First multiplayer experience - pretty bad

[irR4tiOn4L]

Originally Posted by ATAG_Colander

irR4tiOn4L,

I'm glad your second time on the ATAG server was more enjoyable.
As you noticed, the red/blue balance changes depending of the time of day.

Thanks Colander, it's a lot of fun when there's no technical issues and you're right, red/blue definitely changes with time of day and the number of players.

Originally Posted by ATAG_Colander

As for spotting in the dark, yes, is a LOT harder and usually easier from bellow which is how I suspect you where bounced. Also, as you noticed, this makes B&Z very complicated.

It is indeed a LOT harder, and I suspect harder still given that I am using a CRT which tend to have very dark blacks. Spotting a series of black dots/shapes against a dark blue background on a dark monitor is a challenge to say the least, but I also suspect its about practice spotting which I lack, given that offline missions tend to be much more straightforward.

Boom and Zoom is more complicated but altitude is still king I would say. I was only attacked after diving on that spit and losing E, and after escaping, if I had kept up my throttle and speed while climbing I would never have been caught by those pursuing spits! I was forced to crash land because I did not maintain the highest combined speed and rate of climb I could and did not do a good enough job of checking six.

Here's a shot of my first online kill btw, gained in that session - a single B&Z pass.

Originally Posted by ATAG_Colander

There are no AI fighters on the current ATAG missions, and as you also noticed, the plane set varies depending on the mission that is currently running on the server's rotation. I suspect you where bounced by 2 spits flying together with the help of teamspeak.

Initially I thought so too, but after watching the replay, I just don't know. They seemed to act like AI - they flew in tight formation INTO the attack, hosed with their gunfire and pursued me for a long time. More importantly, however, I saw lots of messages about "Spit Ia (AI)" crashed/shot down, etc. Heres a screenshot of me crash landing, with a message appearing about a Spit IIa crash (AI following me too closely?). As you can see my view was not good, but the server seemed to have AI fighters. This is why I am rather confused.



Although then again, shortly before crash landing a player reported "109 over manston" which was yours truly of course, so I must have flown into the hornet's nest. Perhaps I was indeed being hunted by 2-3 spits I suppose I got off lightly!