Purpose of this blog

Dmitry Yudo aka Overlord, jack of all trades
David Lister aka Listy, Freelancer and Volunteer

Thursday, June 27, 2013

[WoWP] The Right Stuff

Back in the early days of flight people wrestled with technology they barely understood, with engines that would crash for no reason. Equally the controls were utter nightmares, and would often lock up at high speeds or just do something unpredictable, and pitch you into the ground.

To spur on the early pioneers there were many prestigious prizes.

Now am I talking about WOWP or the real world? The answer is “both”. I was an Alpha Tester for WoWP, and for a couple of months each week I would set a challenge for the players to win, and give it an award. The awards were named after a Person, item or event in aviation history. Required Proof was a screen shot.

So I figure it would be interesting to revisit those early days and immortalize the Winners. Keep in mind this was Alpha Testing so the controls seemed like they were actively trying to kill you, and the graphics looked bad. Of course the game has also evolved so its likely you will be able to better these numbers, but back in March 2012 it was a very different game.

Claimed Prizes:
John Derry Medal:
For achieving Mach 1. Winner: Trebs, clocking a speed of Mach 1.16.
John Derry was the First Briton to achieve Mach 1. In a later flight in the same aircraft it crashed killing him.

The Mario Pezzi Award:
Highest altitude you can reach in a piston aircraft. Winner: Sgt_Bones with an altitude of 2361m.
Lieutenant Colonel Pezzi set the Propeller driven altitude record. He set it in 1937 (in a bi-plane), and it stands to this day! 

Walter Frame Gibb Award:  
Highest altitude you can reach in a Jet aircraft. Winner: MartokY with an altitude of 3706m.
Walter Gibb, set the first Turbojet record in 1953, in a Canberra bomber.

Alan Pollock Award: 
For Low flying, under a bridge. If there is a tie break, the person who is inverted wins. Winner: GrmlZ, with an altitude of 3m and inverted.
On 5 April 1968 Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock flew his Hawker Hunter under Tower Bridge.

Le Prieur award: 
Get a Air-to-air kill with a piece of Ordnance, not a gun. Winner: GrmlZ.
Le Prieur rockets were a type of incendiary air-to-air rockets. They were invented by the French Lieutenant Yves Le Prieur and were first used in the Battle of Verdun.

Unclaimed awards. 
(remember applications are closed)

Chuck Yeager Medal:
Doing Mach 1 and surviving! Chuck Yeager was the first Person to do Mach 1 and survive in 1947

HMS Argus award:

For the First Landing! The award is named after the first Aircraft carrier, which conducted the first landing on 1 October 1918.

Scott Crossfield Award:
Doing Mach 2. Scott Crossfield was the first person to do Mach 2 in 1953.

31 comments:

  1. sorry mate, but WoWp still remains a dead horse

    with less than a week to launch Open BETA, the recent patch hasn't done anything to alleviate the suffering

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dead horse? I'm sure we are far from that. What makes you suffer most?

      We are still planning to release 0.4.3.3 (right now) and 0.5.0 prior to OBT.

      Delete
    2. 0.4.3.3 is already on and it brings more issue than solving them

      0.5.0 when? 5 days 'till OBT

      Delete
    3. Again, what issues exactly?

      Have been working on 0.5.0 in parallel.

      Delete
    4. unless 0.5.0 is the fucking "holy grail", WoWp will be the biggest failure WG will see

      as for the issues .. there are WoWp CBT forums

      Delete
    5. Forums are not representative - and WoT is a good example.

      Delete
    6. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    7. not talking about WoT, but WoWp that still is in Closed BETA
      forums are very much representative

      forget that bullshit called market research and / or focus testing, they will tell you exactly what you want to hear and get paid for it

      Delete
    8. ps: I was talking about bus and other similar issues that affect gameplay

      like when you said there is no, or very limited, lag input while using mouse controls - this isn't even a matter of opinion
      it's a fact, a problem/issue that still hasn't been addressed

      when a lot of people tells you (WG) a certain issue(s) exists within the game that affects gameplay and you chose to simply ignore it .. what can I (we) do

      Delete
    9. @forget that bullshit called market research and / or focus testing, they will tell you exactly what you want to hear and get paid for it@

      we are doing it on our own. No 3rd parties. Provided our guys are good (and they are), we will get good results. That help us to improve WoWP a lot recently.

