Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Daubie on May 20, 2007, 04:19:48 PM
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Hi,
I suppose I should just come right out and ask how Aces High was created. But, I'm difficult so I've been sifting through your archives as to the history of Aces High, how you did it, the programming involved, etc. I don't program much. I'm familiar with it. I can appreciate the very hard work it must be just to model one aircraft to some degree of realism. The whole concept of this game is like the Hollow Deck to the 2nd Star Trek series. You guys, HTC, blow my mind! A lot of guys in here whine and (won't use that word) about your game. Your game is aces.
I came upon this old thread:
http://forums.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9076&highlight=creation+of+Aces+High
Issue I want to address is fight to the death and reupping a new life so easily.
I don't care how you do this sim. I'm sure establishing the business model for what HTC wanted to accomplish was many, many meetings hashing it out. You are doing something right, because you are still here.
One of my early on, flight sims was something called "Top Gun," I think. One progressed in steps from basic flight, to 1st solo, to basic combat maneuvers, to advanced combat maneuvers to one's first fleet sortie. Eventually progessing up the advancement progression and eventually to a Top Gun selection to Miramar. Within that game if I died, I had to go all the way back and requalify my ACM skills to start over. It was no easy step to get through each maneuver following the lead plane to mimic his moves. I was very careful not to screw up again (until next time---LOL!).
If HTC was to include a concept such as this, half the guys here would leave for other things. It would be nice to see an option to do so, though. Your new game you got in beta, I was wondering if such a concept is included?
I am reading the book, "In Pursuit" . I learn a little, go to Main Arena to try it out, usually eventually get shot, but I'm lasting longer. I think I actually scare a few away with some of the more advanced moves and they cannot believe I'm going to actually fight back. I go into a fight now, and before that guy passes me, I know whether I got a pro or some inexperienced person. Actually, I check my six about every 10 seconds or less, now. I see you coming...
What I got out of Kylander's book, so far, is the concept of NOT dying. (Don't go looking at my current stats, a lot of it this tour is experimenting.) Preserve life at all costs really presents the game in a different light.
I'm new here and green as a bean, but I will get there. Flight sim skills prior to coming here does not even compute!
What I am really looking for is some pro I can fly wing on and wet nurse me for a year, just like a real squadron, junior guy in an element. I have decided my best place to be is the training area and just be there.
Daubie
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Combat Tour has it so deaths have an impact on your "career" (at least according to past discussions).
A death penalty is no good for the open arnea enviroment. The result would be a vast majority of players avoiding combat unless they have an overwhelming advantage. Not a good thing since AH is supposed to be an air combat sim.
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Murdr is right, the arena is already full of players too afraid to engage in combat with essentially no penalty for dying. If there was a penalty, all combat would ceace.
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I actually realised a similar thing. Ive been trying a lot lately to forget about getting kills. Ive just made my priority SURVIVING the fight. That means, in my Bf-109, not engaging a pony above me, instead, extending and climbing up to him first. Not letting my self get low and slow against a Typhie, instead, extending and climbing once ive bled too much E. And finally, not being afraid to run away from a fight you cannot win. I feel I am much more satisfied with my fights, as I am not dying quite so quickly, athough Betty is now calling me too 'timid', though Im guessing that might be partly because I shot her down for the first time. :D
Basically, I just find it more enjoyable if youre flying to live, not to kill.
Betty
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You want more realism?
Aces High Events - It aint no Video Game! (http://www.ahevents.org)
[/shameless plug]
:aok
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Friday Squad Ops!
Nothing finer. :aok
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Originally posted by Stampf
Friday Squad Ops!
Nothing finer. :aok
I loved FSO, The one time i was able to play.Unfortunitly I work Sat.'s so it starts kinda late for me.
it would be great if it started just an hour earlier.
or maybe have a second round sat night.
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Yanks
Have you tried any of the Snapshots? Or Close Escort? They are similar to FSO but a smaller, looser feel.
