Let's Play Strike Fighters 2

[RogerSmith]

after you read these and apply the technique you won't want TrackIR.

 

I have a feeling you don't have TIR then lol :D

[+SupGen]

Roger, TBH I haven't felt the need for it. Read those articles yourself, interesting slant on the lack of peripheral vision and its effect on situational awareness etc., things we lack because of the two dimensional viewing system we use. I'm sure TrackIR works really well for what it does, but because you are still looking forward in a narrow cone of vision, you still cannot gain the situational awareness you get from the Player to Target View. I must stress again, THIS IS NOT CHEATING!, in R/L we do have peripheral vision and you would "know" where on the cockpit rail that SOB is gonna show up if I just keep pullin' like this. Estimate the "cone" angle of your "wide angle" monitor view - what is it; 30 maybe 35 degs? Humans, because of our predator status, (both eyes on the front of our face) have a visual cone angle approaching 180 degs. TrackIR is like a searchlight that shines wherever you point your face, Player to Target is more like the natural vision you enjoy in real life.

[RogerSmith]

Roger, TBH I haven't felt the need for it. Read those articles yourself, interesting slant on the lack of peripheral vision and its effect on situational awareness etc., things we lack because of the two dimensional viewing system we use. I'm sure TrackIR works really well for what it does, but because you are still looking forward in a narrow cone of vision, you still cannot gain the situational awareness you get from the Player to Target View.

 

Leaning forward/back changes FOV of the camera, focusing on a single jet with Shift+F8 isn't situational awareness as it is tunnel vision, on TIR you focus on all degrees of visibility.

 

Player to Target is more like the natural vision you enjoy in real life.

 

not really since people can't stick their heads out of the cockpit in real life

[Slushie]

not really since people can't stick their heads out of the cockpit in real life

 

Rather, anyone who has tried it hasn't been able to tell us how it went, LMAO!

 

Good articles though, SupGen! I'll have a look at them and try out that technique sometime. So far it's looking like I'm gonna be the hatswitch bandit for awhile.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Hero540

[+SupGen]

Leaning forward/back changes FOV of the camera, focusing on a single jet with Shift+F8 isn't situational awareness as it is tunnel vision, on TIR you focus on all degrees of visibility.

 

 

 

not really since people can't stick their heads out of the cockpit in real life

 

No it's not tunnel vision; once in Player to Target you can use the mouse to rotate/look in any direction - as in real life, you don't focus on anything except what you need to. What does "all degrees of visibilty" mean? As far as your second comment goes, in real life you don't have to stick your head out of the cockpit to get that kind of SA. You get it from the peripheral vision etc. that I referenced in my previous post. One thing that is obvious from your comments is that you have not read the articles in question; they were not written by me but by Air Force Colonel Andy Bush - an experienced combat pilot with stick time in both real and virtual fighters. As I said before, read the articles yourself, for me they were an eye opener, of course, maybe you're just smarter than I am .

[+MigBuster]

A track IR is infinitely better the wider your monitor is - or 3 monitors in Daves case - if you have a smaller monitor its not as easy to use - but is still brilliant IMO because you can easily look head down at instruments (and zoom in) and look around without thinking about it.

[+SupGen]

Mig, I probably overstated it when I said he wouldn't want TrackIR, but since he can't afford it right now, I wanted to give him a way to view things in the sim that is superior to just hat-switching around. I was trying to figure out how to afford TrackIR myself when I found these articles a couple years ago; I would still like to get one but I've managed to afford several other things in the meantime. In other words, since reading and adopting the techniques/philosophies in those articles, TrackIR kinda slid down the priority list. I'm still gonna get one, one of these days.

[RogerSmith]

Mig, I probably overstated it when I said he wouldn't want TrackIR, but since he can't afford it right now, I wanted to give him a way to view things in the sim that is superior to just hat-switching around. I was trying to figure out how to afford TrackIR myself when I found these articles a couple years ago; I would still like to get one but I've managed to afford several other things in the meantime. In other words, since reading and adopting the techniques/philosophies in those articles, TrackIR kinda slid down the priority list. I'm still gonna get one, one of these days.

