H.I.T.R. - Amazing-Phenomenal-Genius

[zoomzoom 2]

Okay, Holy Cripes Amighty! What You Dev's have done with this expansion Pack is nothing short of unbelievable. All I have to say to those whom are on the fence and/or have not purchased this yet is, you are not playing OFF in its full glory until you do. I'm not going to go into all the cool new stuff, cuase its just too extensive....okay okay whatever, here a few:

 

was flying the camel in a mission I had started previously, only now, the two Vickers up front sound fierce!! Cant even compare em to previous.

 

The wind sounds.....excellent...something I had discussed earlier. Every thing is so much more real and the sense of height and speed are full throttle with this addition.

 

I have my own skin and all the previous copy cats inmy squad canKiss it now!!! cause they dont!!

 

Nieuport 28

 

Nieuport 28

 

And one last time

 

Nieuport 28!!!!!!! Schweeeet!!!!

 

And so far, I've only flown two missions and soaked all this stuff in, (and yes the fokker EV is remarkable too) but the enemy AI is a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!! I actually felt bad finally watching an opponent I fought for about 5 minutes go down...under a friends guns no-less!! Cause I couldn't drop him....and I'm no slouch. It really seemed like there was another human in that crate....his maneuvers were so real.

 

THANK YOU DEV's! YOU HAVE AND ARE CREATING THE FUTURE OF WWI FLIGHT SIMMING.

There simply is no equal.

 

This is my humble salute.

 

ZZ.

[Rickitycrate 10]

But do you like it ZZ? ha, I've been saying it's a must have. I love it too.

[Olham 164]

Tried the N 28 too, and will continue the campaign.

Yes, the whole OFF feels much wider, spacier to me somehow, and I had some

good fighting in my Albatros D III against an Esc. with only French aces it seemed,

flying N 24bis - boy, they gave me a tough time! (Esc.27 I think it was).

[themightysrc 5]

I've now had a chance to look around the new universe.

 

At first, I was woefully disappointed by the drop in FPS - down to single figures - until I realised that I hadn't actually finished off reconfiguring my ATI stuff in CFS3 config. That done, and with a QC between the N28 and EV (well, I had to didn't I?) under my belt, I've actually noticed a better rendering of the aircraft on screen, as well as very impressive scenery below. I like the way that the day after a snowstorm, there are still vestiges of snow puddled around on the deck. It was probably always like this, but I've never noticed it before.

 

Anyway - the flying. Yes, the wind noise is great. I find it immensely helpful as I don't even have to use my speedometer any more: I'm just listening to the wind noise and gauging my speed. Nice. The aircraft, as I said, seem to be rendered more smoothly than before, and aside from the odd judder, the whole thing's a lot more pleasing to the eye. I suspect that my ageing AGP video setup and generally antiquated spec of my PC is finally catching up on me, so I think New Year will see me getting down to the serious business of specing and building a new rig - I'll be back here for advice!

 

There's some criticism elsewhere of the AI, and OBD have stated they're going to put it back to how it was, but I'm very happy with it as it is now. Fights are skirmishes rather than last stands all the time, which is how it was most of the time in WWI. Running away is now a realistic option on both sides. Having been followed back to my airfield (Tripehound out of ammo, therefore I ran for it) by a vengeful DIII, I can vouch for the fact that the AI is now more opportunistic, as it strafed me whilst I cowered in the cockpit. Perhaps OBD could formalise the new AI as a Workshop parameter - the choices being Cowardly, Just Right and Psychopathic?

 

So, hat's off to Winder, Pol and the rest of the crew. This is a wonderful addition to what was already a tremendous game, and a steal at £14.60.

 

Did I mention the terrific country dependent themes on the OFF desktop? Very nice - the Briddish one is particularly impressive.

 

I think that's enough gushing for now.

[zoomzoom 2]

Yeah, I was trailed back to my home field by a group of very veangefull Fokker DVII's, while I was retreating from a failed railyard attack that went awefully wrong. I can tell you this, at low level there is not as much of this "Flitting About" behind you that the pursuing AI used to do without making opportunities to down you. I was literally hugging the tree tops the whole way as they systematically dismantled my plane around me....little by little. Very much more realistic than before at least in that aspect alone.

