When it came to performance, flight characteristics and secondary ordinance choices, the premium tier VII J4M Senden was the closest aircraft in World of Warplanes to a Japanese Heavy Fighter that you could get, until the same tiered Tachikawa Ki-94-I arrived on the scene.
In the pre-2.0 days, the Jammer (as know by quite a few folks) was best suited to the Boom and Zoom playstyle, since it had a fantastic climb rate (by Japanese aircraft standards) and was somewhat inflexible to maneuvering combat. The fairly accurate machine guns would easily shred an opponent caught in the crosshairs and when the main cannon scored a hit, would turn them into confetti.
There were a few downsides to this plane. Since it was Japanese, it lacked armor and was prone to catching fire, thanks to not having a self sealing fuel tank, the engine was slow to recover power after a heavy boosting load and it's a big, easy to spot target in the sky.
Despite all of that, I think I performed reasonably well with the Jammer in the past, taking on and adjusting to the learning curve of this aircraft. The question is, would any and/or all of that transfer to 2.0?
Great outcome, but not a stellar exhibition of my skills or use of that particular plane.
To critique myself on a few points, I made some poor targeting choices, wasted a lot of power/energy in maneuvers and raced off to battle a group of foes without team support.
Best to use this as an example of NOT how to fly it.
It has to be well over a year since I flew any of my Soviet attack aircraft and in that time, got used to flying faster, more maneuverable and very frail in comparison fighters. Now, couple that admission with all of the changes that came in Update 2.0. (including the revamped ground targets) and I thought I had a real disaster on my hands.
From my own memory, the premium, tier V IL-2 (mod.) I selected to demonstrate for one of my YouTube viewers didn't fly nearly as I expected it to. It is still the big lumbering and clumsy object that should fall from the sky at any moment, but more so now then ever before.
To the pleasure and delight of one certain player, it's "superhuman" armor feels thinned to being nearly nonexistent. My IL took more punishment than other aircraft I have flown thus far, but not quite up to the levels I remember. And of course, there was the "never miss" rear gunner, either suffering from a severe hangover or his gun has been loaded with more blanks than live rounds. Switching to manual aiming didn't seem to help with this.
However, my observations are based on a three battle session, the first two being defeats and the final victory....
If you have been following me for any length of time in the past, you may recall my previous comments about the only Hawker Hurricane currently in World of Warplanes. If you are new to this topic, then I will bring you up to speed by saying it has been a relatively constant exercise in disappointment.
To summarize, the Hawker Hurricane IID has been an aircraft suffering from a chronic identity crisis. Relabeled as a Multirole shortly after it's introduction to the game, it flies and fights unlike it's designation. In my (and a few others) opinion, it is a British version of the German Junkers Ju 87G or all gun Stuka variant attack aircraft of the same tier. Why this hasn't been seriously considered and corrected yet?
However, with the sweeping changes that came in Update 2.0, I figured I would see if the Hurricane benefited in any way with the recent game overhaul....
Despite the outcome, I wasn't pleased with my own performance in this aircraft, at all. In the pre-2.0 days, I was able to figure out and make the Hurricane be somewhat more effective in aerial combat, in this post-2.0 era, I was struggling and fighting with it in just about every way possible.
The Hawker climbs much better than before, but those big 40mm cannons were hard to aim and hit a target for meaningful damage. The plane just can't take a hit itself (the real ones were built mostly of wood, that bit of historical accuracy feels a little over exaggerated now) and the engine boost seems to be exhausted too quickly, when compared with other aircraft of the same class and tier.
Too bad, I had high hopes, but for me, it's grounded, again.
If there is one aircraft that 2.0 has made huge impact one, it's the tier V premium Curtiss P-40 M-105.
This Lend-Lease, Soviet powered, American plane was mediocre at best in the pre-2.0 days. Poor climb rate, due to a highly asthmatic engine and machines guns that felt considerably weaker than it's American counterparts, it wasn't a whole lot of fun to fly. Sure, I might have had a few great matches in mine, but those were rare and very reliant on the circumstances playing into my favor.
However, 2.0 has changed this aircraft more into the winged terror it should have always been....
I played it from a defender/interceptor role and didn't bother with the optional wing mounted rockets. I was amazed I was able to climb up to where the enemy bombers were flying and took a few down for good measure. The machine dealt out slow, but fairly reliable damage and diving down on adversarial attack aircraft paid back the dividends.
Granted, one battle doesn't set the standard for future expectations, but this sortie does show promise from the changes that came with the latest update, especially for this aircraft.
