FWIW

[easymo]

 Ive been thinking alot about what got me hooked on sims in the first place. If I had to point at one thing. It would be WB,s offline game. I was probably in RR and didnt even know it. It took some time to get to the point where I could kill the drones. And this was back when they just flew around in circles. When I could do it pretty good I thought I was ready for online. Little did I know . I waas not discouraged by my failers though. I knew that if I ever got to the point that I could get on someones 6. I could shoot. I had spent many hours shooting down drones.

 I dont think the H2H games provide the newbi with this same feeling of success. And im guessing that a lot of them give up, before they even feel like they could shoot down a plane. Even if it held still for them.

 As far as what the guns will do to a moveing target. These people are wondering in to the unknown. Ive flown the H2H a few times. and you see these people shooting at 3000 yards.

 As far as my experiance go,s. EZmode made no difference at all. But if I had not had those drones. I would never have started all of this.

 This is not intended as a EZmode whine. But as a suggestion to get more new people into the game.

[Toad]

I agree, Easymo.

I think drones, unlimited ammo/ord and "instant alt" would be great additions to the offline game and WOULD be of help to the new guys.

[Nashwan]

That's what I was trying to argue for earlier. IMHO it's more important than an easy mode. If people had the chance to practice against AI planes offline they would. I think many that come into the arena, do badly and leave never to be seen again would return to precticing offline to see if they could master the game.
I think the current setup of AH is unfriendly to the newcomer. There isn't enough documentation on the aircraft on the website, (and what there is is hard to find) and the inability to play offline means people come in with no idea what they are letting themselves in for. Microsoft's piece of crap (FA?) has some sort of tutorial for training offline.
Not a flame or a whine, I really want to see AH succeed, and I think it's the best by a long way, but I think a bit more work on the presentation would help tremendously.
PS. Can't some of the experienced players do the aircraft info pages for the web site?

[Karnak]

That holds true with my experiences as well.  Newbies need a place to practice, using a realistic flight model, but against opponents who we would consider a joke.  I think that an easy mode would be a bad thing as the transition to a real mode is made much more difficult and unexpected departures frusterate newbies greatly.

Sisu

[funked]

I agree, the WB drones were very helpful.  The current version has amazingly good drones (they will kill you if you are not careful), but even the old circling WB drones were useful for training.

[Sox]

AHh yes this is great idea. I was hopeing for drons to. It helps gunry and it would be nice to have tank drons and such to practice bombing offline.  In AW3 it had the offline drons to. It was very helpfull for me to learn what a plane can do and how to shoot better. You can try diffrent munuvers when attacking drons and find out ways to kill better. It is hard to learn when you fly onlive. Because theres always some one that can shoot you down so fast it will make you head swim. And you still dont have any pratice because you spend all your time in the chute.      

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VMF-212  Lancers