Textbook Tactics or Homemade Moves?

[hblair]

Which is it? Do you spend all your time reading up on Robert Johnson (great stuff) to improve your game or are you like me, and believe there is nothing compared to old fashioned "stick time"?

When I started playing warbirds 2 1/2 years ago, I didn't know didly squat about tactics or how to fly a plane. I used trial and error to figure out which moves were the best. Over time I became better. I don't keep up with all the terms of the ACM moves people make, usually the ones who are experts in WWII ACM are easy prey in the arena.

hblair employs homemade moves.  

[Hangtime]

Yup. Hang likes 'homemade moves'.. they surprise me. Nuthin like thinkin yah got a cat in the bag and suddenly discover a tiger on yer back.

When I know it's you hblair; I hang back.. and proceed MOST cautiously.  

<S!>



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Hang
1st/AG "Bishlanders"  << Recruiting!!

[Maverick]

Only time I know I'm fighting anyone good is when the screen turns red and I read my obituary damnit.  


Mav  

[Pongo]

I have read Fighter Combat 6 times..Thats why I am invincible.
...
Ok I have no moves. learned or taught...
sigh..
 

[Nath-BDP]

My flying comes to me naturally, I don't think or plan out tactics far ahead of time.

I have read Fighter Combat, but those tactics don't work well in Aces High.

P.S. It seems as if the guys that can go on and on talking about different ACM can't actually execute it and win.

[This message has been edited by Nath-BDP (edited 02-06-2001).]

[bertie]

I like to mix my combat with 1/4 textbook ACM, 1/4 home made moves and 1/2 looking round about for the guy that just blew my tail off...

[eagl]

LOL Nath, are you talking about "BFM" or "ACM"?  In the USAF, we tend to reserve the term ACM for multi-ship fights (aka furballing to you duelists).  

I originally started by reading Shaw's book long before I ever flew an online flight sim (back in 1988 or 1989 I think) then I was quickly taught in the old CK beta that flat turns are not very useful against real pilots.  After I figured that out (about 3 fights against one nice opponent who "showed me what happened), My K/D never dropped below 1 again and I started picking up some tricks.  It didn't hurt that I was finishing up USAF pilot training in the T-38 at the time, and from then on I brought my USAF fighter training into the arena with me minus the missiles of course.

I'd say that on balance, 70% of what I use in the arena comes from books and formal training at work, and 30% comes from my online experience especially when dealing with network lag and warps.  I also learned a lot about flying taildraggers from flying earlier versions of WB (it's toned down now, too easy) and as a result I had little problem taxiing, taking off, and landing in a real taildragger on my first ever try in RL.

I dunno if my RL training counts as "textbook" or "homemade", that's for the jury to decide  


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eagl <squealing Pigs> BYA
Oink Oink To War!!!

[easymo]

 Started in the ACA. The make belive FM forced us to invent are own moves. This habit proved very useful later on, moveing on to other sims. There are a lot of us still around

[Lephturn]

I got my moves like so:

1.  Trainers.  Worr taught me most of 'em back in WB so long ago.

2.  Homemade "pilot toejam".  Mostly just stuff I do from experience.  Not particularly brilliant, but mostly functional.  Nothing specific, more like combinations of BFM moves applicable in various situations.

3.  Textbook.  I read Shaw and Johnson.  I take what I learn, and try to apply it.  I mostly screw up and die horribly.  Occasionally I actually pull one or two of these moves off and surprise myself.  Usually, that leaves me flying straight and level in awe of my acheivement and somebody shortly disabuses me of the notion that I am a good pilot. <G>

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Lephturn - Chief Trainer
A member of The Flying Pigs  http://www.flyingpigs.com
 
"A pig is a jolly companion, Boar, sow, barrow, or gilt --
A pig is a pal, who'll boost your morale, Though mountains may topple and tilt.
When they've blackballed, bamboozled, and burned you, When they've turned on you, Tory and Whig,
Though you may be thrown over by Tabby and Rover, You'll never go wrong with a pig, a pig,
You'll never go wrong with a pig!" -- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"

[milnko]

I rarely "aim" my guns, I wait for my victim to wander aimlessly in front of me, which surprises me so much I jerk in reaction, squeezing the trigger.

I started out in EF2000....total BS FM, so alot of the acm didn't work when we moved to AW3 Big Pac RR, after that tho the moves I picked up helped when I went to WB ACA, although the biggest thing ACA taught me was Situational Awareness, which helps here.

I've read Worr's and other's AW/WB lectures, and found that they screwed me up more than help, although a few items such as net lag issues (i.e. cut con distance in 1/2 when checking 6) have help immeasurably.

So to sum it up I'm a home-made movies type too, although I do know the names of the various ACM/BFM manuveurs, and how the "textbook" sez's to do 'em.

[Hangtime]

This is the first sim I've flown where the majority of what Shaw demonstrates in text works.

The only time it dosen't is when I run into a 'natural'.. Nath is one. So's Hblair. There are many others, there's no shortage of superb pilots in this sim; and they confound me often by 'flying outside the envelope' routinely.

I ain't a 'natural'.. I'm a dogged traditionalist, hard to teach; harder still to convince and determined as hell when I start a fight; often amazed and humbled afterwards.

Thats why I like this sim.. never a dull moment.  



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Hang
1st/AG "Bishlanders"  << Recruiting!!

[Vulcan]

I learned it myself by watching Tom Cruise (hez reel cool) twenty times down at the video store (ma cuzin lets me).

p.s. if ya see me flyin straight thats coz that stoopid stick stirring code keeps kicking in!

[fats]

I used to fly Shaw Kung Fu style, now I don't know where that book has been for the last 3 years, so I have forgotten the stuff. None the less it had very brilliant stuff that worked 1:1 in CK/WB. Some of the E stuff ( dissimilar a/c ) you could do the whole diagram step-by-step and that was all there was to the fight.

One diagram where Me 262 goes against a P-51 and starts the merge with a climb, I still do that kind of merge anytime there's speed for it.Which reminds me I would need to buy a new copy of the book.


// fats

[Jigster]

I like making up confusing names for homemade moves...

like my patented (#US 568,868,654) rolling-yoyo-scissoring-break-slice.

Usually seen seconds before several tons of aircraft plow into the ground, after foolishly engaging Zekes, Niks, and Spits with the TBM.

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Moo to the majority, neigh to the minority!
 -- Bessy
   
Fire from the bowels, Nomads own the latrines
 www.33rd.org

[Spatula]

I've really only read about 1/2 of shaws book (im a slacker really).

I tend not to do the moves in the book verbatim, as its all relative. I read the book looking at what he's saying and trying to find a situation in my experience where that applies or could apply and try to make a heuristic about those sorts of situations.
To cut a long story short, i guess some are close to text-book moves, while others are things that i have discovered by accident, but they are based around principles the book is trying to convey.

Sometimes i stuff it up and misjudge, and other times it works well.

So a bit of both 4 me i guess...