Still a little confused on this perk plane stuff

[Apeboy]

Apologize for being so thick headed but, I just don't understand how this perk plane thingie resolves the late war vs. early war issue.  Right now there are planes that are very mismatched in the arena right now. Be honest, when the last time you seen a typhoon?  

Whats the difference to a Tiffie pilot whether he is shot down by a 109G, P-51D or a "perk" 262?  Granted, there are a few skilled pilots out there that can make mince meat out of a plane well advanced of their own.  Those pilots are few and far between as there are some really good pilots in AH.  That leaves early war planes flown by a small handfull of pilots.  

Before I get too long winded here, I did notice that pyro said this would be for the MA only.  Which begs the question, what is planned for the other arenas?  Will the MA be used as a free for all having the perk plane in place for a small amount of balance?  Will other arenas be set up with a more historically correct match ups?  It would be nice to get some sort of outline of what to expect as far as how this is all going to pan out.  As it stands now a early war plane is neat to fly for a bit but getting hammered by planes 2 or 3 generations ahead of them relegates these craft to the hangar after the novelty wears off of flying a new plane.  With the plane perk thing, he now gets the joy of being flamed by a 4th generation plane  .

Cya up there,
Apeboy

[Vermillion]

Apeboy, I'm have no idea what is planned for other arenas, but one of the potential concepts of the "career points/perk plane" plan that has been discussed,  is that flying less popular planes will gain you more career points than if you were flying the aircraft du jour.

I'm guessing sorta like the old scoring multiplier in WB's.

So if you fly a Bf109G2, and you only get half as many kills as if you were flying the G10, you would still come out ahead because you have a x5 scoring multiplier.

Hopefully this will give an incentive to fly planes other than the latest and greatest.

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Vermillion
**MOL**, Men of Leisure
"Real Men fly Radials, Nancy Boys fly Spitfires"

[-duma-]

You're right, currently the Typhoon is badly matched in the arena.

Poor other planes hardly have a chance half the time  

[Nashwan]

Duma, fancy giving a fellow Taff tips on how to fly that bloody thing?

[funked]

Nashwan, two rules:

1.  Under 15k

2.  Over 250 mph

If you can figure out how to get some shots at bandits without breaking those rules, nothing can touch you short of a P-51D or Me 109G-10 diving from 25k.

[Kieren]

"Be honest, when the last time you seen a typhoon?"

Two nights ago, when I flew nothing but the Typhoon. Banged up a V-base and flew the gooney in for the capture (ok, almost nothing but!  ). I had some very fun low-and-fast missions.  

[-duma-]

Expanding on that, funked    

- Learn to use the super-accelerate-aron-o-meter (or whatever it's called) When turning try to keep it below 2, preferably at 1.5g.

- Beware barrel-rolling, it REALLY bleeds speed. Minimise simultaneous roll rate and vertical movement.

- Cruise at ~15k as a rule, but try not to engage at that altitude. If necessary she'll go up to 20k happily for buff busting (I've killed one B-17 at 28k)

- The Typhoon is a furballer's nightmare. Just fly around a little above the furball, humming nonchalantly and keeping straight and level, and then just pick out someone who looks target fixated and dive in. Poor soul will be dead within 20 seconds...

- When on the defensive, there's a little trick you can play... put the nose down about 20 degrees and then do a little pitch up, followed by a roll (so you are inverted), a small pitch down and then roll again to pull up just before you reach ground level. Most other aircraft will try and get a firing solution on you throughout this, and hence completely mess up their speed and drop back.

- Remember that the Typhoon acts much better in a shallow dive than straight and level. However shallow the dive might be...

- Keep a very conservative approach to your fighting. If you're lining up on someone and he's making hard evasives, try to lead but don't screw up your energy situation doing it. Sometimes an attack just isn't gonna work and you're best extending and trying again. Most of my deaths are caused by impatience, but it's quite fun dogfighting in the Typhoon even though you know it's dumb as hell    

- A HO isn't smart whatever plane you're in. In the Typhoon, a small inverted roll and pulling back on the stick should let you evade with the minimum of E loss for you and the maximum for him (He'll have to pull negative Gs to lead). Alternatively, you can just be bloody-minded like me and run headlong at the bastards with all four 20mms blazing.

- Remember that at low-alt you're icon-invisible up to 3k. This is only really useful in aircraft like the Typhoon since you spring upon the target too fast to act. This is my favourite way of flying, just skim along at 20ft, pull up when you near the target and fire at his belly    

- Get annoyed whenever anyone critiscises the Tiffie, especially when they call it a pig.

It's not a pig. It's a warthog with RATO bottles attached    

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Duma
XO The Red Dragons
 http://www.reddragons.de

[This message has been edited by -duma- (edited 05-19-2000).]