Rank Newbie Questions

[Degas]

I am drooling over the eventual release of WWIIOL.  Some of the vets on their forum have been playing both Warbirds and AH for some time.  On their recommendations, I have decided to start a career in AH.

First, a note on the system I will be using:

Athlon 1 GHz Tbird on an MSI K7TPro 2A mainboard.
256 MB PC133 RAM
NVidia GeForce 2 GTS 64 MB (VisionTek)
DX 8.0 installed and working fine
SoundBlaster Live Platinum
MS Sidewinder 2 Precision Pro Joystick
MS GameVoice (Not installed at this time), with included Plantronics mic/headset
Crappy dial-up ISP (all that's offered where I live, and I usually connect at only 31.2 kbps)

OK, I installed the game and went into offline mode.  I had read the HTH help files, and decided to check out the sim.  I picked the Spit Mk IX to start with.  I jumped into the cockpit and familiarized myself with the controls.  I taxied around for a while until I found what I thought MIGHT be the runway.  Cranked up and took off.  Kinda wobbly, the torque takes some getting used to.

I was going to do some TOL's, just to get the feel of things.  But when I hit the "G" key, I couldn't see the gear go down (panning the view around the plane).  I heard the noise, but failed to check for gear lights.  I'm going to go back in and try again (and again, LOL).

I plan on doing the following (please chime in if you see me making a mistake):  I'm going to spend quite a bit of time offline, practicing with the planes.  I'll spend it learning basic flight (TOL's, flap ops, etc.), and then go into some simple aerobatics.  Then it's on to gunnery practice on the drones.  While I'm doing this, I will be tweaking convergence and the View Settings (thanks for that article, Lephturn).

Once I am comfortable with all the above, I am planning on contacting a trainer.  There ARE trainers available, as I understand it?  If so, I plan on flying with them to test the lag/packet loss and general playability of my connection, as well as learn everything they can teach me about what I'm doing wrong (I'm sure it will be a LOT).

Does it sound like I'm going about this the right way?  I also plan on spending a lot of time with both Lephturn's and Delta Six's websites, learning some of the tips they have up.

Hopefully, withing a week or two, I may be able to fly online without totally disgracing myself  

[flakbait]

Sounds like the best thing a Tin Horn ever did!!! Some things you can't do offline, but one I suggest you do tackle would be field guns. Fly near them, get used to being shot at, then get used to being shot   Practice gunnery against ground targets first to get a basic feel for the guns, then go against the drones.

Trainers are available. Hit the Help link on the HTC main page to get their e-mail addresses. Or you could just yell at Lephturn. He's a sucker for a green pilot  

My basic advice is this:

Pick an aircraft to get familiar with. It doesn't matter which plane, just so long as you enjoy flying it. Learn all the vices, quirks, stall and spin oddities, and gunnery. I'm not saying learn it all in one day, just spend an hour or three messing around with it to get a feel for the plane's personality. Since the trim keys are fairly close to the ; key, I'd suggest you map that to look down-forward. Trying to see the fuel gauge in an Fw-190 without it is a serious pain. Plus you can keep your fingers on the trim keys!

I'll be adding a few new pages to my site sometime in the near future. Once I can get more space, I'll throw up a Ground School section for each aircraft. Long term project at the moment. I'm working on a re-write of The Basics right now that should be up later today. Check my site tomorrow and it'll definitely be there.

-----------------------
Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High
"With all due respect Chaplian, I don't think God wants to hear from me right now.
I'm gonna go out there and remove one of His creations from this universe.
And when I get back I'm gonna drink a bottle of Scotch like it was Chiggy von
Richthofen's blood and celebrate his death."
Col. McQueen, Space: Above and Beyond
   

[This message has been edited by flakbait (edited 04-13-2001).]

[Degas]

Will do, flakbait, and thanks.  Right now, I'm trying to figure out why my gear and flaps won't operate on landing.  I found out about losing the gear if you don't retract it, from the high speed, I guess.  But that doesn't seem to be the problem.  Sometimes the gear works, sometimes it doesn't.  I've gotten the flaps to work once, and that's it.  They work fine in the hangar, and then when I do my once-around in a TOL, the damned gear won't go down and the flaps won't operate, no matter how slow I go.

Does the caps lock key screw things up?  I just noticed that mine was on.  Also, until I typed for a bit, my commas were showing up as < and my periods were showing up as >.  WTF is up with this?  Is this game hinky about keyboards?

[flakbait]

Sounds to me like you've got a dying keyboard. Capslock can't be used since the game is case sensitive: Game, GAME, and gaMe are three different things. At least as far as Aces High is concerned.

As for your gear and flaps. In something like a Spitfire your gear is ripped off at 200mph. Yet in the Corsair you won't lose the gear until around 350mph. Then again, the F4U series used the gear doors as primative dive brakes. Your flaps in a Spitfire don't come down until 150mph or so. If you're going too fast with the gear down you'll hear a grinding and groaning sound. That's the gear being stressed, and a hint to hit the G key.

-----------------------
Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High
"With all due respect Chaplian, I don't think God wants to hear from me right now.
I'm gonna go out there and remove one of His creations from this universe.
And when I get back I'm gonna drink a bottle of Scotch like it was Chiggy von
Richthofen's blood and celebrate his death."
Col. McQueen, Space: Above and Beyond
   

[This message has been edited by flakbait (edited 04-14-2001).]

[easymo]

 I would suggest starting with leph,s explanation of the view system. If you cant see 'um your about to die.

[Ghosth]

Degas, What time zone are you in & when would be a good time to meet in the TA (Training Arena)for you?

