saing we dont need better graphics or that someone should just leave if they dont like something about the game is total BS.
I agree whole heartedly with what you said.
Btw, my ingame name is the same as on the forums. BS8thJaw.
