This game has become habit forming. At first I thought it was rather thin on game mechanics, but the mixture of each specific aircraft's maneuver restrictions combined with the pilot's available maneuvers still makes for some fun strategy.
I'm wondering if there are any feature differences between the tablet and the PC version.
I wish it had some higher resolution support and such. I think it just stretches to fit your desktop size, as the only gfx option is Fullscreen or Windowed. I also think some of the special "Ace" maneuvers should require the High Speed tag to use, such as the Immelman. Instead, they tend to have -1 Altitude applied. Dunno if that was a better way, figured out in playtesting, but I suspect that's the case since there's no on-screen indicators of Low/High Speed. That's probably my only complaint at the moment - the interface could use some extra info readouts on each aircraft's flying status (speed, bank, etc) near their respective graphics. Still.. it's fun enough to get past any such complaints.
Overall, it's grown on me like a fungus. I'm finding it's an excellent bargain at the lowly $8 that Steam has been charging for it (on sale for something like 20% off IIRC). Still want something similar but even deeper regarding campaign play and game mechanics in the future!
I should have bought this. It looked interesting, and Sid Meier's name on it helps, but I figured one of you would eventually post about it. I'm going to have to check it out now.
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 30, 2013, 04:09:01 PM
I should have bought this. It looked interesting, and Sid Meier's name on it helps, but I figured one of you would eventually post about it. I'm going to have to check it out now.
Buy it from greenmangaming, they have it for $6.75 when you use the code of GMG25-R7GA8-XTUCY
I'm also having a good time with it. It has a surprising level of polish for the price (I always watch the mission replays), and more depth than I thought it would. Well worth the $8 price tag.
I've played four missions so far - it IS a lot of fun!
Thanks for the above code...I had it in my Steam cart and then went over to Green Man :)
EDIT: And just like that...I have bought it. It's so damned easy and I am so damned weak.
Just got finished playing the first full "battle" of the campaign (a set of missions loosely based on the Somme), plus the first mission of the second battle.
I like it a lot! Worth full price IMO (although as it happens I got it on its introductory sale a little while back). The instructions could be a lot better -- most of it is intuitive but I don't necessarily understand what benefits or problems "high speed" or high g-forces give me. At one point one of my pilots had a weird black background to her portrait with radiant colored lines from the center (oh, and as noted there are female pilots which okay whatever, it's a fun game not a historical one--most of my pilots are female actually!), and I wondered if that meant she had been flying at high gs too long and she was blacking out or something. But no tooltip came up. And eventually I won the mission anyway, so... no autopsy, no foul?
I should poke around and see if there are any instructions on Steam. There's an Aceopedia (or something like that) in game which is admittedly useful but doesn't give me all the information I could want.
The game reminds me a lot not only of Down in Flames (which I wish still worked on Battlefronts servers and/or on my system), but also the recent steampunk fantasy dreadnaught game that I picked up back in the spring. (Which I keep reminding myself to get back to...)
^You must name that fantasy dreadnaught game immediately.
He's probably talking about Leviathan, released by Paradox recently.
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/leviathan-warships
Quote from: JasonPratt on September 07, 2013, 09:00:26 PM
I like it a lot! Worth full price IMO (although as it happens I got it on its introductory sale a little while back). The instructions could be a lot better -- most of it is intuitive but I don't necessarily understand what benefits or problems "high speed" or high g-forces give me. At one point one of my pilots had a weird black background to her portrait with radiant colored lines from the center (oh, and as noted there are female pilots which okay whatever, it's a fun game not a historical one--most of my pilots are female actually!), and I wondered if that meant she had been flying at high gs too long and she was blacking out or something. But no tooltip came up. And eventually I won the mission anyway, so... no autopsy, no foul?
