R
Rick Rawlings
Guest
So, the scene is Winter 1992 and I am hunched over my roommate's 386SX with 1mb of ram (!) prowling the monochrome sky looking for the green box with wings that was the Eagle of Lille. Now it is 2009 and I'm right there again in a way that not even RB3D managed to accomplish. My hat is off to you gentlemen, you seem to have nailed it! At long last, the reluctant British airman Rother Naught flies again, ready to head home at the first sign of trouble while still somehow managing to shoot down an occasional Hun.
Ran into my first "furball" yesterday with over twenty aircraft involved. Halberstadts vs. our Bebes. I managed to down two with the ridiculously limited Lewis ammo available (What, are we paying by the laser now?)
I then got on the tail of one of the two aces in the squad and started peppering him. Unfortunately, his buddy, the other ace, gets on my tail and hits my engine. I looked back just as he fired, so I was able to spin out under him before too much damamge and shook him off on my way back to the front. So thank you for a totally memorable experience.
A few Questions:
1. Everybody seems to always dive for the deck immediately. I have yet to have a fight at altitude. As it is, I can almost always avoid combat at all if I just don't follow everybody. Is this normal or will I see fights at higher altitudes if I just stick with it for a while?
2. The squaron selection is a bit of a pain on pilot creation. Would it be possible to select the year you want to fly in and then get a pulldown list of the squadrons available then, rather than the other way around. I usually like to start early in the war for the full experience, but right now there is a lot of cross-referencing to get what you want.
3. On the Nieuport 11, when you bracket back in the cockpit view, the cable that runs to the Lewis gun doesn't display properly. It is a very minor thing, but it does look weird. I thought it was a broken pipe at first
4. Just for feedback, I know you are working on pathing issues but the flights sometimes do not want to advance to the next waypoint, they will loiter a few miles short. This is with flight by rank.
5. With most of the details on 4, I get occaisional stutters in gameplay, probably loading some new terrain and other than that it is slick as snot smooth, but I just thought I would mention it if you are still working on performance improvements!
6. Does your pilot ever go on leave? That would be a nice realistic touch!
7. Any plans to allow a squadron transfer? Another nice little RB touch.
A few comments:
1. I really like how it is fairly easy to break off engagements. I've tangled with a few good pilots and we have at times both decided that we did not need to continue our engagement Very realistic.
2. I have to admit that I love it when they scream. A bit unnerving at first, but a nice touch nonetheless.
3. Great weather and cloud effects.
4. I know about the claim report changes coming in the next version, but maybe a little tweak to the core system is in order too. One flight I shot down two Halberstadts in the middle of my squadron and did not get credit. Another time I shot down an EIII in the middle of nowhere with no one around and got credit. I know it must be stupidly hard to make the claim system work realistically, I am just providing some feedback.
Finally, thank you for bringing the spirit of Red Baron back after all these years. If Oleg Maddox doesn't play this and take away something about immersiveness from it, I am afraid that Battle of Britain will just sit on my shelf like IL-2 keeps doing after so many "fresh trys" on it.
Over and out
Rick
Ran into my first "furball" yesterday with over twenty aircraft involved. Halberstadts vs. our Bebes. I managed to down two with the ridiculously limited Lewis ammo available (What, are we paying by the laser now?)
I then got on the tail of one of the two aces in the squad and started peppering him. Unfortunately, his buddy, the other ace, gets on my tail and hits my engine. I looked back just as he fired, so I was able to spin out under him before too much damamge and shook him off on my way back to the front. So thank you for a totally memorable experience.
A few Questions:
1. Everybody seems to always dive for the deck immediately. I have yet to have a fight at altitude. As it is, I can almost always avoid combat at all if I just don't follow everybody. Is this normal or will I see fights at higher altitudes if I just stick with it for a while?
2. The squaron selection is a bit of a pain on pilot creation. Would it be possible to select the year you want to fly in and then get a pulldown list of the squadrons available then, rather than the other way around. I usually like to start early in the war for the full experience, but right now there is a lot of cross-referencing to get what you want.
3. On the Nieuport 11, when you bracket back in the cockpit view, the cable that runs to the Lewis gun doesn't display properly. It is a very minor thing, but it does look weird. I thought it was a broken pipe at first
4. Just for feedback, I know you are working on pathing issues but the flights sometimes do not want to advance to the next waypoint, they will loiter a few miles short. This is with flight by rank.
5. With most of the details on 4, I get occaisional stutters in gameplay, probably loading some new terrain and other than that it is slick as snot smooth, but I just thought I would mention it if you are still working on performance improvements!
6. Does your pilot ever go on leave? That would be a nice realistic touch!
7. Any plans to allow a squadron transfer? Another nice little RB touch.
A few comments:
1. I really like how it is fairly easy to break off engagements. I've tangled with a few good pilots and we have at times both decided that we did not need to continue our engagement
Very realistic.2. I have to admit that I love it when they scream. A bit unnerving at first, but a nice touch nonetheless.
3. Great weather and cloud effects.
4. I know about the claim report changes coming in the next version, but maybe a little tweak to the core system is in order too. One flight I shot down two Halberstadts in the middle of my squadron and did not get credit. Another time I shot down an EIII in the middle of nowhere with no one around and got credit. I know it must be stupidly hard to make the claim system work realistically, I am just providing some feedback.
Finally, thank you for bringing the spirit of Red Baron back after all these years. If Oleg Maddox doesn't play this and take away something about immersiveness from it, I am afraid that Battle of Britain will just sit on my shelf like IL-2 keeps doing after so many "fresh trys" on it.
Over and out
Rick