Cutting your engine: Valid tactic or Gaming the Game?

[earl1937]

I hate to tell you but gear being down increases drag which slows down the aircraft. Somebody needs to reteach you basic aerodynamics. 

Not sure what his intent was, but the F4U series of aircraft, the main landing gear was used as a "dive" brake and it works pretty good in the game!

[Tumor]

Not sure what his intent was, but the F4U series of aircraft, the main landing gear was used as a "dive" brake and it works pretty good in the game!

"...in a fight is dumb..."  <<<<Pretty much covers it.

[Skyyr]

"...in a fight is dumb..."  <<<<Pretty much covers it.

Ah, the token blanket statement. And people wonder why the majority have such a hard time growing past a certain skill level...

[-ammo-]

I still argue this is a game - not a combat sim in the true sense.  It's fun as can be or I and the many others that have stuck since 1999 would not be here.


As it is a game - if you agree with me, then everything you can squeeze out of your ride in a digital dogfight is a tool available until Dale decides otherwise.  So, I say go for it if it is working for folks.  Skyyr is able to use it effectively. 


Anyone remember "death star B-17s" or the original "bomb**** B-17s"?  The latter would spawn on the runway, wait for the vulcher to get close, and drop his ordinance taking out any closeby vulchers.


I do not doubt the ability to shutdown and restart an engine is realistic based on what I have read from pilots here, but no way do I buy a simple button or key click is realistic, nor do I believe a WWII pilot in his right mind would shutdown his engine to gain an advantage over an opponent (again - gamey tactic).  Oh, and if said pilot had his engine shutdown for whatever reason in a dogfight, I doubt he could keep his eyes on his opponent while investigating the reason of the shutdown and restart the engine

[JunkyII]

Not sure what his intent was, but the F4U series of aircraft, the main landing gear was used as a "dive" brake and it works pretty good in the game!

In this sense yes it can work if you dive in with "too much" E, some pull it out during scissors or rolling scissors...in those cases simple cross control works better for maneuver and dumps a lot of E as well.

[Wiley]

In this sense yes it can work if you dive in with "too much" E, some pull it out during scissors or rolling scissors...in those cases simple cross control works better for maneuver and dumps a lot of E as well.

I practically never used it as an airbrake except it was kind of nice on landing if you were coming in too fast.  I've seen people that liked it for forcing the overshoot.  I always found cross control sufficient to dump E in a fight as well.

'Gamey' things are there for people to use or not.  Is a player morally superior to another for not using combat trim?  What about if you manually trim, but you use it on the ailerons on the 109s that didn't have the capability?

The engine off thing really seems to tweak a lot of peoples' noses because of the relative ease compared to RL that we can restart the engine (varying depending on type), but is it really any much different from having your flaps available at a button click on your HOTAS to be run up and down in the middle of a fight?  I'd be fairly confident saying the stuff the average F4U or P38 guy stallfighting in the game is doing doesn't look much like what was actually done in that plane in a real fight.  Controlling stick, throttle, flaps, throw gear in there as well if one is so inclined...  Not going to happen as fast as it does in game unless you're an octopus.

But is it fun?  Oh hell yes.

Wiley.

[Triton28]

Yes it's gamey.  I'm sure almost every type of aircraft engine can be restarted fairly easily by someone IRL, but I'm also sure the reason you don't see a RL precedent for it is because there was probably a fair chance it wouldn't fire back up.  All depends on the circumstances... which I don't expect and don't really want HTC to bother modeling.

Doesn't matter much though.  Think of it has a crutch for people who can't control the torque of their airplane in a stall.      

[kvuo75]

Yes it's gamey.  I'm sure almost every type of aircraft engine can be restarted fairly easily by someone IRL, but I'm also sure the reason you don't see a RL precedent for it is because there was probably a fair chance it wouldn't fire back up. 

well then there is the whole issue of the ww1 planes and blip switches.

they were shutoff-restarted instantaneously all the time.

[Skyyr]

I'm also sure the reason you don't see a RL precedent for it is because there was probably a fair chance it wouldn't fire back up.

... or because it doesn't actually do anything of benefit in real life.

[Zimme83]

This is a game and has very little with real life to do. Is here so we can pretend we are heroic fighter aces (without the boring stuffs like death etc). We fly planes that looks like the real deal and to some extent replicate their performance and caracteristics. but there are still so big difference btw AH and IRL that pretty much everything we do is "gaming the game". We belive we are top aces but truth is that very few of us would have survived in a fighter during WW2.
 

[bustr]

Very few of us would have passed the physical and then ground school. Let alone basic flight training.

[Zimme83]

Besides that. But it still a game, people should stop pretending its the real deal. it is not.

[ink]

Besides that. But it still a game, people should stop pretending its the real deal. it is not.

QFT

[Stang]

Imagine if mistakenly hitting the E key cause a 5-10 second process just to get the damn thing started again. The windows key is bad enough...

[pembquist]

Wait, what??? This isn't reality??