How do u find enemies online..?
 

I've recently been enjoying some online action..

But I go for hours without enemy contact.. Where's most of the action take place..?

Dover?
Calais..?

Thx

Mike

in il2 1946 XD

well, before takeoff picture a straight line between the enemy base and yours, comabt will be somewhere in the middle of that line.

Personally I have big problems spotting enemy aircraft, there can be flak so I know that they're there, but it's not very often I can spot an enemy.
Usually I fly around alone for an hour, get fed up and quit... :(

Have to admit it's very hard spotting EA in this game below you..

Probably the hardest out of all the sims I've played tbh. I know alot of people are lowering there screen res down to make everything bigger but losing visual quality which I'm not prepared to do.

My res is 1920x1200

Yep, I use the same res. Sometimes I think I see a bandit in the distance but after a while I realize that I've been watching a speck of dust on my screen :lol:

I think my problem is spotting the aircraft... I am 1900 x 1200... 24" screen..

I thought it was my eyes, so I've been flying in my cheaters... Lol

Online, specially in Syndicate, I find action every sortie. There are certain areas where you are very likely to find a fight. There are also a bunch of bombers coming and going from time to time, that can keep you bussy.
In Syndicate server, if there are enough people online, you can patrol around friendly ships and look for flak bursts tracking enemy planes. If that doesn't work, and you are really itchy for a fight, you can go fly around the enemy ships, at low or medium altitude and the players in the other team will find you soon enough.:lol:

I like to grab a 110 with bombs and go visit the enemy bases. The bomber base first. You can get really lucky there when the Wellingtons are landing.:mrgreen:
If I can't find bombers I visit the fighter bases and soon enough I find some Hurricane chewing on my rudders. :lol:

I find the problem is that the Spitfire fliers tend to hang out over Dover at very low level. This makes them hard to spot if you are in a 109. They don't venture over the water as they'll get seen pretty quickly.

When you finally spot one and dive down you'll discover they are all down at that altitude, it gets a little dangerous as you can get too involved with one and easily get another on your tail. Now you can limit it to B&Z slashing attacks but you'll often lose them in the ground clutter so you do have to T&B slightly and that's when the other Spits get involved with you.

On the other hand if you are a Spit it's easier, you just take off and look for the flak puffs in the sky, there's your enemy. Give him a little squiz of 303's and he's got a small chance at getting home, on the other hand if he hits you, just do an emergency landing and don't worry about finding a place to do this as trees don't exist.....:rolleyes:

I guess you never flew a Spitfire and those "things" that looked like Spits I'm fighting every day over our bases and ships are just the product of my imagination.:rolleyes:

Trust me. Is the same on both sides.

I usually can't even get 500m off the ground before I see flak going off, especially on Blue. It took me 8 sorties the other day just to finally get across the channel without getting into an engagement within a few minutes of taking off. My 110 loves me some low down spits and hurris though :D

Of course, they also love to kill me as well ;-)

Also, consider that flak is mostly way, waaaaaay off - another AI issue (though sometimes it gets a lucky hit, like today on me...). So "the enemy is where the flak is" is not that good of an indicator. I tried that myself, to no avail, to be honest.

I thought it was just me too, but everyone I spoke to said they had similar problems, particularly if you are high and they are low. Get ventrillo or teamspeak is my advice and you will have comms with others - it is a huge advantage and I can't imagine going on MP without it now. Not only will you have extra eyes but get to chat to some great on-liners. I had to be dragged off my PC as I was enjoying MP so much!

If you fly Spits/Hurries - open the canopy for improved visibility!

Looking at the screenshots for the next patch update I am hoping that the planned changes (to the graphics) may help spotting a/c.

MP - EvangelusE
Allegiance - Red

To be honest my bigest problem with spotting enemies is this.
At long range its easy a dark black spot in the distance, so you close the range and at some point that black spot just disappears and I cant see them anymore until suddenly they reappear again once more much closer.
Perhaps its me, my PC or my monitor but its just so counter intuitive and damn frustrating.
A closer aircraft must be more visible than one far away.

maybe reflections on the plane is not working fully also... or add more reflection to the planes.. Ive had that happen to me also with seeing a dot then getting closer then plane blends in with terrain and cant see no more

I fly the Spit as well. I like to even up the numbers on the server, if there are too many blues then I'll go red but I prefer the 109. Unfortunately when I play, the blue team is usually overpopulated so I'm more often in the Spit.

I don't find it's the same at all. The 109's cross the channel and draw flak whilst the Spit is over land. I find it's easier for the Spit to find the 109 then vice versa.

As mentioned before the Spits are flying over friendly territory. The tactic I've seen countless times is for them to fly low. If bounced and damaged they go in for an immediate emergency landing, regardless of trees because trees don't exist. It's a real underhanded tactic but that's what I've been observing.

I've damaged so many spits and they instantly head for the ground and land right through the trees.

Hopefully if this game ever takes off properly and the servers are full then we'll see people getting off the deck and trying to get an altitude advantage.

I also find it odd that the opposing sides aren't cooperating to meet up in a selected quadrant. I must try out teamspeak to see if that' where the info is.

Can't wait for some online actions. I'll see u guys up there soon.

Yessir that is definitely where it is at... It is much easier to bind a voice key to your joystick and tell your buddies, where you are and if you spot someone or if you are being attacked. If we know one of our buddies is spawning we will hang out somewhere and wait for them, it definitely makes a huge difference... Plus everyone is more than happy to give you tips.

Please keep in mind when flying online many people have forests turned off (as a temporary fix for the sound bug), so they don't know when they are flying through trees. I prefer to lose the trees than have the sound cut out mid-sortie. That said I do appreciate your concerns and agree it is far from ideal.
Hopefully this will be addressed in the next patch with the revamped sounds.

I agree with Whoarmonger that spotting contacts at longer ranges is relatively easy as they appear as quite dark spots. As you shorten the distance the planes blend with their surroundings and are much harder to see.

I do find flak helpful to find bandits when Im over friendly ground. It may not be overly accurate but if you watch for the most recent bursts, you will eventually find the black dot that's moving ahead of them.

Unfortunately I experience the very same problems that you describe.

Check this http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=20622

Cheers

Ashamed to say I never thought of that! Thanks SEE.

Yeah stick your head out the window at 300 km/h, that will be fun.

There's one guy I see often in a 109 that jettisons his canopy after take off.:(
It would be a good idea to have ground control update locations of enemy aircraft at your request.

what it needs is a performance disadvantage to have it open as it stands now there isnt one

Agreed, hopefully with the next patch we will get open canopy sounds that will annoy ppl so much that they are forced to keep the canopy closed.

But like welshman said in the end we should have a heft speed penalty for an open window.

Yes, definitely there should be drag and I wouldn't do it during combat anyway. Could still be useful for reconnaissance. And your head isn't actually 'out' of the cockpit...