Had my first IL-2 Dream last night

[Zak33]

and it involved my trusty Yak-9....

I haven't flown for over a week, cos its just too damn hot in my cockpit (spare bedroom) and I didn't think I was missing it too badly.

Until this dream,in my trusty Yak9.......and had a dogfight (which I lost, so it was quite a realistic dream) and got pushed further and further towards the ground, and was badly running outta options......low speed and stuff....

and then got warped back to 3000 metres.....where I then got hampered and attacked over and over by ME109's.....and then when I was permantently being chased and not getting loose of the enemy.....I was warped back up to altitude again

Suffice it to say, it was horrid....and very similar to real life IL2 gaming.....never the Victor of the Aggressor

So the simple thing I gotta ask is this......why am I always the chased....never the chaser?

At what point is it obvious that I am always gonna be canon fodder eventually.......

Most of you have shot me down, some more than others.......and I wonder if its me always aiming in front of the enemy.......should I be looking to aim to fly in behind them?

That sounds daft, cos OBVIOUSLY I wanna be BEHIND them to shoot them.....BUT, if I make a deliberate attempt to fly in behind they simply turn tighter and shoot me.

I have a nasty feeling that as my gunnery skills are sadly lacking, that learning the Booming Zooming style may become my downfall.....and thats sad. I however must face facts that I cant just drop on someone from 3000 metres and hit them in one pass.....I think TiG is getting there, cos he was telling me (drunk as a skunk mind you ) about his hit rate....

Or am I just trying too hard to get a kill every flight....should I just be proud to fly, and shoot and land in one bit

Clearly some people are better at stuff than others, and my joystick skills are better than before IL2, but as an example, it would be hard for me to beat ANY of the Marlins even once outta 10 attempts.

Trig and Dak and Skii and Deck would clearly whoop me most times.....Tumlbe and Clingy are very suportive, but I think they both out fly me.

I feel a bad thing arriving in my head.....

I feel the Day of Defeat arriving....when I admit I aint gonna be a fighter pilot

It took a dream....... to realise this. Maybe it was a divine message...not like Ventrillo at all

I know I have the right plane.....Ive even read about the beast and the Yak9's clearly did the job in the right hands. Although I do note with some hint of confidence that I never get shot down by Yak9's on line.....it aint popular at all.

Deckard and I played a couple of weeks ago, trying various guns and planes....it was the day Hexus was wrecked.

I was in lead plane......I went external......got infront of my own plane, and looked back at it....Deck tucked in behind and let rip at various ranges.....

Some of those canon hits were HARD HITTING......La7 I think (3 canon job) was a beast.

We changed positions....and its then you realise that you aint good enough.....cos even on an even flight, I was not hitting at the same rate as Deck.....

so perhaps.......Marlins could start a driving game squadron

HIT ME PEEPS......what am I gonna do? Give up on [MA]Zak33 and just play for laughs?

[Zak33]

Thing is.....she's just so BEAUTIFULL

[TiG]

Well, where to start, - lets make you feel better about dreaming about computer games, - I do it religiously, can't help it, brain while asleep processes lots of information about what i've played and i regularly find myself playing BF1942, Port Royale, Xwing, FB in my sleep. Damn sad i know.

I haven't played FB for a week or so with the heat either, but when i did last week i just found everything going so well, 3 dynamic fighter missions on a trot, on veteran level from the campaign config file, 3 missions, 4 enemy fighters shot down, and survived and landed on the runway on all the missions.

I'm almost certain that i'd still struggle taking on Dak etc, but that just needs more practise. I feel more confident trying to pull manoevers to get them off my back, (which is one of the most difficult skills in the game without doubt imo)

I dunno if this helps, but if you can see them, and see which way they are going pulling into their turns, don't scrub off too much speed and try and gain a speed advantage on your enemy, gain this and you can get seperation distance and they might become bored of following you watching you go away .01 distance at a time. If you get to a 1k distance you might be able to do a loop and take a pop at them head on.

I find if i can get round on the back of someone, thinking of where they are going to be in 3 seconds time, helps me line my plane up, if they dive, dive immediately and put your plane, 3 seconds ahead of theirs, so when they do pull up you are right there, quick blast of machine guns and cannons and if you can't keep on them, obtain seperation speed and line up for another run.

I'll put my track up tonight if i remember so that you can take a look at what i've learnt against bombers.

1 word for you cannon thing, Combat flaps, ABSOLUTELY essential imo, you get to .2 distance, with speed advantage stick combat flaps down, get some shots off, which MUCH better accuracy and then flip back out if you need to regain speed.

I've found my ability to kill enemy planes increase no-end with combat flaps at the point of trigger finger going...

Maybe we should play some BF1942 when we get the FB lan up and running, and you can run about in a nice SOLID tank

TiG

[[MA]DanglyBob]

OK Zak,

First thing to realise is that, in campaigns or online wars, you may not get a kill every outing.... just be happy getting back alive.

Out turning the enemy. That Yak ought to out turn most 109s, play with it a bit more, if you're not on the verg of blacking out or stalling in a turn, you can guarantee the guy behind you is.
Try dropping your combat flaps just before you turn, but also try not to lose too much speed/ Energy.

Right, now gunnery skills.
This is just a matter of finding out what works best for you, in terms of range to open up at, convergence and deflection shooting. Lets ignore deflection shooting for the moment.

