It seems everyone is for it, please listen to the players pyro!
I couldn't disagree more. In fact, I believe that the "silent" majority far outweighs the 5 or 6 people that continuously ask for these "advanced engine management" features.
Guys, guys, guys.... Don't take this personally, but...
Take a step back. And try to look at this from the perspective of the "average" pilot in WWII flightsims. The guy who gets to fly maybe one night a week for 3-5 hours.Each and Every one of us have been flying online flightsims for
many years and are looking at it from the perspective of thousands of hours of sim-experience. Try for just a few minutes to look back to when you started.
Right now the learning curve is already overwhelming in a game of the complexity of Warbirds (assuming AH will be of a similar nature or even more detailed). Not only do you have to learn the basics of flight, ACM, and SA. You have to learn advanced gunnery, trimming controls, and Plane vs. Plane tactics. And then spend hundreds to thousands of hours learning how to do these things "right" in just a single aircraft type.
Its a real b*tch to learn all these things, and not end up being depressed because your continuously being shot down, and end up quiting. Its my understanding that very few players make it thru the learning curve and stick with the game.
Now you want to make it that much harder? Sure you can make "auto-management" the easy mode with a penalty, and give peopel in "ace-mode" the advantage (like these people don't already have a huge advantage over the average players).
Would this make it fair? Nope, I don't think so. It would be just like "easy mode" in Warbirds. A dead end path that ends up hampering the player more that it ever helps them.
Sure Falcon 4.0 and other advanced single player sims have features like these. But in these games your typically flying against relatively "stupid" computer generated AI, not hard core steely eyed frothing at the mouth, millions of hours of sim-combat experienced human beings. Not even close to being the same thing. Remember how real life Combat pilots look at our community and comment on the fact that even the LEAST of our average pilots have hundreds of times the combat experience that real pilots had? Face it, the pilot quality in our sims are excellent.
And now you want to make it that much harder on new guys (that or add a penalty to them)? I'm sorry but I have to totally disagree.
Me? <shrugs> I have flown AW since AW4W, when it originally came on AOL and WB's since version 0.9X in the last couple of weeks of beta. So I figure I can learn it without too much difficulty, but would I enjoy it? No, I have enough to think about already when I'm flying.
Games like this can only thrive and grow on the strength of its new players. And if you drive most of them off with an
extreme learning curve, well there goes the life blood of your game.
Just my opinon. I know you disagre
and I respect that, but try to look at it from the "average" players perspective.
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Vermillion **MOL**
"Shooting is NEVER too good for my enemys" --Evil Overlord
[This message has been edited by Vermillion (edited 07-28-1999).]