ATAG Dedicated Server is up!

[Das Attorney]

I just had a go on your server to try some online action.

I couldn't find any Spit Mk II's available. A quick search of this thread found that it had been removed back in April for 'balancing reasons'. Could you elaborate a little?

The Spit Mk I and Ia are currently under modelled imo; the top speed seems very low and only one of the two prop pitch positions works properly. I didn't really fancy taking on the might of the Luftwaffe in a Hurricane and don't really want to play as Luftwaffe so the choice was a bit limiting for me.

Anyway. I picked a Spit I and the plane kept drifting/sliding off to the left when it spawned parked up. After firing up the engine and warming it up, I couldn't turn right (even when applying the differential brakes) when taxiing. At that point I gave up and quit out.

I didn't come on your thread to diss you and rubbish your server. Just wanted to give a bit of feedback and ask about the Spit II. Maybe it's a problem at my end (taxiing) but the mission you've set up looks really good so I thought I'd better post my experiences so far.

[Blackdog_kt]

The Spit Mk.II is currently the only fighter that seems to be getting it's real life performance. All other fighters (not just luftwaffe ones) are somewhat on the slow side, so the Mk.II is usually removed so that the server doesn't end up with a bunch of people flying them in the red team with nobody to shoot at in the blue team or nobody flying the Mk.Is and hurricanes

As for the drifting during taxi, i've seen it reported before but haven't experienced it. Not flying online yet (i spend most of my time testing various things in single player) i can't be sure if its a multiplayer-specific bug, but i've seen various plausible explanations.

The most prominent ones:

1) There's a crosswind involved in the mission and tail-dragger aircraft turn into the wind. Some people report that hangars don't block wind and the effect is noticeable in hangars as well.

2) Incorrect setup/usage of the wheelbrake controls.

3) A combination of both, making it hard to correct the crosswind effect.


I've posted this a million times on various threads so i'll just give you the cliff notes. In short, the sim models brakes the way they are in the real aircraft. For RAF warbirds, this means a single brake lever for both brakes and a differential pneumatic valve operated by the rudders, instead of two completely independent braking systems for each wheel.

To turn left for example, one needs to press the brakes lever (whatever control you mapped to it) and push the left rudder pedal. Pushing the brakes key feeds pneumatic pressure down the line, the position of the rudder pedals determines how that pressure is distributed to each wheelbrake and as a result, how much each wheel brakes. If the rudder is centered the pressure is distributed equally and both wheels brake the same, if you start pushing the pedals one way then the wheel on that side of the aircraft will brake more and you will turn to that direction.


In other words, if you have a rudder pedal controller with differential toe brakes plugged into your PC and mapped as such, your toe brakes won't work because the aircraft doesn't have such a system. It's like giving a prop pitch change command in a tiger moth with its fixed pitch propeller, or pressing the "open bomb bay" keys in a fighter: nothing happens because they don't have such a system installed. You will need to press the brakes key and deflect your rudder pedal (just like you would do while airborne) to get differential braking instead.

[Das Attorney]

Thanks for getting back to me on the Spit II. Shame it's out of the picture for the moment, although if it was in line with the other planes performance, I still don't think most pilots would choose the Mk I over it

I shall have to put in some time in the Hurri/Spit I and see if I can do anything useful with them instead.

As for the braking, I was fully aware about using the brake key in conjunction with the rudder pedals. I do have the toe pedals mapped for the times I've been flying 109's etc though. Your explanation was very detailed and I'm sure someone will get some use out of it

Maybe the sliding is an online thing. I'll have a play about with crosswinds in the FMB and make a sample mission to test online.

[Ataros]

Originally Posted by Das Attorney

Maybe the sliding is an online thing. I'll have a play about with crosswinds in the FMB and make a sample mission to test online.

Yes it is wind settings usually.

[SNAFU]

Even with wind speed and gusts set to zero, the 109 turns after spawning. Don´t know about other planes though.

[Jugdriver]

Bliss,

Are you still running a large number of objects on the map you use? I am wondering for benchmarking purposes. I did have some stuttering (again) last night when I was on there but I figure with such as large amount of objects and aircraft spawning there would be some pauses.

Thanks for the great server.

JD
AKA_MattE

[ATAG_Bliss]

Yeah, there's around 15000 objects total, 5000 of which are AAA scattered throughout the map.

As far as the AI is concerned, there's a new bomber group (submission) that loads every 15 minutes. Most have a flight time of around 40-60 minutes, while others are only 10-15 minutes. As the hours go on, usually there's around 100-200 bombers in the air all the time. (minus the ghost planes lol) All the bombers will land back home, usually in a remote inland airfield.

But it's one big WIP. I wish I could find a way to have everything load from the main mission (AI spawns), but the trigger doesn't seem to work yet, or I simply don't know how to use it. I'm thinking, as a workaround, at least, if only 1 mission was loaded instead of submission after submission, it might be less error free.