Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: tachel on June 07, 2001, 11:45:00 PM

Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: tachel on June 07, 2001, 11:45:00 PM
I've got something stuck in my craw right now, and I need to speak up.  AH "used" to be a sim for all players.  You could fly a fighter, a bomber or be a ground pounder in a GV, "could" is the key word here!

With the introduction of 1.07, a definite and sad trend as surfaced...  The game is for fighter pilots only now.  If you are NOT a fighter pilot, prepare to meet your doom rather quickly has their complaints and whining have turned this game into a BUFF & GV target practice arena for fighter pilots...

Buffs used to at least have half a chance to make it to target, not solo but at least in groups.  Since the introduction of 1.07, my unit has often launched 10+ B-17s and if any of us make it to target it's a bloody miracle.  Even the mighty B-17 now falls apart at the slightest ping.  And I won't even get started on gun accuracy...  If a fighter comes in level on a buff's 6 o'clock and is surprised he dies, he should join the infantry.  Real B-17s were maybe a bit fragile, but we don't have 800 buff jocks to form a big raid here!

Now, let's talk about GVs, the term GV "used" to mean at least a modicum of armour and endurance...  A brat with a slingshot can now detrack a panzer IV or an Osti with a single shot!  I've heard comments in the MA that foul language is now sometimes sufficient to throw a track!  Why even leave the VH??

And have you fired an Osti's gun lately??  Try aiming at a con GV, even at close range, "IF" you get more than 2-3 pings per 20 rounds fired, you're VERY lucky!  I guess HTC thought it would be funny to change the solid steel gun mounts with rubber pucks!?!?!  The thing sprays all over the place.  If the real thing fired like that, the designer would have been shot on the spot!

So, here we are back to square one...  Has AH become a fighter pilots paradise where buff pilots and GV drivers are merely a funny diversion?  If that is the case...  I'd like to know, because I started this account to play AH, this isn't the AH I registered for!  :mad:
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Swoop on June 07, 2001, 11:53:00 PM
It's the wings.

It's too easy to hit the wings, on anything.  I regularly shoot peoples wings off in HOs, how is that possible?   Does AH use a 'hit bubble'?  If it does, it's too big.

Same can be said for GV tracks.  Well yeah ok, but HTC if you're gonna make us lose tracks every 10 minutes ya gotta also give us the ability to do battlefield repairs........or at least let us abandon the vehicle with a rifle and go take pot shots at planes taking off.

 (http://www.swoop.com/images/logo_small.jpg)

[ 06-07-2001: Message edited by: Swoop ]
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Hangtime on June 08, 2001, 12:02:00 AM
Hmmmmmmmmm... with radar and swarms of defending fighters; yer right.. a buff group's gonna be slaughtered... just like the early 1943 8th AF strikes were.

However.. if yah get cagey.. and send a small fighter and sapper jabo sweep well ahead of your buffs to kill the local enemy dar and pull defenders low, yer buffs will get on the target. Escorts fer yer buffs will improve their odds if they are competent and positioned correctly.

But yer right.. the days of the 'lets get 10 buffs and go hit HQ' are over... not necessarily because of any significant change in the tools.. but because the awareness and competence of the adversary is greatly improved from days gone by. Good buff missions are still quite do-able.. they just require a higher level of planning and organization IMHO.

<S!>

Hang
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Betown on June 08, 2001, 01:26:00 AM
Hangtime, I really don't like flying fighters in the main arena. I hesitate to even all it the main arena any more because it is more like "Quake V1.07" than AH. All you get all the time is constant furballing gangbanging. There is no strat any more at all. Without a strat element we are going to loose customers. They are all going to go over to WW2OL.

Bombers cannot realisticly fly in the main arena. I would not mind hearing what Zygote or Revvin have to say on this matter because I know they both fly bombers a lot. At the moment. I can't even get a tiffy into a base without 1000000 shrecking uber nikis spawining with there friggin photon torpedo launchers and impulse drives and climbing 4000ft from take off, managing to outrun me in a tiffy and blow my bellybutton of.
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: GRUNHERZ on June 08, 2001, 02:26:00 AM
Actually Betown you should know our Nikis gave up on impulse drive since the end of block 1.03 production. They now use the new ultra mega hyperwarp quantum drive, which is of course, much more powerful. This new drive was indroduced on the first block 1.04 airframes,  BS No.3463UFO and BS No.3467UFO.
And subsequently went on to prodigious service in the great war due to its increased realistic performance.

Anyway I hope in the future that you read up a bit before posting on the Niki, it will save you embarassing moments of ignorance as you showed in your post...   :D

BTW To be safe and prepared.

 :) Lighten up (_____) it was just a joke!  :)

enjoy!
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Maxopti1 on June 08, 2001, 04:28:00 AM
huh!  :eek:

I thought about be the solo to have had this impression.  :D

nice post tach. WTG!

