Warthunder

[Fleugs]

Has anyone here been playing Warthunder or is anyone interested in it?

www.warthunder.com is the website.

Some core aspects:

• Free to play combat flight simulator set from the second World War to the Korean War (end tier), with the option to purchase "premium airplanes"
• Online players vs players aerial battles (ca. 15 v 15)
• Realistic physics: detailed aircraft damage and other factors concerning your "flight path" are to be taken into account but make this for a challenging game.
• The development of your "tech tree" takes you through all the stages of the airplanes in the middle of the 20th century, boosting (sometimes insane) biplanes over the well-known aircrafts of the hayday of WWII (Corsair, Stukas, Flying Fortresses, ...) to conceptual aircrafts that never actually flew but are so whack, they're awesome. All individual aircrafts also have their own little tech-tree, meaning you can boost your favourite aircrafts with extra guns, cannons and better engines! Suddenly your P40 Kittyhawk is a beast in the sky!
• Allows players to set up squads of up to 4 players, allowing you to fly in a formation with your friends and get the maximum out of it.
• Is currently in open beta. Ground wars (tanks) and naval wars (boats) are set to be released. Tanks will arrive this spring (so very soon). Ultimately every tree (air, land, water) will be combined into one "game", meaning you can steer your battleship while others are flying fighter aircrafts or driving Tiger-tanks!
• Allows a wide spectrum from effectively smooth running low graphics to one of the most stunning high-end graphic games I have witnessed.
• Mediocre learning curve: it is best to know what you're up against in air battle, so it is best to remember who shot you down and how he or she did it, so next time you don't go head-to-head with an attacker aircraft while flying your biplane!

My nickname in that game is Fleugs. I can be found through this forum, though more effectively on battlemaster's IRC. If anyone already plays this game or feels like trying it out, I'm always up for a game, so just get in touch. Skype makes for a useful tool while playing together, just to make sure you don't crash into each other etc. 

[Tom]

I wanted to check it out, but their Mac client is so horribly broken that it doesn't even install right.

[Fleugs]

Too bad the mac client doesn't work properly. The game is still in beta, the developers claim, so hopefully they get something decent on the market for Mac. When that day comes, just enjoy!

[Tom]

I finally got it to work some weeks ago, played some, now I've stopped playing because their damage system is so completely ridiculous. You can fire at an enemy for hours and give them 10 full belts with nothing happening, and then someone comes from behind and kills you with two bullets. It's just completely random.

[Fleugs]

Yeah, kill assignment could be better but personally I don't suffer from it that much. Playing realistic/historical battles may suit you more if the damage system is too ridiculous; often one critical hit there is enough to down a plane. Certainly if you put it on fire. These modes come with reduced or no help, though.

[Tom]

I don't care that someone else gets the kill. I care that damage is total luck. You point your plane into the general direction of the enemy, press the fire button and hope you get lucky.

[Fleugs]

To be fair I don't think it is like that. I often aim for wings/cockpit to get a quick kill and it seems to work okay. It may depend on the calibre of your guns, though. A 7.7 will be much, much less effective as a 20mm. And from what distance do you start shooting?

[Tom]

To be fair I don't think it is like that. I often aim for wings/cockpit to get a quick kill and it seems to work okay. It may depend on the calibre of your guns, though. A 7.7 will be much, much less effective as a 20mm. And from what distance do you start shooting?

Yeah, maybe I need to wait until I see the white in their eyes, but that's what I play shooters for, not air combat games.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Yeah, maybe I need to wait until I see the white in their eyes, but that's what I play shooters for, not air combat games.

Probably shouldn't be playing a WWII air combat game then. Still, what plane were you using, and what were you shooting at? I know that a lot of the biplanes are rather undergunned (except for the russians), especially if you try to shoot down what bombers there are at that level.