What happens next?

[rabbidrabbit]

I have a computer from 1999... now that is OLD. I'm no computer expert, but having viruses, spywares, and the downloading speed of a snail... Well, let's just say it takes me 2 hours to download AH. And I can't even imagine what it would take to download a high-end version of AH. And don't tell me to upgrade my computer, I have a super... cheap.. family... they will never.. buy another computer unless this one break into itty bitty pieces.

Performance of your computer has little if not nothing to do with your download speed.  To the point you were trying to make....  You have a 9 year old computer.  Seriously, why do you think everyone else should revolve around you?  If I want to play the latest games I get what I need to play them or I don't play.  If I have something marginal I put up with the performance gap or use the vaunted "preferences"  to tune down graphics and other settings to make it tolerable with the full understanding that I'm not getting all of the features of the game and its my fault because I don't have the appropriate hardware.  I don't tell the rest of the community they don't deserve what they are paying for because of my selfishness.  To advocate not upgrading a product set because you don't want to adjust the preferences is just a cop out.  Its a good core product that thankfully is seeing some upgrades that are welcome and should be.

[Platano]

<<---Can give pretty much anyone a run for thier Money with his ancient Computer. 

[Chalenge]

and yet we dont care...

I dont care if its just 16 colors as long as the sim is smooth and there is little or no warp.

[Wyld45]

                         Think mine has some kind of "Mayan" date on it. Translated,I believe
                     it says,......."2012".


                                                          

[SD67]

I have a super... cheap.. family... they will never.. buy another computer unless this one break into itty bitty pieces.

Do you want to borrow a hammer?

[SlapShot]

Dude!

Anyone who starts a retort with ... "Dude" ... sets the tone, at least for me, that the rest of the post will really have no intelligible "meat" in it, and you didn't disappoint.

What are you smoking?

Marlboro Ultra Lights.

Ever hear of adjustable settings?

Nope ... never heard of them in my whole life ... please explain O' Enlightened One ... 

Seriously, they are already there, just in a limited fashion.

  ... I guess you told me.

Whats wrong with your brain that makes it tough to grasp?

My brain is functioning just fine. I think it is you that was having trouble "grasping" the point that I was trying to make to Mak.

I know for a fact (HT and Pyro posted) that AH II did employ a new graphics engine and for some reason, Mak is under the impression that AH is using some archaic graphics engine that could not deliver better "eye candy", which he really doesn't know what the AH graphics engine is capable of.

With that, I went on to say that maybe HT hasn't even turned on all the bells and whistles that the engine provides and/or has made a conscious decision not to render "IL2 type" graphics for fear of losing a good part of his player base.

Bottom line ... no one knows, amongst us, exactly what is under the covers of Ace High so "assuming" is not a good idea.

[hitech]

The one major issue people seem to not see is more eye candy also requires larger size of initial download. When we released AH II we went to far to the eye candy side. Many people could not play with the latest developments. And HTC suffered because of it.

IL2 leans to a different market then we do. How well does IL2 look from a tank?

When I rewrote the Graphics Engine for AH2, it was written to include all the latest pixel shader tech. The engine can expand fairly easily. But that expansion does not include to volume of work just to upgrade the Artwork.

As always we must ride an edge of what is best, it is easy to say just give us adjustments, that adjustment only helps with speed, but does nothing to address the download size.

HiTech

[Masherbrum]

The one major issue people seem to not see is more eye candy also requires larger size of initial download. When we released AH II we went to far to the eye candy side. Many people could not play with the latest developments. And HTC suffered because of it.

IL2 leans to a different market then we do. How well does IL2 look from a tank?

When I rewrote the Graphics Engine for AH2, it was written to include all the latest pixel shader tech. The engine can expand fairly easily. But that expansion does not include to volume of work just to upgrade the Artwork.

As always we must ride an edge of what is best, it is easy to say just give us adjustments, that adjustment only helps with speed, but does nothing to address the download size.

HiTech

You guys are doing just fine Dale.   

[titanic3]

Do you want to borrow a hammer?

