My first impressions of WWII Online

[[AK]Squidly]

I'm there... just awaiting the servers... In the meantime, I'll take a bit of time each day and play solo to get the keys down cold.

My in-game name is "dsquid"... The short names are kind of annoying.

[Widowmaker]

Yeah, the graphics aint that bad. But it still looks under sampled me. No biggie realy and the lack of superb eye candy should keep the l337 d00d's out (I hope). The game is very realistic indeed. I like that.

I have a few tips that I have gleened. To get by the problem I had of the game crashing when I tried to skip through the intro was easily fixed by searching th /playnet directory and searching for and deleting any .avi files I found. No intro movie and no problems.

There is a patch for the crashing to desktop some people have. I crash to desktop in planes so this may be the answer but I have not tried it yet. Article here:
If you are experiencing CTD (Crash to Desktop) during the game (not during the loading process), you can download the file 11afix.exe from either the WWIIOL Downloads page, or from ftp://downloads.playnet.com. This may also be an issue with you losing connection to the host.

And this little guide to get into the game quickly on their tech support site:

Here’s all you need to know to get killed fast in WWIIOL:

1) At the World Screen (the Globe), single-click one of the green country buttons
2) Single-click the black theater box to highlight it yellow, then click the GO button
3) Now you are in the Blitzkrieg theater! Double-click on the red/yellow flashing frontlines and the map will zoom in.
4a) Click the Mission button
5a) Select a mission from the list and click the GO button
6a) Select a vehicle and click GO

Or, from # 3) above...
4) Zoom in for more resolution using the map zoom buttons (3 set levels on top, and two manual zoom controls below)
5) Click on a flagged CP (City) that represents your country and all the available facility icons will show
6) Select a spawning facility (Cannon or Swords) and click GO7) Click GO again
8) Select a vehicle and click GO<9) Use the radio to find out where the action is!

Other quick tips:

1)DON’T walk to the fight...take the BUS!! As a troop you can ride on many vehicles! Get close up to the side of a vehicle and press j to join (ride), then press j to jump off when you are where you want to be. Remember that q and e allow you to look around
2) The map key in-game is m
3) The HUD shows your heading


Oh, and the clock HAS been stopped on our 1'st month freebie till they can get the game running. They will announce when our free time is being used again.

Have fun and hope to get on line tonight.

[AK]Widowmaker

[NeverRetreat]

I read 7PM EST they come back up...so maybe by 8PM.

I picked it up today and I'm ready! Got vehicles down, infantry no problem. Now them planes make me laugh. I never have enjoyed planes except "Flight of the Old Dog"

I will kept trying though...got to get my wings. Darn name thing...my nick is Humidity

Looking forward to living some of the posts I've read on the action.

[AK]NeverRetreat

[NeverRetreat]

Well they had it up but they got some more issues at 6:30PM EST today. I couldn't believe the amount of people jumping on so quickly...its going to intense.

[AK]NeverRetreat

[[AK]Palooka]

As I haven't actually been able to play the game ONLINE due the Cornered Rat's continuing problems, my first impressions are limited to the offline practice mode. First of all, I wouldn't say that the graphics are as horrible as Wid would lead us to believe. In fact, they are pretty darn good, in my opinion. It is certainly not Tribes or Black & White, but they are convincing enough. The vehicle graphics, from the planes to the tanks, are actually quite impressively detailed.

My first experience in the game was with a rifleman. For you Quakers, controlling foot soldiers will probably be an exercise in frustration. However, I am completely satisfied with the feel of playing a troop. They do not run at superhuman speeds and they cannot perform superhuman acts such as running circles around a target, firing rockets and BFGs. You have to sit still, preferrably in the prone position, and carefully aim (looking through the sights) if you want to actually hit something. What is that called? Oh yeah, it is realism, and this game wouldn't be the same without it.

Next, I tried the monster German 88mm anti-tank gun, the famous gun that utterly obliterated Allied tanks and aircraft in the war. After deploying it for action, I tried out the two positions (commander and gunner), ans settled into the gunner position. Using my joystick and the realistic scope, I targetted a distant building and let it rip. BOOM! A tracer shell exploded out of the barrel and streaked toward its target, hitting it dead on. As I fired the gun, the entire gun (and my perspective) wobbled up and down from the very noticeable recoil, and the realistic sound of the shell casing being ejected and a new shell being slammed home was heard. I changed the ammunition to high explosive, and let another shell fly at the structure. As expected, a larger explosion was seen.

After trying a few more anti-tank guns with similarly impressive results, I hopped into a tank. The first thing I noticed was the realism; I could not go anywhere until I started the engine, of course. After doing so, I took off across the countryside. Well, "took off" does not quite describe it; more appropriately, I slowly began to roll forward, lumbering at a snail's pace across the countryside. The tanks are realistically slow, and the driver actually has to shift gears to get anywhere. After taking a few shots with the cannon and the machine gun, I moved on to a BF 109.

I was immediately impressed with the flying portion of the game. After getting the piston engine started, lining myself up on the runway with the rudder, and locking the tail wheel, I took off. The flight model is fairly superb. Indeed, it is not Falcon 4, but it is adequately realistic without being a pain in the ass (and consequently un-fun). You can both black-out and red-out, which are unnerving experiences. Overall, the flight model feels just as good, if not better, than a lot of flight sims. I would actually consider it better and more detailed than Jane's WWII Fighters, for instance.

As Wid has said, the game definately has problems. It is still in beta testing at release time, but it has SO MUCH potential if they work out the problems with the servers and game bugs. Even without actually playing the game online, I am thoroughly impressed and excited about WWII Online. I am fairly confident that it is a classic in the making, and it will, in the near future, kick serious arse.

I hope we can get a lot of AKers involved in this game. I think it would be awesome if we could become a tank platoon or a fighter squadron. If we chose one area of the game, whether it be anti-tank, infantry, air, tank, or naval (yes, ships are coming soon), I think we could really make a name for ourselves in this game. Imagine the Allied forces leaving us in charge of defending a bridge with anti-tank guns and infantry, or giving us the duty of tank-busting in an occupied town with our famous squadron of crack pilots. There are certainly a lot of possibilities. While it would be wrong for me to encourage everyone to run out and buy WWII Online today, considering that the servers are down and the game is buggy, I encourage everyone to run out and buy it today!

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[AK]Palooka
August Knights Chief of Staff
AK Webmaster

[Drewski]

I havent been around lately...
so the game is out, and nolonger in beta?

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Member of GanG Green
[GanG]Drewski

[Nitrous]

Can someone direct me to the website so I can see previews?



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|aYg.Nitrous|
Team Captain