bartbert

It seems like something needs to be done to put the campaign back into some kind of balance. Dan, any ideas?

Well, you'll get no argument from me over whether the AI decision making logic could be improved. No question that the AI often does things that even a fairly novice player wouldn't do. The trick is in being able to quantify the decision making process in such a way that it can be represented in a program. Once a player gets a little experience with the game, they would hardly even have to think about many decisions. Yet if you were to step back and think through why you arrived at a particular decision, you would realize that you took a lot of factor into account. We recently improved the discard decision process used by the AI. Previously, it had been mostly random with a little bit of an attempt to favor offensive or defensive cards based on the situation. Now, we assign a value to every card in the Bot pilot's hand that takes into account the current game situation. For example, an IMS 1:2 is worth more if you're advantaged or tailing, and less if you're disadvantaged or tailed. The cards are then ranked from lowest to highest and the lowest value cards are discarded first. I think most human players go through a similar ranking process without really thinking about it. We'll be upgrading the AI logic for changing altitude and choosing cards in the not too distant future.

If your pilot has an Escape Death, it should not be possible for him to get killed. That's the intent, anyway.

If you send your suggestions to difadmin@battlefront.com both Dan and I will get it. We're always interested to hear feedback and suggestions from players.

Sorry, I guess I missed this one the first time through. The answer to your question is that bombers have always been linked to the "unlock XP" of the fighters that escort them. I guess with all the adjustments made recently due to the damage bonus, the fighters that qualify for escorting the Heavy Bombers has shifted. If you guys are finding that the lower level fighters can't handle the Heavy Bombers (either as escorts or as interceptors), then we can always adjust the value of the Heavy Bombers upwards a bit to bring things back into balance.

Ok. I see what the problem is. I'll get a fix put out for download later today.

Are you saying that during the same mission, you shot down a bomber, and then it reappeared? Or are you saying that you shot down a bomber in one mission, and then it reappeared in a later mission? If it is the former, then that would be a bug that I have not heard any report of before. If it is the latter, then that's just the way campaigns work. If you shoot down a bomber and the crew survives, then that crew will be fatigued, but will be available to fly again in a new bomber. If you shoot down a bomber and the crew is killed, they are no longer available for the rest of the campaign. It's possible that the recent change we made with the Damage Bonus may have thrown the balance off on some of the campaigns. The Spitfire I has a -1 Damage Bonus, and that may make it extremely difficult for it to take down a bomber. Any comments from some of you veterans out there?

All errors should get logged to an error log file in the "bin" folder where the game is installed. If you send that to difadmin@battlefront.com we'll take a look.

Yes, I've heard other reports of problems with the DEMO version of the game due to recent changes. I'm going to try to get a new DEMO put together within the next few days.

Ok. I'll put a fix out in the next day or so.

Hmmm. Was there any error log file created in the "bin" folder where the game was installed? Is it continuing to not save games, or was it just that one time?

I'm not sure what might have happened there. I just tried playing a local dogfight (1 vs 1) and it seemed to work correctly. What were the details of the dogfight where you had problems? (Type of mission, new or existing pilot, aircraft involved, etc.)

Perhaps, but there is another enhancement that we will probably implement before too long which might render the question moot. Basically, the enhancement that we are considering is to "share" the XP gained by the leader/wingman team. The exact formula for how the XP would be divided has not been finalized, but in rough terms it will probably be inversely proportional to their starting XP levels. So if the leader starts the mission with 1000 XP and the wingman start with 100 XP, then the wingman would get 90% of any XP earned and the leader would only get 10%. This is to simulate the more experienced leader helping to train the new wingman.

Perhaps, but I would probably put the cutoff much lower, like maybe < 20 or so. I'll run it by Dan to see what he thinks.

No, I'm afraid that all existing pilots will have an XP factor 1.0. The early pilot development became markedly more difficult starting with the introduction of the Damage Bonus enhancement, which wasn't that long ago. Since I don't keep track of when a pilot was first created, I don't really have a way of determining which pilots were created post-Damage Bonus.

A number of players have noted that with the recent Damage Bonus changes, the early war aircraft have become pretty wimpy in terms of their ability to shoot down aircraft. Consequently, it can take a long time to work a pilot up from zero XP to the point where he unlocks the first couple of aircraft. The new enhancement for creating pilots gives you the choice of skipping over this phase of pilot development and get right into the better aircraft. You "die hards" who want to start a pilot from 0 XP and work them up the old fashioned way will be rewarded with an extra 10% XP earned each time the pilot flies. Another reason for the change is that we have received feedback from some players who are not all that interested in the pilot development aspect of the game. They just want to jump in and fly any aircraft of their choosing. Frequently these are guys who have played the card game and have neither the time nor inclination to work a pilot up through the ranks.

Yes, it is back up again.

I'm afraid so.

Are u talking about DIF or Zone Alarm? </font>

I'd start by going to the "Help" menu, and then "Check for updates" to make sure you have the latest files. If that doesn't resolve the problem, send an e-mail to difadmin@battlefront.com with the details of when the game hangs up (ie, discard, change altitude, etc.). I've also seen some cases where the game seems to hang up, but if you minimize the window, and then restore it again, it kicks back in.

Checkmate, have you pulled down the latest version?

I believe the Dauntless is already available isn't it? Or did you have something else in mind?

Isn't that part of the "skill" of the game?

Yes, the web server is down right now (but the game server is still up). We're working on getting it running again.

Yes, the web server has been having some problems since yesterday afternoon. We're looking into it and wil try to get it back up as soon as possible.