Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Help and Training => Topic started by: Hoff on April 01, 2011, 12:28:58 AM
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I figure the best way for me to learn ASAP is to record every flight and keep the ones that I find interesting or confusing. I will use this thread to keep track of my progress and to pose questions and present films to the community for help. This thread will be my daily diary so that I can see my progress and therefore not lose my motivation to get better. This thread will also be useful for anyone else in my situation that is stuck in the same spot that I am. I always found it to be useful to track my progress when I was doing strength and conditioning for sports, I figure the same will hold true for learning how to dogfight. I'll attempt to list one good thing I do each day and one bad thing I do each day. I will also post at least one film for each day. With that being said; let's get down to business:
Start Date: March 31, 2011
Day 1:
Today I had some good fights and landed a few good missions, but also ran into some trouble. I discovered that when someone gets dead six on me with roughly the same speed, I am dead. In a FW190 I can counter this by making it very hard to hit me as I extend away by abusing the fast roll speed and doing very short flat scissors. In the P38 the roll rate just doesn't cut it so I need to figure out how to defend against someone dead six. Alternative methods that I tried were going into the vertical, snap rolls, barrel rolls, and flat turns. Vertical, barrel rolls, and flat turns exposed my giant body as an easy target during the maneuvers while the snap roll did have some decent success, but still resulted in getting shot up.
Good: Rope a Dope, Drag and Bag
Bad: Gunnery, Finishing Rope a Dope, Angles
Film: Click (http://www.mediafire.com/?e9zojho9pm23psu)
Day 2:
TBA
Good:
Bad:
Film:
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Good luck Hoff and welcome to the addiction.
:airplane:
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I don't know if it will help you Hoff, but you might need to make a concerted effort to learn the capabilities of the planes that you face off against. I think I killed you once yesterday, and forgive me if I am remembering a different sortie, but I believe you went vertical attempting to rope me. I was flying a Ki84, a great climber that can also just about hang on its prop, and followed you up and hung there while I gave you lead poisoning. The better you learn your opponents capabilites the easier it will be to judge energy states and know better what you can get away with. :salute
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Few notes I took after watching the film a couple times.
00:35 Anticipate the cons flight path. Here we see two bishops chasing a friendly (knight) he pitches up and then turns right, towards you. The bishops are likely going to follow him which leads to tough front quarter shot on the P-47 which is under your nose. As soon as the friendly rolled and pulled down and towards you I probably would have just aborted my attack and pulled up to save some of the my alt, and reassessed the situation. If the 51 continued to extend you may have been able to make an attack on it with a higher percentage shot or before he has a chance to rebuilt a lot energy. Or at the very least the attack direction would have taken me away from the the rest of the cons in the area.
As is you did the next best thing which was you didn't surrender too much airspeed. If you pause the film immediately after your shot on the P-47 you'll see 1 friendly and 5 bishop/enemy in icon range.
01:30 I think this is where the sortie starts to unravel a bit. Under the circumstances you're not going to catch that P-51 before he gets to his friends, and you're chasing him directly towards his field. I think a better options would have been to let him go and maintain some speed and alt, when you're low and there are that many people around even with speed it's too easy to get your energy bled out and in trouble. As is you soon run into Ghi who is a very skilled player, such encounters usually end poorly. :)
02:00 Another high point here you begin a rope attempt which despite a couple hits get's you position on the LA7, Ghi is a very good shot so I would treat this as a positive rather than worry about getting plinked a couple times.
02:50 You don't press for a shot here, which is a good idea. The LA7 is breaking hard and is considerably slower than you are, if you continued to try and pull lead you would have played right into his hands. Instead you break off the attack and pull up which was the right move, the problem comes when you quickly roll and pull back down into him. You're still substantially faster than him and now heading downhill, conversely he is slow and pulling up. He get's behind your 3/9 line and get's more hits this time with damage. At this point with elevator damage that will limit your maneuvering and heading directly towards their base your options are somewhat limited. I would probably try to use the one thing I had going for me in this case which is you're still packing a good deal of speed and I would try to find a way to get to some friendlies which admittedly would be hard because you'd have to fly through more cons to get to them, but the other speed option is to head out to sea where the LA7 would eventually catch you after a long chase. As is you make a pretty hard turn and I can guess it's to avoid the two scenario's I just painted but as is that just bleeds speed and let's him catch you quicker.
To address your question about what to do with someone inside gun range and with a low closure rate, there are couple things you can try but at this point it's essentially desperation time. Obviously the best thing to do is keep them from getting there in the first place, but assuming we're past the point and assuming that you have some speed to work with there are two things that I try to do. One is I try to get out of sync with them, since they're going for guns you pretty much know what they are going to do and where they are going to point their nose. As I mentioned above about anticipating your opponents moves, anytime you know what they are going to do next you can try and exploit that. So I will roll and pull either right or left all the while watching them when I see that they are starting to roll to match my lift vector now it's time to go in a different direction, you want to keep them out of sync with you, at the same time I'm trying to create as much of a speed difference as I can in a very short period of time. Lots of rudder, aggressive throttle work, throw out the anchor. This may solve the immediate problem, keep them from getting a guns solution but you're not out of the woods, I also start screaming for help because basically all I'm doing with all this is buying time. Even if I get him off my dead six if the other guy knows what he's doing at all he's still in the drivers seat and I'm still in very deep trouble. One thing you would need to do in the above scenario is keep your eyes on the opponent. Looking back while flying and maneuvering is a little awkward at first but like most things get's easier with practice.
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I tend to get angry at runners (especially when I'm in the p38) so I go into tunnel vision mode when I see them. It was probably a bad idea, but I didn't think I was going to survive very long anyways with how many enemy were in the area, I just wanted to get some practice in. So, if I would've continued to climb a little longer it would've worked out better vs. the LA7? Also, I tried to drop the anchor and it made me die faster, but as you said, the object is to make it so that situation doesn't happen. Thanks for the analysis, I really appreciate it. I tend to be a little more in the moment in game so I often complain about stuff fairly vocally (I try not to, but it's difficult). On the forums I've had a chance to review my footage and have a civilized discussion about it, so I appreciate you putting up with me in game.
I look forward to some more flying today after I finish my classes, hopefully I can get at least one good film.
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Assuming the goal is to score some kills and safely return to base, I would be probably been a little more conservative in my tactics considering the numbers involved, the knights had E but looked to be outnumbered and fighting that close to the bish base means that any bish who is shot down is going to be back in the fight really quickly.
Since most of the knights had alt that just means that a low knight is going to be jumped on that much quicker because he'll effectively be the only target. What that means is you need to stay out of that situation, situational awareness is as much about knowing where your help is and what they're doing as knowing where the cons are, gathering all that information and then picking the correct tactics.
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Day 2:
Today I had quite a few good fights and after watching Agent360's narrated videos again I decided to try a few of his maneuvers out and surprisingly found them to work (could be that my opponents weren't good enough to get guns on me). I felt like I did much better with regards to defensive maneuvering and SA. I know I was chasing too much, but I really have a hatred for runners. I did HO a couple times, but I felt that under the circumstances, it was acceptable. Overall, I felt pretty good and felt like I definitely made a little progress. I am posting three videos today with about 20 minutes of total film time (a lot of which is just me chasing and keeping tabs on enemies) and I greatly appreciate any analysis. I figure data overload is better than lack of data for people to help me out with.
Good: Defensive Maneuvers, SA
Bad: Gunnery, Chasing (Although I'd probably chase them across the map no matter what)
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?48a2ronnaofbghb) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?863x0nt3rvd6d0b) - Three (http://www.mediafire.com/?efzjho49gat9nuu)
On a side note; Is there no way to edit my original post so that I can keep it nice and clean?
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On a side note; Is there no way to edit my original post so that I can keep it nice and clean?
No. You can edit your post within a certain time frame (I think it could
be around ~1hour after making the post), but after that time frame
expires the post is locked in as is.
Next to where the 'quote' button is located, you will see a 'modify' option
on a newly created post.
