Stick maps advice and other quick questions

[Diamond]

I feel clumsy in the air.  Putting the right tools at my fingertips would make me feel like I could concentrate on S.A. without quite so much fumbling.

Several questions.

what are reccomendations for stick mapping?  4 thumb buttons, an 8 position high hat  ,  trigger and a side button
Logitech Extreme 3d pro

at the moment I have flaps up and down and wep. set to 3 of the thumb buttons on the top of the stick
Trigger is both gunsets    4th Thumb button for primary guns.
Handle side thumb button is Range chat button. High hat is set for views around plane.


Ive remapped the keyboard but always seem to be fumbling for something when while in combat.
Any suggestions would be welcome.

Does anyone know what the Tracking commands are for? Do they function in main arena?  
Anything that helps me track targetting or S.A sounds like a plus.

Do many use padlock often?  I find it hard to get out of once I'm in it and I lose positional feeling for my plane and heading when in Padlock

Do most use one gunset then the other to lengthen time in air before a reload, or short burst your full ammo at the target?

Are cannon ranges seriously shorter than Machine gun ranges....enough that I need to plot the convergence alot shorter?   I usually have all gun convergence set at 400 except for P38, ME 110 and Mossie  ...and set those to max.



I've tried to read quite a bit here, both present and past posts and have visited web pages and training pages and films.

 I want  to thank you all for the advice and insight from the past posts.  Those of us trying to enjoy the game and  also be productive in furthering team goals really appreciate it.

Diamond

[fuzeman]

Lots of questions and I'll try to coveer them all, or at least the ones I know answers to. Others will chime in I'm sure.
Stick map- that kind of depends on what equipment you have and what your used to. I have full  hotas CH setup and the only real things I use keyboard is to type messages, translation to get killed typing LoL. I'd check with other users of same stick on this one though.
Fumbling for the right key- I think this is mostly getting used to 'your' setup and repetition. After awhile you'll get familiar with the setup. Personally, I wouldn't change many, if any, of the default keystrokes, that could lead to all sorts of confusion. I would get used to the AH keystrokes from the start.
Tracking- I am not familiar with TrackerIR if thats what you meant. As far as padlock, F11 key, I believe in most situations that will hurt your SA. The exception is maybe a 1 on 1 fight or when specifically dueling someone. IMO, you need to keep that head on a swivel and look for the unexpected bandit. you do have to 'master' the views. Adjusting the default views and using them are very important.
Fire buttons- personally I have all three buttons on my stick; fire primary, fire secondary and fire all. You dont want to be shooting when your dropping bombs for instance. I think with different guns for primary and secondary, seperate fire buttons are the way to go. Sometimes I'll fire a burst of mg rounds to scare the target and then use cannons to do the killing, you'll need two buttons for that. If the plane has the same weapon for primary and secondary, use it all for max lethality so you can dispatch him in the shortest time.
Ballistics- yes, dirrerent rounds act diffferently. The 20mm hispano and the .50cal among the best as far as range and drop off, the La7 cannon round among the worst. You have to remember the rounds used and ballistics for it for best killage.
[ killage? maybe lethality is better there or killing power ]
Ideally you want to match the convergence to your shots opposed to setting a convergence and trying to match your shooting to it, in my opinion.

Of course netaces.org is a top sight for instruction and learning. There are many sites out there though dealing with general BFM/ACM and many squad related pages as well.

[Murdr]

Here is my button settings just to give you an example:
fire1 (trigger)-fire primary
fire2-fire secondary
fire3-toggle stick set (have 45deg up view settings on 2nd stick set)
fire4-select secondary wepon

I have a 10 button stick with 2 as optional shift function.  So:
base 1-flap down
base 2-wep
base 3-flap up
base 4-toggle combat trim
Left shift-set as shift (have alternate functions for 7 of the 9 other buttons including vox and engine selection and trim.)
Right shift-toggle engine

Personally if I only had 4 buttons, I think I would keep the fire button settings the same as above.  I use flaps alot, but q and w are easy to find on the keyboard.  I use the wepon and view functions in flight more than anything.  You may want to play around with the in-game stick mapping to see if you would beneifit from the option of having alternate stick sets.  With 4 stick sets availble, theroeticly you could have 1 button to toggle stick set and 12 functions for the other 3 buttons.

Padlock I think is generally not used by experienced AHers.  It is actually not good to be tunnel visioned on one enemy.

As far as ammo use, it depends on the plane.  In the P38 I mainly use the .50 cals, and only also fire the cannons on a sure shot.  In a plane with more cannon rounds, and weaker MGs, (like 190s or spits) I do the opposite.  I think most people segregate their gun usage in similar ways.

Id suggest setting inside or nose cannons for long convergence (like the 109s).  With wing cannons I wouldnt bother changing them from the convergence you are used to using.  In most cases the ballistics effects are not as pronounced inside of 400 yds.

[Ghosth]

Well I admit I am not the ussual when it comes to stick mapping.

I believe in a minimalist approach.

I have an 8 button stick with only 3 buttons mapped. Trigger, sedondary weapons, and button 3 is set to alternate my hat switch views. (and guns)

Everything else I do on the keyboard, since my hands are there typing most of the time anyway.

Half of the battle is just teaching yourself what does what  and whats inportant in a dogfight.

That takes time & repitition.

The only real recomendation I would make is that you make sure you get all 16 views mapped. There are a couple of different ways to do that. Easiest is to map one easy to hold button to look UP .

As to useing full guns, vs primary, a lot depends on the plane & its options.

When flying a cannon armed plane like a spitfire I'll often use mg's only at long range, holding my cannon rounds for 300 yards & under. Switching back & forth as needed.

But for a p51 its more common to just fire all guns most of the time.

Like fuze I don't think padlock is a good idea for most people unless you have track IR and its debateable for that.

Learn to master the snap views  (Keypad or hat switch).

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Often what you have mapped to the stick depends greatly on what you fly and how you fly it.

For example, I fly the P-38L about 90% of the time. I use a Saitek Cyborg Evo stick.


I have the trigger set to fire the machine guns only (primary weapon), I have the #2 button (center on top of the stick) set to fire the secondary weapon (cannon, or bomb/rocket release/fire) only, and I simply use my thumb and forefinger when I want both. I have the button on the left set to lower flaps and the button on the right set to raise them. There are two other buttons on the very top of my stick, above the view hat, the left is dive flaps, the right is WEP.

On the base of my stick are 6 more buttons. Four I have set for the various radio channels. One is set to toggle combat trim for planes other than the P-38L. The other is set for gunsight zoom.

After that, in flight, I only use the keyboard for typing messages and selecting weapons or map viewing, or on the runway, for the engine start and shutdown, and brakes.

I've been doing it that way for years. Even after not flying for over a year, the setup became something I did without thought after flying again for an hour.

I do not use padlock or anything of that nature, I don't even remember how to turn it on. I use instant view as opposed to any other view style. My 8 way hat is set to look level in a 360 degree view divided into 45 degree zones, plus forward up and rear up. If I want to look up in any of the other directions, I use my hat switch and the number 5 on the keypad.

I set my convergence to maximum on all guns. Most do not do this and it is a matter of preference.

Recently I began using the machine guns only on the P-38L unless I was real close and well set up. For me, the jury is still out on this idea, because the four 50's don't hit real hard without that 20 MM cannon. On everything else (I do fly the F4U, the P-47, and a couple of FW variants at times, along with the TA-152) I fire all guns together.

I try to limit myself to 3 second bursts. Unless I'm attacking a bomber and have a good gun solution on it.