World of Warplanes: bringing the wow in WoW.

[super dark33]

I just became a beta tester for this probably awesome game!

Is anyone else here a beta tester?
maybe we can form a playground team.


If you dont know what it is ([hipster]which is probably true.[/hipster]
Its a game from the developers of world of tanks, which is basicly the same but with tanks
This game is using planes from WWII era, and is still in development.

Check their site!

[tensai_oni]

Don't we have an NDA?

[Emmerask]

Not all NDA´s forbid you from saying that you are a beta tester, not saying this one does not, thats for you guys to figure out by reading the nda (if there is one )^^

[The Succubus]

You have betas for World of Warplanes.

I now wish to set you on fire in a jealous, pouty rage.

[Emmerask]

So I read the nda and I´m fairly certain (I hate legal talk^^) that even saying that you are in the beta test is a breach of the nda

from the definition of confidential information

"until and unless WN and USER make a press release or similar statement mutually accepted by both parties describing the existence of any relationship between the parties and the scope of their respective activities thereunder; "

it pretty much means (I think) you are not allowed to say that there is any relation between you and the company, which beta testing would be ^^

[super dark33]

Does that mean i am breaking legal rules?
ill edit the post right away.

[Emmerask]

well we are not really allowed to give legal advice here, I would edit it first and check with one of the world of warplanes reps if you are or are not allowed to tell if you are a beta tester then once given an answer you can still reup the original post.

NDAs are always written so badly that not half the people "reading" it even understand a tenth of it

[super dark33]

Appearently, in their forums beta testers can get special signature stuff that say I AM A BETA TESTER with wings and all.

So i think its legal.

[super dark33]

Alright, so appearently i cant tell you about the gameplay itself, but we can talk about the game in general.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

My only hope is that it'll have decent non-joystick controls. Because dammit, some of us here don't wanna shell out more money for a joystick just to play a flying game. Rise of Flight would be a much better game, for instance, if the keyboard/mouse controls were any good.

[tensai_oni]

Non-joystick controls are good. The joystick gives you more minute, precise control, but alternative ways of playing are perfectly usable too. The World of Warplanes creators even released a video about it.

However, I don't like this game very much. The problems World of Tanks had, this one has even more.

[MachineWraith]

However, I don't like this game very much. The problems World of Tanks had, this one has even more.

Such as?

/10char

[Emmerask]

Well to list a few:

-Grind
-Balancing Matchmaking issues
-general Balancing issues (something every "mmo" to date has had, true, but nonetheless an issue ^^)
-pay to win*


*before we get into a huge argument here is what I consider pay to win:
lets pretend we have 2 teams of exactly equal skill, one team which pays for gold ammo, consumables, guns and the other which does not pay a single dime.

The team which pays will win the vast majority of rounds (maybe even all), that is pay to win.

Dota2 for example is the exact opposite, the only thing you can buy are skins for your heroes, new announcers and other fluff.

Pay to win does not mean that you will automatically win because you payed money, the one and only thing it refers to is that you can buy tangible advantages that are either very hard/time consuming or not at all to get.
The new player will still lose no matter how much he payed versus a veteran ^^

[tensai_oni]

I don't have issues with the grind, and buyable elements are relatively balanced. The only problem with them is that on higher tiers, you need a premium account to earn money with a fight - on a normal one, you can sweat like crazy and shoot down 4 enemy tanks, and even if you win you may have still lost money thanks to repairs and ammo lost.

The problems with World of X games:

Balance. Flavor of the patch rules supreme. And that flavor in 90% of cases is Russian units. I am starting to think the designers were biased.
Tiers. Technically, a lower tier can outmaneuver and defeat a higher tier unit if the player plays his cards smart. This is rarely the case in WoT, and never at all in WoW.

I'm not demanding less advanced units to be as powerful as the later ones. That would be ridiculous. But if you have a fight where t3s and t5s fight together, give the t3s a fighting chance. As it is now, they are just fodder.

[GloatingSwine]

I'm not demanding less advanced units to be as powerful as the later ones. That would be ridiculous. But if you have a fight where t3s and t5s fight together, give the t3s a fighting chance. As it is now, they are just fodder.

