Ways of reading skill

[bozon]

While there are a few hot sticks that fly the best fighters, the typical La7, P51 and spit pilots that you run into are below average, and thank god for that. If all vetrans stuck to the few best fighters it would be very difficult to do well in older models.

One ace in an La7 I can deal with. A whole squadron of vetran players in La7s will close the MA. Nothing prevent some squadrons from flying 262s nearly all of the time for many tours - they don't, because this will #### up the game.

[Lusche]

Nothing prevent some squadrons from flying 262s nearly all of the time for many tours

Perk price does 

You can really tear quickly through tens of thousands of perks when you are really doing this for ' many tours.' I once did a Me 262 tour like that, and it did cost me around 4000 perks.

[ccvi]

It can not.  Trim in AH has no drag effect. Using trim in a real plane can both increase or decrease drag depending on both the system (not all planes have trim tabs some like 109 have movable stab) and the position of the tab.

It's not the trim, its the plane flying clean. CT is pretty quick to put the rudder where it belongs. The same is true for the auto-pilots. Out-climbing them manually is basically impossible, as perfect as they work.

Real trim tabs. Trimming in the same direction as stick input does not increase the output.

It does not in ah either, but if you are limited by the force of stick pull, then trimming does effectively increase output.

Testcase: P38 (not much rudder to worry about for the test), inverted, slow'ish (100-120 mph), level flight with full stick foward deflection. Trimming (while maintaining full stick foward) moves the nose up/down. Trimming nose down pushes the invered nose up, and vice versa.

Is it really stick force limited at that slow speed? Is there any way to see what its limited to?

[DmonSlyr]

I think it really takes a show of skill to fly planes that simply cannot run away from any other plane in the MA. Flying the fastest planes never teaches defensive maneuvers and counter evasive tactics. Sure, E fighting and BnZ does take skill in its own regard, but it limits those abilities of being able to fight when enemies are above you. Flying mid war or slower aircraft in MA generally requires a bit more undertsanding of the game and SA, and will also help you become a better pilot overall.

[JOACH1M]

I just fly.

[Vraciu]

no any pony that decides to fight, notice the FIGHT word, not the come in with three other ponies and dive at 500 mph until you loose e retiton and then run back to the base.  join Fess one night when he is on and watch him throw that thing around, it will remind of you of what youre exwife use to do to you, and the best part.....no 6 yo allowed

I flew with Fess for years. 

I'm well aware of his capabilities. 

He is the best there is at thinking out a fight.  He doesn't succeed on pure dogfighting ability.  It's much more than that. 

[Vraciu]

While there are a few hot sticks that fly the best fighters, the typical La7, P51 and spit pilots that you run into are below average, and thank god for that. If all vetrans stuck to the few best fighters it would be very difficult to do well in older models.

One ace in an La7 I can deal with. A whole squadron of vetran players in La7s will close the MA. Nothing prevent some squadrons from flying 262s nearly all of the time for many tours - they don't, because this will #### up the game.

The Mustang has to create angles to win and if there are multiple cons on you, esp. with alt, you will die. 

I can bend a Mustang with anyone.   But then I'm low and slow with people piling in on top.  I do not have the gunnery or the knowledge of angle creation to survive that situation.   Few do. 

[DREDIOCK]

The thing he had going for him was he had a real bead on aim....he could finish a fight fast with some great aim... how he did it like others who have spectacular aim is beyond my comprehension sometimes....

This.
He had  good ACM but this is what he truly excelled at

[Vraciu]

This.
He had  good ACM but this is what he truly excelled at

I wish I could figure out the aim thing.  I get terrible nose bounce. 

[Krupinski]

Aiming really has a lot to do with how good your Joystick/Rudder pedals are, aside from that setting up a good curve near the center of your joystick and learning how to properly lead a deflection shot are very important too.

[Vraciu]

Aiming really has a lot to do with how good your Joystick/Rudder pedals are, aside from that setting up a good curve near the center of your joystick and learning how to properly lead a deflection shot are very important too.

I may have to hit you up for pointers on that.    I'm using the default settings for controls and my stick is ancient (MS SW).

[morfiend]

How I assess skill,1 does the player fly smooth,2 which way does he turn( turn nose down/nose up or just does a flat turn),then 3 does the player keep his lift vector aimed at me.

  Just the other night I was working with a player,within a couple minutes I knew he was skilled and had to switch planes to compete,granted he was in a Ki43 but usually it doesnt matter what the other player flies.In this case I had to hop into a zero just to keep up with the turn ability of the 43.


