Since my win/loss rate is kinda hosed went and gave up on trying to stay in tier. It's a good bit more amusing just slotting in the newest plane instead of trying to jump tiers with a full set. Seemed kinda pointless to try anyway with the battle rating not matching tiers.
Thanks for the earlier tip on disabling instructor when near ground. Managed to get 5 caps one game since the plane no longer needs a 10,000 foot runway.
1.41 Preliminary Patch Notes! It's light on the plane stuff but HERE COME THE FUCKING TANKS!
The Development Server will be opened between 15:00 GMT - 21:00 GMT
This is subject to change and not all content may make it into the final release.
1.41.5.2 Dev
General
Shadows on all setup settings has been greatly improved and optimised.
Kursk and Krymsk locations have been updated.
Damage Model of AA units has been significantly changed to nearer reflect real AA units.
Foliage has been updated in tank maps.
Damage Models:
Changed ricochet chance for all types of shells at different impact angles. Chance to ricochet at extreme angles has been increased for all armour piercing shells, HEAT shell ricochet chance has been significatly reduced.
Fixed repair algorithm for the gun breech and the gun barrel. Now these modules will be fully restored after the repair.
Improved damage model of the tanks with add-on armour elements (add on plates, shields, additional tracks etc), now these objects will have the correct material and qualities. They are correctly included in the damage calculation after being hit.
Fixed damage model of all anti air defence and artillery under AI control. Now their hitboxes more accurately represent the sizes of the weapon and the unit, fortification elements (bund walls, sand bags) will now protect the weapon from shell damage.
Fixed 100mm shells: BR-412 and BR-412B
Weapons:
Fixed reliability parameters of the T-160 20mm cannon. The length of uninterrupted fire has been decreased, weapon overheat will cause certain spread .
Added variant of the ammo belts for BK-5 and MK-214A 5cm(50mm) avia-cannons with Armor-piercing high-explosive shells.
Other:
Improved visual effects from hits on ground or ground targets for large-calibre avia cannons.
Fixed visual effects from fragmentation and cumulative shell hits on ground targets.
Fixed rare occurrence of additional tail and wing debris being shown
Battle statistic UI has been modified. Destroyed AI controlled vehicles and aircraft are now displayed separately from the player controlled vehicles and aircraft.
Speed boost on research has been separated for aviation and ground forces.
Added variants of “To Battle” for aviation and ground forces.
Added new Aircraft:
USSR:
- IL-10 with АМ-42 engine, serial production of year 1946 (4 rank)
- I-185 with М-71 engine, reference model (4 rank)
- MiG-3 with АМ-35А engine, mod. 34 (2 rank)
USA:
- North American PBJ-1H (3 rank)
- North American PBJ-1J (3 rank)
Britain:
- Supermarine Spitfire F Mk.XIVe (4 rank)
- Supermarine Spitfire F Mk.XIVc (premium) (4 rank)
- Supermarine Spitfire F Mk.XVIIIe (4 rank)
New cockpits added:
Japan.
- Ki-45 ko
- Ki-45 tei
- Ki-45 otsu
- Ki-45 hei
FM Changes
All new planes have been set up with their own flight modules.
Changes in modifications and armaments:
Germany:
- MK.214a - 50mm cannon for Me.262C-2b has been added and tuned.
- Fixed limitation bomb load dropping for loads on Ju-87
Britain:
- Added bomb pylons for Fairey Swordfish that will allow it to take 4 250 pound bombs.
USA:
- M4 - 75mm cannon for PBJ-1H has been added and tuned.
- Added bomb pylons for F4U-1a that allows it to take one 500 or 1000 pound bomb.
Changes in the research trees:
Germany:
- Me.410A-1/U4 and Me.410B-2/U4 are moved to 4th rank and separated from the main line of the two-engine fighters.
Their research leads to Me.262A-1a/U4 Pulkzerstorer fighter.
In new variant they are positioned after Hs.129, but its research is not required.
USA:
- PBY-5, PBY-5a are moved to the adjoining bomber line.
- OS2U-1, OS2U-3, SBD-3, TBF-1 are separated to one line with new PBJ-1H and PBJ-1J
Missions and Maps
Kursk and Krymsk locations have been updated.
New location has been added “Spain”
New mission has been added “[Operation] Spain”
New mission has been added “[Ground Strike] Spain”
Added Ground Forces for Open Testing.
