So, I looked at Clod on Steam, and it was only $30 so I decided I would take the plunge. My though process was that even if it didn't work, at least the team would get just a tiny bit more funding to help with future work.
I have to say that things are not as bad as others have made it out to be. In fact, you could even say that I was pleasantly surprised after hearing so much bad news. Load times were blazing fast compared to RoF, although the interface is a bit clunky. It took a long time to set up even the most basic control inputs, so cleaning that up would be nice (ie, having to click on the setting, then "change input", then highlighting the window to type in the key combination, then OK - it slows down the process).
In game, with medium-high settings the graphics are smooth, over water and terrain alike, without stutters and hang-ups, and Cliffs themselves look absolutely mind-bogglingly real. Removing the cockpit mirrors improves frame-rates further, but they're useless at the moment anyway. The sounds are great, but "soft" - machine guns remind me of quickly rapping fingers on a desktop, but it's not a big deal. Hearing the airframe creak under stress is actually frightening, and I'm afraid to push the aircraft like I did in 1946.
I absolutely love the head-shake movement due to G-forces and I wish other sims did it this well, but I think the vibrations are a little too strong (though they shouldn't be removed entirely, as they are an important visual cue where tactile feedback doesn't exist).
I've gotten pretty well acquainted with craters
and it's nice to see them rendered in such a way that the illusion of depth is created.
The anti-aliasing needs work, and only does half the job on 4x setting.
Overall, it's not bad. I need to play with it more to figure out more control assignments (I like to start off with a blank page) and to see what major bugs are present.
I was wondering though if there were guides for a newbie? I've been playing RoF exclusively for some time, and even 1946 is too hard now.
Specifically, I'd like to know how I can change the function of the mouse so that moving it moves my head, and clicking and dragging activates the cursor (opposite of what it does now) and how to change mouse speed, inertia, etc. I'd like to know how to configure the HUD messages (such as "radiator perforated"). How do you pan, translate, rotate, and zoom the outside camera? Finally, I'd like to know how to manage my engine. I keep p-pitch and throttle fairly low so I'm not exceeding 3000 rpms or going to the redline in boost, but I keep damaging the water radiator in the Spit, and getting oil on my face in the Hurri.
I'll probably be asking more later, but that's it for now. Thanks!
Oh, and I'm playing on my Toshiba Satellite P750 with NVidia GT 540M, Intel i5-2450, 8GB RAM, and Windows 7 64.