Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Help and Training => Topic started by: Tolinwiz on March 01, 2010, 08:09:05 PM
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Assuming a guy that has played games competitively most of his life, (though the extent of plane flying has come from Battlefield games) what is a realistic time frame spent training here in Aces High to become somewhat proficient at playing this game.
I enjoy new challenges, and my father is big into these types of games, he's retired now due to health issues, and I'd like to take an interest in the game and play with him quite a bit, and help him out.
So, for a guy that dedicates himself to researching/training, 6 months? 1 year? Sooner?
Thanks guys!
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I started on tour 43 still learning :salute :D
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You need to learn to fly, then learn air combat, then learn arena combat. Of course most people don't take them in order.
Depending on where you start from and how much time and effort you put into it I think two months to get comfortable, a year to get good, and two years to get very good is reasonable. The trainers can probably give you a better idea since they have more experience with player development then I do. A lot depends on the trainee so it's hard to say until you fly with somebody. :old:
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If you're incredibly dedicated and have a working stick + mic, and the 15$ a month, you'll pick this sim up rather quickly I'm sure. It can be very difficult in the beginning, but once you learn and master the basics, you'll be set to learn ACMs (Air Combat Maneuvers) and practice gunnery. If I were to throw in a guesstimate on time, I'd say about 4 months and you'll be set (assuming you play an hour or so a few weeknights and multiple hours on weekends).
You'll love this sim if you have patience, dedication, and the heart.
Cheers,
EJ
:salute
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Been playing for about 2 years, and I am still not very good! :furious :cry
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Like anything else you get out of it what you put into it.
You could learn the basics of flying fighting, bombing, game play in a couple of months. Many are satisfied with that, or you could dig deeper and learn more about each plane and all of their strengths and weaknesses, how they stack up against each other, how to fight one with another, battle tactics in capturing territory, mission planning and execution, which may take years.
I've been playing this game for almost 10 years and still find out things I don't know....tho I'm an old fart and may have known it once and have since forgotten it :old:
Welcome to your newest addiction, and I hope you'll be strung out as long as the rest of us <S> <----means "Salute"
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You start flying pretty good right out of the box.... a week or two.
Takes 2 to 4 months to figure out the game "dynamics"...how base takes work, killing buildings, hunting bombers, driving GV's, and the game lingo...to get a very general idea of what the whole game is about.
Reading the "DAR bar" (the red and green bars that appear on the map). This tells you where the friendly and enemies are. This takes a few months to figure out to the point of meaning something.
The "radio". To change radios bring up the console with the "/" key. Channel "200" is an open channel across countries. This channel is where all the smack talk happens and other more relevant information. To change you will type " .radio 1 200 ". The period is the "dot". Radio 5 is the voice channel (VOX). You can tune directly to a player by typing " .radio 5 Playername". This gives you a private voice channel to only that player. You can also tune to a specific radio channel where all players tuned to that channel can hear you and you can hear them....like " .radio 5 126 ". Voice channels over 200 are across all countries. Voice channels below 200 only work for players on your side.
For typing text it works the same way. You can tune say " .radio 1 Playername " and your text will only appear to that person. Or you can tune " .radio 1 126 " and your text will go to all players tuned to that channel.
The green channel tunes to your country. The purple channel tunes to only players in "range"...5 miles it think.
Mission channel will work if you join a mission..all players tuned to mission can hear or see your text.
Red - Squad channel works only if you are in a squad.
A few rules of the road.
HO = head on shot - most players despise this kind of tactic. However you will find that you will get HO'd alot. Just watch ch 200 to see what happens when you do it.
Vulching - when you fly onto an enemy runway and kill them while taking off.
Ack - Ground to air guns.
Pick tard - someone who only flys at alt with advantage picking off players already engaged in a fight.
Twit ,dweeb, tard, etc - refers to players who play in a way that offends some players...ie...continuously vulching ho'ing, killing fighter hangers for no purpose..etc.
