Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Help and Training => Topic started by: 28sweep on March 22, 2002, 12:58:33 PM
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So here's my question to u'all. Is it valid to think that by buying a product like MS CFS2 or something similar-I could get better at Aces High faster? My thinking is that the drones are too stupid to be of real value for target practice and that it takes so long to get to altitude for dive bombing practice-after all repetition is the key. Maybe CFS2 has a scripted training missions or something that lets u start at 15k and line up on a target for repetitive dive-bombing-for example. I know the AI has to be better and would offer better target practice. Has anyone tried this and are there any flight sim's that would be better than others for training purposes?? I know the flight models will be different-the ballistics etc. but some of it should be close-right?????
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It has been my experience that playing other sims has not helped me in AH, in fact sometimes it hinders my efforts since when jumping back and forth I lose the fine touch and "feel" of the AH flight model. In games like CFS2 you can turn fight zekes in wildcats and hellcats and can generally get away with just yanking the control stick around like crazy, things that will get you killed right fast in AH. IMHO the only way to improve at AH is to fly AH and take the lumps. You can do things to maximize your chances of success, but when I was starting I had to have A LOT of patience, swollow my pride and get my hiney handed to me by more experienced pilots and try to learn what I was doing wrong. If someone bests you, you can ask him what you did wrong. Film your fights then ask a member of the training staff to take a look at it for you and give feedback. Or sign up for some personal time with a trainer. The HTC website lists Lephturn as the Chief Instructor, you should be able to send him an email to set something up with the training staff.
Of course all this is just my humble opinions on the subjects other my disagree with me. :D
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u are paying for AH, make the most of it.
Practicing at CFS will make you better at CFS... even having said that... ACM can be practiced in any flight sim with a full realism mode.
The gunnery and bomb aiming differences between all the sims along with differences in control calibration make it virtually impossible to practice elsewhere.
Take your lumps is the best advice I can give you.
Read Robert Shaw's Fighter Combat for help with ACM.
There are often areas of the map that are deserted, you can practice your bombing and if you are lucky a con will climb up after you permitting some gunnery practice.
Offline I think you can adjust the wind so that you gain altitude faster for dive bombing. Perhaps someone can offer the 'trick' to it.
SKurj
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I think Soulyss summed it up pretty well. Sound tactics are what I believe maximize your chances to get kills and live for another day. Playing most of the other single player sims don't force you to use these tactics.
The second thing is to improve your gunnery. The gunnery in AH is unlike any other sim. To get good at AH gunnery you need to fly AH. I sometimes practice this by going offline and attacking targets coming from anywhere but direct 6. I will increase the ammo multiplier in arena settings to 10 so that you can carry ten times the ammo. I then climb a few thousand above the drones and practice high-speed high deflection shots climb out and repeat. I can fly for about 20 min before I run out of ammo.
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Find a map with high alt bases to launch from for bombing practise. I believe the DA has a few of those or you could try some of the maps in the H2H arenas.
All sims are coded diferent; if you want to get good in AH, play AH.
F.
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Want to get better at AH?
Fly,fly, fly and fly.
Fly when you wake up in the morning, fly another sortie before going to work. Fly at lunch, fly for an hour when you get home from work. Instead of going to sleep at 10, fly for 2 hours. Then get up at 5 and do it again! Weekends you should spend at least 8 hours a day beind the stick.
Also fly smart, diving into the first furball you see never made anyone a good stick. Pick fights you have a chance of winning, where you hold at least 1 advantage. This can be taken to extreme however.
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I know this may be basic but here are a few tips....
1)are you brand new to flying this game and sims in general...if so take up a forgiving plane like the SPIT IX.
2)Practice.....
3)Try winging with someone and taping the flight....just try to stay on their 6.
(I am relearning the P38 from Air Warrior Relaxed Realism...flew on TRIED's 6 for a while and listened to his tips...helped out alot)
4)Join someone that is a good stick and observe what they do while taping it. This helps alot.
5)Get used to the views....learn to be able to look at a guy and still keep him in sight...this was the hardest for me in here to get used to was the views and keeping the guys in sight without redding or blacking out.
6) Practice......
7) Try sticking with one plane...I dont know your skill level but try sticking with the spit til you get the ACM down! Believe you me that will help you get the basics...also it has such a crappy ammo load in my opinion you have to get better at your shots....
8) Try setting your convergence in close....this makes you get closer to shoot to do more damage...this tip depends on your fighting style...some guys set it out far....
9) Practice......
10) Spend time reviewing the flights and watching what the enemy does.
11) Learn basic ACM....Shaws book is excellent....
12) DONT GET FRUSTRATED!!!!! If it is ceasing to be fun....take up a PT boat and get near an enemy field...NOW THAT IS FUN.....take a break then go back to the flying....believe you me that helps
I hope that helps its a rehash from all the GREAT ONES out there.
Now here is where I disagree with the others. I found that Air Warrior helped in here....that is because I "learned" how to fly there for 6 years or longer...with that being said coming to AH has been a rude awakening...although I have the ACM down applying it to the model in here is very hard to get used to. I am getting better and it is taking practice. (Well not really disagree with you guys....) If you have AH you should be playing and practicing in there.....
Well my 2 cents....
Mike
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I used Warbirds version 2.76 offlline to practice , it was free and more like AH than the boxed sim .
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Originally posted by Ghosth
Also fly smart, diving into the first furball you see never made anyone a good stick. Pick fights you have a chance of winning, where you hold at least 1 advantage. This can be taken to extreme however.
I disagree with this last point. Always flying with an advantage only makes a player better at flying with an advantage. What it doesn't do is produce a well-rounded, generally more skilled player with the ability to handle all types of situations -- advantaged, equal, and disadvantaged.