  Being smooth is the real tell,most fly and are very abrupt in their maneuvers,this burns energy and often causes accelerated stalls. An old friend used to tell me"smooth is fast,fast is good"!

  A plane is a plane,2 wings and a prop,what you fly doesnt matter,how you fly does!


  YMMV!



     

[Gman]

I may have to hit you up for pointers on that. 

Ditto.  Krup, it'd be cool if you pulled up that thread Grizz wrote up on shooting/accuracy, and put your own methods and tips into it.  Same goes for Jo, Bruv, Junky, Perd, all the other really good ACM/Shooters.  Or, just start a new one, but as much as ACM/BFM/E/etc, accurate and consistent shooting is a critical part of being a potential FPH IMO.

Krupinski, you use the Warthog stick IIRC - have you done anything with it, so far as pulling it apart and doing any of the grease/tuning stuff that is out there?  I'd be real interested to see your in game stick settings for it. 


Regarding Skyyr, despite his personality...quirks...he was absolutely one of the top pilots in the game in my opinion while he was here.  It's regrettable what he did too, as every game needs a villain, and he played that part to perfection.  Junky mentioned something earlier about a lot of guys getting too freaked out in the rope part of the E fight, and pulling too hard, too soon, etc.  Skyyr helped me out with that a couple times in the DA as it's something I was doing (and still do) too frequently.  I fly the Ki43 mostly, and it's at least as much a crutch as any Spit/Brew, even worse if you ask me, as just some hard pulls and good SA can inflate your numbers well beyond your actual skill - at least it does for me.  Makes for developing bad habits, especially when I fly the K4, which is probably about 40% of my time when I'm playing

So many subtle little things you need to be good at, and when you run into someone that IS actually good at all of them, it exposes your weaknesses pretty quickly. 

Regarding the P51 posts - BigR is one of the best P51 pilots I've seen, flew some DA with him a couple years back, really great at teaching it too.

[DmonSlyr]

Ditto.  Krup, it'd be cool if you pulled up that thread Grizz wrote up on shooting/accuracy, and put your own methods and tips into it.  Same goes for Jo, Bruv, Junky, Perd, all the other really good ACM/Shooters.  Or, just start a new one, but as much as ACM/BFM/E/etc, accurate and consistent shooting is a critical part of being a potential FPH IMO.

Krupinski, you use the Warthog stick IIRC - have you done anything with it, so far as pulling it apart and doing any of the grease/tuning stuff that is out there?  I'd be real interested to see your in game stick settings for it. 


Regarding Skyyr, despite his personality...quirks...he was absolutely one of the top pilots in the game in my opinion while he was here.  It's regrettable what he did too, as every game needs a villain, and he played that part to perfection.  Junky mentioned something earlier about a lot of guys getting too freaked out in the rope part of the E fight, and pulling too hard, too soon, etc.  Skyyr helped me out with that a couple times in the DA as it's something I was doing (and still do) too frequently.  I fly the Ki43 mostly, and it's at least as much a crutch as any Spit/Brew, even worse if you ask me, as just some hard pulls and good SA can inflate your numbers well beyond your actual skill - at least it does for me.  Makes for developing bad habits, especially when I fly the K4, which is probably about 40% of my time when I'm playing

So many subtle little things you need to be good at, and when you run into someone that IS actually good at all of them, it exposes your weaknesses pretty quickly. 

Regarding the P51 posts - BigR is one of the best P51 pilots I've seen, flew some DA with him a couple years back, really great at teaching it too.

While I think skyyr was excellent in the E game, and was decent in 1v1s because of his merge. He hid behind very fast planes in the MA: 190D, La7, and was weak defensively in the MA and 1v1. He could not land many kills in midwar planes and would get picked a lot even in faster planes. He flew a lot of sorties in very fast planes with a rather low K/D. To me skyyr did prove why the 190D is such a nuisance. Flying the fastest planes in the game does give you a nice advantage in the MA.

[Vraciu]

While I think skyyr was excellent in the E game, and was decent in 1v1s because of his merge. He hid behind very fast planes in the MA: 190D, La7, and was weak defensively in the MA and 1v1. He could not land many kills in midwar planes and would get picked a lot even in faster planes. He flew a lot of sorties in very fast planes with a rather low K/D. To me skyyr did prove why the 190D is such a nuisance. Flying the fastest planes in the game does give you a nice advantage in the MA.

In fairness you should reveal the score when you DA'ed him...

His low K/D was primarily due to the fact he was not afraid to engage, regardless of the odds.   He would take on a horde by himself all the time.