Careful... Careful... Careful....OUCH!@

[rabbidrabbit]

As always we must ride an edge of what is best, it is easy to say just give us adjustments, that adjustment only helps with speed, but does nothing to address the download size.

HiTech

OK,

For the record, If I did not think you had a superior product I would not be supporting you with my subscription for the past 7 years.  That being said I don't understand your almost religious desire to limit your product.  The two most common complaints are the graphics as well as limited gameplay.  The gameplay issue has little to do with download size or graphics.  Would you not agree that greater use of strategy and teamwork improves the core product?  Even though my system is a mid grade, 4 year computer, it has everything maxed out and could handle more.  Even maxed out your product hardly pushes the edge.  Just about every other developer I have seen has aimed for the edge while allowing folks to detune down to the 4-6 year old system instead of alienating market share.  A couple questions?  What percentage of your base is still on dial up?  Is it still more than 15%?  Would they mind having a separate download like the 1024 pack now?  Would it really hurt to add advanced shading and other upgrades and simply letting people turn things back down if needed?  Its already there, just don't turn it up to the new levels.  Even when I had a 28.8 connection I could still just let it crank overnight or pick up the cd like you offer.  I'm sure limiting the size of downloads helps 2 weekers intake but better graphics and gameplay sure helps retention.  The more limited things are the faster they become stale.  Keeping existing customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones.

Again, I think you have the best product out there which is why I pay you.  I respect that you participate in the community as well.  I want you to continue to grow and capture market which is why I spent my time on this thread.  I think you are incorrect in assuming improvements are not very popular as the response to such threads is overwhelmingly positive.  To that end I'll bet you the vast majority favor my position.  How about tossing up a few polls to find out?

[BiPoLaR]

<<---Can give pretty much anyone a run for thier Money with his ancient Computer. 

Mine is 10 years old 

[ColKLink]

I kill lotsa folks on a 10 yr old machine, on dial up. np.

[hitech]

Rabbidrabbit: Your assumption are incorrect, I do not need polls to prove how the market works. I have pushed to far in the past and your belief that cutting edge graphics drives all markets is incorrect. Let say even 10% of people are only on dial up. I would still need the ability for them to play. Because dropping 10% of your players drastically impacts the bottom line.

You like to make conjecture about better graphics (then you throw in an idea about team game play which is a completely different topic and almost had me not respond at all any more because you are not thinking but rather throwing darts) improving the life time of a customer. There are no facts at all you base this on.

We always try to improve our looks, and did so with a revamp of the terrain system again about 1 year ago. I also But your statements are made in a vacuum. You have no idea the cost of producing the things you ask for, and hence your trying to say we would be better off by doing so has no real insight in your argument.

You are free to ask for better looking stuff, but you do not have to live with the choices of those discussions.

[Mak333]

Hitech, thank you for your response regarding the original topic.  As others would say, I am still a member (off and on), because of the Aces High community and gameplay, not because of the eye candy.  My original post was somewhat taken as blunt stab towards the game and community; that conception is false.  My purpose was to get some idea of what the future holds for Aces High the game, and the community.  Unfortunately from my personal perspective, the originality and respectfulness in the community has declined.  Many factors have contributed to this and the blame is not to be placed on any particular group/individual, in my opinion.  Thank you for the last 5+ years of gaming, and more to come.  You're company is doing well, and I understand to an extent, the limits that the company has.

[Vudak]

I am perfectly fine with the graphics as they are.  If you ever get a look at this game on a larger monitor, they are pretty sharp as is

The only thing I would like would be a community-produced option like Scenario Aircraft Converter of old for the terrains.  It would be nice to mix it up and fly over snow or desert once in awhile.

I realize that Air Warrior had this (an easily customizable graphics system), but I also realize Air Warrior had some major problems because of it (Like using the P-51 cockpit for all aircraft).  I wonder if these problems, or something simliar, are the reason we haven't seen something like SAC in Aces High?

If it were possible to only allow the individual to change terrain colors, essentially (greens to whites for snow, but if there so happens to be a palm tree there, tough luck), with no other tampering, would this be something HTC might consider later on?