Thanks War Thunder!

[zack1234]

I agree with your son that we needs more jets especially the meteor!!

HTC is staffed by Colonials and cannot admit we invented the jet engine, we will never see the Meteor

[Lusche]

Does anyone have statistics on the number of people who would be playing if the people who don't play because not enough people are playing were playing?   

 

[SmokinLoon]

I tried WT... the scenery is nice but the flight mechanics/flight models... **shudders**

When I'm up in a Cessna 150 or 172, I can feel the aircraft, I can feel the actions. When I flew around in Sentimental Journey I could feel the aircraft shifting and pitching... in WT I feel like I'm back in the 1980's playing Star Wars at the arcade. WT's FM is too gamey and too simplified. The eye candy is nice, but I can't really say much positive in terms of FM.

I'll stick with AH. 

[CAV]

That said, I asked him what he doesn't like about AH. His reply was the time involved to get to any action. He hates wasting the time it takes to climb out to a fight, the time it takes to chase down runners, the time it takes find a fight that doesn't involve upping under a vulch fest and so on. It's a combat game where most people seem to want to avoid combat, and so he plays other games where the action is pretty much instant.

I think this is a major difference between simulation type players and Xbox players. Most simulation players are trying to recreate the events that are fathers and grandfathers went through during world war two. If this involves flying escort for bombers for 90 minutes with only 5 minutes of action, and the bombers make it to target and back home again,  a sim player is OK with that.

AH has player made missions, But they are too far and few between. What aceshigh needs is something like a automated "maximum effort mission"...

Aceshigh does an automated check every two hours....  It detects that lets say the Bishops have not captured a base from the Rooks in the 2 hours.  It generates a maximum effort mission against a Rook base.  If the base is taken in a certain time frame the Bish are rewarded perk points, if the mission fails the Bishops lose points, and Rook received points for a successful defense.

Set-up a few simple rules...

Exempt the side with the fewest players from the maximum effort missions.

The Max effort mission has to be a frontline base...  It can't be a randomly selected  base ten sectors across the map.

And maybe their needs to be a minimal population in the arena... ie...  Missions are generating only when the arena has a population of 75 or more. etc. etc. etc.

CAV

[Krusty]

And regardless of if they're serviceable, at the end of the day people want graphics.  It doesn't matter to Aiden with the $3000 alienware and 32" 144Hz 4k display that you can have over 100 planes on the screen at once.  All that matters is it doesn't look as good as the next game over.

Does that even apply anymore? Look at AH now. Look at WT now. Look at WoW 2.0 now. They're all looking rather similar. Much like a slew of modern FPS games, they reach an upward limit on their lighting, textures, and HDR rendering, etc. AH with max settings now looks pretty damn good, to be honest. Maybe the introduction was gradual enough that people forgot what AH2 looked like, but in the alpha test it blew me away how awesome just the lighting alone made the game look 100x better.

AH3:






Compare that to AH2:





When you look at AH3 now (excluding the few 3d models that are still being upgraded to AH3 standards) it's a match for any other game in terms of textures, 3d shapes, modelling overall, terrain, ground objects, you name it.

I think it's a curious thing, and maybe part of the problem (that old memory of what AH used to look like) but I rather like how AH looks now.

[Blinky]

I'm not sure like where this post has gone very much. I was just talking about the flight mechanics....

Y'all can have it.
<S> all.

[oakranger]

AI would be a nice additive for FSO.  Numbers are still dropping getting to a point that I care less to parcipate.

[Delirium]

AI would be a nice additive for FSO.  Numbers are still dropping getting to a point that I care less to parcipate.

With AI in the scenario room, a continuous fight could be maintained 24-7. As a player log in, they would take control of an AI aircraft already in flight. A single player online could fight some historical based action without the downtime of trying to create a fight in the Main Arena.

[Wiley]

Does that even apply anymore? Look at AH now. Look at WT now. Look at WoW 2.0 now. They're all looking rather similar. Much like a slew of modern FPS games, they reach an upward limit on their lighting, textures, and HDR rendering, etc. AH with max settings now looks pretty damn good, to be honest. Maybe the introduction was gradual enough that people forgot what AH2 looked like, but in the alpha test it blew me away how awesome just the lighting alone made the game look 100x better.

AH3:

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)


Compare that to AH2:

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

When you look at AH3 now (excluding the few 3d models that are still being upgraded to AH3 standards) it's a match for any other game in terms of textures, 3d shapes, modelling overall, terrain, ground objects, you name it.

I think it's a curious thing, and maybe part of the problem (that old memory of what AH used to look like) but I rather like how AH looks now.

In gameplay, it doesn't particularly matter other than the cockpits but what really smacks my eyes are the round bits in the other games vs AH3.  In the others, round things are round, in AH the curves on parts of the models still are a series of visibly straight lines.  Newer models are a lot better, but they're still there.  I expect it's so FR stays high when there's a lot of other vehicles around.

I know I was blown away the first time I launched a busy FSO in AH3.  I was expecting worse performance than AH2, and my frame rate barely twitched when I went on the runway.  Miles ahead of the slideshow I got in AH2 with the same hardware.

The thing that bugs me is, it's good enough for gameplay, but I think it impacts a lot of peoples' first impression of the game.  Can't remember who said it, might've been Lusche, but the cockpit is one of the biggest first things you see when you start to play.  If it's one of the later ones, it looks pretty good.  If the newbie happens to be a Tempest or A20 aficionado, not so much.

The water looks good, there are others that IMO look better.  The terrain and trees look ok, again miles better than AH2, but when you look at the terrains in the others they're laid out more logically and look quite a bit better.  Again, I understand that's because the maps are freaking enormous so to make it run the detail of the contours is a lot lower and the amount of repeating stuff is higher.

