Hi all,

Has anyone else noticed subtle gameplay changes in the Beta Career? I had been out of the country for a while and came back to the new patch the other day, fired up my career, and flew a few missions. I noticed that there seemed to be more enemy aircraft in the area along my patrol route, and that they acted more realistically. For instance, I buzzed an airfield on a whim and noticed several planes on the field. They took off and tried to intercept me. On the next mission I returned to the airfield and they tried to intercept me again. I shot down 4 or 5 planes in those two missions over the aerodrome. I decided to fly one more mission on the next day, and immediately upon takeoff I was attacked by a lone scout from the same squadron that I had been harassing. It kind of made me feel like the pilot was seeking retribution for his fallen comrades. I found it really cool. I cant remember things like this happening in the past. Has anyone else noticed anything similar? Any other gameplay enhancements with the latest patch?

Placebo effect.

No, I dont think so. I didnt really pay much attention to the patch, just knew I had to update the game to play it when I got home. It was after all that stuff happened that I started wondering if something had changed because the behavior of the enemy aircraft was noticeably different. It may have just been that way all along and this was my first experience of it, I dont really know. Just curious if anyone else has had similar experiences.

As I mentioned earlier, there seemed to be more enemy activity along my flight path than normal. For instance, on two separate occasions before I left the German side of the lines my flight spotted enemy flights of various aircraft. In the past, encountering enemy aircraft on my side of the lines had been very infrequent, and usually only consisted of a lone reconnaissance plane. Whatever the cause, the Beta Career is, to me, much more enjoyable and unpredictable now.

Something to keep in mind with the careers missions - the back end servers (not your local desktop) is what generates the missions so updates can take place outside of the patching process.

You know what I would really like to see?

well, I'm gonna' tell you anyway!

I'd like the missions to not feel so similar/familiar. It's my number one gripe of single player!

...I'd like a small percentage chance that the back end server generates:

1.) An ace encounter ( I mean an actual "challenge" ala Red Baron style - an "added" mission of the day, like lone patrol)
2.) A huge freakin' swarm of enemy! You know, the kind of mission where the only good option is to hightail it home!
3.) ...or maybe even hapenstance across a huge (10+) friendly formation on their way to wherever....
4.) Or have a huge home drome scramble! Where it feels like the entire GAS is upon you wave-after-wave.

I just want to see a little bit more variety for any single mission type.

I'm just a little weary of the 2-4 enemy by my drome, and/or 2-4 over the front and maybe another somewhere along the way....
Gimme a day where I run into 10 all at once! Maybe friendly/enemy reinforments show up half way into the furball... I dunno'...

*shrug*

p.s. I too feel like there have been some undocumented improvements as well.

Hey Brian,

I actually had a mission a while back that was kind of like what youre talking about. It started out ordinary, with my flight of three jumping an enemy flight of 2 or 3. I am not sure when the enemy reinforcements showed up, but in the end, I ended up with around 5 kills, a smoking engine, and no wingmen. It was pretty intense, and definitely one of my favorite single player missions to date. I made it safely back across to my lines and landed my crate. In the after-action I saw that my wingmen had been shot down (one killed, one captured) and that they too had gotten kills. It was a great time...although not so much for the wingmen

Hi VMI,

Yeah, those are the memorable ones for sure. I really enjoy reading accounts of players that have those experiences! Thank you for sharing that.

I would just like to take the random 2 to 4 aircraft in two or three places along a route, and put them all in at the same place - at one time.

...the reinforcments suggestion was just an attempt to add more planes (after others were shot down), while still keeping the "total planes in the air" around a dozen or so to help with performance.

(i.e. cant create big furballs for customers who have lower-end machines)

Maybe even base the number of possible aircraft encountered as a range based on your hardware/graphics card or something.

Yeah, that would be awesome...there is definitely a lack of total aircraft in the air most of the time. Especially for the amount of aerodromes and squadrons based in the area. Dogfights like that really test your abilities, and make for the most enjoyable experiences.