[There's a fine line betweem challenging and frustrating]

Originally posted by Zanadu:

The value system seems to be based purely on the pilots total xp's with a factoring for his a/c type.

That's easy to evidence:

a) make a backup of your pilots. Optional, if you haven't lost interest in offline play already.

cash in all your skill

c) fly a mission. I did nothing except hitting 'next phase' until dead.

d) look at the debriefing. I.e, I got a naked LA-5 (238 xp) against my now naked A6M2 Zero (112 xp) nevertheless the debriefing showed a starting value of 12(allies):20(axis).

Obviously very wrong.

But if I add available xp from leader + wingie, add 2*112 and divide 2*238 I get a 12:20 ratio.

Pia

[ October 13, 2006, 04:22 AM: Message edited by: ZarahNeander ]

[There's a fine line betweem challenging and frustrating]

Thanks Bartbert, your responsive support is much appreciated

Pia

[There's a fine line betweem challenging and frustrating]

Originally posted by Zanadu:

An AI pilot of any serious 'value' (say, above 15 or so) has far more skills than a player pilot with the same value rating.

--snip--

Simply put, the values on the AI pilots are much too low.

I posted an example of a rather lopsided (offline) matchup in another thread. I was assured that this was a rare exception. I haven't flown enough missions online with pilots in the 200-400 range to have a representative sample, but I start to believe that there's quite a difference between online and offline.

Offline, in 1/3 of all cases - I'm generous here - the combined value of a/c + skills, not taking skill point inflation into account , is 2x the value of my own pilots. OTOH I sometimes get cakewalk missions online like 300pt dogfights against naked Oscars, that ain't gonna happen offline.

I might be wrong and very soon run constantly in a/c's of doom online, if that's the case I stand corrected. But for now I'm under the impression that online missions are much more balanced.

Regarding Soviet pilots not showing up offline: that's wierd. No problem here.

Pia

[Another one of Zarah's enervating whining posts]

Thanks everyone. I did overcome my frustation again. Until the next time. At least I haven't uninstalled the game for several days.

Originally posted by Stalin's Organist:

Also play more campaigns online when you can - they give you good experience at handling skills and mis-matches without risking your own pilots.

Now that was worth it's weight in gold. Didn't know that campaigns are played with custom pilots though it makes sense. Great playing ground.

Speaking of campaigns I got the LB/MB/HB thingie explained (it's missing in the manual). Now what's the difference between a red patrol symbol and a blue one? I (allies) assigned 2 elements to a red patrol symbol, the AI assigned none, nevertheless the AI grabbed the 2 points. I'm baffled.

Thanks..Pia

[Another one of Zarah's enervating whining posts]

Originally posted by rivven_darke:

it might offer little help but encounters like this are really rare.

Now I wouldn't complain if that was true. I don't expect my pilots to be immortal. Unfortunaly it's the norm, at least offline (stupdid wlan in the hotel lounge).

Originally posted by rivven_darke:

Actually I threw my mouse (wireless) out of the window (2nd floor) once - it had no ED so it lies on Arlington now.

LOL--thanks for the encouragement. Knowing that I'm not alone with my conniptions makes me feel better.

I think my problem is that I have no receipe against the neverending 'draw extra card' of the AI.

Pia

[Another one of Zarah's enervating whining posts]

Scenario:

Me: A6M2 Zero:

Leader Skills:

-Quick Reflexes

-Zoom Dive

Wingman Skills:

-Anticipation

-Check Six

Opponent: P40N Warhawk

Leader Skills:

High performance

stay with him

quick reflexes

target pilot x2

Draw extra x5

Wingman Skills:

teamwork

check six

distract leader

draw extra x4

I was dead in the second round. No chance. Not without a certain irony, debriefing claimed: 'axis forces achieved expected results'.