This is where the heavily team based nature of WoT comes in. If you're on the low end of the tiers in the battle you've drawn in, find a big mate and follow them around. Any enemies that shoot at you then are failing to shoot at something far more dangerous (also you can hide behind them), and you can get some XP by supporting with added damage.

Hell, if you're just spotting for arty and keeping your head down you get something, or blocking a likely lane for lights to come and kill your arty early then moving out when everyone's got a few dents and you can pick at the survivors.

The balance works because the teams are, on average, pretty balanced, you just have to decide how you can contribute to this particular fight and do that thing to the best of your ability.

And then when you draw in a battle where you're at the top of the tier list live it up.

I'm not saying WoT doesn't have problems. Gold ammo is probably the most egregious because it's straight up buying power. But also they don't seem to have enough faith in the staying power of the core game, so they've made the metagame into a huge grindfest. As a hilarious counterpoint to that, the most exciting game I've ever had (and that term does not apply frequently to a slower paced game like WoT) was in a tier 1 batte, where I basically singlehandedly saved the game by rolling up and killing three T1s (and their 3% health MS-1 that appeared half a second too late) that were in our cap at 80% complete with my busted ass Loltraktor with about 30hp left and a broken engine at the start of the fight, saving a cap at the last minute and taking a game that was 5 vs 2 down to 1 vs 2 in the space of about a minute and ending with 7 kills to my name. It ended with a draw with me unable to get anywhere near the last guy, (who had taken out the other Loltraktor) due a busted engine, thankfully because I very much doubt my luck would have held.

Still, goes to show that the grind and progression system is actually a trap, you don't need to be thinking about the next upgrade to be enjoying the game.

[Erloas]

My only hope is that it'll have decent non-joystick controls. Because dammit, some of us here don't wanna shell out more money for a joystick just to play a flying game. Rise of Flight would be a much better game, for instance, if the keyboard/mouse controls were any good.

I haven't played this game yet... but I've been looking for a good flight game that needs a joystick. The only flight games I have played recently the joystick wasn't an option or just wasn't as good of an option and it just didn't feel right. The joystick is part of the experience for me. And yes... joysticks are very rarely used any more so most people won't have them but you can get pretty decent 3-axis joysticks for $20-30 any more and the one I have has lasted for years.

Well to list a few:

-Grind
-Balancing Matchmaking issues
-general Balancing issues (something every "mmo" to date has had, true, but nonetheless an issue ^^)
-pay to win*

Its a mmo, a grind is a given. But if it is like WoT (I haven't tried WoW yet) then the grind isn't bad at all. I'm just going to assume it is pretty closely designed to WoT. Sure there are a few tanks which are a pain and feel like a grind, but most really aren't. I also believe that it would be a very bad idea to let any player pick up a T10 tank/plane after a couple hours. And as mentioned, you can have a lot of fun with lower level tanks so a higher tier tank does not mean a more fun battle. You're not missing anything by not having a T10 tank.

I don't think MM is really an issue because really one sided games generally come down to a bit of luck and coordination and aren't a result of one side having tank X and the other side not having that tank. It happens a lot when both sides have a very similar mix of many tanks. It is also almost impossible to balance based on players. It is also a general issue with every game in that sometimes you just happen to end up with better players on the same team, that happens in WoT, L4D, Twisted Metal, and every other online multiplayer game I've ever played because there is no way to account for player synergy.

*before we get into a huge argument here is what I consider pay to win:
lets pretend we have 2 teams of exactly equal skill, one team which pays for gold ammo, consumables, guns and the other which does not pay a single dime.

The team which pays will win the vast majority of rounds (maybe even all), that is pay to win.

But games are randomly selected, you have no way of stacking all the paying players together, best you can do is 3 players at once. But I haven't seen a notable increase in win rates on teams with platoons versus teams without and ofter there are platoons on both sides.

I also don't know how you even know if people are using gold rounds. I hear a lot of people claim the other person had them when they loose, but people always have an excuse for loosing.
As for consumables you can get those for gold as well as for credits, the gold options just have a small secondary boost.

As for the premium tanks I don't see most of them as being much better then other tanks of the same tier. They don't have the initial build up of components and the costs associated with that. The primary advantage of premium tanks seems to be lower repair costs and earning a bit more credits, so a faster grind, not more powerful in-game.

