Open comments and suggestion about the game.

[Greywolf KERENSKY]

DISCLAIMER:

First of all my native language is NOT english nor american so I apologize in advance for the typos, errors and misuses I will make. My hope is that I will be understandable wich isn't always the case, even in my own language.

Secondly, my post will be the reflect of my opinions, theses are comments, remarks and suggestions. I have a great respect for the people responsible of this game and his development and want to congrats them for their achievement. I doesnt aim at diminishing their accomplishement nor start a Troll/Flame War.

I know some of the topics could be touchy but I will try not to antagonize people that do behave a way I think "gamey". This is essentially true for the 3rd topic.

1- Japanese Aircraft Unbalance:

Japanese aircraft are the weaker of all the set. This is especially true at high level. The J1N2 is simply outclassed by any of the best 2-3 of the other country. And the Zéro line are hard to play too. Agility is nice, but an extra scissor in an hand of 7-12 cards isn't as much valuable as more Hit Point and Burst to cope.

On the other hand the Randy is too efficient, his wingman 4 cards basic attack make it really deadly in his exp range.

I would suggest exchanging place of the J1N2 with the Randy to have a better shaped capability line.

With the Agility-plane line I dont know of a solution, perhaps 1 more HP or have Agility work like an extra scissor ( free ) or super-scissor ( cancel a scissor and cancelable only by Ace Pilot )...

2- Suggestion for an Extension:

I really like this game and would buy an extended set of nations right away. Of course, having extra campaign too would be fun

I would suggest a War In Europe setting, with some selected nation that wouldn't need too many new aircraft, 2 brand new nation and 2 mixed ones.

Soviet Union and Italy will need new planes but can use one US/CW/German in their set.

France will need the M.S. 406 and D.520 for war start, but can use the P.36 and Spit and Corsair for late war.

Finland will used the French M.S. 406 and D.520 plus some german and soviets planes for late war.

I know it is just a wet dream, but it is my hope for the next item in DiF serie.

3- Player against Player "Split Fightingt":

There is currently a problem when you game against a player, one usually like to play Very Low, and the other High or Very High. The Very Low player just have no incentive to come up and join fight. And the High pilot have no advantage to come down and fight as he now it will mean losing his wingman when he reach Low altitude. The result is a boring draw or a game where the player playing to win is forced to take several turn going down and down to be engaged first.

From a "historical" point of view it seems weird.

From a game p.o.v it is not fun, and I would say "gamey" to use this against the AI as we KNOW the AI will come down and fight and will enter confrontation in bad situation. Using a recurate AI behaviour to his advantage sound like "exploiting" to me.

Now I understand that choosing to start low to get the extra card is a valid technique ( that I use also ), and I dont see why a plane with no TurboCharger would try to climb and be disadvantaged. But staying low with no intention to engage and waiting for your opponent to commit is not fun and not fair, and we all agree that we want this game to be fun and fair to grow an audiance.

One of the problem is that the diving plane is at a disadvantage, and an unrealistic one. Logically he will build more and more speed and will be able to engage the lower plane on his terms, Technically Bomm and Zooming it.

2 game mechanic are in cause:

- A plane flying VL or L have his engine at top efficiency all the time. While the extra Perf and Horsepower is also a reflect of speed building.

- The diving plane cant keep his energy and better his position. Each time he dive he gain an extra card wich is nice but he often have to give back this card if he want to be able to discard.

I dont see any easy fix and dont really know if any should be issued. Only one I think is an simple AI fix: AI dont engage lower plane if he doesnt got enough in hand to hurt it AND defend itself.

We should also notice that the Altitude bands are more relative position of aircraft than real altitude as the Very High of a P39 is definitely not the same than a Zero nor P-51. Perhaps some randomization of the starting alt, taking player choice as indication could help build back some dynamics in play.

