Just when you think you've got the hang of it...

[rollnloop]

Raven, Ai was changed in the last few years, today "average" is a better shooter than the old "ace", so if you play old campaigns, you'll get your ass spanked every mission, thank to team daidalos.

Stick to campaigns written in 2013/2014 and you have more hope that campaign builders have taken the new sniping ability of AI into account.

Edit: you can also make another install, up to 4.09/4.10, and play older campaigns. Some thinks 4.09 was the most enjoyable version of the game, anyway. I don't, and prefer to play newer campaigns, but to each his own

[Raven Morpheus]

Originally Posted by MaxGunz

Sorry to hear about the stick problems. I guess you worked on the sensitivity sliders but how about filter on the pitch axis?

I have played with the sliders but I went back to default as no changes I made to the sliders seemed to help.

I'm not even 100% sure it is a stick issue, but as I said since moving to my X52 Pro from the X45 I seem to have gotten worse at landing. Maybe it's because the X52 Pro is more sensitive than my X45 was?

It's fine when I'm in the air though, in fact it's far better than the X45 in that respect.

I'm also wondering if I'm getting a tiny bit of input lag, as I've recently moved my X52 Pro to a USB port on an Akasa addon USB hub I've installed in my PC case. Problem is the X52 Pro's cable is a bit short for putting it in one of the motherboard USB ports, which are all round the back...

Are you approaching at 100% rpm and low power?

Check. Typically on the Midway map with a F4U I'm coming over the fishing boats on the shore of the island at about 130mph, with about 20-30% throttle and 100% prop pitch. The plane takes off at 120mph and I've read and tested the theory that you should be landing at just about take off speed, and I've found that to be true, at least until recently.

If you're having the roll over and die just over the runway problem then use rudder instead of side stick to correct roll. Don't wait for the ball, act proportional to wings against the horizon, rudder away from the dropping wing. If you land fast enough to use ailerons then you're going too fast.

Yep trying that also.

What seemed to be happening recently is that I get to about to touchdown, and yes a wing dips (usually the left) and then I try to correct with the rudder and I seem to make it worse or at least rudder doesn't help.

Either that or I touch down but bounce and then again it all goes wrong.

Carrier landings I catch one of the cables and then belly flop.

Just seems that successful landings recently have been rather few and far between.

Originally Posted by IceFire

Some days it seems like you have it and then, like you say, nothing works

Exactly. This is precisely how it has become.

Originally Posted by rollnloop

Raven, Ai was changed in the last few years, today "average" is a better shooter than the old "ace", so if you play old campaigns, you'll get your ass spanked every mission, thank to team daidalos.

Stick to campaigns written in 2013/2014 and you have more hope that campaign builders have taken the new sniping ability of AI into account.

Edit: you can also make another install, up to 4.09/4.10, and play older campaigns. Some thinks 4.09 was the most enjoyable version of the game, anyway. I don't, and prefer to play newer campaigns, but to each his own

Well I'm sticking to 4.12. I like some of the newer features in it. As for AI, I just opened the last Facing the Wind mission I did (mission 4) in FMB and the AI seem to be set to rookie (perhaps the FMB changes them all to that?). Tried opening the Wake Island mission I did in FMB but I couldn't see what the AI was set to, I'm assuming that's because it's a DGEN mission.

Can't say I have much of a problem with the AI when it's fairly even numbers (apart from getting on target vs fighters but that's just my lack of skill). It was just the sheer number of them in the Facing the Wind and Wake Island missions I did, 40-2 and 40-6 odds, that was a problem. Short of leaving the area I stood no chance. I'm surprised that I even got what I consider to be a kill in the Facing the Wind mission (the B5N I keep mentioning)!

[Janosch]

DGen has always managed to goof up at least one thing per mission, such as bomber escort mission having enemy fighters start behind bombers, while player starts on ground, and having player fly through the worst AAA zones on a patrol flight.

Was the damaged B5N the formation leader? I've noticed that other planes in the formation might follow their leader even if the leader's engines are dead! That way, it appears that the B5N is indeed flying in a formation with no problems.

For F4U landings, it may be a good idea to record tracks when practicing, so once you get a good landing, you can view the track carefully to see what your speed, sink rate and so on were, and on a failed attempt, you can see what went wrong. Avoid taking 100% fuel - took me a while to figure this out when I was practicing.
F4U has a big hook. I find Zero landings much more difficult. When Zero bounces, it easily glides over all the remaining wires.

[MaxGunz]

Raven if you want, try spending time seeing how slow you can fly.

No, really, do it well up in alt and even while climbing. Staying stable right down near the wire, 140-150kph in a P-40 or 109 took me a good bit of practice long ago. It helps train in stick twisting without side movement which does take discipline. Close to stall, aileron is death. The aileron down side (wing you'd be raising) crosses into stall and it's all over from there. Practicing at alt, you recover and review yourself the try again.

It's like slow-drag on a motorcycle only 3D and no one laughing.

With the X52 it is easy to rest your hand and arm on the stick. Too easy by far. I had 2 good flight sim teachers get me off of that and the benefit is very real. The only thing worse than using the stick to hold your arm up is the stick death grip that oh yeah I do find myself doing in tough situations!

I filter my axes not just to eliminate digital flutter but to smooth my own muscle tremors, especially on pitch that I run 50% filter on. The effect is good for me and really only more than slight with fast large stick deflections that will normally cause speed loss anyway.

[Raven Morpheus]

Originally Posted by Janosch

Was the damaged B5N the formation leader?

Dunno. Might explain why it seemed to be flying perfectly fine with a prop that wasn't rotating.

Anyway I went back the other night to IL2 after a week or two away from it, played a 633 Squadron campaign Mosquito mission (twice because it crashed to desktop on me, think it was a memory issue as I use the SAS Mod selector and had the memory usage set to 1024mb which that mission possibly didn't like because it worked fine 2nd time with memory on 512mb), and also a P51 Mustang mission from the Y29 Legend campaign, the 1st one, and I flew both fine, and landed both OK (the odd bounce here and there not withstanding), although I failed to shoot down 3 slow German planes (can't recall what they are, they look like boat-planes) that are spawned on the return leg of that 633 Squadron mission (seems my aim was off/I didn't cause enough damage and I ran out of ammo!!).

I'm wondering if some of the problems I have with regards to landing are related to trimming for level flight, because the other night when I did those two missions I trimmed both planes on approach with a slight lift.

I quite often don't do that, thus the plane I'm flying is usually trimmed for level flight at cruising speed, or as good as I can get it.

Or maybe I just had a good night when it comes to successful missions (with 2 relatively easy missions) and landings...

[majorfailure]

Originally Posted by Raven Morpheus

I'm wondering if some of the problems I have with regards to landing are related to trimming for level flight, because the other night when I did those two missions I trimmed both planes on approach with a slight lift.

Trimming for approach and landing helps IHMO, and depending on which plane you fly and how your stick is set up may even be crucial. If your stick is set up with decreasing sensitivity the more you are from stick center, then trimming your plane for landing can shift your needed stick movement for a successful flare from the outer less sensitive zone of your stick to the inner zone. I personally trim my planes heavily into nose up before - or more while landing, as speed bleeds off.