'High Speed' is just a one-turn status you get from your last maneuver, if it adds it. Diving will do this, of course. The symbols on the maneuver cards show you which such conditions you're left in, after your perform them, and also which of those conditions must be satisfied to be able to use the next one. So, for example, getting a 'High Speed' condition from your previous maneuver and open up another maneuver that has 'High Speed' as a prerequisite to be used. The maneuver prerequisites are a big part of the strategy in this game, so learning which of your maneuvers requires what is always a good way to plan ahead. One of the factors is your angle of bank. That's what the green wheel symbol is for on the maneuver cards. The top three pieces represent which angles of bank you must have in order to use them; top-left is a left bank, middle is no bank, and top right is right bank. The large half-circle on the bottom represents inverted flight such as after doing a half loop. You'll notice that certain more maneuverable aircraft may be able to maneuver straight from a right bank attitude into a left turn, while others cannot. Likewise, some of the faster aircraft still have the longer forward flight maneuver available even from bank turns whilst the slower may not.
It pays to think at least a turn ahead and knowing which maneuvers can lead to others is a big part of the strategy. 8)
As for G-Force, it is related directly to your pilot's rank. IIRC they start off being able to perform three Hi-G maneuvers in a row, as a rookie pilot, before having to fly one
non-Hi-G maneuver. For every promotion the pilot gets +1 added to this limit. So the less experienced a pilot, the fewer continuous Hi-G maneuvers they can perform before having those locked out for one turn. This can be the difference in a dogfight with a more experienced pilot, as they will eventually out-turn you, in a circular fight, and get on your tail - all other things being equal anyway. Same thing with a vertical looping fight.
Quote
I should poke around and see if there are any instructions on Steam.
I've not really found any detailed manual or guide. Just deduced various things and picked up pieces of info after digging about the game and internet. The info and tooltips are quite thin. I only happened upon the Hi-G limitation info in a forum post somewhere, IIRC, and had just used plain 'ole deduction on the green bank requisites chart.
I was going to pick this one up until, the review here, (female pilots, no one dies), that just kills it for me. I wonder, would the game have been this Politically Correct, if the game was made for the PC market place? Are table game going to continue the trend of dumb downed PC games? Sid Meier is not a name I think of when it comes to light games.
its a great game nonetheless. lots of thinking and tactics.
^^ Very much agreed. The management aspects are utterly unrealistic (and what the hell is a "predictive gunsight"??? -- when did WW1 create computers and targeting radar?!!?), but the gameplay is surprisingly detailed. (Moreso than I realized thanks to Nefaro's extremely helpful post; thanks Nef!)
Gus, yes I meant Leviathan. Another game well worth its normal price. (Also another game nominally pad based, btw.)
^Gotcha. I have Leviathan and it deserves more of my attention. Ace Patrol will get it first though :)
Loving this - refreshing after trying to keep cities happy and fed in Rome 2
Quote from: FlickJax on September 09, 2013, 01:14:56 AM
Loving this - refreshing after trying to keep cities happy and fed in Rome 2
It's great fun. I wish more depth would be added to campaigns, and all around. Since it was originally a tablet game, however, the chances of an expansion are about nil I'd think. Another disadvantage of targeting tablets. :(
Don't you just love turn based games :)
Utterly failed the third campaign yesterday. Shall have to rethink my approaches.
(So I started playing Eador instead. ;) Which I'm so far meh about, but it's only the first tutorial campaign.)
Quote from: JasonPratt on September 09, 2013, 10:23:56 AM
Utterly failed the third campaign yesterday. Shall have to rethink my approaches.
(So I started playing Eador instead. ;) Which I'm so far meh about, but it's only the first tutorial campaign.)
I am also having difficulty in Normal difficulty. I won the campaign, but not as decisive as Easy.
I'm up to the x4 difficulty level. It can be brutal. It was manageable during the first couple offensives, but on the fourth the AI is really pummeling me.. I'm having problems keeping my pilots in operation. Damn fun, still. :D
Playing this so much actually persuaded me to pick up Rise of Flight although I'm not in a big hurry to screw with setting up the HOTAS and TrackIR for it. That's the worst thing about flight sims these days - setting up the software for all your hardware. >:(
Quote from: Nefaro on September 09, 2013, 07:02:45 PM
I'm up to the x4 difficulty level. It can be brutal. It was manageable during the first couple offensives, but on the fourth the AI is really pummeling me.. I'm having problems keeping my pilots in operation. Damn fun, still. :D
Playing this so much actually persuaded me to pick up Rise of Flight although I'm not in a big hurry to screw with setting up the HOTAS and TrackIR for it. That's the worst thing about flight sims these days - setting up the software for all your hardware. >:(
And to think that's a WWI simple with limited control options.