Regardless of what you hear from other players there IS HONOR and RESPECT in this game. You get to decide how you want to play. It's your 15 bucks. But I urge you to be careful as you will quickly get labled in one way or another....this could be bad or good.
I beg you to consult a trainer in the Training Areana (TA). It might be hard to get one for an hour or so but it will be worth it...will shorten your learning curve significantly.
DO NOT listen to people who only fly in the DA furball area only. A lot of players only fly in the arena. They DO NOT represent the players in general. (dueling arena lake). You will figure this one out on your own eventually.
The spit16 is the easiest plane to fly. Most players start out flying this plane because it is easy to fly and can outrun, out turn and out climb most other plane overall. However, if you fly this plane only you get labled a "spit dweeb". I urge you to fly several planes...try the slower ones and the faster ones. This will only come in time...but until you get the feel for the game I would learn in the easy spit16...no need in getting killed 50 times in a row in an advanced type of plane like the F4u, 109 or maybe the YAK.
Stay off Ch 200 until you learn what all the smak is about. Don't get labled an "ankle humper" (someone who complains everytime they get ho'd, shot down or somehow loose due to what they consider unfair conditions)
Lastly, there are two types of players in this game.
The "furballers" - Players who fly for ACM and the pure fight of shooting down other planes.
The "base takers" - Squad and groups of players who enjoy taking bases...winning the war
These two types are generally hostile toward each other...the base takes want to kill the fight and take the base...the furballes want the base to stay up so the can engage in ACM and kill other planes.
Good luck,
Agent360
Army of Muppets
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You start flying pretty good right out of the box.... a week or two.
Pretty much everything in Aces High takes two weeks. :D
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Welcome aboard. Agent360's post above is very good, read it through at least twice, he covers almost everything.
I'll give you a different perspective, having spent (admittedly marginal) time with air-to-air combat in the Battlefield series. One of the major differences between there and here is that in Battlefield style air combat it's entirely "read and react". You usually make an offensive or defensive move based on the threat or opportunity presented to you at that very moment.
Air combat in Aces High is more like a chess match. At some point in your learning you will find yourself in manuevers not just for the present, but to set yourself up for future threats or opportunities. Recognition of future threats/opportunities is known as situational awareness (SA), and those who have the best SA are, not by coincidence, usually the best pilots.
The planes are not uber jets, and are modeled pretty accurately; each plane's strengths and weaknesses really get to shine. Knowing how your plane matches with the opponent's plane at any given time is essential. Now factor in that you may be flying in the vicinity of ten or more bogeys all with different planetypes, AND ten or so friendlies of different planetype and skill/aggressiveness level,...well, you can see how the possibilities for dynamic engagements are endless.
Start here for mandatory reading, http://members.shaw.ca/soda_p/models.htm
Some of the information at that site is slightly outdated, but overall still very applicable.
And again, welcome.
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You start flying pretty good right out of the box.... a week or two.
Agent360
Army of Muppets
You got all that in one little post...and here I am still reading the info from the front page :lol :lol
Oh yeah...watch those muppets..they aren't anything like what you see on the muppet show...they are more like the ones from meet the feebles :D
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I've been here since 1999 and still learn :old: There will always be someone better than you, and something new to learn ;) Its your attitude that will make you succeed or fail - oh and countless hours ;) Welcome to your new addiction.
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I'd say for someone new to the game it would take about a year of learning and fighting to be decent.
It all depends on how much time you really have, who you fly with (for a prompt answer to your noobish questions) and what type of combat you want get good at.
When you get to the question what joystick do you all use? ignore everyone who says anything other than CH. ;) This is if you are in for the long haul and aren't going to leave anytime soon.
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I have two kills in an a/c and have been playing a little over a year ! Does that tell you ?
:x
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two weeks. :D
Inside joke, don't ask ;)
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Don't let some of the posts above discourage you. Perhaps timescale of a year is required for most players to reach close to their full potential but that doesn't mean that you will suck till then, nor will you become the arena menace after that time. It will only take a few weeks to make you "comfortable" in what you do and only a couple of months to make you a worthy adversary, able to get some kills and not get frustrated.