List of Ground Forces added to the game during CBT (1.41 additions are marked in italics):
USSR:
KV-1E
Т-35
Т-34E
SU-122P
BT-7 mod.1937
GAZ-ММ with anti-air cannon 72-К
IS-1
IS-2 mod. 1943
IS-2 mod. 1944
IS-3
IS-4М
ISU-122
ISU-122С
ISU-152
KV-1 with L11 cannon
KV-1 with ZIS-5 cannon
KV-2 mod.1939
KV-85
SU-100
SU-122
SU-152
SU-76М
SU-85
SY-85М
Т-26 mod.1940
Т-26E
Т-28
Т-34 prototype
Т-34 mod.1940
Т-34 mod.1941
Т-34-57
Т-34 mod.1942
Т-34-57 mod.1943
Т-34-85 with D-5Т cannon
Т-34-85 with ZIS-S-53 cannon
Т-44
Т-50
Т-54 mod.1951
Т-60
Т-70
Т-80
ZIS-30
Germany:
PzKpfw 38(t) Ausf.F
Jagdpanzer 38(t) (Hetzer)
Flakpanzer I ausf. A
Sdkfz 6/2 Flak36
Aufklarungspanzer 38(t)
PzKpfw 38(t) Ausf.A
PzKpfw II Ausf.C
PzKpfw II Ausf.F
PzKpfw III Ausf.E
PzKpfw III Ausf.F
PzKpfw III Ausf.L
PzKpfw III Ausf.M
PzKpfw III Ausf.N
PzKpfw IV Ausf.C
PzKpfw IV Ausf.F
PzKpfw IV Ausf.F2
PzKpfw IV Ausf.G
PzKpfw IV Ausf.H
PzKpfw V Panther Ausf.D
PzKpfw V Panther Ausf.A
PzKpfw V Panther Ausf.G
PzKpfw V Panther Ausf.F
Panther II
PzKpfw VI Ausf.H Tiger
PzKpfw VI Ausf.B Tiger II (Porscheturm)
PzKpfw VI Ausf.B Tiger II (Henschelturm)
PzKpfw VI Ausf.B Tiger II mit KwK46
Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. A
Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. F
Jagdpanzer IV L48
Panzer IV/70
Panzerbefelhswagen Jagdpanther
Panzerjager Panther
Panzerjager Tiger
Panzerjager Tiger (P) Ferdinand
PzKpfw 748/2(a) (captured М4А2 Sherman)
Yeah, I hate games that let you turn off foliage. I mean, here I am, sitting in this dense bush hiding, but because you needed to "optimize your FPS" I'm basically sitting in the open.
So you're in a match where you are supposed to shoot down medium tanks, pillboxes, and airfield/base buildings. Well, if all you have is a fighter with 7mm guns, you can't do any of that. You're a complete waste.
So you try to dogfight. You're a british fighter, you're supposed to be good at dogifghting right? NOPE! Even in a spitfire, the best and most agile of the british fighters, you get outurned, outfought, and outshot by a crappy little russian biplane.
I just left the match. What is there to do as a fighter? That's four british losses in a row. My russians pretty much always win first try. I can't believe how crappy british bombers are. The 'upgrade' to the blenheim, the beaufort, has no nose guns and carries the exact same (tiny) bomb load.
So you're in a match where you are supposed to shoot down medium tanks, pillboxes, and airfield/base buildings. Well, if all you have is a fighter with 7mm guns, you can't do any of that. You're a complete waste.
So you try to dogfight. You're a british fighter, you're supposed to be good at dogifghting right? NOPE! Even in a spitfire, the best and most agile of the british fighters, you get outurned, outfought, and outshot by a crappy little russian biplane.
I just left the match. What is there to do as a fighter? That's four british losses in a row. My russians pretty much always win first try. I can't believe how crappy british bombers are. The 'upgrade' to the blenheim, the beaufort, has no nose guns and carries the exact same (tiny) bomb load.
They're both light bombers. It doesn't matter what kind of plane you're in in arcade because everything's going to be able to turn with you and not lose any speed in the turn.
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ApogeeLancks In Every Game EverRegistered Userregular
So you're in a match where you are supposed to shoot down medium tanks, pillboxes, and airfield/base buildings. Well, if all you have is a fighter with 7mm guns, you can't do any of that. You're a complete waste.
So you try to dogfight. You're a british fighter, you're supposed to be good at dogifghting right? NOPE! Even in a spitfire, the best and most agile of the british fighters, you get outurned, outfought, and outshot by a crappy little russian biplane.
I just left the match. What is there to do as a fighter? That's four british losses in a row. My russians pretty much always win first try. I can't believe how crappy british bombers are. The 'upgrade' to the blenheim, the beaufort, has no nose guns and carries the exact same (tiny) bomb load.
The Ruski bi-planes are indeed bullshit. However, they're just as fast as most bi-planes, which is really slow. Boom/zoom them in anything else and they're toast; if you have incendiary ammo of any type they'll go in in flames in one pass.
So you're in a match where you are supposed to shoot down medium tanks, pillboxes, and airfield/base buildings. Well, if all you have is a fighter with 7mm guns, you can't do any of that. You're a complete waste.
So you try to dogfight. You're a british fighter, you're supposed to be good at dogifghting right? NOPE! Even in a spitfire, the best and most agile of the british fighters, you get outurned, outfought, and outshot by a crappy little russian biplane.
I just left the match. What is there to do as a fighter? That's four british losses in a row. My russians pretty much always win first try. I can't believe how crappy british bombers are. The 'upgrade' to the blenheim, the beaufort, has no nose guns and carries the exact same (tiny) bomb load.
As a fighter in those matches you should go bomber hunting; or fly escort for your sides bombers but that can be dicey in a pub match since pub bombers like to dive to ~500m where they are easy prey.
The British T2+ bombers(Wellingtons and the Lancaster) are really good strategic bombers and the Typhoon is a decent fighter/bomber but yea, in T1 leave bombing to the other countries.
And holy mother of god, domination is the single stupidest game mode in the history of gaming.
I really prefer it at tier 4ish, personally. Simply because the alternative is every base being nuked in the first minute of the game once bombers can carry the payload to destroy one in a single pass. My personal favorite though are maps without minibases where actual ground targets occasionally get attacked.
A bunch of the Dom maps are really stupidly designed though.
