I flew for a few hours with my squad last night. It was quite a bit of fun. No trouble finding the enemy.
A couple of things I noticed about gameplay that seemed to me to be changes from how people normally behave:
- Bombers either need to climb out of reach of enemy fighters or bring escorts. A strat bomber used to be able to take off a couple sectors back and then go into enemy territory. I watched a potential strat raider climbing a sector back from the front bail, likely because he saw me climbing in one of the sectors between him and his objectives. Whether making it difficult for the singleton strat raider is a good or bad thing is a matter of personal opinion. IMO it makes it awfully easy. I could've upped my fighter and bumrushed him on climbout if I'd desired, and there wouldn't have been anything he could do other than move away.
- Alt monkeys. When a fight would happen on one of our fronts, and I observed people skirting the sides and not coming in until they were 20+. A co-alt fighter up there with them usually sent them to the deck. I did notice a couple of them attempt to make a turn on merge, snaproll, then run, which led me to theorize they were likely new to being at alt.
- Drag and bag and bouncing is only possible on a truly unaware opponent with dar as it was last night. You can see what he's heading towards, and what's sneaking up behind you. It did make a group on group fight a bit more manageable because you'd be able to what the bandit on the deck was headed towards, and set up to meet the guy he was dragging to if you weren't down there with him. You knew there was something there, as opposed to knowing there was a likelihood he was dragging the low guys to something.
- A shorthanded side seems to mostly head back to their ack when they see the superior force inbound. I wonder if the same thing was happening before, but I just couldn't see it on dar. I find it kind of odd since bardar under normal settings gives you the same information more or less. I'm guessing actually seeing the blips on the map makes it more real.
- Enemy GV pinpoint location is just far too much information.
I only flew with my squad, not sure how it will affect the times I'm alone, but I'm curious to find out.
Wiley.