AhrimanPK posted:

Why we Mumble Part 2 : The Goons Strike!



Thanks to everyone I flew with tonight. If it wasn't for that one defeat I would have had 20 in a row

shiffty posted:

How to make:

1. Go to http://streambadge.com/
2. Follow the three steps, so it generates a code at the bottom that looks like this:

code:

[url=http://twitch.tv/ishootplane][timg]http://streambadge.com/twitch/light/ishootplane.png[/timg][/url]

az posted:

Made by another goon who is too shy to post it himself

Nerses IV posted:

Heliosicle posted:

SkySteak posted:

Thief posted:

TURN OFF GROUND AVOIDANCE!
It makes it easier to land on carriers even with damaged planes. (

Dominic White posted:

If you put your activation codes from Wings Of Prey and Wings Of Luftwaffe (I bought both on Steam) into your Gaijin account, you get 500 and 300 Eagles respectively. All the campaign content from both of those seem to be in here now.
http://online.gaijinent.com/activate.php

AlphaDog posted:

Rhopunzel posted:

There's a lot of simple lessons like that a surprising amount of people don't get. Things like:

- Fly where the enemy's going, not where he is
- Never fall victim to target fixation
- Never turn your back to an oncoming target that's closer than 2km away
- Never turnfight a Spitfire or any Japanese fighter
- Be the first one to dodge in head-on engagements, and start shooting just above them from 1km onwards (Also never ever ever do this against a P-39 or a Beaufighter)
- Seriously, don't get target fixated
- Keep track of your previous target if you abandon it for a juicier one
- Know when to disengage and make a run for it. Planes can take a lot of punishment and still have enough maneuverability to do basic evasion
- When disengaging, fly as low as you can and/or hug cliffsides and gun it for your airfield. Spam T and 4.
- Prioritise your targets, if there's one guy who's closer to you but has 3 guys on his tail, and another 0.5km further out with none, you want to go for the latter

I've racked up so many kills due to pubbies not doing stuff like this. Countless times I've disengaged from a fight, gunned it for base with one or more target fixated people on my tail who follow me all the way back to base and get dogpiled. Sometimes I even manage to score the coup de grace to add insult to injury.

Richard M Nixon posted:

Pilot skills

• Keen Vision - Maximum distance you can see stright forward. Important for anyone doing dogfighting or cockpit view. Bombers don't care too much.
  
• Visibility - Distance viewable from periphery (?) I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think it's the distance you can spot enemies more than a few degrees from where your eyes (circle reticule) are pointing. Likely you get less distance/points from this skill than keen vision, as your vision is better straight forward.
  
• G-tolerance - Tolerance of your pilot from blacking out from g-forces. Really important for cockpit view. If you mouse aim, it also improves your aim while turning.
  
• Stamina - Pilots become less responsive the longer they're alive. I haven't noticed too much impact from playing a long time, but this skill reduces the effect.
  
• Vitality - Get shot in the cockpit more without dying?

Gunner skills

• Experienced Gunners - This number should be at least equal to the number your plane says it has or you'll suffer increasingly steep penalties as you have more gunnery skills.
  
• Fire Accuracy - Gunner AI will hit closer to the center of their target (they only target center, not wings)
  
• Fire Precision - Gunner AI will cluster their shots closer together (basically less recoil)
  
• G-tolerance - Gunner AI will be less affected in terms of both accuracy and precision when making turns
  
• Stamina - Gunners can stay alive longer without suffering penalties to accuracy and precision.
  
• Vitality - Gunners can be shot more before they die?

Crew Skills

• Repair Speed - Lowers repair timer when on the ground and the free repair timer in the hangar. Does not (I think) reduce cost of repair.
  
• Repair Rank - for this crew to repair a plane over time for free in the hangar, repair rank must be greater than or equal to plane rank.
  
• Reload Speed - Reload your guns faster in midair in arcade mode (also on the ground)! Incredibly powerful in arcade battles. Seriously, sub-10s reloads.
  
• Healing Speed - Heal your gunners and pilots faster. In midair? Maybe.
  

NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:

The OP is kind of sparse on instruction. But here are some effort posts I made on the game play. There are some basic maneuvers like the Immelmann turn that you should learn to do. Loops and barrel rolls are way underrated and are incredibly useful if you know when to use them.

