Tap...Tap...Tap...Pyro, Is this thing on...?

[Ruger Redhawk]

WooooooooHooooooooo!!
Sounds great!
Thx for the update. I gotta try that someday.

Ruger  

[Mookie]

Okay...First, apologies for not responding to all of your posts, (I was surprised they didn't contain more venom,   ) in a more timely fashion. I was called away on business today, and spent a few hours dodging thunder squalls between Ft. Lauderdale and Key West in a Cessna 410; and frankly am glad I can be here to recieve your...well not flames, but would it be fair to say, simmering embers..?

When this board first came on line, I must admit there were quite a few posts from all of the Aces High guys, but after a week or so things seemed to dry up a bit. To be honest I went away for awhile because most of the posts started to become more conversational than informative; that was what I meant when I said I had not kept up with all of the threads.

Someone responded that Pyro and HiTech had made over a hundred posts to the board...but how many of them really imparted any "information" to us...?

The opening page of the board pretty much sums it up...under the News, Information, and Announcements, category there are three posts...Try and look at it as the the Average Joe would logging on here for the first time looking for info on this hot new sim...someone who doesn't know who Pyro or HiTech or Natedog is...Other than the screenshots, (which are cool...Thanks,)  and without spending a considerable amount of time poring through all of the threads, how much info or progress do they really see at a quick glance...?

Look...I'm not trolling here...And I mean it when I say that I wouldn't want to impede anyone at AH from their primary responsibility, which prolly at this stage is trying to get a good beta out the door...What I'm trying to suggest is, don't you think it would be a little more professional looking, and positive, if someone took the responsibility to try and sum up in GENERAL TERMS what was in development every week or so...? It can only make you guys and this board look better...and give us a reason to want to log back on here again.

Hi Tech...you wrote  

Mookie if your so total in the dark let me flip the light on for you.
What would you like to know?

My answer is...Whatever you want to tell us...For sure nothing that you feel may put your release in any kind of jeopardy...either with your customer base or your competition...but something that might make me want to feel like checking in here again periodically to see what's developing, or what's new and exciting.

Above all...please believe that I didn't make my original post to dis or in anyway upset your apple cart...   I'm just trying to make an objective, but I think fair criticism.

Just another one of your drooling Pavlov Dogs...

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Mookie
"Reach Out and Touch Someone"

[-blk--]

"spent a few hours dodging thunder squalls   between Ft. Lauderdale and Key West in a Cessna 410;"

  Wow, that's some feat!  Especially since I'm not aware of a Cessna model 410...  (210, 310, 402, 404, 414, 414A, 421... yes, but not familiar with 410).

  I really don't have anything constructive to add here though  .

blk

PS-if I'm mistaken, and there is such a thing as a 410, would it be possible to get a picture of one?  I don't recall seeing one in the book dealing with Cessna multi's (and that had the 620 in it!)

[Mookie]

Blk...

You are totally correct sir...The Cessna I was referring to in my previous post is a twin engine 8-seat 402.

Just called the charter company to verify that.

First time I had ever been in one..

Thanks for pointing out my error.  

P.S.  Just reread your post...You could have gotten your point across to me just as easily without the introductory sarcasm.

If you don't agree with the content of my post...say so. But keep the cheap shots to yourself.

Thanks

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Mookie
"Reach Out and Touch Someone"

[This message has been edited by Mookie (edited 09-10-1999).]

[-blk--]

  It's actually not a cheap shot.  I'm really just very interested in the ability to identify aircraft correctly (it's a long story as to why...).  I was really just curious as to 1)if Cessna had built a 410, and 2) what it looked like.  You'd be surprised how many truly interesting aircraft are out there flying people around (and they have no idea).  For instance, the only remaining Piper Arapahoe was in service at an FBO not too long ago, they didn't even realize that they were training pilots in the only one left in the world.

blk

PS-the sarcasm was just due to the fact that I'm a sarcastic person, has nothing to do with the content of the post (cause my opinion on that wouldn't be all that constructive, so I won't bother relating it here)

[danish]

IMO Mookie has a point, both historic and present.
(Just so that he dosnt think hes all alone in the world ;=)

danish

[Mookie]

It's just a shame that we end up having to surf the net to glean the latest info on Aces High, when we have a great message board right here where AH could give us the info first hand...

Well...this looks like a good place to end this thread. I don't have anything to add...and it doesn't look like HiTech will be taking me up on his offer either.

Thanks for your support Danish...This was not a post I made lightly...and knew I wouldn't be winning any new friends over it.

I'll check back in a couple of weeks...



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Mookie
"Reach Out and Touch Someone"

[hitech]

Mookie we do our best on the web page to explain what aces high is , and that gives a fair description of where its headed and release time's. Like I said would be glad to answere any question you have but a question like tell me anything you like,is somthing  iv'e all ready done on the web page.

Messages boards work much better for a Q&A type aprouch to what we are doing. I honestly have no idea what more information you wish, and there for I have no way to give it to you with out QUESTIONS!.

HiTech

[Hamerd]

Ok here is one question!!!
  Do you know the release date of AH beta, not just Sep. I mean date, September what?
  If you can't commit to an exact date NP. But its a exact question, and thats what you wanted  
   
  2LT. Hamerd
  100th FS 332nd FG

[This message has been edited by Hamerd (edited 09-11-1999).]