The game is fun even if you are not the top ace and most players will never be. It is all about attitude, joy of learning & challenge. Being shot down is not a bad thing at all. The best pilots get shot down, some of the best get shot down very often because they get themselves into difficult situations on purpose. Remember this: It is not so bad to get shot down when you know WHY you got shot down. You will be able to tell why you lost a fight after only a short time in the game.
Have fun and beware - it is addictive.
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Agents post was good , only thing I would say is that furball lake in the DA would also be a good place to spend a couple of weeks to maximise your "fight time" (just ignore all the crap as Agent said)
You will get more fights in a quicker time and importantly - more deaths . You need to be prepared to die a couple of thousand times - so you might as well make that process as quick as possible. Fly a spit V ,8,9 or niki for the first week (choose one and stick to it)
Good luck
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I would not recommend the lake, except at late at night. The lake will teach you bad habits and most there aren't actually gonna fight u in a way that u will ever have an opportunity to learn. For example, common practice there is for large groups of pilots to find one plane and gangbang the 'poop' out of him. For a new guy this will be overwhelming and completely prevent you from getting the necessary experience needed to be successful. I would recommend finding other pilots in the DA to go to the side fields and duel. Also, going to the TA, you can always find people who are willing to practice fight with you.
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I would not recommend the lake, except at late at night. The lake will teach you bad habits and most there aren't actually gonna fight u in a way that u will ever have an opportunity to learn. For example, common practice there is for large groups of pilots to find one plane and gangbang the 'poop' out of him. For a new guy this will be overwhelming and completely prevent you from getting the necessary experience needed to be successful. I would recommend finding other pilots in the DA to go to the side fields and duel. Also, going to the TA, you can always find people who are willing to practice fight with you.
Tru - I should have said pond with 20 people on.
Pretty common in the MA for for large groups of pilots to find one plane and gangbang the 'poop' out of him too ;)
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A person can get banged in the MA and or in the DA Lake. The lake with a good furball ( fairly equal size on each side) will help with SA. Short flight to fight and ruin a pixel plane and get another pixel plane for a go..
Being adjusted to watching and going to different views (SA)with the fluid movements, like driving a car, is real important.
Going into training and fighting in the dueling arena is great training. DA lake is a good place to put those new skills in place.
But yes have to agree if the odds are real bad, goto the late war arena. The mid war arena is not bad either.
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oh I agree that a person can get ganged anywhere, but for a new guy who is probably just struggling to turn his plane, having 10 dweebs kill shooting themselves on each other trying to kill the new guy is only going to lead to him getting frustrated and possibly quitting the game. Now throw on the the chan 200 antics with people insulting him for his lack of skill and he my never come back.
And yes I do agree that SA is very important, I can clearly remember the first time I started, just turning the plane with out it stalling all over the place was a hard task. Thankfully I lucked out and met the right people right off the bat to help me out, Thanks Grizz, Agent360 & Krupnski/xFearx.
So what I would recommend is what Agent showed me about the second week of playing the game...
1) go to the TA
2) try turning left and holding the turn for as long as possible. Once you have this down try turning to the right and holding it.
3) Once you can do both try pulling back on the stick until the plane 'buffets' then hold it there in the turn as it buffets for as long as possible.
4) do this all the time until its second nature.
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2) try turning left and holding the turn for as long as possible. Once you have this down try turning to the right and holding it.
3) Once you can do both try pulling back on the stick until the plane 'buffets' then hold it there in the turn as it buffets for as long as possible.
4) do this all the time until its second nature.
and remember to turn off stall limiter. Probably the most important advice that many new players don't hear until it's too late and they've gotten used to it.
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dont forget being good in this game has nothing to do with the scoring. they're two different things. You can be really good in the game and your score is terrible, or be a crappy player and have a good score. some people are just good at scoring. have fun is all that matters.
semp