Here are two things that should be in sirens in the OP. Press Y to force a reload of your guns. Press F to toggle your flaps. Flaps make your plane turn better, in exchange for speed.

The stats in a plane description are almost total bullshit. Take a plane for test flights or dive right into combat, and put it through it's paces. That's the only real way to figure out what it's good at.

Germans, Americans, or Russians are your best bet for learning how to play the game. I'd lean more towards the Russians or Americans, but Germans are more viable than most people think.

Perestroika posted:

Here's a simple lesson for any aspiring pilot:

AlphaDog posted:

How to intercept.



And head on.

Botisych, a Gaijin Admin posted:

Ok, today we speak about one of the hottest questions around - why do they steal my kills and why i can't kill without finishing my prey.

First of all, I have to say we have some good ideas from you on how to make damage taken and inflicted more visible and informative. We have some cool stuff in current development, so things are constantly improving.

Well, all of us had a situations, when you chase your opponent, deal massive damage and turn away, hoping he’s already dead, and some of your teammates put a single burst into your opponent's flaming body and gets a frag, when you receive only “kill assist”. Or when you and your teammate chasing your enemy and some of you gets instant kill - why? Let’s learn how damage model (or DM) works in War Thunder.

Damage model is extremely complex and made after real aircraft prototypes. It counts not only parts damaged, but also HOW these parts were damaged, BY WHAT these parts were damaged and WHAT CONSEQUENCES may have this or that variant of damage. If we speak about mathematical model, damage model is so complex that allows probabilistic elements and differential (dynamically changed) variables. In other words, DM works right as in real life - it’s ambiguous and counts a factor of what we call "luck". This mean you may tear enemy wing with your cannons, and he may have a chance to survive. Or you may kill his internal systems by the single machine gun burst - it is also possible and makes the game interesting.

You also know about different effects damage may have - light or hard, visible or hidden, external or internal. This is the point of our current work here in Gaijin - how to make this damage reports more informative for prey and for hunter. Let’s learn how different types of damage affect your enemy or your plane.

1. Light damage. Regularly not very dangerous, and inflicted mostly by little-caliber weapons. Nevertheless, light damage could easily lead to critical damage when massively inflicted or has consequences (for example, sets fire in the engine)
2. Critical damage - this kind of damage is obviously dangerous and in most cases leads to the death of a plane after some time. Examples - shot off wing, teared away tail, destructed heating system and so on.
3. Lethal damage - instant or progressed critical damage, which left no chance to your aircraft to stay alive. Examples - death of a pilot, teared away propeller, massive internal and external fire.

So, when dogfighting your enemy alone, you may inflict just one or two ‘critical’ wounds to your enemy and left the chase - he hardly managed to get to his airfield to be repaired. On the other hand, when in chasing in a pack of your teammates, you’d better try to inflict as much damage as you can - this will be the guarantee of your victory (and +1 in frag statistics of course). Remember these timings:



- Lethal damage brings instant kill and instant frag.
- Critical damage grants you a frag, if your target is dead during one minute. If your teammates finish your target with non-lethal and non-critical shots, the frag is yours anyway. But if your teammate inflicts critical or lethal damage - the frag goes to him.
- Light damage (without crits), brings you frag when damage is massive enough and target is dead in 20 seconds. If your teammates don’t finish your target with criticals or lethals - this frag is yours.



Let us speak about finishing your opponent and getting frag before your teammate. The major advice is - try to inflict as much damage as possible in the situation. Even critical damage is not a guarantee of a frag. Remember, that some crits are not progressing (like turret gunner knock off), and progressing damage may be stopped (like engine fire in some situations). Also, remember your teammate may inflict lethal damage even to a falling enemy - in this case your frag will go to your teammate.

Know your damage, know how to get a frag, remember about finishing shots - and you’ll be a leader of the statistics chart! Good luck, pilots, and good hunt in the War Thunder skies!

az posted:

az' guide to ammo

Many people have been asking what the best racks are or get confused what's going on in some belts.

There are loads of different ammo racks available in the game. In short, some of the are great, some are okay, and others are complete garbage.
Optimizing your shell racks can make a huge impact. It can mean the difference between getting one kill or a dozen.
Imagine a shell rack represents a belt. Let's say a belt is comprised of AP/AP/AP-I/I, that means it fires two AP bullets, one AP-I, one I and then resets back to the first AP until it runs out. The optimum loadout for cannons is to have 3/4 to 1/4 He to AP rounds.

