Sid Meier's Ace Patrol (PC)

[Nefaro]

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!

[BanzaiCat]

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.

[Grim.Reaper]

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

[tgb]

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.

[BanzaiCat]

I've played four missions so far - it IS a lot of fun!

[Gusington]

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.

[JasonPratt]

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...)

[Gusington]

^You must name that fantasy dreadnaught game immediately.

[Staggerwing]

He's probably talking about Leviathan, released by Paradox recently.

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/leviathan-warships

[Nefaro]

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.

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.

[SgtRock]

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.

[jomni]

its a great game nonetheless. lots of thinking and tactics.

[JasonPratt]

^^ 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.)

[Gusington]

^Gotcha. I have Leviathan and it deserves more of my attention. Ace Patrol will get it first though :)

[FlickJax]

Loving this - refreshing after trying to keep cities happy and fed in Rome 2