Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Help and Training => Topic started by: Kirby on December 28, 2002, 08:33:27 AM
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Since most of you are experts..... I need some tips for dogfights. What is the best way to dodge fire and shoot? What should I avoid etc........
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Really general question there Kirby. The answers are very dependant upon your situation.
In general I would suggest that you never open fire greater than 500yrds out when saddled on someone's 6. The closer you are when you fire the less likely you will miss and the greater chance of taking the enemy down in one burst.
As for dodging fire...the best advice is not to let someone get on your 6. Situational awareness is everything in Aces High. Use you views to constantly scan the sky. Tip your wings..look up down and all around. Know where you are in relation to all the bad guys around you. This is step 1, and frankly no-one at this game is perfect at it...some are just much better than others.
If you do find someone on your 6 there are a number of things you can do...but you need to determine what is the best move for you to make based on what plane you are flying, what plane the enemy is flying, and the "e" (or energy) states both of you have.
In order to get the best of the best advice you should post a request for help in the training forum and hook up with a trainer. There is a training server and he/she will take you through all of the basic techniques and you will get an opportunity to learn from the best and brightest in the game.
Ghosth is one name I can drop...'cause he helped me.
Good luck..and welcome to the virtual skies. Your gonna get killed alot, but it will all be a great learning experience and after a few tours you will find that it gets easier and easier to get kills, and that is what it is all about.
Good luck,
Curval
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Originally posted by Curval
In general I would suggest that you never open fire greater than 500yrds out when saddled on someone's 6. The closer you are when you fire the less likely you will miss and the greater chance of taking the enemy down in one burst.
When you fire at longer ranges, you're more likely to miss, but the additional range to the target means that they're less likely to be able to leave your maneuver cone, but it means that you may have to maneuver more heavily to stay on their 6. But if you're not firing cannon rounds, you're up against lost kinetic energy, so you're doing less damage when you do hit. Overall, Curval is right; you should get in as close as you can.
One of the things that I learned by accident is that, if you are going to walk your fire onto your target, it's much better that your starting shots miss so that they pass under their plane; that way, you maximize the amount of their airframe that is blocking their view of your fire; if your first shots go past their cockpit, you'll startle them and make them maneuver; if the shots go past their belly, they may not notice until you've adjusted your aim and they start taking hits.
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Kirby,
Look for members of the "Aces High Training Corps" in the training arena. The AH training program is slowly coming back to life and there are now some trainers hanging around the TA offering help.
Hammer
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I'd also check out NetAces.org. It has a lot of fantastic write ups from guys like RocketMan and BulletHead and of course the ever important Badz Files.
NetAces.org (http://www.netaces.org)
Ack-Ack
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Check out the thread on the forum "Primer for New LW Pilots" and you'll see an attachment I made that has some tips for flying the Luftwaffe planes.
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Try learning gunnery with tracers off, it helped me quite a bit, plus you don't alert your target to your firing.
:)
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My tips are:
1. Pick a plane you like and stick with it. Learn what it can and cannot do. Check out the performance charts in Aces Help. The plane you pick will become your benchmark for evaluating other planes.
2. Practice off-line.
2a. Setup the arena by clicking (on the clipboard) Setup/Arena Settings. Scroll down and highlight PlaneGunAmmoMult, then click the Change button and set the slider to 10. This will give you 10 times the normal gun ammo so you can practice shooting without having to reload as much. I also recommend scrolling and highlight FlightModeFlags, click the Change button and putting an X in Dive Bombsight. This will give you a green X on the ground showing you where your bombs and/or rockets will hit - need to have either bombs or rockets loaded on the plane and have them selected before the green X will show.
2b. Setup your plane of choice by getting your views set. You will want to optimize your view out of the cockpit so you can maintain the invaluable situation awareness.
2c. Set your plane's gun convergence. Gun convergences are where the bullet streams will cross the gun sight. Set it in the hanger where you select your plane and clicking the Set Convergence button at the top. You then can click and drag the range tags. I have mine set to 350 yds to keep the spray pattern smaller. Others like theirs set much closer. Use the .target XXX command in flight to put up a white target north of you to see what your gun pattern is like. The XXX is range in yards like 500. Setting the range to 0 (zero) will make the target disappear. Practice shooting ground targets. Start firing from quite a ways away from the target and make some mental notes of what the gun pattern does as you move in. Try some different convergence setting so you can get a feel for what you like.
2d. Practice shooting those drones from all different angles. Being a good shot is just as important as situation awareness. Your opponents will usually give you at least one shot (maybe a high deflection shot) during the contest and you will want to make the most of it.
3. Don't worry about getting shot down. We first learn what does not work before we figure out what does. Shoot film of your engagements (alt r) and study them. The one thing that does work is to have the advantage (more e than the other guy) when the fight starts - you then can dictate the terms of the fight. If you find yourself losing your advantage, consider running away before you lose it all. Once clear of the fight, you can get your e back and rejoin the fight if you want or look for another. Another thing that works is flying with others. You can sometimes get a kill while the enemy is distracted trying to shootdown your buddy.