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Day 2:
When I first watched the film I had hope for you, only to soon to understand that you have not changed what has become a very bad habit.
I only watched film one from day two. Having watched your other posts I find a pattern to your game play. While I read your posts stating that you would like to wing up, you have yet to post a flim of you winged or even supporting another countrymen. The pick of the F4 was nicely done. I'm thinging he's at least supporting other Knights, only to watch you break off you attack on throw Kikbt to the wind . You purposely brook off he attack and failed to clear his six. That's at about a 1.30 into the film. Again no check 6's from you.
Your learning a bad habit. It may already be to late. Bad habits are very very hard to correct. You have one. You are one of the many players that never give a check 6. How can you ever expect to wing up and cover a wing man if you never learn how to do that.
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When I first watched the film I had hope for you, only to soon to understand that you have not changed a what has become a very bad habit.
I only watched film one from day two. Having watched your other posts I find a pattern to your game play. While I read your posts stating that you would like to wing up, you have yet to post a flim of you winged or even supporting another countrymen. The pick of the F4 was nicely done. I'm thinging he's at least supporting other Knights, only to watch you break off you attack on throw Kikbt to the wind . You purposely brook off he attack and failed to clear his six. That's at about a 1.30 into the film. Again no check 6's from you.
Your learning a bad habit. It may already be to late. Bad habits are very very hard to correct. You have one. You are one of the many players that never give a check 6. How can you ever expect to wing up and cover a wing man if you never learn how to do that.
I agree that I don't call check 6, I'm too busy worrying about getting better currently. In the other thread I mentioned that I don't want to wing up because I feel it is a crutch and will only slow down my learning. I ALWAYS go for the target that is the most threatening to my team. I may not call check 6 but you can bet your bellybutton I'll try to clear it. In the first video I was going way too fast to follow him in his dive. If I kept following I would've compressed into the ground. I tried to yo-yo, I just didn't do it fast enough/correctly.
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I agree that I don't call check 6, I'm too busy worrying about getting better currently.
Pfft... BS
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A check 6 call is a gift not an obligation. That's why we thank people for them. The obligation is to check your own 6.
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A check 6 call is a gift not an obligation. That's why we thank people for them. The obligation is to check your own 6.
This ^^. Should be on a plaque in the tower.
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A check 6 call is a gift not an obligation. That's why we thank people for them. The obligation is to check your own 6.
I agree, everyone is responsible for there own six, however I also believe that flying habits once learned both good and bad are very hard to change. He's learning to be a loan wolf, he's learning to not give check 6's and I've yet to see a thank you from him for any of the check 6's I've seen him receive.
He also states in several posts that he wanted to wing up. His words, not mine. I realize that he hasn't learned to control his speed and that's where flying with a wingman or flying with a trainer would help him. A lot of us that prefer the P38 have learned to control its speed, the L, his preferred ride, has Speed breaks, lots of flaps and can be flown very well yawed to one side. He could have flown several combinations of maneuvers that may have allowed him to cover that guys six. I can understand if he doesn’t know that combinations but you can see from his film he is very aware of developing situation , he looked directly at his follow countrymen and decided not to give the guy a check six.
I think he is learning bad habits and once learned very hard to unlearn. I understand that he is knew, that’s why our invitation to fly with the 113th Lucky Strikes still stands.
We fly P38’s in the attack and fighter mode. We fly as Knights his country of choice . Squad night is Saturday night, late war arena, Vox 113.
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I agree, everyone is responsible for there own six, however I also believe that flying habits once learned both good and bad are very hard to change. He's learning to be a loan wolf, he's learning to not give check 6's and I've yet to see a thank you from him for any of the check 6's I've seen him receive.
He also states in several posts that he wanted to wing up. His words, not mine. I realize that he hasn't learned to control his speed and that's where flying with a wingman or flying with a trainer would help him. A lot of us that prefer the P38 have learned to control its speed, the L, his preferred ride, has Speed breaks, lots of flaps and can be flown very well yawed to one side. He could have flown several combinations of maneuvers that may have allowed him to cover that guys six. I can understand if he doesn’t know that combinations but you can see from his film he is very aware of developing situation , he looked directly at his follow countrymen and decided not to give the guy a check six.
I think he is learning bad habits and once learned very hard to unlearn. I understand that he is knew, that’s why our invitation to fly with the 113th Lucky Strikes still stands.
We fly P38’s in the attack and fighter mode. We fly as Knights his country of choice . Squad night is Saturday night, late war arena, Vox 113.
Aside from the no check six calls (and maybe he has no mic?) what's bad about being a lone wolf?
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After flying wing with people a few times I realized that it hinders my learning greatly. I have a crutch I can fall back on. I don't have to worry about SA as much, I don't have to fly as defensively, and I don't have to kill as quickly. Winging up will be great fun once I feel I am at that stage, but for now I think it would hurt me more than it would help me. I never asked to wing up, I asked for people to help me out in the training arena. I've had two people offer thus far to help me out in that regard. One of which I have already met up with (thanks FLS) and the other I haven't seen online yet (he might have a different game name than his forum name).
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Aside from the no check six calls (and maybe he has no mic?) what's bad about being a lone wolf?
Nothing in this game, and many are, they seldom if ever wing up, but I don't see them posting looking for invites to wing up, but Hoff expressed in several posts on several different areas of the BBS that he wanted to wing up. He should fly the way he has the most fun. But stop saying one thing and doing the other. And with all the Check'6 I see him receive both verbal and via the " ' " key, say thank you once in a while.
by the way, lone wolfs, didn't exists in WWII.
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Day 3:
Flew a few missions with 113th. It was kinda fun, but I still prefer just duking it out to being the spearhead for taking bases and resupplying fields. I was off and on today. Pulled off some really good shots and got a few good kills, but also got killed a few times because I couldn't shake people off my six. I also think that the 109k outclasses the p38 in every way because if I am co-e with one, there just seems to be no way to get guns on him other than to HO. They turn faster, climb better, and are faster, plus they only need one hit to kill you. It really makes me question my choice of plane, perhaps there is something that can be done against a 109k, I don't know.
Good: Gunnery
Bad: Gunnery, Defensive Maneuvering, Offensive Maneuvering
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?mf5qqf433p4woig) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?nfhnmnqqw5il19e) - Three (http://www.mediafire.com/?ezsivrwrwbytnh7)
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I think your biggest problem is you think that this game is like Call of Duty or some other game where your going to be a super star after a few days practice. Nothing is farther from the truth. There are far more "controls" to learn, once you have them down, then there is learning to fly your plane. It's strengths, weakness and just general controls. Then there is learning the other planes, and what they can do. Then there is how an opponent flies when he's on the attack, and how he flies when he is defensive. Then there is how you can use other friendlies and/or enemies to get your kill. Once you get it through your head that all this is going to take awhile you might progress a bit quicker, not much, but it will feel much quicker.
The LA film, you were flying WITH a squad. you should have never engaged that LA. Dive down to meet him, make a merge (yours was ok), but zoom back up to your group. The "team" may have been counting on your ord to help do the job to complete the mission. When in a mission the mission objective is NUMBER 1, not the kill.
The G14 fight, you were so set on jumping the low cons that were already out numbered you gave the 109 your 6 starting the fight at a disadvantage. With all the other planes in the area, had you ignored the low guys, kept your alt and run a lazy nose up turn in either direction, you would have been in a stronger position. Most likely the 109 would have been distracted by another "easier" looking target giving you the chance to be the high guy looking to pick him off of someone else. Instead he had the upper hand on you. You pushed for a low percentage shot leaving you low on E again. All that saved you was the friendlies in the area looking to pick him. Most 109s are flown by decent sticks. The 109 is not for newbs, so you can be pretty sure that a 109 is going to be pretty good. You may have read that when your fighting more than one bad guy the best thing to do is to try and lead them around to get them ALL in the same air space. This way your defensive moves work on all of them at the same time instead of trying to string a bunch of moves together. If thats true for the defender, what would be the plan for the attacker? NOT to get in the same air space as the others. You followed the other guys around and tried doing the same turns to get the same shots. The 109 did well avoiding you all for awhile. Had you let the other guys do the chasing you could have gotten a bit of alt and dropped in on the 109 by watching where the other guys were pushing him and flying to where he was going instead of chasing him.