General rule of thumb is that explosives are pretty much always better than armor piercing for cannons, and don't go balls out on incendiaries because you can't set fire to something on fire and they do no regular damage.

Lastly if you disagree with anything further below please take it up with the GO complaints dept, or talk directly to Ahriman.

Now let's take a look at bullets and shells;

LMG and HMG ammo:
- AP: Best penetration, useful to shred planes through sheer volume.
- AP-I: AP with an incendiary cap, less penetration, less chance to set fire than I.
- T: Straight Tracer, does nothing but technically slows down bullets, decreasing their power.
- Ball: Airsoft.
- I: Straight incendiary cap, no pen but chance to set fire to weak surfaces.
- AI: Adjustment incendiary, explodes in a small puffy explosion on contact, slight chance to set fire to very weak surfaces. Not that good.
- IAI: Russian special AI, more explody, more burny, not totally sure on this one but definitely not that great.

Cannon ammo:
- T: Same malarky. Attaches itself to various other shells, still degrading.
- I: Same thing, bigger and more burny than previously, attaches itself to various other shells.
- FI: Fragmentation Incendiary. Russians use a lot of these, they blow up on contact and frag the surrounding surface. Not bad at all.
- AP and AP-I: Same as before. But armor piercing cannon shells are big enough that they sometimes just pass through whatever they hit and do nothing.
- HEF: High explosive frag, very nice and never a bad choice. Makes big holes in planes.
- HEI(Minengeschoss/mineshot): German special, probably the best shell in the game. Explodes, burns, makes planes go away. Always a good choice.
- HEF-SAPI: HEF+ Semi armor piercing incendiary, British special, good choice.
- HVAP: High velocity ap, not a good choice usually since it passes straight through planes and does diddly all.
- APHE: Armor piercing high explosive, passes through a plane and then explodes inside. Not as good as mineshot for direct damage but awesome critical damage, especially on larger targets.
- P: Practice shell.

And now ammo racks;

US

- 7.62mm B: Are all pretty bad, percentage of Tracers is very high. The only belt that has a good combination is stealth, nice amount of AP and some straight I for setting fires.
- 12.7mm B M2: Ground racks and stealth racks. I prefer ground for planes with 6 guns, the large amount of AP means you can rip planes apart over time or go for straight crithits like on pilots.
- AN/M2 20mm cannon: Default belts. Yep, 2/3rds HEF without crap like Ps or Ts like all the others.



Germans

- 7.62mm MG17: Omni or stealth. I get good results with the Omnis but the stealth looks better on paper. Pick depending on wheter you need tracers or can do with stealth.
- 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT: Stealth.
- 13mm MG 131: All around mediocre choices. Omni for a mix of AP and I and IAI and whatever else is in there.
- 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT: Same as above.
- 20mm MG FF: Omni has the best mix of exploding shells plus one APHE for sweet crits on top.
- 20mm MG 151: Air target, period. Seriously it owns, so much mineshot it makes little planes cry. Some people really like the belt for armored targets with its high amount of APHE for big crits. Stealth belts have a little less mineshots but come with one APHE, not a bad choice for stealthy pilots.
- 30mm MK 103: Air target, mineshot everywhere.
- 30mm MK 108: Stealth for the strongest mix, Omni has the same loadout but has some -T attached which slightly weakens it.
- 37mm BK 37: Air targets, easy call. HVAP in the other belts just passes through planes unless you hit the pilot in the head.
- 50mm BK 5: Air target, armor piercing shells of this size go straight through. Mineshot doesn't.

Soviets

7.62mm ShKAS: APIT first, then stealth.
12.7mm Berezin UB: Ground targets, has one bullet with a cermet core which burns at higher temperatures.
20mm ShVAK: Omni, nice mix of FI and HEF(I).
20mm B-20S: Definitvely Omni. FI and HEF(I).
20mm B-20M: Same as above.
23mm YVA-23: Omni has the best ratio of FI to AP for this gun.
23mm NS-23: Air target, lots of FI.
23mm NS-23K: Same as above.
23mm NR-23: Same again.
37mm NS-37: Air target belt, HEFI-T allround.
37mm N-37: Same as above.
37mm N-37D: Air targets, HEFI party.

