1. By far the worst is the lack of a reliable shooting view. I can't look around and then snap to shooting. Even a tiny error means that the bullets just miss completely. This is really THE point of air combat and failure here makes the game pointless. I have a deadzone and center and lock in place programmed but even a slight head movement means you miss. A slight miss is as good as a mile. AFAIK this is strictly an ordering problem where the view key no longer overrides the TIR view. An easy change.
Hitech added a saved position so that you can save a view, and map it to a button. Then while you are holding that button TrackIR responds to your head movements WITH IN that view. Hold down a "6 view" key you make and you can look around the tail by leaning one way or the other, no more leaning forward or back to get around the headrest.
2. Views - I can't reliably turn my head to the same place and see the same view. This means constant disorientation and skewed relationships between my plane and others and the ground. In combat that is bad.
This sounds more like a change in your view set up. You do know that AH3 has a FOV (Field of view) of 80 as default. AH2 was 106. You can change this in the first screen that pops up when you launch the game under video settings. Once set to 106 my views were centering up just like I remember them in AH2 with TrackIR
3. I pushed the stick forward while watching the horizon and saw the land jump up above the water so there was a gap. Which horizon do I orient to? The land? the water? something in between? That gap is how far under the water you'll be.
I have no such problem. I have only the single horizon where the water and sky meet. It dose get harder to see in the dark, but it is still there.
4. The reduced views don't look and act like a world. My brain is constantly trying to interpret what it sees and coming up wrong. It's like "what the blazes does this color mean?" It doesn't mirror reality.
Again, adjust your FOV to 106 and you will feel more comfortable.
5. Sound of Cessna. I got really tired of my flying lawnmower. Worse the sound doesn't tell you what the plane is doing. WEP on or off its pretty close to the same. What is hard to understand is that the plane NEXT to you sounds right but your plane sounds like a lawnmower??!! That is strictly a programming problem because the sound itself is there. It is just where it is played at!
Agreed, but with the new sound system there are a lot more possibilities. HTC only paid for a few sounds..... yes they have to pay for the sounds they use in the game unless they actually go out and record their own sounds. So until the custom sound packs come out... Jinx and Challenge are working on set (Jinx converting AH2 sounds, Challenge using his own recordings)
6. Featureless mono colored water. I hit it twice because I couldn't tell how high I was. It is exactly the same shade of blue in all directions.
This sounds like a problem with your settings. I havent had an issue with knowing WHERE the water was though I did cut it too close once and clipped a wing for a quick trip to the tower.... did get the spit to crash first tho
Go to the help threads, post a dxdiag (top third) and what settings your using in the game and someone maybe be able to help you tweak your system to get a better graphic of the water.
7. Radio - nearly worthless. Can't hear people can't understand them.
HTC made the radio so that transmissions can "walk over" other transmissions. There is a setting to make it so that it plays the messages in order one at a time like AH2 did making it much easier to understand what is going on.
8. Myriad of settings scattered all over. HTC could really help the community by putting them all into ONE document in ONE place. Making 1000 people hunt means 500 will quit before they can find it. This is NOT an intuitive game. It requires documentation.
The training corps has been working on a new site putting together the info.
http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/ Im sure most of the new things that were added to AH3 have not made it onto the new site as until it was released (last week) they didn't know what was going to be in it. Give them time to get it sorted. Until them there are many knowledgeable players here on the message boards that are very willing to help.
Obviously this is working for some people but on my machine it is hard to see how. I'd love to hear from one of you guys that are happy with it and hear how it works for you. Might help me to see what I can change. I'm going to keep tweaking but after two and a half weeks, I am really disappointed. As it stands, the experience isn't worth the effort.
I wish I had something better to say but that is really all I could see. I'm giving it till this month's sub runs out to get it working but really I've already invested way more than the $14.95 per month is worth. It is crazy for me to pay to be a tester.
Thanks!
First, STOP thinking of AH3 as an upgrade to AH2. You will get along much better if you look at it as a whole new game. Sounds and graphics are so different that all those minut clues you use to fly by and that were deeply ingrained after 10 years of playing are irrelevant. Time to learn a new game! Your advantage is that you have a good idea of how to fly already. Put that experience to use, learn the new "cues" and start killing again.
I have been flying the pony a lot. My wingman is MARK4 and it is what he likes to fly. It is widely known that my aim sucks, however where I have to fight to keep it at 4%, I have no trouble keeping it over 6 right now. Some complain about the bombing.....they cant see the targets and so on. I have been running a bunch of flights over towns and bases ....when there are no fights going..... learning the layouts. In 31 flights (10 buff runs and a goon supply drop) my hit percentage is over 1000 and I have 10 kills. Setup your computer right, learn the limitations of your machine. Mine doesn't like the shadow, or anti-alison, but is ok with one notch of environment map. Post lighting off, but everything else wide open. I can see my targets, I can hit my targets including field guns ( a quick burst with 50s works well). I spent over two hours Saturday night at 69. Knight had 2 CV groups and were pushing it hard. Buffs at alt, turning and burning on the deck, no problems at all.
Im running DX11 version of the game, but there IS a DX9 version that may run better on your computer. The message boards have lots of answers from many players who have infested many hours in helping with the build of this NEW game. Ask questions, supply information, and you WILL get help. Or, you can sit on the side lines while the rest of us have fun, your choice.