4. My final tip is to never give up on a fight if you didn't have the advantage at the start. Run away if you can but try to make them overshoot if they are intent on attacking. You can sometimes bait them by staying just outside their maneuver cone and showing them some of your tail. When it is clear they are gong to miss, break back into them and you will have a high deflection shot as they go by. If they don't go for your bait or you miss, at the very least make them waist as may rounds as possible before they kill you. You never know, they may just give you another shot before that happens or someone will show up to save you. Then study the film.
Fly smart.
MachNix
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I am a trainer and will meet you in the TA for a lesson when we can both arrange it. That goes for anyone else interested. All I ask is that you try to get a mic and your AH Voice working before we start, it makes training MUCH more effective. Shoot me an email to the link in my signature.
CYasUp!
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to dodge fir stay behind em where they cant hit you
to shoot close within 500 yards eastimate how much "lead" you have to compensate for and FIRE (when behind lead means how much below your "dot" the enemy has to be for your shots to hit)
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I had to repost this....originall posted by mooja. I have kept this one close at hand since its writing, and still bust a gut every time I read it. Excellent strategic advice in here...
Ack, I know what i'm talking about. I've been playing now for over three weeks. The HO is your best chance of success. If the nme gets by you on the HO they'll immediately be directly behind you with guns blazing. I've seen it happen time after time. Believe me. If you don't shoot on the HO you won't get another chance. I've found most guys won't even shoot back on an HO so you get free shots with no risk. If he does shoot back then at least you're on level ground with a 50-50 chance of winning. I'll take a 1 to 1 kill ratio any day.
As for kills don't be too worried about those. Those are easy to get. When I first started I was on the end of the runway trying to start the engine and the next thing I knew something blew up beside me and a message popped up on my screen that said I got a kill on somebody. Believe me it's much easier to get kills than it is to keep the nme in front of you.
As for other strategies, take 44's example where you climb into them. Now the bogs just gonna turn around and then he's moving fast and you're moving slow (climbing). Who do you think is gonna be the easiest target to hit? The slow one is. Plus, when you're climbing it's harder to aim on the HO. 44's other strategy was to turn around on the bog and I'll just say that is about the worst thing you can do. When you turn around now the bogs behind you and in a few seconds his guns will be blazing and you'll be a puff of smoke. This strategy may work if you're in a plane with guns sticking out the back end cause they're very dangerous. A plane that can shoot in two directions at the same time will always win over a plane that can only shoot in one. It's just plain logic.
When you get more advanced and make it up to about 25K feet you'll start to see some very dangerous planes. I saw three huge white ones up there once that had guns sticking out in every direction. Be careful though cause you can't see the guns till you get very close. Those three took me by surprise that time and shot me down before I got a chance to auger.
In a normal, uni-directional shooting plane your main focus should be to always keep the nme in front of you. As soon as you notice an nme is behind you should nose down and auger as that way you make the hardest possible target to hit plus they may follow you into the ground. If possible always auger when the nme is more than about 2.0 out cause then no one gets your points. If you watch your plane when you turn your wings flare out in the direction of the nme and you just make a bigger target. I can tell you from experience 9.9 times out of ten if you try to turn around the nme will just shoot you down anyway. So you can see the HO's are your best shot and after that it's pointless to do anything but auger.
Definitely worth reading:D :D :D :D
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With help like that, who needs enemas?
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Ok...I'll post some serious advice....the following is my effort at explaining energy fighting.
Energy fighting is a term that is loosely used to describe a specific type of fighting. In reality, energy management is essential for *all* fighting styles. Whether you like to boom and zoom, or turn and burn, it is all related to energy, and how you manage it.
Think of energy as cash in your account at a bank. The more cash you take out, the less you have to work with. The better you manage your money, the better you will be able to deal with your bills, and other unexpected expenses.
In the case of dogfighting, the "bills" are enermy aircraft that you know you are going to fight. The "unexpected occurrences" are the enemy aircraft that try to bounce you, or put you on the defensive. The more energy you have available, the better your chances of surviving and keeping your plane in the air.
Now that we have the concept of energy, it is time to look at physics. Energy comes in two forms: potential and kinetic. Potential energy is stored energy. In an aircraft, this comes in the form of altitude. Generally speaking, the higher you are, the more potential energy you have available.
Kinetic energy is energy in motion. You translate your potential energy into kinetic energy. For example, diving from 15K to 10K translates your potential energy into kinetic energy as velocity.
Remembering one of the fundamentals of physics, we know that energy is never lost, it is simply transformed. In a dogfight, you'll hear the terms "bleeding energy" and "energy burning maneuvers". These terms relate to energy management. Your aircraft relies on energy to perform work. Each time you execute a maneuver, you are translating that energy into work. For example, if you are flying straight, and then pull a maximum-G sustained 180 degree flat turn, you will utilize far more energy than you would if you executed that same turn at lower G.
