Hi folks…
I got online with AH on Sunday, and have had some reasonable success.
First, a big thank you to dago, who was the first to see me online, and gave me a GREAT deal of help to get started. I was also pleased to see some other old pals online - leonid, jekyll, gooney, fdski, belgar, snag, and others.
The planes seem to be much more what I would have expected, as a RL pilot of many years (though only on light civil types). The weight of the aircraft and momentum seem to make their presence felt more than in WB, which is the way I expected it to be. When I joined WB, some two years ago, I was critical of the way their planes handled. Many players were completely dismissive of my RL flying experience, and I was not in a position to argue, but now if I were asked which plane set is more like real planes, I would say the AH plane set.
I like the way the constant speed props are modelled - in AH, there is no change of engine note as the pitch angle changes - the propeller blades change from fine pitch in climb to coarse pitch in dive, with no change in engine speed unless the prop pitch adjustment limits are exceeded. I like that - I like that a lot. I tried to express this point of view in WB, but no-one seemed to know what I was talking about.
The connections, one of the most contentious issues in WB, seem to be perfectly OK in AH. I have seen only two warps in several hours of play, and even then, the warper simply warped about an inch. Sometimes in WB, especially with my old ISP, I would see planes warp from one side of the screen to the other and back again! Sometimes they would disappear into hyperspace, and reappear on my 6 and kill me. There were lag collisions and the whole shebang! I am so glad that this does not seem to be an issue in AH.
The guns seem to be SO much more effective, and I like the smoke tracers. My first ever kill was of a B17, and I was surprised at how little ammo was needed. Yesterday I even managed to land a streak of 2! I felt as though I had "arrived" lol. Some might be critical of this, and say that kills are too easy, but I would counter this by saying that at least this way, it’s the same for everyone, and does not favour those players who have the best ISP connection. I never used to get better than 240ms ping times to WB servers, whereas some could get 50ms, and that would play a big part in governing their guns’ effectiveness, and create an unfair advantage.
One small complaint! I notice that the compass is calibrated the "wrong way round" (just as in WB), and the compass rose rotates the wrong way in turns, as it would have to for those calibrations to work. I know I’m right about this, having discussed it with other RL pilots.
Overall, I think that the flat rate pricing policy will sway many serious players towards AH, and the quality of connects is something that will make or break games such as WB and AH.
If you see me in the skies, I apologise in advance for my dweebery - I’m just learning what you can and cannot do in AH, and the relative performance of the different aircraft available.
Kind regards,
scrmbl
