War Thunder

[MrRiplEy[H]]

This is a combination of matchmaker limits and War Thunder's typical Russian bias.  But, if you play Aces High don't pretend you took off in some 40 ENY plane and never got shot down by an La-7 in the MA.

The key thing to keep in mind is that War Thunder matches based on their battle rating system, so you have to set your lineup to a relatively evenly matched number

The difference is that I can choose to take a LA-7 if I want to, not forced to. The huge mismatch of planes combined to the lack of dar/icons and even a proper view system just put me off instantly. I do not have time to start building 'experience' fighting impossible odds. Of course I could choose to pay for it, but then I'd have to invest to trackir or vr because the view system just doesn't work with a hat switch.

But the biggest thing that put me off was the horrible matchmaking wait times in the lobby. No sir-ee.

[HPriller]

It depends on what mode you are in queue for.  Arcade Battles (AB) is by far the most popular and typically won't have much if any wait time at all.  All planes are marked with nametags in this mode.

With regard to matchmaking, players are put together based on the battle ratings of their planes, which are arbitrary numbers assigned by Gaijin, kinda like ENY in Aces High.  If you were exclusively using the starter reserve planes, you shouldn't have even seen an La-5 (lowest one is battle rating 3.7) as there is too much of a gap in the battle rating even for the earliest model La-5, though you might have seen a Lagg3, unless the matchmaker bugged out somehow and put that guy in with you.  You also have to take care that you aren't flying one of the low tiered planes with a high battle rating, the I-153 chaika for example had it's battle rating pushed up all the way to 2.7 (due to being so successful seal clubbing the low tiers) which would put it in range of an La-5.  There's also a tier restriction of a two tier gap, so if you queue exclusively tier 1 planes you should never see anything over tier 2.  Even then, it's hardly hopeless, particularly at the lower tiers many of the lower tier 1 planes are quite capable of bringing down that early model La-5, as most can easily outturn it, just don't try to outrun it.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

It depends on what mode you are in queue for.  Arcade Battles (AB) is by far the most popular and typically won't have much if any wait time at all.  All planes are marked with nametags in this mode.

With regard to matchmaking, players are put together based on the battle ratings of their planes, which are arbitrary numbers assigned by Gaijin, kinda like ENY in Aces High.  If you were exclusively using the starter reserve planes, you shouldn't have even seen an La-5 (lowest one is battle rating 3.7) as there is too much of a gap in the battle rating even for the earliest model La-5, though you might have seen a Lagg3, unless the matchmaker bugged out somehow and put that guy in with you.  You also have to take care that you aren't flying one of the low tiered planes with a high battle rating, the I-153 chaika for example had it's battle rating pushed up all the way to 2.7 (due to being so successful seal clubbing the low tiers) which would put it in range of an La-5.  There's also a tier restriction of a two tier gap, so if you queue exclusively tier 1 planes you should never see anything over tier 2.  Even then, it's hardly hopeless, particularly at the lower tiers many of the lower tier 1 planes are quite capable of bringing down that early model La-5, as most can easily outturn it, just don't try to outrun it.

Dunno. The experience totally sucked for me. Much waiting for nothing. The fancy graphics won't pull me in if the gameplay is horrible and you have to wait several minutes to respawn. The arcade arenas are utter crap, tried them too.

[Zoney]

HPriller, do you play aces high?

[Yankee67]

All in all, the War Thunder gaming experience wasn't that great.  I still have it loaded, though.  The only thing that had any wow factor was the graphics.  Aces High has its weaknesses too, but it's better gaming than WT will ever be.

[Volron]

All in all, the War Thunder gaming experience wasn't that great.  I still have it loaded, though.  The only thing that had any wow factor was the graphics.  Aces High has its weaknesses too, but it's better gaming than WT will ever be.

Of course.  As I mentioned earlier, Aces High has that Strategic depth that WT can never really match.  Aces High has so much more for you to be able to do as well, and a HUGE benefit of being able to do it whenever you feel.  In WT, you are pretty limited.  I only have ships, guns, pillboxes, "bombing points", bases and tanks to hit in WT with my bombers.  In Aces High I have; Towns, Hangers, Guns, Ords, Troops, Dar, Ships and tanks.  I also have an Ords Factory, Dar Factory, Troop Factory, Industrial Center's (City's), Fuel Refinery, AAA Factory and an HQ.  A LOT more choices for me.   The maps in WT are only a few sectors where as Aces High has HUGE maps, with multiple sectors.  I can take a nice and long, round about way to my target.  In WT, I can only go to a certain point.

