IL-2 newbie

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Thirith
Posts: 114
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:29 am

Re: IL-2 newbie

Post by Thirith »

Sorry to be hogging this thread, but I've got a question for the comrades in general and for @audiox in particular:

1) I've now got the Saitek Pro Rudder Pedals, but I'm not sure I've set them up right. If I go forward on the right pedal and backwards on the left, should that change the rudder so I move towards the right or towards the left? I.e. should I look at the rudders as being on a rotating axis, and the way I rotate them corresponds to the way the plane should rotate, or should I look at the right pedal as moving me towards the right and the left pedal towards the left? (Not sure if this makes any sense - if not, I'll try to explain it again.)

2) @audiox: I briefly fired up the "Fokkers" campaign, but already taking off in the first mission proved to be amazingly difficult. The plane seems to take forever to speed up enough for me to be able to take off. Is there something fundamental that I could be forgetting, e.g. chocks, breaks, not having permission?
"Until now we scraped along the ground like rats, but from now on, we soar. Like eagles. Yeah. LIKE EAGLES... ON... POGO STICKS." - Grim Fandango

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boberro
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Re: IL-2 newbie

Post by boberro »

Flaps maybe?
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zitron
Posts: 151
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 10:18 pm

Re: IL-2 newbie

Post by zitron »

I don't use rudder pedals, but if you step on the left pedal the plane should yaw to the left, rudder should also deflect to the left. You can easily verify this be looking at how the actual rudder pedals on the plane moves in IL2.

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Thirith
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Re: IL-2 newbie

Post by Thirith »

Cool, thanks. I'll have to practice this the way it is so it'll start making sense in my head, both for planes and helicopters.

Also, it is embarrassing how bad I currently am at taxiing. Put me on the runway and I can take off and land okay, but anything more complex than that? No, that's not quite true: I did manage to shoot and destroy some stationary targets, so yay me! :dance:
"Until now we scraped along the ground like rats, but from now on, we soar. Like eagles. Yeah. LIKE EAGLES... ON... POGO STICKS." - Grim Fandango

Black Mamba
Posts: 335
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 12:11 pm

Re: IL-2 newbie

Post by Black Mamba »

About taxiing, you usually want to use your toe breaks, not the rudder itself: the rudder makes a lot of the "Tokyo drift" stuff happens.

About take-off, as boberro said, drop a few notches of flaps. I don't know what plane you fly there, but you might want to push the nose down a tad too to gain speed faster. You can also throttle up with full brakes, then release the brakes, if you've got an engine that struggles a bit to rev up.

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Thirith
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Re: IL-2 newbie

Post by Thirith »

Cool, thanks! What also helped a lot: updating to the most recent version of the HSFX mod (which also helped with the occasional CTDs I was getting). It turns out that in some missions either the map or my placement on it was totally off, and possibly some of the physics as well; where before I started off on the grass and was almost unable to steer while taxiing, I'm now on the (still grassy) runway, pointed in the right direction, and can both steer and accelerate as much as is necessary.

Which doesn't stop me from still mucking up take-off in some planes - my speciality: pushing my nose down so much that I end up breaking my propeller blades - but that's just lack of practice, not actual bugs or version mismatches.
"Until now we scraped along the ground like rats, but from now on, we soar. Like eagles. Yeah. LIKE EAGLES... ON... POGO STICKS." - Grim Fandango

JMCJ
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Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:23 pm

Re: IL-2 newbie

Post by JMCJ »

Thirith,

There is a great mission package called two minutes to action.
http://www.mission4today.com/index.php? ... ls&id=3358
It has set of progressively more difficult missions including basic takeoff/landing training scenarios, dogfights, ground/shipping/rail attacks and acrobatic challenges. It's awesome.

You should also check out Dart's "How to" videos. They're on his website; http://www.darts-page.com/ ,
also someone has uploaded them to a youtube channel; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... CBB962A977 .
They're great reference for things like ground attack runs and ship bombing etc.

Hope you get something out of these,

J

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Thirith
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Re: IL-2 newbie

Post by Thirith »

Cool, thanks! I'd read about that mission pack, but there are so many it's difficult to know where to start.

All things considered, though, while IL-2 fascinates me and I'd like to get into it, the thing that might finally make me move on to other games is that it's really, really bad at giving me feedback, and this is keeping me from getting better, or at least from knowing whether I'm getting better. The sort of feedback that comes with it being a simulator is great for people who understand flight simulators, but to a newbie as myself (the closest I've come to playing a flight sim is Strike Commander back in the day, most likely) it's nearly useless.

I've tried the first mission of the Russian Fighter campaign several times, and I run into multiple problems. I take off okay, but the only chance I have of sticking to the patrol is to have the minimap open constantly. The other planes just zoom off, and while I can just about keep up speedwise, if I also want to climb to the same height as them without my engine overheating and starting to smoke like a chimney I can pretty much forget it. I'm okay with this being difficult, but the game gives me so little indication of what it is I'm doing wrong - should I open the radiator, should I slow down, should I this, that or the other - that I'm just not getting much enjoyment out of floundering. I can see that there's a hell of a lot to like in the game, but it's making it so damn difficult for me to inch my way closer to that enjoyment.

Phew. Sorry for venting. I'll keep at it, especially since I've had lots of great tips here, but it is frustrating to run into a game that cares this little whether a sim newbie learns how to play it or not.
"Until now we scraped along the ground like rats, but from now on, we soar. Like eagles. Yeah. LIKE EAGLES... ON... POGO STICKS." - Grim Fandango

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