Released March 10, 2010

Installing the patch manually

To install the patch manually, you will need to download the correct patch executable file.

WARNING: Failure to install the correct patch will render the game corrupt and require a full download and installation.

Check the current version of the game you have installed by starting the game. In the upper left corner of the opening screen is the version and patch number.

If your current version is Version 2.17 Patch 3
Use this patch (59.5 MBytes) to reach Version 2.18 Patch 0, if you wish to install it manually.

The high resolution texture package has also been updated for this release. If you are using it, then you must update your texture package as well.

Changes from previous release

• WW1 air combat comes to Aces High with the introduction of four new WW1 planes and the WW1 Dogfight Arena(s). The new arena(s) is designed for pure unadulterated WW1 dogfighting with no strat or capture.
  
  These new WW1 planes use fixed pitch propellers instead of the constant speed propellers found on all the other planes in Aces High. Because they can't adjust their pitch, the engine RPM will speed up and slow down according to your airspeed and throttle setting. This makes it very easy to overspeed your engine in a full power dive. You will know when you are overspeeding your engine because your tachometer will be in the red and your engine will begin to make a bad sound. Immediately reduce your throttle and/or airspeed to keep from blowing your engine. Alternatively, there is an option in your flight preferences for a WW1 Engine Governor. This will limit your engine to its nominal rating and prevent you from overspeeding it in most conditions. The advantage to not using the governor is that you can run your RPM higher than the governor giving you more power in high rpm situations. The governor is defaulted to on.
  
  The Dr.I and the F.1 Camel both use rotary engines. The large spinning mass of these engines makes gyroscopic precession a large factor in how these planes fly. With the clockwise rotating engines of these planes, a pitch up movement will create a yaw to the right, a pitch down movement will create a yaw to the left, a yaw to the left will create a pitch down and a yaw to the right will create a pitch up. Throttle control for these planes will just cut out cylinders from the firing sequence so it will work in steps instead of giving you smooth control through the entire range.
  
  Fields in the WW1 arena are heavily defended by AAA. It has a max range of 5000 feet and you want to be turning around as soon as it opens up on you. Don't even try to go into it.
  
  Ditches score as kills for your opponent in the WW1 arena.
  
  The most efficient gunnery tactic is to target the pilot. The bullets do penetrate so the cockpit shot will work from most angles as there is little on these planes to completely stop a bullet aside from the engine. A single head shot will end the fight, body shots will take 2 or more depending on how cleanly they've come through the airframe.

Other Changes

• Pilot kills of aircraft now sends the dead plane into a death spiral.
• Added gun animations for moving parts and vibration. This is only on the WW1 planes in this version but will migrate to the WW2 planes and vehicles in the future.
• Added the ability to have different damage sounds for when different things get destroyed.
• Tail weight is removed when the rear fuselage is destroyed.
• Horizontal stabilizers can now be destroyed independently of each other.
• Fixed a bug that caused polys or texture to stretch in certain situations for low end video cards that do not support hardware T&L.
• Added a tire rumble sound and vibration when your plane is rolling on the ground.
• Fixed Lancaster gear shadow.
• Fixed Spit 8 tailwheel shadow.
• Fixed Spitfire gear shadows rotation.
• Fixed prop pitch in 3d models of the P39s and A6Ms.
• Calibrated tachometers in the P-51s.
• Ki-67 fuel leaks from the correct spots now.
• Fixed some sorting issues on P-47s.
• Fixed a LoD issue with the I-16 cockpit.
• Fixed a texture bug on the P-51D's exhaust.
• Changed lighting properties of static propellers.