I miss Red Baron for the PC. I LOVED that game - great WWI flight sim. I would enjoy playing the Germans, racking up kills, then getting invited to fly in the elite squadrons and getting into a flight with Herman Goering...then shooting the bastard down. ;D Whoopsie!
IIRC the game let you get away with two friendly kills (all "accidental" like of course), and on the third, it would dismiss you from service with disgrace and yadda yadda yadda.
Quote from: jomni on September 09, 2013, 08:04:11 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on September 09, 2013, 07:02:45 PM
I'm up to the x4 difficulty level. It can be brutal. It was manageable during the first couple offensives, but on the fourth the AI is really pummeling me.. I'm having problems keeping my pilots in operation. Damn fun, still. :D
Playing this so much actually persuaded me to pick up Rise of Flight although I'm not in a big hurry to screw with setting up the HOTAS and TrackIR for it. That's the worst thing about flight sims these days - setting up the software for all your hardware. >:(
And to think that's a WWI simple with limited control options.
Yeah. Hopefully it doesn't take as long as it has when doing so for the DCS sims. What a damn nightmare. Even with
Flaming Cliffs 3 it's a pain in the ass because you gotta do it for every individual aircraft type.
I'd still rather play turn-based ones like this just because it's so much easier to get into, don't need a bunch of gadgets jam-packed on the desk, and there's no need to hurry or worry. Plain 'ole strategy.
Well glad y'all liked the mini review... ;D ;)
Seriously, if you like Ace Patrol, you really need to lobby Battlefront to redo Achtung Spitfire, Over the Reich and Flight Commander 2 with Ace Patrol style graphics, and upgraded gameplay. Ace Patrol is the arcade little brother to those games, which plays similarly to them, although they have a depth that Ace Patrol doesn't even come near to. Don't get me wrong, I love Ace Patrol, but the gameplay in the others is much, much better, and is much more realistic and detailed, without getting bogged either.
Quote from: Boggit on September 09, 2013, 10:10:49 PM
Well glad y'all liked the mini review... ;D ;)
Seriously, if you like Ace Patrol, you really need to lobby Battlefront to redo Achtung Spitfire, Over the Reich and Flight Commander 2 with Ace Patrol style graphics, and upgraded gameplay. Ace Patrol is the arcade little brother to those games, which plays similarly to them, although they have a depth that Ace Patrol doesn't even come near to. Don't get me wrong, I love Ace Patrol, but the gameplay in the others is much, much better, and is much more realistic and detailed, without getting bogged either.
LOL!
I haven't had the impression that Battlefront does anything other than what it wants to, damn the torpedoes. Wishful thinking.
In the meantime, I do have
Over The Reich working on this Win7-64 machine so that's something. Too bad the others don't.
Well THIS is just bloody great.
Suddenly, Steam decides it doesn't want to run Ace Patrol for me any longer. This after it's worked flawlessly for the two or so weeks I've had it.
I keep getting the "app already running" error, but it's not running, no changes have been made to my PC, and nothing else weird is going on. Just..."nah, I don't feel like running anymore."
Tried the 'delete cache folder' thing in Steam, rebooted twice, yadda yadda, still crashes each and every time I open it up. WTH?
Anyone else having this issue/had this issue before? No fixes from searches seem to be working. I've just about had it with Steam and this random crap.
EDIT: If you're having this issue, I just found the fix - never thought that the Steam community forums would have it, but there you go. Anyway, disable your Steam Community in-game (Steam > Settings > In-Game tab, and deselect the option). Now it works.
Several others had this issue. I was about at my wits' end after spending an hour trying to figure out what the heck was going on.
