Someone called me? Max??
And it was a ham sandwich, not a Strudel
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Best joystick to use See above posts. You can also do a search for "joystick recommend" in this, the
Hardware and Software and the
General forums.
What you *need* on a stick is:
Hatswitch for views
Throttle lever
Rudder (twisty or rocker switch)
as many buttons as you can get
Best mode of attack in dogfight Smart, planned and best with an advantage
. Seriously, thats an answer youll have to get with training. There are many many ways to attack and many many ways to blow an attack and die. Start digging around in the web for articles on fighting/flying. FBplmmr already posted a good start - Net Aces.
What fighter is best for a new playerI usually recommend a SpitMk8 or Mk9. They have a good overall performance and are forgiving in handling. But like already said - if you have a faible for another plane, theres no reason not to fly that one. Stick with one plane for the time being. Youll have time to get used to its limits, strenghts and weaknesses. You dont have to adapt to a new handling constantly.
The only thing id advise on plane choice is: dont choose something too early war/bad in performance. Youll have a big disadvantage of performance that will make it hard to judge if the move you made didnt work at all or if it was just the missing performance that killed you. Youd be bound to get frustrated fast, with no successes to show you when you did good.
On
Sodas Aircraft Page you can find rundowns of almost all planes in the set.
What basic controls/configurations should I have set at this pointJoystick Mouse (if you do not have a Joystick)
At
Net Aces you can find a quick reference guide (one page for printing!) on default keymap. I have that on my desk... very handy.
Joystick config:
Fire primary, Fire Secondary, Look up view, WEP, flaps lower/raise are the very basics youll need on the stick. Start with those and add more (providing you have spare buttons) as you need them. The less you have to reach for the keyboard in a fight, the better.
Setting Views:
VERY important thing to do. A good vieweing system is the requirement for a good Situational Awareness (SA). And SA is 70% of the win in a fight. You need to be able to know whats going on around you constantly. Let me again refer you to Net Aces, for explanation on
Views. In difference to what the article says though, i prefer to have my forward view on hat (=kp 8) set to an over-the-nose forward view - head position all to the left and up. To look forward up, i use look forward and look up at the same time.
Head positions: For each of the 18 views and each plane seperatly, you can adjust your head position for better visibility and save that. To do that, look back - then adjust view with arrow keys and page up/down until you can see around your headrest. When youre done, press F10 key to save. Do that for all views untill you have maximum visibility.
Any other gems of wisdom you can think of Im not very wise, so im afraid ill have to pass up on that
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Seriously: Keep doing what you already did. Strife to improve your skills. Ask questions. Read up on things. Get some quality training time - either with a member of the Traininer corps or with one of the many willing Vets of the game. And practice practice... did i mention practice?