British

7.5mm MAC 1934: Why are you playing a french plane, shameful.
7.7mm Vickers E: Lmao it's a reserve plane, who cares (Omni then Stealth).
7.7mm Vickers K: Same.
7.7mm Browning: Omni then Stealth. IT belt is funny for setting light planes on fire but unreliable.
12.7mm B Mk2: Ground for lots of AP is nice but since British planes carry very few .50s, I would probably use stealth for more Is.
20mm Hispano Mk.I: Omni first, then Stealth. HEF-SAPI is nice.
20mm Hispano Mk.II: Same.
20mm Hispano Mk.V: Same Guvnah

Japan

7.7mm Type89: Omni, then Stealth.
7.7mm Type97: And again.
12.7mm Ho-103: Omni.
20mm Type 97: Omni then Stealth.
20mm Type 99mk.1: Omni. Ground if you want to try sawing through bigger planes with increased AP and Is.
20mm Tyoe 99mk.2: Same as above.
30mm Type 5: Seriously why would you put a Practice shell in every belt but tracer?! Omni or Tracer. Omni has HEF-I plus one P, tracer is all HEFT.
37mm Type 94: What the gently caress why doesn't this gun have a belt?!
37mm Ho-203: Seriously Gaijin what is wrong with you.
37mm Ho-204:

Thief posted:

UPGRADES DO NOT MATTER

A -/+ few seconds in turn time is not going to be why you were able to get a shot on target or a plane ran circles around you.

Full climb upgrades only affect whether or not you can take off and fly directly to the center of the map and have an altitude advantage or not. This should not be the deciding factor of flying a plane in a game where all you have to do is point the mouse where you need to go.

The unlock system is just another grind to make players feel like they're making some sort of progress and/or sink premium gold eagles to help fund this free-to-play, not pay-to-win game.

This includes ammo belts, you loving spergs!

Learn to fly. Learn to aim.



CHOOSING A NATION

Literally just pick the planes you think look cool. This game is great in that 99% of the planes are viable (100% in arcade/sim battles). You can fly anything. You should fly everything.

If you're concerned with gameplay:

• Russia is generally considered the best starter nation because they have the best biplanes and most diverse plane types at low Tier.
  
• USA is generally considered the best Era II nation.
  
• Germany is generally considered the best Era III nation.
  
• All nations own at Eras IV-V and teamwork will absolutely decide victories overall across the board.
  

Lots of ammo on lots of .50s. Allows you to take pot shots at people from very far away or switch from air to ground kills better than any other nation. Has the most popular bombers because .50s and large bomb loads. Has amazing diversity and the best premium tree featuring the most iconic planes from other nations (Zero/Spitfire/109). Overall, clearly the best tree if you plan on spending actual money on this game. The only downside to playing this nation is that it attracts bad players. If you're willing to deal with idiotic teammates then this nation is the closest you'll get to having a definitive advantage without relying on others. But teamwork is incredibly loving OP and is what wins battles so do not think you can rely on this alone.

For people who like fly high and go fast in swooping dive attacks then climb back to circle over their enemies like a hawk (this is known as BnZing or "Boom and Zooming", a tactic used by energy fighters. It is called this because you "boom" someone then zoom away before they can shoot back). Not for players that want to focus on turn fighting. There is literally only one turn fighter on the tree and it sucks unless you know what you're doing.

Jack of all trades, masters of none. Their best fighters are capable of both turning and BnZing... but in order to get the most out of them, you have to know whether or not your enemy is a turn fighter or an energy fighter and play against their strengths/weaknesses. This is why Russia starts out as a good for beginners in the beginning but becomes one of the harder nations to play later in the game where other nations start to specialize in whatever niche they fall into. It's also why lists like this have to be made to save some new players some grief.

Even though literally ALL of the trees are good, this one tends to be the underrated and most ignored one. Spitfires are the 2nd best turn fighter in the game where basically the only time you're going to have trouble turn fighting against something is when you're against Japanese A6M# Zeroes or biplanes. Typhoons are basically British cannon versions of the P-47 Thunderbolt (an extremely popular plane because it owns) that are a little bit slower but turn a little bit better. Then you have Brofighters which have a poo poo ton of cannons that shoot forward for being such low level making it very popular amongst arcade players who only care about raw firepower. Like Russia, Britain is basically a "Jack of all trades" nation but their specific planes specialize much, much more in what they do to the point where they're actually secretly experts at it. But nobody cares because they won't play this nation as their first choice when new to this game.

