Aces High

Aces High (formerly known as Aces High II) is a combat flight simulator and massively multiplayer online game for Microsoft Windows. It was created by HiTech Creations and originally released on May 8, 2000. It features aircraft from both the World War II and World War I eras, as well as smaller numbers of ground vehicles and ships.

While the main focus of Aces High is on World War II aerial combat, there is also a smaller selection of ground vehicles, ships and World War I aircraft. Overall, there are over eighty aircraft, vehicles and boats individually modelled in the game.

Gameplay
Aces High is an open-ended combat flight simulator, where players can fly online or offline, and engage other players in air, land or sea-based combat.





World War II
The main (and original) focus of Aces High is World War II aerial combat. This takes place in several online arenas, the focuses of which include 'early', 'middle' and 'late' war aircraft. In addition to this, the World War II arenas also contain ground and naval combat, both of which operate alongside the air war. Although the selection of ground vehicles is a little lacking, it is beginning to be improved with the upcoming addition of the M4A3 and the M4A3(76) (a version armed with a 76mm high velocity gun as opposed to a 75mm low velocity gun, which would give better anti-tank capabilities at the cost of less powerful high-explosive shells.)

World War I
HiTech Creations announced the development of aircraft from World War I in October 2009. Upon its release in 2010, it contained four aircraft: the Fokker Dr.I, Sopwith Camel, Bristol F.2B, and Fokker D.VII.



Special Events
Separate from the other arenas, special events run on a regular basis at certain times. Special events cover a wide range of historical and ahistorical topics. They include 'scenarios', 'squad nights', 'King of the Hill' and 'air races'.

Scenarios
Scenarios are the largest of all the special events, and take the forum of simulated aerial campaigns. They take place at least once a week multi-week events, typically with one or more multi-hour sessions called "frames" per week. They typically involve up to 500 players divided up into two sides with definite objectives, available aircraft, command staff, and mission orders for each side.



Additional Features
Using editors provided by the developers, players are able to create to create terrains and aircraft skins, which may be submitted to HiTech Creations for inclusion in the game.

Combat Tour
Combat Tour (originally known as 'Aces High II: Tour of Duty') was planned to be an expansion to Aces High, in which players would have created a persistent character, allowing them take the part of a combat pilot in World War II. However, this project was cancelled after the 2008 player-developer convention. Whilst Combat Tour itself was put on indefinite hold, a 'Mission Editor' was released, which allowed players to create offline missions.