 

mightysrc.....this may sound trite, but have you defragged your machine lately? I'm getting even better frame rates than before I installed HITR because of doing this.

 

ZZ.

[shredward 12]

I've now had a chance to look around the new universe.

Fights are skirmishes rather than last stands all the time, which is how it was most of the time in WWI. Running away is now a realistic option on both sides. Having been followed back to my airfield (Tripehound out of ammo, therefore I ran for it) by a vengeful DIII, I can vouch for the fact that the AI is now more opportunistic, as it strafed me whilst I cowered in the cockpit. Perhaps OBD could formalise the new AI as a Workshop parameter - the choices being Cowardly, Just Right and Psychopathic?

 

 

 

That is funny. I love it!!!

shredward

[foreigndevil 0]

I also couldn't resist buying HiTR, but haven't noticed any difference yet. Maybe because I already had very high settings? What I didn't hear/feel was the wind. The wind is on in the workshops but is there anything else I need to reconfigure? Yesterday I went on a balloon busting mission and shot down two of them. On our way back we were jumped by a mass of angry Boches who were very aggressive (not softies like I've read elsewhere)! Am I flying a different type of HiTR, because I seem to dispagree with the general 'customer'?

Edited December 15, 2009 by foreigndevil

[themightysrc 5]

Hi ZZ,

 

"mightysrc.....this may sound trite, but have you defragged your machine lately? I'm getting even better frame rates than before I installed HITR because of doing this."

 

I may well do that - I've actually just reformatted and reloaded XP plus other stuff, but I don't suppose it'll harm.

 

<on edit> I should hasten to add that after the initial load/flight, frame rates shot up to about 18-20, which is liveable, and an improvement on the pre-Hitr average. Also, I should mention that I suspect that loading times for missions have dropped: more behind the scenes work?

 

Cheers,

Si

Edited December 15, 2009 by themightysrc

[Rickitycrate 10]

FD, do you see the new planes? I wonder if you actually have it installed at this time. You did not mention what planes were involved.

[Gous 0]

There's some criticism elsewhere of the AI, and OBD have stated they're going to put it back to how it was, but I'm very happy with it as it is now. Fights are skirmishes rather than last stands all the time, which is how it was most of the time in WWI. Running away is now a realistic option on both sides. Having been followed back to my airfield (Tripehound out of ammo, therefore I ran for it) by a vengeful DIII, I can vouch for the fact that the AI is now more opportunistic, as it strafed me whilst I cowered in the cockpit. Perhaps OBD could formalise the new AI as a Workshop parameter - the choices being Cowardly, Just Right and Psychopathic?

 

 

That is funny. I love it!!!

shredward

 

It is funny but very interesting at the same time. In the Workshop, you can have Aggressive AI, Normal AI and Defensive AI, and a "Random" option, which will pick one of these 3 for each mission before it starts. It would be very interesting...

[zoomzoom 2]

I prefer the "Somewhat Miffed, but Generally Congenial" AI myself.

 

ZZ.

 

PS...The "TAd Tipsy From Last Nights Party" AI are a pushover.

Edited December 15, 2009 by zoomzoom

[Fortiesboy 3]

In the Workshop, you can have Aggressive AI, Normal AI and Defensive AI, and a "Random" option, which will pick one of these 3 for each mission before it starts.

 

Gous S!

 

Ref the above. Am I missing something? In Workshops in my installation, I don't have

" Aggressive AI, Normal AI and Defensive AI, and a "Random" option," at all, to choose from.

 

Where is that seen by you exactly?

 

The version shown in workshops , bottom right, is Phase3 V1.4li,

 

That's what i have- is that what you have?

[themightysrc 5]

Hi FB,

 

Gous is Greek, and I suspect may be using 'can' rather than 'could', 'will' instead of 'would'. His English, is, though, much better than my Greek!

 

Yasou Gous! Ti kanete?

[zoomzoom 2]

I think he was "suggesting" this option FB. Am I right Gous?

 

ZZ.

 

ps...otherwise I'm pretty clueless too.

[Olham 164]

Hey, is this the mess table? What do you guys drink? Seems to be good!

