Some Thumbs up, for some variety!

[Redroach]

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 )

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

[philip.ed]

Great, balanced post. This sim has so much potential.

[senseispcc]

I am sorry but the tree bug, yes it is a bug is visualy a step back and cannot be corrected with any magic trick. It create a big losses of flying confort between 0 and 2000 feet... this with a high end pc. Secondly now the "launcher.exe" do crash again and not once but many times.
This is a good game but still not a perfect game and if you are please with it I am pleased for you but I am not at all and the fact that no Hurricane cannot start his engine again is also something I find strange.

[AbortedMan]

Originally Posted by senseispcc

I am sorry but the tree bug, yes it is a bug is visualy a step back and cannot be corrected with any magic trick. It create a big losses of flying confort between 0 and 2000 feet... this with a high end pc. Secondly now the "launcher.exe" do crash again and not once but many times.
This is a good game but still not a perfect game and if you are please with it I am pleased for you but I am not at all and the fact that no Hurricane cannot start his engine again is also something I find strange.

Shouldn't be flying at 2000 ft for more than 60 seconds during takeoff/landing anyway. As soon as you get up and start actually playing the game the problem fixes itself. Yes, it's an issue, but not one that warrants multiple threads and posts complaining about it.

Servers have side stepped the hurricane not starting by adding air starts. Crisis averted.

[senseispcc]

Even over 2000 ft. there is no trace of trees.
And during a dogfight it begins at 20.000 ft. and very quickly finds you at low altitude due to manoeuvres.
Ugliness is something I do not like and before this new patch the game was beautifull now not anymore.
The Hurricane engine start problem is new. And some of us do not want or which to start in the air a complete mission is more fun than only shooting without flying.

[AbortedMan]

Originally Posted by senseispcc

Even over 2000 ft. there is no trace of trees.
And during a dogfight it begins at 20.000 ft. and very quickly finds you at low altitude due to manoeuvres.
Ugliness is something I do not like and before this new patch the game was beautifull now not anymore.
The Hurricane engine start problem is new. And some of us do not want or which to start in the air a complete mission is more fun than only shooting without flying.

Welcome to beta testing. Your stay will be an unenjoyable one.

[Redroach]

Originally Posted by senseispcc

The Hurricane engine start problem is new. And some of us do not want or which to start in the air a complete mission is more fun than only shooting without flying.

Wow, that's just asking for it. Let's assume for a moment that the 87oct versions were removed. I can clearly picture your comment regarding that: "But some of us like to fly the vintage, flight-school versions from time to time!!11"

Go away, please.

[Snake9]

First post

This patch has been a postive step forward for me. I love the new tracers, the clouds added back are nice, performance is on par with the other beta patch, and all in all it's a "funner" game for me. Even with a somewhat average pc, I'm able to run everything maxed out but grass. (i7 920 stock, 8GB ram 1333, Black Ed. 6870 1Gb card) Fps stays between 30 and 50 depending on the alt, which is perfectly fine. I have not even noticed the tree problem everyone talks about. Maybe it has something to do with the settings.

Me as a customer, am finally pleased things "seem" to be moving in the right direction.

[Ze-Jamz]

Originally Posted by AbortedMan

Welcome to beta testing. Your stay will be an unenjoyable one.

[libano1982]

:-

Originally Posted by Redroach

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 )

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