Would be cool if weapons had alternate fire modes, like MTAM can toggle their multilock on or off, SRAM can toggle between their lofting trajectory or a more conventional direct trajectory, maybe some AGMs or guided bombs can change from active tracking to position only (doesn't need lock but harder to hit moving targets)
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A member registered Dec 31, 2024
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Some extra thoughts playing a bit more after the survey
AA gunfire looks great, not just the visual effects, but also their behavior with the near misses. Really pretty to fly though without being too overly punishing.
Enemy elites/aces are a given for the genre so I'm sure you plan on adding those, but hard to judge the gameplay fully without an actually challenging opponent that's more evasive/aggressive.
I've already written at length about my opinion on the stations system, but more thoughts came up. Only one weapon for some stations feels pretty bad, basically means some weapons are must-takes esp that there doesn't seem to be a penalty for taking too many weapons. I suppose that it's probably more realistic as it currently is, but it'd feel less one-note if every station had at least two weapon choices.
To add onto the question about unconventional weapons loadouts, I think restricted stations are much more annoying than restricted types of weapons. Assuming that multiple stations would increase salvo size for all weapons like how it was in the 0.10 demo, a plane that only has MTAMs, bombs and guns but can equip them freely across all stations, is more interesting to me than a plane that has access to all weapons but most of the stations are restricted to only one or two options.
Timer probably shouldn't run during carrier takeoff. Not a huge deal bc the timers aren't that tight, but still puts carrier planes like a minute behind. That takeoff sequence is really really cool though.
Missed the patch notes about SRAMs now having a lofting trajectory, that explains why their flight paths are so funky lol. Cool to see unique missile behaviors but currently SRAMs are basically top attacking which is a bit silly lol (could be kept in as a postgame unlockable joke weapon though.)
Intro dialogue to grand slam still gets a laugh out of me, even after about a dozen restarts. Janky voice effects aside, the VAs you've picked overall seem really good, I've already gushed about Iris 1 and 3 plenty. but also Daycare's "grizzled teacher" and Rollo's "overeager newcomer" vibes also come across really well.
Was gonna say that awacs probably doesn't have to narrate every weapon use, gets a bit annoying after a while, but then had an idea: what if the awacs had different lines for subsequent weapon usage in quick succession? Like single uses have the current lines but if I fire 2 or 4 missiles in quick succession the awacs acknowleges the amount of missiles fired in the lines. Probably a bit of a stretch given the extra load on the VA and may require something dynamic voiceline splicing (which I imagine is not so easy to implement), but it's something that I've not seen in any other arcade flight game (besides multilock missiles having unique lines for firing multiple locks)
Being destroyed in survival mode leads to a blackscreen (edit, saw the post, this also happened to me in an I-29)
Stall warning from flying too high never turns off the audio alert (happens on all the planes)
If taking only guns, can't lock onto enemies at all (and therefore no leading pip), on grand slam with the FGR guns only, can't even shoot at all
Finished Frontline 59 and found it a bit short so decided to replay this demo again, and it holds up pretty well. In particular I think the music had some really good picks (though kinda wish the specific tracks were credited because some of the artists have hundreds of songs).
Can confirm though that my keybinds are being overwritten whenever the game restarts, which gets annoying.
Also kinda wish that there more more stats shown for the aircraft, I found that the NRP-20 seems to have significantly worse performance at higher speeds, and the acceleration for some of the planes doesn't seem to line up with their speed. I get that the UI is supposed to harken to AC4 but it'd be nice to have a button that could toggle an expanded stats menu, sorta like how armored core 6 does it.
Found a bug where returning from the instructions menu makes it so tutorial and survival don't show up on the main menu
Also I find it funny how contrails will appear when pitching up and down when taxiing on the runway in the tutorial lol.
It seems like if I put my gear down again right after takeoff it sticks me in landing mode and I can't turn it off
The allied support menu in the UI doesn't seem to close when I press 4, though it does remove the targeting reticle and the menu does disappear properly after using the support, and it seems to close automatically after a while. Also, does allied support actually come from units on the map? used mlrs near some allies and I could've sworn I saw the rockets actually come out from them, which is a really neat touch if true (and also makes it more jarring how allied planes just appear the moment you summon them)
But yeah, really neat demo! Terrain and models aside, the controls and style feel good. I especially like how there's some more nods to sim-like elements, like how the throttle can actually works like a throttle and can be granularly adjusted. Being able to pick individual weapons per station is also really really nice.(though I think that it should highlight or indicate the selected station on the plane itself, and/or change the view to show the underside of the plane). I also noticed that sounds seem to have speed of sound lag, also a really nice touch
There are some things that bother me a bit:
The lack of an Elevation/Attitude indicator can make things a little disorienting, especially given that the graphics are a bit "fuzzy" at times which makes it difficult to tell the sky from the ground
Missiles don't seem properly lead their targets (even the HMVMs of both types seemed to curve behind bombers rather than setting themselves on an intercept course), which I sorta understand given that this is supposed to be arcade flight action but Project Wingman made them work and imo they're more satisfying that way.
It seems like there's supposed to be three different views similar to how ace combat/project wingman does it, where there's a third person, a cockpit view, and a third with only hud and no cockpit, but the third one doesn't seem to make the cockpit invisible properly.
Instant fail as soon as I leave the mission area is a bit bruh but it's understandable for a demo
The terrain hitboxes are a little weird but I saw the devpost mentioned you're gonna change that.
I feel like LRSM doesn't actually have enough range to hit stuff out to it's lock range unless fired at low altitude and high speed. Not a bad thing since that's realistic to how it'd actually perform but it should be mentioned in the description. The LRGM also might have a similar issue
I have a feeling that the gun lead indicator doesn't account for how my velocity affects the bullets, I noticed that at high speed I didn't have to lead nearly as much as the indicator was telling me
The NRP-20 can put rocket pods on station 2 (the right side wingtip) but not station 1, which looks a bit quirky
Had a funny thing happen on operation whisper: I found out I could shoot MTAMs at the patrolling fighters and not raise the alarm, but that turned out to be a mistake in two ways: Firstly, it meant I initially missed the awesome work you did with the flyby sound effects, and secondly, one of the MTAMs missed and aggro'd an I-29, so I had to fly the canyon with an I-29 chasing me that I couldn't shoot down so I was forced to outspeed it lmao. Could be fun as a mission mechanic actually.
Man, tunnel runs are way harder now that I have to actually manage the throttle and can't just let it cruise. Not a bad thing though, leads to these cool moments where I notice my airspeed is too low and I have to desperately ramp up the throttle to not stall. Do kinda wish that the camera zoom effect actually matched the acceleration rather than just responding to the throttle input, gets a bit jarring when I let off the key and the camera pulls in as if I'm not accelerating anymore but I actually still am.
Overall I think this is a really cool demo, had a fun afternoon playing through all the missions and trying all the planes.