I wonder why this surprises you, a newbie fllyer flying against 7 year vets with state of the art HOTAS  and flyhing higher tierred aircraft and what really surprises me is you blame the game. You would have done better playing infantry and practicing flying offline or in the training areana till you were a bit more competent.....so are you "good at flight sims"? I an an 8 years vet with an older x45 and Elite Pedals and I still get my clock cleaned flying. Most people do not get their first kill for several days. This is not a frag fest 32 player standalone bubbled hit, questionable physics otc game.

Originally posted by DragonShark

You're a little off on your beta estimate, as the game was released on June 6, 2001.

I haven't had the chance to resub since the 1.29 patch (working too much these days) but the release notes indicated that it does indeed have some form of tutorial.

The built in voice communication would be fundamentally pointless, as most squads tend to use their own voice servers anyway, and would continue to do so.

The problem with the people working on the game isn't that they aren't good at it, it's that there's too few of them and they're being forced to work with an out of date system. Rather than continue to improve the game as it currently exists, they should probably consider creating a new one from scratch. Assuming they could get financing, of course.

Yeah, I was in the beta a long bloody time ago but then the game ran so bad on my computer that I gave up after a while, I usually couldn't even logg on. But my rigg at the time were around min specs so I had to give up...

Maybe I should give it a go again now but I'm more a sucker for WW1 air combat than WW2. A WW1 online or Vietnam online would both be more of my style today, I kinda got tired of WW2 since almost all war movies, books and games are about it. Still I do know these weird re-enacters  (who have their own T-34 BTW) and WW2 do have some charm... Maybe...

Originally posted by hardcase

I wonder why this surprises you, a newbie fllyer flying against 7 year vets with state of the art HOTAS  and flyhing higher tierred aircraft and what really surprises me is you blame the game. You would have done better playing infantry and practicing flying offline or in the training areana till you were a bit more competent.....so are you "good at flight sims"? I an an 8 years vet with an older x45 and Elite Pedals and I still get my clock cleaned flying. Most people do not get their first kill for several days. This is not a frag fest 32 player standalone bubbled hit, questionable physics otc game.

It IS the game mechanics that bother me. I play IL-2 quite a bit, so I naturally compare how the game works to whats widely regarded as one of the best WWII flight sims. I am not a 'newbie flyer', nor do I consider myself 'a pro'; but you can't expect someone who is offered a POS fighter (like a Spitfire Mk I or H-75)  to have much of a chance against someone flying a top of the line Spitfire mk IX or Focke-Wulf 190.

 I will blame the game for allowing such unbalanced mechanics that permit 'vets' to have an unfair advantage against new players. New players who choose to play infantry don't even get binoculars for crying out loud. You can't expect people to sit there and get killed by high rank players repeatedly (most of who do nothing but play this one game); who all have the best equipment, and enjoy it.

It doesn't take that long to reach the rank that would have allowed you fly current tier aircraft. You got your hat handed to you and you didn't want to take the time or practice to advance. This is not the game's fault. Every vet went thru the same problems you did. I think you expected to burn the skies cause you did well in IL-2 and I am surprised you didn't try the other aspects of the game. WW2OL has a steep learning curve and flight combat has the steepest. A couple of days will not make an ace even if you had access to top tier aircraft, you still would have burned. It is simply not the  game you expected.. Many of us think a lower rank requirment for binocs should be allowed. I think there should be a random addition of binocs up to some max, so that newbies with binocs would attract players without. Not every infantry man in ww2 had binocs, but in ww2ol they do have a radio on their back:-) and newbies simply ask where are the ei, plus the map reports gives a great idea where they are. If you have any time left why not struggle the same way all of us did and you might find the fun in the game. Everyone dies, we all die a lot, vets die all the time to the guns of newbies. It is the only MMO that does allow a green tagged newbie to kill 7 year vet.

