Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

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MonkeyFinger
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by MonkeyFinger »

I'm on the verge of joining the club... ponder, ponder...
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naednek
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by naednek »

it's fun. but it hard from the start
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tgb
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by tgb »

naednek wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:04 pm it's fun. but it hard from the start
Sure is. I'm getting slaughtered just on the third mission.
I spent 90% of the money I made on women, booze, and drugs. The other 10% I just pissed away.
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Sepiche
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by Sepiche »

naednek wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:04 pm it's fun. but it hard from the start
The difficulty starts high and ramps slowly, but by grinding some of the earlier missions you can get ahead of the upgrade curve a bit, and that pays dividends later. Armor upgrades will give you more time to react, and making sure to try and get the optional photo objective on some missions will give a good boost to your money.

It is in many ways a rogue-like in terms of difficulty though.
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tgb
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by tgb »

I suppose I'm getting the hang of it, since last session I at least managed to blow up the munitions factory before everything turned to hell, and I lost my entire crew (and plane).
I spent 90% of the money I made on women, booze, and drugs. The other 10% I just pissed away.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by em2nought »

naednek wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:04 pm it's fun. but it hard from the start
So it's realistic according to the wiki :shock:
Bomber Command crews also suffered an extremely high casualty rate: 55,573 killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4 percent death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war. This covered all Bomber Command operations including tactical support for ground operations and mining of sea lanes.[clarification needed][25]

A Bomber Command crew member had a worse chance of survival than an infantry officer in World War I; more people were killed serving in Bomber Command than in the Blitz, or the bombings of Hamburg or Dresden.
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Exodor
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by Exodor »

naednek wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:04 pm it's fun. but it hard from the start
Yeah - bought it, got through the tutorial just fine, then got absolutely destroyed on my first mission. I did mange to land my crippled plane somewhere on English soil where all my surviving crew members went MIA. :roll:

Haven't played it since and don't really have much desire to return. I should have known to avoid a real-time game. :(
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tgb
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by tgb »

Exodor wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:16 pm
naednek wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:04 pm it's fun. but it hard from the start
Yeah - bought it, got through the tutorial just fine, then got absolutely destroyed on my first mission. I did mange to land my crippled plane somewhere on English soil where all my surviving crew members went MIA. :roll:

Haven't played it since and don't really have much desire to return. I should have known to avoid a real-time game. :(
Preach it, Brother. I've yet to successfully complete the first mission after the tutorials, and I've come to the conclusion that it's the interface, not me. Specifically it's finding the right hot spot for an order (first aid, in particular), while my plane is being shot full of holes.

I regret getting it from GMG to save a few bucks. If I had gotten it directly I could at least put in for a refund.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by naednek »

i like it. I like the real time aspect. It's supposed to be that way. They went soft and added a slow down timer, but it's optional thank God. It's just tough, but certainly rewarding.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by tgb »

After watching a beginner's guide and keeping my wits about me I finally managed to successfully complete the first mission. Yay, me.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by raydude »

This turn-based vs. real-time and mention of B-17 QOTS brings to mind a discussion I had with my wife when she saw me playing B-17 Queen of the Skies:

Wife: What is all THAT?!
Me: It's a game. I'm playing a B-17 bomber crew.
Wife: What's with all the confetti pieces and charts?
Me: I track what's going on. It's meant to simulate the horror of going out on missions day after day.
Wife: It's working. I'm horrified right now.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by jztemple2 »

Article on Paper, Rock, Shotgun relating the developer's plans for future changes and DLC.
Released in the eye of the silly season storm, and crucially getting in there before the bigger, noisier World War Twos of Wolfenstein and COD arrived, Runner Duck Games’ airborne “strategic survival sim” Bomber Crew has done the business. Its success has far outstripped the expectations of this two-person Brighton studio; as such, its co-designer and artist Dave Miller tells me, “we’ve got plans for the franchise which we will now definitely be able to do.”

In the far future, there’ll be another game that is “not just the obvious thing”, but ahead of that, a bunch of free updates followed by three clumps of DLC – one of which is something the game’s audience has been clamouring for. Bomber Crew will quite likely continue to be the Memphis Belle of the ball.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by jztemple2 »

Bomber Crew - Update #2 Patch Notes

Hello!

Thanks everyone, for all your suggestions and feedback. We’ve got plenty of work to do in preparing the console version of Bomber Crew, but your enthusiasm and support has given us the extra boost we need to continue improving the PC version, and the second update is here!

