Difficulty Settings

[pzkpfw 0]

Hi, I was wondering what settings most of you guys play on, specifically hud and radar settings. I started playing with the hud on medium, but I've been trying to play with it on hard, and it seems nearly impossible. The only kills I've made so far with hard hud settings were on 2 Foxbats with my guns. I had no success with missiles because by the time I could actually see them well enough, they were too close! I enjoy the authentic feeling, but I just can't see the bandits. Radar guided missiles are just as hard, because I have to use the radar to determine where the bandits are before I can use boresight to lock on. I changed the radar settings to hard as well, but it didn't really seem to change anything.

 

So what do you guys do? Am I missing something? Oh and whats the point of visual targetting when the hud display is on hard? Does that turn visual targetting off?

 

Sorry for all the questions.

[Caesar 305]

All hard, baby, and I'm willing to bet most of us here do too. With hard visual difficulty you can find targets in about 5 miles or less. Usually one of your wingmen spots them first and calls "Bandits, Bandits!" and if you use your target visual key after the call, you should spot them. Unfortunately this is pretty close for radar guided missiles.

 

What I do is set my radar to max range on search and point the nose around. Usually I can spot the enemy pretty far out. Once they're on the radar, if Red Crown doesn't see them yet they will, and will call out the bandit aircraft's position, affirming that the a/c on the radar are hostile. Lock 'em up, and shoot 'em down. If you want to IFF the target, lock it up and hit Ctrl+R (default) to ID the radar target. There is no max range for this, you could ID the aircraft 200 miles out with that command.

 

If you're having difficulty operating the radar, check the knowledge base here. It has a comprehensive look at radar operations.

[kukulino 1]

All hard too. And I absolutely agree with Caesar :yes:

 

I fly Mig-21 usually. It is much harder then new generation aircrafts, of course. We can say this about Mig-21 generation in general (F-104, F-4...).

I fly as czechoslovak pilot in 1985 usualy, this means I have 2xR-3S and 2xRS-2US (sometimes) loaded. I must fire R-3S in right position, behind enemy (RS-2US too). R-3S is IR rocket. But flares are better target for R-3S then enemy plane R-3S miss target very often.

RS-2US is ooooold radar guided missile, but it hates targets hi Gs, similar like R-3S. But it loves chaffs Well, I haven't got many kills on hard settings.

Very good feeling is in Mig-23 too. There are better missiles R-23R/T and R-60.

 

When I fly F-15, there is no target, which can shot down this plane around. Sidewinders (L version usualy) hits their targets in 95%. Similar like sparrows (I forgot versions. But no old versions). On hard settings of course. There are no many russian aircrafts with faffs/chlares.

 

So, for me, my plane needs right position and optimal conditions to fire rockets on target. I need count with enemy faffs/chlares. If enemy has no decoys, rockets wins usually (optimal fire conditions).

 

Right position: I can not fire R-3S from all angles like AIM-9L. I can fire R-3S just from rear.

Optimal conditions: I can not fire R-3S in turn on hi Gs. If I do it, R-3S miss its target (allways). I can fire R-3S when enemy aicraft goes from left turn to right turn for example.

 

R-3S rockets are disvalued, I think. But it is my personal feeling (I do not want compare R-3S with AIM-9L!!!). On the other hand, it is possible that I am bad rocket laucher

 

My english is not good, but you understand me I hope

Edited December 10, 2007 by kukulino

[pzkpfw 0]

Well I've gotten better at radar missiles, its actually pretty easy to get kills. But once my wingman calls "Bandits!," I usually just fly in circles for 10 minutes looking around and either get shot down or give up and fly to the next way point lol. I don't know how you guys do it. The only time I can spot enemy planes is when I see their vapor trails up in the blue part of the sky, or very rarely when I'm above them and their trails are noticeable. I get real frustrated usually because I'll spot a trail after 5 minutes of looking, and either it just turns out to be my wingman or I lose track of it after maneuvering a little, and then I'm clueless again. Maybe it just takes practice. How do you guys usually spt an enemy plane? I just can't see how its possible unless they have vapor trails. It seems to me that the pixels aren't even rendered unless the plane is less than a mile away.

[Caesar 305]

I think the default key for target radio is "R," so the instant you hear "Bandits!" hit "R" and it should say "(enemy aircraft type) targeted" by hitting F4, it should pan over to the enemy. Failing that, once you hear the call, tell your flight to engage the enemies (TAB, 2, 1), then follow the #3 aircraft (#4 can be unreliable for some reason and just fly off, but 3 usually finds the opposition). Also, try a plane with a powerful radar, think Tomcat here, that'll spot them far, far away. If you get a lock at distance, or up close by boresight, hit Ctrl+R (default for look at radar target), the same key that IFF's the badguy, and you should be able to follow him around by pressing F4 (padlock default).

 

Hope this helps.

 

EDIT: also, if you hit F6, align the camera directly behind your aircraft and then hit Shift+F6, the camera will go to the last plane in the enemy formation. If you pay attention to the way the camera pans and the landmarks around the enemy, point your nose in that direction at at least a moderately far range to ensure you can spot them on radar. It's a little cheap, but if you're really just looking to find the damn bogeys, it's not a bad move.

Edited December 10, 2007 by Caesar

[pzkpfw 0]

Thanks for the help, that is going to make it waaay easier. I'm learning pretty fast, I'm able to dogfight now once I actually get close to the bandits. I was just in a long duel with a MiG-17 (I was in an IDF Mirage III) and it was a lot of fun. Sometimes though I'll still hear my wingman say bandits and after looking around for a bit they're gone. But I'll use your techniques, I'm sure they will help.

 

And one more little question: how do you get the rest of your flight to have the same paint scheme and markings as you? I know its unrelated but I don't want to start another thread on it.

[Caesar 305]

On the loadout screen there's a dropdown menu with your callsign and number. Say you're Gunslinger, the top left dropdown box should say Gunslinger 11. To arm and select the paint of Gunslinger 12-44 (goes 11,12,13,14,21,22,etc...) hit the dropdown box where Gunslinger 11 is and select 12. You can even change the plane they're in, but the aircraft are limited to what they can carry by whatever weapons are common among the aircraft, and their weapon stations. If you're flying a Tomcat and your #2 is an Eagle, it won't be able to carry AIM-54's. Just the same, if you're flying an Eagle and your wing is a Tomcat, because the F-15 doesn't have the -54 in its arsenal, you won't be able to arm the Tomcat with -54's.