Aces High III Beta Video

[invictus84]

Since there were only a few players on I decided to take up a 110 and de-ack a field. I didn't load enough fuel so I ended up bailing when I ran out of gas.

So for those of you unfamiliar with Aces High, it is a massively multiplayer WWII combat game largely focused on air combat. Unlike War Thunder, AH can support about 500-600 players per server. The beta version is free to try until release, then it is 14.95 per month for unlimited flying and fighting. The AH III beta has improved graphics over the current version (AH II) and also promises other gameplay tweaks.

I played AH off and on for several years and must say that, graphics aside, it can be a lot of fun when the servers are nearly full. Is the FM realistic in comparison to DCS, BoS or CLoD? No, but it still has some interesting features and can simulate a good furball quite well.

The player population has dropped off over the years but the developer hopes the new features will draw in new players and bring back old players who left. I'm not so sure, but I hope it will be successful. The old girl deserves better than a slow, Warbirds or Fighter Ace style death. Me? I'll resub for a while and see if it grabs me. Do I really think it will be able to long term? Probably not. I dont think it will replace CLoD or other higher fedelity sims for me but might be fun for a while.

So tell me what you guys think of the beta? Anybody play AH in the past? Does the beta interest you?

[Mysticpuma]

Got to be honest I have never played any Aces High although I have a good friend who flew/flies with the Virtual 325th FG.

Looking at the video (and please forgive me for this), it looks like an old version of the original IL2. Now I know gameplay is often stated in defence of the lack of 'eye-candy' but in a flight sim the whole package is essential for immersion (IMHO).

With CloD, BoS and Warthunder having effectively state of the art graphics, VR support and the ability to make you feel like you are in combat, when I saw the video it reminded me of Minecraft. Now by that I mean a modern game but with retro graphics.

Sadly I don't see anything in the video that would make me consider investing time in it but as always, each to their own.

Thanks for sharing, cheers, MP

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

500-600 players would be insane. Insanely awesome.

I can't imagine the shoulder shooting and friendly fire that would occur but be totally worth it.

[SIA_Sp00k]

I played AH2 for ages. I enjoyed it for what it was. Had fun with a great community but at times found they were so blinded to loyalty, they never questioned why the patches offered so little.

I loved flying the Mossie and the F4U but could never get my head around the rail gun bullets and the ability to fly every plane in the game irrespective of what side your on. The 3 sided game tho was the cause of my leaving in the end. Despite their being 2 sided servers, it was the 3 sided server that held all the players. Never liked that.

Perhaps the vid doesnt do the Beta justice, but it looks like more of the same to me re graphics. Poor in comparison to some of its peers. Suprised it they see a sustained rise in their diehard numbers at $14+ a month.

Dare say, like most beta's (free) they may see a jump in numbers while we all check it out for giggles. Soon as it goes pay tho, i'll bet even the tempted fresh noobs will vanish into the either and the rest of us return to our primary sims.

Just my opinion of course but given the wait that community has endured for AH3 and the very lean times in terms of numbers those players endured, based on that vid, I would bet they expected a bit more.

[invictus84]

500-600 players would be insane. Insanely awesome.

I can't imagine the shoulder shooting and friendly fire that would occur but be totally worth it.

Well, I forgot to mention that these are controlled through a feature called "killshooter". Basically if you hit a frendly plane, you damage or kill your own. No damage is registered to the enemy.

I get the reasons for it, and the AH player community in general defends it as being good incentive to watch your fire, but it has never been my favorite feature as I feel it actually promotes gamey flying. I clearly remember several occations where I was on a contact's six when a friendly would dive in front of me as I was firing. I would blow up, he would get the kill. It sure seemed intentional to me.

[invictus84]

Got to be honest I have never played any Aces High although I have a good friend who flew/flies with the Virtual 325th FG.

Looking at the video (and please forgive me for this), it looks like an old version of the original IL2. Now I know gameplay is often stated in defence of the lack of 'eye-candy' but in a flight sim the whole package is essential for immersion (IMHO).

With CloD, BoS and Warthunder having effectively state of the art graphics, VR support and the ability to make you feel like you are in combat, when I saw the video it reminded me of Minecraft. Now by that I mean a modern game but with retro graphics.

Sadly I don't see anything in the video that would make me consider investing time in it but as always, each to their own.