Don't get me wrong, AH3 looks good, but the compromises it has to work around because of scale means it can't look like the others without requiring more computer than God to run adequately.

Wiley.

[zack1234]

 

[Volron]

Some folks went nutz over the idea of having AI in the MA.  Why argue with more targets to shoot at?  Bots are not exactly something challenging once you figure them out, but at least provide SOMETHING over NOTHING.  It could help HiTech peg the resupply thing that's an issue as well, with Bot bomber streams hitting factories.

Bot bomber streams from countries with lowest numbers will use B-17's, B-24's and B-29's, with streams from countries with higher numbers using G4M1's, He-111's and Ju-88's.  Have the bomber streams with a total number of bombers 13 sets (39 bombers) to start.  3 bomber streams launching every hour that fly to and from target hitting factories and fields, with field targets being carpet bombed (no precision targeting) and not hitting towns at airfields.  Escorts can number half, flying close escort matching the stream they are escorting.  Example: A bot bomber stream consisting of B-17's would have 51B's, 47 D-11's, and/or 38G/J's escorts; A bomber stream of G4M1's would have Ki-61's, Ki-84's, and/or A6M5's; etc, etc.  Give them a height range of 15-20k depending on their target.  If a Rook bomber stream is going to hit a Bish factory that's way in back next to Nits, it would fly 20k.  If it was to hit a field next to Rook lines, 15k.  Factory raids could be every 2 hours(from a low side country) to 4 hours(from a high side country), and the City Center and HQ won't be targets.

Basic idea, a nightmare to implement, but a possibility?

[oakranger]

Some folks went nutz over the idea of having AI in the MA.  Why argue with more targets to shoot at?  Bots are not exactly something challenging once you figure them out, but at least provide SOMETHING over NOTHING.  It could help HiTech peg the resupply thing that's an issue as well, with Bot bomber streams hitting factories.

Bot bomber streams from countries with lowest numbers will use B-17's, B-24's and B-29's, with streams from countries with higher numbers using G4M1's, He-111's and Ju-88's.  Have the bomber streams with a total number of bombers 13 sets (39 bombers) to start.  3 bomber streams launching every hour that fly to and from target hitting factories and fields, with field targets being carpet bombed (no precision targeting) and not hitting towns at airfields.  Escorts can number half, flying close escort matching the stream they are escorting.  Example: A bot bomber stream consisting of B-17's would have 51B's, 47 D-11's, and/or 38G/J's escorts; A bomber stream of G4M1's would have Ki-61's, Ki-84's, and/or A6M5's; etc, etc.  Give them a height range of 15-20k depending on their target.  If a Rook bomber stream is going to hit a Bish factory that's way in back next to Nits, it would fly 20k.  If it was to hit a field next to Rook lines, 15k.  Factory raids could be every 2 hours(from a low side country) to 4 hours(from a high side country), and the City Center and HQ won't be targets.

Basic idea, a nightmare to implement, but a possibility?

I like the idea of having them for scenario and FSO events.   MA they do not have a place.

[Mongoose]

  Some of the reasons arcade players give for not playing AH are the same reasons I do play AH.  It's all about flying the airplane.  When you fly an airplane, you take off, you climb to altitude, you fly to your destination, and you fight.  And when you are finished, you fly the plane all the way back and land it, if you can.  This is what Aces High is about. And this is why I am here. 

  For those who would rather fly a console game, they are the ones missing out.    Hitech

[1stpar3]

Some folks went nutz over the idea of having AI in the MA.  Why argue with more targets to shoot at?  Bots are not exactly something challenging once you figure them out, but at least provide SOMETHING over NOTHING.  It could help HiTech peg the resupply thing that's an issue as well, with Bot bomber streams hitting factories.

Bot bomber streams from countries with lowest numbers will use B-17's, B-24's and B-29's, with streams from countries with higher numbers using G4M1's, He-111's and Ju-88's.  Have the bomber streams with a total number of bombers 13 sets (39 bombers) to start.  3 bomber streams launching every hour that fly to and from target hitting factories and fields, with field targets being carpet bombed (no precision targeting) and not hitting towns at airfields.  Escorts can number half, flying close escort matching the stream they are escorting.  Example: A bot bomber stream consisting of B-17's would have 51B's, 47 D-11's, and/or 38G/J's escorts; A bomber stream of G4M1's would have Ki-61's, Ki-84's, and/or A6M5's; etc, etc.  Give them a height range of 15-20k depending on their target.  If a Rook bomber stream is going to hit a Bish factory that's way in back next to Nits, it would fly 20k.  If it was to hit a field next to Rook lines, 15k.  Factory raids could be every 2 hours(from a low side country) to 4 hours(from a high side country), and the City Center and HQ won't be targets.

Basic idea, a nightmare to implement, but a possibility?

Yep! My thoughts exactly! I know absolutely nothing about writing code for games but for those in low number times, cant see any adverse effects! True its not the same as Prime Time(more pvp) but it could have great action! Maybe the push back is because there is no one to PM and call POS and NOOB? lol. I brought this same idea up to several players I know that would give thoughtful imput to that idea, several months ago. Consensus was, 3...hard to boast about killing AI(no ego boost for those that need it)...2 They are having trouble in the "staged missions" in Axis vs Allies arena. 1... They just hate change, M3 experiment sure caused a bunch of Hoopla! 

[popeye]

Some folks went nutz over the idea of having AI in the MA.  Why argue with more targets to shoot at?  Bots are not exactly something challenging once you figure them out, but at least provide SOMETHING over NOTHING.  It could help HiTech peg the resupply thing that's an issue as well, with Bot bomber streams hitting factories.

You mean strat runners aren't bots?   

I lost interest in AI games the first day I played Air Warrior those many moons ago.