General Flight Simulator help.

[mbtigger]

Whenever I have enjoyed dogfighting games, they have been the arcade style shoot'em ups like Crimson skies for the original xbox. I have little, if any, knowledge on flight sims. Playing this game on realistic has proved quite a challenge, especially since I do not have a flight stick. I suppose I am looking for a good general primer on things like when and how to use the rudder- when and how to make specific maneuvers. How close do I need to be before my guns will have any effect at all? The encyclopedia gives SOME information on maneuvers, but it seems like it is missing quite a bit - or maybe I need to unlock more info. Still it would be nice to have a good primer on HOW to "Fly" in a simulator. Does something like that exist?

I have made it through the BoB section (on realistic) and am in Stalingrad using that little I-16 type 24. I am finding it ridiculously difficult to shoot down anything. There is a bit of a turning advantage, but it seems that I only get a few shots off before the 109's are a click away and I and have to look around for a new target. I can avoid getting hit too much with some good turns and barrel rolls (provided I don't stall to bad). But I can't finish the scenarios! I run out of time because I am not able to target birds in the air of tanks on the ground. Thanks to the folks here I have been lowering the sensitivity of the elevators and ailerons, but it's REALLY obvious that I have NO idea what I am doing and I need to learn a lot if I EVER want to go past Stalingrad on Realistic or give Sim mode a try.

MB

[The Few]

This should help a bit at least with maneuvers and tactics. kozzmo posted this link a little while ago.


http://www.filestube.com/f263ec98406...neuvering.html

Also I would try leaving the ailerons at max sensitivity. It's high elevator deflection combined with rudder input that will put you into a spin, dumbing down the ailerons just limits your planes performance envelope and will make it easier for an opponent to out maneuver you.

[bobbysocks]

the 2 battles in stalingrad were murderous...and i did them in arcade...look up the threads on here...there is a lot of good advice. if you are doing this with a game pad,,,my hats off to you. if you want more realistic and fun...get a stick. i use the AV8R. the rudder is used by twisting the grip which i i think is second best to actually having pedals. as for flight... try a search for a free flight ground school like these:
http://www.auf.asn.au/groundschool/contents.html
http://www.free-online-private-pilot..._controls.html.

and practice flying in a non combat senario and DONT lean when you turn haha. learn some acrobatics and how to perform them.
http://www.iac.org/begin/figures.html
game flying is close but still far from really climbing into the seat of an aircraft...but the fundamentals are the same. i may stir up a hornets nest here but shooting and dogfighting are not near as important as flying....all dogfighting is is out flying your opponent. american ace of aces...richard bong was the first tell you he was a lousy shot but the boy could fly the pants off of anyone in the air...and racked up impressive kills. they actually sent him back stateside for gunnery school where he learned deflection shooting, etc. seat time alone with your plane makes the biggest difference. then if you can get someone online who just wants to fly...play follow the leader. trust me that is a challenge and its how a lot of ww2 pilots learned their best skills....keeping on a 6 or shaking someone off. hope this helps.

[SEE]

Adjust the sensitivity down (threads are plentiful on this), as a beginner on SP mode, you will get away with slightly less sensitivity as the AI are not too hot (different ball game on MP and you need to get the sensitivity spot on). Using the rudder can be a problem for beginners so avoid using rudder initially untill you have the sensitivity set so that you are flying in combat with confidence.

Use the training option and give yourself a single target to start with and increase numbers/enemy skill level as you get better.

Keep your airspeed up!

Gunnery is a skill that you will develop by practicing regularly and getting the lead/deflection angles right according to distance, trajectory and wether you are pulling G or not, you may be expecting your gunfire to go in a straight line even though you are not flying in one ......it will arc.

Its not necessary to see every target go down in flames, clipping them may sometimes do enough damage so that they eventually crash. Some missions described as 'Tactical' expect you to use your wing men and assign them to targets (even though they are pretty useless at times) but you can jump into their cockpits if your plane is damaged or they are closer to a distant target than you (thats whyt it helps to assign them targets).

Stick or gamepad? Has to be a stick for me but there are many who use the game pad and manage just as well.....I cannot use a gamepad simple as that!

[kozzm0]

They Shall Not Pass is a great tutorial on why speed generally trumps turning ability. The 109's fly up and attack you, and then they fly away to the west, gain altitude and laugh at you.

There's not much you can do with an I-16 vs them. Try to maximize your speed by not turning too sharp. Make gradual turns and don't give up altitude for no reason. Altitude is stored speed, once you spend it, it will be a long time before a 109 is within range again.

The way the mission works, you don't really need to worry about the 109's that much. They're just boom-and-zooming the Stalingrad air defenders to soften them up for a bombing run. Your wingmen will get them all eventually, even if you don't hit any of them. The next objective is to stop two waves of he-111's that will come swarming in to bomb the city. You'll want to be at high altitude at the start of this objective, with plenty of ammo. Fly directly toward the bombers, and dive on one of the lead bombers, hitting it from directly above, at about 3 or 4 o'clock vertically, and try to avoid falling behind it. You won't get more than 1 or 2 bombers before they scatter and then all the i-16's will just vainly chase them around until they get lucky hits and down them all.

When you fly the I-16, don't use negative elevator. I'm not sure if it applies to realistic, but the real I-16 engines can't handle too much negative elevator, because of their fuel lines I think. If you have to turn downward, roll inverted first.