Need Trainer or Anyone Willing To Help

[shockyb]

Ok Ill give the Niki a go as soon as i log in .. I only chose the jug because to me it seems to have the most unobstructed view, secondly because it has a pretty good weapons arsenal and lastly its a pretty cool looking airplane (lol sorry but its true)  When fighting in most airplanes should i attempt to keep my IAS @ 250 or is that just BnZ?

The 47s are really heavy planes and real easy to lose E in if ya aren't careful. I good rule of thumb I think for starting out in a BnZ plane like that is to practice keeping it at 250 IAS and above when within icon range of a con and fight mostly up and down avoiding too many E burning turns. Internal fuel @ no more then 50%. I take drop tanks to use until I acquire a target. 

I trying to aim for the pilot seat or wing roots giving them short bursts until I know I'm no target...then unload. Also, not to discourge you from the P47s as they are awesome planes, I'd suggest you take the Niki for a spin. 900 rounds of 20mm cannon rounds, fairly fast, light, and turns well. I think it's a great plane to learn gunnery in as it will often get you a kill with minimal round hits compared to the .50 cals.

[shockyb]

I agree after reading bag the hun and watching the video I am definitely undercompensating by a gratuitous amount.  The hard part is shooting at a target that you dont even see in the gunsight because your firing offset is so great.  ill do the offline LCG that you suggested that should definitely help. 

I'm not much of a Trainer right now, but I can at least show you the basics of ACM and shooting. If nothing else, I am a pretty target.

The key to gunnery is the lead you need to pull. And trust me, if you think you pull enough ahead, double the lead and then you'll hit .
Theres an easy, albeit slightly boring way to practice your "gun eye" - pick on the drones in offline mode, using the "lead computed gunsight" - it will show you a crosshair where to put your gun pipper to hit at any given time. In offline mode, you will have to turn it on in the Arena Settings first. For that, you open your clipboard -> Options -> Arena Setup-> Enviroment -> Arena Settings.... then you get a list of weird "parameters". Go find FlightModeFlags and check the box for the lead computed gunsight. Hit OK. Now you can "mark" a target with your TAB key and should get the green LCG. On a side note, the LCG works in the TA for friendlies, you just have to enable friendly lock but switching it on with CTRL_TAB, then you can lock targets with TAB same as offline.

Another tip for gunnery. The heavier your bullets, the more they drop, the more lead you need to pull. Start with Cal50 MGs... they do reasonable damage, while being lighter then canon rounds. Also, dont try to shoot canon at the same time as MGs (like on the Spits for example).... due to much different ballistics, they only hit target at the same spot under very special convergence and distance settings. For some advanced thoughts on convergence and gunnery, try http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/ or http://www.slowcat.de/slowcats1/AHTC/Convergence.pdf.

[shockyb]

Ill give the 205 a try as well.. Ill try anything my plane of choice will find me soon enough.  It will select me not the other way around 

Gratuitous advice from somebody from the lower tier of skill:  Try a plane that keeps E better, has cannons, reasonable speed, good climb and is not snotty like the spitfires.  Fly the 205.  If I can shoot things down in it anybody can.  Doesn't run out of bullets.  Avoid the spitfires they are the nemesis.  Another thing: take any cannon plane,(ok a spit16,) and knock down ack at a base out of the way, they are static targets but it helps with your aim and maneuvering as your changing speed and turning a lot, also the fact that you can get shot up helps you take it seriously, (well sort of.)

[uptown]

Ok Ill give the Niki a go as soon as i log in .. I only chose the jug because to me it seems to have the most unobstructed view, secondly because it has a pretty good weapons arsenal and lastly its a pretty cool looking airplane (lol sorry but its true)  When fighting in most airplanes should i attempt to keep my IAS @ 250 or is that just BnZ?

The 250 IAS is just a rule of thumb I go by when doing the BnZ thing. It really all depends on what the other guy is doing, what his plane can do, what his E state is compared to mine....so on and so forth. The reason I told you 250 is because the Jugs are so dang heavy, that when you get them slow it takes forever to get any speed back when you're low. 250 is right around the best corner speed for the 47s.
I'm going to post a film of a BFM training clinic that a couple of trainers put on a month or so ago. Check it out. Read the Q&A session in the text buffer too. A lot of good info you might be interested in.You may want to open a MediaFire account to post and view films others from this game put up. Alot of folks around here use it. Films are pretty handy to see where you're doing good or not so good. So remember to film some of your fights.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ww4dch65ebm3moc    It's about an hour to an hour and a half long

[Schatzi]

I agree after reading bag the hun and watching the video I am definitely undercompensating by a gratuitous amount.  The hard part is shooting at a target that you dont even see in the gunsight because your firing offset is so great.  ill do the offline LCG that you suggested that should definitely help.  