While I wouldn't discourage a new pilot from fighting at an advantage, I'd also highly recommend diving into furballs and mixing it up to at least improve situational awareness.
I also can't stress enough the importance of dueling. I dueled constantly in Air Warrior, and I duel all the time in Aces High as well. The real key is to find another player of roughly equal skill -- a sparring partner, so to speak -- with whom you can duel as much as possible.
-- Todd/Leviathn
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Make yourself a map for offline play or i could post one :)
fields are 10k 20k and 30k above terrain,most excellent for bombing practice,and,also,all of the above :)
Luck :)
Steely
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Originally posted by SKurj
Read Robert Shaw's Fighter Combat for help with ACM.
AMEN - The ACM Bible
I like using WarBird's offline AI.... The flight models are very different but it helps to get your gunnery and SA down. And you can go FULL realism or not... And it's free. :cool:
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IL2 works for me..
After flyin in it for an hour and not hitting/shooting anyone down, MA is a piece of cake.
CT is good practice for MA too
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Ok Fellas heard alot about making terrains for yourself...not sure how to do that but can you put enemy fighters up as well for target practice?
thanks
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Hey-steely07 (or anybody)-how can I get ahold of one of those terrains w/very high bases!!!!
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Mail me at steelydw@yahoo.com.au,and i'll mail em back :)
Oh and Gutt,the drones will be in any terrain u make,they always circle the nearest field :)
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To adress the initial question, I learned to fly in CFS 1, Janes WWII Fighters. EAW and they are useful if you are really new to flight simming before getting into AH. EAW is ancient now, but its stall/spin modelling is fearsome and taught me a helluva lot about real flying and managing E. WWII fighters still looks as good as Il2 Sturmovik IMO and is still great fun. Its flight model is too easy though.
HOWEVER, beyond that, theres no substitute for flying, flying, flying in AH. It's not a great game if you have very little experience of flight sims and flying other flight sims won't improve your shooting much.
Best advice. Don't mind being called a dweeb or a newbie! Get stuck in and prepare to die lots. It is the fact that AH is difficult that makes it so rewarding. Once you get practiced at AH, you won't want to fly against AI again. I have a v dusty copy of Il2 Sturmovik sitting on my shelf!
. :D
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CSF2 can help you in Aces High if you choose the right planes. For ACM, grab the stock Corsair with all realism options on and set up a Quick Mission to go after Zeroes that have an advantage. This will get you used to defensive fighting and pulling lead in turn fights, as well as managing energy, maintaining Situation Awareness and such like that.
You can also use the stock Corsair for practicing ground strafing and landing procedures.
For more advanced dogfighting stuff, you'll want to import some of the 1% planes from http://www.avhistory.org which give a more challenging flight model (and purportedly more realistic).
For working on my Aces High gunnery, I attack the circling drones from a near head-on approach or from a sharp deflection to work on my snap-shots. My gunnery has improved as a result.
When you fly Aces High, work the Spitfire IX for dogfighting and the P-51D for high-speed fighting.
As for Robert Shaw's "Fighter Tactics" book, its pretty dry reading that'll give you a headache if you're not ready for it. Stick with "Aircraft vs Aircraft" by Norman Franks (now on the Bargain Book racks of Barnes and Noble stores) if you want full-color pictures and diagrams, or the Mike Spick books "Luftwaffe Fighter Aces : The Jagdflieger and Their Combat Tactics and Techniques" or " Allied Fighter Aces : The Air Combat Tactics and Techniques of World War II" if you want a book that'll fit in a backpack.
You'll also find it useful to comb through the guide at http://www.netaces.org to get some set-up advice.
And the only reason to have CFS1 around is to import the planes into CFS2. :)
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well you could always creat a map with a base up in the 15k area and use it in the hth then you wont have any drones and you can practice dive bombing while playing with real people then you can get better at ah and go backl to the ma with some dive bombing and dogfighting skills after all i think the hth gives you some good dogfights often more often then the ma of course
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Forget it, this is different (more realistic) than any game previously used by myself. I have used almost everyone from CFS1 to 1942 Gold Edition, Jane's, even the obscure Phillips sim and dozens others. I went up once and one time only and realized "whoa, this is going to take some time, unlike other store bought games". There isn't a computer enemy.
Jay
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AH has the best "practice" arenas. Fly in the 8 player arenas. Real live drones, best practice there is. If you embarrass easy, open a second account, and fly as a Newu. Then you can try new things and if you die, so what. and its free.
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Originally posted by Eagler
IL2 works for me..
After flyin in it for an hour and not hitting/shooting anyone down, MA is a piece of cake.
Just my words,,,after IL2 AH feels easy,,,,,,,,,especially the gunnery;) ,cant hit squat in IL2.
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LoL, I can get easy kills on Il2 but on this 1:);)
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i started flying microsoft flight simulator 96, and i still play it 2002, then i went to air warrior 3, didnt play it much, played mscfs and mscfs2, beat em (2 was tough!) then i played airwarrior again, then they shut it down, and then i came to aces high, and jeez, was it hard, i was like stallin and blackin out all over the place, but i caught on quick. yeah..
Gabber.
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Ditto to what Soulyss and the others say. I've flown CFS and CFS2 for almost a year and a half - I thought I was a pretty good pilot until I started flying AH 3 days ago - nothing in either of those have prepared me for the realism and the battles in AH (and trust me, I fly CFS 12 hours a week min. with a .7465 kill/death ratio according to my MCRs). The key here I see is patience, patience, practice, practice, and then, more practice. I think that hooking up with a trainer in the TA would be the best advice - some that I have recieved and will be taking tonight or in the morning. There is no other fight sim that can craft your skills for this game as far as my humble opinion goes.:D