AH Latest Version Observations.

[baine1]

I'm with the camp that is seeing their poor machines wheez with this new version.
My computer's fairly midrange, a 2 ghz AMD processor, 64mb nvidea video card and 640 RAM. Not great, but well above the "minimum system requirements."
Not too long ago it could run AHII without any problems.
Should I have to go out and drop $500-$700 annually because HTC keeps having these "wouldn't it be neat if we could..." moments? It looks like I'll have to or be forced to vote with my feet.
I've said it before, in an arms race to see if his customers' computers can keep up with HiTech's improvements, HiTech's gonna win.
I wouldn't mind if these things added greatly to gameplay. I didn't complain when trees first appeared. They really do add to gv actions. I started complaining when they began moving to places gvs will never go, taking over maps and killing framerates.
A lot of the new stuff gives me 5 minutes of "Wow, that's cool" until it becomes routine.
For example, the bullet casings dropping from machine guns in buffs or the lighting effects when the guns are fired. Cool when I first noticed them, now not noticed at all.
I agree that a game's gotta grow or it's going to die. But I can't see the point of charging $15 to attract a wide customer base and then driving that base off by continuous tweaks that require continuous upgrades.

[LTARokit]

Originally posted by aztec
I just did a $700.00 upgrade, my friend just did an $1,100.00 upgrade to continue keeping up with AH. With this release AH is once again unplayable for us. I am sorry that I'm unable to build a new system with every release or patch.

_____________________________ ___________

Aztec the way it sounds is you and your friend spent $1800 to make improvements for what was needed at the time.....leaving no room or thought for future.  Meaning ....will the hardware I get now serve me in future changes.  Ya can't just plan for today when you know tomorrow will change.

I guess the other thing is are you buying what your rig really needs, or are you getting sold short.  If you have a lamp that doesn't work because of a defective switch.... there are those who would sell you another bulb instead of what was really needed.  Or tell you this will work, only to find out the new switch doesn't work on the new and improved bulb....you know the one you really want to use,   and can't because this switch only works on the old stuff.

Used to own a 1956 Chevy, spent thousands of dollars on it to make like new.  In the end...............it was still a 1956 Chevy.

[aztec]

Lol....I should have known better, granted my upgrade was only from a Commodore 64 to a 128 but thought sure w/the sliders way down I'd get .0021 FPS in  a furball. But thanks anyway, !

[Ecliptik]

Originally posted by baine1
I'm with the camp that is seeing their poor machines wheez with this new version.
My computer's fairly midrange, a 2 ghz AMD processor, 64mb nvidea video card and 640 RAM. Not great, but well above the "minimum system requirements."
Not too long ago it could run AHII without any problems.
Should I have to go out and drop $500-$700 annually because HTC keeps having these "wouldn't it be neat if we could..." moments? It looks like I'll have to or be forced to vote with my feet.
I've said it before, in an arms race to see if his customers' computers can keep up with HiTech's improvements, HiTech's gonna win.
I wouldn't mind if these things added greatly to gameplay. I didn't complain when trees first appeared. They really do add to gv actions. I started complaining when they began moving to places gvs will never go, taking over maps and killing framerates.
A lot of the new stuff gives me 5 minutes of "Wow, that's cool" until it becomes routine.
For example, the bullet casings dropping from machine guns in buffs or the lighting effects when the guns are fired. Cool when I first noticed them, now not noticed at all.
I agree that a game's gotta grow or it's going to die. But I can't see the point of charging $15 to attract a wide customer base and then driving that base off by continuous tweaks that require continuous upgrades.

$500 per year, on average, for new computer equipment is pretty par for the course for any sort of gamer, and $500-1000 a year is a pretty cheap annual expense compared to lots of other hobbies.  It's unfortunate if AH is the only game you play and you aren't getting any other benefit from your hardware, but AH isn't special.  It's just a fact of online gaming that if you want to keep playing, you're going to have to spend the money to keep your system up to snuff.  

That 64 meg Geforce you have doesn't  quite cut the mustard these days.  The rest of your system is still ok.

All of that said, I have noticed that sometimes AH seems to require more system power than it should.  There is no reason that a system that can run Il-2 FB smoothly with lots of AI planes in the air should have any trouble with AH, but often this seems to be the case.  I think the team needs to work on some performance optimization techniques, because considering AHII's current graphical quality, I think they could improve frame rates quite a bit.

[storch]

My frame rates are horrendous on this current MA map and they weren't like that before today.  I just did a virus scan and an ad aware scan.  I have changed no settings.  what might possibly be the problem?