Spitfire II quirks, questions and anomalies

[Das Attorney]

I mainly fly the Spitfire II offline. I haven't really been online as most of the servers I can find don't play it. That issue aside, during testing I found the following behaviour with the plane, and have a few questions.


Does Boost Cut Out work properly? I can switch Boost Cut Out on, with either mouse or via a key, but I can't switch it back off again. Presumably this is an oversight in the game. The Spit and Hurricane share the same engine and Boost Cut Out is switchable in both on and off settings using the Hurricane.


The Spit doesn't seem to overheat even running with Boost on. I can thrash it around the sky, with full throttle, 2600 RPM, Boost On and running rich indefinitely. As long as the radiator is partially open, the engine is fine. Fuel consumption is okay too. Surely this can't be right? I do run full CEM and temperature effects are on (as well as all other options set for realism).


Does convergence work properly? Before you answer, I'm aware that I should match up the target's wingspan and also 2 x the desired range to target on the distance ring (in the current iteration of the game). What I mean is, the tracers always seem to converge at exactly the same point in front of the Spitfire. One would expect that the point of convergence would visibly alter when moving the distance ring while holding down the trigger. It does not though (try it). Does this mean that no matter what you do with the gunsight controls, it will have no bearing on the actual point that all the .303's converge on? This leads me onto the next question....


How does the convergence settings in the 'Loadout' menu relate to the Spitfire? Again, I know that loadout doesn't work offline yet, but surely even if it did work, then it would be over-ridden as soon as you start messing with the gunsight controls in game. I thought one of the benefits of setting each gun up in the loadout was that the guns could be set for 'zonal convergence' as opposed to 'point convergence' (for example). Has anyone tried this online yet?


Lastly, setting the mixture to 'lean' always seems to make the Spit shake uncontrollably. I thought mixture was set for fuel efficiency when cruising, but even if the plane is trimmed true and at a good altitude (10000 feet plus for example), then it still rattles when the mixture is leaned out. Is this something I'm doing wrong?


Thanks for reading :)

[whoarmongar]

I mostly fly the Mk1a online , and I have to admit im no expert

1 . Boost cut out, Its basically a "gate" that you open to activate extra boost available, as such its a once use option in the spit for some inexplicable reason you cant "close the gate after using it. Im sure in real life after being forced to overboost your engine afterwards you would "shut the gate" to avoid accidently overboosting your engine at some point later on.

2. Overheating, I have toasted engines usually by overreving them but it does seem more forgiving since later patches, I dont play the game much at present as I find the lack of attention to the Spit by the developers quite dispiriting.

3. and 4 . Who knows ?

5. The mix settings are totally bugged, previous to latest patch I couldnt get the spit to run on rich settings ! So I used lean at all times even on start up the engine revs picked up better on lean, This may have been fixed on latest patch I dont know all i do know is just run it on the mix it seems to like best. As for fuel economy who cares ? your not paying for it, but I have to agree it it does detract from the "sim" aspect of this game when you cant use or get punished for using your engine controls in the correct manner

Overall, I think the lack of attention to the RAF planes is ominous. As the Hurricane seems to be the best modelled RAF aircraft and this aircraft was supplied to the Russians in WWII, this plane along with the Luftwaffe aircraft would be the only ones carried over to a Russian front sequel, its only a gut feeling but then why ignore all the bugs in the RAF planes and not address any of the Spit issues in the last patch ?

[Das Attorney]

There hasn't been much development on the RAF planes, that much is true.

Another thing - Is the pitot heat switch missing completely in the Spit?

[Orpheus]

Overall, I think the lack of attention to the RAF planes is ominous.

Ditto. The poor 1 & 1a need some attention. Fingers crossed for the next patch. :rolleyes:

[xnomad]

Overall, I think the lack of attention to the RAF planes is ominous. As the Hurricane seems to be the best modelled RAF aircraft and this aircraft was supplied to the Russians in WWII, this plane along with the Luftwaffe aircraft would be the only ones carried over to a Russian front sequel, its only a gut feeling but then why ignore all the bugs in the RAF planes and not address any of the Spit issues in the last patch ?


Every update I find I'm thinking along those lines as well. Everything they pay attention to seems to be transferable to another theatre. As the game kind of bombed on release it makes economic sense to concentrate on fixes that will help the development of the future product.

This is probably why in the landscape threads people keep saying the terrain looks like Russia in the summer. :-P

[SEE]

Does convergence work properly? Before you answer, I'm aware that I should match up the target's wingspan and also 2 x the desired range to target on the distance ring (in the current iteration of the game). What I mean is, the tracers always seem to converge at exactly the same point in front of the Spitfire. One would expect that the point of convergence would visibly alter when moving the distance ring while holding down the trigger. It does not though (try it). Does this mean that no matter what you do with the gunsight controls, it will have no bearing on the actual point that all the .303's converge on? This leads me onto the next question....


