Airplanes in Adventure Mode

[Eldarion Telcontar]

So, I recently  got a chance to play the Adventure Mode dev app and one thing really stood out....

What's with the airplanes?? 

I thought GoIO was a post-apocalyptic world with technology essentially capped in the (very) late 19th century, yet here we have fixed wing, heavier than air flight with four engines on a single wing none the less.  These planes are able to vastly outmaneuver the airships and have guns and bombs (!) on board.  Yes, I know the lightning gun will get rid of them but that particular weapon feels very much like an Deus ex Machina to avoid this:

Whoever owns aircraft and manufactuing facilities of that sophistication should be able to conquer the entire GoIO world.  It's like 1940s technology being used against 1900s level technology; that's a 30 - 40 year gap in weapons technology that would, in a real world scenario, all but guarantee victory for the nation using the planes.

Also, from a pure gameplay / fun perspective, I was getting much more of a WWII air raid feel from the game than a steampunk / post apocalyptic feel.  Keeping combat monoplanes in the air requires a technology level way above airships and it just feels very unnatural to mix the two.

Is there any way we can at least downgrade the planes to something more appropriate, like bi / triplanes carrying only one fixed weapon?  Something like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_in_World_War_I#/media/File:Lanoe_Hawker%27s_No_1611_Bristol_Scout_C.jpg

Also they probably shouldn't respawn; in WWI aircraft were relatively unused compared to WWII and later engagements due to how difficult early aircraft were to use effectively, combined with the overall expense of production and training.

[BlackenedPies]

That's what I tried telling them. The in-game designs are based on late war technology. They're also too small to fit crew but that's another story. When I first heard there were gonna be planes I assumed early models like biplanes. It's ok to mix monoplanes and airships because presumably the advantage with airships is bigger guns and higher capacity, but the in-game designs don't fit their roles. With a little work they could be converted into much more practical designs

The heavy bomber has a long thin fuselage with long thin wings and four engines like the B-29 which indicates it's designed for long range at high altitude. This isn't the role it plays and it should have a shorter stockier design preferably with two engines to indicate being a medium bomber. If it has four engines it should look more like the Avro Lancaster

The twin-boom heavy fighter should be converted into a twin-fuselage fighter. The in-game version looks too much like the iconic P-38. Twin-fuselage aircraft take advantage of existing designs by pairing them together like the F-82. This is cheaper and capitalizes on existing designs as well as looking more unique in game. Everyone who sees the heavy fighter will immediately recognize the P-38 so the center fuselage should be removed and the booms extended with a cockpit added

The fast fighter has long curved swept-back wings which indicates it's designed for high speed at high altitude. This was impractical with WW2 technology and isn't practical now because propellers don't have the power to produce that kind of speed at altitude. This is a jet aircraft with a propeller stuck on it. Either change the powerplant (jet or rocket) or change the wings. Rocket planes were tested pre-jet in a close range fighter role like the Soviet BI-1 in 1942, but they have a very limited range. Otherwise it makes no sense to have curved swept-back wings which is very inefficient for prop aircraft

[DJ Logicalia]

The GoI lore is a mess. Honestly, I think the whole thing needs to be re-done. They've had people working on it who are no longer with Muse, and the bits they do have are simultaneously so big and broad, but so sparsely detailed. There really needs to be some serious, official work done on it before I care about what's lore breaking and what isn't

[BlackenedPies]

I'm not worried about how planes fit into the lore, just how they're designed. It doesn't make sense to have a high altitude heavy bomber used in a medium bomber role, a twin-boom heavy fighter in the image of the iconic P-38, or a prop plane with curved swept back wings

[Solidusbucket]

To be fair it is a game and a form of art. In this case the art is (should be?) following a business model.

I say do whatever they think will get people playing and make money.

[BlackenedPies]

Sure maybe the curved swept back wings look cool and that's all that matters, but to players with any knowledge of US WW2 aircraft the heavy bomber and heavy fighter are copies of the B29 and P38. Some will think it's lazy to copy iconic designs and use them outside their role. It doesn't take much work to make them more unique and practical. They should be updated before release

[HamsterIV]

From a game play perspective Airplanes made sense in the Original GOI (now called the "Flight of the Icarus") because you were playing a crew member on a ship that was flying a set rout. You had no say in how your ship engaged the enemy, and were reacting to the movements of faster/more agile enemies. GOIO has more agency in how your ship fights since there is a human at the helm. Yet the inclusion of airplanes strip the agency from the captain. There is no way to out fly something that much faster, smaller, and more maneuverable. Instead the crew must take initiative and periodically stop what ever task the captain has set for them to find a gun that is hopefully pointed in the right direction and swat away the fighters.

Muse has balanced the airplanes by making them so weak they are just a nuance most of the time, but if Muse were not beholden to the lore they established in a previous game I would hope they would remove the airplanes and make it pure airship on airship combat.