The P47, P51s film. Again too fixated on the target. You gave up all of your advantages by pushing for the kill on the P47. Even once you got the "check 6" you still took far too long to figure out which pony was the threat, and decide what you were going to do with him. You were in a bad way, and should have known right off that flying strait and running wasn't going to work. Turning back into them over and over again would have got them slow where the flaps and counter rotating props of your 38 would have given you the edge in a slow turn fight. Had you been able to survive gun passes from them a few times (point your wing tip at the one that is going to fire at you, 400-600 out, smallest profile, less to shoot at) the guy that had given you the "check 6" may have come back down to pick one or both of the ponies.
Well thats my humble opinion. I'm no super stick even though I've been here 10 years. Thats the best thing about this game, every fight (against someone who tries to fight) is a different animal. While one move might work on one guy, the very next fight with a different stick won"t work the same. The best advice I can give you is don't worry about the kills or dieing. Learn the fight, learn how to be a team player even if your NOT flying with a squad. Working off/with other players in your area very much dictates how a fight can go. There are a million things you can learn in this game should you want to. Your not going to learn them and get good at them in a week or two. Give it time, ask questions, take advice and learn from it.
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Day 3:
Flew a few missions with 113th. It was kinda fun, but I still prefer just duking it out to being the spearhead for taking bases and resupplying fields. I was off and on today. Pulled off some really good shots and got a few good kills, but also got killed a few times because I couldn't shake people off my six. I also think that the 109k outclasses the p38 in every way because if I am co-e with one, there just seems to be no way to get guns on him other than to HO. They turn faster, climb better, and are faster, plus they only need one hit to kill you. It really makes me question my choice of plane, perhaps there is something that can be done against a 109k, I don't know.
Sorry you left early last night, you missed the fighter sweep missions , anyway if you want to continue flying with 113th you’ll have to use that mic. Also, I think you are to easily impressed with the 109, you just have to learn how to fight your fight and not his.
Check out some of the AH film on our AHWiki page for the 113th Lucky Strikes there are several where I engage 109k ‘s that have all the advantage at the start but soon die. I do it in a lowly P38 G.
By the way , you did a nice job on that P47M on the way to V135.
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Day 4:
Had a 6 kill mission (but didn't land it). Got a few bomber kills and some nice shots on people, but at the end of the day I felt myself wondering why I'm flying the P38. I love the plane IRL, but I'm so competitive that I like winning more than looks. Currently I'm questioning my choice of ride, considering switching to the F4U, 190D, or 109K. Currently it seems that the F4U and 109K outclass the P38 in every way, but I'm just a noob so hopefully someone can tell me what the P38 can do to beat those planes co-e. I thought the best film from today was the third one, even though it ends badly.
Good: Bomber Killing
Bad: Everything
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?iem3d9j9w90md3a) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?qh79orf99q7wubj) - Three (http://www.mediafire.com/?zk6dzip5q4e2f6r)
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Hya HOFF,
Just think for 1 minute about checking six....they not only help your buddies in problem...you can't imagine how they affect your SA!!!
Imagine you see an enemy La7 going claearly for one friend's 6, and also you see 2 enemy cons coming from far away.
Option 1: You don't give check 6.....probably your buddy will die....and you will have to deal with 3 enemies alone...
Option 2: You give a 6 call...and luckly...your friend kills his chaser......now odds are 2 vs 2...it's a big difference.
Believe it or not, but your SA changes dramatically depending on the friends/enemies equation.....and you have a very important role to keep it as high as possible....
On the other hand.....I've never flown a P38...but we can go to TA if you desire and I'll give you some techinques that work for me.....general skills...not P38 skill...the only thing we'll only have to deal is with comunnication lenguage.....as my english/american sucks a bit....
If you want to go to TA with me......just ask for it bud.
Cya
Edit: FYI...I only fly 190 and F4u.
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Day 5:
Today was frustrating. I am very close to switching to a faster plane due to everyone flying 190s, 109s, f4us, p47s, and runstangs. Had a few good reversals in the P38 and ran down quite a few people in the 190D (even strafed a few that thought that I was going to let them land). Pretty damn annoying day overall. I'd like to stick with the P38 if possible, but the amount of people that run away in this game is ridiculous. I'll gladly get into a fight where I don't have the energy disadvantage because it's a true test of skill. If I really wanted to, I could fly the 190D, climb to 15k, BnZ all day, and probably have a 3-4/1 K/D, but at the end of the day it's not really doing anything a trained monkey couldn't do. Hopefully I don't have to switch rides, we'll see. Just as a side note, there is a difference between running and extending in order to re-engage. I have no problems with people who extend in order to use their plane to the fullest, but people who flat out run to ack at the first sign of getting reversed ruin this game. On a personal note, I feel like I'm getting a little better at mixing it up in the P38, but I'm still not satisfied with how fast I'm progressing.
Good: Gunnery, Defensive Maneuvering, SA
Bad: Gunnery, Defensive Maneuvering
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?qp0oml5kba7qewq)
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lag roll at 1:50 on the ki and u would've had him right there
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FLy what you like, like what you fly, the thread is becoming a whine. We all get it, your new, your not sure. Pck a ride, fly it for a few years then pick another ride. The films are fun, but the whine is becoming a pain.
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Hoff nice to see you're making progress. Keep in mind that people don't have to fly the way you'd like them to. You can duel in the DA, in the MA you have to adjust to their behavior. It's part of the challenge.
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Day 6:
Decided to try out the 109k today because Big(forgot the rest, sorry, he flies F4U mainly) was on in the TA and I decided to take the opportunity and have him teach me a little. We merged a few times and I filmed it (I'll look at it later). As it stands I have no clue what I was doing wrong, so hopefully the film can show me. I then went to the MA when Big went to bed. For some reason my aim with the 30mm was godlike today. I flew five or six missions in a row where I landed 2-4 kills each. I think I may have found my calling. That doesn't mean that I flew perfectly, but I felt really good while flying this plane. The first film is short. It's a nice shot on a P51 trying to run to his Ack. The second film is longer and is a big furball where I get off some nice shots and manage to defend myself against a La7 on my six (with some help, but I survive for quite a while on my own). Before the furball I had shot down a F4U1C with a very nice snapshot, like I said, my gunnery was on fire today.
Good: Gunner, GUNNERY, POTATOES
Bad: SA
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?bvq1gyt40y83bgu) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?tda9c3y4aammqsx)
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FLy what you like, like what you fly, the thread is becoming a whine. We all get it, your new, your not sure. Pck a ride, fly it for a few years then pick another ride. The films are fun, but the whine is becoming a pain.
I'm starting to agree with Traveler. Being competitive is great, but understand you aren't going to be a superstar in this game in a few days. If it's all about winning and doing it fast, then pick a bird that does that for you.
If it's history, then fly the bird you like, learn the ins and outs and have fun. The great advantage of the game is you don't really die and planes are free.
You continue to talk about liking the 38 in real life, but it's clearly not uber enough for you to find immediate success. Sounds like you are having success in the 109K. If that's the most important thing go for it. I note your comments on the 38 v 109K. Some of the best fights I've had are in a 38G vs guys like Agent360, Sunbat, and others co alt in their 109Ks.
Do understand one important thing. The best sticks in this game, are the guys who fight regardless. They take their bird of choice and fight and die in it for a long time while they learn every bit of what they can do with it. That's different then always flying to the strength of a particular bird.
I'll use Agent360 as a good example of this. More often then not he'll be out lower then the baduns in his 109K. If he flew the 109K to it's strengths all the time, he wouldn't be in that spot. He'd be up high, use it's speed and cannon and never bend it like he does. Because he is willing to fight from a disadvantage, he can bend that 109K better then most.