WT does have it's benefits, that being graphic's, A/C that we just do not have yet, A/C that we'd never see (I do like my G5N after all. ), a Korean Era plane set and is good for a quick jaunt in fighting if you just don't have the time in Aces High.  The most I ever wait for a RB match is 5 minutes.  Sure, there has been a couple of times where I waited 6-7 minutes, but I have yet to wait any longer.  Takes a bit longer in Aces High to get to my target alt (which hovers between 17.5-20k), and that's not even getting to enemy territory.


It does urk me a little that some folks (I'm guilty of doing it myself, and no, my boot doesn't taste good. ) of ragging a game they have no time in.  Not to mention that they don't seem to realize that they are different games, period.  Similar genre, but play quite differently from each other.  I don't think it looks good for AH when folks create threads about WT, ragging it completely with no mentions of the good sides it DOES have.  A basic comparison between the took makes it look better for us.

That being said, I really do enjoy both games.  Each have their merits that appeal to me and both work nicely for me.  Aces High has a lot more potential, especially if they bring in a far more detailed battle damage system, instead of the current all or nothing one.  Also, folks, CHILL!   Everyone seems antsy, and I'd think AH was never going to get any kind of update anymore.  They ARE working to better Aces High folks!  If HTC didn't care, I don't think we'd have AH right now.   I mean, I'm seeing names I haven't seen a in a long time, reappearing with the new shots of the upcoming MAJOR update.

[HPriller]

HPriller, do you play aces high?

I did for many years on many different accounts.  All told I easily spent more on Aces High than I did on War Thunder.  But it came to a point of logging in 1-3 times a month to an MA with so few people it would take over a half hour just to find a fight.  In the end it wasn't worth the constant $15 a month to my wallet.  There are so much more quality gaming to be had these days on the cheap or even free.  I haven't spent money on War Thunder in months but I still play it daily and have a blast.  As I previously stated, I like both games they are both different and good in my book.  But Aces High just doesn't have the value anymore for the cost with all the other gaming options I have at a lower cost or free.

[bozon]

HPriller, the 15$ per month in AH is not value - it is a filter. And it works pretty well.

[Lusche]

HPriller, the 15$ per month in AH is not value - it is a filter. And it works pretty well.

Wouldn't 100$ per month be an even better filter then?  Not that I really know what it's supposed to filter out other than poor people. Or maybe you just like the idea of constantly shrinking player base... a romantic fondness for doom and decay maybe... 

 

[JimmyD3]

Aces High won't take off again because it's full of people who still like deftones and think Kanye West is bad

Who the heck is Kanye West???

[Lusche]

Who the heck is Kanye West???

And what is a 'deftone'?

(Yes, I know I could google this, thank you )

[Tinkles]

This is a combination of matchmaker limits and War Thunder's typical Russian bias.  But, if you play Aces High don't pretend you took off in some 40 ENY plane and never got shot down by an La-7 in the MA.

The key thing to keep in mind is that War Thunder matches based on their battle rating system, so you have to set your lineup to a relatively evenly matched number

Well, WT uses a system of provoking you to buy higher tier planes/vehicles to survive longer in the fight/ actually fight.  They give you crappy WWI planes vs WWII-Korean-Vietnam era planes.

While you could spend maybe 50$ and have your favorite plane(s)/vehicle(s) and never have to pay a monthly subscription.

In Aces High you get all the planes up front for the free trial + can use them whenever you want (however this is a bad thing for those who only fly a few set planes), yet you pay 15$ a month.

Not to mention no waiting periods for matches or limited lives. Nor the nuisance of having to pay for repairing your plane/"buying" a plane.

[HPriller]

Well, WT uses a system of provoking you to buy higher tier planes/vehicles to survive longer in the fight/ actually fight.  They give you crappy WWI planes vs WWII-Korean-Vietnam era planes.

While you could spend maybe 50$ and have your favorite plane(s)/vehicle(s) and never have to pay a monthly subscription.

In Aces High you get all the planes up front for the free trial + can use them whenever you want (however this is a bad thing for those who only fly a few set planes), yet you pay 15$ a month.

Not to mention no waiting periods for matches or limited lives. Nor the nuisance of having to pay for repairing your plane/"buying" a plane.

They gotta make their money somehow, but WWI vs. Korea/Vietnam is a gross exaggeration.  The planeset encompasses a roughly 20 year range from the early 1930's to the hard cutoff at 1953.  At lower tiers it doesn't take very long at all to unlock the planes and their upgrades.  The matchmaker also keeps things reasonably tight thru their battle rating system.  There's really a lot of fun to be had in the lower tiers without having to pay a dime.

