I have been in AH since its beginning and I think I can retire with full benefits in another couple of years....
During this time I have continually upgraded components here and there and as such I have come to some conclusions on equipment.
I always see posts about this and that and decided to evaluate which have been most helpful to my limited aerial skills.
1) There is no substitute for size, that includes monitors.... currently running a 27inch at 120.... 119 frame rates
which dip down to 80 something in the midst of chaos. The bigger thing are the easier they are to kill... would love to
have a 30' Dell put social security won't spring for $1100 or so.
2) Controls varied over the years from Saitek to CH to now Hotas Warthog. Saitek where nice but got jumpy fast... CH, Which are my fallback,
Are solid as a rock and last forever... By the way there have been a number of Logitech in there and they never lasted with me to long as they got spikey,
as the Saitek's did. The warthog is excellent and if you've been playing since the bronze age as I have you can really
appreciate it.
3) Win 7 64 on SSD... never did have any problems with HDs thou...
4)TIR I think the latest is verSion 5? works great and now is indispensible.... A perfect setup takes months of tweeting.
5) Have 2 pos 32key keyboards programmed to different planes and things like move, squelch, modes, gas level, planes, different auto pilot modes,
bomb load out, salvo etc etc. I find this much easier to cope with then dot commands....(try to spell squelch when your irrated and in a hurry.
ManAWar has his own button..... Oh and if you have a small choice of wingman you can program dot commands onto a key to make one button press
wingman selection.
6) Asus 7.1 sound with Razor Tiamat 7.1 headsets..... easier to hear someone on your six.. directional positioning is the best.... thou bombs will scare
the life out of you
7) Rudder pedals are as most of you know, are mandatory.... could land without them... Using Saitek and am happy.... Had the German ones for a while
and they where great but that was back in the rs232 days..... They are expensive and are not easy to come by in the US.
8) Chess timer 15min blitz mode.... keeps track of VH down time....
I guess once you pass the frame rate pinnacle, monitor size and speed I find the most critical..... Then you get behind an easy kill and you can't get
a gun solution because of spiky controls or rudders.... CH or Warthog... POS keyboards are great and make "playing" this "game" so much easier....
That's it until the new system and video card..... next time the wife goes to California to visit the grand kids.... coordinating UPS deliveries when she's away is so much less stressful.
By the way HT what kind of benefits do we get for twenty years of faithful service to the Knights?
