Blast from the past - Wild Bill going to spin off Warbirds from totalsims?

[gyrene81]

Do they still have that idiotic "tonnage on target" thing where the bombs don't have to hit any structures to close a field?

Yeah most of the bases are like that...and the bombsights have laser point accuracy regardless of alt or speed.

[jdbecks]

whats wrong with the LW flight model?

I take it they are pro allied rides then,

[gyrene81]

whats wrong with the LW flight model?

I take it they are pro allied rides then,

Oh yeah...definately "pro allied"...put it this way, several people have submitted actual historical data on LW aircraft for 4 years that I know of and strangely enough the person(s) that data has gotten submitted to, keeps telling those people to submit data...yet the last update only had fixes for allied rides based on a few pieces of information submitted within 6 months prior to the update.

There is only 1 Luftwaffe plane that works anywhere close to the way it should and it's the 109E that had been coded a couple of years ago.

[eagl]

Granted it was probably circa 2005, but the last time i tried Warbirds 3 online, they had spontanious air spawns of drones in the main online arena.   

It's all about gameplay.  They've made choices to make it more "fun" to people who aren't hard-up about realism.  HTC has made other choices, like my own personal gripes, having the fields too far apart (in my opinion) and having flak that can pick a fighter out of the sky.  In RL you just didn't see fighters getting nailed by flak that much, primarily due to ranging problems.  But in HTC, a fighter flying straight and level anywhere near a flak battery is going to get nailed sooner or later.  Even a maneuvering fighter that is alone in the flak is going to get nailed, sometimes in less than a minute.  I don't care how "good" HTC says the modelling is, I've been trained to go against real life radar-guided AAA systems and the best the russkies have isn't as good as AH flak.

So my point is, no matter how good your argument is for or against any particular gameplay feature, you are naturally going to come across decisions made by the game owners/managers and they will set up the game in order to drive gameplay in the direction they think it should go.  If you don't like it, there are plenty of other games.  Warbirds is no different, they've just gone a little more "gamey" (in my opinion) to try to make it more fun.

[Anaxogoras]

There is only 1 Luftwaffe plane that works anywhere close to the way it should and it's the 109E that had been coded a couple of years ago.

109E was added in WB 2.0.

[Sandman]

The only thing I miss is the smooth and easy in-flight external views, not that we need them online.

Let's not forget the JU-52. Sometimes, I really wish the goon had a gun.

[DYNAMITE]

WB 2.77 is still the best online flight sim i've played (sorry AH - I love you too)... 

[Grind]

Why has the new warbards, is it warbirds 2007 not doing to well? deos is the FM not very good?

The FM and view system sucks.  HOing is the main tactic used in game.  Everyone warps.  Why anyone would play it for more than lets say 10 hours is beyond me.

<S>

Grind

[horble]

Aces High is much, much, much better.

[phatzo]

AHII has a much more team player oriented aspect to it, especially due to range channell and not needing to run teamspeak at the same time. That is the major difference I have found other than the amount of players online but thats probably relative. Lots of death by typing.

[Yeager]

It is what it is.  Nothing more, nothing less.

[dhyran]

intresting

he focused the wrong things at WB. He wants to compete with AH doing a Main Arena. That was the biggest fault he did during the last years. If he would follow the old WB RPS idea inside the WW2 Arena, and fixed the FM and DM i bet things went a little bit different.

But to compete with the same idea he only could lose. So after all these years a lot of people (sometimes also complete squadrons) changed over from wb to ah. This fact has more impact than he expected it. I think he will not even spent a thought about it, which is a big fault at all. Customer Care is a key factor to be successfull in a niche market where mmo dogfighting games are. Secondary he lost after hitech also target as a key progammer, so how should warbirds ever come back to life.
We changed over with the complete Squadron >>>Parrrots<<< from WB to AH in autum 2007. The squadron worked nice in wb with its limited game options, but splitted into different pieces while the gameplay in ah have so many options.

Well, i think wild bill will just paste some screenies together and sell it as a crisies competioner.......

[gyrene81]

It's all about gameplay.  They've made choices to make it more "fun" to people who aren't hard-up about realism.

Not according to the player base there...many that remain are more interested in realism than gamey...as long as it pertains to their favorite ride...but very few will play in the WWII arena that has limited plane sets and more realistic settings (go figure). If WBs has 100 active subscribers playing right now I'd be surprised...lots of Mac users left for sure.

HTC has made other choices, like my own personal gripes, having the fields too far apart (in my opinion) and having flak that can pick a fighter out of the sky.

I'm sure WBs has everything you would want, bases that can be taken out with a single bomb, little towns that are bases where you take off and fly through buildings to get off the ground, trees that you can fly through and under, all the allied uber rides you can handle (no spit16, tempest or typhoon) , laser accurate weapons on the allied planes, flaky damage models, etc...etc...etc...and if you're willing to pay at least $20/month there are extra skins you can see.

In RL you just didn't see fighters getting nailed by flak that much, primarily due to ranging problems.  But in HTC, a fighter flying straight and level anywhere near a flak battery is going to get nailed sooner or later.  Even a maneuvering fighter that is alone in the flak is going to get nailed, sometimes in less than a minute. I don't care how "good" HTC says the modelling is, I've been trained to go against real life radar-guided AAA systems and the best the russkies have isn't as good as AH flak.

Are you sure about your estimation of the number of planes that got nailed by manned AAA (20mm, 40mm, 88mm, 5in) in RL WWII?
Then you want to compare the capabilities of heat-seeking and radar guided missles going against aircraft that fly well over 500mph with built in defense systems against a simulation of manned anti-aircraft explosive projectiles going against planes that fly between 250 and 350mph in level flight...and you think the simulation should be less accurate...it is when you look at the number of shots fired, speed and altitude of the plane, and the number of planes that actually get shot down. Sometimes it just boils down to bad timing.



TBH, if anyone thinks AH is bad in any way...go check out WBs...you will be back here.

[Bronk]

If he would follow the old WB RPS idea inside the WW2 Arena, and fixed the FM and DM i bet things went a little bit different.

RPS will kill any and all WWII flight games.  Just look at the whine on the bbs about eny. There isn't enough cheese to go with the whine a rps would produce.

[Anaxogoras]

RPS will kill any and all WWII flight games.  Just look at the whine on the bbs about eny. There isn't enough cheese to go with the whine a rps would produce.

If any flight sim comes along that's similar to AH and has an RPS, I will open an account there and close this one.  It's the only thing that can keep my interest in "arenas."