Feel free to ask any question, I will assist you as best as I can. If you need question about game mechanics, questions about air or ground vehicles, help with controls,etc. don’t be afraid to ask.
2 Likes
I’ll bite:
I play primarily Air Arcade using a mouse and keyboard (mouse aim). Early on I was advised to learn to fly with keyboard only and use the mouse to look around. I do this to a degree, using the keyboard to make initial movements and then follow with the mouse aim and it works pretty well. But I haven’t ever figured out how to use the keyboard completely independently while looking around at the same time for the simple reason that keyboard inputs are binary on/off, not relative. Press A or D to roll left or right and it’s full aileron until you release. The best I can figure is that people flying solely with keyboard are tapping rapidly for little inputs, which seems nutty and when I try is not particularly effective.
Is this true or am I missing some technique or setting that would allow for more precise and smoother flying with keyboard only?
The best advice I can give you is to set your keybindings in the way that you can use them effectively. Focus on using flaps and airbrakes(if possible) because they can decide who will win in most dogfights. Also it wouldn’t hurt to know your plane, plane of your opponent, that way you can really know what to do in what situation during fight.
Sorry for late answer, I was at work…
Hope this help you a little bit, if you need better explanation on what to do in certain situations contact me via PM or reply on this message.
I’m mainly focusing on ground fight, but I will try my best to help you with air.
So I hope you don’t mind me adding @markoboy878
Pitch axis on the keyboard is nice to have on your keyboard because when you get into a dogfight and the other jet might be using his mouse to turn, he has to move his mouse over and over again to keep turning but if you have W and S set up for pitch controls you can just hold S and keep turning which could give you a edge in the dogfight to turn faster.
Rolls axis is nice to have on the keyboard because when you need to make a sharp turn in a short amount of time its faster to use A and D to roll where you need to point to then a mouse which could give you the upper hand on a enemy. Another reason to use roll axis on the keyboard is when you are coming up to a enemy and it looks like they are getting ready to turn you can prep your aircraft but rolling it in the way the person is either turning to or is getting ready to turn to.
Also what’s nice with both of the axis’s on the keyboard is when you are trying to dodge a radar guided missile, its better to use the keyboard cause you can do more turn abruptly to confuse the missile so it misses you.
Also if you were wondering what to use for throttle controls cause of W and S being used for pitch controls, I have mine set to left shift and left ctrl for increase and decrease throttle.
Edit: Forgot to add this. Another keyboard bind that I find useful is setting Q and E for yaw axis. When using this axis you can increase the speed of your role rate when turn fighting.
Turning with mouse
Turning with keyboard
Hope this helps.
1 Like
I don’t mind at all, we are all here to help each other. Feel free to add anything you want.
I’d advice to hook up a game controller too and map keyboard funnctions there. Much better.
1 Like
Thanks for the response. Let me try to reframe this:
I do use keyboard controls for everything from pitch, roll, yaw to flaps and more. I use them every game. What I want to be able to do better is fly with keyboard exclusively and use the mouse only for looking around and maybe fine control for aiming. But when you use keyboard controls they are either full on or full off. Yet I see folks like Defyn on Youtube flying, apparently with keyboard only, very smoothly. How is this accomplished… or am I misunderstanding this?
Again the goal is to decouple looking around from flight control so, for example, you can keep an eye on an opponent while maneuvering.
1 Like
He is using both keyboard and mouse from the footage I’m seeing on his channel. He is able to look around because he has a bind for freelook, when you are holding freelook, you can only turn your plane using keyboard. Try looking for that bind, its named “Mouse look activation”, you can find it in: Controls > Common Controls > View Controls > Mouse Look Activation.
Or if you want to track specific opponent(Opponent you locked) you could use bind called “Tracking Camera: Enemy”, this bind you can find at: Controls > Aircraft > Camera Control > Tracking Camera: Enemy.
Try binding it and using it in test flight, and please tell me if this helped.
By understanding what you goal is, I think that this is what you are looking for.
Yeah, I use those bindings as well. I appreciate your response - it may not seem like you ended up telling me things I didn’t know but it does help (and may help others!), because it tells me there probably isn’t something obvious I’m missing.
So I have Mouse Look on a mouse button, which I find super handy and use constantly. If I’m in, say, a tight loop I’ll be holding down the elevator or aileron keys on the keyboard and looking around. That could be as simple as what folks like Defyn are doing and I just need more practice to get the movement fluid and so that movement is intuitive and “de-coupled” from my view.
Thanks!
1 Like
Hi,
Sorry if it wasn’t that helpful, but I really hope you become one of the best pilot in War Thunder Community. Just keep on practicing and I assure you that one day you will be better pilot than any of them. After all you know what people say: “Practice makes perfect”.
Best regards.
Alright so basically:
I play 3 tanks in my lineup: T-34-85, IS-2, SU-100P, SPAA, and plane.
