To get more subscribers.....

[Swoop]

Ok, listen....this game is great, I love it.  When I read the review on combatsim, well, it was a must.

The problem is convincing all my other online buddies to come play too.

Mostly reasons not to are; Won't fly without a padlock or $30 a month is too much (saw another post suggesting choice of hourly rate, good plan).

I doubt very much those who dislike padlocks will decide not to play if a padlock system was added.  Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it.  But there's plenty of players who won't play (or pay) without one.

Personally the best part of this sim is flying the buffs around. There's others who're here for the buffs too,  and while this is great fun now it'll eventually get boring.
Please, please, please, please make buffs tougher.   There's only so many times I'll spend an hour climbing and flying to target only to be blown apart by a lone bogey.

Is there any chance to fit more than 1 human gunner in?

I've read posts hinting a Lancaster may be available.  As a Brit I must ask:  WHEN, WHEN, WHEN, WHEN, WHEN, WHEN?!?!?  :-)

Yrs hoping-you'll-give-me-the-ammo-to-get-loadsa-mates-here-by-adding-a-damn-padlock-ly,

Swoop
 

[Citabria]

they just need to try snap views to like them

padlock is not nearly as effective for SA and tracking

[LLv34_Snefens]

First of all "when" questions will not be answered by other than the mindless "two weeks" guys  

As for buffing I, as one fond buff pilot, believe that planing has just as much to do with surviving as good gunnery. Going head into a sector wit 20 enemies at 10-15K will surely get you killed.

Bombers where never developed to be able to defend themselves alone. They where however believed to stand alone if only they were in proper formation and number in start of war and that turned out very wrong. I believe a German pilot would have very little worries if he encountered a lone B17. (1-5 .50's vs 2 MG and 1-4 20mm cannons for instance). If "buffing" is what you prefer you should try to make  little formation or strike, where you will be able to protect each other.
I believe current "balance" is just fine... Fighters can take out a lone bomber with no worries if they only know how.

As for Padlock I see your point (being an EAW pilot), but I think that can be solved by the free 8 player gaming that is promised (where EAW'ers can practise different SA for instance for free) and get use to how icon is displayed here vs how in EAW. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Adding it in main arena would upset a lot of people.
Like I have always said in EAW, I will use all options that is available and I feel is an advantage, simply because it is also avalible to the rest.

Different pay options is good in my opinion, but that is totally up to HTC what they feel is profitable. After all it aint no leisure club this, is it?

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Ltn. Snefens
RO, Lentolaivue 34

[Fishu]

It's good theres not padlock... time for some of you learn to use view keys!
Don't come to tell me that it's hard, because I have *myself* learn to do that, with hundreds of others. (time to learn, if you didnt do that in school, do it in the game, for god sage)

So far I have few things why I don't like to pay $30..

1. I've had some major investments lately.. like ADSL.. which I am currently waiting to get.. (ohh the pain of waiting)

2. I dislike the way they model planes.
You see all famous and great allie planes here, but not any super planes of LW.
We have famous Fw-190, but it is A-8, I guess that only F series would have more heavier 190s available... (no flames on this, I didn't grab book telling of 190s just because of this whine)
Also theres 109s, but they lack with modelling.

3. I'll wait for better strat system and getting rid of 3-country system, which sucks.

4. well.. if i got spare money, i'll sign up..

[Swoop]

Bloody hellfire, what's up with you lot?

If using the view keys is so bloody wonderful why not let these fools have their padlocks and get all disoriented?

jesus, don't flame me for pointing out there's a huge amount of pilots who won't be paying the $30 for this game.

And Fishu, it's not a question of being hard to learn (and I'll thank you not to talk to me like I'm a 5 year old) it's more IMPOSSIBLE:  I have a small desk, no space to move keyboard around, only just enough for joystick and throttle.  Tell me how I'm supposed to keep right hand on joystick, left hand on throttle and use the view keys (on right side of keyboard) without a 3rd hand or prehensile dick?  Can't even use the mouse.....

I know use of padlocks is a hot subject and I'm not gonna get into it.  I don't care who's right and who's wrong.
All I wanna do in Aces High is fly buffs and bomb stuff.  

Now is this a totally historically accurate sim?......or.....a damn good game?

Yes B17s were designed to fly in a big group and concentrate defensive firepower.  Does that happen in Aces High?  Do we see formations bigger than....say....4?  No we don't, unless someone starts organising.  Not a regular thing.
Besides, what would be the point of getting a flight of 12 B17s together, it only takes 2 to destroy the enemy HQ.
Thus my argument for makin em tougher.

Swoop
 

[Jekyll]

 

Tell me how I'm supposed to keep right hand on joystick, left hand on throttle and use the view keys (on right side of keyboard) without a 3rd hand or prehensile dick?

Map your view keys to a hat on the joystick, like 99.99% of the current AH pilots do.

After all, HTC have built a handy-dandy joystick mapper in to AH for just that reason  

------------------
C.O. Phoenix Squadron
www.users.bigpond.com/afinlayson/index.htm
'feel the heat .......'

[qts]

1 - Lower the subscription.

$30 a month is far too much. $30 a quarter would be more reasonable. US players don't have to pay by the minute, but we in the UK do, for the moment.

2 - Advertising

Have barrage balloons with advertisments on them. "Hey, I shot down Hershey's", "Take *that* Thrustmaster!". (OK, sorry, Guillemot). They do it in football and car-racing games, so why not here?