[Jonzac]

If your dying for a great flying game, may I suggest Falcon 4.0: Allied Force or Battle of Britian: Wings of Victory.

Not only two high fidelity flight sims, but both have a campaign that you direct/fly. Also, mods for F4 (look for Free Falcon) add every airplane and weapon imaginable...including making the actual tasked needed to fly and launch weapons as realisitic as possible.

BOB:WOV is all about the Battle of Britian, from convoy attack to the end...and you will see up to 1000 aircraft in the sky on Black Thursday....its amazing and the flight AI is VERY good...if you get a kill at all you will consider it a great day..

They're older but completely awesome games.

[Gnoman]

I don't think FreeFalcon 5 even needs the original Falcon 4.0 any more. Of course, it's not a light sim, and takes hundreds of hours to get more than basic proficiency.

[Jonzac]

Yes, it does. Heck I remember the schiem between RP and eFalcon...even used the ibeta (heck its been so long I cant remember that) when we use the Delphi forum to talk about F4.

*sigh* I really need to buy a Saitek x52 and start over again.

[Jonzac]

On another note, while I've gotten out of helping the BDG...mostly with manual work and some early stuff...there is another patch for it coming out.

http://simhq.com/_air14/air_505a.html

give a great description..


also a description of the new Falcon 4.0 BMS patch

http://www.simhq.com/_air14/air_507a.html

I REALLY need that Saitek now.

[GloatingSwine]

If your dying for a great flying game, may I suggest Falcon 4.0: Allied Force or Battle of Britian: Wings of Victory.

Not only two high fidelity flight sims, but both have a campaign that you direct/fly. Also, mods for F4 (look for Free Falcon) add every airplane and weapon imaginable...including making the actual tasked needed to fly and launch weapons as realisitic as possible.

I'm fairly sure that people who want World of Whatevers aren't going to be terribly attracted by the campaign features of other games. The point of World of Tanks is that it's a matchmade competitive multi game with an ongoing progression system. It's certainly not a beardo tank sim where you need nine million buttons to make it do anything, the beardo mechanics are generally transparent to the user because they're all about armour penetration, impact angles and the like (and even then the damage model underneath it is just hitpoints).

They're also not really looking for a realistic sim as much as they are a game with accurate modelling of a big herd of nonsense which they can use to shoot up mans.

They're basically completely seperate genres with a slight crossover in userbase.

[Leon]

I thought about signing up for the Alpha and then decided that no if its going to follow the same release pattern as Tanks then I'm not going to see anything i actually want to fly for a very long time (barring of course Lend Lease planes).

[Jonzac]

I'm fairly sure that people who want World of Whatevers aren't going to be terribly attracted by the campaign features of other games. The point of World of Tanks is that it's a matchmade competitive multi game with an ongoing progression system. It's certainly not a beardo tank sim where you need nine million buttons to make it do anything, the beardo mechanics are generally transparent to the user because they're all about armour penetration, impact angles and the like (and even then the damage model underneath it is just hitpoints).

They're also not really looking for a realistic sim as much as they are a game with accurate modelling of a big herd of nonsense which they can use to shoot up mans.

They're basically completely seperate genres with a slight crossover in userbase.

This is true. World of warplanes has nothing to do with simming...just like WoT has nothing to do with a real tank sim like Steel Beasts Pro. However, I choose to look at it as a gateway drug for a new generation to eventually move into a more hardcore sim. Enevitably people are going to be pissed they can't manuver their aircraft more realistically and then hopefully they move to an actual aircraft sim.

[GloatingSwine]

This is true. World of warplanes has nothing to do with simming...just like WoT has nothing to do with a real tank sim like Steel Beasts Pro. However, I choose to look at it as a gateway drug for a new generation to eventually move into a more hardcore sim. Enevitably people are going to be pissed they can't manuver their aircraft more realistically and then hopefully they move to an actual aircraft sim.

Evidence suggests otherwise. Because people have been making arcadey flying games for a million years and proper flight sims remain as niche a product as ever they were. Hell, even the arcadey games are a niche product.

It turns out that if you gave people a hardcore sim they would be pissed that they couldn't shoot the mans, and they would want a game like World of Warplanes in order to satisfy their actual gaming requirements.