There are lots of guys like that who don't land 15 kills every flight, but who are by far the better sticks due to what they can make their bird do. Slapshot in an FM2, JUGgler in a 47, cactus in a 38, the list goes on and on.
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I wont be good in a few days, but it's certainly not going to take a year. Anyone else have any comments/suggestions?
Edit: Before I forget. Other than random meet ups where I catch you on TA or MA and ask if you want to help me out, does anyone want to officially take me under their wing and show me the ropes? In other words, set up a schedule for practicing and such.
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I wont be good in a few days, but it's certainly not going to take a year. Anyone else have any comments/suggestions?
Well you're certainly going to have the inflated ego thing mastered pretty quickly. :aok Have you worked on your Channel 200 Warrior skills yet? ;)
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Well you're certainly going to have the inflated ego thing mastered pretty quickly. :aok Have you worked on your Channel 200 Warrior skills yet? ;)
I've been told, "You can't" and "That's not possible" many times in my young lifetime thus far. Each time it's only given me more drive to prove them wrong. More often than not, I do prove them wrong. Call it having an inflated ego, I really don't care, but I would find it hard to believe that many players have progressed as far as I have in a week, so it's not that I'm all talk. I've been practicing, I've been watching films, I've been studying ACM. Keep telling me I can't do it or it's not possible, it only makes me try harder.
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So you already were posting film, I'd missed that. If you're going to try hard, try hard but don't pressure yourself over it. Just sponge it all up, info on all things -SA, gunnery, ACM, timing, etc. And just keep practicing. If you can isolate some unknowns you want answers on from everything else in the situation you're having a hard time with, more people will tend to answer.
Try to tune out the smack talk and arguing because at this point it's only going to distract you from what'll really move you up the ladder.
I'll be on tomorrow. Just ask when you see me.
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A check 6 call is a gift not an obligation. That's why we thank people for them. The obligation is to check your own 6.
Well said Sir.
Coogan
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Day 7:
Not much new today, just had a few bad losses against people that had a little more E than expected (or just got lucky) and hit me at D400-800 while roping them right as they were falling out. I've also noticed that I'm not getting a lot of feedback on the films anymore. Is this because I'm not asking specific questions like moot said? Am I posting too many? For some I'm just looking for people to tell me what I do wrong, others I have specific questions. I'll stop posting them for now and until I figure out what works best.
Good: Gunnery
Bad: SA/E Judgement
Film: None
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Iam myself a noob too
but I have one or two advices if u want to take it:
*dont stay hanging out in the 6 of a bomber, they call it DeadSix for some reason
*dont get target fixated
example: yesterday I found you "stuck" in my squadmate B24 dead 6, I was going clear him but too fast, so first pass I hitted you ligthly in the left wing from 500 out, barrel roll and come upon ur high 8clock for the second pass and made you go into a spin to the ground smoking and with wing less... why?
target fixated and no paying attention to your surroundings
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Iam myself a noob too
but I have one or two advices if u want to take it:
*dont stay hanging out in the 6 of a bomber, they call it DeadSix for some reason
*dont get target fixated
example: yesterday I found you "stuck" in my squadmate B24 dead 6, I was going clear him but too fast, so first pass I hitted you ligthly in the left wing from 500 out, barrel roll and come upon ur high 8clock for the second pass and made you go into a spin to the ground smoking and with wing less... why?
target fixated and no paying attention to your surroundings
I knew what I was doing. When I'm upping from a vulched field like that I just go for kills and don't really care about living unless I manage to survive long enough to get some alt. I was just beelining for bombers and C47s, you'd be surprised how many fighters plowed into the ground while trying to dive on me as I went for the bombers. I managed to take out quite a few bombers, a 262, a goon, and a 234. I also remember the fight you're talking about. I managed to kill two of the bombers in the formation, and I only ended up dead six after the first two were down. I actually dove down and came in from the low 3 o clock to take out two of them. The only reason I didn't get the third before he got me was because I only had 30 rounds of 30mm before the fight began so I was shooting him with pea shooters.
Thanks for the advice, but I knew I wasn't "flying correctly." I was just messing around trying to take out bombers and goons.
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the one im talking about I remember after u go down I looked at him and he had the complete set so probably you or I are confusing something here.. but anyway in the end that dont matter S!
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This is why people may have stopped commenting on your films. You are NOT looking for advice on how to fight, all your looking to do is pile up kills. You don't really need any skill do get kills, but if you want to learn how to fight most of these people would be happy to help you.
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Hoff isn't so bad, he just needs to get a good feel for the "flock dynamics" of furballs. As it is he doesn't pace himself at all, just goes straight for commitment.
One of his comments tonight was "everyone seems to go for me". Not surprising when you see his navigation thru the furballs - the red guys can easily see that he's focused on his targets. It's a matter of stick time for him to get better instincts for what the bogies around him will do so that he can be more proactive than reactive.
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Day 8:
Today I got to fly with two members of Army of Muppets, m00t, and SunsFan. I got to wing up with m00t in MA and as he mentioned he told me that I was being too aggressive and thus becoming an easy target. After flying with him for a while he had to go so I managed to meet with SunsFan in the DA for some 1v1 practice. I learned a lot from him and managed to learn how to merge decently, but still have problems after that. He was impressing me with some move he was doing at the top of the rolling scissors that would pretty much give him a shot on me every time. I didn't know how to defend against it nor how to do it myself. He said he'd be able to explain it with the film, so hopefully whenever he gets a chance he can drop in here or maybe one of you can answer it. Overall it was a really productive day. Thanks a ton to m00t and Sunsfan. I also met BigRat in the TA. He was busy with squad practice but I did manage to set up a time to train with him. m00t and SunsFan also said they were willing to help out whenever they have free time. Again, thanks a ton for taking the time to help me out, I really appreciate it. Hopefully it wont take too long before I am proficient enough to know what to do and what I do wrong without needing someone to tell me. The films for today are of most (I accidentally hit a button or something and deleted one or two of the films) of the merges between me and SunsFan in the DA.
Good: Learning, Merge
Bad: Post-Merge, SA, Committing Too Much
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?dtg4fm9c2qw4j7l) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?hfp0eowwoslu5cy) - Three (http://www.mediafire.com/?zut0tl8e4ercdeh)
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Day 9:
Flew some more with m00t, had a little fun today messing around with the 110G and the A2A rockets. Also managed to get an A2A kill with the B25H's 75mm on a Typhoon. Started out the day just messing around having fun. Later in the day I started flying the 109k again and had quite a few decent missions. I pretty much got at least 1 kill every mission. I also had an amazing fight with a Yak9U that seemed to never end (until I ran out of fuel and had to RTB). Overall I felt pretty good. My gunnery was a little off, but I'm getting there. It's hard to get those high deflection shots off with the tater not only because of the ballistics, but the frontal visibility in the 109k is abysmal.
Good: 1v1, Defense
Bad: Gunnery
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?84jl7m19836dh17)
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The key phrase in your last post. "Had a little fun"
You've found the key :)
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I ran into you flying a 110, trying to HO everything. You missed me, I dodged your HO and didn't miss you. :salute
Watched your film...
Timid... Timid... Timid..
Flying to your planes strengths, I get that... That fight with Bongo was nothing more then you using your superior climb rate to stay safe, Every time you got aggressive, he got the advantage. So you then spiraled up and stayed out of reach. Timid, timid, timid. Agent360 was probably rolling in his grave... Oh wait, is Agent still around?
The 109k4 is a monster. Because it can get down in the weeds with a baddie on its six and still hang the flaps out and force a reverse. The film I just watched was of a K4 pilot who didn't want to take any chances. You do know that you don't really die, right?