The main problem is my positioning or reacting, I am seeking for general advice how to play russians and how to take out enemies and just be good. I use basic tips like don’t take too much ammo, find covers, and use binoculars, but I still find myself dying to the tank which I couldn’t penetrate or just got surprised by enemy. I just need a solid advice on how to generally act and just be better.
So I’m guessing the BR you’re playing in is about between 5.0 and 6.0. So first off I find it easer in that BR to get around to the side or behind the enemy positions because a lot of tanks in that BR have a lot of frontal armor so want to get around to where you can shoot their weak spots.
For the T-34-85 it doesn’t have amazing armor but it has a lot more then other mediums in that BR. The gun also is very good along with the speed as well so using this tactic works really well for the T-34. You also want to try to only show your turret when engaging targets cause if the front plate of your hull is shot (apart from your drivers hatch) it will be a instant kill.
The IS-2 you again want to try and only show your turret when engaging targets because the small front plate on the front of your hull is a instant death if shot, also don’t turn your turret and how the side of your turret to enemy’s cause the whole side of the IS-2 is a fat red target to get a kill. The gun on it is pretty amazing for how much pen you can get so engaging enemy’s.
Both the SU-100 and the IS-2 kind of have the same playstyle but it depends on the situation, you mostly want to sit back due to the high amount of pen their guns get. When using the SU-100 your main goal should be to try and never be seen, another thing you need to remember when using it is that once you kill a player they might spawn in a plane so you just want to keep moving so they wont know where you are.
1 Like
Thank you for these advices, so basically when I try to flank enemy team I just find myself in a situation where enemy tank flanks me faster or you know, I just get sniped from somewhere. I just hate when I move up a bit and just get surprised by someone. Penetrating with T-34 is not that easy because I face pershings which are hard to penetrate from the front and like I said, it’s hard to flank them. I am not a big fan of sniping also, because I just can’t find myself a good position to do one or I just get shot by another sniper.
Additionally here is an example: Ah - Clipped with Medal.tv
Well yeah it can be hard now to snipe due to Gajin removing a lot of places to hide on maps but from what I know, sometimes its better to wait for them to come instead of pushing them, if there’s no way for you to push you need to find a good place to hide where there’s cover to back into just in case and then you just wait for them to roll in front of you.
Also if you are having issues with light tanks being faster then you at flanking, learn from the game, remember where they go a lot and what tanks they are using and what country they were so you know where to go and knowing when to wait cause what gets everyone in this is being patient, the person with more patients always wins (most of the time).
For Pershings if you are facing the front, aim for the right side of the turret cause that’s where the ammo is stored. Another way of fighting those is taking out the barrel first because once he has no gun you can wrap around and get his side. Also if you are not able to due to other enemy’s around him, sometimes its just better to take out one less risk for a amount of time to deal with other targets.
1 Like
Okay then, I will just try to still get some kills but yeah, it’s just hard for me and it’s probably because of my positioning. I also edited last post to give you an example.
Yeah you pretty much said what I was trying to tell you. Its all about positioning, knowledge of vehicles and maps, and patients.
So where they got you was they were probably in a squad and the R3 got your attention so the T26 was able to have a clear shot, in scenarios like that is best to just back out of the situation so you can get them at a new angle so you have the upper hand cause the position they put you in they had the upper hand.
1 Like
Alright, I’ve made some good plays and I would like to share them with you.
- A good flank with T-34:
- Kind of dangerous peak with IS-2:
- A good peak with IS-2 to mess with enemy:
- And taking enemy from behind with IS-2:
- Funny pershing armor from above:
So if you want you can watch them and give an opinion about it. I would also like to ask if the 2S3M is worth it because I mainly use these 3 and 2S3M might be a bit hard to get.
1 Like
Very cool, you pretty much were doing what I would have done, its pretty funny to flank with heavy armor cause there enemy isn’t expecting such a large tank to get behind them.
the more you play though the better you knowledge you will have of maps, tanks and countries which you will notice that you get better when you play more.
Well the main function of the of the 2S3M is sniping due to it being like a artillery piece, and you saying that you don’t like sniping as much, I don’t think you would enjoy it that much cause it has paper thin armor, its slow moving and it has a huge gun.
In my opinion you would enjoy the T-44 way better then the other vehicles that are open for you to research, its just a way better T-34.
But in the end its whatever you feel you want to do and what tanks you like.
Fun fact, I have 1000 hours and I still feel that I don’t have knowledge, lol. I see people riding these 2S3M just around the corner (they don’t snipe that much) and just one shot enemy, I like that, but well, I don’t like sniping. Should I just ignore the whole line or?
Also in the future, I was wondering if it’s worth going and grinding sweden, I like their tanks but I also need a very good aviation.
I would recommend grinding Sweden, they have sick top tier tanks.