Zeroes are hands down the best turn fighters in the game. But they're slow so the trick is to get people to turn with you instead of chase anyone down because you can't. You've heard of Zeroes, it's probably why you're even reading this in the first place. They're loving badass and you get more of them than you can count. This is the nation to play if you want to be a pro turnfighter zig-zagging through furballs without ever getting hit... because if you get hit, you die. Paper isn't a very durable thing to make planes out of. There are also very agile energy fighters on Japan that are able to switch from diving on people to turn fighting and are basically great at both. This tree also has the best bomber in the game for air-to-air kills, the G8N1 because it has cannons and is unapproachable due to its high rate of climb and overall cruising speed. This is what all the best bomber players fly but its worth noting that USA is the most popular choice for bombers for obvious reasons. Basically, Japan is IMO the best nation to play if you want to minimize the number of bullshit random variables to deal with and win matches via pure skill. It is not popular with new players but very popular with the ones that know what they're doing.

As for JETS, forget about them. I'm not trying to be mean, you're not missing out on anything. I promise. Jets are only in this game to serve very experienced players that have dedicated an insanely nerdy amount of time to a single nation and can afford expensive repairs. Many of us have jets in every nation but that just goes to show how [Lame] we are. My recommendation is to play all of the nations and try not to even think about jets until you have a plane in Era III or IV across the board. Assuming you actually play this game every day then months from now when its time to actually maybe think about which jet you want to pick, go back to the top of this guide and remind yourself to simply pick the one that you think looks the coolest. This is the absolute best way to determine what to fly in this game. Well that or just take advantage of the fact that you can test fly whatever plane you have available to research but keep in mind that every nation gets at least one amazing end-game jet that can compete against anything so don't even try to determine which nation has "the best" jets because they all own.

Wales Grey posted:

This is something I've seen asked a lot and had to tell people about a lot, so let's write up a really short guide:

There are two kinds of ground targets:

1. Mobile (identified as bars or circles)
2. Stationary (identified as an upside-down T shape)

Mobile Targets have two identification symbols: Circles and Bars. As a rule, Circles can be killed by any weapon, while Bars will require bombs or rockets.


Circles:

Armored Car: A catchall for things from SdKfz 250s to M2 Greyhounds. Counts as an objective, depletes enemy team points when killed. Will try to shoot at you, but is awful at it. Not hard to kill once you're out of biplane tiers/have AP ammo.

AAA: Mobile Anti-Air. Usually some sort of half-track with an AA gun in the bed. Not very effective at its job, but if it hits at the right spot it will rip a wing off. Can be easily killed with any/every weapon combination imaginable. Not an 'Objective'.

Patrol Boat: It's a tiny boat with uh, torpedoes? Also some deck AA guns, not real effective though. A bit more durable than armored cars. This is an 'objective' unit.

Vehicle: It's a Jeep. Usually counts as an objective unit, I think? You'll never ever see these in arcade mode though. Dies if you sneeze at it.


Bars (All of these are 'Objectives', except for Carriers):

Light/Medium/Heavy Tank: A bigger, meaner Armored Car that trades the ability to annoy you for being totally immune to machine guns/mostly immune to cannon fire. The difference between the three types is mostly related to how big a bomb you need to kill one with the splash. A direct hit with any bomb will kill any kind of tank. These are almost always objectives. They can and will shoot at you with their big tank guns if you are landed near them!

Destroyer: This ship has one goal in life, to rip your wings off and smash you into the cold, unforgiving ocean. The only things that really hurt these jerks are Bombs (250kg/500lbs or bigger, direct hits) and Torpedoes (???). You can sometimes kill a damaged destroyer by ramming it with your plane, but don't bank on it.

Light/Heavy Cruiser: Destroyers try to protect this guy from you so he can kill other botes. Not too sure how effective it is versus planes, but it takes quite a bit of punishment to kill both flavors. Bombs/Torpedoes again.

Battleship: Kills other ships dead. Can take way too many loving hits. Bombs/Torpedoes, go big or don't bother.

Carrier: It's a floating runway, complete with AA guns. HP is comparable to that of a Battleship, but they're so rare I've not really tested it out.


