Aces High trial: Short version

[bigUC]

The "Join" function is intended for a person to join as a gunner in a bomber; I guess most of these flights are pre-arranged on country/squad-channel first...  Just scrolling through the clipboard pressing "Join" on everyone is probably considered rude by the recepients, and will make them hesitant to answer your questions....

The Join-function should be reworked so that the pilot of the bomber selects his gunner when hes on the runway, not vice versa.  That would put an end to the tower button-pushing.

As to help online - the MA is a mess now with all the try-outs.  When all settles you'll be answered.  I guess trainers are overworked too.    Reading help-files and searching BBS will always answer your questions anyway (and usually faster).  If you choose to stay I'm sure you'll get all the help you need... U got a lot of friendly answers here, right?

Good luck!

[JimBear]

Hmm, I went to try out WBIII a month or so ago, with only 50 or so online I recieved 0, Zip, bupkis replys to my questions.  I dont think it is relegated to one community.

That said, every night I see new folks asking questions and always getting a reply (unfortunately alot of the Alt+F4 kind) but always a reply.

[eddiek]

I haven't seen you yet in the arenas, but that is because I haven't had much time to fly lately.
Like was mentioned by others, whether or not you get answers to your questions, and what kind of answers you get depend a lot on how the question is posed.  Take an arrogant attitude, or act rude and obnoxious, and you will get a like response.  Ask nicely, politely, and courteously, and you will find folks falling over themselves to help you.
That being said, almost any question a person could have about the game is available on the HTC website, and others have posted similiar information on their own websites.
I'm not saying that you were arrogant, and I am sorry that some or all of your questions went unanswered or rudely answered.  You will find those type folks in ANY online sim.  I had numerous incidents when I played WB's, yet I have had overall good responses in AH whenever I asked a question.
I've been here 3 years now (Gawd, how time flies!!!), and to me, there is no comparison between the two sims.  I hope your AH experience is as much fun as mine has been.  Just sit back, enjoy the game, and remember that each sim has particular qualities that are unique to that game.  I've seen too many guys in the arenas trashing AH because "it's not like (BRAND X), so it sucks!"
While I'm glad to see new blood in the game, players like THAT cannot leave soon enough for me.
My attitude to players coming over from other sims is simple:  Give it a try, if you like it, great!  Stay and play.  If not, best wishes, good luck, hope ya find a sim that suits you.

[Shane]

also bear in mind if questions are being asked in prime time when there are more than 400 people on, the text buffer can really fly and you just might have overlooked a valid answer among the usual suspects of alt-f4 and hit enter 3x.

it's probably best for those with otehr flight sim experience to look for a name they know and ask in private - much more likely to get valid help.

for the total noobs, well, a little self-effort in reading the manual will go a long way as well. when i first started playing AH i printed out the common dot commands as well as poring over the keymap (and setting up my j/s map).

i do, think, however, that the help file that exists should be more easily directed to for new users, perhaps with a message similar to the "do you want a trainer" message, or better yet added to that, "the help file can be found in the downloads section and will have many answers to basic questions."

on the d/l page i think also a few helpful referral links to some good sites would be nice as well.

and to be honest, the help file is probably in need of a revision or tweaking, somewhat.

[Manedew]

Well some of us have our key's so map'd we don't know what the defaults are anymore ... look under keymaping .. no reason you can't spend 1 min mapping your own keys

[Stickman]

There weren't that many people on at any time (I think the max was about 75 or so). I haven't been in the Main, just the CT. There were about 40 there last night when I logged on for a sortie. Asked once if anyone would tolerate a newbie wingman, no answers, so I promptly rolled from a CAPped field, got shot down, and logged:D.


And if I come off seeming arrogant, well, dunno what to tell you. When I ask a question it's on my country channel, politely. If that's arrogance, I'll stop it immediately.


[EDIT]

One of the bigger questions I had (and have asked several times online), how exactly do the voice coms work, and what do I need to do to set them up so I can use them? People have been talking to me, but I'm unable to respond and they may have thought I was being rude. One guy did tell me I needed to set it up in Windows and AH, but didn't give detail. To be fair, though, I'm pretty sure he was engaged.

[Skuzzy]

Stickman, drop me an email and I can get you hooked up with some one-on-one help online.

I never flew Warbirds, but from what I gather from several of the players that came from Warbirds, the FM differences can be managed pretty quickly.

We do have trainers, for the advanced sim-pilots and the newbies as well.

Be happy to hook you up.  Being frustrated is not fun, and fun is what it should be about.

I am not in the office today, due to the ice storm here, but will be getting to my emails tomorrow.

[Skuzzy]

For voice, see if this helps: Radio usage

On that same page is a link to the Voice setup and help section as well.

[Manedew]

Guide for new WB's palyer in AH:

Ask any nme player to shoot off one airleion, one elve and you should feel right at home

(mostly jokeing .. but when i tried WB's felt like i was flying with half my stuff shot off)

[MotorOil]

Ya stickman, comeover and stay on the Rooks.  Lots of guys there willing to help.  You can wing with me anytime.  I fly with a few guys that jump all over anyone asking questions.

[MotorOil]

P.S  When is that ice storm going to be over, I'm having "stats" withdrawal!  The .score just isn't fullfilling my needs!!!

