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[ukulele]

Roll+Pitch will give you the advantage in a turn fight against some one that only uses mouse movements, using keyboard deactivates the "instructor" wich can be an ashole if you are flying only using the mouse.

[Ozyton]

I didn't know that about the instructor, I haven't really noticed if the instructor really does anything. haven't been playing enough. May have to give it a try, as turning with the mouse + keyboard ailerons seems like it would be similarly effective either way. if I do switch the elevation controls I'd need to find a key to manage engine power...

[ukulele]

I have the pitch on Ctrl and shift, as i played lots of FPS, and they are usefull in very few situations, i honestly been playin only historical, but the instructor basically takes care that you dont do anything "bad" and tries to keep stuff simple, you are going to stall? instructor will max the throttle and pitch down the plane, you are rolled to one side? instructor will try to level the aircraft, etc etc.

[Spaghetti7]

I've started having a fiddle with this (on Historical, cuz Arcade is kinda bullshit) and, despite not ever completing a multiplayer mission with my Hurricane intact, I have had some good matches. My best so far was a defense of Sicily one, in which I shot down 4 enemy aircraft before having to crash land after a 112 (forgot the letter before the number, but hey) emptied half of its ammo in to me while I led it on a merry jape around the coast.
Good fun.

[ansontan2000]

My guess: Heinke He-112, not a B-0 because those things have far too little ammo to historical battle.

[Cthulhu]

I swear to god half the people playing this game are secretly goats or something.

That or they think planes can form up into voltron when you smash them together.

In other whiner news, the Italian planes are awful.  I spent three magazines of the breda gun on one BF-110 and didn't do anything to him (and yes, I was hitting him)

Questions:  1, does jamming on the WEP damage the engine?  A couple times I've unexpectedly found myself flying a big metal kite.  And 2, how exactly do the ammo racks work?  Does the gun cycle through the ammo types bullet by bullet, or is there some secret button to change it?

[sluissa]

Italian planes aren't that bad, better than the early German choices you get, as far as fighters go. Still nothing compared to the bf-109s when you get them though. The 110 seems to be somewhat hard to kill if you're just firing at it from the back, unless you get lucky, take out his elevator, and just wait for him to plow into the ground. If you've got the extra speed on him, try some over and under attacks to get shots in from the top and bottom.

Answers: 1, Only in historical or full realism. In arcade it'll just take away your WEP mode for a few seconds if you use it too much. In historical though, you can overheat and damage your engine by using WEP too much. Each plane is different as far as how much is too much, but most planes with cockpits have a fairly obvious temperature gauge. Try not to let it rise too much above normal operating temperature.

2, each ammo rack has a list of the shots that are in it. When the gun fires, it fires those shots in order, then repeats. So, for example. AP-AP-AP-AP-AP-T, would fire 5 armor piercing shots and one tracer shot, then repeat. Some of the racks can get pretty complicated, but in general the names fit them well enough to just ignore the exact loadout they have. I tend to prefer anything with more incendiary rounds in it, unless I know I'll be required to attack a lot of ground targets with my guns, in which case I'll switch to more AP rounds.

As for using the keyboard commands when in mouse aim mode: You'll almost never be able to get the same response out of the mouse as you will the keyboard if you need to do a hard turn. Just try doing a 180 turn with only the mouse and then do the same thing using the keyboard.

I've personally stopped playing for a while. I still go back in once in a while, because I do find this the best game out there of the type, but it's still got serious problems, especially in the area of Russian flight model bias and economy. I would love to be able to give the jets a try, but it just seems like I'll never actually make it to that point.

[ansontan2000]

Jets...are great if you're an American or Luftwaffe player, as they are pretty much the epitamy of energy fighting, something you'll have to get used to flying P-51s and Bf109s which will get horribly outmaneuvered in a dogfight. On the other hand, having to adapt to playing them after having used the Spitfires/Zeroes and Ki-61s is a bitch. Altogether, don't get excited over playing them, as you'll just be setting yourself up for a letdown.

The Italian planes are actually pretty damned fun to fly for me, and I had quite a bit of success with them before swapping to Bf109s. The He-112 B-0 has a 20mm cannon if you're having trouble killing stuff at rank 4.

Sluissa is pretty much spot on on the ammo-rack, and as a general rule I would stick to Incendiaries for low tier dogfighting then start using stealth ASAP unless you're historical battling. Use stealth when dealing with bombers, as not seeing the shots coming really lets you get close and unleash a burst straight at them.

[sluissa]

I am an energy fighter player, in general, although I do like me some British dogfighting on occasion. My best, and favorite planes though are the Airacobras and the Bf-109 F-4's just unlocked. I also sort of like plowing through furballs with the A-20. That odd little bomber can outrun basically anything it's put up against in a dive.

I can do well in the russian planes, but I can't really say I enjoy any of their fighters. Plus it just feels cheap playing them. And I've just left Japanese planes to rot. I just can't get used to their fragility, although the new heavy fighters (which look exactly like the russian Pe-3's which I love) could breathe new life into that nation for me.

[lastverb]

British dogfihting? You can do that in spitfires, but beaufighters are excellent boom-n-zoomers and can get you in shape for those meteors. They are slow while zooming, so dont loose your energy staying on low altitude.

[sluissa]

Beaufighters are pretty good dogfighters as well though, for their size. Excepting maybe the Pe-3s from the russian tree, I think they're the best turning heavy fighters in the game. (Although the japanese heavy fighters seem to turn well too, but I've not tried them). They definitely out turn anything the US or Germans can put up though.

I've even out turned Bf-109s in a Beaufighter. The spitfire is a dog fighter, no denying that, but I'd say the hurricane is as well. Not great at it, but it's got a better chance in a turning fight than trying to run given it's low top speed. Overall, I'd say the british tree is more dogfighter-ish than boom and zoom. Exceptions exist, of course.

[ansontan2000]

The Japanese Ki heavy fighters are downright overpowered. They turn like zeroes, are unbelievably hard to shoot down, and have 37mm cannons at rank 4/5. I personally think that they're till using a placeholder flight model, as there is no way a heavy fighter would outturn a spitfire.

[Spaghetti7]

Alright, after a bit more slugging through the British on this, I have a question:
What advantage does the MkII Hurricane have over the MkI? I mean, it may have 4 more guns, but what use are they with such appalling maneuverability? I can't get into a turning battle with anything and not immediately stall, let alone actually be able to face them. It even manages to perform poorly as a boom-and-zoom due to its rather dubious top speed, which ain't actually all that great.

You may have sensed I like the MkI.

[Cthulhu]

So the early HE fighters on the German side, are they BNZ or dogfighters or what?  I haven't had much luck trying to tango with people but I also have issues with BNZ (though maybe that's just inexperience).  When I try that I end up going so fast I can't even turn to aim and if I weren't in arcade I'd probably be dead.

[ukulele]

In my experience all of the german fighters are better at BnZ except maybe the 109E. Regarding low level germans, most of them are REALLY bad except maybe the mc200 and mc202, just hang on there and try to grind to lvl 7. Or if you prefer to dogfight maybe change nations, also most of the german advantages (climb rate, energy retention, etc) are almost non existant in arcade battles so if you expect to stay in arcade maybe you should switch nations, in arcade firepower is usually king.