Originally posted by hardcase

It doesn't take that long to reach the rank that would have allowed you fly current tier aircraft. You got your hat handed to you and you didn't want to take the time or practice to advance. This is not the game's fault. Every vet went thru the same problems you did. I think you expected to burn the skies cause you did well in IL-2 and I am surprised you didn't try the other aspects of the game. WW2OL has a steep learning curve and flight combat has the steepest. A couple of days will not make an ace even if you had access to top tier aircraft, you still would have burned. It is simply not the  game you expected.. Many of us think a lower rank requirment for binocs should be allowed. I think there should be a random addition of binocs up to some max, so that newbies with binocs would attract players without. Not every infantry man in ww2 had binocs, but in ww2ol they do have a radio on their back:-) and newbies simply ask where are the ei, plus the map reports gives a great idea where they are. If you have any time left why not struggle the same way all of us did and you might find the fun in the game. Everyone dies, we all die a lot, vets die all the time to the guns of newbies. It is the only MMO that does allow a green tagged newbie to kill 7 year vet.

Its true that not everyone had binocs and a radio, but didnt they have at least a big frontline. This is a game, you often fight 1-2 mm pixels, its so tiny that you need glases in real life almost. And without binocs you dont have any chance to see enemy infantry ahead hiding in bushes. Since the pixels/player characters are so tiny in this game i really wished they would offer binocs for every player. The radio is fine but since the game doesnt offer always realistic frontlines and instead often guerilla warfare, newvbies just have it really hard to see anything. Thats not really that great for beginners who start playing a trial.

Many of us agree about the binocs, either all or none have them or the rank level should be lowered. They are good to have when you are approaching a town offensively from an MSP which is why I recommend that newbies do a lot of para drops to get them into a town..or do a lot of defensive missions where you know where they are coming. If you cannot see them because they are too small and can with binocs, you still won't be able to hit them  with a non scoped rifle even when you know where they are. I also suggest that newbies run with a ranked player and just ask him what he sees. Not the best solution but it does work and I also suggest that every newbie join a squad the moment they log in the first time.

Originally posted by hardcase

Many of us agree about the binocs, either all or none have them or the rank level should be lowered. They are good to have when you are approaching a town offensively from an MSP which is why I recommend that newbies do a lot of para drops to get them into a town..or do a lot of defensive missions where you know where they are coming. If you cannot see them because they are too small and can with binocs, you still won't be able to hit them  with a non scoped rifle even when you know where they are. I also suggest that newbies run with a ranked player and just ask him what he sees. Not the best solution but it does work and I also suggest that every newbie join a squad the moment they log in the first time.

Well i remember, that i could hit with my rifle up to 400-500m, after around 250-300m i could not see anyone without binocs hiding in some bushes. its not only about if you can shoot someone, its about how  you plan your next steps. I could not imagine to play without any binocs ingame, since tanks can spot you and kill you from more than thousand meter away or any weapon unit with scopes. Yeah squad is important.

How can you hit with a rifle something you can only see with binocs.? Just random firing into the the area?

Originally posted by hardcase

How can you hit with a rifle something you can only see with binocs.? Just random firing into the the area?

I thought everyone had that as bino SOP.  Make a note of a larger (than the target) landmark close to the target using binos, then switch to the weapon and blind fire.  I used to use the rifle that way before adjustable sites, just lob bullets at the tree or bush that is marking your target.  It's all pixel hunting at the longer ranges anyway so blind VS 2-3 pixels makes little difference.  One of the reasons why not giving the binos to newbies is the single most dumb decision in WWIIOL.

T.

Originally posted by hardcase

How can you hit with a rifle something you can only see with binocs.? Just random firing into the the area?

If you have binocs you just can see what is going on in the direction you look before you move on. If you have binocs and a newbie without binocs just walks towards your directions you already notice the player before the newbie can see you, so you just wait until he comes closer and you press the fire button.

I guess there is also a difference what solution and monitor you use 1024x768 or bigger one...so without binocs you are in a disadvantage for sure.