by Biff Henderson

  Parts is Parts

FAII's damage model has also been reworked from the ground up. Aircraft are broken down into literally dozens of systems, each of which can take damage, and in doing so, may affect other systems. The damage modeling is really complex, but this makes it a lot of fun also. Control surfaces can be damaged or destroyed (or get stuck!), which can make for a very exciting ride.

Lancaster with Clipped Wings

Furthermore, wings and tails can get blown off, engines can get destroyed, and even the pilot can be wounded or killed. Under the realistic flight model, wings can get sheered off when exceeding G limits, and flaps and landing gear can get damaged if overspeeded.

There is a degree of randomness built in also. Any shot fired might be that Golden BB that takes out your engine or causes your elevators to get stuck in the 'down' position (can you say, "uncommanded outside loop?") The player can press a key to bring up on screen a textual list of the more important systems and their damage states. This is very useful, you might find that one flap has been destroyed so you will want to make a flaps-up landing (lowering one flap while low and slow can ruin your whole day).

If your damaged plane isn't going to get you back to base, you have the option of bailing out or crash landing. If you can nurse your kite back to friendly territory before abandoning it, your score will not suffer as much as it will if you become a pedestrian in enemy territory. Similarly, crash landing is preferable to bailing, if possible.

The parachutes in FAII are 100% reliable as long as you have sufficient altitude when you pull the ripcord. You can, however, be shot hanging in your chute, so you will want to freefall as long as possible before deploying the parachute. If you bailout over enemy territory you might want to pull higher because the parachutes are also steerable - well, as steerable as round parachutes get - and you may be able to steer your way back to friendly territory before hitting the ground.

Get ready to rumble

FAII sports the same basic "furballs R us" online arenas as its predecessor, plus one great new addition: the Territorial Combat arena. In this arena, ground acquisition is the goal. Each country has limited resources, based on ground installations held (and not destroyed), referred to as "scenes". AI controlled tanks roll across the landscape to attack or defend scenes, triggered by the players' air to mud attacks. Tanks are the only ground vehicles active in the beta, but trains are trucks are scheduled to be added later.

Click to continue

This is an exciting new addition to Fighter Ace. Team coordination is the key to victory here, and tank busting becomes an important new skill. The server can set various victory conditions, and the game will run continuously until those conditions are met - perhaps for days or even weeks.

FAII also promises to be a great sim for historical scenarios. We're told that the developers can create new maps rather easily. Plans are in the works for running a historical scenario during the beta already.

Conclusion

Fighter Ace II is leaps and bounds ahead of the original FA. If you were turned off by the simplicity of the old version, you might want to take a look at FAII. The physics model is more believable, and the damage model is highly entertaining. It's quite a visual experience to park your 109 behind a B-17 and slowly disassemble it - after taking out the tailgunner of course!

The Fighter Ace II beta can be downloaded from the Zone. Participation in the beta is not free; it requires a current, active Fighter Ace subscription. However, there is a free three day trial period for new subscribers, and this should get you into the beta also. Of course, you can play FAII's offline practice missions for free.

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