On the Trainer Homepage, Look under the "Learning to fly" section for "Look forward - a view to a kill" - that will help you a bit with this problem.
Also, get real close and personal for shooting at the beginning.... within the 200 yard icon range is optimal.

BTW, I am Euro time zone, mostly on in the evenings.

[Ruah]

deflection shooting is an art, and it takes a lot of time to really get good at it.

fist thing to know is that you should really be thinking about pulling the trigger at 600 or closer with >400 being your ideal (you can take longer shots - but they are gambles at best)

A good way to practice is to go offline and shoot at the drones.  Saddle up around 400 and try to hold your bird there and take short bursts (less then half a second) at the target (I suggest a bunch of B17s) and watch your bullets - compensate (but keep it at 400 steady) and shoot another short bursts (move the rudder around and watch how it changes your bullet trajectory radically).  Once get that down, climb up and dive in so you just come down behind the target (remember to throttle down when going downhill) so you end up 1.0 or so behind the target - steady the plane until 600 and pull the trigger between 600 and 300 - then go up again - roll the plane over at 250 <since you don't want to go slower> and repeat the process - get a feel for the motion - don't pull too hard but try to conserve your e and as you roll, keep your eye on the target throughout the maneuver (check speed until you don't even need to see the speed anymore because you can 'feel' it).  Once you get to this point, start the attacks from different angles (to create more deflection) and in the roll over - try yo-yos and vector rolls (roll 'away' from the target but create angles on the target) and after that to smaller planes.

It is not a substitute for the real thing, but it will start you down the right path. 

As for ACM (air combat maneuvers) - well I would continue to work with people in here and also consider joining a squad.

 

[shockyb]

Awesome video.. Learned ALOT. I have been living a little bit longer utilizing some of the techniques in the video.  I still suck at shooting but have had a few deflection hits on the enemy no kills but 1 or 2 hits.  I really need some one on one with someone but i am learning a lot from this thread..

The 250 IAS is just a rule of thumb I go by when doing the BnZ thing. It really all depends on what the other guy is doing, what his plane can do, what his E state is compared to mine....so on and so forth. The reason I told you 250 is because the Jugs are so dang heavy, that when you get them slow it takes forever to get any speed back when you're low. 250 is right around the best corner speed for the 47s.
I'm going to post a film of a BFM training clinic that a couple of trainers put on a month or so ago. Check it out. Read the Q&A session in the text buffer too. A lot of good info you might be interested in.You may want to open a MediaFire account to post and view films others from this game put up. Alot of folks around here use it. Films are pretty handy to see where you're doing good or not so good. So remember to film some of your fights.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ww4dch65ebm3moc    It's about an hour to an hour and a half long

[shockyb]

Sidebar question.. but don't stop posting the knowledge to help me be a better pilot.  .. When I'm flying and coming up on a target i get a lot of bouncing around.  For instance if i am in a diving right turn and I pull wings level my nose tends to bounce around a little laterally <-- --> even with my hands firmly on the joystick with no additional movement other than the initial pull to wings level.  Is this normal?  is there a setting that i can use to adjust this?  I've tried deadband and dampening and it has no effect it seems on the lateral oscillations encountered from the maneuver.  I think this is yet another reason i cant seem to shoot very well.  I have to wait till the movement stabilizes before fine tuning my guns on the target.  to give a better understanding of what the problem is picture this.  You step on your rudder full left or right deflection then instead of countering back to center with opposite rudder you quickly just remove your foot and it cause your aircraft to oscillate left and right for a bit.  I have a cyborg X joystick and CH pro rudder pedals.  Also if someone could put a pic up of where my flight control scaling for elevator and maybe rudder is supposed to be that would be great.  Thanks for all the help you guys have been giving me.  I was at the end of my rope and thinking of quitting.  I loved the game but couldn't figure it out but now since posting in here i have renewed faith thanks to all of you..  So i think I'll stay..   
 

[The Fugitive]

Here is a picture from "Murdr"



It is a good place to start on setting up your rudders. It may be a bit "aggressive" and you might want to slide the sliders down towards the bottom even more to smooth out your controls. The same could be set up for your elevators, the ailerons you want across the top for max response.

Two things. You want to teach yourself to be easy on the stick. "Smooth is fast" The less jerking around you do the better you save "E" (energy). Adjusting the stick is ok, but learning to be smooth is better. Second, you said "pull wings level". You are ALWAYS level, its the world that is not. Don't get stuck thinking that you have to level your wings with the world to be flying strait. Your in a 3D world without gravity, the only "G"s you pull are positive and negative by pushing or pulling on the stick. The point is learn your plane, how to point it where it needs to be to get to a spot to throw lead out in front of another plane so that plane flys into it. Up, down, left, right, it doesn't matter.

Keep at it! I've been here 10 years and learn something new everytime I die.... err fly     No body is perfect at this game. Some guys/girls are VERY good, but they get shot down too.