Just bought Clod: First impressions, and questions

[Luno13]

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.

[Longywales]

F10 Allows you to use the mouse to move your head...

[Bobo]

These vids are very informative, do a search on YT and you'll find many!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6OJk...eature=related

Cheers and good luck! Oh, F10 will toggle your mouse to either click stuff or look around

Bobo

[Toni74]

Originally Posted by Luno13

So, I looked at Clod on Steam, and it was only $30

http://www.gamesrocket.de/download/I...r.html?ref=251

[5./JG27.Farber]

Have you installed the 108 patch? Improves somethings further. Also use "original" textures in settings, the others are quite poor.

I see someone gave you the spit vid, heres some 109 tutorials to go with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c46SW...hannel&list=UL

[Luno13]

Originally Posted by Toni74

http://www.gamesrocket.de/download/I...r.html?ref=251

Thanks, but what do you expect me to do with that? $30 isn't bad for what I got anyway.

Thanks for all the tutorial videos guys. I'm taking this one step at a time now.

I need more practice

[Bounder!]

Originally Posted by Luno13

I'd like to know how to configure the HUD messages (such as "radiator perforated").

To configure HUD messages: place your mouse over the HUD message box then, hold Alt + left click to select the box, then right click and select customise window. This will give you a custom menu window where you can customise what info appears in the HUD box, it's font, background colour etc etc. You can also create new HUD boxes by right clicking on an empty part of the screen and selecting 'new info window'.

[EDIT]: I find selecting 'Title: Visible' under the custom menu window makes it easier to click and drag the HUD box to move it around my screen for repositioning purposes. Also selecting 'Boarder: Visible' allows you to easily resize the HUD box (after I have my HUD box in the right position and size on my screen I then go back into the custom menu window by Alt + right clicking on the box and change the title and boarder to invisible but that's up to you).

Originally Posted by Luno13

How do you pan, translate, rotate, and zoom the outside camera?

As others said, hit F10 to switch the mouse to control your view which is ok at first, especially for offline game play but most people eventually end up setting up Free Track or purchasing Track IR which I couldn't recommend enough! As for zooming in and out, under the option "camera" in controls, set up buttons on your joystick for Field Of View (FOV) 30, 70, 90.

[Skoshi Tiger]

Hi! and welcome to the forum.

Originally Posted by Luno13

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

QFT.

Although the sim does have it's issues (and they all do) it can be great fun, it's good to see a fresh view of the sim.

Cheers and hope to see you online!

[zapatista]

Hiya Luno,

thats a pretty good summary you gave of a first impression, the sim is not bad in its current state and with the final "big bugfix patch" due for release soon it should generate many more positive reports

if you just installed it from a steam download, be aware you will still need to install the latest beta patch (3e aug 2012 ?) manually (it wont auto update it). the good news is the patch gives a significant performance boost for mid range systems

[Jam66es]

I'll probably be asking more later, but that's it for now. Thanks!