No Zippos please

[MadHatter]

I promise I'll leave the wishlist alone for at least a week after this.

Now I'm pretty certain that these are already in the game but for the life of me, every search I've done produces squat and everyone I ask looks at me like I should be wearing a helmet. Since I didn't know exactly where to place the thread I figured I'd put it here.

1: Standardize building designators on the target maps. I like the idea because if I'm winging up with someone I haven't flown with before, it makes it a hell of alot easier for me to say "I'm on line for FH1, FH3, and BH3". At the same time, if I'm doing one of my roving "delivery" runs (where I up and fly around till a call goes out for eggs) it would be easier for me to line up and deliver, instead of coming in at the wrong angle and hope to correct. I know I'm supposed to have these maps down by heart, but look at it this way. My experience during the trial was this. Download the game, take first flight offline, so you wouldn't look like a complete idiot online. Manage to keep the plane from crashing, and shoot down flying drones. Yay Me!    Go online, up same plane. Walk back to base with tail section between your legs because that's where Greebo decided to kick it. Take Tim "Tool Man" Taylor approach: more guns = "More Power" Read everything you can about level bombing. During your reading, you stumble across a statement that says "Don't join up with the first squad that asks you". Keep upping bombers. Now during this whole time you're just dropping bombs on whatever enters your crosshairs. You have no idea what your hitting, you're just trying to get the damage numbers up to something you hope is respectable. All the while you're doing this on your own, because you have no squadron and country chat just seems to busy for someone to acknowledge your request for info. You don't really get the sense that your helping anyone or anything. Ok, I'm starting to ramble here. Point is, as a noob (still am) I didn't even think to look for target maps. I figured it was one of those "you'll remember when you play more" kind of things, just like every other game on the planet. Now I try to help anyone who asks for it, first thing I mention is the target maps. Designators would help because now I can go "Noob1, your mission, whether you like it or not, is to knock out BH2. May the force be with you." I understand people can modify these maps, again tho as a noob, I didn't even know we HAD the maps, much less modify them. And your maps may be designated differently from my maps, which brings us back to "Ok, which one are you going after again?"

2: Marking the field map as to which way the runways are oriented. Nothing big maybe a dot or hash mark in the corner of the field type designator. It would help just for those times when you have to redirect because where you're going to land just became Bish central or Knight city. Again, it would also help with Bomb Run planning. (Believe it or not, I spend a good ten minutes planning a run before I even hit the runway)

3. A . command to adjust RPMs. I have 1 throttle pot for manifold pressure and the -/+ keys are to brutal for fine tuning. I know it probably didn't exist in WWII, but they also had alot more levers and buttons to play with 

4. A logbook for targets/fighters destroyed during the last sortie. Because I like to know what it is I actually hit, and for S&G's

If these are in existence, please tell me where there are. I truly have gone looking but to no avail. Thank you.

-MadHat

[Soulyss]

1: It seems that some groups out there have some somewhat standardized lingo to denote targets but nothing that is community standard as a whole exists that I'm aware of.  I wasn't quite sure from your original post if you knew about the clipboard maps or not.  If you pull up the clipboard and right click down at the bottom of the menu it will say "clipboard maps" which show the layout of all the airfields.  Should be able to get at least rudimentary references that way "I'll bomb the Northwest fighter hangar" for example, these maps can also be edited and changed to suit your needs.

Another common practice is to use the numpad on the keyboard, this is typically used in conjunction with the sector numbers on the map to alert someone to the location of a carrier group or mission.  You typically see something like "cv spotted in sector 7.12.9" that tells everyone that the cv is in the 7.12 sector on the map and then by looking at the numpad on the keyboard the CV is the 9 or North East corner of that sector.  

2:  You can tell what type of airfield you're dealing with by it's icon on the world map.  It's either small, medium, or large.  The small field has a single SW to NE runway and is a single diagonal line on the map.  The medium airfields add a second runway creating an "X" and the largets add a E to W runway which you see on the icon under the field number.  If you don't see what I'm talking about right click on the map and it will bring up a menu that will give you options about what to display.  I typically use Field Names, Icons, and Field Altitude but there are other options that may be useful to a bomber like radar coverage so you can dodge the "dot dar" that shows your location when you get too close to an airfield.  