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You can get the nose out of the way to see the target by ruddering. It takes some practice for it to become second nature instead of looking back and forth between instruments and out the cockpit, but after a while you'll see that you pull lead into the bogey's break, then roll a bit so that you can rudder the nose out of the way for either a little while (most planes like 109K) and then adjust your lead (with visual memory of the bogie's position and direction) and take a shot in one smooth motion, or actually "hold' the nose up (to the side from cockpit POV) and guide your nose till lead is good and then "drop" the nose by letting go of rudder (ta 152 mostly, no other plane I can think of off-hand has both strong rudder and one-hit-kill guns).
In either case the concept is the same - you pull lead and then a little more, and then double check target status by rolling/ruddering the nose out of the way before taking your shot.
Dave Hoff is still very new. He doesn't know the envelopes by heart like we do. I remember doing the same in an La7. Flying very lazy high energy curves to keep planes out of reach and gradually letting them get closer to kind of inch towards the edge of their reach and envelopes, all while "seeing what they could do"
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Dave Hoff is still very new. He doesn't know the envelopes by heart like we do. I remember doing the same in an La7.
Agreed, but I also watched him in a 110 going nose on everything that he could. Repeatedly. All he wants is the kill, he doesn't seem interested in the fight.
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For fun. He was also taking 25Hs for the hell of it.
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Thanks for the advice m00t.
What is with all the animosity dave? What did I ever do to you? I clearly stated that I was messing around and having fun in the 110 and B25 before I started flying for real in the 109k. I'm not posting the films just to post them. If you can tell me how to turn inside him and kill him, please do. I was fighting to my plane's strengths because I couldn't figure out how to get guns on him. Instead of giving him free shots on me I intelligently extended upwards to try again. Would you rather have me just give him free shots and die within two minutes because I haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong or would you rather have me try to learn from my mistakes and try again and again as I did in the film? If anything, isn't it a good thing that I can realize that I'm losing the angles/scissors fight early enough to be able to extend upwards and try again?
Either give me some advice on what to do in that situation or don't say anything at all. There is no reason to attempt to berate me in this thread. If you have personal issues with me then by all means you are welcome to trash talk to me in a private message or in game. Just don't do it in this thread please, I'd like to keep this clean and full of good advice.
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Day 10:
Flew a little bit by myself and then flew some with the Muppets. Did fairly well overall getting picks and such. Had one fight with a P51 that flustered me a little because I was on his six and couldn't land a shot. Had to RTB without a kill and out of ammo. The next mission I got a good snapshot on a Spit (first film) and then got myself into a bad situation bad managed to get out of it with a kill (second film). I'll start adding in specific questions to the films to help get some feedback. For the second film, could I have done anything better to get them off my six once they were there? I realize I could have been more patient and wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place, but I would just like to know if I could have gotten out of it in a better way. Another question for any 109K4 pilots out there; How do you have your frontal and rear views set up? I have a lot of issues with both no matter how I set it up. The rear view is annoying, especially when I look at a plane like the F4U, which has a similar problem physically, but can clearly see their six because it seems like the head can go outside the window. The front view is abysmal and I would be surprised to find any other plane with a worse frontal view.
Good: Defense, Gunnery
Bad: Gunnery, Patience
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?ghljk88cl2ik198) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?ti39y0lqr2zvawy)
For shiv:
Flew a little bit by myself and then flew some with the Muppets. Did fairly well overall getting picks and such. Had one fight with a P51 that flustered me a little because I was on his six and couldn't land a shot. Had to RTB without a kill and out of ammo. The next mission I got a good snapshot on a Spit (first film) and then got myself into a bad situation bad managed to get out of it with a kill (second film).
I'll start adding in specific questions to the films to help get some feedback. For the second film, could I have done anything better to get them off my six once they were there? I realize I could have been more patient and wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place, but I would just like to know if I could have gotten out of it in a better way.
Another question for any 109K4 pilots out there; How do you have your frontal and rear views set up? I have a lot of issues with both no matter how I set it up. The rear view is annoying, especially when I look at a plane like the F4U, which has a similar problem physically, but can clearly see their six because it seems like the head can go outside the window. The front view is abysmal and I would be surprised to find any other plane with a worse frontal view.
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Not to be snarky but you need some work on your paragraphing. Break up your questions into paragraphs and it'll be easier to read and you'll get more feedback.
I haven't watched any of the last few films, but in general there's fighting 1v1 and furballing. I would suggest learn both at same time. It's easy to get too much into furballing and then be helpless against a quality stick, and vice-versa, get fixated on a target in a furball and get picked.
I would recommend learning how to reverse cons with more E first if you haven't already:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,276908.msg3476738.html#msg3476738 (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,276908.msg3476738.html#msg3476738)
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Not to be snarky but you need some work on your paragraphing.
Really? You want me to break up 6-7 sentences into paragraphs? Do you want me to be sure to punctuate, capitalize, and type in complete sentences when I text people too? I think it would look silly If I broke up the small amount that I'm typing into paragraphs.
I know the barrel roll defense, but it only works on targets that have a lot more E than you. The ones I have problems with are Co-E and on my ass. Scissors seems to work best on those kinds.
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Really? You want me to break up 6-7 sentences into a paragraph? Do you want me to be sure to punctuate, capitalize, and type in complete sentences when I text people too? I think it would look silly If I broke up the small amount that I'm typing into paragraphs.
Yes. Big blocks of text get unread on the Internet. Surprise...
So if you want people to not read what you're posting in Help & Training you're on the right track.
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I know the barrel roll defense, but it only works on targets that have a lot more E than you. The ones I have problems with are Co-E and on my ass. Scissors seems to work best on those kinds.
Not so much. Any E advantage the attacker has can be used against him. Whether the con is 3K and diving in or 600 and turning into you if you do it right the barrel roll defense leads to a rolling scissors. If he's got the E then he can zoom out but he can't kill you.
Co-E and con on your 6 the barrel roll defense will work if you can avoid the first shot. The con is slowing up for the shot usually, so BRD will turn it around, or at least get to even.
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For shiv:
Flew a little bit by myself and then flew some with the Muppets. Did fairly well overall getting picks and such. Had one fight with a P51 that flustered me a little because I was on his six and couldn't land a shot. Had to RTB without a kill and out of ammo. The next mission I got a good snapshot on a Spit (first film) and then got myself into a bad situation bad managed to get out of it with a kill (second film).
I'll start adding in specific questions to the films to help get some feedback. For the second film, could I have done anything better to get them off my six once they were there? I realize I could have been more patient and wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place, but I would just like to know if I could have gotten out of it in a better way.
Another question for any 109K4 pilots out there; How do you have your frontal and rear views set up? I have a lot of issues with both no matter how I set it up. The rear view is annoying, especially when I look at a plane like the F4U, which has a similar problem physically, but can clearly see their six because it seems like the head can go outside the window. The front view is abysmal and I would be surprised to find any other plane with a worse frontal view.
Day 10:
Flew a little bit by myself and then flew some with the Muppets. Did fairly well overall getting picks and such. Had one fight with a P51 that flustered me a little because I was on his six and couldn't land a shot. Had to RTB without a kill and out of ammo. The next mission I got a good snapshot on a Spit (first film) and then got myself into a bad situation bad managed to get out of it with a kill (second film). I'll start adding in specific questions to the films to help get some feedback. For the second film, could I have done anything better to get them off my six once they were there? I realize I could have been more patient and wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place, but I would just like to know if I could have gotten out of it in a better way. Another question for any 109K4 pilots out there; How do you have your frontal and rear views set up? I have a lot of issues with both no matter how I set it up. The rear view is annoying, especially when I look at a plane like the F4U, which has a similar problem physically, but can clearly see their six because it seems like the head can go outside the window. The front view is abysmal and I would be surprised to find any other plane with a worse frontal view.
Good: Defense, Gunnery
Bad: Gunnery, Patience
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?ghljk88cl2ik198) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?ti39y0lqr2zvawy)
More whitespace please. But a little better.
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Yes. Big blocks of text get unread on the Internet. Surprise...
So if you want people to not read what you're posting in Help & Training you're on the right track.