Set your convergence to 200m on cannon, and 300m on guns.
These might not be comfortable for you, but we'll just start here.

Set up a quick game with friendly bomber aircraft (They're bigger )and icons on. You can even turn the arcade mode on in the config file if you like.
Now fly in behind your friendly target and close to 300m....slowly.
sit there for a while steadying the aircraft. now gently bring the crosshairs to rest on the target and open up with a quick burst of the machine guns.
If things are playing fair you should see debris start to fly off. if you dont, just raise the crosshairs slightly so you're aiming at the top of the tail, if this doesn't work try lowering them slightly, use the graduations on the crosshair as a guide.

Once you're happy (though the bomber wont be ;-)) close to 200m and try the same with the cannons, but only use short bursts, those big guns will knock your plane off course.
Now you can back out to 300m again and try to hit the bomber with cannon fire, but because the convergence is set at 200m you'll have to aim a little higher than at 200m, and vice versa at 200m with MGs.

Just keep practising, remember that the closer you can get to your target, the bigger that target will appear in your sights and tyhe easier it is to hit.
Find a distance that you like, and set the convergence for that.

[Zak33]

Originally posted by TiG
and you can run about in a nice SOLID tank

TiG

Spetic Tank?
Fish Tank?
Fuel Tank?

Seriously though...that lot is what I mean....I know you have improved, and I aint marching on so fast....which is a shame.

I am loathe to use flaps cos I want to keep my speed........getting within .2 and HITTING the plane with my plane.....I can do that

[TiG]

Sherman Tank or M10, or Panzer 3.
Any WWII tank you want

FB should be a team sport, i can't really say we've played as a team yet, team tactics makes up a lot of what FB is about, I think if you have chance to do a mini lan before the end of september we should, These gremlins about flying can't get you down.

Its just finding a way to make you happy with your plane/combat tactics, i'm sure it applies to driving cars fast, that there are different driving styles that work, and i'd say maybe its just a matter of understanding some things a bit better. Knowing that if the plane has just come past you face on, its not advisable to just turn flat, put some height into the turn and you can turn quicker, rudder seems to help me turn better as well. I think this routine will get you a better shot at getting on someone's six. But this isn't something i've mastered yet...

IF you do get on someones tail, i've followed them for minutes on end waiting for the right shot before opening up, as long as you are behind them you can control the fight.

TiG

[Hat]

TRIM TRIM USE DA TRIM!

Zak I promise I'll teach ya what I know (which aint v much) as soon as I can... Im just away from home a bit atm...so not near my beloved joystick.

I'll take ya on patrol up and down the eastern front

Ask Dak about our first flying lesson and the sudden revelations about what difference a nicely trimmed aircraft makes to a steady gunsight... and the difference a steady gunsight makes to a good aim.

And as Bob said.... coming back alive is priority No1.... ... if ya can bag a brace of baddies in the process so much the better. But dont forget.. you got the square root of fook all of ammo in that Yak... so you gotta make them count... and then have enough left over to scare off any nasties trying to get ya on the way back from battle.

Im sooooo missing my FB ......

[Zak33]

OK....trim it is tonight

I normally trim it to fly level and off I go.....but if it takes time to get it really right.....that might be of some real assistance.

Dangly.....I oftern play the bomber attack idea, but I try my best NOT too follow in behind cos it doesn't really work online....however, in terms of "practice" it is very definately possible that I ran before trying to walk. Following Trig and Dak helped immensely, specially in learning to "try" to tail gate someone, but I have to say, it is SO hard to get on someones 6 in a real game.

Hence my adoption of the "drop from og high" and bugger off at 600kph afterwards......

I can calcualte the E stuff better in my head than ever before, in terms of kinda feeling where I should be over and above an enemy, but the "snap" shots taken as I fly by at 600kph are totally beyond me.

Tell you all what....I launch a mean torpedo from an IL2 though

Skii and I played for a short while on line recently and the thing that bemused me the most, was his ability to see me when I tried to evade, but I totally lost him in a scissors manouvre.

I think the hardest thing is hatswitch operation.....I even tried left handed mouse use....

right.......thanks guys for the moral booster...

I'll go again then

[McMav]

I have analysed your dream and tbh you are sexually frustrated.

Go get yerself a copy of playboy and have a posh one aswell

[[MA]DanglyBob]

Mavs got a point,

Relaxation... Works a treat

And trim.

And once you know where you're ropunds are landing, you can start thinking about deflection....

[Lowe]

Someone buy me a new PC so I can play FB and I'll show you stuff Zak.

I miss my P39

[TiG]

Lowe, providing there is space at the Mini lan event at the end of September, I can be persuaded to bring both my machines along if you wanted to play. You would need to find a monitor, joystick etc, but its more than powerful enough to play fb.

TiG

[Zak33]

Originally posted by Lowe
I miss my P39

Its a BRICK

I learned some important lessons in the Jug as well.....now THAT involves preserving E cos it falls outta the sky

[[GSV]Trig]

Originally posted by Lowe
Someone buy me a new PC so I can play FB and I'll show you stuff Zak.

I miss my P39

What happened to your old rig Lowe, I remember hours of flying about trying to get you off my 6....

[Lowe]

Oh, it's OK one on one, but a Rad 8500 and a 1.4 AXIA just aint got the muscle for much more than that.

Plus 256 meg means I end up with a swap file the size of devon on the hard disc. Very slow.

[McMav]

Aye but you got a fast car now