Will someone give me some tips?

[Fafnir_6]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

As for ammunition load outs, this depends on the aircraft you fly. Some aircraft have machine guns, some cannons and some a mix of both. In some aircraft all weapons are fired by the first joystick trigger, in others half of the weapons are fired with the first joystick trigger and the rest with the second joystick trigger. That means you could be flying an aircraft where the trigger activates 8 machine guns at once, or 4 cannons at once, or only 2 machine guns and you need to press the secondary trigger to fire the rest of the guns. Again, pick a plane, set up some friendlies in the quick mission builder (so that they don't shoot back) and use them as target drones to see what happens.

I usually configure my controls so that "fire Weapon 1+2" is mapped to the trigger on my joystick. This will fire all guns on most planes (why this is not the default in IL-2 is beyond me). The way the defaults are set, weapon 1 (machine guns) is mapped to trigger and weapon 2 (cannons) is mapped to button joy2. Rockets are mapped to joy3 and bombs are joy4. Fire weapon 1+2 is unconfigured in default. Map it to your trigger and stuff you hit with your guns will die much more quickly (assuming you are flying a cannon and MG-equipped plane like the Bf109). Setting a good convergence distance for your MGs & cannons also helps a lot. I use 250-300m myself, but this will depend on your gunnery style.

Cheers,

Fafnir_6

[AaronEdmondson84]

Thats alot of good information.

I will have to go try and set up my gun controls differently and see how many weapons I have. I have been playing the game with JUST my machine gun set to my trigger and thats all I thought I had lol. I gotta go check it out and see if I have any secondary weapons and what they can do!

[SEE]

As you advance through the missions you will be promoted and your flight group will follow you at what ever speed you dictate. I found the inability to 'keep up' a problem at first but you learn how to manage the ac and it gets easier for all the reasons set out above. When I first started flying the missions I found using the 'time skip' function (needs to be mapped to a key!) helped me to catch up with the rest of the flight when I was falling far behind. The Automatic pilot takes over and I could hear a distinct change in the engines tone when I emerged back into the game. I made the adjustments to prop pitch and throttle to get the same sort of engine sound and began to understand how the various settings affected the flight speed along with correct trim of the ac, altidude v mixture/supercharger, etc. Funnily enough, I dont' even think about it any more!

[swiss]

I fly online only - and suggest to do that.

Meet your master(s).

[drewpee]

One problem with new pilots is they tend to fly with cockpit off. With cockpit off you can't trim your bird. Try to alternate between cockpit on and off to check gauges and trim. Also I suggest you read In Pursuit-A Pilots Guide To Online Air Combat, it's full of helpful hints and info. Lastly do you have rudder control on your joystick (twisting the stick to operate rudder) or even better a rudder peddle setup? If no you will be flying at a huge disadvantage.
Hope this helps.

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by swiss

I fly online only - and suggest to do that.

Meet your master(s).

I flew online almost every day for 4 years up to about 2004 and my squad was an awesome bunch of guys and they were definitely good days. There were some exceptional online pilots back in those early days. However I have not been back online since the game was cracked and I do not miss it. In fact I am happy these days with skinning and campaign writing.

@AaronEdmondson84 ... the main thing with catching up with your AI squad mates is keep your speed up and do not worry too much about gaining altitude straightaway. A big trap for new players is a fruitless attempt to get up to the same height as the AI far to quick by yanking the stick back and washing off airspeed. Stay fast and climb slowly.

[Fafnir_6]

Yeah, I`d agree with Galway. Offline accounts for 80% of my flying, especially with user-made campaigns (some of which RULE - thanks to the makers). There is way more to this game than dogfight servers.

Cheers,

Fafnir_6