 

sorry, I think I over reacted.

 

What about F4?

[+SupGen]

sorry, I think I over reacted.

 

What about F4?

 

Cool, me too, prolly...Whattaya mean "What about F4?" Ya lost me.

[RogerSmith]

Cool, me too, prolly...Whattaya mean "What about F4?" Ya lost me.

 

Like Shift+F8 but internal view

[+SupGen]

Oh man, Padlock!? I'm sorry, I just didn't follow you there. Roger, do me a favor, click that link and read those articles yourself, the info there is timeless, and applys if you use TrackIR or not. I quote " Efficient BFM takes full advantage of the effect of gravity as it affects turn radius and turn rate. Efficient BFM almost always involves split-plane maneuvering. Split-plane maneuvers are those flown out of the opponent's plane of motion...i.e. three-dimensional maneuvers. Efficient BFM is almost always lead or lag pursuit, and seldom is pure pursuit. As with most things in life, there is good news and bad news in using padlock. As good as padlock views are, there still remain some shortcomings. Two are significant...the tendency to use the view to fly in-plane with the opponent, and the amount of time needed to interpret the view. When padlock is used to orient the lift vector at the opponent, the end result is a pure pursuit course that is nothing more than a sophisticated form of using the "pointed x"." Let me first say that I suck at this...and yet, using this I suck less than the other guy. When I first started playing StrikeFighters a couple of years ago, I was pretty much at the mercy of the AI...not that it has any. Believe me, after attempting to implement the techniques and procedures outlined here, my sucess ratio went through the roof. Almost every one of the R/L techniques Col. Bush refers to applys to Air Combat in StrikeFighters...utilizing this stuff can't help but make you a better Sim pilot. Read these articles, if you think it was pointless, you can throw tomatoes at me and I won't say a word.

[Slushie]

Hmm, so a new interesting scenario for this wannabe pilot...

 

As I read more of the manual about Strike Fighters 2, I realized Normal is sort of cheating and not quite the normal I was expecting...Normal weapons means double ammo, normal fuel means 1/2 fuel usage, normal flight modeling means, well you can't stall, landing on normal means you can drop it onto the pavement twice as hard as normal...IT'S CHEATING!!! And I'm ashamed to say I've been using it in my Let's Play, although unknowingly.

 

Okay, problem solved...Switch everything up to hard. HA! Okay, so landing, even gun and fuel usage I can deal with, however, in my off-screen tests I can't even turn the damn jets anymore...I just enter a speed stall or flat spin and auger it in. While hilarious the first few times, I'm pretty sure my few viewers would get tired of watching me lawn dart myself into the terrain over and over again.

 

Can anyone suggest some techniques for me so I'm not eating it constantly? Or is it not as shameful as I feel to just keep flight modeling on Normal while I leave the rest on hard?

[+EricJ]

I don't think (or from a lot of experience) being on Normal means cheating. I get hardly half fuel usage when flying, and use only Hard Radar and HUD. But since I fly with assymetric loads I have to keep my FM normal or I'd be fighting the jet, not fighting it.

[+MigBuster]

Depends on the Jet and the foe - sounds like you are pulling to hard - most of the jets in SF2 are not good at turning. For example dont try and get into turning fights with MiG-17/19 if in an F-4

[Slushie]

Most of my issue is with the F1 Lightning....it's horrible. You even tilt the wings and it seems to go into a terrible spin.

[RogerSmith]

This is what I have my difficulty on, a good mix of Noob and Pro

 

[+MigBuster]

Most of my issue is with the F1 Lightning....it's horrible. You even tilt the wings and it seems to go into a terrible spin.

 

You need to be careful and ease off - TK has implemented some of the stability issues that some of the jets had - although you could debate that all year long how it compares. Anyway the Lightning gets better with version - notice how the F.mk3 has a bigger tail to help with the stability for example. But be aware its high level bomber interceptor really.

