Jack Beckman

"And you don't need ten hours in the full version, Jack. We've tested and balanced the progression through the levels quite a lot during beta testing, and from what I recall (thought it's quite some time ago) it only takes around 5-10 games to reach level 2," The problem is, it take 5-10 games with 4 sets of pilots (because of fatigue). So really we're talking 20-40 games. So far in 10 games, I have shot down exactly ONE enemy aircraft with these fine Gladiators (and that was with a "Destroyed" card). It's not like I've never played before - I play nearly round the clock during ConsimWorld Expo, and I've been the "Ace of Aces" runner-up two years running. I train a lot of new players at CSW, and I'd never start them with a 0 burst aircraft. And let me say I fully understand the whole ladder/XP thing while ONLINE. But offline - this isn't the same as a FPS with a big buildup at the end (or at least, doesn't have to be). I was really hoping this would be a great way for me to get in a dogfight or two every week between work and school. But instead, I have to "prove myself worthy" to have a decent dogfight. So it'll be at least a couple of weeks - providing those pilots live. And then I'll have to do it all over again with the other 3 nations. It's just extremely disappointing. I understand (now) that the focus of this game is online play. So I guess it just isn't for me. I don't have the time to hang in the lobby and look for a game (when I tried in the past, I found that people pretty much already had their preferred partners set up. If I'm lucky, I have 30-45 minutes or so to spare between work/homework/other family responsibilities.

"I can't see anyway that the demo could be considered better or preferable to play!" I didn't have to spend 10 hours just to get to a Spitfire in the demo.

Perhaps this should have been made clearer in the demo, then - when we were flying decent aircraft off-line. I feel let down that I have to dedicate hours of time just to get away from truly terrible aircraft that I think make for a boring game. So are you saying that if I can't play online, I should sell if off and look at it again in 6 months or a year? Geez, maybe I still have the demo around somewhere...

But the campaigns leave those of us who want to play off-line out of luck. I'd like to see the ability to play at whatever level (with no XP gain/changes) while off-line. I just want to play a pick-up game solitaire now and then. I don't have a lot of time to spend online with games. I understand that some will like the XP route, and certainly see the need for something like it (or the compromise listed above) for ONLINE games. But for off-line games, I now have to suffer through 30 or 40 Gladiator missions (because of pilot rotation) just to get to a decent aircraft. At 20 minutes or so per mission, that's 10+ hours just to play a decent solitaire game. And that's provided my pilots don't get killed in the meantime.

It's never been central to me when I play the card game. And I didn't really care about it while playing the demo - it didn't seem so important then, either. As for playing Operations online - thanks for the suggestion, but I don't always have time for that. I can play a "pickup" game vs the computer at any time, and if interrupted don't have to feel badly about aborting. Also, I had a hard time finding opponents online during the demo - I finally gave up on it as I don't have the time to devote to hanging out online for long periods to get into a game. It seemed at the time that if you weren't one of the "in" crowd that it was tough to get into a game. I've taught a lot of people how to play DiF at ConsimWorld Expos, spending nearly all my time there, and I can tell you that I'd *never* start a new player out with something as crappy as a Gladiator. Why not the early Spitfire, or the Hurricane?

This, for me, is a huge disappointment. The silly Gladiators are nearly useless in the air against the Oscars (which is what's come up the first couple of times I've tried to play). I have no interest in flying the crappy planes or "earning" my way up to better planes in the local version - I just want to fly some dogfights. The demo at least had some decent aircraft. There should be a "non-experiance/fatigue" option to just play some dogfights.

I see part of the problem with my confusion - the "quick start " windows always come up BEHIND everything else. I just finally noticed them.

Brian, Yeah, I just found that on the web site. But I found it odd that I was transferred half-way around the world without a moment's rest or any repairs!

Ok, I've played a couple of games in the demo. I realize it's a demo, and a beta at that, so you may already be looking at these things, but here's some observations: Overall, I like it. It plays pretty much like the card game, which I love. It does run on XP under Virtual PC on the Mac (at least for local games - I haven't tried the server route yet). Here's some feedback on things I'd like to see worked on: The messaging interface is confusing. I have to look in two places to see what's going on, in the right-hand box and the middle two boxes. I'd prefer everything in one place. I'd like to see my aircraft's status at all times, not just when I'm firing. Yes, I can click on it to get that, but I want to see everyone's status at all times. Maybe some numbers near the aircraft themselves would do it. I'd like a way to turn off the animations. The game is already very slow under emulation, and while they're nice, after the first few times you get tired of watching them. I'm sure if they were moving at full speed it wouldn't be a problem, but not everyone will have a speedy computer. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to turn off the *&(*^*^& radio with Winnie and the news reports. Please consider making it easier to turn that off. It was quite annoying. I had one dogfight as Brits vs. the Japanese. My primary pilot got shot down. In my second dogfight, I was flying against the Germans. But I had airframe and fatigue penalties. What, I transferred from the Pacific to Europe and got NO rest? And the same darn airplane, unrepaired? Hardly seems fair. I'd really like to see a way to just fire up a local dogfight *without* any "memory" of what happened before without generating all new pilots. I can see it would be good have things the way they are, too, so I'd like to flip back and forth. The help file could use a better explanation of how the experience points work, and what, exactly, you're buying with them. Again, I'm not trying to be a jerk here - overall, I like it, and I'll probably pop for it even if you don't make these changes. I'd just like to to think about it and see what you think.