I AM FRICKING IMPRESSED!!!!!

[Charbroiled]

Wow. I knew that AE was going to be different from WITP, but even so, I am really impressed with the thought and foresights put into AE.

Some of the things I was most surprised and impressed about:

The Map: This thing is HUGE. It shows that a lot of work and detail went into this.

Creating TFs: Being able to sort AA and ASW values is great. Being able to get the complete ship detail screen when right clicking on a ship is going to be very valuable to me.

Patrol zones: Works better that anyone could have hoped for. Easy to set up. I can now set a ASW TF to patrol an area....go back to port to refuel every few days, and not worry about that TF for a long time.

Search zone: Easy to set up. Of course this will probably be one of the biggest time consumer when starting a new game, but it will add new tactics and though into the game.

All of the sorting buttons: This is really going to make life eaiser. I now do not have to go through tons of data to find something specific.

Ship Repair: To me, I think this could be one of the funnest parts of the game. A lot more realistic.

There were a lot more things I noticed and liked, but these are just some of the ones I could remember off of the top of my head.

WELL DONE to all of the members of the Henderson Field Design Team. [&o][&o][&o][&o][&o]

[jhdeerslayer]

Well said. [8D]

[Cuttlefish]

I have to agree, I am impressed. In addition to the things Charbroiled listed two things have stood out for me:

- The new air to air routines are a joy and a wonder. Planes join the fight, planes leave, guns jam, damaged planes duck out of the fight, Buffalos blow gaskets and lose oil pressure with regularity, planes run out of ammo. I watch every little dogfight just enthralled.

- This is a small thing but it makes me very happy: the Back button works! I am trying to break myself of the habit of looking at a list of units, viewing one, and then exiting and bringing up the list again. I don't have to do that over and over again any more, I can just go Back to the list!

[thunar]

I second Charbroiled's AA/ASW point and definitely Cuttlefish's observation about the back button... extra convenient.

I only played one day in the grand campaign, but the AI is much tougher and smarter this time around!

[SuluSea]

Yeah fantastic. The more you play the more you keep noticing the level of detail.  I had a restart today to raise the level of play to hard. As Don mentioned yesterday and Eriks been mentioning for who knows how long that damage events are random. Today I lost POW and Repulse but no BBs at Pearl thus far although two are flaming wrecks.



I'm interested to see if the Zona suffers from one of those catastrophic events we read about in the manual if it makes it far enough to stand down. Notice the repair is locked in on fire fighting at this point.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: SuluSea
Notice the repair is locked in on fire fighting at this point.

99 fires! [X(] There's nowhere left for the men to stand and fight the fires from. I bet she goes down in a turn or two.

Jim

[jwilkerson]

Yeah fires are bad news in AE ... if you have 99 fire that one is probably gone. I had Enterprise at 34 fire and she vanished the next turn ...

[Speedysteve]

Woah! Interesting Joe. In Stock as we all know fires were kind of pointless IMO. I'm assuming they have more of a dramatic impact in AE (as they did IRL) in terms of catastrophic damage being sustained to the ship etc?

[afspret]

I am likewise totally impressed! This sure ain't your fathers WitP!

[Speedysteve]

One thing I like, and I know it's little compared to all of the MASSIVE enhancements, is the addition of tonange info for each ship. Especially for the various AK's etc out there. As I like my sub warfare it makes it more interesting to see the differences and tonnage of what I'm sinking rather than just 10 VP's [:)]