Pacific Carriers: Initial Impressions

[Falaris]

First off, it looks very nice. There is a lot less GUI clutter, and you get less 'arcady' feedback - no health bars on enemies, no target markers for non-mission targets, etc.

Secondly, you control a large roster of pilots, and they gain experience individually. You don't control one fighter, you control a squad at a time, but just one aircraft in that squad - the 'lead' aircraft, you could say, because the others tend to not take a very active role. This is on purpose because that is your way of having ammunition/torpedo/bomb 'reloads' - switch to another aircraft with a ready bomb/torpedo. Whichever you just switched out of will return to base to reload or repair, as necesary. (And yes, fighters run out of MG ammo too.).

These pilots can get special talents and grow better. This may have one side effect which I am not entirely sure of yet:

Inexperienced pilots, when you control them, handle the aircraft like bambi on ice. It's all over the place and it's difficult to get a decent aim. I *hope* this is less true of experienced pilots - it seems that way but not 100% sure.

Unfortunately, your pilots can die in droves, especially in some missions. Switch to one aircraft - it's stalling near the ground, *crash* with no chance of recovery. Another few slams into mountains. This makes the gain xp bit very random and sometimes annoying. Pilots can survive crashes and such - but they usually don't.

Torpedoing ships is satisfyingly demanding, but the poor torpedo bombers seem to struggle a lot just to stay in the air.

The missions so far seem historic and nicely detailed. Lots of good stuff here.

I did have an in-game crash, and it said 'Air Conflicts: Secret Wars has stopped working'. Wait, what? (Okay, it's based on the same engine, we knew that, but still). However, that's one crash after 6 hours straight playing.

I guess the '6 hours straight playing' bit hints on how I like it so far, but there are some points that could stand ironing out, if BitComposer feels like patching things a bit.

[Falaris]

A small update: The above was from playing the japanese campaign.

As Japan I lost most fighter pilots and half the torpedo bombers on pearl harbor.
As US I lost noone.

Something tells me the japanese campaign is the 'hard' one.

[mandelbr0t]

A lot of fun. I stick with the arcade controls since I'm not trying to make this a flight sim. It's nice that there are both options. I forgot how much fun divebombing was... Haven't done that since Aces of the Pacific. A bit of a wait due to some kind of release date mess-up (that no one has owned up to >:-| ) but worth the wait.

[pateliote]

me im disturb by the drift , in 360 simulation ... you pouch it full , you just turn a little and still flying strait !! you stop to puch , you back at the same dirrection :-( like many bad arcade game....and this make you rooling ... well after the fling by itself is better but the plane rool verry too fast ...well im not feeling well better feeling with the fly in the old one.

[schoops1984]

Help!: I waited with you and everyone else, and now that the game's finally here, it's so choppy that it's basically unplayable. So I went to 'options' to lower the resolution (though speed and power aren't problems with my computer, and the first Air Conflicts runs perfectly), but there doesn't seem to be any video/res. options. Am I missing something simple? Anyone?

[TheDude47 ( ° ) ( ° )]

there is a configuration.exe, just right click on the game in steam library.

[Doc Niqo]

Has anyone an idea what to do in the watchtower mission? The ingame help is a bit picky on what it tells you...and what not. Gears are "g" btw... ;-) but all in all: fun game, despite the release mess.

[PeeWee]

I was reading somewhere that you can also control the Carrier and move about on certain Stations on the Carrier. But now i cant find where I read it. Does anyone know for sure ? Thanks

[Doc Niqo]

in the 5th attempt i spotted 2 scout planes... jeez... maybe i should clean my monitor :D
Havent seen any signs for other stations, though.

[Skarwulf]

If you're having trouble with the watchtower missions just let the time run out the first time and watch where the enemy comes from. They come from the same direction every time. I did this on the first two watchtower missions.

[Falaris]

If the aircraft behaves badly, make sure you've retracted the landing gear. It may be annoying with the landing gear in, too, but at least not that bad. :)

In the watchtower mission there's a button to switch to binoculars and one to 'report' when you spot something, if you don't use those keys nothing will happen.

When you launch through steam you get the option of launching the game or configuring the graphics settings. There is no in-game graphics settings.

There is no real 'move between stations' thing that I can think of on the carrier, but I have not had the 'man the ackacks' style missions yet. I'd guess that would be d-stick / the appropriate button for that.

[OZZY]

Light on the stick works ok in sim mode, been playing online in various scenarios. Plenty of kills, lots of fun. Kind of Sturmovik-y. Patches will come out to smooth the rough spots, I`m sure. Pretty good right out of the gate! Flys more like the real thing than ACSW. Try the cockpit view, it doesn`t seem to swing around as much. Lower the stick sensitivity as well, at least for a while.

[[= GF =] Slnecnica]

You can change the stations in Survive! mode...

Regarding the performance issues - this can be the water shader, I suggest you try to switch off High Detailed Water in the configuration application...

[Hyperion]

Ughhh, can't change joystick settings while flying, have to quit and exit campaign mode, and now you're telling me that I have to exit the game entirely to change graphics settings? Really? Wow. Next time I'll wait until the game comes out before buying it so I learn stuff like this...or next time I just won't buy games from bitcomposer/gamefarm.

[OZZY]

Quit your sniviling. The game is GREAT. Too hard to click your mouse? Call the WAAAAAmbulance!

[Satrap]

Игра понравилась. Красивая графика, сам процесс в целом увлекательный. В общем, сделано достойно.
Из недостатков: поменьше бы однообразной пальбы и бомбежки мелких объектов, вроде расстрела 40 американских солдат, мечущихся по земле, или уничтожения зенитных пушек "Хорнета". Только раздражает.
Субъективно, хотелось бы отдельной альтернативной кампании за Японию, как это сделано в Battlestation Pacific. Знание, что поражение предрешено, уменьшает интерес к игре за японцев. К примеру, битва у Мидуэя. Ты все равно знаешь, что "Акаги" потопят. Ты все равно знаешь, что "Энтерпрайз" потопить не удастся. Отсюда интереса к защите "Акаги" и атаке "Энтерпрайза" нет никакого, с тем же успехом можно летать кругами в воздухе, потому что все решено за тебя, и все происходящее - скорее ролик на движке игры, чем миссия, где ты на что-то влияешь.