As for waiting times, this is War Thunder's biggest advantage by far.  For arcade battles the matchmaker will typically find a match in seconds, it's air start with teams only a few miles apart.  Sure you can put your plane on the runway almost instantly in Aces High.  But first you have to look over the map and try to find a fight to begin with.  Then you have to find the closest airfield (that isn't vulched out) and then take off, climb to altitude/speed and fly out to the fight sometimes 30+ miles away from the closest airfield.   In the time it takes you to do that the fight could already be over.  And you could end up cruising around the enemy base just waiting for someone to challenge you before you run out of fuel.  When it comes to getting fast action War Thunder beats Aces High's snails pace by a wide margin.

As far as buying/repairing planes, unless you are terribad at the game you're almost always going to make more than enough silver lions in a match to cover your repair costs and put most towards whatever new plane you intend to get.  Not all planes are always available in Aces High either, anything with a perk cost has to be earned too and you only earn it for one flyout unless you successfully land it back for your rebate.   So, for example, if you had your heart set on flying C-Hogs, tempests, 262s or whatever perk plane it's significantly more limited use than in War Thunder where you unlock the plane once and it's permanently available for you.

The main idea here is that there is a significant advantage to the free2play model.  A much larger playerbase for starters.  You can pay as much or as little as you want and yet still be able to play the game.  It's far from perfect but the difference has left me still playing War Thunder without having spent anything on it in several months and still retaining all the things I've unlocked.  With Aces High, the last few times I had an active subscription, I got so little playtime and action out of it, due to the abysmal online numbers at the times I had available to play it, that I didn't feel like I got my money's worth.  Any friends I tried to bring into Aces High to play with didn't want anything to do with it and barely lasted a day or two of their free trials.  They laughed at the relatively poor graphics and were frustrated by the extremely steep learning curve for new players and the relatively huge of amounts of time that have to be spent finding and flying out to a battle.  The other issue here is stagnation, in the past several years very little at all has changed in Aces High.  For a subscription based system, there typically is an expectation of a constant stream of new content/updates.  Aces High hasn't really lived up to this as of late.  I honestly think the subscription has become a dated concept in online gaming and Aces High has suffered retaining it.  For the game to have a brighter future, personally, I think a free2play model should be considered at the very least.

[Lusche]

[...]War Thunder beats Aces High's snails pace [...]

I think you are overrating my influence on AH   




 

[Ratsy]

As for waiting times, this is War Thunder's biggest advantage by far... 

As far as buying/repairing planes...

I honestly think the subscription has become a dated concept in online gaming and Aces High has suffered retaining it.  For the game to have a brighter future, personally, I think a free2play model should be considered at the very least.

All points here are personal:

I am an impatient person.  I have seen the tick-tock-dum-de-dum of War Thunder waits first hand.  I guess the 'look for a fight' time one experiences in Aces High could also be called 'develop a strategy based on what the map is giving you' time.  It's still pretty dynamic but you can develop a plan (even if it's wrong as in my case).

The equipment acquisition path, crew development, and demand for repair in War Thunder seems fussy to me.  About as cerebral as I want to get is the mission-oriented "pick and choose" I am presented with just before launch (if I want it) in Aces High.

Your last quoted point about F2P has me thinking.  On one hand I think it's cynical.  On the other hand there's evidently millions of people signed up for it.  The assumption is that everybody who plays something on-line wants win in some fashion and be recognized for it.  It follows that Gaijin won't charge for a 'taste' of the product.  However, if you want to be truly competitive (and successful) you need to pay incrementally or all at once. 

Ultimately you are correct - subscription services a dying notion.  The business side of the 'free' internet makes WT possible.  With numbers like they are touting, they are irresistible to companies who would like a taste of marketing to those kinds of numbers. Because of that, War Thunder has me unsettled.

I'm an older citizen of the US and thus culturally ingrained with the notion that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is (too good to be true).  When I see somebody 'giving' something away, my radar flips on.  I ask, what's in it for them?  And I ask what's it really going to cost?

Those coming behind me, (my own kids are an example) don't seem to care about living their lives in a marketing fish bowl.  It doesn't seem to bother them that local funeral directors likely have purchased a demographic report, thus know who they are and when they are likely to meet their demise - and a good idea of when to start trying to sell them plots in a graveyard.  I guess that's about as cynical as it gets.

I tried to play War Thunder again today.  I want to be fair about it.  It just seems like an airborne version of an FPS and I can't get past that.  I went back and watched one of VuduVince's video's of a tasty 1v1 in WT.  I have never seen a fight like that myself.  War Thunder has it's virtues, however.  I'm hoping HTC will match and improve on those in AH3.