Your opinion about Warbirds III

[Hajo]

Update! LOL   after trying WB for the second time in about 4 years I canceled my account.  Maybe just takes getting used to but the gameplay IMHO is much better in Aces High.  I dont like RPS unfortunately and the numbers are quite low.  The people however are helpful and seem cordial.  Cockpit art is great in WBIII, however as I stated before the stick input seems to be exagerated low.  There are some features I like, such as paying a penalty for flying throttle to the firewall, and LW craft cockpits in metric.  But.....IMHO Aces HIgh wayyyyyy ahead.

Hajo

[Thunder]

Packy,

My oppion about about WarbirdsIII is simple.

(1) If it were better then Aces High... we wouldn't all be in here posting all the time.

(2) People migrate to where they like to spend there time.

(3) Seems like they have made there choice for Ace High!

Thunder

[Revvin]

Forgot to mention every plane rolls like a 747. Some said it was this new 'stickforce' thing but I seem to remember a long time ago it also being mentioned that this new mush stopped the micro warps and a lot of trainers were upset about it...odd they were so upset if it was suppossed to model real life stickforce?

[Beegerite]

OK Mullets!  Let's not let emotions get ahead of intellect
Here's one of the thoughts I've read, "I have never played it but am 101% sure it's a horrible game"  
I'm a consumer and want to be sure I get the best for my buck.  WarBirds or Aces High or FA3 or whatever.  I own no stock in these companies and I'm not going to let emotional issues cloud my judgement.  Here's what I've read here and what I've experienced since I took out a WB sub about 2 months ago after 2 years in AH.  I've been flying both intently for those 2 months because I found something incredible after I started WB, my AH stick settings were totally skewed.  For some damn reason I had created settings that were totally messing up my control of the aircraft and this led to a misinformed opinion on my part that AH's aircraft weren't flying true to real life flight physics.   Since I corrected my screw up, I've been doing much better and have thus decided to go broke by paying for both at the same time.

First, for what it's worth my background; 2 years FA1, FA2, 2 years AH and in RL a commercial pilot's license with CFI, Instrument ratings and somewhere between 3 and 4 thousand hours of flight time as PIC.  It is from this experience that I draw to determine what I like and don't like about each of these flight sims.

Mushy Controls in WB;  Don't disagree with this.  They could use a little tightning e.g. when one enters a dive in real life the flow of air over the control surfaces should make them harder to deflect.  WB's model is mushy but in return it gives you better audible clues of what's happening e.g. when you enter a dive with full power the engines tend to over-rev, wind sound increases etc.  WB's seems to have a better model of engine performance IMHO.  On the other hand my favorite WB ride the P38 will commence compression way too fast in AH.

Graphics and Views:  Sorry, but again IMHO WB graphics are way more realistic than AH's  at least while the aircraft are in flight.  Somebody mentioned the sky.  True no cumulous clouds only stratus layers but when I find myself in the air in WB it's almost like really being in what I perceive to be a fast WW2 fighter.  Horizon looks perfect, aircraft appear to move and converge exactly like real world aircraft move and converge.  Very, very little lag (this totally pissed me off in AH).  Things are smooth as silk at least 90% of the time.  When I get on somebody's six in WB, they're dead meat.  I have enough visual clues to be able to control speed, angle of attack etc. in order to stay where I should be and at least in the WB P38 speed is controllable by advancing and retarding the throttle and dive brakes very effectively.  Zoom comes in 3 flavors 90 degrees (45 degrees each side of center), 75 degrees and I believe about 35 degrees for close in dispatching).  I have no problem with this.  AH of course give you various pre-set (F10) views and WB could use something like this.

WB and AH are both works in progress and at this time AH is superior in the following generalities; strategy, ease of use e.g. point and click vs. many of the dot commands which have actually to be typed in at WB.  Amazingly as somebody said the HTC staff were the original developers of WB and it seems like somebody has got some amazing lawyers because the command set is almost identical.  One would have to be a moron not to realize that there is difinetely a very strong family resemblance between the two sims.  In fact, I find them so similar that I've been working on a database to compare each and every feature of the two and to write a detailed analysis.

Main thing I want to say is that they're both great sims and it behooves us their business base to gently goad them into fair competition by not being so blind as to condemn someting without giving it a try and recognizing that what holds true today may not hold true tomorrow.  Give you an example, I love the film viewer in AH and you all know how easy it is to use.  When I joined WB 2 months ago there was no film viewer.  I thought what a shame.  Guess what?  There's been two non-compulsory updates since I joined and the build of 07/02 has a film viewer but very limited in comparison to ours.  Here's what you've got to do to film your flight or portion there off;  to start the film you have to type .acmrec or hit the +  into the text buffer.  No exactly point and click but it works.  You get all the views and sounds but you can't switch to your oponents plane (at least not that I've found out so far).  In return for this downside, WB gives me and as many of my squaddies as we can fit in a B17 to man different gun positions giving us a 12 O'Clock High immersion that just can't be duplicated in AH "at this time"  I did this just the other night in a manned B17 which was part of a 64 ship AI bomber formation consisting of B17s and B24s  It was figgin immersive and I swore I was a 19 year old kid scared crapless in the skies over Germany.