You called for a AH trainer, at your service sir.

billj69@qwest.net
icq # 2928062

[Mark Luper]

Degas,
I am one of the trainers and you are just the guy I am looking for  . Seriously, you have obviously done some homework, wish all newbies did that, and the best way to learn is by doing, which you seem to be doing.

Send me an email and I will be glad to work with you in the training arena. My email addy is in my profile. I also have some drop down "maps" with information I believe you will find usefull. I will send you those once you have contacted me.

[Degas]

Thanks for all the offers!  I'll be in touch, definitely.

Right now, I want to at least get the basics down, so I don't waste everyone's time, LOL.

I spent a few hours with the Spit last night.  Gratifying to finally see a few "You have landed successfully." messages  

Now all I have to do is land on the runway *grin*

Once I have that down, it's on to checking out some acrobatics, while taking advantage of the "keep it in view" training advice offered by Leph.  After that, I own the drones (tm)  

I'll probably also do some cross-countries to other bases, in order to get a feel for navigation.

Well, time to send off a few emails and see if I can walk away from a few more crash-landings!

[Lephturn]

There are speed limitations to deploying your gear and flaps.  That is likely why you sometimes have trouble deploying your gear or flaps.

Depending on the plane and the design of the gear, you may have to be slower than 150 Mph to allow it to deploy safely.  Same goes for flaps, although most aircraft with "combat flaps" that have multiple stages can deploy the first notch or two of flaps at fairly high speeds.  To be sure you can get your gear and flaps down properly, get slowed down to 150 Mph or so and get your flaps out.  Then get your gear deployed.  If you are having trouble slowing down to get to that speed, use hi-G barrel rolls or turns to burn your extra speed off.  In addition, hold full rudder with a bit of opposite roll and use the large slip angle to slow your plane down on approach.  If your throttle is at minimum, a full rudder slip is the way to decrease speed quickly so you can safely deploy gear and flaps.  

------------------
Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

[Degas]

Thanks, Leph.  I'm figuring it out.  Although the tips on bleeding off your speed are much appreciated.

Trying to land the Spit reminds me of how much of a hassle tail-draggers are  What's working for me is to get lined up from the cockpit, with the seat jacked up, then switching to chase view to actually land.

On the other hand, I'm wasting the drones now, sometimes two without having to reload    Onward and upward!

Next item on the agenda:  formation flying with a drone.

[terracota]

well you will need , the "Common In-Flight abbreviations" to comunicate with others, you can start at the VMF-115 joe´s jokers web site at :  http://www.reddragons.de
you can find there too a very good articles on radio setup ,joystick setup etc.

Terra
VMF-115 "Joes Jokers"


[This message has been edited by terracota (edited 04-14-2001).]

[Lephturn]

The Spit can be a handful to land for several reasons, not the least of wich is that it retains energy extremely well at low speed.  You can't stop those little buggers.  It's narrow landing gear adds to the problem.    Just get slowed down in plenty of time, and get your flaps down and gear down.  Line up, and manage your sink rate carefully, watch the gauge and keep it above -1k or as close to 0 as you can.  Feed in a bit more throttle if needed to make the end of the runway.

Once you touch down, apply brakes by hitting the spacebar.  Use your rudder to keep yourself going straight, and as you slow down you can use your wheel brakes to steer as well.  I forget off the top of my head what the wheel brakes are mapped to, but I have mine set to A and D for example.  Most times though, I just use the rudder and the spacebar for both brakes to stop.  When you are slow enough, pull back on the stick to plant your tailwheel so you can steer easily.

Don't become too dependent on external views to land the plane.  When playing online, external views are only available when flying bombers or piloting vehicles and boats.  Practice making your landings from inside the cockpit, because you'll have to do it that way online when flying fighters.  

------------------
Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

[Degas]

Thanks again, Leph.  Yeah, I've been strictly dong TOL's from the cockpit view, although I do raise and lower my seat.

I figured the Spit was a bearcat to handle, compared to, for instance, the P38L (which isn't available offline, anyway).  So I decided to start with it, if you get my drift.  That way, all the others will be more manageable to start with.

Now, a dumb question.  I haven't been able to find any specific info on this.  I'm not familiar at all with Roger Wilco, but I'm learning about it.  It seems that, in order to talk to other players, you need an IP.  Does the Channel V button in AH radio handle this for you in the game?  Or do you still need to manually set up comms outside the game?  How well does AH interact with RW?  Does it have any problem sharing the sound resources (I am using a headset, and it's plugged into the mic and speaker jacks.  So game sounds will be sharing resources with RW voice comms).

I'm flying my first TA session with Mark this afternoon, around 3PM Central.  Just in case anyone wanted to laff at the noob  

[Lephturn]

Hmmm, all planes should be available offline.  I can fly anything offline including the Perk rides that are restricted online in the MA.

Now about RW.  Once you have installed and set up RW, be sure to set it to Wav recording.  Now in AH, hit the Setup button and there will be a button there for Roger Wilco.  Enable RW support, enable auto start if you wish, and disable hosting if you have trouble with it (I do).  You should now be able to simply type a channel number into the V radio box in AH and it will automatically tune for you.  I believe channel numbers under 200 are for in-country communications only, but you should monitor who is on the channel if security is an issue.

This method works pretty well for most folks.  If you are having trouble, you can always manually tune RW as normal.  

------------------
Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

[Degas]

Thanks again, Leph.  And thanks to Mark, who is the trainer I contacted, and who spent some time with me yesterday, and let me ride along to the MA.

I posted some observations under a different thread