That should help reduce the subscription cost.

3 - Later European planes. Nuff said!

[Westy]

 Swoop, HiTech already said, a couple of months ago, that there definatively won't be a padlock view.

 In my opinion I could care less other than it is a dumb down fature. (yes there are indivudual cases where padlock would make flying here viable for the handicapped. and in those cases I would love to see HTC provide a private copy of the sim to those people) but in general I look down on people who have to use this crutch.
 I is also in my opinion that if this feature is the one thing holding many of your friends back them I feel that once they did join there would be a never ending whine for a features found in dumbed down games like FA II or in a sim geared for the modern jet age like Falcon 4.0
 This is the WWII era of aircraft. No computer lockon target fixation here.
 YOU track em by YOU making a conscience effort to change YOUR view via the hat switch to follow an aircraft. In real life you don't become some borg automaton and "automatically" track things either as some people claim in thier quest to justify and find excuses for padlock. Your brain sends impulses to your NECK (the hat swith is the substitute) telling it to turn YOUR head to follow an object. No automation involved in that really, now is there?

 --Westy

( and ads? You must be freeking kidding? )

[Dinger]

What to say to the padlock crowd:
View keys become second nature in a matter of weeks.  Get over it.
About the $$.
Yeah, it costs. Not much we can do about it.
About the buffs -- you're right.  There's no reason to fly in formation.  There will be, if they make the acks more interesting.
you'll probably also have more buffers once the bombsight is improved.  And I'll fly if they let me turn off the autopilot while in bombardier mode (I like to play etch-a-sketch with 500lbers.)

[Fury]

I flew FA for more than a few months before I even know what the padlock view was.

It took a while for me to learn how to use padlock effectively (especially in a low-alt furball).

I like the padlock feature in FA.

Having said that, one of the things I like about AH is the fact that there is no padlock.

Sounds like a contradiction.  My personal opinion is that padlock is fine for those who want it.  However, I find that I can fly just as well without a padlock.  I like AH the way it is.  I would not drop my subscription if HTC decided to implement padlock as an option, but I think padlock is a dead issue.  I've just learned to fly without it.

As for money, $30 is a lot of money per month.  It was a hard decision for me, but I bit the bullet and subscribed because I like the game.

As a side note Swoop, I personally did not think any of the replies were flaming you (just my humble opinion).

Fury

edit:  Padlocking in FA vs. padlocking in AH.  In FA the default mode is to have full view, that is, the external portions of your aircraft do not have to be displayed.  This means that I can padlock someone and basically follow them around my aircraft (although I do lose sight of them below my craft, that part is modeled).  This is different in the Realistic rooms, but not many fly there.  In AH, you do not have the option to have a full view.  IMHO a true padlock feature should include losing the padlock if the plane disappears behind part of your aircraft.  In AH, that would happen most of the time, when I would really rely on padlock, which means to me that the padlock would not be as useful as some might think.  I am a two-fisted flyer in AH, one on the stick and the other on my numpad to use the view keys.  I find that I can get by without padlock.

[This message has been edited by Fury (edited 03-05-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Fury (edited 03-05-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Fury (edited 03-05-2000).]

[Epistaxis]

I would agree.  Although I have yet to sign up, nearly my whole squad from Air Warrior is looking for a new online sim to fly.

However, I cannot realistically ask people whom have been paying $10/month for a game to pay $30/month.  There is; however, truth to the saying:  "You get what you pay for", however, to put this in context:

My ISP only costs $20/month
A carton of Cigs is $30
2 other flight sims (Fighter Ace II and AW3 are $9/month unlimited)
Basic cable costs $30/month
Most CD-ROMS from Best Buy cost $35, so we nearly buy a complete CD every month.
Most people, according to the census, make less than $35/hour

An acceptable rate would be $15/month unlimitted.  You would have us all sold for that.

<Hired Guns> XO Epi*

[funked]

The Big Problem with padlock views in this game is:  How do you lock on to a plane?

Surely not automatically.  Part of fighter combat is spotting the enemy before he spots you.  If you want a robot to spot enemies for you, forget about it.

So how then?  Pan your view then hit a lock button when the bandit is centered in the view?  Click on the bandit with a mouse?

[LLv34_Snefens]

Swoop, the reason many people don't like padlock is the way it can totally ruin the ability to "bounce" anybody. At least thats how it is in EAW.
Only time you shoot a guy that don't see you there is when he suffers from target fixation really.

I wouldn't mind padlock in AH as long as it is done in a clever way. I am here talking about the actual "locking" of the target but also how it looses that lock when the plane flies out of you vision.

However HiTech has stated that padlock will not be included so no reason to talk about it really.

The problem with flight simulations is that they often have a very different feel (tho they all claim to be super realistic), and simmers discover that tho they in one game was top of the class, they now have troubles doing simple manouvers and they quickly leave the new game and go back where they were good.

I had those feelings when I started AH (I hate learning ANY new games for the matter of fact), but fortunately I kept punishing myself until I now have at least average ability in this game and enjoy it very much.

As for the pricing I think $30 is very reasonable actually. It only amounts to some 10% of what I spend to be online. (Boy, would a flat rate pricing on my ISP be nice)
Of course if the price seems to high compared to what you feel you get, don't pay.

------------------
Ltn. Snefens
RO, Lentolaivue 34