Things are looking good on our end and we're really looking forward to getting this release out. There's a software axiom that goes something along the lines of, "The more you do, the more you have left to do." That'll certainly be true of this release as it opens the door to a whole myriad of new additions and improvements to be made. This coming new year really looks like it'll be a fun time in the ongoing development of AH. We've gotten a lot of major stuff out of the way and look forward to working on more of the cool details.
The 1.05 patch will be about 9MB and the base download will be about 14MB. Here's a list of changes although some are probably missing from the list yet. Merry Christmas.
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Changed minimum system requirements to D3D compatible video cards with a minimum
of 8MB video memory. The formerly optional hi-res textures are now standard and
no longer require a separate download.
Added the following planes: TBM-3, F6F-5, Seafire IIC,
Added the Elco 80' PT Boat. Rudder is controlled by your joystick. Speed is
controlled by throttle. Shifting gears works the same as on other vehicles but
there is only a forward, neutral, and reverse position. Moving your joystick
forward or back has no effect when driving the boat. Torpedos are launched from
the driver's position using the secondary button. The smoke dispenser on the
fantail is not used yet. The "open doors" (o) command has been added to the
vehicle's keymap. If you have remapped your keys, you will need to set this
manually in the vehicle section of the keymapper. On the PT boat, the open doors
function will swing the rocket launchers out into the firing position. After the
launchers are deployed into the firing position, the #7 gunner position controls
the elevation and firing of the rockets. As with the vehicles and planes, rudder
input while in a gunner position can be used to steer the boat.
Added carriers, escort ships and ports. Clicking the Ships button on the
clipboard brings allows players to control the movement of their country's
fleets. See the help section on our webpage for instructions on how to do this.
Each fleet has a homeport that can be captured. When a carrier is sunk, it
respawns at its homeport under the ownership of the country that owns the port.
Added a ground gunner system that lets you man anti-aircraft and bombardment guns.
This is currently only available on the ships. 20mm, 40mm, 5", and 8" guns can be
manned on the various ships in the fleet. The 5" gun is dual-purpose allowing you
to toggle between proximity rounds for AA, or HE rounds for bombardment. To man
these guns, go to a fleet and select the "Field Gunner" selection from the plane
list. Clicking the Hangar button gives you an overhead view of the fleet displaying
which gun positions are available. Click on the gun position you want to man and
then click the Fly button. When using the heavy guns, two sets range and bearing
information are displayed on the screen. The first set shows your displays the
range and bearing that your weapon is oriented to and the second set shows the
range and bearing to the target that you've marked. You can mark a target by
bringing up your clipboard map and clicking on the position that you want range
and bearing information to.
Added tailhooks to all the carrier planes. The default key to raise/lower your
tailhook is <shift g>. If you have used the keymapper before, you will need to
manually map this function to a key. A new instrument light in the cockpit of
those planes indicates tailhook position.
Created a new terrain.
Revised the scoring system.
Added the "perk" scoring system.
Made changes to plane selection interface for use with the new scoring and perk
systems.
Dialog boxes now only pop up in case of errors. Informational messages show in orange
in the message bar.
After submitting a mission, the user is automatically sent from the editor to the
viewer, where the mission will be in the list of available missions.
When a mission auto starts, the user will be asked how he'd like to score his mission
(fighter or attack) for applicable plane types.
Friendly icons in a mission will show up in yellow on other user's front ends.
Fixed a bug that was causing tank shells to appear to hit a different spot from what
the shooter saw.
Changed how dispersion works in the gunnery model. They are now more likely to
go towards the center of the dispersion pattern.
Made changes to the automatic AA. They are less precise with their fire.
Landing at a field now keeps you there when you fly again.
Exiting on refuel points no longer counts as a ditch.
Increased bomb, rocket, and heavy cannon lethality. Building hardnesses were also
increased proportionally. This was done because the damage of small weapons was
out of proportion to that of large ones.
Made changes to the sizes of some of the bomb shapes.
Fixed a bug on the Panzer and Ostwind's machine-guns that was causing the fire rates
to vary.
Added external fuel tanks to the Typhoon.
The German 21cm rockets now have a timed fuze.
N1K2-J ammo load was revised.
Short oil leak times was fixed on a number of different planes.
Fixed a bug that caused icons to be seen through cockpit art.
Fixed a bug causing disappearing icons in gunsights.
Fixed a delete mission bug.
Missions now auto-start at flight take-off time, not mission start time.
Fixed a typo in the Ostwind's damage display.
Spit V - 500lb bomb now shows up in external view.
Lancaster - External view, props no longer show through fuselage.
Lancaster - Loading 18x500lb no longer loads 17 500lbers.
Lancaster - Trim and bank indicator no longer works in reverse.
Fixed a bug that could cause some planes to get stuck on the runway if WEP was
immediately engaged.
Fixed the problem with chutes sometimes getting inverted.
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Doug "Pyro" Balmos
HiTech Creations