So you're in a match where you are supposed to shoot down medium tanks, pillboxes, and airfield/base buildings. Well, if all you have is a fighter with 7mm guns, you can't do any of that. You're a complete waste.
So you try to dogfight. You're a british fighter, you're supposed to be good at dogifghting right? NOPE! Even in a spitfire, the best and most agile of the british fighters, you get outurned, outfought, and outshot by a crappy little russian biplane.
I just left the match. What is there to do as a fighter? That's four british losses in a row. My russians pretty much always win first try. I can't believe how crappy british bombers are. The 'upgrade' to the blenheim, the beaufort, has no nose guns and carries the exact same (tiny) bomb load.
Low tier brits are kind of painful. Set your gun convergence comically low (100-300) with the MG heavy planes or you won't kill a thing. But stick with it because their 20mm cannons are GLORIOUS.
So you're in a match where you are supposed to shoot down medium tanks, pillboxes, and airfield/base buildings. Well, if all you have is a fighter with 7mm guns, you can't do any of that. You're a complete waste.
So you try to dogfight. You're a british fighter, you're supposed to be good at dogifghting right? NOPE! Even in a spitfire, the best and most agile of the british fighters, you get outurned, outfought, and outshot by a crappy little russian biplane.
I just left the match. What is there to do as a fighter? That's four british losses in a row. My russians pretty much always win first try. I can't believe how crappy british bombers are. The 'upgrade' to the blenheim, the beaufort, has no nose guns and carries the exact same (tiny) bomb load.
Just outrun the biplanes. An A6M2 is pretty much the only monoplane that has a chance to beat a chaika in a flat turn fight. Just outrun biplanes and use energy fighting tactics and they're as good as dead. If you're feeling ballsy and want to try some fancy maneuvers, try vertical corkscrews. Managed to outmaneuver a chaika with an F2A back in the day by doing a super tight corkscrew until the chaika stalled out, then I ruddered over and lit it on fire. Extremely low chance of success, but hilarious when it works.
Spitfire MKII is a surprisingly good bomber hunter with the stealth ammo rack (HEF-SAPI rounds Mmmmm). Get that and spend each match protecting and hunting bombers and the matches slow down significantly.
Domination's objective IS stupid silly, but its at least an objective any plane can contribute to by default. Something for fighters to fight over and protect, and targets for bombers that need bombing. TO EACH THEIR OWN! LOOK! PANCAKE BUNNY!
That essentially means it's impossible to play british in low tiers. Your turn fighters get destroyed by russian biplanes, your bombers are shit, and in tier 2, everything is apparently decided by bombing. There are pillboxes, heavy tanks, destroyers, etc, on all maps. Apparently they are all immune to mgs, which is all I have on my fighters. Once I lose my (terrible) bomber I am out of the match. Or maybe I am not understanding the victory conditions? Some matches have ended abruptly before one side has lost all their vehicles or bases. Is there some hidden win condition? They still have planes flying around so it's not like they lost because they ran out of aircraft?
I feel like beneath the blatant russian favoritism and the terrible terrible mission design, there's a fun game somewhere. But every single mission design I've seen is abjectly horrible. Domination is just...it is literally impossible to be more retardedly idiotic. An air combat game where you win the game by landing on an airstrip and getting out of your airplane. The very idea should have made everyone on the dev team puke in horror the instant it was brought up. Trying to kill the targets getting to the airfield is good, trying to control the airspace over the airfield is good. But having to land on the airfield to win is just...uuuuuugh. I can't even muster up the indignation that none of my teammates are interested in landing their planes. Why would they be? They want to play an air combat game, not mario kart.
Ground strike is just playing pacman in aircraft and has it's own problems. But at least it's not 100% unrealistic the way domination is. There actually were aircraft tasked with killing ground targets. It just wasn't all aircraft all the time. No aircraft were ever tasked with landing their plane deep inside enemy territory on the runway to 'capture the airfield'.
And no point low tier fighters to go after bombers. They can't kill them. I've spent entire matches shooting 7mm mg rounds into pby's or h6ks. Of course, a russian biplane can blow a beaufort completely in half, as just happened to me last game.
And that's after you spend 5 minutes straight just trying to gain the altitude to get up there. Some of my fighters simply can't even seem to reach the altitude the bombers are. So what happens is I climb and climb and climb and climb and then I either can't actually get up the last couple of km, or I get instantly set on fire by incendiary rounds, or I shoot tons of rubber balls at the bomber as it leisurely goes about its business.
I feel like if I can't be killing ground targets in my british fighter, there's little point to having it. He's certainly not out turning people to death in arcade mode. The hurri2b can at least get rockets so he wont' be limited strictly to weapons that can't hurt tanks.
As a bomber, I seem to have to dive to low altitude to hit anything. The missions on which they put strategic bombers bear no relation to the mission strategic bombers were placed on in real life. No strategic bomber ever made was sent to go kill a specific pillbox or tank. The very notion is idiotic. Obviously you can't hit these tiny/moving targets at the level strategic bombers really flew at. So you try to kill airfields or bases but the cloud cover gets in the way so you can't do that either. My last 3 matches in a row I had to dive down to <1500 m to get below the cloud cover.
I'm not even sure why the actual bomb sight is less accurate than the brown targetting circle in 3rd person view. In the bomb sight, you have the crosshair, and then a little wandering dot. I try dropping two bombs one when the crosshair and one when the wandering dot are over my target (some stationary object like a pillbox that isn't moving) and both bombs miss.
