Fighter Ace 3.5 article in Flight Journal

[Ripsnort]

Anyone read March (or was it April) edition of Flight Journal with the FA 3.5 review?

They mentioned big problems with lag (And said they're working on it) and basically said the community wasn't as "Broad-minded" as Warbirds III or Aces High.  I took that as a stick poke to FA 3.5 community. (Shrugs)

[gofaster]

I have that issue but haven't read that article yet.  I have my WW2 sim.  I don't need another.  Besides, its almost bikini season here and I have better things to do than play video games.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by gofaster
I have that issue but haven't read that article yet.  I have my WW2 sim.  I don't need another.  Besides, its almost bikini season here and I have better things to do than play video games.

So, you wear bikini's when not playing video games? I'm so confused...

[MrLars]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
I'm so confused...

Obviously he is also.

[Habu]

Fighter Ace basically drove away all the old timers when they hired a guy called Shad and a guy known as PPS ( Pis Poor Shot) to run the community and they decided to enforce the Code of Conduct with a sledge hammer. They would boot people for saying things like crap or roadkill in the game. Really trivial stuff. They also could not run a competition to save their lives. And PPS is really a bit of a dickhead personality wise. Not the best guy for the job by a longshot.

I left the game over a year ago and have not been back. They blocked access to their newsgroup to all but those who have a subscription. It has to be a classic case study in how to ruin a successful franchise.

Hire goons to boot customers from the game. Restrict access to your best source of free publicity, change the flight model so many times that no one knows what to expect anymore, take forever to solve quality issues like the game lag, etc etc.

Most of my squad migrated here (AoA) and some went to WW2OL. We are all still active in the online gaming community as customers but not in Fighter Ace anymore.

Shame it was really a great game back in the late 90's.

[Ripsnort]

Thks for your insight, Habu.  Always interesting to read about other sims "problems" to trivialize our own.

[Sixpence]

Habu, I share alot of those views. I used to fly as VAC_Storm. I keep in touch with the VAC guys. They told me of an episode with with PPS and the KOTS he runs. As you know he used to fly with the damned. Well, the damned were beaten in KOTS but PPS disqualified the team that won on some technicality. There was a big uproar for him to step down, but he and shad are the all powerful and nothing was done about it. I guess alot of the squads boycott the KOTS event now.

I used to keep a sub so I could fly with the VAC guys now and then, but I never fly it. I guess the days of 2.5 are gone huh? It was a good thing though cause the lag in FA3 and the territorial so screwed it forced me to find another sim. I gave AH a try again(I tried it while in FA2.5 but went back to 2.5) and took the time to learn the flight model. Now that I have learned AH, nothing compares. The customer service here is great, the events are good, and the gameplay and territorial combat alot of fun.

Let's face it, for the last year+, FA costomers have been paying to test a beta.I even hear they started a petition to bring 2.5 back:D

Maybe in the future when all is fixed I would give FA another try, but I don't see that happening for a long time.

[Ripsnort]

I was in the Beta test of FA 1.0 waaaay back when(I think MS owned it then)...I didn't like what I saw, but hey, Warbirds was competing with them, there was no competition to speak of IMO (WB's 1.11 compared to FA 1.0)

[gofaster]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
So, you wear bikini's when not playing video games? I'm so confused...

I watch'em.

[Habu]

Originally posted by Sixpence
Habu, I share alot of those views. I used to fly as VAC_Storm. I keep in touch with the VAC guys. They told me of an episode with with PPS and the KOTS he runs. As you know he used to fly with the damned. Well, the damned were beaten in KOTS but PPS disqualified the team that won on some technicality. There was a big uproar for him to step down, but he and shad are the all powerful and nothing was done about it. I guess alot of the squads boycott the KOTS event now.

I used to keep a sub so I could fly with the VAC guys now and then, but I never fly it. I guess the days of 2.5 are gone huh? It was a good thing though cause the lag in FA3 and the territorial so screwed it forced me to find another sim. I gave AH a try again(I tried it while in FA2.5 but went back to 2.5) and took the time to learn the flight model. Now that I have learned AH, nothing compares. The customer service here is great, the events are good, and the gameplay and territorial combat alot of fun.

Let's face it, for the last year+, FA costomers have been paying to test a beta.I even hear they started a petition to bring 2.5 back:D

Maybe in the future when all is fixed I would give FA another try, but I don't see that happening for a long time.

I remember VAC. Wasn't your squad formed by Getsum and Sixpac and Avenger?

I did not know of that episode regarding PPS and the Kings of the Sky tournament. But it does not suprise me. I used to fly for a squad called MoB in 1.5 days and we kicked the Damned's Butt in KOTS as well as squads like VMF214 and ATC. You could tell the difference in the personalities after the matches. VMF was very gracious saying things like "Way to go" to us. The Damned were just silent. ATC all complained about the fight. But those were great times in the game.

2.5 was probably the peak as far as fun factor but for me it was 1.5. I tried 3.0 for a couple of weeks but then decided to give other games a chance as it was not fun anymore. My PPS story involved the competition where they put all of us in a room that was tagless and let us fight to the last man. It was supposed to be an everyman for himself competion. I noticed that the Damned were individually winning almost all of the first 4 or 5 rounds of the tournament. I entered and found out why. They were all flying around in the North or West in a pack and not shooting each other. They were probably on RW or some other voice com. After most people were shot down they would team up and eliminate the rest of the guys in the room.

I complained about that tactic and was told it was legal. I entered the last few rounds of the competition with 3 other guys and we managed to get 2 of us into the finals. My stratagy was just go in and hunt the Damned. Somehow I managed to kill 4 of them in the second last round and ended up qualifing. But the fun was not there. It was cheating to team and totally against the spirit of the competition. Of course PPS said later that it was fair.

I voted with my subscription and left the game. If you allow a single individual to get a position of power where he favors his old squad buddies over the rest of the players in the game then it does not create good feelings. I see you feel the same way. But the game did get me hooked on online flying and eventually real life flying. I bought my own plane last fall.

[Habu]

You know both of them are still around and post on another newsgroup that I read sometimes.

They are still argueing with everyone and stirring the pot. They kind of disappeared for a while but then came back. I was suprised to see a squad they created survive and prosper but it did for some reason.

[Eagler]

after SWOTL then paying $2.00 an hour to get my arse handed to me in WB chasin dots around, FA1 was heaven - FA2 got me looking and that's when I stumbled across AH ... then the arse kicking started all over again ...mine