Friday, August 24, 2012

TK-44 Nova released: is it a SUPER Nova?

TK-44 Nova

Damage 12%  Middle of the weapons class pack for damage

Damage Resistance  10%  Best in class and first weapons class plane to ever have this boost.  Should be a powerful feature.

Missile Reload  10%  2nd in class, tied with a bunch of other planes.  I love missile reload - it is one of my favorite boosts.

Energy  12%  Tied for best in class with Warlock.  Always good to have more energy, although I rarely run out using weapons class aircraft.

So lets see:  Good damage, Excellent Damage resistance, Excellent Missile Reload and some more energy.  Besides the energy, these are all great boosts.  If you are a weapons class aficionado, then this may be a new favorite. 

The Nova has been added to the Comparison Guide  and also to the Fleet at a Glance - check it out!

KD-90 Sphynx: An Agile plane in Defense Class?

KD-90 Sphynx
A new release in the defense class.  Lets look at the stats:

Damage:  10%  Tied for best in class with Achilles

Agility: 14%  Best in class by far with 4% over Nightwing and actually more agile than most weapons class planes.  Even comes close to the Iron Fang in agility class!

Critical Strike: 5%  Best in class and first defense class plane to add this boost

Speed:  14%  2nd in class but faster than most weapons class planes

So lets see, a defense class plane with tons of inherent armor and energy, now with good damage, more agile than most weapons class planes and faster than most weapons class planes.  Throw in some critical strike and this looks like a tough SOB.  I have a feeling that the weapons/defense crowd will like this one.  Enjoy!

The Sphynx has been added to the Comparison Guide  and also to the Fleet at a Glance - check it out!

Of note:  From all of your comments, it sounds like the plane has been switched from defense class to agility class.  Also hearing that upgrades from defense class have carried over and that it no longer works in vs. mode.  Sounds like Z2 is smoking something.  Maybe when they come down from their bad trip, they will resolve this.  I am guessing that this switch was some type of mistake and that it will revert back to defense class, but we will see.

Draw your own pretty plane

Z2 has been running this contest for awhile, so I thought it would be worth a mention here as it wraps up Weds, Aug 29th.  Paint your own design on the aircraft below.

Link to Contest

Paint your design here

Below are a few clips from a quick google image search on "jet fighter paint" to get you thinking of the possibilities in case you enter:

SGAS showed this first but that doesn't make it any less cool

Maybe Z2 could get some sponsor income (instead of constantly trying to squeeze the players)

For you nature lovers out there

For the rainbow set

You can never have enough shark faced aircraft!

We've yet to see a chrome aircraft either - can your graphic engines handle that Z2? SGAS loves chrome aircraft ;-)



Tuesday, August 21, 2012

What Type of Fighter are You?


We all have our own styles of fighting in MSWM.  I have tried to identify a list of fighting styles based on my experiences.  Take a look and see where you fit in or if there are other styles that I haven't listed. Also, if you have any more humorous names for these styles, fire away! :-)


The Slugger:  This type of pilot likes to fight from long range, usually with a weapons class plane and expensive missiles.  The Slugger never wants to be near you, circle you, or encounter you in any way.  He wants to hurl as many missiles at you as possible from long range until you become a little black puff of smoke in the distance. Sometimes it is fun to mindlessly hurl missiles at an opponent without having to do much twisting, turning or thinking. Not much skill required, however get ready to cough up some blue coins, because you are going to need them to buy many coin missiles if you enjoy this type of fighting.  Credit missiles won't be very successful.



The Circler:  The opposite of the Slugger.  The Circler likes it up close and personal. Usually a pilot flying agility class aircraft, this pilot likes the fun of a true dogfight.  Split second timing and good visualization skills are a must as you chase that red arrow with just the right angle.







The Gunner:  Similar to the Circler, the gunner prefers cannon fire over missiles.  They enjoy the satisfaction of a cannon kill much more than a missile kill.  In fact, many gunners like their cannons so much that they will continue to firing their cannons even when they are not shooting at you.  You'll hear their cannon fire incessantly rattling away as you circle.  Maybe they are shooting at imaginary flocks of geese?  We may never know.









Mr Chaotic:  You can never predict this guys next move.  One minute he is circling, next he is running, next he is doing endless rolls.  next he is not firing at all and ignoring you, next he won't stop shooting his cannons.  My guess is that these are usually 6 year olds that have gotten a hold of big brothers ipad.    








The Roller:  This player seems to think that if one roll is good then 50 rolls is even better.  If this was real life, the pilot would have had an aneurism from the dizziness.   These players must have sprained wrists from all the screen swiping. 