I drop a single bomb when the 3rd person targetting circle turns red and nail the pillbox every time. I can't figure it out - I would think the 3rd person mode would be less realistic, not more so.
I need some actual video that explains the precise mechanics of aiming with the bomb sight. The closest entak video I found basically said to just lead the target, but lead it with what? I have no idea which part of the bomb sight is telling me where the bomb will fall. I see two options, both of which in my experience have been reliably wrong.
My british planes are doing by far the worst because americans and germans can both boom and zoom quite well, which lets you not get into turning wars with ridiculous russian biplanes. I have no idea what to do as a british fighter. And the british bombers are terrible, so you can't fly those either! I have no idea how to get to a tier where british are any good (are they ever any good?)
On the flipside of British planes performing worse than they should, I suppose I should point out planes that perform better than they should - the series of brewster buffalos are very solid planes that are quite capable given their armament and way, way, way, more maneuverable than they were historically. They're actually a lot of fun.
In reality the buffalo was obsolete by the very beginning of the war.
On the flipside of British planes performing worse than they should, I suppose I should point out planes that perform better than they should - the series of brewster buffalos are very solid planes that are quite capable given their armament and way, way, way, more maneuverable than they were historically. They're actually a lot of fun.
In reality the buffalo was obsolete by the very beginning of the war.
The Buffalo didn't lack for maneuverability in real life. The early models especially were praised for their agility by pilots like Pappy Boyington. It just wasn't as maneuverable as the Zero (nothing was), and lacked any other advantage over the Zero to give it a fighting chance. The Zero outclassed the Buffalo in every way, but you could make a good case for the Zero being the best fighter in the world at that time and it outclassed everything it was running up against in 1941-42. If it hadn't been fighting the Zeke all the time the Buffalo would probably be remembered merely as a mediocre early war fighter rather than as a disaster.
In the hands of the Finnish air force, the Buffalo punched well above its weight against Soviet aircraft right up through 1942 and '43. The Finns loved those little crates. P-39 was a similar deal...remembered as a deathtrap suitable only for ground attack by the Americans in the Pacific, but beloved by the Russians and piloted by some of their top aces on the Eastern front.
The Buffalo in WT feels pretty much right to me: competitive against planes in its own tier, outclassed by fighters a tier higher (like the Zero) but still dangerous to some if well-flown.
On the flipside of British planes performing worse than they should, I suppose I should point out planes that perform better than they should - the series of brewster buffalos are very solid planes that are quite capable given their armament and way, way, way, more maneuverable than they were historically. They're actually a lot of fun.
In reality the buffalo was obsolete by the very beginning of the war.
The Buffalo didn't lack for maneuverability in real life. The early models especially were praised for their agility by pilots like Pappy Boyington. It just wasn't as maneuverable as the Zero (nothing was), and lacked any other advantage over the Zero to give it a fighting chance.
In the hands of the Finnish air force, the Buffalo punched well above its weight against Soviet aircraft right up through 1942 and '43.
The early models yes, but the later model, the F2A-3, the one actually used in the war by the US, added a lot of weight and had substantially reduced maneuverability compared to the early models. The RAF wound up buying some and concluded they were pretty much only a match for Italian biplanes (who were also bad planes and essentially obsolete by the time the war started).
It wasn't just the zero against which the buffalo had no chance, there was also the oscar.
And some american planes did have a chance against the zero, such as the P-40, which saw good success against the zero in China under Chenault (actually these planes were engaging the Japanese well prior to the incident where the brewster buffalos got massacred at midway). Granted they used the boom and zoom technique, but the buffalo really couldn't do that - which is why it was a pretty obsolete plane. The P-40 itself was nothing amazing and very quickly replaced, as it was flatly inferior to the bf109 with which germany started the war - and the buffalo wasn't even remotely as good as the p-40. The P-40 was considered unfit for duty in western europe. The buffalo was considered unfit for duty in western europe back in 1940 (The RAF bought some from the US).
Punching well above your weight against soviet aircraft is nothing to be proud of as the soviet early war aircraft (and air doctrine/training/pilots) were abjectly horrible, many orders of magnitude worse than britain, germany, or japan.
Basically the complete opposite of how they are portrayed in game
The buffalo was considered obsolete well before the US entered the war and the Navy had already discontinued it as a fighter.
In game, it handles really really well! And has quite good guns for the tier. I have no difficulty chasing down hurricanes with it, for example.
The early models yes, but the later model, the F2A-3, the one actually used in the war by the US, added a lot of weight and had substantially reduced maneuverability compared to the early models.
Yes, I said the early models were more maneuverable. Doesn't mean the later ones were objectively un-manuverable. Just not maneuverable enough.
The RAF wound up buying some and concluded they were pretty much only a match for Italian biplanes (who were also bad planes and essentially obsolete by the time the war started).
The Buffalos the British had were neutered versions with a less powerful engine and more weight. Remember the British also hated and rejected the P-38 because they got a neutered export version of that, too.
It wasn't just the zero against which the buffalo had no chance, there was also the oscar.
Which was better than the Buffalo for the same reasons the Zero was. All Japanese fighters of that era were born of the same doctrine - lightweight, fragile focused on delivering incredible maneuverability above all else.
