War Thunder?

[Syt]

This wasn't on my radar, but RPS' Flare Path is rather gushing about the open beta:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/18/the-flare-path-is-thunderstruck/

War Thunder! Yesterday afternoon I finally got around to introducing myself to this work-in-progress WW2-in-the-air MMO. Yesterday night I crawled away to bed grinning like a man that has just violently revoked the airworthiness certificates of 8 heinous Heinkel 51s, 4 furious Furies, 4 peevish Peashooters, 2 fractious Falchi, 2 chase-me Chaikas, and a deeply confused Kingfisher, and strafed dozens of AAA positions, armoured cars, and tanks.



Coincidentally, I had just violently revoked the airworthiness certificates of 8 heinous Heinkel 51s, 4 furious Furies, 4 peevish Peashooters, 2 fractious Falchi, 2 chase-me Chaikas, and a deeply confused Kingfisher, and strafed dozens of AAA positions, armoured cars, and tanks.



Online dogfighting arenas can be pretty dispiriting places for those attuned to AI bandits. It comes as a rather pleasant surprise to find that not only is War Thunder extremely easy to slip into, it's also not the ego-eviscerating bearpit it might be. Do as I did and devote your first day to tutorials and the low-realism high-octane team-based arcade modes, and within an hour or two, assuming you've got a few years of SP flight sim experience under your Sutton Harness, you should regularly see your name nestling near the top of post-match score tables.



As in World of Tanks, a game War Thunder plainly draws much structural inspiration from, in battle a little canniness goes a pleasingly long way. Official forums are no doubt already crowded with folk complaining that the Martin Monsoon doesn't turn as nimbly as it should or the Grumman Groundfrost's cockpit armour is under-modelled, but ignore all this and use a few simple common-senses tactics, and, even at the controls of a basic Tier 1 biplane fighter, you should be able to make a serious nuisance of yourself.



In arcade matches flight models have had all their jagged edges filed off. There's no spins or stress-related damage. Engine management is ignored, and respawns – the number of which is dependent on how many hangar slots you've purchased – are at high altitude and close to the action. Empty ammo boxes are automatically refilled after a nailbiting 15 second wait. Often games involve advancing AFVs that must be protected or punctured, and airfields that can be captured to hasten victory or repaired to for damage repairs.



I'm sure there will come a time when I tire of the breathless pace, and go investigate the slower, more resonant historical arenas (historically consistent aircraft mixes, no respawns or automatic ammo replenishing) but for the moment the quick, picturesque violence of the public servers is satisfying my need for sky savagery very satisfactorily indeed.



It won't come as much of a surprise to anyone that played Gaijin's last Forties flight effort to hear that War Thunder is bally handsome at times. Maps range from geographically plausible renditions of the Stalingrad and Ruhr areas, to far-fetched-yet-fun depictions of Alpine and African terrain. Peering over pretty canopy-shadowed panels at somersaulting snowcaps and cluttered, smoke-streaked urban skylines, only the gaudy plane icons and lead-calculating crosshairs (features deactivated or toned down in high realism modes) overblown pyrotechnics, and bizarre aircraft mixes betray the illusion.



War Thunder assumes, probably correctly considering wot WoT has achieved, that the way to keep us keen and constant is to lure us up Giant Sequoia-sized tech trees with the promise of regular XP-purchased unlocks. The number of WW2 aircraft types and Korea-era jets theoretically accessible is astounding even if all (?) of the bombers at present must be controlled from HUD or external views. It will be interesting to see whether the associated flight and damage models are as faithful and diverse as the fuselages and wing shapes.



Even at the arcade level there's evidence that Gaijin are putting considerable effort into ensuring warbird death throes are interesting. I've already discovered what it means to limp home with a wounded wing that refuses to do its aerodynamic duty, to glide to the deck with a kaput engine and a canopy liberally sprayed with oil. Having collided with the odd plummeting wing and tail fragment, I suspect damage from debris impacts is also represented. Apparently, at the highest realism settings, a single well-placed or extremely lucky MG or cannon round can disable a system or kindle a fire.



Plane painting, crew training, engine management, jets, monoplanes... there's acres of WT content I've yet to manhandle, and if the roadmap is to be trusted some potentially fantastic features on the way. Waiting patiently on the main menu are tabs for accessing playable AFVs and naval vessels. The thought of nosing a Ju 87G towards sentient tank skirmishes, or parking a Flakpanzer in a quiet courtyard and waiting for customers, is pretty damn exciting. Whatever Wargaming.net have planned (hopefully I'll be be sharing some World of Warplanes impressions soon) it's hard to imagine War Thunder not surviving and prospering.



Those prepared to put up with a few unfurnished nooks and the odd freeze now and again, should start downloading the 7GB beta ASAP. The sooner you get started the sooner you'll have amassed the 8,000,000,000 XP necessary to unlock a Blohm & Voss BV 238 or the 670,000,999,775,209,81,4,2995 required to unlock the Heinkel Hellsquall XI spotted by Spits in the following vid.