3: to my knowledge the only real way to adjust RPM is to use the +/- keys, some people I'm sure have probably done some more advanced controls through the joystick/controller software.   In practical terms you generally don't need to fine tune RPMs too much in my experience.  Which I'll admit is pretty limited when it comes to bombers, I spend most my time in fighters.  I can get the RPM close enough to make use of the cruise settings if I need to stretch my legs a little bit.  Most bombers have the option to carry more than enough fuel to reach target and formation can be maintained with maximum RPM and then just working the throttle.

4:  There are some pretty extensive stats that are kept from tour to tour that will tell who who was shot down by whom and in what.  As far as I know you can check total damage done in points but not numbers on individual targets.  

[RTHolmes]

1. and 2. there are already commonly used names for hangar target designation - main pad, small pad, runway, offset etc.

actually I'd prefer to see random layouts for fields/towns/strats. combine this with a right-clickable map for each field, which is greyed out unless theres been a PR flight over it in the last say 2h and we'd have a reason to do PR sorties. the PR pic could also show shore battery locations and field of fire.

3. you can map RPM to an analogue controller - I have it mapped to a rotary pot on my throttle as I use it alot.

4. the buffer shows which sheds you've killed during the sortie, stats pages show aircraft etc by tour. might be good to add that stuff to the stats pages too, I'd quite like to see tonnage sunk

[stealth]

lol

[MadHatter]

I understand about the right-click target maps, and the common terminology. At least I understand the common terminology now. Again this request isn't for me, it's for the new player. If a player isn't a part of a squadron, nor can he get answers from the text, how is he to learn this terminology? Here's an example: "If that SOB of a VIP lands in a hot LZ and goes MIA, then we're all SOL and be put on KP, so keep it on the DL and we'll check with the CO and CQ before the MPs grab us and throw us in CC." Anyone who's a vet, understood that, anyone who's seen more then 3 war movies, understood most of that. In my class, the other Vets and I kept referring to ourselves as Section 8. Because we were crazy enough to spend 30k for a year's worth of training, everyone else thought we lived in Government Relief Housing. And now looking at it, I realize I probably didn't need to use the wishlist for this, since I could just mod the maps myself and put them out for download :facepalm: Maybe call it the "Hitchhiker's Guide to Airfields". Either way, thank you Soulyss for taking the time to clarify.

One thing though, I have noticed that not all the runways (at least the friendly ones) are not oriented the same. For example, 1 medium airfield may be oriented with the "X", but another may be oriented NE-SW/E-W. RTHolmes, I like your idea. I don't know what else to say about it besides, I want to do that.

As for the RPMs, it's just me being a selfish Buff driver. The reason is not for stretching gas, it's for the bomb run. The biggest thing for me is to achieve constant speed of 165 and +/- 0 climb rate. For some reason ( I don't know why, maybe a RL pilot can explain this?) if I set my RPMs to max cruise (B-17, 2100 RPMs) and use my manifold pressure to adjust the climb rate to zero, I always seem to be off target , even with last second calibration. Bombs fall short and I can't figure out why, when I check the calibration, everything seems to be in order, no changes made. But if I set the manifold pressure constant (31 in's) and use the RPMs to adjust climb rate, everything seems to fall into place. But using the +/- keys to adjust it gets brutal. I'm not a pilot (always wanted to be, but AF said eyes were too bad for it) all I know is "RPM, Manifold make plane go".

I've heard of the buffer but I'm a little confused. Do you mean the "`" key to change text window size? If so, after a run generally I'm fighting off uppers and by the time I get to it the info has scrolled up. If not then how do I get to it? I have checked the stats online (BTW HT nice job, pretty extensive) mainly what I was looking for was targets destroyed so I can give a SitRep after (or when the uppers decide to leave me alone) the flight.

[kvuo75]

why are you manually adjusting climb rate to 0.. just hit x

[Lusche]

2:  You can tell what type of airfield you're dealing with by it's icon on the world map.  It's either small, medium, or large.  The small field has a single SW to NE runway and is a single diagonal line on the map.  

This is not the same on every map. bases can be rotated by the map designer. While on most maps they are "standard", on some maps they deviate. For example on Compello, many bases have a different runway orientation, thus some small fields have their runway NW to SE. (Just like on Ozkansas many ports are in fact airfields too).