Ahhh. I wondered wth happened. I have my Steam community/friends login not set to do so automatically, so I haven't had that logged in for awhile. Dodged another bullet!
Speaking of dodgy.. how 'bout that Steam client, eh? :-\
I thought at first mine was running -- it got to the opening menu and I quit to desktop -- then I got your error. And it drops out randomly now with that error. (I mean it always drops out but gets randomly far before doing so. But not very randomly far.)
I've never had a single bit of trouble with Steam before, much less like this.
I deleted local files and redownloaded -- even if I lost my campaign I was going to restart it from scratch anyway to build my pilots somewhat differently for the jump in difficulty coming during the 3rd campaign.
At first it seemed to do the crash again, this time without the message. But the second time I restarted there wasn't a problem at all (also my campaign was still loadable).
Third and fourth restarts crash to desktop (no error messages I can see) when I click to skip the intro.
Stopped Steam, restarted it, crashed with the click past the intro, now with the "app already running" error.
I don't recall how to play something offline, but I'll try that next... nope, no difference.
Edit: just read Banzai's fix, turn off the in-game Steam community. (No freaking problem, that bothered me anyway. ;) )
Guys, there's no need to completely disable in-game community; you can do it on a per-game basis by right-clicking the game in your library and doing it there.
Anyway. I'm glad I only paid £3 for this because it isn't worth much more. It's a fun little diversion for 20 minutes but that's it. A bit bugged, won't run in full screen, overall polish is low and unworthy of the once-mighty Firaxis name. It also desperately needs a sandbox mode.
Having said all that, I haven't played a game quite like it and I am somewhat enjoying it. It's fun to set up pincer movements and the like, and you can pull off some outrageous manoeuvres to beat the odds. I guess I'll at least finish the campaign eventually.
Yep.. just turn off the in-game community overlay from the individual game's Properties.
Quote from: Nefaro on September 09, 2013, 10:47:13 PM
Quote from: Boggit on September 09, 2013, 10:10:49 PM
Well glad y'all liked the mini review... ;D ;)
Seriously, if you like Ace Patrol, you really need to lobby Battlefront to redo Achtung Spitfire, Over the Reich and Flight Commander 2 with Ace Patrol style graphics, and upgraded gameplay. Ace Patrol is the arcade little brother to those games, which plays similarly to them, although they have a depth that Ace Patrol doesn't even come near to. Don't get me wrong, I love Ace Patrol, but the gameplay in the others is much, much better, and is much more realistic and detailed, without getting bogged either.
LOL!
I haven't had the impression that Battlefront does anything other than what it wants to, damn the torpedoes. Wishful thinking.
In the meantime, I do have Over The Reich working on this Win7-64 machine so that's something. Too bad the others don't.
+1
If I had the money I'd offer it to get Battlefront to redo AS!, BTR and FC2. I don't know if they work with JD Webster, but both Charles Moylan and Steve Grammont were on the production team. FWIW, IMHO they made some of the best tactical air war games ever with these three. The sad thing is you see these games as "abandon ware" now. Whilst I have got the original games, I've had to use a cracked version to get them to work. Unfortunately, the patches are not compatible with anything over 16bit. Fortunately, a friend has just given me an ancient w98 laptop. I'll install from my original disk, update on the laptop then either back to my win7 machine via USB or disk... sorted!
I still think a remake would be a hit... :'(
Quote from: Boggit on September 14, 2013, 08:12:47 AM
I still think a remake would be a hit... :'(
It would, to some extent. Ace Patrol seems to be doing pretty well, despite the Steam overly bugs. Of course, it's a ten dollar game on Steam so it will have many impulse buyers due to the traffic. A premium-priced title from Battlefront, while far more interesting & detailed, would still be stuck in the retail backwater of Battlefront website, with some annoying DRM, because they don't want to sell it through anything but their own storefront. I don't really blame them, but they're also missing sales opportunities and I think part of the reasoning is so that they can keep the iron fist clamped down with their DRM. Losing sales.