Stationary Stuff (None of this counts as 'Objectives'):

AAA: Anti-Aircraft emplacement. There are two kinds, the terrible one and the 8.8 cm Flak. Both die really easily to any kind of weapon. Do not charge headlong at a 8.8 cm Flak. It will kill you.

Light/unlabled/Heavy Pillboxe: Stationary Tanks. They're very resistant to splash from bombs, so either make sure you hit or bring the big ones.

Artillery/Howitzer: Big guns that shoot at ground targets. Easy to kill with everything and basically free XP/Lions if you're nearby.


Attack Methods:

Strafing with Guns/Cannons: Line up the target, start shooting at ~.80km or so. Remember to leave space to pull up!

Rockets: Similar to guns, but keep in mind that they have a much steeper ballistic arc than guns. In 3pv/virtual cockpit, you'll have a drop indicator.

Level Bombing: Press F7 to go into bombsight, align crosshair with target, drop bombs on stationary targets. You need to lead mobile targets by a fair bit to actually hit them.

Dive Bombing: The easier way to bomb mobile targets. Get over/near a target, nose down around 50~60 degrees, line up the target in your divebomb sight, and drop 'em. The giant red crosshair will start to turn red when nearing a "direct hit". Again, any size bomb will kill any tank with a direct hit. If your craft has a F7 bombsight, your divebomb crosshairs will be less useful.

Dive Bombing (Naval): As above, but set your fuses for 0.5 second, the bomb will smash through the deck and explode inside the ship. You can only set your fuse timers before you hit the button to launch your plane!

Torpedo Bombing: Tricky but insanely effective. Basically, fly level between 100m and 30m, drop torpedos between 1km and 1.5km out to give you time to dodge the ship. There's a good tutorial for this ingame. Please note that torpedoes are very, very slow. Launching from ~1 km out means your torp usually takes around 15 to 20 seconds to hit the target. Be very, very careful trying to do this near destroyers!


Tools of the Trade:

Machine Guns:

7mm: Don't bother shooting hard targets. Even the Russian guns are pretty bad at ground attack.

12mm/.50cal: Mostly effective on soft targets, especially with Freedom Bullets (USA Ground Attack belts). Still doesn't hurt tanks/bunkers/big ships.


Cannons:

20mm: Don't bother shooting hard targets. Kills soft targets really fast, but probably a waste of ammo.

30mm/37mm: You could in theory hurt tanks with a ground attack belt, but the air target belts are way better at killing planes.

40mm: Bombs were invented for a reason, use them instead.


Bombs:

Tiny (<=100lbs/50kg): Usually seen strapped in small numbers to fighters or en-masse on bombers, this bomb has a pitifully tiny splashzone (~10 feet) and needs 2+ direct hits to kill pillboxes of any sort. Useful for either carpetbombing a line of soft targets (Armored Cars, AAA, Arty, etc.) or for killing a 1-2 tanks every five minutes. Dropping 10+ these over a shortish area is fun! The only use these have on naval targets are Cargo Ships or Landing Craft. Maybe PT boats, but it'd be better to attempt bombing tanks with these.

Small (250lbs/100kg): Similar to the tiny bombs, they just have a larger splash zone (~40ft?). Will break light pillboxes on direct hits. Don't drop below 25m, unless you've set the fuse for >1 second.

Medium (500lbs/250kg): The workhorse of bombs, this has a big splash zone, and can sometimes kill tanks if you're off a bit. 2-3 of these with .5 sec fuses will sink anything smaller than a heavy cruiser with a couple direct hits.

Large (1000lbs/500kg): This is some serious ordinance. Will almost assuredly kill any tank it lands near, and will crush pillboxes, and destroyers (with the .5sec fusing). Battleships/Carriers will take ~4 or so? Do not drop with impact fusing below ~70m! You will break your everything.

Lardass (2000lbs/1000kg): When you absolutely need to loving kill it. Usually about twice as powerful as a large. Do not drop below 100m!

Grand Slam (10t): JESUS WHY. (May be making an appearance in this game?)


Rockets:

Small (~8cm?): Funtimes, make sure you hit (within of 5ft of) your targets! Good on everything except big boats and pillboxes.

Big (Not the small ones): Bigger and slower, these will almost assuredly gently caress up any plane you hit with one of these. Slightly larger splash zone than the small rockets, but same target profiles.

