We will never create a version of Aces High to cater to the 1% of the market. If the priority of a player is the graphics first, then we are not going to attract that player. WT will attract the twitch/arcade player who is in it for graphics first. No doubt about that. If we tried to get away what they get away with in providing temporary flight models, I cannot imagine how bad it would be here. WT can get away with it because the players, generally speaking, do not care about the accuracy of the flight model.
Aces High and WT are very different games. Do we wish there were 30,000+ players whose priority would be the flight model? Sure we do, but it would mean sacrificing things we do wish to sacrifice. We certainly could crank out things faster if we did not spend months researching the models, but it would not be something we would be proud of either. This not just a game for us. It is our passion.
Our priorities have always been the flight model first. We are harder on ourselves than anyone could ever know, as it pertains to the accuracy of our flight model. We also provide an environment when you can see and fight hundreds of planes/vehicles at one time. This makes large scale events possible. No other game/sim approaches what we have accomplished in this area. No other game approaches what we have managed to do with such a small installation. We do not have 6GB of artwork, yet our current generation of planes look very good. Our old planes look like crap and we are working on that. Yet, there are those in this thread who would post a picture of our oldest plane and represent it as a current model for the purposes of berating us.
We are not perfect. We never will be. The good news, neither is any other game. For over 14 years, this is what we have been doing and this is all that we have been doing.
You guys do great stuff, and you do it in C, which is even more impressive. When all of the planes look as good as the new Macchi C.20x, Ki-43, Me-410, Lancaster, etc., I think it will make a huge difference. The world of AH with full graphics enabled, from the cockpit of those birds, which is where you spend all of your time in a game that has (intentionally) very limited camera views, looks fantastic. Sure, the GV stuff isn't as good looking, but that isn't and never will be the priority, in my understanding. With the flight model combined with things like TrackIR or Oculus Rift (soon?), as well as a stick+throttle+rudder pedals, this is about as real as it gets.
Y'all keep on doing what you're doing. Let me know if you ever need any coding help.
