Author Topic: Rank planes for Rewbies and Vets  (Read 396 times)

Offline 2Late4U

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Rank planes for Rewbies and Vets
« on: January 19, 2002, 11:29:59 AM »
With all the talk about how this plane and that plane are UBER  and how other planes are all but useless, I was wondering what others though where the easy planes for new players and the most effective for those with more experience.  Sure there are some that many will agree on, but I'm curious of how much divergence there is in the overall beliefs about what planes are best/most effective.
There are several planes that are typically death traps for newbies that become killing machines of doom when in the hands of an expert.  Personal preference and skills decide what planes each player ends up gravitating too, but there are definite planes that just never get used because they are just not effective in MA.

MY OF EASY NEWBIE PLANES

  • Spitfire IX


This plane seems to attract new players for several reasons, most notably that it is a well known plane that is actually easy to fly in AH.  The combination of great manueverability, outstanding firepower and good power make this a very common choice.  The small ammo load does discourage some, and you will see many new players express their displesure of being killed after they run out of ammo.

  • NiK2


Ah yes, there she blows.  We all know the Niki has firepower that eats through armor like "good times" through AOL.  The E retention has more than a few crying foul, and to top it all off, it turns like a race tuned Porsche.  New players love the one ping kills, and are not easily put off by the limitations of slightly low top speed, and fragile wings at high G loads.  Its like crack, it ain't good for you, but it sure is hard to stop using it.

  • La7


This is a relative newcomer to the new player list of choice.  Much of the reason it got noticed was all the complaints.  Its not the easiest of the bunch, but with all the speed you need, and very respectable turning, many new players get hooked.  It takes them quite a while to realize how hard the low velocity gun rounds make longer shots, all they see is that one quick burst kills everything.  It also helps when they realize that if they get in trouble, they can run away, and with just a little luck, they will get away.
[/list]




What about the Vets choices

  • P-51


You may hear complaints from new players that the Mustang is undermodled when the most popular plane of WWII proves less than they imagined, but rest assured in the hands of an expert, it is a deadly machine.  When flown smoothly the Mustang can make other planes look very vulnerable.  One key is to remember it handles much better than most opponents at 20,000 feet and going 400 knots.  

  • F4U-D


This plane gets new players killed when they get into the spin of death after a nastey stall, and it also tends to suck you into turn fights where it preforms very well.....but only for about one full circle.  After the first 360°'s though, it starts to wallow, and before you know it, your a big blue target.  In the hands of an expert though, the sumptuously large ammo load, great high speed handling and fantastic instant turn rate lead to a plane that provides many opportunities to get the kill.  Add to this the fantastic JABO load outs, and you get a plane that can go in, do some ground pounding and then stick around and play with enemy planes.

  • FW-190


No plane IMHO gains more from experience than the Focke Wulf.  To the uninitiated its nasty spin characteristics and numerous other quirks put it quickly on the do not fly list.  Thats ashame, because once you become farmiliar with it, and lern the discipline required to fly it, you end up with one outstanding aircraft.  The phenominal roll rate make it almost impossible to follow in a scissors if a compitant pilot is at the controls, and the great speed combined with central mounted cannon make a particularly deadly adversary.

[/list]

Offline Karnak

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« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2002, 11:54:49 AM »
Heh.  I consider the P-51D an newbie aircraft.  The thing is just so powerful and easy to get kills with.

I would say that the newbiw planes are:

Any Spitfire varient
N1K2
P-51D
La-7
F6F-5
P-38L
Typhoon MkIb
F4U-1D
Bf109G-10
B-17G (newbie bomber)
B-26B (newbie medium bomber)

Veteran aircraft are:
All aircraft not on the newbie list.
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Offline Zigrat

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« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2002, 12:01:25 PM »
F6F-5
P-38L
Typhoon MkIb
F4U-1D
Bf109G-10


those aircraft are not newbie aircraft. they are ones that if in newbie hands are gonna get decimated bby the others you listed

Offline Karnak

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« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2002, 12:06:30 PM »
Zigrat,

I don't think so.  They are all pretty easy to get kills with.  They aren't the easiest, but they are still easy.  You also see a lot of these aircraft and to acomplish that they must have a decent number of nebies flying them.
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Offline Kratzer

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« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2002, 12:19:07 PM »
The G10 is the hardest plane to fly in AH, IMO.  I still can't do very well in it, preferring a G2 or G6.  A newbie needs a plane they can turn hard in, and the G10 goes in one direction - straight.  I don't think any of the 109s are good newbie planes.  When I first started, I tried flying them, and it led to a ton of frustration.

The Pony is a good newbie plane, in my book, as hit has a great armament, can turn pretty well, and is fast enough to get you out of trouble.

Offline Wilbus

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« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2002, 06:18:13 PM »
Karnak said it pretty much with his post, The 109 G10 can be quite easy to run in, and if you got distance (2k or more) you can usually climb away, but that requires some speed too. The G10, however, is not very easy to get kills in, it's very poor high speed characteristics makes it difficult to aim at speed more then 450 or so and to avoid a fast G10 is real easy. Otherwise Karnaks list is the one I'd choose too.

P38 and F6F and LA7 can take one hell of a beating aswell so you can get shot up and still get home.

Also, the F4u, is fast, turns EXELENT and Rolls great BUT it's got nasty stall charecteristics and there is really a thin line between good turning and spin, once the "newbie" gets used to AH's FM a bit it will be a good plane, but it's not something you take up on your first flight IMO.