I agree. :aok
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In the second film once you gave up the chase on the K4 and dove into the furball THAT is what screwed you there, you gave the K4 the green light to drop in on your six. Once he was on your 6 and as you dragged him and the 190 out to sea....and the CV ack, two things to do different.
1) learn to fly with out watching where you are going. Keeping an eye on the bad guys at ALL times is what is important. Flying, especially over water, is easy, avoiding getting hit a bit harder, and turning the tables on a guy on your six even harder. Had you been watching, you would have saw the 190 almost completely over shoot you which info you could have used had you seen it coming for a set-up for a kill shot. The same with the 109 once you started the scissor.
2) learn to scissor better. Scissors start out with short back and forth movements, but by watching the enemy, you can time the rolls and pulls better. The idea is to get out of sync with him. So but watching him you can pull longer to force the over shoot and get your shot, but you can't time them with out WATCHING them (see point 1)
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Film 1 from Day 10:
Just a HO, not much to critique there.
Film 2:
You engage that 109 and then disengage. You did it without an energy advantage, so he has no trouble staying right with your attempt to disengage. This kind of thing in an MA furball like in the film is a pretty sure way to guarantee the guy will latch back on to the bitter end.
From then to ~3'50" you fly almost always straight. Only at 4'15" do you start to scissor and barrel roll. On the one hand this means you got away from the airfield before more freshly spawned fighters could pile on, and on the other it means you were putting up basically no defense other than dodging their shots. Those three guys chasing you never found any resistance to saddling up. These evasives are almost no use - a good shot will take you out, and a good flier will use it to either fly right up to you for a guaranteed killshot or to build his E while you accumulate little E expenses in those little evasive maneuvers, effectively stagnating your energy level. Overall these are no use for counter attack (and in the MA you shouldn't expect any friendlies not in your squad to be any help).. It only defers actually being shot down.
As soon as you actually contested the 109 with scissors and rolls, it was much more of a fair fight and you got the kill.
Unfortunately the AHWiki has very little information on these, but you can find a fairly good basic idea of combat maneuvers here, incl flat and rolling scissors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_combat_manoeuvring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_fighter_maneuvers
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Film 1 from Day 10:
Just a HO, not much to critique there.
Film 2:
You engage that 109 and then disengage. You did it without an energy advantage, so he has no trouble staying right with your attempt to disengage. This kind of thing in an MA furball like in the film is a pretty sure way to guarantee the guy will latch back on to the bitter end.
From then to ~3'50" you fly almost always straight. Only at 4'15" do you start to scissor and barrel roll. On the one hand this means you got away from the airfield before more freshly spawned fighters could pile on, and on the other it means you were putting up basically no defense other than dodging their shots. Those three guys chasing you never found any resistance to saddling up. These evasives are almost no use - a good shot will take you out, and a good flier will use it to either fly right up to you for a guaranteed killshot or to build his E while you accumulate little E expenses in those little evasive maneuvers, effectively stagnating your energy level. Overall these are no use for counter attack (and in the MA you shouldn't expect any friendlies not in your squad to be any help).. It only defers actually being shot down.
As soon as you actually contested the 109 with scissors and rolls, it was much more of a fair fight and you got the kill.
Unfortunately the AHWiki has very little information on these, but you can find a fairly good basic idea of combat maneuvers here, incl flat and rolling scissors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_combat_manoeuvring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_fighter_maneuvers
Yea, honestly I was just trying to run to the CV and dodge their shots. It was hard for me to see how many were behind me so I didn't know when I could safely go for the reversal. It wasn't until the end that I saw that only the 109 was still on me so I felt safe to go for the reversal. Would I have been safe to go for the reversal even with the 190 on me as well?
Also, has anyone watched the Day 8 films where I fight SunsFan? I'm still trying to figure out how he beat me post merge every time.
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Try this head position file (http://dasmuppets.com/public/dlamb/109k4.hps). It goes into Aces High\settings\planes\
the only alternative 6 view I can see is
(http://dasmuppets.com/public/dlamb/0d/ahss221.jpg)
Would I have been safe to go for the reversal even with the 190 on me as well?
It's always a gamble. You don't know who is flying any random plane you run into. The planes behind you were a 190 and 109, so being in a 109K yourself you could have worked from the assumption that it's an even playing field from an airplane POV, as soon as the F4U came off.
There's more than those, but two things you could pick to focus on getting a handle on ASAP is minimum situational awareness - at least knowing how many you have on your six... but that minimum is never gonna be enough, you want to know much more than that (like knowing that the 109 you tried to disengage wasn't disengaged).. but knowing at least that much you can actually plan something instead of doing something random; and deceleration maneuvers (like name says, make em overshoot) - EG scissors.
Also, has anyone watched the Day 8 films where I fight SunsFan? I'm still trying to figure out how he beat me post merge every time.
I'll watch em in a bit.
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Day 11:
Today was another lesson in humility. I met up with BigRat in the TA and got destroyed in rolling scissors practice. I still have no clue how I get beat so badly in rolling scissors. BigRat explained the philosophy of it and I understand that, but it just doesn't work for me in practice. After the TA session I went to the MA and fought AGAINST the Muppets. I started out messing around in the 110, but when I started upping in the 109K and actually tried It pretty much felt like this: :bhead :bhead :bhead. Granted, I was outnumbered most of the time, but I still got my #@$ handed to me. I'm getting more and more frustrated because I feel like I've peaked and can't progress further. The last 3 days have been the same, I can pick people (woohoo), but if I get into a fight, I lose. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
Good: Nothing
Bad: Everything
Film: None
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LOL most of us who've been around 10+ years wouldn't say we've peaked. The learning curve is never ending. For every day where everything goes right, there will be just as many that make you wonder if you'll ever get it.
Relax, enjoy. You aren't really dying, and the best way to keep learning, is to keep upping and having at it :aok
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Hoff you need to maneuver more. You don't seem to understand all the geometry going on... You've gotten better, so take a break from pushing yourself for days 11 and 12 and try to see how the above BFM I linked to are going on in your films. Many of the deaths you took tonight, and kills you missed, could've gone better if you were less eager for pulling your gunsight on target.
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Day 11:
Today was another lesson in humility. I met up with BigRat in the TA and got destroyed in rolling scissors practice. I still have no clue how I get beat so badly in rolling scissors. BigRat explained the philosophy of it and I understand that, but it just doesn't work for me in practice. After the TA session I went to the MA and fought AGAINST the Muppets. I started out messing around in the 110, but when I started upping in the 109K and actually tried It pretty much felt like this: :bhead :bhead :bhead. Granted, I was outnumbered most of the time, but I still got my #@$ handed to me. I'm getting more and more frustrated because I feel like I've peaked and can't progress further. The last 3 days have been the same, I can pick people (woohoo), but if I get into a fight, I lose. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
Good: Nothing
Bad: Everything
Film: None
Don't get discouraged. Even if you feel like you've peaked, you're still learning SOMEthing from every sortie and every death (even if it's just 'don't do that next time'), and it'll all start coming together the more you play.
I've only been playing about 3 months, so I don't have enough experience to really try and give advice, but one thing I think is important to bear in mind is that fully 50% of air combat is a mental game...
Use your brain as often as you use your joystick and you'll notice a big improvement!
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Day 12:
:bhead :bhead :bhead :bhead :bhead :bhead :bhead :bhead :bhead Only kills I got today were HO or front quarter shots. A couple were post merge but still front quarter. I lost every single time I got into a fight and didn't learn anything from it. My defensive maneuvers were utter crap today as well. Worst day thus far.
Good: Nothing
Bad: Everything
Film: None
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Day 12:
Only kills I got today were HO or front quarter shots. A couple were post merge but still front quarter. I lost every single time I got into a fight and didn't learn anything from it. My defensive maneuvers were utter crap today as well. Worst day thus far.
Good: Nothing
Bad: Everything
Film: None
I certainly haven't watched every single video posted. But I think it would be these type of Videos that you certainly should be posting. More times then not, It is when you are "losing" that there is the most to learn.