Here’s what’s new:

‘Lock Pilot to Station Button’
If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation where your pilot has wandered off without you realising, you may appreciate this new feature! There’s a new button on the Pilot’s station panel, which can be clicked to lock your pilot to the station, preventing them being sent elsewhere in the bomber. Click it again to unlock.

‘Enemy Ace Health Bars Appear as Objectives’
Now when your crew encounters an enemy Ace fighter, their health will appear on the right hand side of the screen as an objective, giving a clearer idea of how the battle is going.

‘Toggle Quick Peek with the ‘Z’ Key’
Hit the ‘Z’ key and your view will zoom straight into the bomber, allowing you to quickly get managing your crew. Hit the ‘Z’ key a second time to return to the previous camera view.

Other Changes:
- Balancing of mid and later missions has been improved. They’re still challenging, but some groups of jets have been spaced out a little.

- Leaking fuel tanks now display a visible effect.

- Crew can now move when the bomber is at steeper angles.

- Low fuel warning are now repeated to give them more urgency.

- ‘Bail Out’ order can now be canceled by clicking the button a second time.

- ‘Slow Time’ camera zoom is reduced.

- Fixed: Engine fire extinguishers would not deplete if station was vacated.

- Fixed: ‘Medium’ and ‘Low’ altitude button labels were swapped around.

- Fixed: Rockets can no longer be detonated by clouds!

- Heavier crew gear now slows down crewmembers slightly less.

- Fixed: Rendering error on rear-starboard tail fin.

- Fixed: Audio stuttering sometimes caused by many anti-aircraft guns firing together.

There are plenty of things that didn’t make it in this time, but more improvements are on the way!
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

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Winter Update & Secret Weapons DLC
We’ve be overwhelmed with the response to Bomber Crew since its release, and have had numerous requests for more playable content. We’ve both been working at full tilt to bring you something in time for the winter holidays, and here it is - the Secret Weapons DLC!

You’ll take your crew through the challenging missions of ‘Big Week’, striking at the enemy’s aircraft production facilities during a snow-swept midwinter. The enemy will strike back with their most experimental fighter aircraft - and the deadly ace pilots who have mastered them!
You’ll also find a few goodies at the airbase, such as thermal flight suits, new base paint liveries, and some handy advanced upgrades to your bomber’s armaments.

Enjoyed the music in Bomber Crew? You can now grab the Official Soundtrack, which has been carefully re-mastered for the best listening experience.

The Bomber Crew Season Pass is now available! This offers all current and future DLC at a bargain price.

As it’s the season for giving, we also have a free update for everyone!
Here’s what’s new:

‘New Bomber Upgrades: Ammo Feeds for all Turrets!’
This holiday season, give all your gunners the gift of unlimited ammo belts. Go on, you know it’s what they always wanted!

‘Slightly Quicker Tagging’
The time it takes for a marker to be tagged is now reduced slightly.

‘New Crew Gear: Festive Jumpers and Bobble Hats’
Very warm and moderately stylish clobber - get your crew in a festive mood!

‘New Bomber Upgrades: Seasonal Liveries’
Yes, that bomber is wearing a festive jumper.

‘Low Fuel Warning Indicator’
The fuel light in the bottom-left of the screen will now flash when you have only 25% of your fuel remaining.

‘Memorial Name Wall Extended’
Over 800 brave fallen crew can now be remembered.

We’ve also made numerous small improvements and fixes.

Once again, thanks for all your support, it continues to be wonderful!
We’re going to have a short break over Christmas, then in the new year, crack on with bringing you more Bomber Crew updates!

If you celebrate it, Merry Christmas! If you don’t, Happy Holidays!

Jon & Dave
Runner Duck
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

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Victory! The crew of the "Bagel Hole" (my third--fourth?--Lancaster in this campaign) dropped a very large bomb in just the right spot, bringing an end to the war in Europe.

Unfortunately, what remained of the Luftwaffe shot them to pieces on the return trip, and they crash landed in western Germany. Three survived to celebrate their triumph--and mourn those lost.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by jztemple2 »

AWS260 wrote: Sun Dec 17, 2017 3:57 pm Victory! The crew of the "Bagel Hole" (my third--fourth?--Lancaster in this campaign) dropped a very large bomb in just the right spot, bringing an end to the war in Europe.