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Offline Tac

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« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2002, 06:27:20 PM »
Yes, but if you make mistakes or dont have good SA in a 38, you will die to the other planes in the list mighty quickly.

An F6 is a tad easier to fly and fight in, but its still nothing more than a blue splat if the pilot makes a mistake in ACM.

La7, n1k, spits, are all VERY forgiving. If you diddly up the plane's "superpower" (la7:accel and dive speed, n1k: turn and cannons, spit: superb turn, cannons and superb dive & E retention)ability can save your bellybutton many, many times. Even a newbie can make a vet work to kill the newbie. And heck, those planes do give anyone a marked advantage in performance vs the vet planes... below 15k (newbs up high? when? hehe).

The P-51 is NOT a newbie craft, but it is an excellent ride to learn in, and its very survivable. Put a newbie in a p-51 for half a month, point him on the path to E management and basic SA, and the p51 will teach him. No other plane in the MA can do that.

Offline J_A_B

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« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2002, 07:28:26 PM »
The P-51D is a newbie plane only in the sense that newbies gravitate to it because it's often the only WW2 plane they're familiar with (true newbies, who've never played a flightsim before).

Of course, these same newbies invariably fly around nice and slow and always use the hard turn as their primary combat maneuver....and soon discover that "the P-51 sucks".  Then they move to more forgiving planes.

J_A_B

Offline AKEagle+

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« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2002, 12:03:36 AM »
I guess I qualify as a newbie to this sim, and here is my $.02 :)

I was a newbie in here around Sept-Oct 2000, then was unable to fly until about a month ago. So I had to start all over.

Back before the perk system [which I personally don't like, but who cares, perk is here to stay I guess :) ]

Anyways, back then I liked the Cannon Hog, a great newbie plane IMVHO.

Now I seem to like the NIK2, I guess many purists consider it a dweeb plane, but I can survive in it more than a lot of others.  

I want a plane where I get some kills and have a chance.  I think any newbie is like me. I don't want to fly for months playing target drone so the old timers can sharpen their gunnery skills.  I want to have some fun too.

You have to realize that newbies are the life blood of any on-line sim.  Old timers leave for many reasons.  If you don't have a influx of newbies, soon it is fewer and fewer old timers, then it becomes unprofitable, then they turn off the servers.

Make it fun for the newbies and you will have a Aces High for a long time.  Drive away the newbies, and it will die.

My $.02 for what it's worth, :D

Have fun and watch your six :)

AKEagle+

Offline Vector

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« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2002, 12:37:46 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by AKEagle+
 I want a plane where I get some kills and have a chance.... I want to have some fun too.


Very well written and I think that pretty much summs it up. Having fun is all that keeps us flying in AH after all.
I like to fly spit ix every now and then, it's great plane to learn some acm and new moves and I think it's best newbie plane here.

IMO Karnak's list of newbie planes is good, except 109G-10 because it's easy to compress and it's fragile. If newbie wanna "grow-up" from featherweight to heavyweight , F6F is best overall plane there.

Offline Wotan

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« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2002, 09:25:04 AM »
well you choose what plane you wanna fly then thats on you.

Do you want htc to set up a "welfare perk" perk system and dole out perks because newbies might not get to fly them?

The whole perk idea is to keep perks limited it therefore stands to reason that not everyone will get to fly them.

The system is simple fly hi eny kill lo eny.

If your plane of choice is a niki well too bad for you. Theres a reason the niki eny value is lo. Because its easy to kill in..:)

See how that works ....:)

At the time the chog was perked I had no opinion but it was getting where it would get near 20% of the kills in the main per tour.

HTC had adjusted its eny value to where nothing else could be done.

So here we had a plane of which there were only 200 or so available in rl totally unbalancing the main. HTC perked it and we have a more diverse and more fun main. I think he did the right thing.

Even though I guess somewhere like to top 4 or 5 most used planes in ah now make up roughly the un perked chogs kill percentages the main is more balanced.

The fella flying the planes that are somewhat "hard" to kill in ultimately should get the greater reward.

Anyone can run up kills in a niki...........

Theres really no benefit for a newbie to fly perk planes. They aren't "superplanes".  Just flying a niki wont help you live in a temp 262 ta152 f4u4 or a chog.

You can fly a niki all you want. but if every now and again you up a g2 or 205 or whatever all you need is 3 to 4 kills to afford 2 chogs. You dont even have to rtb to keep the points.

No free Lunch.....

you wanna fly perk planes then earn the points..........

Offline lazs2

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« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2002, 10:33:07 AM »
I like the -1a.
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Offline Nath[BDP]

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« Reply #12 on: January 20, 2002, 10:38:29 AM »
Best newbie plane?

190A8.

Nothing out there will make a newbie a good player as fast as the A8 will.
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Offline GRUNHERZ

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« Reply #13 on: January 20, 2002, 12:20:48 PM »
LOL

Nath makes a good point!

Bf109G6 is great begginer plane too.

Offline Elysian

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« Reply #14 on: January 20, 2002, 03:13:39 PM »
Not so sure the tougher to fly planes are really the best for a newbie to learn in.  Essentially the more difficult the plane, the less options it has in combat.  Give him a plane that retains some E so he can experiment/ learn a bit before he gets shot down....  

When I started I cut my teeth on a lot of La7 vs. Niki engagements.  Could get into fight fast, try some ACM (and hopefully learn something), die and quickly do it again.  Not like I'm a hardcore vet yet, but basic things I learned doing that still apply when I take up a g2 vs. a hurri in the CT, for instance.

I could easliy be wrong though :)


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