Gambit on 26/8/2008 at 11:12
I think the main problem is that we think the "turn" button makes the plane "turn". It doesn´t. It makes the plane rotate, and the amount of rotation determines the angle of the turn.
So I kept pressing the "turn" button and eventually I kept losing control of the plane. You have to rotate the wings very subtly and let the physics make the turn for you.
But yeah. I hated the flying missions. Specially the stupid "stay some minutes flying then suddenly wait for a plane appearing from nowhere, make a crazy U turn and catch it. If you miss start it all over again."
Matthew on 26/8/2008 at 11:17
Quote Posted by CCCToad
Falcon 4.0
The game has a simplified mode, but playing on expert mode requires the player to be expert with the contents of the aicraft manual, an amlost 200 page document.
And I've lost my quickstart guide so the big manual is all I have to go on. Ouch.
Chimpy Chompy on 26/8/2008 at 11:40
Just chipping in with another "I hated flying so much I gave up on SA" vote.
Lots of games have steep curves to me because, frankly, I'm incompetent! Games I just couldn't get to grips with and intend to try again one day include Operation Flashpoint and Sacrifice.
Someone mentioned I-War 2 - if you think that's steep try the original. :p
Banksie on 27/8/2008 at 04:21
Quote Posted by Chimpy Chompy
Someone mentioned I-War 2 - if you think that's steep try the original. :p
It wasn't too bad. You just had to remember the auto-pilot modes and flip between gunnery and piloting stations to get the best out of the ship. You very rarely needed the Engineering station - although I do remember franticly reprioritising the repair crews to get thrusters back *before* fixing life support to get me out of a few tight spots. :) (Had just cruised through a group of six ships at speed, killing two but the long range fire and cumulative damage had crippled the ship and we needed to move to avoid more incoming fire plus survive long enough to repair the ship to go back for a second pass.)
The autopilot took care of most of the movement duties for you. So knowing which auto-pilot mode was most useful was key till you closed the range and went fully manual for the fight itself.
Loved I-war. First game to properly give you the feeling you were flying a big starship and not some dinky WWII fighter plane. Even better, pretty much all the tactics used in the intro movie could be pulled off in game. Sleep mode missile launches is the one exception.
ercles on 27/8/2008 at 05:37
Although the learning curve wasn't nearly as crazy as any of the aforementioned games, there was a significant portion of bastard thrown into Morrowind. A fair whack of the game wasn't explained terribly well, and although I do think that it made for a really great game, the first few hours were simply baffling. Added to the fact that you could spend years trying to find caves and secret hide-outs, this game was actually pretty difficult if you ask me.
BlackCapedManX on 27/8/2008 at 06:03
I learned helecopters in Desert Combat (eventually to the point of being able to maintain a flat hover and pull off barrel rolls and survive) so in SA flying anything was a cake walk. The main kicker is remapping the flight controls so pitching and turning were on one set of keys while foward-backward and rolling (to strafe, essentially) were set to another. I think default mapping in SA (as well as Vice City) was to have pitch coupled with rolling and F-B coupled with turning, which is just dumb and unintuitive for as wasd+mouse gamer. First person helps too.
One game I think has a formidable learning curve, not to play the game, but to really get into what the game offers, is the old Rainbow 6 and Rouge Spear games. This is because the way to really play those games was to set up a full run of infiltration directions, way points, entry commands and engagement speeds, and then let the teams run automatically, only stopping to wait for go-codes so you can have simultaneous entry. The game could effectively be played as a tactical commander with zero "soldier"ing that you typically see in FPS games. This requires incredible trial and error, really exacting forethought and a little bit of luck (mostly because you couldn't count on your team to react faster than the terrorists could shoot hostages, so sometimes the same route would work, and sometimes people'd get killed.) It's rewarding, but so far I've only been able to beat the first level of Rouge Spear in this manner.
catbarf on 27/8/2008 at 09:59
Quote Posted by Chimpy Chompy
Someone mentioned I-War 2 - if you think that's steep try the original. :p
Played it, beat it, being able to shoot in any direction was a big boost as well as not being put up against four or five corvettes when you're in a wimpy tug...
I-War 2 is basically I-War with twice the number of enemies and you're only allowed to use the Nav seat.
icemann on 27/8/2008 at 15:28
I should point out that it was the ps2 version of San Andreas that I was playing. The change in controls was just too massive. That whole bit should have been optional. Atleast in the toy plane mission there was a half cheat of sorts where there was this one building you could land on and your fuel didn`t decrease. You had to destroy 3 vans in it I think.
Silkworm on 27/8/2008 at 20:22
Quote Posted by Jashin
Heh, as expected, almost all the games listed are singleplayer affairs. TTLG will be TTLG.
Civilization - it plays so damn slow that I can't be bothered with it. It's for people who go for slow games.
What multiplayer games do you know with high learning curves? I suppose Enemy Territory: Quake Wars might qualify, but only relative to other FPS.
Gambit on 27/8/2008 at 20:35
Quote Posted by Silkworm
What multiplayer games do you know with high learning curves? I suppose Enemy Territory: Quake Wars might qualify, but only relative to other FPS.
American Army didn´t click for me.
You had to follow a very strict "army routine".
And the worst part is having to...
Watch an ultra mega boring POWERPOINT presentation about medical injuries.
Let me say that again...
WATCH . A . DULL . POWERPOINT . PRESENTATION
If you are making a videogame then use what this medium can offer, you know things like... animation, interactivity, immersion.
NOT A DULL POWERPOINT PRESENTATION !
Oops, offtrack. But it had to be said.