Unfortunately, what remained of the Luftwaffe shot them to pieces on the return trip, and they crash landed in western Germany. Three survived to celebrate their triumph--and mourn those lost.
Congrats! :dance: I really need to get back into this game again :roll:
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by em2nought »

Bomber Crew is $10.something in the Steam Christmas sale, and they have a historical skins pack coming in Q2 of 2018
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by jztemple2 »

And rumor is that they will be releasing a DLC that allows you to fly a B-17.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by Sepiche »

jztemple2 wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 12:46 pm And rumor is that they will be releasing a DLC that allows you to fly a B-17.
Image
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by em2nought »

Sepiche wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 12:50 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 12:46 pm And rumor is that they will be releasing a DLC that allows you to fly a B-17.
Image
https://steamcommunity.com/games/537800 ... 6460077972

Image
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by MonkeyFinger »

Awesome... loves me some Flying Fortress. 8-)
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

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I'm in.
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em2nought
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by em2nought »

In related gaming, this VR Avro Lancaster experience looks interesting "1943 Berlin Blitz" https://store.steampowered.com/app/5134 ... lin_Blitz/
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by Isgrimnur »

Took me like five tries to get past the first Critical mission.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by Isgrimnur »

Finished the third critical mission ... and crashed on landing, killing my entire crew. I was sure that I put the gear down. It appeared that perhaps the left gear had been damaged/destroyed in the way the animation played out in the split second that I could see. I was not a happy camper.

Ah, well. At least the new recruits were all level 5 to start.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by ChuckB »

Isgrimnur wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:17 am Finished the third critical mission ... and crashed on landing, killing my entire crew. I was sure that I put the gear down. It appeared that perhaps the left gear had been damaged/destroyed in the way the animation played out in the split second that I could see. I was not a happy camper.

Ah, well. At least the new recruits were all level 5 to start.
Yes, the gear can get damaged in a way that it collapses upon touchdown, happened to me. The one thing I always do in these cases to heal all crew members (if possible) before attempting the landing. That way, they have a chance to survive - my impression is that crashes on the runway injures them (and may kill them if they were previously injured) but it does not necessarily outright kills them.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by Isgrimnur »

Next time, I'll just go to medium altitude and have them bail out.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by Isgrimnur »

Took a high risk mission with my replacement crew, and got shot down. I hit emergency landing, made it to the ground, then blew up before I could roll to a stop.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by NickAragua »

This game is surprisingly fun. Ran a couple of missions, and only had one complete disaster - search & rescue over the English Channel, except we got intercepted by Germans. Since it was my first time on a "real" mission, I kept running out of ammo while trying to drop the supplies over the downed pilot. Then the back of my aircraft caught on fire, and it took me a long time to figure out how to work the fire extinguisher. By that point, half my crew were dead, and I ordered everyone to bail out.

At which point, I noticed that there were four dudes and two parachutes, which left exactly two dudes on the plane and no parachutes after the quicker ones jumped. So, the two remaining dudes forgot about the fire and the fact that the plane looked like crumbled feta cheese. One, the bomber, got on the nav station, the other, the engineer got on the pilot station. Between the two of them, they somehow navigated back to the airfield and started the landing sequence. That's when I noticed that one of the landing gears was damaged - I sent the engineer out to repair it, but couldn't figure out how to abort the landing approach.

So the aircraft "landed". The right wing fell off. Not only did we fail to rescue the pilot, but got three of our guys killed outright and two drowned in the channel. Good job, numbnuts!
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by Isgrimnur »

I'm likely putting this one on the shelf for now. I'm not keen about trying to pick up with the 4th crew at the current location, and not wanting to restart from scratch either.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by coopasonic »

Just started playing this with my xbox ultimate game pass (playing on PC) and I am loving it. I have only just unlocked the second critical mission and *almost* lost my plane. 1 dead and 2 bleeding out when I put it down with one landing gear missing and only one engine running about a hundred feet short of the runway. Could have been worse. I really need to get that ventral gun installed. On enemy was killing me from below for most of the return trip. Ammo feeds are next on the list. So much money but so much reloading!
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

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I was going to do one more mission before hitting the third critical mission and apparently I decided to have my pilot get ammo for the gunners. Only the central gunners lack ammo feeds and it is a quick trip for them so I click it and forget it. I noticed the "no pilot, fool!" icon and the plane was spiraling. It was too late to get him back in the seat and my brain didn't think to move any-goddamn-one else to take over in the meantime so the plane went down and all but one crew member was killed. I'm pretty sure that puts me done with the game. It was starting to feel pretty grind-y anyway.
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Re: Bomber Crew: Kerbals in an Avro Lancaster

Post by jztemple2 »

New game from the Bomber Crew folks, coming in September... Space Crew (Steam link)

My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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