[gofaster]

Some words of sage advice you new guys might find useful.

(a) Lately there have been a lot of new players in the Main Arena (MA) so if you ask a question and don't get a quick answer, its probably because your voice was lost in the sea of questions, or the players online got tired of answering questions and just wanted to go out and play.  Or, in my case, I've remapped my keys to sync up with AW and CFS2 so any advice I give you about keypunching would probably be incorrect.

(b) You'll find that the players in the Combat Theatre (CT) are going to be the better ones overall.  Those are the guys that can fly a limited planeset and make those puppies dance.  The CT is a very good place to learn Air Combat Maneuvers (ACM) because the aircraft tend to be balanced for both sides and the fights tend to involve fewer numbers of pilots. And you'll be flying with some of the more mature players in the game.

(c) Very few experienced players will want a new guy to wing with them unless that new player knows how to work the radio and give a "Check 6" call.  There's not much benefit to a vet pilot otherwise. Its nice to have a wingman, but keeping the new guy from getting his butt flamed can take some work.  I've winged with new guys and the first thing I tell them is to stay at least 1.0 back from me.  This allows them to see more of what's going on in my attack and also keeps me from being distracted by the sound of their engine in my earphones.  You don't need to fly a nice tight formation if you're on a fighter sweep.  In the CT, its not unusual to see wingmen 2.0 or 3.0 apart because it allows them to cover a maximum amount of area and still react to threats as a team.

(d) Until recently, the Rook nation was the underdog in most of the battles so the pilots there learned to work together and get the most kills with the fewest pilots.  AH introduced a perk balancing system that helped keep the numbers balanced, but generally you'll find a better core group of pilots there that will cooperate.  Until recently, there was no such thing as a Rook horde.  On the other hand, Bishops are known for being able to put up aluminum overcasts at will.  There's safety in numbers, but it can also be a crutch.  Knights have sort of been the middle-child of the family.

(e) First-time pilots have the most success in the Spitfire IX, the P-51D, the LA-7, and the N1K2 (and to a lesser extent the F6F and 190D).  These are good planes to learn basic ACM and learn the various tactics for attacking enemy planes.  But, you should try to get away from these planes eventually if you want to participate in Tours of Duty or full-fledged scenario re-enactments.  And, who knows, you may find that the 190A8 or FM-2 or F4U or Yak9 or P-38 are better suited to your flying style.

(f) Join a squad.  You'll get a lot of good help from guys that you'll fly with on a regular basis.

(g) Don't ask how AH is different from other flight sims.  That's a question only you can answer as you learn the ins-n-outs of the game.

(h) Don't fly a perked plane or drive a perked vehicle until you're able to get a positive kills-to-deaths ratio in one of the normal rides.

That's all that comes to mind offhand.

Oh, let me attach this, too.

[Gooss]

How to get started?

1.  Don't ignore the "Do you want a trainer?" message.  You want help?  It's offered, you ignore it, and complain about no help.  Nice attitude.  What other game/sim offers one-on-one help the first time you log on?

2.  Find some WB friends and fly with them.  When I joined AH I was lucky to find some friends from AW who were patient with me.  Their best advice was...

3.  Read the help files.  And print out the key commands,  the dot commands and the base maps.

4.  Wait until you're paying for the game to whine.  You haven't yet earned that right.

HONK!
Gooss

[Stickman]

My most important questions were concerning the voice coms and another unrelated keymapping issue, things that are somewhat vague in the readme. If you expect someone to either memorize or keep pasted in front of them the entire keymap file, I'd say that's a bit unrealistic. Everybody, from time to time, needs to ask a simple, even stupid, question of someone who's been around awhile. How much trouble is it to type out a 5 word answer to someone?

Secondly, I don't recall asking "what's the difference between WB and AH". That'd be impossible for anyone to answer short of a 10 page essay, and if I couldn't figure it out for myself anyway I wouldn't need to know. I don't even like to compare the sims themselves except on the most basic levels (do you enjoy, etc.). They're vastly different, as are the communities inhabiting them.

Finally, if mentioning that I was unable to get answers to questions seems like a whine, maybe I'm wasting my time here as well. I was initially pretty excited about trying AH again after a few years, but that's wearing off quick. It seems that, no matter how polite you try to be, someone is ready to freely hand out sarcasm, insults and rude remarks.


P.S.
I've flown Warbirds for a couple of years, flying only the last 2 weeks out of a 3 week tour of duty, and I generally manage to place somewhere in the top 10 in fighter rankings (usually in the top 2 or 3, actually). I do have a decent grasp on what's going on, my ACM aint' bad, and I definitely know how to give 6 calls. Any "old timer" who decides he doesn't want me to wing with him is missing the boat, as I rarely lose a wingman to enemy fire, and if I say "I've got your wing", you can bet your bellybutton you won't get bounced unless I get shot down first.

My appologies if that seems like bragging. I don't mean it to be.

[Skuzzy]

Stickman, as I said, I am stuck at home today, but if you can let me know when you are online, I will be happy to meet you and help with any voice comms questions you might have.

I would ask that anyone thinking of responding in this thread do so, if you are willing to offer some help.  I find the questions being asked are well put and cannot fathom why a negative response should be forthcoming.   to those offering to help.