Just a thought
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I certainly haven't watched every single video posted. But I think it would be these type of Videos that you certainly should be posting. More times then not, It is when you are "losing" that there is the most to learn.
Just a thought
It wasn't anything worth watching or that I haven't already posted. I kept losing scissors fights and got killed by a 262 a few times.
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Ya but if you post a scissor fight that you lost, someone might point out where you lost it in the scissor and WHY. Then you CAN learn from the film.
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Ya but if you post a scissor fight that you lost, someone might point out where you lost it in the scissor and WHY. Then you CAN learn from the film.
I've posted more than one already and asked for comments on it but have yet to receive any.
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Which film has the scissors? It can't be the one with you in a 109 getting chased out to the CV can it?
2 reasons because I commented on that one, and 2 that wasn't anything close to a scissors.
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Which film has the scissors? It can't be the one with you in a 109 getting chased out to the CV can it?
2 reasons because I commented on that one, and 2 that wasn't anything close to a scissors.
Day 8
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It wasn't anything worth watching or that I haven't already posted. I kept losing scissors fights and got killed by a 262 a few times.
Well the 262 guy is no slouch :aok
Look Hoff, your timing is off man also you are not getting "skinny" when you should. Your angles are ok but you're pressenting your profile when defensive, this just makes tough shots easier. You cannot make anything easier against those that are pretty good because they will connect :aok
I'm doubting the noob claim cause your fundamentals are pretty good. You fly like you have about 500-1000 hours under your belt, or previous flight sim experience. Either way you should look up the vox290 crew in the DA. You will be PWNED but you will learn more. Also anytime the muppets are in the DA I'm sure they'll welcome you to join the duels! As always to anyone if you want some 1v1 time and some help I am more than happy to give you a hand! :salute
JUGgler
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I'm new to actual flight sims, the only flying games I have played are the battlefield series, which isn't really a flight sim. I just learn really quickly and do my research watching videos and such. I'll definitely take you up on the 1v1 offer whenever you get a chance. I've been trying to fly against Muppets lately because even though flying with Muppets is fun, it's a crutch to my learning. Gotta fight the best to become the best. It's just frustrating as hell. I may get really really frustrated :bhead :bhead :bhead :bhead and might even be vocal about it, but it's just my way of venting so that I can carry on and keep practicing.
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Day 8:
Today I got to fly with two members of Army of Muppets, m00t, and SunsFan. I got to wing up with m00t in MA and as he mentioned he told me that I was being too aggressive and thus becoming an easy target. After flying with him for a while he had to go so I managed to meet with SunsFan in the DA for some 1v1 practice. I learned a lot from him and managed to learn how to merge decently, but still have problems after that. He was impressing me with some move he was doing at the top of the rolling scissors that would pretty much give him a shot on me every time. I didn't know how to defend against it nor how to do it myself. He said he'd be able to explain it with the film, so hopefully whenever he gets a chance he can drop in here or maybe one of you can answer it. Overall it was a really productive day. Thanks a ton to m00t and Sunsfan. I also met BigRat in the TA. He was busy with squad practice but I did manage to set up a time to train with him. m00t and SunsFan also said they were willing to help out whenever they have free time. Again, thanks a ton for taking the time to help me out, I really appreciate it. Hopefully it wont take too long before I am proficient enough to know what to do and what I do wrong without needing someone to tell me. The films for today are of most (I accidentally hit a button or something and deleted one or two of the films) of the merges between me and SunsFan in the DA.
Good: Learning, Merge
Bad: Post-Merge, SA, Committing Too Much
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?dtg4fm9c2qw4j7l) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?hfp0eowwoslu5cy) - Three (http://www.mediafire.com/?zut0tl8e4ercdeh)
I got home late tonight so I only got a chance to look at the first films.
The scissors you did was just an even mechanical move, very predictable. Roll, pull, roll the other way pull, roll back, pull and so on. A scissor move is to make it tough for the bad guy to get an easy shot, and to create an over shoot. You can do NIETHER if your not watching the bad guy. Suns broke off and was typing to you before you knew he had broken off.
You MUST watch him, and make your pull before he does, even if it just a bit before he does, every little bit helps to get you behind him and force him to over shoot. Also as you pass each other in the scissor you will have a bit of a shot opportunity. Watching your enemy ALL the time will help you one, maybe get a guns solution for a quick shot, and two you will be able to tell when you will be in his guns area. When en you pass into his guns area, you must get "skinny". To do this you roll your plane to give him the smallest profile to shoot at.
If he has a possible shot...which means your behind in the scissors btw :D instead of giving him a full top profile to shoot at, a quick roll to point a wing tip at him, and then roll back to finish that turn in the Scissor will make it much harder for even a good player to hit you.
In the first merge, you "followed" him around. Point your nose in front of the enemy plane (lead pursuit) to close and get ahead of him. Following someone gives them time to recover from a bad move, or think of some way to bait you. Push the attack, but don't over push by doing something stupid. As far as the rest of the film, Suns was right, the first to drop his nose is the one giving up the advantage, but you MUST watch for it. When he drops his you should have chopped your throttle, ruddered into his turn and got your nose pointed out ahead of him and pour the power back on.DOn't give him time to get separation/room to set up a move.
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Coupla things:
close range means that planes with wing mounted guns will often enough have much more trouble shooting your plane if it's rolled perpendicular to theirs. Unless their convergence is set that close.
You want to make your scissors as Fugitive describes: custom-fitted to screw with your bogie's timing. Also as he says, don't be predictable: add some random width and height to your scissors.
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Day 13:
Too busy with classes, dreamhack, and NASL (yea I'm a starcraft nerd) to get more than two or three sorties in. Not much to say about today.
Good:
Bad:
Film: None
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Day 14:
Got home late, spectated Juggler a bit and saw how I could eventually fly. I managed to get quite a few front quarter shots after the merge on people, but sometimes it resulted in a HO where we collided or both died. I am a little unsure how to remedy this because if I don't come all the way around after the merge, they will get guns on me, and I don't have enough speed or room to maneuver away from a front quarter shot after the merge. Basically, merge, both immelman, HO. No film today (I should have saved one of the films with this but oh well).
Good: Gunnery
Bad: HOing
Film: None
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Instead of a HO on the second pass you can start working for angles. If the bandit goes for the shot he's giving you a turn advantage.
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Day 14:
Got home late, spectated Juggler a bit and saw how I could eventually fly. I managed to get quite a few front quarter shots after the merge on people, but sometimes it resulted in a HO where we collided or both died. I am a little unsure how to remedy this because if I don't come all the way around after the merge, they will get guns on me, and I don't have enough speed or room to maneuver away from a front quarter shot after the merge. Basically, merge, both immelman, HO. No film today (I should have saved one of the films with this but oh well).
Good: Gunnery
Bad: HOing
Film: None
Well this is clearly your problem! :aok
Hoff, look a word of advise. Don't take the game seriously in fact take it as light hearted as you can. Getting the kill may be the "climax" to the fun but the fun is everything up till that point for me. The "chessmatch" is where the real skill lies. I suggest you do what I was doing, get yourself a silly plane D3, B5, JU88 etc and go out and make it tough for the gaggle to shoot you down "getting the kill" is not the point to this "having some silly fun and learning angles" in anything IS! Yesterdays doings for me had nothing to do with killing anything only some good laughs with some good peeps tryin to shoot me down.
Focus on the fun, not on the kill and you will learn much more much faster!
Oh and when scissoring "rudder" is your friend :aok
:salute
I still don't think you're new ;)
JUGgler
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There ya go making sense again JUGgler. Stop that!
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Well this is clearly your problem! :aok
Hoff, look a word of advise. Don't take the game seriously in fact take it as light hearted as you can. Getting the kill may be the "climax" to the fun but the fun is everything up till that point for me. The "chessmatch" is where the real skill lies. I suggest you do what I was doing, get yourself a silly plane D3, B5, JU88 etc and go out and make it tough for the gaggle to shoot you down "getting the kill" is not the point to this "having some silly fun and learning angles" in anything IS! Yesterdays doings for me had nothing to do with killing anything only some good laughs with some good peeps tryin to shoot me down.
