Ok i recently upgraded my comp and so obviously i reloaded all those games that i used to have to reduce the graphics on.To see how they look with full effects etc.
Well 1st up was B17 flying fortress which looked beautifull but was still a very tedious game. Too much of the same routines and seemingly very samey missions spoiled what was a lovely looking game.
IL2 was a bit of a surprise. I had played it at quite high graphic levels already and i found i didnt really like the way the planes handled.BUT this time with everything on highest settings and still producing a smooth and high FPS display, I found they aircraft handled great.The game was simply gorgeous to look at and the aircraft in it look wonderful.
Again though I found the career mode a bit uninspiring although i did want to progress it seems IL2 wishes you to fly literally hundereds of missions before the aircraft changes or you get a new promotion.
Now i realise this would make sense in terms of a real war but i felt they have overdone the amount of missions needed to progress.I think for this sort of career mode in an online game there might well be a great need for regular rewards (and penalties) to keep a player interested.If it just becomes a case of repeating missions over and over a set amount of times to progress, we will soon all learn the criteria or number and we will get bored very quickly. What we need is a dynamic player analyser. It should track things like fights against the odds and reward a skillfull or even lucky player.
Heres some things i thought might well be good for HTC to do..
Have an AXIS and allied newpaper that we can veiw on the websight that reports on particularly good pilots or even particularly bad ones.
Set it up so it looks like an authentic WW2 newspaperand have it produced each day or week say.
When someone has a 5 kill sortie or performs a successfull mission of particular interest have the paper mention the players involed.
Reward medals fairly regularly or at least things like campaign ribbons and have the .score command actually show your medals like the medal case stuff from other games.I know its all been done before but it IS a good thing to have i think.
If a player does particularly well, be it a great kill score, a series of successfull missions or destruction of a key target have the computer send them a message that looks like a WW2 telegraph slip.
This would appear onscreen in the tower and would maybe have an unusual request or reward from the players high command.Something like:
'GAF headquarters would like you to test fly their latest aircraft the me262. Go to A27 and take a test flight.'
stuff like this will keeep the players happy as they will feel like its a personal invatation for jobs well done, It could be a promotion or a medal but we will need other rewards.We cant all be flying around with 10 knights crosses or VC's or it will get a bit silly.
some ideas for rewards:
you get to fly for a breif period a later or more updated version of your aircraft.(i.e if you are in spit5 you get a spit 9 to use)
Special missions.do well annd you get to fly specialised missions.
You get to load your personal preference of ammo/ fuel rather than being forced to use whatever the mission you are in says.
This is to simulate how good pilots are allowed to set up their planes whereas the poor ones fly a standard setup.
Personal aircraft. You are rewarded by being given your aircraft as your personal ride.
You can change some of the aircrafts looks like your number on the fuselage or even, if HTC likes the idea, have your own squadron colours.
Nothing crazy like a whole new skin but instead details that are realistic. Maybe a diffrent nose colour or rudder fin. Perhaps a band around the tail or wing.HTC can limit it according to what they feel is too much.I personally dont want pink planes all over the place!

but i wouldnt mind spits with the black and white normandy stripes or Red nosed 190s or maybe a checkered pattern on nose of P47s. There are hundreds of real WW2 adaptions for squadron colours to choose from.
specialised weapons. Perhaps weapons like the Wr21's or Fritz rockets could be modeled and used as reward weapons. perhaps the tallboy or bouncing bomb for allies?

hehe
anyhow i cant think of any others but im sure we could think up some good ones.
(P.S. what games should i load in to look at?

i have forgotten which ones were graphics heavy!:) gimme a few to try out that you remember were graphics intensive.)