Or just tell the boss you will be an hour late because you were desperately trying to get back to your wounded pilot back to your CV group as those bastages tried to chase you down!!
Either way, there should be something fun for you too, check it out!
:aok
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If you want to read a book about air combat, try Air Combat and Tactics by Robert Shaw. It's the fighter pilot's bible.
Aces High was created because Hitech 'lost control' of his first game (War Birds) before he was actually finished with it. HT began playing Air Warrior. After he had hacked the crap out of it....they put him under contract. They chose not to implement any of his suggests, in game play or programming. When he was legally able, he began writing War Birds. Prior to game programming, he programmed commercial robotics systems (if I remember correctly...:)).
As for the OLTL stuff, AW created the Ultra Realism arena. You got 1 life every 24 hours. It was a ghost town. When there were a couple of people there, they didn't often meet....no one wanted to die. :)
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Originally posted by REP0MAN
Yanks
Have you tried any of the Snapshots? Or Close Escort? They are similar to FSO but a smaller, looser feel.
Or just tell the boss you will be an hour late because you were desperately trying to get back to your wounded pilot back to your CV group as those bastages tried to chase you down!!
Either way, there should be something fun for you too, check it out!
:aok
I haven't, but i will ck it out.
I like being involved with the squad on fso, its the only time i have done any squad stuff other then just furballin.
And I am the boss and when it comes to that stuff I don't believe any of my own excusses, it just never works for me. I always know im BS'in me.
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Originally posted by Serenity
Basically, I just find it more enjoyable if youre flying to live, not to kill.
Betty
The trick is to learn to live while not being timid. You can't fly to live unless you learn how, and you won't learn without dying a lot. :)
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Amen
Originally posted by Engine
The trick is to learn to live while not being timid. You can't fly to live unless you learn how, and you won't learn without dying a lot. :)
emphasis on dying a lot
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well said engine.
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Since no one is really dying, and planes are free, why not get into the fight?
Despite some folks beliefs, this isn't war, it's a game. Challenge yourself.
Might as well fly offline if you aren't going to take advantage of the biggest asset of Aces High, which is the real people you get to fly against.
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What they said.
Grea way to put it, Engine: Learning to stay alive without flying to live!!
PS
It's the Holo Deck, as in Hologram. I don't think it's hollow.
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"athough Betty is now calling me too 'timid', though Im guessing that might be partly because I shot her down for the first time." "Serenity"
Serenity "Betty makes us all timid.......for a lot of reasons
:t
! Betty:rofl
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re:
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"PS
It's the Holo Deck, as in Hologram. I don't think it's hollow"
Typo.....{:^)
I wasn't sure how to spell it, not in my 1970 collegiate dictionary.
Thanks for the correction.
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Just messin around, bud -- not trying to be the grammar police!
(Especially with my typing skills. If you want a good laugh, just watch what misshapened pseudo-words I send flying past on the text buffer in game!
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re:
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"If you want to read a book about air combat, try Air Combat and Tactics by Robert Shaw. It's the fighter pilot's bible.
Aces High was created because Hitech 'lost control' of his first game (War Birds) before he was actually finished with it. HT began playing Air Warrior. After he had hacked the crap out of it....they put him under contract. They chose not to implement any of his suggests, in game play or programming. When he was legally able, he began writing War Birds. Prior to game programming, he programmed commercial robotics systems (if I remember correctly... "
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for the history lesson. I have not found much here, yet. Maybe I'll Google it later. I saw some name credits to WarBirds that are also credits here. And some of the keyboard commands are identical so I figured Aces High was a takeoff of Air Warrior back engineered and WarBirds.
I got Shaw's book. I went to Amazon.com to fetch it and they also recommended "In Pursuit" . The latter looked more to topic so I started with that one 1st.
I've committed myself to spend more time in TA instead of MA. All I do is get creamed in MA. The likes of Ghosth, Widewing and today I spent a couple of hours with Ren. When I get so I only die every other time I'll go back to MA. Actually, I'll fly with my squad, but I'm not really ready for a squad, yet. Some guy asked me to join so I figured why not.