4- Skills related to ranks:

Planes are based on experience points, and so are skills. But perhaps it could be a good idea to also had a ranking limit to skill, such as only squadron leader could buy 80+ skill, only wing commander 100+ and so on. Could help stratify the play ground and make finding balanced match easier. Of course High Experience pilot tend to have High Rank too but that is not always the case.

5- AI Behaviour:

Ai is not good. It could be worse.

First it need to learn some basic rules:

- If in advantage against a player that climb, DONT follow if you are lower in card than him afterward and you have manoeuver, especially be carefull not to follow if you dont have a scissor and again especially if playing against an agile fighter.

- Leader only have to dodge the killing bullet, no need to play an Ace pilot to counter a 1:1 except if you are down to 1 HP. Count the opponent cards, count his burst. Only try to dodge a bullet that will kill you.

- Pair your defenses/offenses, if you have 2 barrel roll and 1 slight turn ( spl ? ) use the barrel to defend, not the slight. Same in offense if you have 2 turn and a Siscor, you turn , the opponent turn then replicate with the TURN, not the scisor, this way you can still counter if he turn or scisor.

- Count your burst before manoeuvering , especially against Wingman / bombers.

- An Ace only exist to counter an OOS 3:4 ( after a VR of course ) or an IMS 2:D, or to help yours go through... but as the LAST card played, let your opponnent play his Ace on your Barrel Roll.

- Shoot to Kill, manoeuver to Tail, fly effeciently and offendly, half mesure only help your opponent down you in his counter-attack. If you dont have a burst to shoot him and cannot tail him dont take the advantage, keep the card for the right moment.

6- Cards draw need URGENT rework:

Something just doesnt work:

- Wingman drawing 3 ACES ! in his hand.

- Player starting with a 10 cards all manoeuvers or all shoot.

- Drawing 5 manoeuvers, redraw drawing 4 manoeuvers and a turn.

Looks like the parser is drawing cards by category and only start drawing another when the first one is empty.

Also where goes the buyed cards when discarded, played ? out of the game or back into the deck ?

Best way to give an opponent the IMS:2D is to discard him. Sometimes cards are drawn from the discard pile far too earlier, strange.

I think we need a virtual deck that is 100% similar to the boardgame one, no percentile oriented.

Thats's all folks, thanks for the reading and fire away

[lakespeed]

Whew, that's a long post! Let me comment on some of your ideas and give you a little feedback.

1)I don't really agree with this assessment. What aircraft do you mean by J1N2? I think that was the "Irving" but that aircraft is not available. The earlier aircraft are a bit weak, but realistically that's what the japanese planes were in WWII. They had little if no armor, and the pilots rarely used parachutes. That's what made them more agile. Usually with the Japanese aircraft if you get the Marksman skill you can get bursts using your agile skill to get in position.

2)I think that's in the works. I too would love to see the French next. I need some easy targets for my German pilots!

3)The way to fix it against humans is to agree before-hand to a starting altitude. I like it against the bot AI because if I have a really bad hand (see #6) it ay give me some time to draw some decent cards. I hate getting smoked with no cards to defend myself! In the board game, some aircraft cannot reach altitudes of very high, or even high. I don't think this carries over to this game.

4)Not really sure about this one. I'd prefer to pick my skills as I go along, instead of having an order to pick in. Also, I think more skills are on the way.

5)Sometimes the AI does weird things, like draw an extra card with no one at the same altitude level, but I don't really worry about it. The AI is pretty tough as it is, and I think since the last upgrade it's gotten a lot smarter. I've noticed the the fighters will disengage the bombers now when I'm close and double-team me. Never happened before, and they really make you work for it. I think Stalin's Orchestra has lost 3 of his top aces recently, and he's one of the better/best players here, so ask him if he thinks the AI is getting tougher.

6)I noticed this too, but if you buy some redraw's like I started too, it helps to avoid this problem. Sometimes you have to think outside the box. :cool:

[Rastakyle]

Greywolf, thanks for the interesting post. I'd also like to say you write english very well! You didn't need that disclaimer.