Bottom line:  If you're and old dude like me with real life experience in the wild blue and a history buff to boot then you'll probably forgive some of the game play issues in WB and enjoy it more.   If you enjoy the strategy of base capture then AH has a lot more to offer.

For me it's $24.95 + $14.95 and I get the best of both worlds.  So what if my wife don't eat, she says she needs to lose weight anyway

Beeg
Rampaging Rooks of Retribution

aka "Cojudo" 475th FG "Satan's Angels" in WB

P.S. And................the most important and selfish reason from my perspective....drum roll please.......I GET KILLS!!!!  5 mins ago I dispatched 5 red devils over the parched sands of Tunisia.  Same man, same flight technique based on real life flight training, P38L.  In 2 years in AH I have at most had 1 streak of 4 and mostly I go 1 for 1  Granted that these 5 kills where in the Free Arena but they were all of guys who frequent the joint.  There has got to be something to the coincidence eh?

[Master]

http://www.totalsims.com/welcome/

[Creamo]

Thanks for the link. Was able to setup a free account for the weekend and played a few hours today.

Good graphics, and now having second thoughts on the mushy controls after flying it awhile. Maybe a mix of AH and WBS would be best but I have no clue whats right. I got used to it.

Pilots sucked. I got shot down twice I think. AH planes do so much so fast with instant control, where wbs seems to cater to more bnz thought out stuff. I really liked that.

I was looking for dumbed down guns, but they tore into everything I shot. I was also used to the zoom view in AH, so I didn't like the preset stuff, but actually liked the limited views better.

The bombers graphics in wbs look way better than AH. Guns shake like hell and make good transition noise. But the new bomber formations in AH are way too cool so I guess that's ok.

I can't see how anyone could not fly both if it wasn't pinching your budget.

[Beegerite]

Matter of fact, I do fly both and very much agree with your post.  Let me add some thoughts about yours;

Good Graphics: No question and let's not forget perspective which is the way your eyes perceive the movement of aircraft within the airspace.  WB has a much better look.  

Mushy Controls:  As you mention they need getting used to but I still think they're mushy and could use some refining by better simulating the effect of speed/wind on control surfaces.

Mix AH & WB:  I think they should merge

Pilots sucked:  Remember, you were in a free weekend vs. other mullets just like you with no WB experience.  You were lucky not to go up vs. an organized squadron of vets.

AH Instant Control:  This is as bad as mushy, just the other side of the spectrum.  One of the things which has worked againt myself or anyone else who has real life experience is that our inner training tells us that "if you do what the dweebs do in real life, you're going to be in an wingless airplane"

Thought Out Stuff:  This equates to flying just as real life WW2 pilots would.  You're 100% correct WB pilots tend a hell of a lot more toward being "Re-Enactors" than "Gamers"  The other night my entire squadron sat on the runway for 15 mins. waiting for all to return so we could go back up as a unit to defend a 64 plane buff formation waiting to return from a deep penetration raid.  Even in the CT you would never experience that in AH.   The 475th FG at least does everything as though we were flying real P38s.

Dumbded Down Guns:  No way!  I find the modeling of ballistics 100% accurate in WB.  This includes the entire spectrum of weapons.  

Views:  That's right, you get used to them, no big deal.

Bomber Graphics:  100% on target!  They're truly immersive.  The other night they put up 64 AI bombers mixed with real life bombers on a deep penetration raid to France from the midlands of England.  Afigginmazing!!!!  The 38s could only escort till they went fuel critical (no 51's allowed - they stick to the history of the date of the battle which comes up when you log in).  Bombers have a great gunsight system very realistic (so is our new version)  No pinpoint bombing.  Carpet the joint and a 64 plane bomber stream lays down one hell of a carpet.  You can see the explotions and concussion rings from 25K just like our boys would have seen them over Europe.  And...don't forget the best thing of all....get your entire squad into a B17 or B24 and play 12 o'clock High.  We need that in AH!

Bottom line.  They're both great!!!  And I would love for them to steal ideas from the other for our benefit.

Beeg
Rampaging Rooks of Retribution
aka
Cojudo 475th FG "Satan's Angels"

P.S.  You need to keep an open mind and try new things.  I would still be in FA2 had I not initially been the first in my squad to become willing to try AH.

Originally posted by Creamo
Thanks for the link. Was able to setup a free account for the weekend and played a few hours today.

Good graphics, and now having second thoughts on the mushy controls after flying it awhile. Maybe a mix of AH and WBS would be best but I have no clue whats right. I got used to it.

Pilots sucked. I got shot down twice I think. AH planes do so much so fast with instant control, where wbs seems to cater to more bnz thought out stuff. I really liked that.

I was looking for dumbed down guns, but they tore into everything I shot. I was also used to the zoom view in AH, so I didn't like the preset stuff, but actually liked the limited views better.

The bombers graphics in wbs look way better than AH. Guns shake like hell and make good transition noise. But the new bomber formations in AH are way too cool so I guess that's ok.

I can't see how anyone could not fly both if it wasn't pinching your budget.