Hi there everyone. As the title suggests i am going to start with Air sim. Since this is completely new to me can you guys give me some tips and tell me something that i should know before i get started.
Thank you!
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Welcome to Sim! Always happy to see new players here! = )
First, remember to check out the Sim section of the forum, where you can find a lot of information and discussions regarding Sim: Latest Game Discussion/Simulator Battle topics - War Thunder — official forum
Then, a few points I’d like to especially mention:
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Note that this is the only game mode where you can exactly chose against which BR’s you play, and it is sensible to play in rotations where your aircraft is the top BR of a rotation. Rotations are switched every 2 days, so everyone (except 14.0) is top BR at least once during a full cycle.
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I prefer it to instead of [Take Part] in the game selection window directly, better to select [Room List], which allows you to join specific battles as you desire. You will see a list with battles, including which maps they are played on, what country setups, how many players,…
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Communication is highly important, and most of it can be done with radio messages and marking on the map.
Here the most important radio messages and their usage:
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Radio message “Follow me!”: used to mark one’s position on the map for a few second. This helps fellow players to decide if a contact they have spotted is an enemy or a friendly. It’s wise to quickly switch to the map and check if you here “Follow me!”, and if done by everybody, allows to get good situational awareness of where friends and enemies are.
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Radio message “Cover me!”: Used to announce that one is in a defensive position, be that because of enemy nearby or also a friendly who may have mistaken you as an enemy. Also here, best check the map when you hear the call.
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Right clicking on the map will mark this position on the map for a few seconds with the call out “Attack target”: this is used a) to tell everybody which target you are intending to attack, and - more importantly - b) is used to ask if a spotted contact is friendly. This is very important to prevent TK’s. Again, if you hear this callout, check the map to see if the player marked your approximate position. If so, send “Follow me!” so the other knows he possibly spotted you, a friendly, and won’t attack.
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Feel free to ask questions also during the match. The Sim community is usually very helpful. We’re a relatively small group, and thus want to help new sim players so they stay and enjoy with us!
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Don’t get discouraged at first if you don’t perform well! As with everything, this game mode has to be learned to be played, and the learning curve is steep - hang in there!!!
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Full-real controll > Toggle SAS mode
I found it easier to play/fly with damping mode and bombing with auto-levelling. (I think it’s only for high tier planes)
That’s very true (well 98% of time), have to admit, it’s the most chill player base in war thunder.
Q. I’m just curious about reward, maybe there is a graph showing reward comparison on AAB, ARB and ASB?
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…and across the frontline too! Often you can read sensible, friendly discussions in chat between people who at the same time in game fight each other to the Blood, haha!
Thanks for the tips!
I recommend checking Il2 tutorials if you fly props.
95% of it transfers. Remaining 5% are objectives and engine management.
In particular, I want to draw emphasis towards “left turning tendencies”, Adverse Yaw, Proverse Roll, Take off & Landing and gunnery.
Col Ninny and Requiem/Air Combat Tutorial Library cover these very well.
For Warthunder specific stuff like how to set trim tabs WingalingDragon has great tutorials.
On top, watching general aviation instruction videos can help you understand why your plane is trying to kill you and has a grudge (although GA aircraft are far less violent and misbehaven).
Finally, for getting a good grip on how to use the rudder I have a faveourite maneuver to practice with in test flight that’s kinda fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC5dke1pfqI
If you can do that maneuver with consistency, then you’ll spin out way less often as it develops a strong reflex to cancel incipient (imminent) spins by recognizing the early tells.
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Thanks for the advice. However right now i would be focusing more on high tier to top tier stuff and would later go and play props
You were right about that. They helped me alot however i have a question. My A10 kept on banking towards right and kept on diving down even if my trim was at 100%. What am i doing wrong?
Aileron trim? Hm, never use that, don’t even have it mapped in WT…
What I know is that with SAS activated, elevator trim does not work anymore (which I find a very annoying bug or “design decision”), not sure if SAS also deactivates aileron trim. Maybe try that out?
Then the A-10’s wingspan is large, its weapons can be really far off center of gravity, so asymmetric weapons loads (e.g. when firing weapons asymmetrically from outer wing stations, or also when carrying a targeting pod but don’t balance it with a counterweight on the other side…), a tendency to veer to one side is certainly felt easily…
Just a quick note to save confusing OP. Not every aircraft has SAS. Its common at higher BRs, but far less common below 10.0
…and it’s implemented completely wrong: In WT, SAS replaces trim, instead of just stabilizing flight around the affected axis.
IRL, those are completely separate and independent systems, so deactivating trim by activating SAS makes zero sense.
Also, in all cases I know, SAS is a system that is on by default, but can be overridden e.g. in case of emergencies. In WT it’s always off until toggled on.
And to make it even worse, SAS in WT is even acting as simplified autopilot, for those aircraft that non only have SAS damping but also altitude hold option - again a system that is not connected to SAS in reality at all.
Seems they kind of mashed three different systems into one functionality, which really has very negative effects on flying those aircraft…
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Aileron trim does work even if SAS is activated and now the issue of banking is fixed. However elevator trim does not work and hence it dives down. Besides that i liked air sim battles
Hi. I’m also new to sim. After some hours of playing I’m getting familiar with flight controls, but I struggle with more practical aspect.