Until last week I am self taught here. I read everything I could find here. But Ren is showing me the error of my ways. Eventually, I think this game might even be fun.
Homework for me is to keep my opponent always visual and fly the plane from all views. That's going to take 10 years to learn right there...
Daubie
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Ren is a good player. He should be able to help you. BTW, tell him NB said he is a poopyhead. :)
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Welcome to AH Daubie, All the trainers are great guys and they'll get you going to a decient level .... but the one thing that they cant teach is the combination of Situation awareness and Timing . this has to come to you all by its self .
one on one dueling and reviewing Films is probely the fastest way to make this "Clic" . One other trick that can help you get better is go to the Early war arena's the planes are slower in there and the flight paths are more graceful then the wham bang of the late war yank n bank rides.
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Daubie, also for play that is an attempt at more realism (or at least to make it like good WWII tales of combat missions), you might want to check out scenarios. We have one coming up in June, and new players are very welcome.
Here is some info on scenarios:
http://ahevents.org/scenario-related/scenarios.html
And here is info on the one coming up in June:
http://ahevents.org/pacific-theatre/current-or-next-scenario-2.html
If you want to check it out, register axis, give a preference for Ju 88's, and you are welcome to come fly in my group.
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Welcome Daubie.
My two cents is pick one aircraft and fly it as exclusively as you can for while. It is most often recommended by vets and trainers that if you don't otherwise have a preference, start with a SpitV. Big mistake of newbs is to jam into a P51, P47 or Corsair right off the bat cause they've seen and read about these being the 'best' US aircraft. These need careful understanding of their capabilities and deficits, and are typically not good training aircraft (unless you're learning from a P51... vet).
Go with the spits, as these aircraft are more forgiving than most others, support the pilot rather than fight him, and are typical Turn 'N Burn aircraft. And, they don't have any really serious quirks to watch out for.
Once you understand the basics of ACM, combat merges, SA, gunnery, etc. and start to feel really comfortable with it, then add in other aircraft as needed for different missions.
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I too would suggest u look in the Special Events area. I got the opportunity to fly in the Battle of Britain scenario's and had a BLAST!!! Once u die, ur game is over, tho u have the ability to stay and run PT's to rescue pilots that bailed...it was 3 sundays in a row and i flew on the German side. Luckily i got a seat in a 109, but i had no clue how to use one properly. All I knew was stay hi and keep my E ( i now know how to turn fight one, but didnt at that time). I lived through all my missions, but due to Flak, and a couple pings from aircraft, i made a few runs back to my base. Most time i flew to a gv spawn point and bailed, so the PT's could rescue me quicker. But on my first run Flak hit my engine and i limped home, the engine stalling as i was on final. I made a beautiful wheels down dead-stick landin and that was as cool to me as a kill!! On some missions you meet no one and return for fuel and meet up w/ ur pre-assigned unit. On the final scenario we got in a nice furball with a some Hurri's and spits and i actually got a kill, and wounded another, AND returned home alive. If this is the type of experience you are seeking, then Special Events will be a great experience. The only drawback is waiting a week for the next one. Hopefully CT can give us that on a daily basis....
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Hi,
I tried racing a couple of times, other than that I figure I'll just slow you guys down. But, since you invited me, it's not like I did not warn you. :)
So, how do you work it to save downed pilots? How does that work?
Why do they have it when a pilot bails he can move every which way, even run, and why his pistol of 20 shots? I've used the 1911 Colt .45, that's a wicked weapon up close and dirty. Shotguns are nice, too! One time I shot a guy down via plane mode and followed him down, I think we bothed bailed. I notice he was running from me towards the base. I figured he had a bunch of points to redeem he didn't want to lose and the long hike back to his base. Go reup in a hanger? Is this correct?