[MadHatter]

why are you manually adjusting climb rate to 0.. just hit x

Because I tried that. Just hitting "x" leaves you a climb rate of 0 +/- 7, That isn't anything for anyone to worry about when you're in flight to your target but it seems to make a difference when your lined up. I line up and start to stabilize the bomber a full sector out. By the time I get to the target, I could have easily climbed up to anywhere from 40 to 100 feet from my original altitude. I don't go after fields just for the hell of it. I attack targets that are 1: The focus of one of our attacks or 2: The point of origin of one of their hordes. So either way, it gets really busy up there and sometimes I don't have the chance for the last second calibration, between jumping from the guns to bombsight, I have my hands full. And yes, I generally put out a call for a gunner, but most of the time nothing happens. Essentially what I want is, by the time I hit the DAR ring, I want to be level and true, and when I will stay level and true all the way to the target.

[Lusche]

Because I tried that. Just hitting "x" leaves you a climb rate of 0 +/- 7, That isn't anything for anyone to worry about when you're in flight to your target but it seems to make a difference when your lined up. I line up and start to stabilize the bomber a full sector out. By the time I get to the target, I could have easily climbed up to anywhere from 40 to 100 feet from my original altitude.

And here's the trick: To adjust for difference in altitude, you don't need to go through the whole calibration routine. Just hit U to get into calibration mode, and exit it immediately, and your calibrated alt is corrected. Takes only a split second.

[MadHatter]

Thank you, I always thought you had to follow the 2 second rule for calibration to adjust (alt and speed). I will give that a shot. 

[Lusche]

Thank you, I always thought you had to follow the 2 second rule for calibration to adjust (alt and speed). I will give that a shot.  

ooops, there was a typo in my post: Of course you don't hit Y as you do not want to go through calibration. Hit U to enter & exit calibration mode only!

[Jayhawk]

When I fly bombers I try to get to alt (20-25k) at least 2 sectors away from target.  This allows my speed and climb to settle out level with doors open.  If you leave the controls alone your climb rate will eventually come to 0.  I usually don't calibrate until it is at 0 and I'm just outside dar ring.  You can then make minor adjustments to your direction while in the bombsite without messing up your calibration.  For me, patience is key in bombers.  My bomber flights are rarely less than an hour.  That's not for everyone, but I do enjoy it.

I'd be more than happy to take bombers up with you and show you how the 91st does it, we are bish vox 191.

[RTHolmes]

And here's the trick: To adjust for difference in altitude, you don't need to go through the whole calibration routine. Just hit U to get into calibration mode, and exit it immediately, and your calibrated alt is corrected. Takes only a split second.

never knew that, cool trick

why are you manually adjusting climb rate to 0.. just hit x

when you are auto-level, the climbrate indicates whether you are accelerating or decelerating. I like 0+-1fpm at the edge of radar, means calibration will still be spot on when you're over the target and you can stay in the guns til the drop. hate getting shot in the arse when calibrating.

[Spikes]

lol

Nice contribution.

One thing though, I have noticed that not all the runways (at least the friendly ones) are not oriented the same. For example, 1 medium airfield may be oriented with the "X", but another may be oriented NE-SW/E-W. RTHolmes, I like your idea. I don't know what else to say about it besides, I want to do that.

Sometimes you'll find on small airfields, the runways are perpendicular to what it says on the map. Others aren't as noticable but still are opposite as such. RTHolmes is right, many bomber pilots use terminology such as "I'm lined up on big pad spawn FH, single FH on runway and small pad eastern FH". I said something similar to this when I was on a bomb run to a large Airfield.

[MadHatter]

Sometimes you'll find on small airfields, the runways are perpendicular to what it says on the map. Others aren't as noticable but still are opposite as such. RTHolmes is right, many bomber pilots use terminology such as "I'm lined up on big pad spawn FH, single FH on runway and small pad eastern FH". I said something similar to this when I was on a bomb run to a large Airfield.

I use that terminology now, again tho, I'm not suggesting this to make my life any easier (Since I've already learned the terminology), it's for the next batch of pilots that come into the game. I had a buddy of mine try this game out over the Christmas holiday, and decided to quit because he felt that he wasn't doing enough to help "the war effort". (I told him it takes time to learn, but, well I blame video games for today's impatience  ) I'm just trying to figure a way to help the next "rainbow" that comes through. Maybe I'll start a training squadron or something (just musing)