Torpedoes:

Small (<1000kg): Will sink anything short of a battleship or carrier with a direct midship-ish hit. Or a head-on bow hit. Be aware that the Mk. XII has only a 1.4 km range.

Large (~1000kg): Kills everything dead, except battlehips

Big Boy (~1500kg): I AM THE MASTER COMMANDER OF THE SEAS. Make sure you lead correctly.


Ordinance Note:

Japan has a couple varieties of some ordinance, and the following ordinance types are SPECIAL.

Type 99 mod 80 (1000kg): Anti-Ship bomb designed to hurt ships. It only has 30kg or so of explosives, but will punch right through 150mm of steel. Set fuse for .5 sec, and only use on naval targets.

type 92 mod 50 (500 kg): 500kg Anti-Ship bomb. Penetrates ??mm of steel. Use on boats as above.

type 99 mod 25 (250kg): 250kg Anti-Ship bomb. Penetrates 50mm of steel. Use on boats as above.

type 98 mod 25 (250kg): 250kg Anti-Structure bomb. Penetrates 400mm of reinforced concrete. Set fuse for .5 sec and use on ???.

type 97 mod 6 (50kg): 50kg Anti-Structure bomb. Penetrates 200mm of reinforced concrete. Actually a HE bomb that happens to punch through concrete, letting it kill pillboxes easily.

type 91 mod 2: Torpedo "designed for shallow waters". Less explosive filler than the mod 3, use on harbor assault maps. (Pearl Harbor, that one fijord map etc.)


edit:

Base Bombing:

You need bombs that are at least 250kg/500lbs to hurt a runway. It also takes ~16,000kg/40,000lbs of bombs to kill a runway. Two or three bombers that can fit the big boys can bomb out a runway in around five minutes or so, and it's worth a lot of lions/XP to do so. Not sure if the re-arm fees for the big bombs totally cancel out the earnings though.

kalstrams posted:

7.62 mm | Browning M-2-AN - 820-890 m/s
12.7 mm | Browning M-2 & Browning M-3 - 860-920 m/s
20 mm | AN/M2 & AN/M3 / FMC T-160 - 840-880 / 1030 m/s
37 mm | M-4 & M-10 - 609 m/s


7.62 mm | Breda-SAFAT / MG 17 - 730 / 755-800 m/s
12.7 mm | Breda-SAFAT - 765 m/s
13 mm | MG 131 - 750-800 m/s
20 mm | MG C/30L / MG FF / MG 151 - 900 / 580-600 (700 for M-geschoss) / 850-880 (780) m/s
30 mm | MK 108 / MK 103 - 540-550 / (700) 860-940 m/s
37 mm | BK 3.7 - 780-1170 m/s
50 mm | BK 5 - 500 m/s
75 mm | BK 7.5 - 792 (AP) / 550 (HE) m/s


7.62 mm | ShKAS - 825 m/s
12.7 mm | Berezin UB - 814-850 m/s
20 mm | ShVAK / B-20S & B-20M & B-20E - 815 / 750-800 m/s
23 mm | NS-23 & NS-23K / NR-23 / VYa-23 - 690-700 / 690 / 900 m/s
37 mm | NS-37 / N-37D - 675-690 / 665-700 m/s
45 mm | NS-45 - 780 m/s


7.7 mm | Vickers E / Browning / Vickers K - 744-775 / 761-864 / 762 m/s
20 mm | Hispano Mk. I / Hispano Mk. II / Hispano Mk. V - 850-880 / 860 / 830 m/s
47 mm | Vickers P - 808 m/s


7.7 mm | Type 89 / Type 92 / Type 97 - 820 / 740 / 745 m/s
12.7 mm | Ho-103 - 780 m/s
13.2 mm | Type 3 / Type 2 - 795 / 750 m/s
20 mm | Type 99 mk 1 / Type 97 / Type 99 mk 2 / Ho-5 - 600 / 750 / 750 / 750 m/s
30 mm | Type 5 - 760 m/s
37 mm | Ho-203 - 570 m/s
57 mm | Ho-401 - 495 m/s

This should include all guns currently in game. I hope I have got them all.

