Meet your Crew Chief: an AI crew chief you can talk to. Hold your Crew Chief key and ask out loud, such as "How do I start my engine?", "Where is the nearest enemy field?" or "Set my flaps for takeoff." He answers by voice and on screen, sets things up for you, can fly you toward a field on autopilot, and knows your plane, your screen and where you are. He works from the clipboard, the tower and in flight.
Crew Chief lessons for new pilots: the arena list, tower, hangar, first flight, vehicles, flying with the mouse, gunnery and bailing out. Turn them off or start them over in Crew Chief setup.
Crew Chief setup: a choice of voices, voice speed, and Show Crew Chief text on screen. Chat channel 6 ("Chief") is Crew Chief's channel: type a question there, and all his answers show there.
Supply lines matter: destroying a convoy, train or barge now hurts the field it was supplying, and anything destroyed there stays down longer. Each vehicle lost adds its share, so a whole convoy adds a full down time. Wrecks stay on the map for 5 minutes, and anything destroyed while they lie there gets the same penalty.
18 new and 12 updated default controller maps, made from the maps players use, so more sticks, throttles and pedals work right out of the box.
Microphone: the radio shows the microphone window when your mic is missing or blocked, a mic you allow in Windows later works without restarting, and Auto Mic Volume settles faster and steadier.
Fixed the ground around fields flickering in and out at some distances and angles.
Terrain and other game file downloads now use HTTPS. This may fix the trouble some players have had downloading terrains.
Chat: long lines now wrap under the start of the message.
Clipboard map: the mouse-over on friendly planes now matches where their icons are drawn.
Fixed some buttons drawn with a dark band at the top.
The game now closes its browser helper before it starts a patch, which fixes "Patch Failed AcesHighBrowser.exe".