Dan Verssen

The issue with bots drawing extra cards is strange. I've been watching for this during the last few days and have not seen it. I have been keeping track of when they draw cards, and so far, I have only seen them draw one card per pilot turn, and not exceed their total extra card draws. I'll keep watching. Maybe we can play a few 2v2 games together with 2 bots and see if it happens?

The flexibility of the system offers a lot of tournament variety. For example, we just a newbie pilot "Rising Eagles" tournament, and we are about to start a "Battle for Singapore" campaign team tournament. In the future, we can have dogfight tournaments that in some way limit the pilots who can enter. For example, a tournament might be open to all pilots with up to 500xp. We can also have historically based tournaments. For example, in early June we can have Midway tournaments. One would be a dogfight tournament where only F4F Wildcats and A6M2 Zeros can be used. Another would use the upcoming Midway campaign as the basis for a campaign tournament. We could also have a "Lucky to be alive" tournament that is open to pilots with up to 200xp and 5 or more Purple Heart type medals. We have a lot planned, and I'm sure even more cool new ideas will come up along the way. As always, all player input is very welcome!

I just talked with Brian. He said the server was rebooted a few hours ago. Please be on the look-out to see if the change helps stability.

I think I see the misunderstanding. (Page 6 of the manual) A wingman gets cards equal to its Attack PLUS Defense -1 when shooting at a Light or Medium bomber. Wingmen get Attack PLUS Defense cards when attacking a Heavy bomber. On top of these cards they get cards for skills and possibly one Extra Card draw for that skill. At a glance, the Fw-190 Wingman looks to be drawing the proper number of cards against a Heavy Bomber.

So that's why my folders keep getting renamed to "Darth_this" and "Darth_that". I had one folder there for a while named "Death_Star" but I haven't seen it recently...

Great review! Thank you.

Bruce, Very strange I have not seen that, but I'll start watching. A pilot is allowed to use Draw Card once per turn. So, he can draw one during his turn, and one each time he is attacked by a different enemy pilot.

Initiative is awarded by altitude from highest to lowest. To see as many cards as possible, try flying at Very Low and Low, that way you get +1 Horsepower (card draws) at the end of each turn. Also, When it is time to discard, discard as many useless cards as you can to maximize your draws. You will be able to draw cards equal to your Horsepower rating, but you cannot draw in excess of your Performance rating. For example, if you have HP2 and P6 and you are holding 5 cards, you will only be able to draw 1 card. So, if you have a hand of useless cards, dive to Low or Very Low to get +1 HP, then make sure and discard as many useless cards as you need to in order to maximize your draws. Also, buying the Extra Card skill early is very handy. Even one card can make a big difference in early games.

I haven't seen this yet. If you get the chance, please let us know which pilots are doing this. Also, it is possible for a pilot to draw multiple cards during his turn. For example, Leader Advice will give him a card, Aggressive/Evasive might, Quick Reflexes will, etc. From what I have seen, you can tell when the Extra Card skill is used because it will be his turn to play a card and his cards in hand number will increase by one, just before he plays a card.

Cool symbol!

Brian sends another glitch, Down In Flames...

I've emailed with a player who was running his Mac in PC emulation mode using software. He said the game played fine.

Don't worry, the plan is to release additional aircraft and campaigns on a regular basis!

Rastak, Sorry about the delay in replying, it's been a busy day. I don't think it's shipped yet, but I'm hoping to get the word from Martin any time now...

Huge difference. Vassal is an excellent 'virtual tabletop', meaning it is great at displaying cards, maps, and counters on the screen. It is also an easy way to play a tabletop game through the internet. The DIF computer game is a fully programmed computer game. It has all the game rules and processes programmed into it. The computer game also offers far more than a board game can in the way of tracking stats, community website displays, etc. So, while I think both are good in their own way, they have very little in common.

I wonder if the connection speed is related to how often the connection is lost. For example, I'm using DSL and hardly ever lose connection.

What operating system are you using? XP? Also, I think I'm only using .NET 1.1

Yes, in the full game an element can only join the battle if it is between 75% and 100% of the value of the element that started the battle.

We've talked about the idea of checking for 'deadly' situations. But, it gets complicated. For example, if the opponent just played a card that will shoot you down, you have no cards to respond, and the connection is lost, that seems like it was probably intentional and easy to check for. But, what if the opponent's turn starts, he's on your tail with 7 cards in his hand, you're 1 point from being shot down, you have no defense cards in hand, and the connection is lost. Was that intentional? Maybe, but hard to tell for sure. The problem is, there is a large gray area of what might have been an intentional disconnect.

Hey guys, Lots of emails have been zipping back and forth as we try and work out the best solution to having pilots killed due to lost connections. We agree that something needs to change. We'll have news soon.

Just to the named card purchases like "Barrel Roll".

The purchased card is in addition to your normal starting cards. You are limited to only one purchased card at a time. Extra cards can be very useful with low level planes. The first planes only have a handsize of around 5, so getting one extra card at the start can mean a real difference. Later on, when planes come into battles with 8 cards it makes less of a difference. [ September 09, 2005, 10:16 PM: Message edited by: Dan Verssen ]

Sounds like Pluto wasn't happy commanding just one squadron.

Hello Guys, We are looking into this issue. Here's the main decision point: a true 'lost connection' vs. an in intentional disconnect to avoid being shot down. From a technical point of view, the server cannot tell the difference. So, we decided a year or so ago that without a hefty penalty for disconnecting, players might be tempted to quit-out. Especially when a high XP pilot with no Escape Death just had a shoot down card played against him. So, what are your thoughts? When all is said and done we want a fun game that keeps players on the edges of their seats.

Height has 2 advantages. First player order is determined by altitude from high to low. Second, for each level you dive you gain 1 card. As opposed to having to discard 1 card per altitude level climbed.