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I loved X-Wing and especially XWA.

Good points to JTL in comparison to XWA:
Better graphics
Customizing of ship
New ships
Multi-Player ships (Not only the YT-1300 and it's equivalents, but also the 2 seater Y-Wing)

Bad points of JTL in comparison to XWA:
Missiles are extremely hard to evade (including torpedoes... now that's just wrong)
Some missiles don't pack enough of a wollop (a torpedo can hit a TIE Fighter and not destroy it?)
Have to lead the ship way too much
Sometimes when you fire at a ship you watch the shots just pass right through it
AI is... well... stupid.

Things I would've rather seen closer to the way XWA was done but are liveable as is:
The radar... I'm used to this setup from other games, but XWA's was still easier to use.
Lack of targeting screen (yeah, we get that little box that appears in the upper right hand corner, but you guys know what I mean.)
Not very good use of cockpit layout (XW series had a lot of the control displays in the actual cockpit, not as a holographic projection.)
Manuevering seems sluggish
Ion cannons destroy instead of disabling
Range is much shorter

That's all I can think of atm. If I can remember more I'll add it on.

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CitizenErased wrote:

At least in xwa your lasers would hit the ship when they came into contact with it. its very annoying to shoot and see your lasers pass right through. As for leading, its quite difficult sometimes. I will be leading, and shooting in front of, in, and behind the green circle and not hitting the ship. Its sometimes way off from the circle I have to shoot. And sometimes i will try for 5 minutes and not find that spot. I will carefully go over each point on that invisible line that is made between the ship and the circle and not hit the ship. I dont know whether the problem is lag, the game itself, or what, but when this problem comes up it can make destroy misions take way too long for my taste.

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It is almost assuredly related to lag. When I played Air Warrior PC (old-school aviation multi-player game), you would have to aim nowhere near the other plane in order to register a hit. We used modems for that game, broadband hadn't been invented yet.

In this game, I can consistently hit the targets by aiming at the trailing edge of the leading crosshair. The only time I have to slide "back" from that point is when there is a high bearing rate (i.e. the target is crossing my path quickly). If there is almost no bearing rate (i.e. I'm able to sit right on their keister and fire away), then aiming for the center of the lead crosshair is the way to go.

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KatoArabel wrote:
The upside is the creativity of the JTL expansion and the action.

DOWNSIDES

1. 16 KM Cube of space. This is NOT correct. In XWA we could fly as far as we wanted to...but we still couldn't make atmospheric flight. I hope eventually atmospheric flight (even if it's just the stratosphere) will be doable in JTL.

2. Top Tier Ships handle way too sluggishly. In XWA, I flew a standard YT-1300 half the time, and it felt far, far more responsive than the YT-1300/YKL-37R in JTL. Not to mention they flew a lot more accurately.

3. Combat system. The combat system needs a lot of work. We should be able to at least be able to outmanuever missiles and score hits without draining our capacitors trying. X-Wings have a "convergence point" on their lasers that all four laser bolts will met at a point in front of the snubfighter, in order to improve shooting accuracy. Here in JTL, all blasters shoot STRAIGHT. Which is not right. Another thing is the turret AI. The Turrets are far too accurate. They are usually supposed to be slower in tracking against fast targets. When I was flying in my X-Wing against the Star Ravager, I got taken down instantly after I made my first pass on the Gunboats, even with fancy flying. This is not right. NOT right. The turrets need to have a "targeting delay" where they fire about 0.5 seconds after you passed the point where it would have fired at. This increases the margin of error in the AI targeting system and thus makes it more realistic.

(Note: I was able to take down THREE DREADNAUGHTS in X-Wing Alliance in the Millenium Falcon, in a customized scenario sortie. A Corvette shouldn't have posed this much of a problem.)

4. Overall feel of the game. It feels....somewhat controlled, restricted. Like those restrictor-plate NASCAR races where you can't optimize your game because it's "against the rules". It needs to feel a lot more fast paced!

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2. Yeah, I've definitely gotta agree with that. I mean, come on devs! It's in the movies for crying out load. We see the Millennium Falcon doing barrel rolls and everything else.

3. The convergence isn't too, too big of a deal with me... I still remember the original X-Wing a bit, but the turret AI I have a problem with, too. Heck, even the Fighters seem to be pretty accurate, but that may have something to do with manuevering being a bit sluggish. But yeah, I can sit there and do a cork screw and still get hit by about 75-90% of the shots from a Tier 3 gunboat. I remember doing "fly bys" in a YT-2000 to an ISD in XWA while sitting in the turret firing off shots and not getting hit. With an AI level in that game of Super Ace, yeah, I would get hit. But if you stuck it on Veteran, no.


Your other 2 points I agree with too, but I don't have anymore to add.

Message Edited by FuryoftheStars on 11-14-2004 11:40 AM

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imppilot421 wrote:

I find the most annoying thing in JTL is the AI. The whole NPC ship flying in front, flipping around and charging you head on thinggets old really really fast.

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Jyeoi wrote:

oh one question... i've been testing out missles... can you reload in space or must you land... and how the hell do you get that irritating lock beep to stop when you run of ammo??? How do you disable your launcher when it's dry?

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I'm not sure how you would disable it. If removing it from the weapon group doesn't work, then I don't think there is a way. As for reloading, only rebels can do that. It's one of their special abilities to call in a resupply ship, although the stuff that is loaded in isn't as good as what was originally in there.

Old X-Wing, TIE Fighter, XvT and XWA junkie here. I have a few thoughts myself.

First off, the targetting computer in this game is an abomination, in my own personal opinion. I don't see why it need be there at all, though I do wish they would go back to a simpler concept of just highlighting the targetting reticle when you have lined up your shot (as opposed to the GREEN CROSS OF SHOOTING) which, by the way, is never accurate in the first place.

I am so far finding it harder to do trick shots and deflection shots, though the actual craft maneuverability and the tail arcing dogfights are pretty much as I remember them. I like how effective rolling is in JtL, which was a feature I never really felt was "there" in the other X-Wing games.

Space is busy. Maybe even a bit too busy. You ever notice than in recent space sim games, every corner of space is awash in colorstorms and nebulas? Kessel, I can understand, because of the Maw. . . but Yavin? I think they need to tone it down a bit. Just because I am running in 32 bit color doesn't mean I need to see all 16.8 million of 'em. Heh.

Just give me the similar missions from those games, that i can do with groups and i can over look the rest