And some american planes did have a chance against the zero, such as the P-40
I didn't say no American plane had a chance. I said no American plane in that era was as good, and I don't think you'd find many aviation historians who disagree. American pilots found ways to hold their own against the Zero by developing tactics based on teamwork and exploiting the few advantages their planes had, like dive acceleration. This turned out to be a smart way to fight which served the US in good stead for the rest of the war. Doesn't change the fact that they were initially forced to adopt these tactics because their planes couldn't match up to the A6M in a "fair" fight.
Punching well above your weight against soviet aircraft is nothing to be proud of as the soviet early war aircraft (and air doctrine/training/pilots) were abjectly horrible
It is something to be proud of considering how outnumbered the Finns were, and that most of the Soviet aircraft, as mediocre as they were, were still newer and more advanced than the Buff. Also, the Russians had their shit together by 1943 and the Finns were still beating them in Buffalos. There were even Buff kills scored by the Finns in '44.
I am not saying the Buffalo was a good plane, I'm just saying that it wasn't the total joke people act like it was...it got that reputation by being measured against the standard of "Could it fight a Zero?," which was a nearly impossible standard.
He does almost entirely low level 'dive bombing' for which the 3rd person cursor works very well for me. I am quite accurate with it- however I am usually very quickly shot down
He doesn't show as much of the strategic high level bombing, and the bit he does show of the bombing sight didn't seem to show the little wandering dot of confusion. Perhaps they made bombs less accurate later on?
I've been trying to raise the crew skill that supposedly decreases the spread on bombs, but I have no idea at what level I would need it to be to see significant returns.
My favorite things to bomb so far are cargo ships as they are big and fat and huge and barely move (if at all)
Tier 1 British with the relatively new system seem like they could be a pain. You don't really have much of note other than the Hurricane Mk I.
But if you're having trouble at Tier 2 I'm not sure what the problem is.
The Beaufighter is usually a beast, just try to line up your target well in advance (even if it's relatively nimble for a heavy fighter).
Just lay on people with the MG-laden Hurricanes and early Spitfires (someone mentioned 100-300 m convergence; I'd recommend against that, but keep in mind that MGs tend to trail off sooner than cannons. I still go with 500 m. Maybe use tracers for 1 round so you can see how the rounds tend to fall and then switch to stealth so you can more easily catch people unaware. Don't aim right for the reticle, aim ahead of it relative to their flight path). Same for the early Typhoon (although its rating is high enough that you'll probably get saddled with a ton of cannons from Russian planes) and early tier 3s).
The Spitfire IIb is brutal once you get the upgraded cannons and can sustained fire for more than 1 second. I still use it in my tier 3 line up (same with the Hurricane Mk IIB).
The Wellingtons can be great if you don't get picked off by the bomber hunters (especially if you can get the 4000 lb bomb onto a heavy cruiser, battleship or base). In my experience, the white circle dot is the actual bomb-aiming reticle (zoom in, then cut throttle to like 30% for a few seconds as you approach). Leading targets just takes practice and a little memorization for altitude. Flying level at 3000 m at 350 km/, the aim point is about the radius of the reticle off, I think. Keep in mind that ground targets can and will start to take evasive action.
It may not seem like it, but you are more nimble that most of the planes around you (yes, even in Arcade). Get some G-tolerance on your pilots so you can make tighter turns without blacking out. Use the elevator keyboard controls for tighter turns. While you're turning circles with enemies, aim a bit ahead of the reticle (not at it). 12 MGs and 8 MGs give you plenty of opportunities to damage vital things (...like pilots). You're probably not going to be shearing any wings off like the Russians, but you've got plenty to defend yourself with.
...The Tier 1 and Reserve planes are terrible, though. Try the premium Havoc if you really need something to bomb with (and potentially shoot things with, since it has 4 MGs). Tier 2 is really the British sweet spot. Tier 3 starts getting filled with German planes bristling with cannons. The Typhoons and Spitfires with cannons can compete, but Bf 109 + cannon pods is easy mode in Arcade (where you don't have to deal with the poor flight mechanics that them pods were historically notorious for).
Also, Domination is a huge pain with British planes because they have moon-sized propeller blades. They're very hard to speed-land.
But if you're having trouble at Tier 2 I'm not sure what the problem is.
Just lay on people with the MG-laden Hurricanes and early Spitfires (someone mentioned 100-300 m convergence; I'd recommend against that, but keep in mind that MGs tend to trail off sooner than cannons. I still go with 500 m. Maybe use tracers for 1 round so you can see how the rounds tend to fall and then switch to stealth so you can more easily catch people unaware. Don't aim right for the reticle, aim ahead of it relative to their flight path). Same for the early Typhoon (although its rating is high enough that you'll probably get saddled with a ton of cannons from Russian planes) and early tier 3s).
The Spitfire IIb is brutal once you get the upgraded cannons and can sustained fire for more than 1 second. I still use it in my tier 3 line up (same with the Hurricane Mk IIB).
The Spit IIb is pretty nice.
All the other single-engine Britplanes at Tier 2 are more or less in the same infuriating position of being able to outfly most opponents if you handle them well but then being unable to follow through because the .303 machine guns are just so pathetic, even in huge batteries (which actually somewhat exacerbates the problem I think because convergence is more of a problem when your guns are spread out so wide), that actually killing anything with them is a total crapshoot. And at this tier you're going to be seeing a lot of LaGG-3's and P-39's which can end you with a 1-second high-deflection snapshot because lol propspinnercannon, and the Spitfires are fragile enough that it doesn't even take cannon rounds to cripple them quickly.