So, now that we have the theory behind energy, let's see how it works in reality. As was mentioned at the beginning of this post, energy is essential in all types of dogfighting. This statement was illustrated by the theory above. If you fly an "energy fighter" such as a P51, FW190D9, etc. you engage in energy conservation fighting. These planes maintain energy very well. In other words, they require less energy to perform work. Now, this doesn't mean that you can yank back on the stick and think you'll still have plenty of energy in the bank. It simply means that these planes' strengths are in their ability to maintain a high energy state while engaging enemy aircraft.
It was also mentioned that the "turn and burn" types, such as the A6M, SpitV, etc. require energy. These fighters utilize their energy quickly by pulling hard turns. Their strengths are that they can maneuver out of the way and gain angles on you very quickly.
The key to downing both types of fighters is to deplete their energy reserves. Make them fight using tactics that drain their energy quickly. For example, force a P51 into a slow turning fight, and his energy rapidly disappears. On the other hand, if you are the P51 and keep forcing a SpitV to burn his energy to maneuver out of your way, soon he won't have enough energy to move and he becomes an easy target.
In conclusion, one key to successful aerial combat is proper energy management. Obviously, there are more, such as gunnery and situational awareness. However, you can be the best gunner in the skies, or know where an enemy will be before he does and it won't make any difference if you haven't got the energy to do something about it.
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Johnnyb: "Believe me. If you don't shoot on the HO you won't get another chance."
Ok, what the heck is HO?
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Originally posted by StraDog
Johnnyb: "Believe me. If you don't shoot on the HO you won't get another chance."
Ok, what the heck is HO?
Head On:
Two planes closing each others from opposite directions and BOTH have equal change shoot.
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Originally posted by Xjazz
Head On:
Two planes closing each others from opposite directions and BOTH have equal change shoot.
Roger That!!
StraDog out.
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While the subject post is beginning to "age" I would like to offer one suggestion.
A lot of folks talk about deflection shooting and distances. They all have good points about shooting. IMHO the most important thing you you should be thinking about is the "number" of bullets hitting the target.
You plane carries a finite number of rounds. Spray and pray uses up alot of them. High deflection shots throw out maybe 95% of the bullets fired. Even with somewhat close shots. One well placed bullet might hit something critical but you are still playing the spray and pray game.
There is a way to dramatically increase your hit percentage. It's also easy to test the difference.
Here's how. Set your convergence to whatever you like. Go find yourself some water to shoot at. Come in from an oblique angle and spray the water pulling 5G's in a nose low turn. Now try it again pulling 3G's and again pulling 2G's. Look at the bullet spread as the rounds hit the water. Now take your plane and dive on a shallow angle at the back of a shore battery and open fire. Point right at it and let fire! Watch the rounds hit it.
Here's what you'll find out. Pulling the G's and firing spreads the rounds out so far if you stick a plane out there maybe one or two will hit it. Point straight at a target and shoot without turns puts all the rounds on target.
Sounds simple, right? It is. :) The type of shot that will "up" your hit percentage is called an "unloaded" shot. Basically, you align your crosshairs on the target so it's as if you can release all pressure on the stick and fire. In fact, that's what you do! Close, align, unload and fire. If he jogs you gotta make the decision to stay with him and wait for the shot or spray and pray. But if you practice it your hit percentage will go way up.
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Originally posted by DamnedRen
Sounds simple, right? It is. :) The type of shot that will "up" your hit percentage is called an "unloaded" shot. Basically, you align your crosshairs on the target so it's as if you can release all pressure on the stick and fire. In fact, that's what you do! Close, align, unload and fire. If he jogs you gotta make the decision to stay with him and wait for the shot or spray and pray. But if you practice it your hit percentage will go way up.
Maybe I understand your point wrongly but this sounds like you really hang on enemys six a clock and just wait right "unloaded moment" for the shot? It surely works in 1vs1 dueling fight but not too well in MA/CT furbal. You will unload yourself prety fast back to the tower.
What you need is tracking shots: Aim & Shoot to the future
Check this out
AIR-TO-AIR GUNNERY - THEORY AND APPLICATION 1,2 & 3 (http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/air_combat/guns1/guns1.shtml) By A. Bush
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Well no. If you judge your saddle up correctly you need a little less than one second if you are using .50's and about .25 second if you are using 20mm's. So a quick pull of the trigger, unloaded with 20's will flame him and say .75 second with .50's will do the same. That is not a long time to be saddled up on someones 6.
Also, dependent on the fight you can take the time for the perfectly unloaded shot. If you check with the high percentage kill guys 90% of thier shots are unloaded. Pay attention to the kill messages and when you hear "so and so just landed 18 kills for "XXXX"" you are hearing about someone that only takes unloaded shots. Otherwise they feel they are wasting both time and ammo.