A Few Thoughts ...

[Gord]

Back in the "Good Old days" of 1980 I stumbled across what I thought of was a revolutionary game: "Ace of Aces: Handy Rotary Edition". In this WWI Dogfighting game each player was given a book of cockpit views from either a Sopwith Camel or Fokker Dr1. Under the cockpit was a series of maneuvers with a page number below that. By choosing maneuver's simultaneously and cross indexing the result, a final view page was revealed. This final page could be a view of your murderous fire pouring into the enemy (at close medium or long range) or vice versa, or merely show the two airplanes relative position and the next maneuver could be planned. The rules were quite simple as I recall
Great Stuff.
In many ways, Wings of War reminds me of Ace of Aces with the added joy of miniatures. I think by applying some of the Ace of Aces ideas to WoW we could have a much faster playing and flexible game.
Planning 3 moves in advance seems unrealistic. I think two is better and more reflective of a/c operation.
In Ace of Aces each move is played one at a time and one can make instant corrections to the tactical situation. That's OK for quick play but not quite realistic either. I think a two move plan more accurately represents the way an aircraft flies. I can see three moves for heavies but not for WWI dogfighters.
Having flown light planes myself, I may be thinking dozens of moves ahead but really focusing on what I am doing and what I am need to do next: like rudder left, stick over and back, ease off rudder, watch my heading then stick forward to ease off the turn and right stick for wings level.
One advantage of only having to show two moves in advance is that a loop could then be performed: Climb-Immelman-Immelman - with the cards provided. I have tested this and it seems to work pretty well and actually puts your a/c slightly behind it's starting position.
In Ace of Aces I think the tailing advantage was handled in a better way. Whenever an attacker was in the kill position (and an Ace if memory serves) the pilot being tailed had to indicate generally a "Right, Left or Straight" rather than reveal the exact maneuver. The tailing pilot still had a huge advantage but it left a little more "wiggle room" for the pilot being chased. Also no tailing advantage was provided for long range.
Range was divided into Long, medium and point blank and as I recall collisions were a real possibility of getting too close.
I like the range rulers for WoW but considering the range of a rifle calibre bullet find them quite short. The middle line is really point blank but the so called long range is not much further out. Has anybody else had any thoughts on this?
I am going to dig out my copy of Ace of Aces and see if anything else crops up.
Gord

[flash]

Not familiar with Ace of Aces Gordon but I quite like the tailing idea. On the few occasions I've achieved it I've selected a left, right & straight on card to cover my bets but only held on once !
I'd like longer ranges too but I guess they've designed it as a close and effective range - and it works ok. I have thought of having an Ace ability of crackshot & making up a slightly longer ruler with a B card damage at the extreme range.
I can hear the whining now....and that's not bullets whining past !! lol

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Somewhere in the threads is a lot of info on this sort of Question. No doubt the Col. can point you straight at it.
I have been using the Immelmann, Immelmann, in house for some time and it adds greatly to the fun of a dogfight, so it is great to see that you are doing the same.
Rob.

[Gord]

Thanks for the replies,
The tailing rule from AoA seems to work pretty well so far and so does the loop. Immelman - Immelman puts you right back were you started and is great fun as you say Rob.
I like the long range idea with the B deck and the Crack Shot option sounds good, maybe a minus 1 to the damage for non aces.

Gord
BTW the long side slip (17 18 ) in the M deck looks like a good substitute for a barrel roll and the wide slips (20-22) look more like what I would expect from a slide slip.