The Flipper:  Flippers love to do bull runs where they get in a circling match and then do a high speed run away from you and try to nail you with missiles.  The problem with the Flipper is when they do it over and over again to the point where you can quickly anticipate the pattern and smoke him repeatedly.  I love playing against Flippers! 








The Turtle:  Usually a green eagle, but can be any defense class plane.  This fella usually just chugs along and banks on his armor and regeneration capabilities to keep him alive.  Usually will be armed with Bisnos or other coin missiles and will try to hit you at long distance like the slugger.  I really don't understand the fun of being a turtle!





The Rabbit:  We've all fought against a Rabbit at some point.  This is someone, usually in an agility plane, that scores a kill against you and then tries to preserve the score for the remaining time by running away from you.  Typically the Rabbit will try to hug the terrain down in a valley behind a mountain, behind a ship at sea or just run the opposite direction from you.  I love hunting wabbits!





The Quitter:  Finding yourself down by 3 or 4 kills?  Just quit.  That is the motto of The Quitter.  Why waste that minute or two of being on the losing side of the equation?





The Cheater:  A green eagle that you can't get behind because he is somehow just too agile.  A Hawken that outcircles your Reaper.   A Thresher that seems to pump out missiles way to fast...  We've all seen planes that perform way better than they should.  Many times, this is due to cheaters who manipulate the game files and buy all upgrades for all planes rolled into one.  The blatant ones will use a Green Eagle.  The more subtle ones will use a Hawken or other less obvious plane.  No doubt though, they are out there and a scourge of the game.  Really wish that Z2 would find a way to ban these guys.

So what type of fighter are you?  Lets us know!!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Version 4.1.4 Released

Version 4.1.4 has been released.  As you can see above, you can now see what boosts your opponent is using.  Not something that I was clamoring for, but I suppose it is a nice feature (see graphic below).

Opponents boosts now visible before and after vs. matches
Don't quite understand the Facebook statement - sounds like something has been broken in this release and will get fixed in 4.1.5?  That doesn't sound like very good engineering.  Maybe somebody can explain what SDK deprecation is.  After the first game, I felt like deprecating on Z2!  After the upgrade, all I could see in the first vs. game was a blank screen of the terrain for 2 1/2 minutes (see graphic below)


Blank view of terrain for first game on 4.1.4 - really gave a good first impression

It looks like this upgrade is not going as smooth as hoped.  See MSWM facebook comment below.  For such a lousy little upgrade, Z2 is sure spreading some ill-will.  Come-on guys.

Ooopsie

Sky Demon - Stealth Bomber with a paint job

Sky Demon

Alas - I did not scroll all the way to the bottom of the plane list last night to find this little sucker nestled down there.  A new plane is now available once you reach level 50, the Sky Demon has arrived! Modeled after the beautiful lines of the B-2 Stealth Bomber.

Specs:
Damage: 13%:  4th in class, in the middle of the pack.  Tops is Sentinel at 17%
Agility: 14%  Tied for First in Class with Cyclops
Speed:  A whopping18% makes this First in Class by far  (but still slower than agility class planes)
Evasion: 12%  is 2nd in class behind Cyclops.

Similar to the Sparrow, the Sky Demon is a weapons class plane taking on agility class boosts in agility, speed and evasion. The agility is nice, the damage is ok, the speed is good and the evasion is good. I'm still not real sure what kind of fight you would wage with these "hybrids".  Weapons class planes are typically best a slugging it out at long range.  Agility class planes are typically best in close engagements.  I guess that this gives you a little of both, but not the best of either.  Curious what you all think on this topic!

The Sky Demon has been added to the Comparison Guide  and also to the Fleet at a Glance - check it out!

A real-life pict of a B-2 Stealth Bomber

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

5 star rating added to postings: Rate your favorite planes!


Exercise your right to vote

Per reader requests, this blog now has a rating system for each posting!  You can now rate each post from 1-to-5 stars and let the MSWM world know how what you REALLY think.

Where this feature will really standout is that you now have the ability to rate each plane in the fleet!  Just go to the table of contents on the right and go to each plane and give it a rating.  We should really start to get a good picture of which planes are the favorites.  You can also do this with the campaigns or any of the postings.  I will also review these ratings to use as a guide as to what type of postings that you would like to see in the future.  So what are you waiting for?  Get moving and start rating those planes! Remember, every vote counts! 

Also - don't just vote for your favorites.  If a plane (or a post) sucks, give it one star.