 

I want my AI choice to be

 

- want to win the war today!

 

- want a Blue Max!

 

- want to stay alive

 

- want to go home

 

- where's the poor old ostrich we fight for?

Edited December 15, 2009 by Olham

[Gous 0]

The fun part is that I have a degree which states that I can teach English if I want. Yes of course I meant "could". I am actually suggesting this as a feature.

[zoomzoom 2]

Although it will be tweaked and refined, as all expansions in reality are, (and I know there is already another thread dealing with this so I won't belabor it....much) I wonder if the varied accounts of vastly different AI qualities, aren't the fact that people are running into pilots of differing qualities. Which, (eliminating the need for a "settings" panel) would also be very true to life and realistic.

 

 

Ahem.....so....back to my gushing.

 

I LOVE the improved Flak smoke. Now with whites even whiter!!

 

NICE! I forgot to mention this earlier.

 

Also, was cool to look around me for the first time and realize that no one's AC in my squad looked like mine! At first, I thought I was in the wrong group!! I was like..."who are these guys!!" hehe

 

ZZ.

[Siggi 10]

In the pre-made missions I'm finding the 12 vs 12 and 20 vs 20 are producing perfectly good dogfights.

 

So what's that all about? Why do six AI aces vs one human in QC produce a debacle of an encounter, while 12 vs 12 etc produce a perfectly good one in the pre-made missions?

[Siggi 10]

In the pre-made missions I'm finding the 12 vs 12 and 20 vs 20 are producing perfectly good dogfights.

 

So what's that all about? Why do six AI aces vs one human in QC produce a debacle of an encounter, while 12 vs 12 etc produce a perfectly good one in the pre-made missions?

 

If the fights in Campaign and pre-made missions are better in HitR but poorer in QC, are we going to sacrifice the improvement in Campaigns and pre-mades for the sake of fixing the issues in QC?

[zoomzoom 2]

Good question. Guess thats likely what the Dev's are busy tweaking.

 

ZZ.

[Siggi 10]

I don't think they've tweaked anything, they stated they were simply going to revert the AI back to 1.32g.

[Fortiesboy 3]

I don't think they've tweaked anything, they stated they were simply going to revert the AI back to 1.32g.

 

Yep, that's as how I understand it.

However,

I'm beginning to think I'll keep this version with the so called lethargic AI.

 

I have just had three QC scenarios, my Tripe versus 3 Dr1s ( once ) and then twice against 2 Dr1s.

 

Each time I lost.

 

Whilst getting behind the first, I could'nt seem to locate and keep an eye on the other(s), and so inevitably, the bugger got me with a few rounds and then it was make your mind up time.

Smoking, I decided to go for a landing and twice made it. The third time I got shot up on the way down.

 

I wsa particularly impressed with the hits I took not killing me but giving me a chance ( and a decision to make ) and so I needed to fly quite well to survive.

 

This whole scenario is what I like to think it maybe was like in 1917,

 

What I had done, as Pol says, is go down a notch on the detail – scenery and terrain at 3 now, and the max FPS set at 30.

 

I think I'll prefer this to going back to the 1.32g AI.

 

However, if the patch just ups the present aggressiveness a little, I won't complain-lol

But if it reverts to 1.32g, then I'll pass on the next patch.

[Gous 0]

But Pol said the AI is not different. It is just wrong. Who knows which other differences we will see...maybe the big AI flaws are still to be seen.

 

Anyway I still believe the AI mentality should be workshop controllable.

[Olham 164]

The behaviour of AI is definitely different, whatever causes that, Gous.

They remain high mostly in fights, and it's more a lurking and observing each other,

with more or less attacks, depending whether they are rookies, veterans or aces.

Aces gave me an incredibly great fight.

And I'm thinking of keeping this version - at least will I try it more.

[Fortiesboy 3]

Gous S!

"Anyway I still believe the AI mentality should be workshop controllable."

 

Like you, I'd like this to be so in the future. However, it nominally is controllable, or at least gradeable., in QC - ACE thru to Rookie.

 

Olham S! "Aces gave me an incredibly great fight."

 

Can't say I'd go that far! Like you, I won't revert, but in QC, 1 Versus 1, is unbelievable easy.