War Thunder

[WayAbvPar]

Does gun convergence actually do anything in arcade?

[Shannow]

Yes.

[Furiously]

Yes.

I've read suggestions of changing it to like 400. I got six kills before I went down in my corsair with 4 hispanos.

[Ginaz]

I've heard it doesn't make much difference in arcade mode, which is all I play right now.

[kildorn]

It helps a bit. So anyways, those low tier germans. Holy shit is it rough to get kills with them. Up to tier 3 so far, and still rocking the same dual MGs on everything. Fast planes, but you can't really boom and zoom with something that takes a few hundred rounds to hurt russians.

[apocrypha]

I strongly advise against opening the general chat window while waiting for matches to pop.

During Euro peak times it's full of dipshits whining about how German planes are underpowered and hateful nationalism and racism from every corner of the EU. During US peak times it appears to be completely unmoderated and is a total fucking cesspool of abuse, profanity and full on internet dickwaddery.

The in-game chat channel gets bad sometimes too but less so because generally people are too busy flying planes to type much, although the fact that putting someone on your blacklist doesn't block the team voice messages is hilarious in a  kind of way.

[Sir T]

You should have seen the IL-2 forums back in the day.

[kildorn]

During Euro peak times it's full of dipshits whining about how German planes are underpowered and hateful nationalism and racism from every corner of the EU. During US peak times it appears to be completely unmoderated and is a total fucking cesspool of abuse, profanity and full on internet dickwaddery.

So what you're saying is the World of Tanks general chat has moved over in full force?   

[Engels]

Early German planes are a POS. It gets better. I'm enjoying the 109s, even though I generally suck at boom and zoom. The ME104 attack plane series is very fun, but of dubious effectiveness. Think Beaufighters but without the armor.

German bombers also suck at first, and they are, as with most of the bombers, made of tinfoil and spit, but they get decent payloads later. The stuka line is very fun to play, due to their graceful dives, but their ordinance for their level is a bit gimped. They also climb terribly, like freaking Wellingtons.

Speaking of which, Beaufighters need to be smacked with a nerf stick hard. No tier 4 plane should have that amount of firepower and resilience, regardless of how hard they are to maneuver.

[apocrypha]

I am really not liking the 1.29 patch. I only play arcade battles, so if you're a HB/FRB fan you may have different experiences, but after a few games today I have no desire to play any more, a lot of the fun has been surgically removed.

The new damage model is extremely harsh - one bullet is enough to rip a wing off or destroy an engine. Backup planes costing Gold are blatant pay-2-win and are a really bad idea, but with this damage model they're going to be very popular amongst people willing to shell out a lot of real money.

Kills are very buggy. It's much easier to actually kill people but 4 times out of 5 I'm not getting awarded a kill for doing so. This has had the effect of greatly nerfing XP - I got under 10k for a 3-kill, tier 7 win earlier. This makes it feel instantly super-grindy.

The damage model also means that bombers are pointless now in solo arcade battles. You get shot down in a few seconds, plus you can't dive-bomb any more so good luck hitting mobile targets. Oh and Attackers don't get a bomb sight any more, you have to guess where your bombs might land.

Other people have said that the joystick control is improved, so that's one good thing.

Oh and the new ammo belts are a pointless complication that is totally unexplained in-game. The only way to find out what the ammo types do is to go to the forums and hunt around. Great game design.

[Engels]

I agree with you on nearly all fronts. The patch is a royal disaster and I hope Gaijin has the brains to roll back their changes pronto or they're gonna find themselves in a WoP situation.

The only correction I'd make to what you're saying is about the dive bomber reticle. It does show up, but only if you have an acute enough  angle. If you're too level it won't show. The reverse of a high altitude bomber, who's reticle disappears if you dive.

I also agree that the new ammo types are a needless complication, especially since there's fuck all explanation as to what they do and how it would affect different plane types/parts of a plane.

[apocrypha]

Ahh OK, I'll have another go with the dive bombing then. Some kind of indicator letting you know what the correct angle is would help, instead of just an unexplained "this used to work" missing reticule.

[Engels]

Devs on the WT boards are already handing out warnings to posters who are mad at the patch.

[WayAbvPar]

Yeah this is definitely not their finest moment. Hope they learn something.

[Tmon]

I haven't played in a while and it sounds like I can just keep not playing for a while.  I remember the game as fun but mostly I want to play internet tanks instead of internet planes so until they have ground vehicles in I don't feel much reason to log in very often.

[WayAbvPar]

Just played a couple of matches, and it is definitely quite a bit less fun. With the money earning nerf to low tiers it is going to be grindy as fuck. Sigh. Not sure I can go back to tanks yet. Minecraft it is.

[Engels]

Well, the thing for me is the attempt to make Arcade 'realistic' in some ways, but entirely ignoring others. Fighters 'realistically' rarely shot down bombers in one passing strafe, yet this still happens in Arcade. However, the new 'realism' that they brought to both bombing sights and damage, along with the money nerf for targets downed makes playing a bomber MORE of a chore than it was before. Downing a carrier gives you ~2k lions now. Hardly worth the pass after pass you need to do to get the job done.

Entirely necessary to win ground strike missions, yet frustrating and even less rewarding than before.

[Bungee]

US servers are up as of today!

[Shannow]

looks like they patched out some of the crappy stuff that 1.29 introduced.

[Engels]

This is good news.

Specifically, the bomb sight fix. I can't wait to see if they really did revert it or did something else.

Also:

Fixed excessive effects of wing damage on the aircraft steering

This was driving me batty.

