Redroach
07-02-2012, 05:00 PM
Disclaimer: This is neither meant cynically nor fanboy-ish. Please spare this from all-too-heavy flames!
So, after flying some rounds on ATAG, I can't help but to say a few compliments to MG. Sure, what has happened is inexcusable and there are still quite a few things in a bad shape (especially the dedicated server thingies, I hear), but for now, I've actually had a load of fun.
The graphics run smoothly (as they mostly did on my crate) and now, with a lot of things which spoil the experience gone, I've actually took some time to marvel at the beautiful surroundings - including the cockpits now (the low-res cockpits seem to be gone). Tracers are very nice - it just looks great now(*).
At least some weather functions/cloud cover seems to be working now, adding a lot of additional immersion (before CoD, I didn't really know that your engine can die really quickly when full-frontal-assaulting a big cloud). Thumbs up for that as well
The 100oct. Versions for the RAF; at least the Spit MkIa is a real improvement. The added power is very apparent, especially at take-off and you have to take the 100oct. into account when working with the radiator (immersion) - which provide actual drag now. How the planes conform to historical flight data, remains to be seen, but a first-glance looks quite okay. (I hope there are some serious testers as well for testing FMs :rolleyes: )
And the experience which inspired me to open this thread: The sounds. Sure, I know, some things are still broken here as well - but if you can overlook this or that, you're getting quite an experience now imo. What I think is totally awesome, and what I've never heard before in other sims, is the ambient sounds when other planes buzz by. While turning over the 100oct. Hurricane for a while yesterday (yay!), I was marveling at the ambient sound of some medium- to - high-altitude plane which stayed close to the airfield - its engine sounded like taken straight out of BoB:The Movie (which recorded actual planes, of course). Very well done, I must say.
Now, with many major things out of the way, I find it also way more enjoyable to recognize the details, which, of course, was a main ambition for CoD from the start. Seeing a low-calibre flak round buzz by is an experience I wasn't used to before :) . Or, when failing at a ship bombing run and bailing out, and hearing the ship's fog horn (? It's called like this in german ^-^) blaring, is quite a cool thing!
So, I believe we are, finally, heading into the right direction and I plan to spend more time on ATAG :) . My suggestions for now, without putting too much thought into it yet, would be:
Work on the dedicated servers. I believe this is crucial, to give teams like ATAG the tools in their hands in order for them to create hair-raising online scenarios. This would greatly contribute to a greater online player count, in my opinion
Give the Blenheim something like a level stabilizer (or take Blackdog_kt's proposal for that into account), or generally speaking: Add a little convenience and/or practicality for the bombers, which can't always be manned with multiple players, like it was in real life
More work on AI Radio commands. They are just essential in both single-player and multiplayer. I'd find it especially useful when asking for vectors to targets (which seems to be quite buggy atm) in multiplayer, as well as asking for T/O / Landing permission (you mostly get "Takeoff_denied" and "Landing_denied" atm...). Please! :)
(*) When I read the new beta patch bug thread, I sometimes can't believe it... People are whining about popping-up trees, yet they didn't bother to play with the settings, as has been suggested.
People play with beta video drivers (!), heavily overclock their GPUs (!!), having way too ambitious settings for their machine, or just fail in general in setting up their crate (clogging up the machine with various background programs, failing to install the patch properly...) or just un-understanding how various plane (settings) work and taking that for a bug. Mix in some major hell-raising about very minor things like the "grassy" fuel line in the Hurricane, and we're set.
I hope that the devs are able, despite this avalanche of whining, to focus on the real issues :)
So, after flying some rounds on ATAG, I can't help but to say a few compliments to MG. Sure, what has happened is inexcusable and there are still quite a few things in a bad shape (especially the dedicated server thingies, I hear), but for now, I've actually had a load of fun.
The graphics run smoothly (as they mostly did on my crate) and now, with a lot of things which spoil the experience gone, I've actually took some time to marvel at the beautiful surroundings - including the cockpits now (the low-res cockpits seem to be gone). Tracers are very nice - it just looks great now(*).
At least some weather functions/cloud cover seems to be working now, adding a lot of additional immersion (before CoD, I didn't really know that your engine can die really quickly when full-frontal-assaulting a big cloud). Thumbs up for that as well
The 100oct. Versions for the RAF; at least the Spit MkIa is a real improvement. The added power is very apparent, especially at take-off and you have to take the 100oct. into account when working with the radiator (immersion) - which provide actual drag now. How the planes conform to historical flight data, remains to be seen, but a first-glance looks quite okay. (I hope there are some serious testers as well for testing FMs :rolleyes: )
And the experience which inspired me to open this thread: The sounds. Sure, I know, some things are still broken here as well - but if you can overlook this or that, you're getting quite an experience now imo. What I think is totally awesome, and what I've never heard before in other sims, is the ambient sounds when other planes buzz by. While turning over the 100oct. Hurricane for a while yesterday (yay!), I was marveling at the ambient sound of some medium- to - high-altitude plane which stayed close to the airfield - its engine sounded like taken straight out of BoB:The Movie (which recorded actual planes, of course). Very well done, I must say.
Now, with many major things out of the way, I find it also way more enjoyable to recognize the details, which, of course, was a main ambition for CoD from the start. Seeing a low-calibre flak round buzz by is an experience I wasn't used to before :) . Or, when failing at a ship bombing run and bailing out, and hearing the ship's fog horn (? It's called like this in german ^-^) blaring, is quite a cool thing!
So, I believe we are, finally, heading into the right direction and I plan to spend more time on ATAG :) . My suggestions for now, without putting too much thought into it yet, would be:
Work on the dedicated servers. I believe this is crucial, to give teams like ATAG the tools in their hands in order for them to create hair-raising online scenarios. This would greatly contribute to a greater online player count, in my opinion
Give the Blenheim something like a level stabilizer (or take Blackdog_kt's proposal for that into account), or generally speaking: Add a little convenience and/or practicality for the bombers, which can't always be manned with multiple players, like it was in real life
More work on AI Radio commands. They are just essential in both single-player and multiplayer. I'd find it especially useful when asking for vectors to targets (which seems to be quite buggy atm) in multiplayer, as well as asking for T/O / Landing permission (you mostly get "Takeoff_denied" and "Landing_denied" atm...). Please! :)
(*) When I read the new beta patch bug thread, I sometimes can't believe it... People are whining about popping-up trees, yet they didn't bother to play with the settings, as has been suggested.
People play with beta video drivers (!), heavily overclock their GPUs (!!), having way too ambitious settings for their machine, or just fail in general in setting up their crate (clogging up the machine with various background programs, failing to install the patch properly...) or just un-understanding how various plane (settings) work and taking that for a bug. Mix in some major hell-raising about very minor things like the "grassy" fuel line in the Hurricane, and we're set.
I hope that the devs are able, despite this avalanche of whining, to focus on the real issues :)