It's late and I should be in bed. I have to work tomorrow but I felt inspired and felt a need to write this.
First of all, let me qaulify by saying that I've been playing these games since 1996 and I am by no means an 1337 pilot. I feel I can hold my own in most situations but I'm still learning every day.
That said, we all signed up for the allure of head to head dogfighting in WWII aircraft. Maybe we envisioned ourselves as the Red Baron's or Pappy Boyington's of Aces High. Maybe we envisioned the accolades of an ace pilot being foisted upon us.
For those who didn't share this dream and only wanted a FPS or on-line game then don't bother reading any further. For those who did share this dream then please read on.
DO NOT LIMIT YOUR DREAM.
The main arenas in Aces High see many types of players but there are two main types; those who share the dream and those who simply want a shoot 'em up gaming experience.
Of the latter, there are again, many types; HOers, ack huggers, runners and more. If you share the dream then please, do not become one of these. You will never achieve your goals this way.
You signed up to become an Ace. To do so takes a lot of stick time and practice and you'll never gain it by taking the first head on that comes along or by running from a fight. That said, I'm not advocating playing stupid. You need to gain confidence first, then push your limits.
Before you jump into the MA's, get with the trainers. You have much to learn and they are a valuable resource. Take it from an 11+ year vet. I never spent time with a trainer. I learned it on my own the hard way and it shows.
Next; read, read ,read. These boards and the other resources linked here will speed your learning curve immensely.
When you are finally ready to jump into the MA's, learn to read the map. Don't fly toward the biggest red dar bar right away. Find the smaller dar bars and learn to fight one-on-one. You're still going to get your a@@ handed to you. Why try against greater odds?
Get to the point that you have confidence in a one-on-one flying your favorite plane. Confidence that you have a 50% chance of getting out alive. Confidence in your own, and your planes abilities.
Once that's achieved you have two paths to follow. I can't tell you which is best but here they are:
Continue to increase the odds against you (i.e. go from one-on-one to one-on-two to one-on-three). pretty soon you'll be diving into one-on-fives and tens looking for multiple kills.
The other route is to switch planes and learn every single one. There is no substitute for knowing exactly what your opponents plane is capable of. Some will say it's all about pilot skill but the key to winning fights is to expoit your planes strengths against your opponent's planes weaknesses. But the nay-sayers aren't wrong and this is why there's no clear-cut path. You also have to exploit your own strengths against your opponents weaknesses as a pilot but these are much less easily discerned.
Personally, I took the me-on-ten route before I started learning the plane set. There's probably a better middle ground than that though.
In the end, you'll need to get through BOTH these paths to reach your goal.
I guess my main message here is...
PUSH YOUR LIMITS.
You'll never learn anything by running from a fight, hugging field ack or HOing on the merge (OK, like I said in the beginning, I'm not 1337 and STILL do these things occasionally... we all do... just TRY not to make it a practice). On the other hand, the first time you land a kill in a Hurri I against a Spit or an LA-7 where the engine cuts out every time you pull negative G's you'll know your close to what you signed up for.
And even if your choice isn't fighters or attack planes but bombers or GV's the same principles apply. You won't improve your gunnery by bombing and bailing and you won't improve GV accuracy by hiding behind a tree.
It's your $15 and you can paly however you want but, now that you're here, why not GET OUT AND FIGHT. Your life isn't really at stake and your satisfaction level will go up exponentially with each step forward that you take.
and I hope to see you challenging me in the sky's.