Although I can't quite put my finger on why, but I have always been drawn to the unique design of the Bell P-39 Airacobra. Perhaps, it was the unusual mid engine layout, or even it's odd football-with-wings shape, I have given up trying to rationalize the draw to it long ago. Despite that, I had never owned any prototype or production version in Planes, until now.
Part of the recent Corsair Promotion, along with the French SE 100 Heavy Fighter, I have now put the Naval prototype, tier V XFL Airabonita into my fleet.
The armament configuration isn't new, two machine guns supporting a heavy, large caliber cannon, many other aircraft in the game have this kind of setup. It was the low to mid altitude maneuverability and weapons package together I was looking forward to, especially with the changes in 2.0.
I have flown this before, including the higher tiered, Soviet marked P-39Q-15 in previous CT servers and produced mixed results based on the mechanics and adversaries of those pre-2.0 versions.
But that was then, this is now....
Despite most of the damage I am producing comes from the machine guns,
when I do score a hit on the proverbial mosquito with the big meteor
cannon, it hurts them, badly. So far, the XFL is doing alright, more
flights and practice might help. Perhaps, it's time to consider putting a higher tiered, better armed Bell P-63 Kingcobra into the game?
A strategy I have been experimenting with is assisting with capturing the nearest points, defending those areas as much as possible and when the Squall Line is activated (when respawning is turned off), go on the offensive against enemy aircraft. So far, it appears to be working not too bad, if I can maintain some consistency. A few more battles will show me if I am on the right track with this, or not.
So, after playing out over a dozen
battles in Update 2.0, here are some of my thoughts, for those of you
interested in reading them.
While
Conquest isn't an original to Planes concept (quite a few people out
there are quick to point out another game of this genre that has the
very same thing), it does offer an alternative to the same old - same
old Team Deathmatch mode that has been the mainstay to this game since
it's inception. However, the grievous error came by forcing it as the
only choice to play the game, turning off and away quite a few members from an already small playerbase.
Although too late to suggest and implement now, but perhaps having both modes available as a selectable
option (as seen in other WarGaming titles) and collecting statistics
from those player choices might have smoothed out the current mixed
emotional situation before it even started (if Deathmatch is just on a
temporary hiatus and will return in the next few updates from now,
making an announcement about that very soon might also help matters).
The
removal of Birthday Missions (although announced to return) was enough
reason for some people to not login and play for a bit. With no goals to try and complete, why bother?
As
for the gameplay itself, I have gotten used to the ingame changes to
how the aircraft fly and perform (more or less) and configured my
controls to offer up results that nearly mirror my 1.9 settings as close
as I can get them. I can't understand why they were reset or who
thought that was even a good idea to do so, but I just quietly fixed the
problem and moved on.
For me, there is a lot of
missing information from my screen as I try to do battle in 2.0, that
was there in 1.9 and before. I certainly hope this is also returned in a
near future update as a form of partial restoration or a selectable
option from the Settings menu (I may consider installing a mod that does
this, from a trusted source of course). Some people can honestly relate
to just how critical it is to know particular things concerning the
aircraft, it's current state and knowing who/what is going on in the environment around them, it's been know to be a game changer.
There
are some superficial things I really like (such as the former El
Halluf, now just known as North Africa, complete with pyramids) and some
I don't (a few enemy planes I have shot up and caused them to explode
right in front of me, at very close range, left me seeing spots for a
few seconds). Some sounds and music are an immersive improvement, others
are just downright annoying.
I find myself with
agreeing with many others that this does feel like an unfinished product
and a lot of work needs to be done to it yet. Some players may return
in future updates, if some of what I covered above (and more that I
haven't) happens. Others have had enough, their patience finally running out with this final straw for them and have left, perhaps for good.
In the meantime, I will still play here and there, waiting and seeing what will happen next.
With the launch of World of Warplanes 2.0, there seems to be a giveaway celebration going on.
Announced here, I quickly collected the Corsair Promotion (after completing a few tasks to earn points for the whole reward) and then checked my email for a Bomb and Respawn 2.0 message (got something called the Carrier Bundle, not exactly sure what was deposited in my hangar from that).
I am sure I received some really great stuff, but there was one new acquisition that I couldn't wait to try out....THE FRENCH PLANE!
While others may have purchased one or more before now and some might have even collected them from Missions, I never got around to laying my hands on a single aircraft, until now. Not that I am a conscientious collector....but not having one of these "blue birds" made the fleet feel incomplete.
Then, still suffering giddy excitement, I flew the plane with reckless abandonment....