Focus on the fun, not on the kill and you will learn much more much faster!
Oh and when scissoring "rudder" is your friend :aok
:salute
I still don't think you're new ;)
JUGgler
I'll take that as a compliment, hopefully in a couple weeks you will think I'm a long time veteran.
I actually had an idea to practice my flying last night while watching you fly. Today I'm going to fly the 109k, but I'm not going to use guns at all. I'm just going to see how long I can stay on the 6 of the enemy.
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Day 15:
No guns day was pretty fun for a while. Gave up a lot of easy kills for it but I think it helped out my defensive maneuvering a bit. One thing that was bothering me was that I can't seem to always avoid front quarter shots. I think it might be impossible to completely avoid them and I do notice how much of an advantage it gives me if they miss, but they do hit sometimes. The two films are about 10 minutes each.
Good: Defense, SA
Bad: Avoiding Front Quarter Shots
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?czt7fxfiu17fdah) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?qa12op9jyo9385l)
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Day 16:
Flew the 109E today with mixed results. The guns are off and on, sometimes a plink will kill an enemy sometimes they won't die at all. I was using the Emil to try to practice defensive maneuvering but I still didn't do very well. Got outmaneuvered as usual.
Good: SA
Bad: Maneuvering
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?umpc34v2780d3gd) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?h8aael8e42761jh)
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I'd recommend the F or G2 over the E for training. Too many handicaps on the E.
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Day 15a, Fighting the 190s, for the most part thats about as good as it's going to get with those guys. They are known for NOT engaging hard, more pickers than fighters. At one point in the film you have one closing and your climbing to the left and go into a barrel roll. You need to bring them in closer by tightening your turn before you go into your barrel roll. They were far enough out to see what you were doing and adjust. If you get them in closer, you'll come out of the barrel roll with a good snap shot opportunity.
Day 15b When someone is flying in the same fight as you (Zap) it's good to let them know you are out of ammo and will hang around as a target. If they think you are fighting still they will count on you some what to clear their 6. I know I'd fly different knowing the guy in the area DIDN'T have ammo as apposed to one that did. Merges, you want to merge under, or to the side of the other guy as apposed to over. If you watch the films you get hit more often than not only on the merges where you let the guy fly under your nose. If they are under your nose you can't see them so you can't avoid their shot, nor can you fly to get a better angle, or give them a worst angle. If you must have them pass under you, roll your plane and try to keep them in view so you can either get skinny as they shoot, or maneuver for a better angle.
Day 16a-b The nik fight in the first, you just gave him wayyyyyy to much space. Closing to get a tighter merge woulf have made it much harder for him to get an angle on you and stay tight enough long enough to get the shot. The other was just poor SA. You were in a lot of bad guys and just didn't see the K4 that came around on you. You looked at him once, then got fixated on what was in front of you and he closed for his shot.
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For the N1K, that player repeatedly tried to HO everyone in the area. I didn't want to merge close to him cause he'd just HO. How do I merge closer without allowing a front quarter shot?
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The same type of unpredictable evasive as from a six shot, not just a rectilinear dodge, but with a bit of curve to it. The timing is also important, somewhere around 1000y you want to have just started the evasive. That means you start moving your controls before that - there's a small maneuvering lag and internet lag involved. For all but the very best HOers in the game, you don't need to spoil their solution much, for them to miss.
Possibly the quickest way to practice this one is to go to the DA, and HO everything. Only you'd practice dodging at the last moment. Over and over.. It shouldn't be long before you get the hang of it. Like one or two nights a most.
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For the N1K, that player repeatedly tried to HO everyone in the area. I didn't want to merge close to him cause he'd just HO. How do I merge closer without allowing a front quarter shot?
Get him to commit to the HO. Dive just a bit and change angle (left or right just a touch). If you're in a plane that can use the vert, pull vert as he's forcing his nose down at ya. After that, you're on the offensive.
Also, stop talking so much trash before being able to back it up. I'm sure you don't want to become the next squelch-o-matic, but you're well on your way.
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Make that more like 1,500y, esp for high speed HOs.
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Day 16:
Flew the 109E in MA today for a while and had some fun, also got a nice deflection shot on a mossie with the B25H 75mm. After that I managed to get with SFOX and DREAM in the DA for some duels. Started out rough, but after having him ride along with me and me ride along with him I learned how to do rolling scissors better. Also had an EPIC 20 minute brawl with SFOX that I accidentally hit cancel on for the film, but it was a really awesome fight. Thanks again to SFOX and DREAM. Also, I'm going to get rid of the Good/Bad thing because it doesn't really add anything except clutter. No questions for today, I think I'll work on dead 6 defensive maneuvers tomorrow.
Film: None
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Day 17:
I felt really really good about my flying today. I think I did really well. Just about the only mistake that I might have made was upping from a nearly capped field and getting swarmed. The first film is me getting a mossie on a bnz, then killing a spit in a short turn(ish) fight. The second film is me doing an evasive on a p51 and then killing another p51 that thought it could run away. Feel free to watch them, but I don't think I did anything wrong.
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?ka40x7afx407613) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?ivy98bi7nqcne2j)
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Day 18:
Another good day. It seems that the practice with SFOX and DREAM really really really really helped. I feel sooooo much better doing rolling scissors (first film). Second film is me being defensive and getting a little lucky and I get 6 kills in about 2-3 minutes. The last two are just fun stuff I did today. One is a B25 75mm deflection shot, the other is a WGR21 kill while I'm taking off.
Film: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?eeb3l02m3qkn5a7) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?cym5vuw8zod1xcm)
Funny: One (http://www.mediafire.com/?c1s04aa32cwgbs8) - Two (http://www.mediafire.com/?a36fqsiu4otxzdv)
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Day 19:
I didn't do much flying yesterday because Portal 2 came out. I'm going to switch to only updating when I feel like I need help or have reached a milestone. I feel confident in my flying after practicing with SFOX and DREAM, so I'll be posting less.
Film: None
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lol portal 2.i think anyone would rather fly planes then run around through holes.but thats just me.and dont forget my offer,1v1 any time.
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"I wont be good in a few days, but it's certainly not going to take a year. Anyone else have any comments/suggestions? "
Well you're certainly going to have the inflated ego thing mastered pretty quickly. :aok Have you worked on your Channel 200 Warrior skills yet? ;)
Funny I was thinking the same thing. One pattern here I see is comments from others on the Check 6 and ego-related. When I check 6 or get checked, I always try to thank, and it improves SA.. not because youre being nice, its because you tend to develop SA for not just you but everyone, and you can see someone aiming for a countryman. In this case it hones your SA to a sharp edge... which gives you the advantage you may need. Plus it pays to practice mannors.
Secondly to learn a plane, its capabilities, and the combinations of sticks and personalities make this an ever changing game of learning to take an A** woopin... for me anyway. I been goofing off with this since about 04, and still make dumb mistakes... maybe ill start posting my flights... thatll make some laugh... or cry!
To think that after being frusterated on your Day 6 post, whatever... you have not began to scratch the surface of frustration, dissapointment, and sometimes a week or two with no landing of kills. I have (many others too) been beaten down so bad, I swore HiTech was guna call me and give me a free month coupon. Flyign alone is fine, I do it al the time, but always support my fellow countrymen in fights... it improves your skill, SA, and reputation.
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Everyone is so friking Exited with this Portal 2 game :rolleyes:
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Ya, my son finished it with all the extras in 40 hours.
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Now that you have pretty much ended your diary, I wanted to thank you for posting. I've been around for a little over a year, but I only fly a few hours on weekends. So I was able to learn some things from watching your progress.
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Just remember this game is a lot like golf. There's going to be days when you bogey every hole. It just happens.