So basically you end up feeling like even when you do everything as well as possible as often as not there is no reward, or maybe a kill assist at best, while half or more of your deaths come from situations you can't help but feel didn't require any real effort or skill from your opponent at all.
It is
INCREDIBLY frustrating.
Frustrating enough that I quit playing the game for several months after starting with British planes and sticking with them exclusively. Only after picking the game up again and grinding the Brits up to Tier 3 and filling out the other nations tech trees some am I enjoying the game again.
Your turn fighters get destroyed by russian biplanes
While planes are certainly better at somethings than others, don't think of anything as specifically a BnZ plane or specifically as a turnfighter. Yes, Spitfires are very agile, but that doesn't mean you need to turnfight everything. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you propably shouldn't since losing too much speed in a turn will still get you dead. If something can out turn you, BnZ it. If you can out turn something, then do that. With biplanes and Zeroes, then definitely just BnZ them. Come in hard, lay into them, and then pull out while keeping your speed up.
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Mother of fucking god I want one.
Thanks for the earlier tip on disabling instructor when near ground. Managed to get 5 caps one game since the plane no longer needs a 10,000 foot runway.
The Development Server will be opened between 15:00 GMT - 21:00 GMT
HNNNNNNNNNNNRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH
Sadly
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Also I am sad about no flying wing.
Patch 1.41, the rise of Swordfish.
Now that I have BR of 2.3, I'm always in with a BR of 3.3, and the matches seem to get decided very quickly by all the bases being blown up.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
No, there's not special spot, it's all a matter of size and number of bombs
So you're in a match where you are supposed to shoot down medium tanks, pillboxes, and airfield/base buildings. Well, if all you have is a fighter with 7mm guns, you can't do any of that. You're a complete waste.
So you try to dogfight. You're a british fighter, you're supposed to be good at dogifghting right? NOPE! Even in a spitfire, the best and most agile of the british fighters, you get outurned, outfought, and outshot by a crappy little russian biplane.
I just left the match. What is there to do as a fighter? That's four british losses in a row. My russians pretty much always win first try. I can't believe how crappy british bombers are. The 'upgrade' to the blenheim, the beaufort, has no nose guns and carries the exact same (tiny) bomb load.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
Yes, indeed, they are bullshit of the highest order.
Don't worry that's not you.
They're both light bombers. It doesn't matter what kind of plane you're in in arcade because everything's going to be able to turn with you and not lose any speed in the turn.
The Ruski bi-planes are indeed bullshit. However, they're just as fast as most bi-planes, which is really slow. Boom/zoom them in anything else and they're toast; if you have incendiary ammo of any type they'll go in in flames in one pass.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
As a fighter in those matches you should go bomber hunting; or fly escort for your sides bombers but that can be dicey in a pub match since pub bombers like to dive to ~500m where they are easy prey.
The British T2+ bombers(Wellingtons and the Lancaster) are really good strategic bombers and the Typhoon is a decent fighter/bomber but yea, in T1 leave bombing to the other countries.
I really prefer it at tier 4ish, personally. Simply because the alternative is every base being nuked in the first minute of the game once bombers can carry the payload to destroy one in a single pass. My personal favorite though are maps without minibases where actual ground targets occasionally get attacked.
A bunch of the Dom maps are really stupidly designed though.
Low tier brits are kind of painful. Set your gun convergence comically low (100-300) with the MG heavy planes or you won't kill a thing. But stick with it because their 20mm cannons are GLORIOUS.
Just outrun the biplanes. An A6M2 is pretty much the only monoplane that has a chance to beat a chaika in a flat turn fight. Just outrun biplanes and use energy fighting tactics and they're as good as dead. If you're feeling ballsy and want to try some fancy maneuvers, try vertical corkscrews. Managed to outmaneuver a chaika with an F2A back in the day by doing a super tight corkscrew until the chaika stalled out, then I ruddered over and lit it on fire. Extremely low chance of success, but hilarious when it works.
Spitfire MKII is a surprisingly good bomber hunter with the stealth ammo rack (HEF-SAPI rounds Mmmmm). Get that and spend each match protecting and hunting bombers and the matches slow down significantly.
Domination's objective IS stupid silly, but its at least an objective any plane can contribute to by default. Something for fighters to fight over and protect, and targets for bombers that need bombing. TO EACH THEIR OWN! LOOK! PANCAKE BUNNY!
Win rate on British planes I'm currently running:
spitfire mk1 a: 0%
beaufort mk viii: 14.3%
hurricane mkiib : 20%
My lowest russian win percentage is 60%.
I feel like beneath the blatant russian favoritism and the terrible terrible mission design, there's a fun game somewhere. But every single mission design I've seen is abjectly horrible. Domination is just...it is literally impossible to be more retardedly idiotic. An air combat game where you win the game by landing on an airstrip and getting out of your airplane. The very idea should have made everyone on the dev team puke in horror the instant it was brought up. Trying to kill the targets getting to the airfield is good, trying to control the airspace over the airfield is good. But having to land on the airfield to win is just...uuuuuugh. I can't even muster up the indignation that none of my teammates are interested in landing their planes. Why would they be? They want to play an air combat game, not mario kart.
