Tips for flying with NO ICONS

[Mister Fork]

1. Your range radio is your friend.  Establish your presence in the area by making a general announcement call over the range radio. I.E

This is Forkster flying a F4F in 10-10-5 at Angels 10.  Any friendlies in the arena?

Response:Forkster, this is Oldman, hey I'm at 10-10-3 in a TBM Oscar Tango Delta. I see an enemy aircraft heading your way - maybe angels 5

2. When you see another aircraft, challenge their identity if you cannot make out its type or nationality.

This is Forkster flying 10-10-5 in F4F. Aircraft 10-10-2 please identify.

Response: This is Jaeger in a Zero, I need help - have a bogey high at 10-10-5.  Must be one of those moron Gunfighters again
(Of course, as an enemy, I cannot hear him - but he does let his peers know he's being engaged)

3. If player doesn't respond, do a check-6 to see if they light up and for the pilot to 'wake up'.
(I'm making the assumption that icon settings and check-6 functions are decoupled from one another).

4. If check-6 is negative, announce that you're engaging an enemy and location (you may need help/backup)

Forkster is engaging enemy fighter at 10-10-2

Response: This is Jaeger. Fighter is in - I'm at 10-10-2 angels 5.  I don't need help - it must be Oldman.

5. If you see fighters mixing it up, use your radio to determine what is going on.

This is Tank in sector 10-10-1 - any friendlies in the area need assistance. Cancel that - engaging target at 10-10-2



What you're noticing is that the more you talk - the more info you share with one another.  Range is great for helping coordinate efforts with no icons. 

[gyrene81]

LOL...that's a good tip Fork.

Any tips on how to maintain SA while using the zoom in/out function?

Some little things that I did notice last night...the Jap planes were light dots in the distance and the U.S. planes were black dots...the F4s were easier to spot than the P-40s low over the water...having other player skins disabled in game shows only the default skins for airplanes which did make it easier to spot the blue planes...adjusting the zoom so that it's about 1/2 way to max made it easier to identify specific aircraft types within about 3000 yards...and those B-26s were almost impossible to shoot down with the ammo in a single A6M2...using the zoom function on less than max zoom and waiting for a target to fill the sight ring wingtip to wingtip made it easier to score hits but a little more difficult to maintain that sight picture in tight maneuvers...and you don't have a lot of time to react to fast moves.



Lots of fun though...can't wait to do it again...hopefully with the A6M5b???

[captain1ma]

this is Jaeger1 to JG54, I'm in sector 10-10-2, angels 5, engaged in battle with unknown enemy in a tbm. Could use some help boys, destroy with extreme predjudice!.......and leave the sheep alone!

[jimson]

I believe the best combination was no enemy icons and short range friendly icons.

But what the heck do I know?

[captain1ma]

I believe the best combination was no enemy icons and short range friendly icons.

But what the heck do I know?

many people liked it, including me. we'll see what we can do.

the thing is, radar is set to run, so you can check your radar, while fighting, and figure out who's who.

[Motherland]

Any tips on how to maintain SA while using the zoom in/out function?

If you don't have zoom toggle and zoom in/zoom out mapped to your stick, do that.
Assuming you're using a hat switch, it would also probably be helpful to have the ability to move the position of your head somewhere on your stick. Otherwise you're going to have to use your aircraft to point your view with that narrow FoV.

Generally I have the zoom set at about moderate and then zoom in as necessary... switch back to normal FoV. You can change the zoom degree with out actually being in zoom mode so if you'd zoomed in a lot zoom it back out when you get a chance, so the next time you toggle the zoom you don't get disoriented by the sudden narrowing of your FoV.

[Oldman731]

Response: This is Jaeger. Fighter is in - I'm at 10-10-2 angels 5.  I don't need help - it must be Oldman.

Hey!  I heard that!

- oldman

[Minakove]

I can't REALLY believe i'm asking this, but I I can't find or figure out what #-#-# Angels # is in reference to. I've probably been overlooking the thread that explains this, but I've been missing it for 2 hours now.  Figured I've wasted enough time, just ask, log-in so i can get shot down a few more times  and come back in a little bit to find out it's been in front of me the whole time. 

[thundabooge]

the #-#-#  is the location on the map grid on ur clipboard  so 3-2-5  =  sector 3-2 keypad 5 (center of sector)

angels #  means the altitude 

[Mister Fork]

Sorry - me assuming people know most terms us old flyboys use.

Angels is altitude in thousands of feet.  I.e. Angels 5 is 5000 ft.  Angels 20 is 20,000ft.

Anything below 1000ft is considered on the deck - or Oscar Tango Delta. It means you're manouvering to avoid trees, hills, powerlines, and sheep.

#-#-# is indeed the sector location and keypad spot in that sector.  Here's one I used for a few weeks when I started flying back in um... 1997   I can't believe I still had it in a text file in my Warbirds...umm.. Aces High directory.

Print it off and tape it to the bottom of your screen for a few weeks until you memorize it.


KEYPAD LOCATOR
--------------
 7  8  9
 4  5  6
 1  2  3
--------------

[Minakove]

  Thank you SO much, I was sure it had to do with the grid numbers, but then I always seemed to end up with that extra 3rd number and EVERYTHING went out the window 

On a brighter note though, I have become considerably more familiar with the map! Discovered neat new "crevices" deep in the forums, and having to resist throwing my thoughts out without checking dates after nearly replying in a discussion that seems to have ended i believe in Jan or Feb of '09 lol 

Also good to know it's using the 9 off the 10-key (which usually actually has 17 keys...) and NOT the mirrored 1-9 arrangement on 12-key phones. Wonderful people,those computer standardizers so many years ago. Keeping with the whole US-Metric thinking "We just gotta make it as confusing and senseless-backwards as possible... why? cause it's funy to watch people  " after-all modeling after the already existing phones and keeping the normal Left to Right - Top Down system used nearly EVERYWHERE in the WORLD would have made SENSE  and been too easy right? 

[Wagger]

I know this will not be popular but.  I don't even own a cell phone and who ever came up with the keypad system for giving location is a moron.  Now that I have endeared myself to everyone why is it that every time someone gives a grid location, IE 10.10.3, is the last number always proceeded by the word keypad.  Is it habit or just a wish to tie the communications channel up a little longer?  Thank you for your time and any obnoxious or derogatory remarks are welcome.  Love Wagger.

[captain1ma]

actually i thought it was from the numbers pad on a keyboard, so as to not exclude those people who couldn't afford, nor wanted a cellphone 

every english keyboard has it. of course the wagger keyboard only has the 1-9 going across the top of it, so hes a little keyboard challenged   

everytime someone calls numbers, wagger slices up the sector into 9 strips and tries to find the fight. its quite fun to watch Him!!  (all in jest Wagger, no harm intended)

[gyrene81]

Don't mind Wagger, he's technology challenged in ways that would qualify him for a helmet and reserved seat on the short bus in the cyber world...take a look at the code on his signature...no matter how many times I've told him to get rid of the spaces it just sits there looking like html gibberish when it should look like mine.

Hey Minakove, it could be worse...we could have rotary keypads to look at... ...the arrangement of the keys on the keypad had something to do with data entry or something like that where people were having to input numbers so they set it up like a calculator...the number 1 is always on the bottom left with zero right below it...





I kind of like seeing people type in the word keypad or kp when giving coordinates...helps everyone in the end.

[Motherland]

[url]=http://www.jg-27.com/jg27/forum/page.aspx?ID=9 ][color=green]II/JG-27 Afrika[/color][/url]

Just tell him to copy + paste this in. Putting

[code]

[/code] tags around a line like that will allow you to type it without the spaces.