Well... been flying the new and improved AH FM for a couple of weeks now. Had some horrendous stick spike problems at first that made it unplayable but they are sorted out now. Addmittedly I don't have a lot of experiance with the new model so bear with me or flame me or just inform me. I responmd equally to all of the above.
FM... HUGE improvement. Action is more intense than previously and I see a lot of ACM in the arena (a good thing IMO). I find I like the FM more than WB now especially the low speed handling like ded stick landings or, any landings for that matter. Much, much more fun than the last version for me.
AC... They seem to have the FM's sorted out pretty well with planes acting like you would expect them to against each other. Ironicaly, after reading some of the preliminary comparitive data, I was turned off by data that showed the AH Hog was outturned by the likes of the P47, 190,and P51. I have been flying the Hog allmost exclusively and find that in fact, I can sqeek by all those planes in allmost any turn situation. Maybe the Hog should turn a little better but I am having fun which brings me to..
The "uberhog".. Wha..? The plane is easily outturned by allmost every plane except the 47,190,51... It has the worst climb of any plane in the game by a pretty fair margin. It is fast (especially at AH combat alts) and it rolls as well as any and better than most. It is a big, fast, plane so it will dive and zoom as well or better than anything in the game. If you try to climb or turn co e with a spit or any other plane in it you will lose position. Those who claim magical FM properties for it are either.... ignorant (don't know what is happening in the fite). have a bad connection... Have run into some kind of hacker.... Are a liar (no explanation needed). or inexperianced (in the Hog). Certainly tho... film will show which of these is the case. It does have great guns in the C version....
Guns.... leathiality/damage model in AH is a breath of fresh air for someone coming from a sim with 60% leathiality and intermittent hardness bugs and "adjustments" but.... The cannon vs mg thing is still there a little. Sometimes, 6 fifties work perfectly and other times... not as well. I believe that when all is well with my connect, a good solid fifty caliber snapshot deals either death or a crippling blow. My sometimes marginal connects sometimes give marginal results. Cannon work good because the leathiality "margin for error" is so good. Even so... I have 18-20 assists using the most powerful cannon group in the game. Cannon are not guarenteed 1 ping killers. I believe that perhaps it would be good to up the mg's 10% or so in leathiality to make up for the vagaries of the internet. For now... I will cut down on my frustratin level by flying cannon. Hope the Hellcat has the 2 20mm + 4 fifty option.
perk planes... heard about this one and am very wary of it.... Seems to me that one of the things that AH has going for it is a balanced plane set. Perk planes seems to be a recipe for animosity and frustration. After a lot of hard work, WB has developed animosity, frustration and lopsided planesets to a fine art but perk planes may do em one better. If adding new planes to the set is the goal then I would suggest that they have their own "day" and that planes that are very much uber wait until a few "counter" planes are developed and then they can fly against each other. By the same token, new early planes need to have something to fite before they are introduced... they need to be introduced "en bloc", groups of three or more and there own day/generation. A lot of people hate "262" day in WB. Imagine that 24/7 365 days of the year.
All in all.... I am having fun and things seem pretty balanced with enough choice and good FM's and variety to suit me. I would have been a little more critical but I don't know enough yet and besides.... I have to live up to my WB reputation as "HT asskisser".
lazs
[This message has been edited by lazs (edited 10-19-2000).]