The final battle for the day I wanted to share was this lower tiered
sortie in my premium, tier III Ha-137 V1 German GA. After my first
flight in the Meteor, I decided to have a go at a ground game, since
those targets have gone through another huge change (the second since
release). However, the few human and the numerous artificial enemies in
this encounter weren't expecting this bent wing ground pounder to nose
up and fight back....
The client updated fine, figured I would make sure the video drivers were current as well.
First thing that struck
me was the new hangar. What's up with the Zeppelin? Where are the doors
to get my aircraft out of here? Seems the aircraft in this environment
have a more 3D look to them! After I got over those revelations, I poked
around the UI causally, nothing appeared to leap out me is being
totally different and warranting a closer look. Another inspection of
things told me all of my aircraft were still here, something about one
or two vanishing had me a bit worried (not sure were I heard that from).
However,
I didn't want to spend a lot of time here, I wanted to take to the air
and experience for myself how much the game had truly changed from when I
last played....
Now, before you give
into the urge of watching the video below, a few things to consider.
One, I am a little rusty in the production and editing department, two
months of not making this type of content defiantly shows, plus I found
out there are no replays for now, so my usual opening scene is missing
(if you have seen my previous movies). Secondly, the game is being
played in "as installed" state, meaning no custom configurations (like
my paint schemes) or key remapping (my old settings didn't make the
transfer to the new version, something I corrected in later battles).
And finally, I played "cold," as I stated earlier, I logged zero hours
on the CT server, so my grey matter and muscle memory was still
programed for 1.9.
But, I
figured that the many, many hours in my tier VII Gloster Meteor would
be enough to make it through this initial ordeal....
Okay, where to begin?
Flying a fighter, I stuck to the doctrine of going air-to-air as much
as possible. However, either the Meteor has lost a lot of it's former
performance or the air is a lot stiffer than it was before (this has
happened in an earlier update 1.4 or 1.5, can't remember which one for
sure). Perhaps, the gravity pull has been cracked up a bit? For whatever
reason, the plane felt heavy, slow to turn and a whole lot less
maneuverable than memory serves. A very disappointing experience.
I don't particularly like how cluttered my screen has become, debating on relocating/removing the radar scope, for example.
I am not a fan of respawning, despite the fact I died more than once
during this encounter. I have learned and accepted that you should get
one life to live and by making the most of that, through wise target
selection and environmental awareness, one life is all you should need. I
believe respawning can and will promote a certain level of
carelessness, which will dull the learning curve of the game, making for
some less-than-enjoyable battles.
Speed, maneuvers and dogfighting is what I want out of Planes and to a
degree, that aspect is still there. During the Meteor battle, I was
able to get the drop on enemy aircraft and fire off a lot of rounds,
some even hit my intended target too! The loss of the lead indicator is a
handicap I could learn, in time, live without. Without this handy tool,
I could adapt to zooming in (which is an experience of it's very own)
or just eyeball ahead of the target and roll the dice on making some
hits.
There are a few other things I didn't experiment with, such as
high/low altitude penalties (take a fighter below the deck and see what
it does/doesn't do), make notes to myself on boost/weapons cooldowns and
a few other items.
As I write this, I have a few more battles under my belt and I still
have mixed feelings about things. I can't say for certain that I am
fully onboard with the radical changes that came with 2.0, but I am not
going to dismiss this title from my computer either. For the next while,
I will play out a battle here and there, when I get the time and try to
experience more than what I have thus far.
It has been nearly two full months since I last sat down and played any real measurable time in World of Warplanes.
Up
until that point, I had just completed the Operation Dynamo event and
parked a premium Supermarine Spitfire Ia in my hangar. As a side quest, I
also collected a LaGG-3-4, then proceeded to play a few Japanese
offerings....then faded away.
From
then until now, I have been rather busy with real life (work, family
and another, non-game project which I have a stronger passion for than
Planes) so finding the time to come back here, let alone keep up with
what was going on and what was yet to come, just wasn't near the top of
my list. However, I have caught a few glimpses on the forums (a comment
here, a picture there) from the 2.0 CT server and decided to wait for
the big day, before making any kind of a return.
At
the time of writing all of this, I am only 40% of the way through the
download of the update, still a ways to go. Will I like the changes?
Hard to say, I have tried to actively avoid the topic of 2.0 and wanted
to experience it first hand, free of influence from the comments of
others, positive or negative. To be fair, I am not completely oblivious
to the major changes this game is about to go through, discussion of
this is reached some of the far corners of the internet (and a few real
life friends who know me for who I am here), so I did find out some
stuff, despite putting fingers in my ears, going "na na na."
Nevertheless,
the day has come, the update is underway and I will post my thoughts
and a gameplay video or two on this very thread. Stick around.
