Packaging
YAP is available only as a compressed file download (in RAR format) from the web site here. You’re asked to pay upfront to acquire the objects, then the missions go for $1 each. Your first download, containing the objects and the first 10 missions, is priced at $24.95. Each additional 10 mission pack is then $10. YAP’s creators plan to release a total of 100 missions. Right now the second mission pack is available with Missions 21 to 30.
To those who take issue with YAP’s marketing plan — about which more later — this packaging concept is the ultimate quality check. If you’re concerned about getting your money’s worth, you don’t have to pony up the whole $115 up front. Invest $25 and get the objects and the first 10 missions. If you like them, get the next mission pack. If you think the product is worth the money, keep getting them. Simple as that.
You enter your credit card info and are emailed a link to the downloads you’ve paid for — a process very familiar to anyone who’s bought add-on software for any flight sim.
Installation
Once you have the downloads, the fun begins. Actually, that’s not right at all. The fun is actually a ways off yet. I should say the tedium begins. Remember I said there were dozens of objects and other components? Well, there’s no installer. This meant I had to move all those files from unzipped folders to where they belonged in the game, by hand. I realized as soon as I started the first mission that something was wrong. After a quick exchange of email with YAP’s support staff, I was back in business. They knew exactly what I’d done after only the briefest of explanations
By the time you read this you may be able to forget the above paragraph. YAP’s developers realize that not everyone will be satisfied with a manual install, so an installer is under development which will, let’s say, streamline the installation process. Whew.
As the game evolves and is refined, YAP’s buyers will be sent links to the download page. The developers encourage everyone to download and install the latest version of your previously purchased objects and missions as they become available. Support after the sale: always a good thing.
There’s no requirement that you fly the missions in the order they’re presented, but keep something in mind if you decide to jump around. The kind folks who gave us YAP recommend that you run the realism settings on full bore, full realism. But you’ll thank me if you set things back just a little bit from wide open. I’d go so far as to suggest that unless you’re proficient — and very good — in WOV, you start with everything set to “Normal” and then crank in more difficulty as you see what’s what. You’ll find it tame at first, but busy. Roll in increasing difficulty from there.
That said, if you fly the missions in chronological order, you can probably get away with running the realism full on. The intensity ramps up along with the war. I found that, like a book, YAP’s chapters are best enjoyed in order. Your results of course may vary.
 |
| Some missions are just impossible. Since it seemed IRL like the good guys couldn’t drop this bridge no matter what they did, you can’t either (until a later mission, anyway). You’re told about it in the brief. But you can fly the mission for the experience. Since I knew I wouldn’t get it anyway, I was so obsessed with preserving my virtual hide that I missed the bridge by a mile. I did manage to get home. I counted that as a successful flight. |