Ground strike is just playing pacman in aircraft and has it's own problems. But at least it's not 100% unrealistic the way domination is. There actually were aircraft tasked with killing ground targets. It just wasn't all aircraft all the time. No aircraft were ever tasked with landing their plane deep inside enemy territory on the runway to 'capture the airfield'.
And no point low tier fighters to go after bombers. They can't kill them. I've spent entire matches shooting 7mm mg rounds into pby's or h6ks. Of course, a russian biplane can blow a beaufort completely in half, as just happened to me last game.
And that's after you spend 5 minutes straight just trying to gain the altitude to get up there. Some of my fighters simply can't even seem to reach the altitude the bombers are. So what happens is I climb and climb and climb and climb and then I either can't actually get up the last couple of km, or I get instantly set on fire by incendiary rounds, or I shoot tons of rubber balls at the bomber as it leisurely goes about its business.
I feel like if I can't be killing ground targets in my british fighter, there's little point to having it. He's certainly not out turning people to death in arcade mode. The hurri2b can at least get rockets so he wont' be limited strictly to weapons that can't hurt tanks.
As a bomber, I seem to have to dive to low altitude to hit anything. The missions on which they put strategic bombers bear no relation to the mission strategic bombers were placed on in real life. No strategic bomber ever made was sent to go kill a specific pillbox or tank. The very notion is idiotic. Obviously you can't hit these tiny/moving targets at the level strategic bombers really flew at. So you try to kill airfields or bases but the cloud cover gets in the way so you can't do that either. My last 3 matches in a row I had to dive down to <1500 m to get below the cloud cover.
I'm not even sure why the actual bomb sight is less accurate than the brown targetting circle in 3rd person view. In the bomb sight, you have the crosshair, and then a little wandering dot. I try dropping two bombs one when the crosshair and one when the wandering dot are over my target (some stationary object like a pillbox that isn't moving) and both bombs miss.
I drop a single bomb when the 3rd person targetting circle turns red and nail the pillbox every time. I can't figure it out - I would think the 3rd person mode would be less realistic, not more so.
I need some actual video that explains the precise mechanics of aiming with the bomb sight. The closest entak video I found basically said to just lead the target, but lead it with what? I have no idea which part of the bomb sight is telling me where the bomb will fall. I see two options, both of which in my experience have been reliably wrong.
My british planes are doing by far the worst because americans and germans can both boom and zoom quite well, which lets you not get into turning wars with ridiculous russian biplanes. I have no idea what to do as a british fighter. And the british bombers are terrible, so you can't fly those either! I have no idea how to get to a tier where british are any good (are they ever any good?)
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
At tier 3 I am warming to the Typhoon Ib, albeit played pretty much completely with BnZ tactics.
In reality the buffalo was obsolete by the very beginning of the war.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
The Buffalo didn't lack for maneuverability in real life. The early models especially were praised for their agility by pilots like Pappy Boyington. It just wasn't as maneuverable as the Zero (nothing was), and lacked any other advantage over the Zero to give it a fighting chance. The Zero outclassed the Buffalo in every way, but you could make a good case for the Zero being the best fighter in the world at that time and it outclassed everything it was running up against in 1941-42. If it hadn't been fighting the Zeke all the time the Buffalo would probably be remembered merely as a mediocre early war fighter rather than as a disaster.
In the hands of the Finnish air force, the Buffalo punched well above its weight against Soviet aircraft right up through 1942 and '43. The Finns loved those little crates. P-39 was a similar deal...remembered as a deathtrap suitable only for ground attack by the Americans in the Pacific, but beloved by the Russians and piloted by some of their top aces on the Eastern front.
The Buffalo in WT feels pretty much right to me: competitive against planes in its own tier, outclassed by fighters a tier higher (like the Zero) but still dangerous to some if well-flown.
Those are some nice beautiful tight turns!
I will have to practice.
I hadn't thought of using landing flaps...doesn't that slow you down?
When you say 'no mouse control' what does that mean?
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
The early models yes, but the later model, the F2A-3, the one actually used in the war by the US, added a lot of weight and had substantially reduced maneuverability compared to the early models. The RAF wound up buying some and concluded they were pretty much only a match for Italian biplanes (who were also bad planes and essentially obsolete by the time the war started).
It wasn't just the zero against which the buffalo had no chance, there was also the oscar.
And some american planes did have a chance against the zero, such as the P-40, which saw good success against the zero in China under Chenault (actually these planes were engaging the Japanese well prior to the incident where the brewster buffalos got massacred at midway). Granted they used the boom and zoom technique, but the buffalo really couldn't do that - which is why it was a pretty obsolete plane. The P-40 itself was nothing amazing and very quickly replaced, as it was flatly inferior to the bf109 with which germany started the war - and the buffalo wasn't even remotely as good as the p-40. The P-40 was considered unfit for duty in western europe. The buffalo was considered unfit for duty in western europe back in 1940 (The RAF bought some from the US).
Punching well above your weight against soviet aircraft is nothing to be proud of as the soviet early war aircraft (and air doctrine/training/pilots) were abjectly horrible, many orders of magnitude worse than britain, germany, or japan.
Basically the complete opposite of how they are portrayed in game
The buffalo was considered obsolete well before the US entered the war and the Navy had already discontinued it as a fighter.
In game, it handles really really well! And has quite good guns for the tier. I have no difficulty chasing down hurricanes with it, for example.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
Yes, I said the early models were more maneuverable. Doesn't mean the later ones were objectively un-manuverable. Just not maneuverable enough.