They also need to improve the tail 'armor' on bombers. I know, its probably 'realistic' that that's the first thing affected when being shot from behind, but 5/6 deaths last night were exclusively because my tail ailerons were gone. And you don't remotely die right away, you just float about like a drunk at 4k, unable to dive properly or anything. You just bumble about the arena till someone else takes you out of your misery. Kinda hilarious the first time, pita the rest of the time.

They probably also need to rethink the economy. Played all night, on premium, made ~70k.

Oh, and I bought the tier 7 Corsair, the F4u 1A, and I regret it. Freaking Stukas outturn me.

[apocrypha]

Hmm, nothing on fixing credit for kills & kill assists.

There's a thread here where Borisych claims that the new economy should be more rewarding than previously for most planes at most tiers, along with some charts to aid his point. I'm not convinced personally.

If I'm not Arma 3'ing tonight I'll put a couple of hours in and see how it is.

[Engels]

Just did a quick quick run and the monetary reward for ground targets was upped a bit. Also, the flight model in general seems a bit less janky. Dogfights don't feel like jostling about on the subway platform.

[snowwy]

Hmm, nothing on fixing credit for kills & kill assists.

There's a thread here where Borisych claims that the new economy should be more rewarding than previously for most planes at most tiers, along with some charts to aid his point. I'm not convinced personally.

If I'm not Arma 3'ing tonight I'll put a couple of hours in and see how it is.

Except he forgot to tell you that they upped retraining crew-skills a metric fuck-ton. Not really higher than tier 7 as of yet, but my desire to climb the ranks has decreased quite a bit. Flying 300 missions with auto-repair turned off to gain enough creds for higher tier planes, thanks but no thanks. Guess Historic or Full Retard Battles is the way to go.

[Engels]

Except those are generally boring when in a group, since chances are you'll lose your one plane in the first 3 minutes and then have to watch for 20 minutes while your last remaining buddy faffs about at 7k altitude :P True story.

[Simond]

I wonder if they'll unfuck the economy on this before or after it hits Steam?

[Typhon]

Started a couple days ago with this.  Kinda disheartened with being launched against folks in planes that I cannot out-turn, cannot out-run, only to see my US experience bar go up a teensy-weensy little bit at the end of the match.

I did all the tutorials.  I'm taking out ground targets, I'm (occasionally) getting plane kills (mostly just credit for hits/kill assists).  Short of paying cash money - is there anything else I could be doing to speed up the time of being in a crap plane?  Is my perception that the higher tier planes are significantly better than the reserve/level 1 planes mistaken?

[snowwy]

Things will lighten up as soon as you're out of the reserve-planes. Unless you fly germans, then it takes a while it seems. Russians have some awsome killers at tier 1-2 carrying several ShKas bullethoses.
Those things will take down anything in the sky with ease. Tiers doesn't really matter all that much.  Earning sweetspot is in tier 4-7 anyway. But seriously, go russian. The russian bias is strong in this one.

[angry.bob]

The russian bias is strong in this one.

Not as strong as it is for the British, or Americans once you get the P-39s. The German line is just fucked up. I'm tier 5 in German and the only decent fighter is the Fulgore. Lots of Stukas though. Lots.

[Typhon]

The russian bias is strong in this one.

Not as strong as it is for the British, or Americans once you get the P-39s. The German line is just fucked up. I'm tier 6 in German and the only decent fighter is the Fulgore. Lots of Stukas though. Lots.

I split my time between the Germans and the US.  (was playing the Germans to allow my brothers to catch-up, they joined a little after I did).  Hitting level 4 with the US is like having the fun patched in, so much better.

The Germans... why is the He 112 such a fucking brick above 450 kph?!  Ok, so I understand that I'm not supposed to take the plane above 450 kph, but I frequently take BI-PLANES above 450 and don't rip apart or lose maneuverability.  Also, no "SLOW DOWN NITWIT!!!" warnings for the He 112?  Hello mountain!  BOOM!  Maybe it's just cause my player is level 5 and I'm suppose to know better?

[Nebu]

Not sure if it applies to this game, but German fighters were energy fighters.  These are the toughest types of planes to dogfight with.  Once you master controlling energy, these planes dominate the skies, but it's a steep learning curve.  You can outclimb everyone in the sky and you are much more stable on dives.  Just don't bleed speed or altitude too much else you become an easy target.

[Engels]

Just got to level 11 german and I can tell you that the 109s of all stripes make the grind to them worth it.

[Engels]

Not sure if it applies to this game, but German fighters were energy fighters.  These are the toughest types of planes to dogfight with.  Once you master controlling energy, these planes dominate the skies, but it's a steep learning curve.  You can outclimb everyone in the sky and you are much more stable on dives.  Just don't bleed speed or altitude too much else you become an easy target.

Its sorta true, but again, russian bias. I've been chased out of a dive by Yaks of all stripes. I eventually outrun them on my climb back up, but the cannons on a Yak 9T are enough that all he needs is those 5 seconds when I'm still in range for him to one shot me. This is obnoxious as fuck.

[Pennilenko]

I don't see how they are ever going to balance a game like this and stay anywhere near the realistic strengths and weaknesses of the planes. Most of the wars and conflicts these vehicles were in were incredibly imbalanced machinery wise and were often made up for via pilot skill, and in the real world, good pilots in good machines were ultra deadly.

[Engels]

Ya, its like the P-51. In the 'real world' it was an exceptional fighter IF the pilot was great, which by and large they were, since they were the top fighters planes of the US, and they didn't hand it over to anyone.

In any given flight sim/computer game, the P-51 sucks ass for the average player because a) energy fighting is hard and requires quite a bit of knowledge and b) the intangibles of flight aren't accounted for in most computer sims, or if they are, the mechanics are weird.

[Nebu]

Gaijin really have outdone themselves with the April Fool's prank this year. 

Can't. Stop. Laughing.