Numpad #5

[Ohio43]

Pardon me for asking this here, but I am not at home, and just killing timne here at work  I was wondering if it is possible to map kepad 5 to a joystick button.  It seems the only joystick that I do good with is my trusty old Sidwinder Pro (I have a hotas and a few others i cant get used to).  This sidewinder only has one hat and trying to fumble for keypad 5 in a dogfight spells disaster for me.

[Seeker]

Yes it is; and that's exactly how I used my Sidewinder.

[Ohio43]

I assume that "Yes it is" is refering to the fact that #5 can be mapped to the j/s?

[hammer]

Ohio,

One way to do this is to map your trigger to the 5 key and one of your thumb buttons to the trigger. Here is the logic - If you are tracking a target through your views, your thumb is occupied on your hat switch. As the target moves into an upper view, your trigger finger is free to press the trigger without getting in the way of your hat switch or having to move either hand. When you are ready to fire, you are no longer using your hat switch (target in the forward view) and can use your thumb to press one of the thumb buttons.

I used this setup before I got a throttle with lots of extra buttons. Once I got it, I just mapped one of them to the Up view.

[Ohio43]

Thanks hammer.  thats a cool idea.

[Mustaine]

KP5 = "look up"

in stick map under "view" set a button to "look up"

then while holding that button you should be able to move the hat and get the upwards views


thats how most people have it set up

[DamnedRen]

Originally posted by Mustaine
KP5 = "look up"

in stick map under "view" set a button to "look up"

then while holding that button you should be able to move the hat and get the upwards views


thats how most people have it set up

We used to call keypad 5 as the "look up modifier" as it changes your normal views to a look up 30 degrees views at the push of a button. I still use the term in the TA.

The issue is you need to chose a button that will not interefere with your using your thumb hat for views.

Also, if you are pressing the hat button forward for a "forward up" view you are wasting a button. Instead you may want to set it to "look over the cowl" view as using the up modifier and pushing the hat forward will give you the foward up view automatically without having to preset it.

Talking about views....the old saying "lose sight, lose the fight" is absolutely true. If you lose the guy on the merge the odds are by the time you reaquire him is when you are feeling the sting of his guns.

Let's recap just how many views you actually have when assigning keypad 5 and "look over cowl" views. The magic number is 18. All by using an 8-way hat and one button.

If you're interested I can discuss using lift vector to  never lose sight of your enemy by just using 6 views.

Hope this helps.

[Ohio43]

cool, yes, tell me about lift vector as well.  And thank you for the above info.

[DamnedRen]

Sorry for the delay reposting..

In order to understand using lift vector for fighting and views we need to first review a few terms so that it will all fall in place when we go to the tactical discussion of the dogfight.

Terms

Lag pursuit - your nose or gun sight is pointed a little behind the enemy plane and you see the numbers slowly extend as you follow.

Pure pursuit - your nose or gun sight is pointed a his tail and you see numbers neither close or extend as you maintain position on his 6.

Lead pursuit - your nose or gun sight is pointed at his nose or ahead of his nose. Depending how far ahead your nose is ahead of the enemy plane will determine your speed of closure.

High YoYo - Maneuver using the vertical rolling into lag pursuit to stop an over shoot due to excessive speed engaging the enemy.

Low Yoyo – maneuver used to accelerate while using lead pursuit by cutting inside his turn.

Angles – this one is simple. Angles is merely the turning room required to dogfight.

Lead turn – this turn is performed to place your plane at a point where the enemy plane is going to be at the time you want him there. Where? 200 yards in front of your plane.

Lift Vector – a line drawn from the center of your cockpit seat straight up through the canopy.  If you roll and put the enemy plane on your lift vector then pull back on the stick the nose will pull to him.

How do these terms come together to allow you to use your views and maneuvers tactically? You use your views to visually acquire the enemy plane. Once acquired you roll to point your lift vector directly at him. Now you have him acquired somewhere along your planes centerline. It may be a back-up view, up view, forward up view. It doesn’t matter once he is aligned along your centerline and you now transfer to your centerline views. They are as follows:

Fwd, look over cowl, fwd-up,up, back-up and back. 6 views to keep him in sight.

If you are not sure where centerline line might be in any view just take your cursor and place the point of it right on the center dot on your gun sight. Now when you use the centerline views the cursor will show you the centerline of the plane. After you get used to the views you can move the cursor aside but for now it makes an easy alignment tool.

So how do you use it tactically? By using some of the terms listed above… For instance, instead of rolling to place your lift vector on his tail you want to continue to roll to place your lift vector on where he’s headed by using a lead turn.

I know this is a lot of information to digest and reading versus doing is really two different animals so if you want we can work on this in the TA whenever you wish. Any of the trainers know and use this so anyone of us are there for you.

Hope this helps.

[Murdr]

When I first switched to AH I was using a sidewinder pro.  What I did with the views was set them up the same way they worked for me as they did in  AW.  In AW one button toggled between 2 sets of views.

I set the button that was 'toggle view' in AW, to SELECT_STICK_SET2/SELECT_STICK_SET1.

Under stick set one Hat1-Fwd  = LOOK_FWD+UP
Click my 'toggle view' button and it changes to
Under stick set two Hat1-Fwd = LOOK_UP
Click the 'toggle view' button and it changes back

I still use 2 stick sets for my views to this day.

btw, this is done in the AH stickmapper.