The Buffalos the British had were neutered versions with a less powerful engine and more weight. Remember the British also hated and rejected the P-38 because they got a neutered export version of that, too.
Which was better than the Buffalo for the same reasons the Zero was. All Japanese fighters of that era were born of the same doctrine - lightweight, fragile focused on delivering incredible maneuverability above all else.
I didn't say no American plane had a chance. I said no American plane in that era was as good, and I don't think you'd find many aviation historians who disagree. American pilots found ways to hold their own against the Zero by developing tactics based on teamwork and exploiting the few advantages their planes had, like dive acceleration. This turned out to be a smart way to fight which served the US in good stead for the rest of the war. Doesn't change the fact that they were initially forced to adopt these tactics because their planes couldn't match up to the A6M in a "fair" fight.
It is something to be proud of considering how outnumbered the Finns were, and that most of the Soviet aircraft, as mediocre as they were, were still newer and more advanced than the Buff. Also, the Russians had their shit together by 1943 and the Finns were still beating them in Buffalos. There were even Buff kills scored by the Finns in '44.
I am not saying the Buffalo was a good plane, I'm just saying that it wasn't the total joke people act like it was...it got that reputation by being measured against the standard of "Could it fight a Zero?," which was a nearly impossible standard.
He does almost entirely low level 'dive bombing' for which the 3rd person cursor works very well for me. I am quite accurate with it- however I am usually very quickly shot down
He doesn't show as much of the strategic high level bombing, and the bit he does show of the bombing sight didn't seem to show the little wandering dot of confusion. Perhaps they made bombs less accurate later on?
I've been trying to raise the crew skill that supposedly decreases the spread on bombs, but I have no idea at what level I would need it to be to see significant returns.
My favorite things to bomb so far are cargo ships as they are big and fat and huge and barely move (if at all)
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
But if you're having trouble at Tier 2 I'm not sure what the problem is.
The Beaufighter is usually a beast, just try to line up your target well in advance (even if it's relatively nimble for a heavy fighter).
Just lay on people with the MG-laden Hurricanes and early Spitfires (someone mentioned 100-300 m convergence; I'd recommend against that, but keep in mind that MGs tend to trail off sooner than cannons. I still go with 500 m. Maybe use tracers for 1 round so you can see how the rounds tend to fall and then switch to stealth so you can more easily catch people unaware. Don't aim right for the reticle, aim ahead of it relative to their flight path). Same for the early Typhoon (although its rating is high enough that you'll probably get saddled with a ton of cannons from Russian planes) and early tier 3s).
The Spitfire IIb is brutal once you get the upgraded cannons and can sustained fire for more than 1 second. I still use it in my tier 3 line up (same with the Hurricane Mk IIB).
The Wellingtons can be great if you don't get picked off by the bomber hunters (especially if you can get the 4000 lb bomb onto a heavy cruiser, battleship or base). In my experience, the white circle dot is the actual bomb-aiming reticle (zoom in, then cut throttle to like 30% for a few seconds as you approach). Leading targets just takes practice and a little memorization for altitude. Flying level at 3000 m at 350 km/, the aim point is about the radius of the reticle off, I think. Keep in mind that ground targets can and will start to take evasive action.
It may not seem like it, but you are more nimble that most of the planes around you (yes, even in Arcade). Get some G-tolerance on your pilots so you can make tighter turns without blacking out. Use the elevator keyboard controls for tighter turns. While you're turning circles with enemies, aim a bit ahead of the reticle (not at it). 12 MGs and 8 MGs give you plenty of opportunities to damage vital things (...like pilots). You're probably not going to be shearing any wings off like the Russians, but you've got plenty to defend yourself with.
...The Tier 1 and Reserve planes are terrible, though. Try the premium Havoc if you really need something to bomb with (and potentially shoot things with, since it has 4 MGs). Tier 2 is really the British sweet spot. Tier 3 starts getting filled with German planes bristling with cannons. The Typhoons and Spitfires with cannons can compete, but Bf 109 + cannon pods is easy mode in Arcade (where you don't have to deal with the poor flight mechanics that them pods were historically notorious for).
Also, Domination is a huge pain with British planes because they have moon-sized propeller blades. They're very hard to speed-land.
The Spit IIb is pretty nice.
All the other single-engine Britplanes at Tier 2 are more or less in the same infuriating position of being able to outfly most opponents if you handle them well but then being unable to follow through because the .303 machine guns are just so pathetic, even in huge batteries (which actually somewhat exacerbates the problem I think because convergence is more of a problem when your guns are spread out so wide), that actually killing anything with them is a total crapshoot. And at this tier you're going to be seeing a lot of LaGG-3's and P-39's which can end you with a 1-second high-deflection snapshot because lol propspinnercannon, and the Spitfires are fragile enough that it doesn't even take cannon rounds to cripple them quickly.
So basically you end up feeling like even when you do everything as well as possible as often as not there is no reward, or maybe a kill assist at best, while half or more of your deaths come from situations you can't help but feel didn't require any real effort or skill from your opponent at all.
It is
INCREDIBLY frustrating.
Frustrating enough that I quit playing the game for several months after starting with British planes and sticking with them exclusively. Only after picking the game up again and grinding the Brits up to Tier 3 and filling out the other nations tech trees some am I enjoying the game again.