Patch Observations

[Specter]

After having the "patch" a few days. I've found some good and bad things about it.

Good:

• Flight Models are simply awesome. With the little flight experience I've had. This patch feels more real than anything before it. However, I've only had 3 or so hours in cessna 172/150 s over the past 10 years so don't take my word as gospel.
  
• Mauser cannons and mgs. All of them seem to have a bit of a facelift. The MG151/20s hit hard and feel as powerful as the Hispanos.
  
• Landscape graphics are much crisper. Load the Moutain DF map and look at the scenery on one of the valley airbases. Has the same presence as the Alps in Europe.
  

Bad:

• Fw-190 roll rate is porked. Someone posted some figures and the 190A-4 at 400 kph should be about 2.4 sec, it is 4+ in game. Which is about the same as a Spitfire. All 190s are too slow.
  

Things I just don't know:

• Reletive performance and energy retention of the 190.
  
• Fuel consumption, goes pretty quick at full power.
  

Hunde and Stecher when you were testing the 190's top speed did you use auto or manual pitch. With the new aerodynamics modeled it may be corrected where auto pitch will yield a faster speed.

What are the rest of your guys take on the new "patch?"

[Hund]

-Agree about FM, it is great to feel less like I am flying on rails. It seems a little hard to do a loop and remain straight, even while keeping your speed up but the elevator is either more responsive or you bleed less energy because I am actually pulling loops easier in all 190's, its just hard to keep them straight even with rudder input. I have limited experience with the patch so I am sure this will just take time to figure out (which is good since I need a change/challenge). So far I am very pleased with the new flight model, and at high speed I hardly notice any difference.

-The 151/20's feel great to me, definitely an improvement.

-Aiming is harder. Some claim that only U.S. planes seem to dance around with rudder input, but when trying to make small corrections in aiming I find my front tends to "wander" some. Don't know if this is realistic or not, I would expect it at low speed, not so much at high speed. But I don't believe it was as easy to settle the plane as before so I welcome the change. I can also still pull high AOA snap shots which is extremely important for me, though I don't know if I am being punished enough for doing so or not.

-Not sure how I feel about P-51 speed boost at low altitude. It seems like it may be accurate but the fact that it outruns the Dora at SL is interesting. Data shown by some suggests the Dora should be faster, and the A-9 was almost as fast as the D-9 down low so who knows. Either way it will be challenging.

-I am afraid of seeing Mustang III's, which was a home defense fighter, and P-38L Late's (which was only used in the Pacific and with no reports of these settings used in combat, using these settings was not adopted by USAAF) fill up servers with the P-51D, P-38J and L early becoming afterthoughts even though they were MUCH more common. But then again the Ta-152 was hardly used so I rarely fly it, and the Dora and A-9 were pretty late as well so...I'm just tired of late war stuff, for me '41 to '43 is where the fun is. I wish they would stop adding planes like this and add more useful planes like Typhoon, Macchi's, Pe-2, Mosquito, Ju-88, etc. I know some of these are in the works and the models were already present but still. It's hard to believe we have had planes like the Me-163, Go.229, Bf-109Z, I-185, P-80, etc. for so long without having a flyable heavy bomber or the planes listed above. I know some were 3rd party stuff, but not all.


-The rapid fuel consumption needs to be confirmed by Oleg and crew, if not it is a serious bug as planes seem to run out of fuel quickly. Maybe it is proper with higher engine settings but some people in ORR have posted times and they are not matching historical numbers.

-I like the roll-inertia thing, but roll-rates in general are more questionable than before, and that is saying something.

-My biggest concern by far is aircraft visibility. They definitely changed the graphics as far as landscape and clouds go, and I am afraid that something was changed, or it is my settings, that make aircraft almost invisible. I can't see nuts. In Lock-On I can see great and it feels realistic, higher resolutions actually seem to give you a clearer picture as it should, instead of punishing you severley by putting blinders on. I will have to mess with settings but right now I am blind as a bat and I won't dumb down my settings so we will see. I wish they would stop optimizing games for settings that were do-able over 10 years ago. As a note my real life vision is fine so it has nothing to do with eyesight at all.

Overall I like the pre-official patch alot and hopefully it should breath some new life into the game. I don't fly much anymore because I needed something new (and real life responsibilities), hopefully it will generate more interest and drag me up into the virtual sky more often.

[Vogler]

Not much to add here, I agree with observations that have been made. Just a couple of things.

The tendency for the tail to rise suddenly on takeoff maybe a little overmodeled for some of the aircraft (especially the 190's) I read somewhere recently, that due to gear positioning on the 190 it was unlikely you would flip one on it's nose even with hard braking. Unfortunately I can't remember if I read that from a good source or just a forum post

The down elevator is a touch overmodeled in the 109's.

I don't know if it is a graphics card thing or what, but I am seeing one wing disapear from spitfires when I am pursuing them (at relatively close range)
** Just went to the UBI forum, others are having the same bug with the spit, different graphics cards.
Anyhow I am very impressed overall with the patch.

[beckh]

I like this patch, really good step forward. Certain things needs a closer look, like fuel consumtion, 190 roll rate. I like the fact that 109 is more controlable at high speed, gunz! now it really rocks.
I hear what you saying Vogler, about take off thing, just trim it up prior take off and it keeps nose nice and steady.