Maxo

P.S.just for curiosity..... when is the last time that do you have flown in a fighter and do you have entered in a screw after the stall?
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Sandman on June 08, 2001, 05:43:00 AM
Quote
Originally posted by tachel:
And have you fired an Osti's gun lately??  Try aiming at a con GV, even at close range, "IF" you get more than 2-3 pings per 20 rounds fired, you're VERY lucky!  I guess HTC thought it would be funny to change the solid steel gun mounts with rubber pucks!?!?!  The thing sprays all over the place.  If the real thing fired like that, the designer would have been shot on the spot!

I noticed that earlier and didn't give it much thought, but is it correct to spray the way it does? Aim it at a ground target, you'll see it spray. It fires within a large grouping and at long range your chances of hitting are poor even if you are dead-on aimed at a non-maneuvering attacker.

 (http://www.screaminbluemessiahs.org/image/signature/sandman.jpg)
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: kfsone on June 08, 2001, 06:06:00 AM
*shrug* I still do reasonably OK flying bombers, but then I tend to fly high. Anything below 19k and I'm guaranteed not to make it far outside my home range unless I get a first-timer who is aiming for 250 before firing. It's annoying as hell that even when you can see the enemy plane burning with bits dropping off all over the place, that they still continue to hose you and in a lot of cases you get taken down as well even after you've done lethal damage to them.

So I fly Lancs at 20-22k, and get called a UFO, which obviously means 'undweebable flying object' because they have to use a second neuron to attack it.

K
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Mark Luper on June 08, 2001, 06:22:00 AM
I used to fly bombers almost exclusively while in WB, made a transition to fighters here in AH. I still fly the occasional buff. I like flying with at least one other buff but have flown quite a few sorties solo.

Since the begining I have always beleived altitude was the only real weapon I had to make it to target and back so like Kfsone I too only fly above 20k. I set my ceiling at 25k which still gives a fighter a chance and I have a bit more time to fight back with the buff's guns.

A well coordinated attack by a couple of fighters will do me in tho. This hasn't changed, from my perspective, since the begining of this sim.

As far as GV's go though, I never was any good at them, spend very little time in them so cannot make an intelligent observation.

(http://[url=http://www.jump.net/~cs3] [img]http://home.att.net/~lmluper/markatsig.jpg) [/url][/IMG]
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: AKSWulfe on June 08, 2001, 07:55:00 AM
You all are a bunch of pudz... the strat is there.. what else do you want?

You expect HTC do make the dinner, tell you"Hey, dinner's ready...", and then proceed to complain that they did not bring it to your face, jam your head into the plate and force feed you?

This is one of the stupidest complaints ever.
-SW
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Ghosth on June 08, 2001, 07:59:00 AM
Sounds like I'm the exception here. While I don't fly the lanc as often as I used too. I still take it up now & then. Most of my runs start at 9 or 10k, over target.

Trick is to be VERY careful chooseing your target, and bring a couple of friendly's with you if at all possible.
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Ghosth on June 08, 2001, 08:01:00 AM
Ooops, kfs your right, dispersion on the 37mm Osty is WAY too much in my opinion.

Moving I can see some excuse for it, but a parked osty should be a relitively stable platform. As it is you can't get any 2 rounds even close to each other downrange.

Play balanceing??????
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: sling322 on June 08, 2001, 08:30:00 AM
Amazing.....it only took 4 posts to get a Niki whine worked into this thread.
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: AKSWulfe on June 08, 2001, 08:34:00 AM
13 posts to tell Phattee to go seek weight watchers and mental help... I caught him loitering around and leering at Gordo again last night...
  :eek:
-SW
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: StSanta on June 08, 2001, 08:57:00 AM
Bombers are tough enough as they are. Having said that, they shouldn't go somewhere without fighter cap.

I fly JU-88 only when it comes to buffs. I know TOO WELL what it is like to be a target   :).

HTC upped the buff guns to make 'um more survivable. That's fine with me. if buff crews think the MA is getting too hard to survive in, mayhap they should try either doing some JU88 10k strikes or fly some of the mid war fighters; it'd really help change ones perceptions   :).

[ 06-08-2001: Message edited by: StSanta ]
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Nifty on June 08, 2001, 01:47:00 PM
I find strike missions harder than buff missions.  That's just me tho.   ;)  As long as you do a little planning, buff missions work out pretty well.  Hmm, you mentioned strat.  Well, that's short for strategy, which probably would include planning, not just saying "Let's hit base X!"  I flew in a mission Zig made the other night.  We took 4 B26's for buffs with some JABO going before us and some escort fighters.  I made my initial drop, turned too soon so couldn't drop on second pass, then dropped remaining eggs on 3rd pass and turned for home.  Landed without incident and all eggs delivered on target.  It was pretty easy if you ask me, chalk it up to fantastic planning on Zig's part.  You can make fun of the ASSASSINs all you want, but I'm really happy they switched to Knit.  They have fun missions posted just about every night.  <S!> guys!
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Yeager on June 08, 2001, 01:53:00 PM
Bottom Line is that Pyro has the lethality settings, generally speaking here but especially the quad cannon loadouts, too damned high.  

I know there is a reason for this, quakeplay, err gameplay.

It has been so frustrating for me that I have digressed to the lowlife equivalency of being   a N1K driver.

Sad but hey, Im having a blast, right?