[eagl]

Hitech,

Please don't take this wrong, but I think know exactly what Mookie is talking about even though they won't be applicable until the game is released as 1.0.

It's stuff like "how do we capture a field", "how much damage does XXX structure take to hit", "what are the components in the damage model", "what are the levels of damage from overspeed, and can we have at least a yellow arc on the airspeed indicator", "what does it take to capture the Carrier", "what is the frag radius of XXXX bomb", "What is the equivalent bomb damage that a torpedo causes", "how high do we need to be to drop troops, and what are the speed/alt limits on dropping torpedos", etc etc.  

These are things that are important to the game and some are critical to the "strategy" involved, yet in WB new features like the ones I hit on above were barely mentioned if at all, and often no words were given on the cause-effect relationships between things.  In other words, we were being asked to play a game that COULD be fairly complex, with no idea how things worked.  Maybe it's a byproduct of my chosen career, but that bothers me a lot.

I know I've blabbed on ad-nauseum about this kind of thing before, and at times I've even drastically reduced my online WB playing time because I dislike playing these guessing games.  But like you guys say, AH is not going to be a rehash of WB so I figured I'd throw out my opinion on this topic again.


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eagl <squealing Pigs> BYA
Oink Oink To War!!!

[hitech]

Point taken eagl.

Your correct about those details will have to wait a while. Simply because the answere to all those questions are we haven't detailed that part yet.

HiTech

[Pyro]

Mookie- I think your criticism is both correct and incorrect.  It's correct because it is your opinion and it's pretty hard to be incorrect about an opinion.  It's also correct in that we should be spending more time on these things.  On the flip side, we are cramming to try and get a beta out.  Whenever it comes down to crunch time, development will tend to eclipse other things.  But even then, I don't see things entirely the way you do.  I've seen more posts from HT in this short time than I've ever seen from him.

Where I think you're incorrect is about what I did before, even though it's really not relevant anymore.  You say you were playing since the beta days and received no information.  Where did you go to get it?  I don't remember you from the BBS where I was a very prolific poster.  I also don't remember you from the flight-sim newsgroup where I also did a lot of posting.  A big part of the problem is that we didn't have a centralized place like this.  I tried to overcome this with a news section on the old telnet menu, then through mass emailings, and finally I grabbed control of a webpage and put it there.  In fact I still have one of my last updates that I did.  In the course of two months just prior to me resigning, there were 19 updates to that page.  It had slowed down a lot but that's still a two per week average.    

Information is not information unless it's true.  If it's not, it's mis-information.  Don't confuse the two.  A lot of people don't seem to care though.  They get told what they want to hear and think it's great even though it has little or no basis in reality.  

I don't want to spend my days hanging out on the message board responding to everything.  Been there, done that, didn't get enough work done.  I tried to get other people to pick up some of those duties but what I ended up doing was handling a lot of that stuff from home late at night.  This is something I will start to do again.  On the other side, players do need to be patient but persistent.  I don't especially prefer a web board to NNTP, but it does reach more people.  However, it's harder for me to follow things and it's easy for stuff to get buried in traffic.  So punt questions if you don't get an answer, you eventually will.

Finally, don't just look to me or HT for answers.  We're only a six person company.  The more people you communicate with, the more communication you'll get.  I can't make everybody here post, but players can help themselves by trying to get to know some of the other people here and keeping a friendly, constructive, and inviting environment.

 

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Doug "Pyro" Balmos
HiTech Creations

[Mookie]

Pyro...

First, thanks for taking the time to respond.

I know that my original post, (just reread it,) may have sounded like you went out of your way to avoid your customer base...I for sure remember your "News Page". It was the only site where I could read your missives to the public because initially back in those days I was flying a Mac, (the side that you will have to admit was kept in the dark quite a bit B.H. (Before Hoss) Trying to log onto the Warbirds newsgroup back then was also an excersise in futility for the most part.

Actually, I should offer my thanks to you here also,  because the drifty playing and info conditions on the Mac side of Warbirds was so bad back then, it was what finally forced me to buy a PC and delve into the myriad benefits of owning a Billy Box...I've never regretted it, although I still have a soft spot for Macs. I was hoping I could head off the same situation that some of us were faced with at I.C.I.

I was also hoping that my first post here, rather than spewing flames, would would make you folks consider trying to use this board to make some sort of periodic public info releases...much like your old Warbirds News Page.

 Logging on in the last couple of weeks gave me a static, nothing's-going-on-here feeling that brought back shades of how I used to feel at Warbirds when a release was imminent and I just sat in the dark.

I feel bad now because you took the time, (that I'm sure is in short supply these days,)  to reply to my specific post, when you could have used that time to post to everyone here on the board under a "Pyro's Scuttlebutt" thread...or something of that ilk with some sort of current trivalities that would have keep us all at bay...Maybe next time.

As for HiTech's current flood of posts, I am truly grateful...and was shocked and delighted to learn what aircraft we will be flying in the initial beta...Hearing that the C-47 may be a forthcoming possiblity also brought a sincere smile to my face.

Again, Thanks Pyro...and we'll all be looking forward to any future postings.

 

   

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Mookie
"Reach Out and Touch Someone"

[This message has been edited by Mookie (edited 09-12-1999).]