B-17: The Mighty 8th - An AAR of WTHAID* (FULL CREW, but need fodder)

Started by BanzaiCat, November 07, 2014, 07:28:46 PM

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BanzaiCat

*What The Hell Am I Doing

I've never played B-17: The Mighty 8th before. Always wanted it. Found it on Steam for cheap today and on GOG for a dollar cheaper, but being the Steam whore I am, I went ahead and grabbed it. My wife's not happy, but oh well, seven bucks dammit. At least it wasn't $20 or $50. :)

Instead of getting myself wrapped up in another labor-intensive AAR with so many other things going on, I think I'm going to try my hand at doing a video-based AAR. After watching a few Let's Play videos of this game, I think that would be the best way to convey the sights, sounds, and intensity of the game itself, and will also mean little work on my part other than converting it from AVI to another format (which I can do in Premiere Pro on my work laptop, so no biggie at all) before I load it to a private channel on YouTube and then share it in this thread.

I didn't want to stomp all over PanzersEast's glory as he's doing a B-17 Queen of the Skies AAR, so I asked and received his blessing to do this.

I'm going to use FRAPS. I tested it tonight (I've never taken videos of games before) using BroForce as a test bed. Got my Microsoft LifeChat headset to work, finally (those that were playing the Warlock MP game with me know I was struggling to get the damn thing to work, with no luck), at least in BroForce, and took some short videos. Problem is, the videos got a little choppy. I think that might be due to my PC being older, and probably also because I had about ten tabs in Chrome open (including several YouTube videos), so that was probably sucking up the memory.

Anyway, on to scene 24, etcetera.

PE requested the Bombadier's position. I believe you can rename crew in this game as I saw someone had changed a name in his Let's Play game, so I will be able to rename the crewmembers accordingly. After those LP videos, I was able to get a feel for how the game flows. I believe there's two modes - squadron command and bomber command. He played squadron command. I'm going to try bomber command instead. I know it's not as deep but hey we're only worried about one bomber and I don't really want to mess with the higher-level stuff right now (no idea if that's even a factor in the bomber command version).

So, here's what I think we have, position-wise:

Bombadier..................Lt PanzersEast
Navigator...................Lt SDR
Pilot..........................Capt Banzai_Cat
Co-pilot.....................Lt JasonPratt
Engineer....................M/Sgt Barthheart
Radio Op...................Sgt bob48
Right Waist Gunner.....Sgt undercovergeek
Left Waist Gunner.......Sgt Nefaro
Ball Turret Gunner.......Sgt Staggerwing
Tail Gunner................Sgt Shelldrake

I'm going to remain in the captain's seat, but I have NO intention of flying this beast in-game; I will hopefully get a decent pilot so I can ignore this and let the computer handle the taking off, flying/maintaining formation, and landing. I intend to be the 'spirit' of the plane's crew and inhabit positions that might need attention. I think I can do that, at any rate.

I thought about shanghai'ing you boys from the B-29 thread, but that's another box of marbles. I inquired with MD about possibly getting Hell Over Korea as a review copy so I can try that as an AAR, which should have a lot more action in it. Meanwhile, I'll leave this one open to whomever wants a position. First come, first served.

Disclaimer: I hope I can get this to work right. As I said I've never done a video capture but it seems simple enough so the first few might suck quality-wise until I figure things out.

If you want to join up, speak up below. If you're too late after the crew fills up, I think this game is sufficiently bloody enough that we likely will not return home in one piece, so speak up also and you'll be in the replacement pool.

One final note: the frigging manual is 147 pages long (old time gaming goodness at its best), so while you guys decide if you want to join/what position you want (heh-heh...he said 'position'), I'mma going to read this bloody thing and hopefully make heads or tails so that we have a better chance of living.

Enjoy!

Staggerwing

Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

Silent Disapproval Robot

I used to play the crap out of B-17 when it first came out.  Flying is not too hard.  Navigating is HARD!

I'll be the navigator.

BanzaiCat

Quote from: Staggerwing on November 07, 2014, 07:31:05 PM
What would our interactive roles be as crewmembers?

The game, I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong, if there's B-17 vets out there like PE and SDR), has rankings for each crew member, which governs how good they are at certain things. I think everyone has the same categories of stats (Piloting, Gunnery, Nav, etc.), and obviously waist gunners are going to be poor Pilots but better gunners than Pilots. I think, anyway.

You'd have to do nothing other than watch the video, pretty much like the B-29 AAR I started some time ago.

BanzaiCat

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on November 07, 2014, 07:31:30 PM
I used to play the crap out of B-17 when it first came out.  Flying is not too hard.  Navigating is HARD!

I'll be the navigator.

Done!

I'm going to be playing without a joystick, so avoiding the pilot's seat is probably best for all aboard.  ;)

Silent Disapproval Robot

The busiest crew member will be the engineer.  He not only has to man a gun, but he's constantly hopping around dealing with damage control when things go bad. 

It's been years since I even looked at the game but at the time, the flak effects were awesome! 

BanzaiCat

Yeah, that Let's Play video REALLY impressed me. The graphics are a bit dated but damn, it really rendered some things well, and the sounds were immersive as well.

Staggerwing

I'll be Ball Turret Gunner as long as you promise no belly landings- the ball turret wasn't retractable on the seventeen!
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

BanzaiCat

Quote from: Staggerwing on November 07, 2014, 07:48:14 PM
I'll be Ball Turret Gunner as long as you promise no belly landings- the ball turret wasn't retractable on the seventeen!

Done!

Here's hoping this doesn't turn into a bad ending of a certain Amazing Stories show...

http://vimeo.com/56670088


BanzaiCat

Quote from: undercovergeek on November 07, 2014, 08:15:54 PM
Right waist gunner for me

All yours!

Good news: I gave B-17 a spin and tried to figure out the basic takeoff tutorial. Struggled at first trying to figure out why it wouldn't release brakes and let me taxi, then realized I hadn't set it to manual mode (d'oh). Finally got the damn thing to taxi. Got FRAPS to record but it was choppy, so I'm going to have to fiddle with the settings/my PC. Might need to reboot it to start fresh and see how that works. Like I said, she's an old one but she is still chuggin' along.

This is something I've forgotten about older games - they're very fiddly when it comes to controls and require a lot of key memorization, unlike games today that are very intuitive (for the most part). In the heat of battle 30,000 feet above France or Germany, I can't do with a hunt-and-peck style of play...I'm going to have to play a mission or two to get a feel for it, otherwise we're doomed.

Staggerwing

Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

JasonPratt

ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

BanzaiCat

Quote from: JasonPratt on November 07, 2014, 10:52:04 PM
You have my co-piloting skills.

AND MY CHAINSAW!



Done! You have it.

I've got to go waste most of my Saturday now hauling my wife's car to the dealership, so here's hoping it will not take long and not cost a lot of money.

Staggerwing

Tell them you have an armed and crewed B-17 and the dealership's GPS coordinates. I'm sure the bill will be quite reasonable after that.  ;)
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys