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Other Projects => Other Games => Topic started by: Gabeux on October 22, 2017, 12:50:40 pm

Title: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Gabeux on October 22, 2017, 12:50:40 pm
Hello there!

A bit surprised there isn't a thread on this yet.
Bomber Crew is a game in which you command the Crew of a Bomber ( :o ) in a cute version of WWII, clearly fighting Nazi Germany.

Controlling the crew reminds of FTL - you tell them to move around stations, perform actions or skills (which are unlocked as they level up), heal other people, bring ammo to a turret and so forth. You can also order the crew to bail out or to perform an emergency landing, and the survival of the crew will depend on their survival score.

Although a seemingly small game, it has enough details to kill you in different ways surprise you. Keep your Bomb Bay Doors closed, your Landing Gear raised, and tell that damn engineer to get back inside - no use fixing a broken engine during landing!

Steam page here (http://store.steampowered.com/app/537800/Bomber_Crew/).

There's different classes of crew, and they perform their role better than other crew. Although an Engineer can fire a turret, don't expect accuracy!
The classes are comprised of the Pilot, Engineer, Radio Op, Navigator, Gunner and the Bomb Aimer.
Completing certain missions might give you perks for the next couple of missions, like lowering enemy damage, on raising your damage, and so on.
There's also "enemy aces" which might appear in a mission - if you have enough firepower, you might be looking for those..otherwise, plan accordingly.

You can customize your plane and upgrade it, which include armor, engines, turrets, equipment racks (and choose their contents), systems, and so on.

I saw a picture and bought the game, as anything with some FTL levels of inspiration is enjoyable for me. I'm having fun.


Mind that in the first missions, I felt rather frustrated. The game has no tactical pause and that's a design decision. It can take while to get used to all that's going on, and the game's not forgiving (don't try ordering an Emergency Dive and then telling the pilot to go elsewhere).

Game has permadeath, and if you lose your bomber..you lose your bomber. Depending on death conditions, some crew might still be rescued.
My tip is...learn the game before getting attached.

And some piece of info on the major criticisms of the game at the moment - rather unnecessary if you want to go blind.
Spoiler: The cons (click to show/hide)

Let me know what you think! This came out of nowhere to me, I insta-bought it and found it to be a very neat game!
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Majestic7 on October 22, 2017, 01:15:26 pm
I tried this and refunded, the first time I've done that on Steam. Basically, I came to the realization that the content (and challenge) of the game is based on having to do everything by yourself. The crew are really an illusion since, for example, for gunners to shoot at fighters you must manually mark them to be fired upon. Bombs won't drop unless you click the button etc. So the design is based on player having to do everything while giving an illusion of commanding the dudes. But as they lack initiative to do anything, there is little command aspect.

This doesn't mean it is a bad game. It just means it is not a game I want to play. This coming from someone who enjoyed FTL.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Azated on October 22, 2017, 02:44:38 pm
Pretty much how I felt too. It just didn't feel like there was any depth to be found outside the basic mechanics introduced in the tutorial.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: TheBronzePickle on October 22, 2017, 07:58:04 pm
While I understand that the lack of an actual 'command' aspect might be disappointing, the game still has a lot to offer. There's a fair bit of depth to be found just in kitting out your crew and aircraft before you even get to the skies, and the gameplay is really more of a time and resource management thing than a 'give general orders and watch them get followed' thing.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Ghazkull on October 23, 2017, 11:08:11 am
This is probably the most sadistic game i ever played. Literally, the first few mission are easy enough getting you into the game until you finally have the first proper missions thats where shit hits the fan.

Where before you had to control only your seven dudes and thats it now there is also flak to consider, aces to consider, while your electricity and hydraulics suddenly give up for no reason, as your plane is threatening to fall asunder because you didn't shoot those planes down fast enough, all the while you frantically switch between navigator for a new heading, engineer to fix the damn parts falling apart, your bomberman to drop the bombs and at all times you are two hands shorter than you should be because you have no dedicated medic and no dedicated fuel and extinguisher guy.

Its hilarious sadism as the game then begins to transform from you frantically clicking around trying to hold together this damn piece of crap you call a b12 into the game version of Blackadders 20 Minuters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UlaAHdcRMg&feature=youtu.be&t=94).

Maybe i am horribly bad at this game but so far none of my crewmembers survived more than 3 missions without dying. For example i lost one machine, not to enemy fire, not to storms, not to anything serious but to forgetting to pull up the landing gear and watching in awe as i ran out of fuel on top of the atlantic, crashing at high speed to my doom. My pilot bungled up the Emrgency Landign and since you have the sweet choice between first aid kids you definetly need to not die horribly and parachutes you need to maybe save crew which is dead anyway, i saw an entire crew taken out by landing gear.

10/10 Would lower life expectancy below 20 minutes again.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Gabeux on October 23, 2017, 11:40:05 am
Quote from: TheBronzePickle on October 22, 2017, 07:58:04 pm
and the gameplay is really more of a time and resource management thing than a 'give general orders and watch them get followed' thing.

Yep. Although a little weird that you have to do everything by yourself, I still find it fun.

After I save scummed to about 1/4 of the campaign, so I could at least get the hang of the gameplay without stressing myself too much, I started over legit and I'm probably 70% through the campaign without dying.
At first I thought the game could reach the "indie gem" level of "rank", but I still keep my overall opinion on it being "very neat" and "fun".

Like in XCOM, losing that crazy-good gunner will make you hate yourself in later stages. As you complete critical missions, the game gets harder. Losing people (or the bomber) becomes a real issue.
But it's damn satisfying having an expert crew with dakka-upgraded guns ripping aces apart, I think there's only 2 alive now. I also enjoy that there are certain things later on that might chew your tail or wings off if you don't pay attention, even if you're flying a heavily armored bomber.

Quote from: Ghazkull on October 23, 2017, 11:08:11 am
Maybe i am horribly bad at this game

Not really. I think people don't want to believe the game IS hard and takes a while to "get", just because it looks cute.
Honestly, after I "got" it, re-playing it was a breeze. It only got a bit tricky after completing the 6th campaign mission or so.

Of course, read "a breeze" as "sometimes coming back to base full of holes and 2 people uncounscious being healed"
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: GentlemanRaptor on October 23, 2017, 12:16:01 pm
Yeah, even my "easy" and "medium" missions often end with multiple engine losses and missing landing gear (or even an entire missing bomb bay!) but I still love it. You really have to know when it's getting too hairy and abort, otherwise you can easily lose a lot of people if you have to put down or bail out behind enemy lines. Also, pro tip - do not emergency land if your landing gear isn't down or you have no engines/fuel/tail. You will nosedive and kill everyone. Ask me how I know.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Zangi on October 23, 2017, 12:42:56 pm
Game designed for clicks per minute type players?
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: TheBronzePickle on October 23, 2017, 01:43:52 pm
I wouldn't say it's clicks per minute. You don't have to be fast so much as coordinated. Knowing what to concentrate on when is far more useful than being able to do a lot of things at once, as is knowing how much you can get away with before your crew start dying and your plane hits the ground.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Zangi on October 23, 2017, 02:05:56 pm
But you are still screwed anyways if you can't keep up with the clicking right?
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Vivalas on October 23, 2017, 04:55:07 pm
Huh, this seems right up my ally, particularly since I loved the chaos part of FTL and similar games, and am always terrible at the strategy part.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Parsely on October 23, 2017, 07:39:25 pm
I think I might try this. I respect the decision not to have tactical pause but I do wish that there was at least an option or an upgrade to have my crew automatically complete repetitive tasks like going to get ammo when the guns are dry, so that I could focus on the actually fun part of the game, which is making difficult decisions, right? I still have to manage reloading, it's just that I'll lose because I didn't reassign my gunner, not because I forgot to keep telling him to reload. Isn't that what FTL was about? You didn't have to tell your guys to keep shooting, just where to shoot, and they did their jobs. Though I did hear that you can get a skill for your radioman that makes him automatically mark enemies, so maybe that's more present than it seems.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: TheBronzePickle on October 23, 2017, 07:44:21 pm
There is an upgrade you can get that automatically restocks ammo, but it's quite disappointingly only for the rear turret.

That said, from my experience the front turret doesn't usually get used enough to need refilling and the dorsal and ventral turrets are close enough to the ammo that the time spent getting their gunner to reload is tiny.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Gabeux on October 24, 2017, 01:21:11 am
BronzePickle knows what's up.  :P

IMO, by checking a few gameplay videos and my own experience, most deaths happen because people gamble too much for too little. Getting that extra recon picture isn't worth a full crew and a bomber. Not knowing when to go home causes more losses than anything.

On clicks per minute, speed helps, but is not the determining factor. IMO it's priority and coorination. Saw at least two people flying with their guns dry between engagements. Just like in movies and most games, leaving enemy fighters unsurpressed by turret fire means they will not only land most if not all of their strafe, they will also hit where it hurts - this includes killing a crewmember  / taking out an engine in one burst. It's not super common, but the damage still will be crazy high.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Vivalas on October 25, 2017, 07:59:00 pm
Wow this game is a lot more interesting than most reviews make it out to be, I'm enjoying it quite a lot and have already done 3 campaign missions (the critical ones). It's when things start to go wrong and pile on each other when the game really shines, and this game would make for great AARs.

I already have a few favorite heroic characters, Elena Slater, the heroic midwife from London who bled out after treating both my gunners and the engineer who went aft and went down from flak. Brian Cambell, the black aviator who corkscrewed his bomber to victory and then crashed it later, etc. etc. (TIL not to corkscrew with missing engines at low altitude).

This is one of those games I get really immersed in for some reason, and has just enough depth to make it interesting yet it's not too challenging. Already I've learned how to manage altitude pretty well-- just go to high altitude as soon as you bomb your objective and set heading roughly towards base, and just cruise it out for a while and descend now and then to change course.

Overall I think the game is pretty interesting, and while others seem to get mad and call it a grind fest when they lose their plane and crew suddenly, I think that's part of the thrill. I feel really immersed almost all the time, even when flying out of base for the first minute or two, just imagining my aviators nervously chattering before entering the meatgrinder that is mainland Europe. The potential for epic stories is really there, and most of the upgrades really aren't that important. Crew are what really matters, and you can usually save one or two during a bail out if you really need to.

Pretty solid game overall, I would place it up there with Silent Hunter, just the aviation side of the war. Wouldn't call it a realistic or historic simulation, but it gets the job done pretty well.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Dorsidwarf on October 26, 2017, 03:31:27 am
I loved the look of this game but found it brutally impossible to run on an average machine. 10FPS max is just not enough to play a fast paced game like this so I refunded
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Kot on October 26, 2017, 07:15:23 am
Quote from: Dorsidwarf on October 26, 2017, 03:31:27 am
I loved the look of this game but found it brutally impossible to run on an average machine. 10FPS max is just not enough to play a fast paced game like this so I refunded
You don't have average machine. My cheap ass laptop with integrated graphics and old-ass Pentium processor runs it at 30.

Spoiler: Will wait for the Dresden DLC. (click to show/hide)
DO IT AGAIN BOMBER HARRIS
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Dorsidwarf on October 26, 2017, 11:24:36 am
Quote from: Kot on October 26, 2017, 07:15:23 am
Quote from: Dorsidwarf on October 26, 2017, 03:31:27 am
I loved the look of this game but found it brutally impossible to run on an average machine. 10FPS max is just not enough to play a fast paced game like this so I refunded
You don't have average machine. My cheap ass laptop with integrated graphics and old-ass Pentium processor runs it at 30.

Spoiler: Will wait for the Dresden DLC. (click to show/hide)
DO IT AGAIN BOMBER HARRIS

then something in the game makes it have a spaz fit on my computer because no other games do this
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: EnigmaticHat on October 26, 2017, 04:49:38 pm
I like this game but my experience is that things get so bad in such a short period of time that when I do lose, I have no idea why.  Because I was too busy trying to salvage the situation to notice the details.

It seems to me that the most important thing to surviving is having a crew around ~5.  All the crew except bombers and maybe the radio operator have a few simple skills that make a huge difference to surviving.  Right now I'm caught in a loop of recruiting a crew, winning a mission or two, then having a TPK when the bomber crashes.  I have learned a few things that result in failure consistently.  Namely, most of my failures involve losing track of the plane's altitude and position, or one way or another the pilot's seat becoming unmanned.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Gabeux on October 26, 2017, 05:22:47 pm
Yep, it can be incredibly upsetting. The worst one I had was when the bomber's Mk3 Armored Tail fell off and I died within 3 seconds, and there was only 1 fighter around me.
Until you can understand the skills and the whole micromanaging thing, your mind will be too focused at one or two things to realize that your left fuel tank was completely annihilated in one pass, and if you don't shift fuel immediatelly, you're going to die.
Of course, at the start, at the time you realize this your engines have already stopped.

It can be pretty brutal, but I think that's great. It makes mastering things and finishing missions without issues a lot more satisfying!

And skills definitely help and can simply make the difference between losing everything or surviving. Saving Auto Tag for those moments where you have to pay attention to the bombing and maneuvering is critical, because untagged fighters will rip through critical systems and crew members. Being able to quickly set a nav point away from the insanity, ordering the pilot to High Altitude and the Engineer to boost extremely quickly is also a common trick if things get out of hand.
There's no punishment from aborting missions, except having to do them again. So this game really messes with our pride.  :P
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: EnigmaticHat on October 26, 2017, 05:34:10 pm
I think I'm going to stop buying upgrades for a while.  Just get a real basic loadout (the only essentials seem to be armor on the two gunners, and oxygen/thermal on the engineer), and gather some money.  I lose WAYYYY too much time to making sure the tailgunner has ammo, once I have some money saved up I'm going to try and always keep enough in the bank so that I can immediately buy an autoloader for them.  I've also been trying to keep multiple medikits and extinquishers on each plane (no parachutes unless there's parachutes for everyone, that's my policy), and honestly it seems like a waste of money.  Yeah I do frequently end up with two people downed in the same mission, but I also frequently end up with TPKs, and one of those things is a bigger priotiy.

One thing that can help immensely is that you can jam... pretty much infinite ammo into the turrets whenever you want.  I think you could theoretically stay on the runway until you have 20 belts loaded, but I do not have time for that in my life.  Do you know if I set a manual waypoint towards the objective, if the plane will veer off course or if I can just forget about navigation?
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Vivalas on October 26, 2017, 05:39:40 pm
I haven't really noticed any veering off course when not updating heading. Your plane just flies in one direction until you tell it to fly another direction.

This is good when you just bombed your target and have 10 fighters on you, since you can set course home and boost to high altitude.

It's bad when you forget heading after bombing your target because of critical damage, and fly deeper into Europe.... Oh boy, the fighters don't stop coming.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: EnigmaticHat on October 26, 2017, 05:41:21 pm
"The plane dropped its payload over France... we suspect they be attempting a ramming attack on this very bunker, mein Fuhrer!  We must evacuate immediately."
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Gabeux on October 26, 2017, 06:34:35 pm
On a completely unrelated note, one of these days I saw a thread on the first page of the Bomber Crew Discussion Board titled something like "Is this game just anti-german propaganda", with the OP saying something like 'all those WWII games are getting old with this anti-german bullshit". There was 20 replies at the time.
I held myself for days not to read it. Today I went on to look for it and it is gone - probably deleted.

I'm pretty sure it was the bait of the decade and I missed it.
Sorry, just had to put this out there.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Kot on October 26, 2017, 09:31:40 pm
Quote from: Gabeux on October 26, 2017, 06:34:35 pm
On a completely unrelated note, one of these days I saw a thread on the first page of the Bomber Crew Discussion Board titled something like "Is this game just anti-german propaganda", with the OP saying something like 'all those WWII games are getting old with this anti-german bullshit". There was 20 replies at the time.
I held myself for days not to read it. Today I went on to look for it and it is gone - probably deleted.

I'm pretty sure it was the bait of the decade and I missed it.
Sorry, just had to put this out there.
DO IT AGAIN BOMBER HARRIS
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Sean Mirrsen on October 27, 2017, 06:23:50 am
I really want to like this game for its premise, but when I tried running it I get tremendous lag. Not even bad framerate really, I'm used to bad framerate - it's just that every action with the mouse takes about a second to register. :|
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Gabeux on October 27, 2017, 04:59:09 pm
With the Halloween Update, they added a "Slow Time" [hold CTRL] feature along with a way to quickly peek inside the bomber [hold SHIFT], along with being able to move the camera with WASD, and hotkeys like pressing R to order a crewmember to reload/head for the ammo box, F to head for the Rest Bed and P to head for the pilot station.
There'll be a reward if "slow time" is not used, and it can also be disabled. There was some bug fixes and a slight difficulty rebalance.

Haven't tested yet, but sounds good!
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Parsely on October 27, 2017, 05:30:06 pm
Ooooh hotkeys! I was already really keen on getting this but now I think it's a must.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: EnigmaticHat on October 28, 2017, 01:39:20 am
Things that do not crash the plane:

1. Injecting a lean fuel mix while the pilot is still on the runway.

2. An enemy fighter crashing into the plane.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: forsaken1111 on October 28, 2017, 10:42:28 pm
Quote from: EnigmaticHat on October 28, 2017, 01:39:20 am
Things that do not crash the plane:

1. Injecting a lean fuel mix while the pilot is still on the runway.

2. An enemy fighter crashing into the plane.
3. Ramming into a friendly spitfire
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Broseph Stalin on October 30, 2017, 04:40:36 am
I got super excited by the description of the game but hearing the talk about doing everything yourself put me off. Besides that my new things is to look at the hours played by reviewers. Great reviews don't mean much to me if the average person only gets 4-6 hours of enjoyment out of it.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: forsaken1111 on October 30, 2017, 04:45:55 am
Quote from: Broseph Stalin on October 30, 2017, 04:40:36 am
I got super excited by the description of the game but hearing the talk about doing everything yourself put me off. Besides that my new things is to look at the hours played by reviewers. Great reviews don't mean much to me if the average person only gets 4-6 hours of enjoyment out of it.
Scrolling down the reviews just now I see positive reviews at 12.5 hours, 10.3 hours, 11.8 hours, 23.3 hours.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: Glloyd on November 01, 2017, 03:05:49 pm
It's a pretty fun game, I'm maybe 6 or 7 hours into it and I've been enjoying it. However, it does make me wish that there was some sort of Silent Hunter style game for WWII bombers and not just subs.
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: MrRoboto75 on November 01, 2017, 03:14:28 pm
Catch 22 simulator/10
Title: Re: Bomber Crew - FTL-slightly-inspired WWII Bomber Frantic Strategy
Post by: EuchreJack on March 30, 2022, 04:23:29 am
Necroing this thread because I finally got this game!

I initially grabbed it on sale, then picked up a deal on the DLC so I can fly a B-17 Flying Fortress!

Quote from: MrRoboto75 on November 01, 2017, 03:14:28 pm
Catch 22 simulator/10
Yeah, I'm reminded of that Netflix series as I play this.  I even had a brief run where only the bombardier and pilot are alive.
There was also a book...