Not taking skill point inflation into account, that's 365 for opfor leader & 190 for wingman. Probably much more. Nevertheless debriefing showed a ratio of 1:1.4. It's more like 1:2 in my book.

Esp. those draw extras, which *I* simply can't afford, are regulary killing me. I doubt that a human opponent would burn so much points on draw extras, but the AI does and it simply play it's cards until I'm dead.

Now I already did a a fair share of whining here & I don't want to throw away the last bits of sympathy. But at least I don't like always being at the recieving end of the stick and -I can't resist- judging from the less than overwhelming traffic on the EF forum, I'm not alone here.

Now I don't know what to do. Waiting for my frustation tolerance raising again -which isn't *that* high in RL also-, waiting for some good advice or simply shelfing the game. But I won't touch another Dan Verssen game with a long fork until I'm not totaly convinced that the difficulty level is more tailored towards joe average.

Thanks for your patience.....

Pia

[ October 10, 2006, 07:13 AM: Message edited by: ZarahNeander ]

[Custom Mission Complaint]

My unqualified newbie 2 cents...

At least no penality in 1 element matches where the human player is disadvantaged. I find it hard to imagine that this solution would allow major exploits.

Pia

[There's a fine line betweem challenging and frustrating]

@Bartbert

thanks for your response.

Somehow I pushed the 'order' button & now it's 00:47 (I'll never get that am/pm thingie), I have 5 hours of sleep before work and THAT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT!

I wasn't so addicted to a game since the days of MOO1.

Oh well

Pia

[There's a fine line betweem challenging and frustrating]

Thanks for the input, most appreciated.

Originally posted by Zanadu:

The expansion pack more than cured that. The AI a/c have been revalued much higher -- maybe too high.

Does it mean, that EF has toned down the difficulty somewhat?

Originally posted by Stalin's Organist:

TRust me - as a beginner you need to change your perspective - if the other guy is twice your points value and you avoidbeing shot down then you've achieved!!

Okay I trust you

But no, I have achieved nothing, I had simple plain luck. A halfways decent hand, not ims1:1 x6.

Well it's over anyway. All my pilots are badly mauled, so I either buy the bundle tomorrow hoping that EF has a better balance or I uninstall the demo, for the last time

Pia

[There's a fine line betweem challenging and frustrating]

Well my addiction seems bigger than my frustration. I can't stop playing that damn thing.

This game really gets me. At one point I was so frustrated that I uninstalled and deleted everything. Only to download the >250 mb demo 5 min. later again

Albeit I still think difficulty levels would be a good idea.

Re uber-fighters. Obviously my inexperience shows, but atm I consider not being damaged a major victory. Not being shoot down a minor victory. And once in a blue moon I manage to kill an enemy fighter. I miss a sense of achievement.

Pia

[There's a fine line betweem challenging and frustrating]

and DiF crosses that line by a wide margin.

Call me a whimp. I played DiabloII Hardcore with all it's pk nastiness for years. I'm used to loosing high lvl chars, but not every time to some ridiculous uber-fighters. And EF threatens to make the AI more 'challenging', reads: more uber.

I hope DF2 has difficulty levels like every other game. 'Masochistic' for those real man out there and a bunch of easier levels for us mortals.

Yes I'm frustated & yes I do feel better now. Pity, great game, but in it's current form not for me. Thankfully there was a (rather good) demo.

Pia

[Questions before ordering]

can't...stop...playing...

What a gem. So simple yet so deep..

However:

DiF demo complains about not finding a file quite often. It doesn't say which file though (praise MS). Seems like iexplore.exe or a related plugin. I'm worried that I can't register the game once bought.

Whenever I login there are some 3-4 folks hanging around in the lobby. Usually I got tired of squashing the AI pretty fast (albeit it's more the AI squashing me atm). Bluntly is DiF a dying game? I still remember the 'dangerous waters' fiasko & Muphys law dictates that the main server shuts down two days after my copy arrives.

thanks for the feedback...

Pia