Other note, when the town is ready for troops and a goony can't find its way in, can 10 pilots bail out and make their way to the map room? I rather doubt that would work, that would be too easy, onsey, twosey and sneak in.
Germany probably would have won the war, but Hitler was an ass. Fighting Russia was not smart and using Me 262 for tactical runs instead of bomber offence wasn't too smart. Germany was way ahead of the USA technically, even 100 years before. Not considering how terrible the Nazis were, Hitler started out fairly intelligently, but he went insane and was left in charge. I had to study that guy in English literature, I think my professor had a crush on him.
Sloehand I've already encountered in MA, he's a good guy, but make sure he is on your side! I need to wing on you one of these days.
I'm not really ready for MA, but I like tanking and I like going after tanks. Oh, yeah, current topic... I don't last long there, either, but I'm getting better at it.
I figured up how to reup gas and ammo, but can you get the plane damage fixed without bugging out using the clipboard to get a new plane? I've come back with incredible damage, P-47's are tough planes, but I always get a new one.
I've encountered FW to 25,000 feet in my B-17 egresses out the target area. I go in just below the clouds, bomb, then escape climbing. Few follow me or know how to fly in the thin air, they just stall. The P51 and FW pros know how. 30,000 feet seems to be their limit though and most guys don't venture far from home. Then I kill my engines to save gas for landing and glide back 2 or 3 sectors out. Not too many guys above 20,000 feet. Bombers really need an escort to be effective. Most in here, MA, anyway, everybody is like me, a loner. Po's me to make my field then get jumped. Since, I go find an empty field. A good, well thought out, bombing sortie takes too long.
I just like to fly around and do touch and goes, suits me.
One time I saw a consolidated effort in MA to take a field and town. Everybody had a job and once at the target, they had it in 5 minutes. I was in a fighter way above them, just observing. They were probably Rooks!
I play at it, I just need to fine tune, been here just 2 months.
Fun game!
Daubie :O (coffee lover)
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Yeah, I'm a Usenet reject...
I'm signed up.
I'll be in the bombing area practicing with that sucker. See you June 2, (if I don't forget) . Thanks for the invite.
Last night I was in early war arena and got 3 Ju-88's with a F4F. But as usual I never get my full credit cashed in. I got wounded and died on the way home. 6, .50's at 200 yards seem to work rather well. Thanks, Ren.
What does "CM" stand for?
Daubie
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re:
Brooke
Aces High CM Staff
Daubie, also for play that is an attempt at more realism (or at least to make it like good WWII tales of combat missions), you might want to check out scenarios. We have one coming up in June, and new players are very welcome.
Here is some info on scenarios:
http://ahevents.org/scenario-related/scenarios.html
And here is info on the one coming up in June:
http://ahevents.org/pacific-theatre...scenario-2.html
If you want to check it out, register axis, give a preference for Ju 88's, and you are welcome to come fly in my group.
__________________
Aces High Scenarios
For information and pictorials, click here:
http://ahevents.org/scenario-related/scenarios.html
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CM = Campaign Manager . Were a group a volunteers that are divided into groups. we research ,design ,Referee, and setup the SEA /AVA arena's to run various Events and Scenario's along with running the AHevents.org website.
The Terrain Team is Also part of the CM staff .
We Do not control the Main Arena's .
We also have a Training staff and a Skinning team that put in hundreds of hours in helping players and creating goodies for everyones enjoyment.
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Hi,
Thanks for the explanation.
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re:
CM = Campaign Manager . Were a group a volunteers that are divided into groups. we research ,design ,Referee, and setup the SEA /AVA arena's to run various Events and Scenario's along with running the AHevents.org website.
The Terrain Team is Also part of the CM staff .
We Do not control the Main Arena's .
We also have a Training staff and a Skinning team that put in hundreds of hours in helping players and creating goodies for everyones enjoyment.
__________________
Roscoroo ,
"How do You Tell When You`re Out of Invisible Ink "
(=Ghosts= ..you will believe, Fly AH Scenariroo's they Roc) Patch donations