WW2 plane arena combat, either in arcade mode or historical mode, very much inspired by World of Tanks (team battles, tech trees . . .).

http://warthunder.com/

[Malicious Intent]

Let's just say that War Thunder completely outclasses its direct competitor, World of Warplanes.

[Syt]

I'm pretty sure I made a first impressions post before I went to bed, but it seems I didn't hit "Post" or something. Or maybe I posted in some other thread. Anyways.

I downloaded the beta yesterday and went through the tutorials to remind myself how much I suck at flight sims. The tutorials cover basic flying, hitting air targets (which I am NOT good at), attacking ground targets with guns, bombs and missiles, and a quick go at using a bomber's gun turret. Advanced tutorials go into take off and landing (ground and carrier), torpedo bombing, dive bombing.

The in game countries are: US, UK, Germany, Japan, USSR. You start with three basic (interwar) planes in each nation, and have to work your way up the tech tree of planes and equipment using XP and promotions you get for combat performance.

A twist in the arenas is that you can respawn as long as you have planes in the hangar of the nation you picked at the start of the battle. It's not immediately game over when you're down. The map I flew on was a desert canyons map. Two teams (of ca. 15 each?) duke it out. The main objective was to destroy enemy ground forces and airbase. It was chaotic fun while I lasted (not long), with about 30 planes in the air and AA fire coming from the ground. I hit a plane or two, but got credited with no kill - as said, I'm pretty rubbish. The canyon map makes for some tight flying when you try to dodge bullets and suddenly find yourself skimming up a cliff, hoping that you won't stall before you hit the top. I kept watching in spectator mode after I lost all three of my planes to get a better feeling of how the combat plays. It's certainly very pretty to look at if you jack up all details.

I played an arcade arena, but there's also options for more realistic battles (which I think also match planes historically together, e.g. Germans vs. Brits), and historical battles. Initial impressions: very favorable, except that I suck even worse at it than at driving tanks.

[The Brain]

No Finns? If I can't fly a Brewster Buffalo with swastikas then I won't bother.

[Syt]

This thread has screenshots and videos:

http://forum.gaijinent.com/index.php?/topic/4165-war-thunder-screenshots-and-videos-collection/page-8

And you can see the difference between arcade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0xbyHx1101g#!

And realistic (compared to the arcade mode ):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=82eWjVCLAPw

[Syt]

Well, while I like the game and it looks rather gorgeous, I think I'll uninstall it, nevertheless. I'm just way too rubbish at it - I can't even hold my plane steady when I have an enemy target straight in my sights or hit stationary targets on the ground.

[Syt]

Well, mystery solved. Everyone is using mouse aim in arcade mode, while I was using a flight stick (which people only use for the Full Realism Battles).

In the following arcade I shot down two had had three assists.

[CountDeMoney]

I dunno... played one of those online sandbox dogfighting sims a couple years ago--I can't remember which one--but the fun lasted all of 10 minutes.

As many historical and cool aircraft that were available, everybody took P-51s.  Boooooring.

[Pishtaco]

I've been playing it for a few weeks. So far, it's been fantastic. The game says I'm fifteen hours in, and I've reached the second or third rank planes - hurricanes and buffaloes. So far it feels like the new planes get handed out at a reasonable rate,  even without paying them anything.

I've been playing with a joystick, and generally doing badly. But I'm starting to hold my own and get as many kills as deaths, mostly through being careful about when I choose to engage.

[Cecil]

I dunno... played one of those online sandbox dogfighting sims a couple years ago--I can't remember which one--but the fun lasted all of 10 minutes.

As many historical and cool aircraft that were available, everybody took P-51s.  Boooooring.

Well since this game is made by russians for russians I think you can guess which planes are strongest/fastest/most agile etc.

[Alcibiades]

Enjoying it, and you can't beat free.

Playing the US planes, want to get me a nice shiny B-17.   Still with the start planes, using a joystick and probably shoot down 1-2 planes every match.

[Syt]

I started with the Japanese planes at first, but they have few tier 2/3 planes, so you enter Level 3 zones with Level 1-3 planes; and I'm not very good with their equipment - though that may be imagination, because the stats of most planes are very similar.

I started on the German tree and find it better - they have more level 2/3 planes (what with the Italian tree added there), so I feel I have better chances going into battle with them.

[Alcibiades]

Got a P-40 yesterday, is pretty good.  Nice having 6 .50 cals.


Playing with the A-20g, really enjoying bombing, a lot.

[Alcibiades]

Yep, bombing is where all the money and experience is.


Routinely getting 25k credits and 30k xp from bombing per match.  Compared to 6k each from playing as a fighter.

[Alcibiades]

My best battle so far, delivered the final  bomb as I was getting shot down.  Didn't end up crashing.