Thanks for sharing, cheers, MP

No forgiveness required MP. I thought the same thing, and keep in mind this is a significant improvement on the last version. The developer is including VR support, which should be interesting. As for the rest, I'm fairly certain I am spending time on this beta out of nostagia more than anything else. I spent a lot of time in it years ago but it doesnt grab me the way CLoD, BoS and DCS do. Even War Thunder, for all its flaws, holds more interest for me.

If you add in the bad attitudes and odd views of air combat by some in the AH community itself it just doesn't have much appeal. On their forum one of their best pilots challenged me to a duel in their dueling arena for voicing a differing opinion on the realism of icons.

He feels no icons in a game is unrealistic.

[invictus84]

If you add in the bad attitudes and odd views of air combat by some in the AH community itself it just doesn't have much appeal. On their forum one of their best pilots challenged me to a duel in their dueling arena for voicing a differing opinion on the realism of icons.

He feels no icons in a game is unrealistic.

A correction to this statement to be fair: I misunderstood his statement, which he respectfully clarified to say No Icons would increase the difficulty for new players who have no experience with Air Combat games, ACM and BFM. I agree with his thoughts, especially when you consider the target customer for AH probably isn't the hard core sim crowd.

My apologies go out to Violator if he ends up reading my post here.

[1lokos]

Well, the graphics now looks a bit better than... Batleground Europe (that I play eventually, as "boot").

In this "ole'good times" I play Air Warrior, Warbirds (more) and Aces High (less), at time - even @ 2$/hour - they are the "flight sim", so even with better graphics I only take a look in MS CFS1.

But their "gameplay" - all planes against all planes - is not too different of what War Thunder do now.

Despite be one server with 600 or more players, Internet protocol limit visible planes, and in a big map (to make people spend big times in flight, so spent more money) and 3 "factions" result more in various furball in various places, than a big furball in one place.

I enjoy more the "Special Events" - more history oriented and less "gamey" (no Zekes against fw 190).

[RAF74_Buzzsaw]

For a year or two I designed special event Campaigns for ACES HIGH for which I received a free membership.

Those campaigns actually used historical aircraft for the Blue or Red side, so no flying 109's for the Allies or Spits for the Germans.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with AH during the late 90's and early 2000's.

ACES HIGH remains incomparable in terms of its ability to host a huge number of players. (400)

And the Flight Modeling did originally set a standard for the industry.

The 'historical' maps however, were somewhat compromised by their non-historical ratio of real distance to game distance.

Still I can remember some campaigns I built... like the huge 8th Airforce one, where 400 players were were online on one map... and the tremendous formations of over a hundred B-17's along with another hundred escorts were met by an huge onrush of 200 German interceptors. What a rush that was.

However, the arrival of the original IL-2, the development of its series and especially the netcode, which meant it could host 100's of players, basically doomed ACES HIGH. There was no comparing the graphics.

And now, with CLIFFS OF DOVER being able to host 100's, having cutting edge graphics and high standard FM's, it is tough for AH to get traction.

Plus of course, TF may be able to improve the CoD netcode in the future... we may see servers able to host quite a number more players online.

And our graphics could continue to improve... if we get DX11 working.

[GERMANWOLF]

good sound lol

[invictus84]

Thanks for your replies all.

[Roblex]

I used to play 'Warbirds' but only the historical scenarios played twice a week. When the pricing was changed to mean the scenarios were more expensive and general play cheaper I moved on to Aces High instead.

To be honest, despite the better graphics and FM in IL2 & CLOD, I miss those historical missions in Warbirds & AH. Many would disagree, but I really enjoyed spending an hour crossing the North Sea to bomb the Kiel sub pens or Frankfurt factories with a dozen B17s in formation tense and paranoid waiting for the searching 190s to find us and rip through head on before the P47s engaged them. Even better was the hours flight home with fluids streaming and the damaged engines getting sicker & sicker. Somehow IL2 and CLOD have never managed to recreate that thrill even in the special events. Perhaps it is just down to numbers and focus. The WB/AH missions tended to be a single target with the focus being on getting the bombers through and then home so we had two or three full bomber formations with dedicated long range escorts while in CLOD it is lots of sneaky small raids on dispersed targets, often low down and unsecorted so the fighter action can be sporadic and patchy or non-existant. Also in CLOD with limited human bombers or large AI formations the targets are often spread out so the already limited defenders rarely get together on a big raid and the escort fighters don't care if the bombers die, they just use them as bait.