[Fred19]

Originally posted by Rastakyle(rastak):

I'd also like to say you write english very well! You didn't need that disclaimer.

And I'd like to add that I don't think that anybody has to excuse himself for not speaking another language as good as his native language.

This is not directed against our English speaking friends, but I don't see why one should have to apologize for being of Finnish, German, or Kizuaheli tongue.

[Greywolf KERENSKY]

Originally posted by lakespeed:

1)I don't really agree with this assessment. What aircraft do you mean by J1N2? I think that was the "Irving" but that aircraft is not available.

Always the trouble when posting from work and memory. I was thinking about the raiden. It is not so bad but definitely the worse of all the top fighter ( I know someone have to be ), but taking into account the 2 best fighter of all the nation he is still the worst, right under the P-47 and only just above the Zero ( and it is a matter of taste as I will rate the Zero as better with the extra 2 perf ).

And I do agree the AI is playing more and more smarter nowadays and he start being able to handle bombers correctly ( especially at Higher point count ). But I was just signaling some behaviour it still have. I am wondering if the AI is aware of the spoil aim skill too.

[lakespeed]

Originally posted by Greywolf KERENSKY:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by lakespeed:

1)I don't really agree with this assessment. What aircraft do you mean by J1N2? I think that was the "Irving" but that aircraft is not available.

Always the trouble when posting from work and memory. I was thinking about the raiden. It is not so bad but definitely the worse of all the top fighter ( I know someone have to be ), but taking into account the 2 best fighter of all the nation he is still the worst, right under the P-47 and only just above the Zero ( and it is a matter of taste as I will rate the Zero as better with the extra 2 perf ).

And I do agree the AI is playing more and more smarter nowadays and he start being able to handle bombers correctly ( especially at Higher point count ). But I was just signaling some behaviour it still have. I am wondering if the AI is aware of the spoil aim skill too. </font>

[Sixxkiller]

Hello greywolf, welcome to the community.

You make some excellent points but I just have a few comments to make.

Lets start with Japan. The design decision to make the Japanese planes weaker is a sound decision based on the facts that have been brought up here already. I do however disagree that the J2M4 as it is modeled in the game is the worst of the elite planes. But you also have to remember it is up against some pretty still competition with possibly the best 3 planes to ever fly in any era to be the P-51, Spitfire, and Fw-190. My rankings for planes in the game would surprise you. Infact the best plane in my opinion is the P-51 followed by the Fw-190, then a shocker, the P-47.

Japans early edge wasnt just due to the planes being superior, but they also had the best pilots in the world in the early stages of WWII.

As far as campaigns go, you are not getting 1 more campaign, you are getting 4. And wait till you try to win as the Brits in the Crete Campaign. I challenge ANYONE to top Misturas score as he is the only person to have beaten the Germans. That must give you some idea of how good he is at this game. He is a former Marine too, but we wont hold that against him.

As far as your English... You did just fine. Infact I think countries that dont use it as a first language actually teach better application of it than the US does.

Oh ya and the new campaigns are just the icing on the cake. Wait till you see the cake. There will be one coming in a few months that will be so large, its gonna take you 20 minutes a turn to figure out what planes to place BEFORE you even play your turns.

-Ray

[Rastakyle]

Originally posted by Fred19:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Rastakyle(rastak):

I'd also like to say you write english very well! You didn't need that disclaimer.

And I'd like to add that I don't think that anybody has to excuse himself for not speaking another language as good as his native language.

This is not directed against our English speaking friends, but I don't see why one should have to apologize for being of Finnish, German, or Kizuaheli tongue. </font>

[Fred19]

Rastak, my comment wasn't meant to be directed at you. Sorry if you got the feeling I wanted to critizise you; that really wasn't my intention.

Just wanted to point out that nobody here (or on any other forum) expects apologies for not being an university professor of philology.