Edited January 17, 2013 by MigBuster

[Slushie]

@RogerSmith: Basically it seems I have to keep everything on Hard except for Flight Modeling...I'm doing some training now to see if I can figure out the Hard Flight Model. Everything else I leave on hard except for HUD Display which is on normal only because I have modded it to not show enemy info boxes, my plane info box or radar (just enemy target squares and cones and nav cones and I haven't shown this in my new video yet). From there I leave my visual targeting on Normal. So only Flight Model, HUD Display (Modded) and Visual Targeting are normal. I need to stop being a pansy and put my flight model on hard.

 

@MigBuster: I see what you mean as it's the only way. I'm just baffled because it seems like one could bank a cessna faster than one could turn this damn lightning (or other jets for that matter). Doesn't seem right, especially when you have to consider that you're going to be getting into a cannon dogfight with MiGs...how does that work when you gently bank it like you've got eggs in the back? lol

[KeyboardChap]

Doesn't seem right, especially when you have to consider that you're going to be getting into a cannon dogfight with MiGs...how does that work when you gently bank it like you've got eggs in the back? lol

 

The Lightning is a high-speed interceptor, it's not meant to dogfight. In fact the later models didn't even have cannon!

[Slushie]

The Lightning is a high-speed interceptor, it's not meant to dogfight. In fact the later models didn't even have cannon!

 

Crazy! Wow, I guess it's kind of like how they figured the F-4 Phantom didn't need cannons 'cause missiles were the wave of the future and could hit 100% of the time! lol.

[+MigBuster]

@MigBuster: I see what you mean as it's the only way. I'm just baffled because it seems like one could bank a cessna faster than one could turn this damn lightning (or other jets for that matter). Doesn't seem right, especially when you have to consider that you're going to be getting into a cannon dogfight with MiGs...how does that work when you gently bank it like you've got eggs in the back? lol

 

 

I think its roll rates ok - seems faster than Cessna's I've flown - but it might keep rolling to much after the stick is neutral (will need to check when i can).

 

The later Lightning F.mk6 does have cannon - they only lost them for a few marks - you should still be able to take out fighters with the Lightning but it needs to be employed differently against agile opponents. You will find the same with the Mirage 3C, F-4B/C and other interceptors of that period - where simple horizontal turning wont be of much use in most cases - and is often suicide against the MiG-17s for example.

Edited January 17, 2013 by MigBuster

[FalconC45]

Hmm, so a new interesting scenario for this wannabe pilot...

 

As I read more of the manual about Strike Fighters 2, I realized Normal is sort of cheating and not quite the normal I was expecting...Normal weapons means double ammo, normal fuel means 1/2 fuel usage, normal flight modeling means, well you can't stall, landing on normal means you can drop it onto the pavement twice as hard as normal...IT'S CHEATING!!! And I'm ashamed to say I've been using it in my Let's Play, although unknowingly.

 

Okay, problem solved...Switch everything up to hard. HA! Okay, so landing, even gun and fuel usage I can deal with, however, in my off-screen tests I can't even turn the damn jets anymore...I just enter a speed stall or flat spin and auger it in. While hilarious the first few times, I'm pretty sure my few viewers would get tired of watching me lawn dart myself into the terrain over and over again.

 

Can anyone suggest some techniques for me so I'm not eating it constantly? Or is it not as shameful as I feel to just keep flight modeling on Normal while I leave the rest on hard?

 

Let me warn you, if you put all options on hard, your wingmen will be real dumb and the enemy AI will be aces. Most of the addons in this site use normal FM. BTW on hard mode the AI uses the normal FM. When I play, I put the skill, FM, hud & visual targeting on normal. The rest I put on hard.

 

Falcon

[+Crusader]

Its the Enemy Skill Level setting that affects wingmen

Easy = Enemy AI is weak, own AI is strong

Normal = both sides AI are equal

Hard = own AI weak, enemy AI strong

[+JonathanRL]

Normal = both sides AI are equal

 

Not quite. Normal is "Both sides AI follow the Nations.ini settings" as far as I know.

Edited January 17, 2013 by JonathanRL

[Slushie]

I guess I should've said I leave the enemy on normal...my apologies. I forgot that one in my post. So basicaly, FM=Normal Visual Targeting=Normal HUD Display=Normal (Modded) Enemy AI=Normal the rest is on hard. Sorry...