      Delete
    10. zMe ul,

      you are twisting things again. I didn't say there was NO lag input whatsoever - there always has been some. What I stated it that we had managed to decrease it in 0.4.x series, which is good. You do realize that it is technically impossible to bring it to zero without cheating.

      Delete
    11. I'm not twisting shit
      you said reduced, when in fact it's increased and I showed you 2 videos

      with 0.4.3 I didn't even bothered measuring it because there were major issue with frame rate drops
      I will do a 0.4.3.3 one as soon as I have some free time

      Delete
    12. here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2ZanbJNiOg

      it's slightly better than 0.4.2 (500ms delay)
      but still .. 467ms input delay is not something a player can ignore

      Delete
    13. I didn't even notice that delay or whatever.. and I didn't ever had problems with my aiming o.o

      this really doesn't look to me like a dead horse.. and just remember that even in WoT we had some serious issues even up to 0.8 [ Remember the wrecks.. and little ELC's blocking the path of mediums on the hill of the Mines? ]

      By my opinion it's still early to judge the game.. when the open beta ends, then you will have some right to criticise wowp :P

      Delete
    14. the right to criticise? what the fuck!?
      I'm one of the Alpha Test Veterans for WoWp EU

      Delete
    15. Why would you criticise something that isn't finished yet.. that's the point

      It's like you would say "that cake is bad" even dough you only started making the base of it.. it just doesn't make any sense

      Delete
    16. why am I a tester then, to pat them on the back and say "good boy"

      when creating a building, you start at the foundation; if the foundation is improperly built, the building will eventually collapse

      you are saying that I have to wait 'till the whole building is constructed and after that tell them the foundation is broken, so they'll demolish the whole building and start again - geeez!

      Delete
    17. Why are you a tester.. dunno, maybe to notice something and suggest it to be fixed?

      You can suggest the way how could they build that building.. but in the end they will do whatever they want, no?

      After they finish it.. then you can say - You see.. it's bad.. I told you so.

      But until they don't do that.. shouldn't you just suggest? :/

      Delete
  2. Oh I remember those days...but tell me please, when was the altitude challenge? Im pretty sure I even have a screenie of my 262 Hg III on 6km...
    Btw, even tho the NDA is lifted, I m pretty sure you are not allowed to post screenshots made before the NDA lift

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  3. " The award is named after the first Aircraft carrier, which conducted the first landing"

    Someone flew and landed an aircraft carrier? That must have been an epic bug.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. World of flying aircraft carriers (WOFAC) sounds more fun than WoT, WoWp, and WoWS combined. Do it WG, doo iiittttt...

      Delete
    2. there is also the issue that you cannot land in WoWp :D

      as for the game with flying carriers, I'm quite sure it's already been done

      Delete
    3. Jump off a cliff with a Maus in wot?

      Delete
    4. Not really a carrier then. I suppose you could have a t-50 on top.

      The landing be interesting too..

      Delete
  4. Wait there will be 0.5.0 before OB? So in 3 days we'll have another patch? Then I've been wasting 2 days in making tutorial video's for the OB testers to come.. >.< (because they are outdated the same day they will be released)
    Well that sucks.. Why is this not communicated on the CBT forums?=(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will be a minor update with relatively few changes. And wipe, ofc.

      Delete
    2. communication ... that's not something WG knows to do
      we have to find stuff up on outside blogs

      Delete
    3. don't treat it as outside blog then

      Delete
  5. Damn I miss that altimeter and speedometer from back then..

    Are there any plans on implementing a spectator camera that enables you to see what's going on, as well as being able to switch to spectator camera before your plane finally crashed in to some kind of surface in the near future? Which can take minutes in high tier battles =( And it's just a shame that streamed tournaments have nothing to show, as you can't follow the slightest bit of it because of the spectate camera and the EU e-sport team refusing to use a camera mod.. which really does more harm then good =(

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  6. Alan Pollock Award.. damn great job!

    Anyway, unbelievable how much did the game advance.. those graphics looked like they are from the 2000's year and now are better than WoT xD

    The game as it is now is great for me, although some things bother me around certain planes.. maybe also some bug here and there he he

    Will you do some kind of massive rebalance of all planes in open-beta.. when you get more statistics data about the planes?

    ReplyDelete