Whenever I spot enemy plane in distance, I need to lose visual contact to take control of aircraft and start the turn towards enemy position. However after initiating turn, when I try to find enemy again, I struggle to spot him again, because obviously he moved. Any tips how do I maneuver and maintain visual contact?
Do you guys play with joystick or with mouse? If mouse then in which mode, mouse joystick or relative control?
I fly with Mouse & Keyboard using the “Standard” mousejoy variant.
Here’s my control scheme:
You install it by dropping the file into /documents/my games/warthunder and then in controls on the bottom left use “Import controls.”
Make sure to back-up your original ones, first!
What it does:
CAMERA
- WASD to turn head.
- 1, 3 to lean left/right.
- TAB+W/S to lean forward/back
- RMB to raise head, TAB+RMB to lower head.
- 4 to instantly look back
- X to reset to gunsight.
RUDDER
- Q and E to increment rudder deflection by 3% when quickly tapped.
- Tap twice for 6%, it stays held down like in IL-2.
- Tapping opposite directions decrements (e.g. 0% rudder, you input 4Q3E and it adds up to 3% left rudder).
- Press 2 to "lift foot" from rudder pedals to reset to trimmed default.
- Long-press for coarse adjustments with 1.5 non-linearity (increase to 2 if using spitfires and bf109s).
COMMS
- F6 for "I am at COORDINATE XY and at altitude Z."
- F7 for "I am at COORDINATE XY and at altitude Z, and I have confirmed hostiles please assist."
- F8 for "I am at COORDINATE XY and at altitude Z, and I am sorry I cannot assist as I am returning to base."
- K + 4 + 5 "I cannot assist as I am reloading."
- K + 4 + 8 "I cannot assist as I am repairing."
- F6 + K + 3 + 1 "I am at COORDINATE XY and at ALTITUDE Z, and I am on my way to assist."
ENGINE
- ALT + I to start
- NUMPAD - to enable MEC
- NUMPAD /, * to disable auto radiator and prop pitch.
- NUMPAD 7, 9 to set prop pitch
- NUMPAD 5, 8 to set mixture
- NUMPAD 4. 6 to set radiators AND oil cooler (they're adjusted together)
- NUMPAD 1. 3 to set ONLY oil radiator (offset relative to radiator)
- NUMPAD + to shift supercharger gear
MISC
- Cursor Left/right for rudder trim
- ALT + Cursor Left/Right for aileron trim
- Cursor up/down for elevator trim
- ALT + HOME for trim fixation in test flight.
- ALT + - for canopy
- . for gunsight
- R to reduce flaps, T to increase flaps
- ALT + G to retract gear
- n to view scoreboard
This control scheme solves the “maneuver and maintain visual contact issue.”
Here is a playlist of videos where I demonstrate it (in the bottom left, you can see what control inputs I make to adjust my camera or rudder, and on the left you an see my current rudder position):
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rigNgZx3pTc&list=PLNYBR6L_gDk-989sPIb-Ce2mX9KVIJ5p4&index=7)
It won’t work immediately. It took me some 2 weeks for me to get used to using WASD to control the camera. Learning it will just be repetition.
For learning rudder, your best bet is doing legit acrobatic maneuvers (half cuban eight, barrel roll, falling leaf, lazy eight from this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnyigzFtHeNr9zTkpxyD0ksFD3CwLa2UE)
Falling leaf is my favourite exercise to familiarize yourself with your rudder controls.
Overall, I do not feel significantly disadvantaged by my control scheme even in hectic and chaotic dogfights while flying sth like the bf 109 F-4. The only real disadvantage I feel is rudder control because when I experience cognitive overload, coordinating my flight goes out the window first since my left hand does both camera and rudder and flaps. My first plan to purchase sim equipment is rudder pedals! Pedals for legs for rudder, left-hand for flaps & camera, right-hand for aileron and elevator.
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Thanks for such detailed response. I’ll give it a shot, but I don’t think I’ll be able to switch myself to this, after using WASD for pitch and roll for the past 13 years.
I also had an idea to maybe use a gaming keypad. I own one that has a small joystick under thumb, might be good for looking around while maintaining the pitch and roll under WASD.
I used WASD for pitch and roll as well in ARB. It takes a bit, but it’s worth switching because using W/S for pitch you will end up unable to hold angle of attack and risk wingstalling.
Being able to hold a specific angle of attack can make a big difference as I’ve learned: Too little AOA and you lose position. Too much AoA and you lose energy (and then position) (or even stall). Just right and you can surprise people by out-turning them in planes that on paper shouldn’t, but because you keep a precise control rather than wobbling you gain an edge on them.
For instance, keeping a Bf 109 F-4 at 15.0 AoA can give you like 22.5-23 deg/s turn rate sustained at sea level on minfuel with WEP with ~20% left rudder. Go over it and you bleed energy or risk stalling when you start rolling or input rudder.
I strongly recommend adapting to using your mouse for pitch at the very least. Roll is debatable.
I know some very good mousejoy players who… use mouse for yaw and pitch, Q and E for roll. Reasoning is that this gives them very precise rudder control which again allows you to minimize energy loss and maximize turn performance while you don’t need precise roll control to do the same.
For rudder by the way - WTRTI is your friend without tactile feedback. I almost always (unless I forget) have an overlay that tells me how much rudder I’m using at the moment (and lately: how much sideslip I have so I can input rudder even while not looking at my panel.)
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