[General Battuta]

I'd assume because of the escorts.

No, it's because of the Ravana! The escorts don't help, but the Ravana just eats you alive if you're not really careful.

Remember, on Insane, you don't get that 40% damage reduction that you get on medium. And the Ravana's not limited to firing five turrets at a time.

[Vip]

I'd assume because of the escorts.

No, it's because of the Ravana! The escorts don't help, but the Ravana just eats you alive if you're not really careful.

Remember, on Insane, you don't get that 40% damage reduction that you get on medium. And the Ravana's not limited to firing five turrets at a time.

I played it on Hard and didn't have much trouble. Is the difference between Hard and Insane so vast ?

[General Battuta]

Give it a shot. You'll probably die a few times before you get it right.

[Rodo]

I, for one, think that mods should actively try to distance themselves from the "Alpha 1 is superman, let's not bother with wingmen or bombers or anything like that."  It's the way FS1 and 2 played.  Okay, good for them, that isn't necessarily the best way to do things.  Personally, when something like that happens, it breaks the suspension of disbelief into teeny tiny pieces.  If a fighter can single-handedly destroy cruiser sized warships, why would there be cruisers anymore?  Answer: because single fighters shouldn't be able to destroy cruisers.

QFT.

[Commander Zane]

Give it a shot. You'll probably die a few times before you get it right.

Going straight to Weapons subsystem?

[NGTM-1R]

My main concern are destroyers. Whether we're talking about an Orion, a Ravana or Hatshepsut, they are next to defenceless against fighters and bombers. The majority of times I was killed by a destroyer was because I accidentally ran into its main beam and got insta-killed. In essence, a wing of bombers is capable of destroying a ship the size of a small city and kill over 10,000 people. It shouldn't be that easy. I always get irritated when playing "Slaying Ravana" - 4 bombers shouldn't be capable of doing such damage to a destroyer, even in a nebula environment. For taking out destroyers you should need at least 2-3 squadrons, not a single wing plus optional escorts. That's why I suggested giving the new AI only to destroyers.

The way I see it, the way I've always seen it, is that destroyers do not have weak antifighter defenses; because that is discounting their ability to launch their own craft in defense. FS2 only really blew it on this with The Scilian Defense. (King's Gambit they were escorted, but the nature of subspace exit meant their escorts were out of posistion; tough luck, but I assume the NTF knew that going in. If I've reversed those missions...eh screw it.) FS1 was actually a lot more apt to screw this up.

[Aardwolf]

Give it a shot. You'll probably die a few times before you get it right.

Going straight to Weapons subsystem?

I tried that... not very good. That takes you too close to the underside AAA and a bunch of flak, lasers, and missiles. Going for the underside AAA is also often not so great. It's hard.

[Commander Zane]

Never really dealt with that SAAA attacking the Weapons subsystem.

[Droid803]

Can't you just sit underneath the Sobek and watch it beam it Ravana to death?

[Aardwolf]

Can't you just sit underneath the Sobek and watch it beam it Ravana to death?

Hahaha... oh, I tried. I could never even get to the Sobek. Or it managed to die shortly after I got to it.

Remember, the Sobek is on the far side of the Ravana from the player's start location. Slightly above, but you have to go well out of your way to avoid the Ravana's fire.

Also the fact that, for whatever reason, I can't target the two closest enemies at the beginning of the mission as soon as I start... does not help.

[manwiththemachinegun]

May I suggest an idea?

How about elite ships?

As in, they're not common, but when they're there, you'll KNOW it.

As in specific named ships that strike terror into the hearts of enemies on either side. Veteran ships with veteran captains and veteran crews of countless battles. Especially in regards to GTVA ships that have had Shivan fighting experience.

"You think think you frighten us? You're just humans, we've face far worse and won!"

They'd be very rare on the battlefield, but holy crap, when they show up, start panicking!

It would be especially cool if there were different grews that grew to be worth rivals and such. Specific named pilots on both sides that don't just die like flies like normal pilots. Ones that jump out automatically when their health hits a certain percentage.

It'll be nice too...

When the Shivans return and the two sides have to unite... I hope.  

For example, when the GTVA Generation in Transcend rams through that Aeolus cruiser and just, doesn't, stop, coming after you mission after mission. I was honestly a little freaked out. How they hell am I gonna beat a guy obsessed with killing me in a po dunk fighter wing that's barely hanging on.

[General Battuta]

Already got it.

[Scotty]

... All capital ships already have names.

[General Battuta]

A big part of AoA was the recurring cast of warships, for instance. If we were redoing AoA with some of our new AI features you can bet some of them would get Veteran or Elite AI (or possibly Wingman Vet or Wingman Elite to normalize it across difficulties.)

[Androgeos Exeunt]

The UEF needs better AI simply because they have limited resources to stand their ground against the GTVA. From the gameplay videos I've seen so far, your wingmen die very fast.

[Fury]

Eh, both GTVA and UEF makes use of same custom AI.

[Ypoknons]

Oh wow. TrackIR was involved in the weapons video too. Although I have to say Sony is doing some interesting head-tracking with Gran Turismo 5 and the PSEye - webcam head tracking. Probably rougher, but more affordable.

[General Battuta]

Hey, I was on the VBB!

And yeah, you can use TrackIR with any FSOpen campaign, not just War in Heaven. Could even fake it with a Wiimote, I think.

[Ypoknons]

Hey, I was on the VBB!

And yeah, you can use TrackIR with any FSOpen campaign, not just War in Heaven. Could even fake it with a Wiimote, I think.

When we were all at least 10 years younger 

Faking it with a wiimote? Does that require putting a wiimote on my head? Save my fancy Asian hairdo please

[General Battuta]

As I understand it, with a lot of setups like that you can put the Wiimote on the desk or something and stick the sensor bar (or modified equivalent) on your head. It will look a bit like Geordi LaForge's visor with a hard-on, but presumably this can be worked around.