Zaodai posted:

The other main thing I would say to people who just start playing:

When you first start out, you'll usually be in old, WW1 style biplanes. They turn like magic, and when you're in low tier games everything is very intuitive and easy. Many players (myself included) will hit a wall once they get up a few ranks and the planes suddenly stop going exactly where you point them instantly, and some nations start getting away from turn fighting. This is normal! It will take you a little while to adapt to the "new" style, but once you've got it down, there won't really be any more huge curveballs coming your way.

Just don't give up because suddenly everything feels different and you don't know why you went from getting 12 kills a game to 2 kills a game for awhile.

Artless Meat posted:

The single most important thing to do: bind a key for acrobatic smoke.

Elendil004 posted:

So with the bomb sight, if im at an odd angle, and drop a bomb, will it fall on the direction indicator, or the crosshairs, or somewhere in between?

TskMgr posted:

Dont drop bombs at an odd angle, but yes, the bomb target takes your planes speed/angle/pitch/etc into account.

Elendil004 posted:

Look sometimes you've got jerry on your tail and or he's shot off your stabilizer and you just need to get a few bombs off before you auger in...for freedom.

Elendil004 posted:

Is there a cap on free xp?

Artless Meat posted:

The single most important thing to do: bind a key for acrobatic smoke.

Edit: vvvvvv didn't realize they added a default binding then. New single most important thing: change your smokes color to something obnoxious.

Arcsquad12 posted:

Could you edit in the tweak to bind different guns to different keys? With cannons and machine guns having different velocities and drop rates, keeping the two separate not only conserves ammo, but can make you more accurate.

mlmp08 posted:

By default, they are separately bound, aren't they? I have left mouse as everything, 1 as mg, 2 as cannon and I don't think I set that up special.

mlmp08 posted:

By default, they are separately bound, aren't they? I have left mouse as everything, 1 as mg, 2 as cannon and I don't think I set that up special.

TskMgr posted:

How's the Yer2 fair as a bomber, I like the idea of having a 20mm cannon turret and triple 1000kg with and 20 100kg bombs, but something tells me all that weight is gonna be hard to fly with.

TskMgr posted:

Dont drop bombs at an odd angle, but yes, the bomb target takes your planes speed/angle/pitch/etc into account.

Basically all the bomb target does is take your planes relative velocity into account, whether your turned 90 degrees or leveled out your plane is still only flying in a single direction, and the reticule is basically an indicator of your current forward travel. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

Pr0phecy posted:

My joystick is broked. Can I play and compete at high levels with keyboard + mouse?

Pr0phecy posted:

My joystick is broked. Can I play and compete at high levels with keyboard + mouse?

Fauxtool posted:

its very good. Look at the repair costs. Some of them are cheaper to fly and have a slightly smaller payload.
The weight doesnt matter in arcade because you can drop your bombs at the start of every match and climb. The payload makes them excellent at bombing out the enemy airfield.

Their turrets arent anything special, you get lucky kills sometimes, but you arent really that durable.

TskMgr posted:

I'm thinking its probably more a long term project then, gonna cost me drat near 3 million lions to get to the lvl 12 tiers. bombers are such a pain in the rear end, and from what i hear the thing is nigh impossible to resupply in HB due to its take-off distance.

I seem to do way better at killing ground targets in my IL-2 anyways, I regret dropping the 370k now.

Dominic White posted:

I'm still kinda shocked at how much singleplayer/co-op content the game has. It seems to contain everything from Wings Of Prey + Expansion, plus a ton of new stuff like dynamic campaigns. You also get a few hundred Golden Eagles if you own the aformentioned earlier games in the series.

It looks like there's a bunch of pacific-theater stuff available in-game for those of sufficient rank in their respective nations. What exactly does the Campaigns Bundle give beyond the funbux and two planes?

Dominic White posted:

I'm still kinda shocked at how much singleplayer/co-op content the game has. It seems to contain everything from Wings Of Prey + Expansion, plus a ton of new stuff like dynamic campaigns. You also get a few hundred Golden Eagles if you own the aformentioned earlier games in the series.

kalstrams posted:

Two single-player campaigns - one for Japan, other for USA. That is WW2 in Pacific, from both sides. The campaigs are single player, award you, mostly, with historical knowledge (intros and briefings are nice), miserable amounts of XP and lions.

Both campaigns have three difficulty level - Arcade, History and Realism.

Party Plane Jones posted:

Wait, what?