How does the convergence settings in the 'Loadout' menu relate to the Spitfire? Again, I know that loadout doesn't work offline yet, but surely even if it did work, then it would be over-ridden as soon as you start messing with the gunsight controls in game. I thought one of the benefits of setting each gun up in the loadout was that the guns could be set for 'zonal convergence' as opposed to 'point convergence' (for example). Has anyone tried this online yet?

)



Your convergence, once set, is saved for each ac in the user.ini file and loaded everytime you fly that particular ac (in SP).

Adjusting your gunsight will not affect these settings or the size of the ring which is fixed at 105mm. Not quite sure why you think your perception of the convergence point should change. Convergence is set by the ground crew and remains fixed, adjusting the cross hairs provides a means of calibrating them with respect to the gunsight ring to suit your convergence settings for a particular wingspan. The crosshairs calibration for the Spit isn't accurate at the moment.

[Das Attorney]

Your convergence, once set, is saved for each ac in the user.ini file and loaded everytime you fly that particular ac (in SP).

Adjusting your gunsight will not affect these settings or the size of the ring which is fixed at 105mm. Not quite sure why you think your perception of the convergence point should change. Convergence is set by the ground crew and remains fixed, adjusting the cross hairs provides a means of calibrating them with respect to the gunsight ring to suit your convergence settings for a particular wingspan. The crosshairs calibration for the Spit isn't accurate at the moment.

Thanks for the detailed reply :)

I wasn't sure if convergence was fixed or if there was some sort of electromechanical system fitted to enable changing it in flight.

Just to clarify; Are you saying the following?


the convergence should be set up as desired in the loadout screen for each gun


then set the distance ring to 2 x the convergence specified in the loadout (2x because of the bug)


then set the wingspan to that of the target (32ft for bf109, 54 ft for bf110 etc)


When the wingtips of the target are touching the innermost part of the horizontal gunsights - fire!


Sorry for dragging this up again, I'm just really confused over the issue.

[SEE]

You are more or less correct, I don't use the crosshairs adjustment (this was a feature missing from IL1946 as well as being innaccurate at the moment (I just move them to the edge of the ring and out of the way). I use the relative size of the enemy ac as it appears in my gunsight ring. A BF109 that appears to be half the size of the diameter of my ring is approx 200m away. My guns are converged at 150 so at half size it is just a tad further away than ideal. A stuka would be approx 2/3 of my rings diameter at optimum firing point, you get the picture I am sure.

Your ring has two crosshairs adjustments, one for your guns current convergence and a second adjustment to set the crosshairs to suit the wingspan of a particular ac. I have used zonal convergence for ground attack missions against slow moving or stationary targets - I wouldn't use it in clod against air targets though but try it ans see how you get on.

EDIT:

This video may help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghtpgXn5K-0&playnext=1&list=PL23ABD7CBB962A977

[Das Attorney]

Thanks for posting the video. There's some very useful stuff in there.

I've been working on my gunnery as a result and I'm getting steadily better. Combined with flying from the FMB, I can now choose AP loadouts so I'm dealing more damage. I've even managed to consistently break wings off He-111's. Prevoiusly, I would empty the guns into a He-111 and it would fly off with lots of little holes in it.

Slightly offtopic: The video intimates that a 105mm gunsight is the perfect size to know when a Fw-190 is 100m away (10.5m wingspan touching the edge of the circle). Why did the Hurri and Spit have a 105mm gunsight when the Fw-190 wasn't in service for another year?

Surely they would have made the gunsight 99mm or so to estimate the distance for the Bf-109. Unless I'm missing something (which is highly probable...) :)

[Timberwolf]

Seen this video a few years back and set my guns up With a game called fighter ace Online I swear i had people typing "Hacker" when i was in the air I had no problems lining up short burst kills. I could do a ace run and land with a few rounds left.

CLod I'm having a hard time just keeping the plane level on eazy settings Can't seem to use the trim wheel and my dead zones are wayyy off im bouncing all over

[Crashlight]

Just running on simple engine settings, the Spitfire doesn't have Boost although I have seen it activate on autopilot. Same settings, the Hurricane boost worked fine, making it a better fighter than the Spitfire is. ???

Anyway, Boost never activates on simple engine management settings even with hotkey activation of "T" and "W" whereas the Hurricane does it automatically with no hotkey activation. I guess a fix is coming or is there a workaround?

[Danelov]

Yes, the Spitfire had this boost but is not automatic. In the time pilots speak about of :"Breaking the wire","pulling the plug","Buster", "thought the gate" ,"Pressing emergency overide","press the emergency boot tit", etc, etc.
"Breaking the wire" refers to broken the protection wire in the throttle quadrant to limit the overpower and ev damage to the engine.

[JimmyBlonde]

I mostly fly the Mk1a online , and I have to admit im no expert

1 . Boost cut out, Its basically a "gate" that you open to activate extra boost available, as such its a once use option in the spit for some inexplicable reason you cant "close the gate after using it. Im sure in real life after being forced to overboost your engine afterwards you would "shut the gate" to avoid accidently overboosting your engine at some point later on.


I'm pretty sure that the boost gate was closed off by a thin piece of wire. The pilot would move the throttle through the wire and break it to use emergency boost which might explain why it can't be 'closed'.