Yeager  :eek:
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Udie on June 08, 2001, 02:38:00 PM
If they'd model a B25H w/ that nice 75 mm nose cannon, that would be all I would fly. My most favorite missions were with the 900th in WB all flying b25h's NOE.  Nothing like seeing 20 25's 50 ft off the deck.  Then we'd climb to about 5k when we got about 10-20 miles from target.  At 5 miles we started our "artillery" barrage.  Sometimes we'd have 1/2 the targets down before we ever got over the field to drop our bombs.

 Udie
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Jigster on June 08, 2001, 02:49:00 PM
Only problem with the Ostwind is it's dispersion is relative to a sustained burst no matter how you work the trigger.

That particular AA gun, combined with the MkIV suspension would be enough to rock it all over the place with sustained fire.

I spose there was a reason only 48 Ostwinds were made.  :D
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: MrLars on June 08, 2001, 03:29:00 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Hangtime:


But yer right.. the days of the 'lets get 10 buffs and go hit HQ' are over... not necessarily because of any significant change in the tools.. but because the awareness and competence of the adversary is greatly improved from days gone by. Hang


Bingo! Those of us that attack buffs are getting better, having to deal with the uber buff guns has forced us to think before attacking...getting better at killing buffs is the result of the them having the advantage <firepower wise> all this time.
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Hobodog on June 08, 2001, 03:57:00 PM
JUST give us a one of those 88s on a MKIV chassis and a coellion and an M42 Duster  :) well at least the first two.
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: hazed- on June 08, 2001, 04:23:00 PM
Hmm i (used to  :()fly bombers a lot in MA (ju88 is my main ride and if you get frustrated with the b17 or lanc god help you in a ju88!.
It takes too long to get a ju88 to 20+k and i generally fly at 10k.But as i fly fighters too and realise how easy it is to be killed by a buff and i dont 'expect' to get to target unless ive avoided the big fights or hidden behind natural features like hills etc.
10 B17s and you didnt make the HQ? what did you do fly straight at it? letting everyone know you were going there? If you (and i hope you didnt) flew off map then ill tell you why you didnt make it..if i see off map bombers i make sure i attack them if im anywhere near em.I suspect others feel the same way.
I suggest you head for some enemy base then switch once they've upped a few in defence.The more you can fool the less can cap the HQ.
Solo you can make it i assure you .I've made solo attacks at 10k but i dont approach from the direction all the fighters approach from.I sneak around and go in with as much pace as i can.I suspect you place too much emphasis on altitude.Try some low level raids with pop up or better still use the cloud cover at 14k if its there.
I dont agree with you the bombers have got it too hard myself.If we start making the bombers tougher i think it only fair the guns become normal.some love the bombers some love the fighters.If you penalise the fighters they will stop atttacking because climbing to 25k to lose a wing in the 1st pass is no fun either I assure you(sorry if this sounds patronising tachel.I Know youre no fool in mission planning <S> )

As for the GV's being more prone to damage i must agree.When we had so many complaints about the hispanos peircing armour like hot knives through butter i was annoyed they had it so easy whilst even a 30mm had no effect on GVs.Rather than making all guns effective against armoured vehicles i though HTC was going to tone down the damage done by the hispanos.Instead it seemed even my mg151s could hurt vehicles.However i have survived a lot of attacks on my M3 which i would definately not have done in 1.06.Its hard to work out whats happened.
are all 20mm effective now? or have the hispanos been made less effective vs ground armour?
I sure found it hard to work out what was changed.
As for that spread of shots the ostwind has it makes them more deadly against diving planes if you ask me.that spread fire is lethal if you are dive bombing an oastie.Before the Ostwind was getting used for everything because they were rediculously accurate.I could do more damage to a base in an ostie than the HE rounds in a panzer!
tracks may be a little too weak as you say though, true enough   :D

[ 06-08-2001: Message edited by: hazed- ]
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: CyranoAH on June 08, 2001, 07:19:00 PM
I'm a regular osty driver, and I think the dispersion adds to the game balance...

Before this change, I could drive to a base and take out easily the vh, vh ack, and then start killing fh's, bh's, or fuel, barracks, etc... AND get a lot of kills.

Now the Osty is more a defensive AA weapon, and the dispersion is even deadlier against air targets, because it's a kind of shotgun. It doesn't matter anymore if you are a good marksman... keep shooting at the plane, you'll end up with 1 or more hits.

AND I still get pzer, m3 and m16 kills... it's just more difficult now.

The ostwind is still the ultimate sucker magnet, and I love it   :cool:   :D

Daniel, aka Cyrano
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: Yeager on June 08, 2001, 07:54:00 PM
Hazed havent you heard?

20mm Hispanos won the war   :rolleyes:
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: pugg666 on June 08, 2001, 11:49:00 PM
Tachel...this doesn't relate to the topic..but we are practicaly neighbours

Montreal/Verdun here...
salut mon voisin!

 (http://www.telusplanet.net/public/brandor/images/412.gif)
Title: AH is now for fighters only!?!?!
Post by: kfsone on June 09, 2001, 01:00:00 AM
ghosth - I didn't mention the ostie =)