For new gamers / short on time -> shortcuts to Korea

[GregD]

Please understand this is not meant for hardcore simmers but for folks with very limited time in the day that want to squeeze in a few fun missions before having to make dinner or get the kids, and do not want to fly 45 minutes to see an enemy.. and I could not find a manual 😉  Please add to it, no need to criticize how this affects "realism", this is only for people short on time - we have a right to exist 😉
 

- Before you do anything else, map your keys... There are  a million of them, and the default stick config did not help me much, so map stick, throttle, views, and trigger to guns, bombs, rockets. Maybe add airbrakes, flaps, gear (or use keys) and note how to use autopilot or autolevel. Go test that in a simple mission... 

- Game settings: unless you work for Nvidia, reduce graphics for some of the near ground settings, and turn off 4K. it still looks great. That got all red warnings off the screen for me. 

- Choose your Planes: I have not done them all... My recommendation would be to start with the mustang maybe - but who are we kidding? I know you did not buy this sim for prop jobs that existed in great battles, so also play with the Sabre/Mig.. The F80 is gorgeous but is not a fun plane to fly *initially* and get a good sense of how good the game is. It's underpowered, unstable as hell with anything under the wings, too slow to catch other jets (but sooo pretty). Note that the F80 - if you insist on starting there - often needs JATO bottles to take off... took me a while to notice they a)exist and that b)there is a key mapping for firing the bottles and jettisoning them. Maybe do take off in autopilot the first time, note the flap settings autopilot uses for take offs, when the JATO gets fired up, when flaps get raised, and replicate if you wanna do it yourself, saves you time. The RF84 I have little to say on, it's Ok to fly but fugly, so I rarely fly it. The Mig and Sabre are fun and relatively easy to fly and land.  

- Start missions in the air: I can see purists shudder already, go away it's not for you.. I flew *a lot* of take offs, it's fun and fine, enjoy, but if limited on time, once you assign the mission and press the button to go flying, pick the "option" to start in the air, saves you 5 good minutes as you avoid a whole squadron taking off behind you and everyone being lined up and far enough away from your base to trigger the "skip" to destination. That skip cannot be forced with a key.  Using autopilot and time x8 after starting in the air puts you on the right path to skipping to the destination as quick as possible, which otherwise may take forever.  As is, it takes a minute or 2 for skipping to destination, press the right key to get close to the destination, then enjoy the mission and the landing with bits missing off your plane...

-Squadron management: in career mode (fun, when you get it) you need to do the bare minimum to keep your squadron going or soon enough you will not be able to fly.. See if people died, deactivate them,  replace them, assign planes (if any) to new pilots and move them to active duty. Save a spare plane for yourself !  Once that roster looks good, make sure to send requests for planes and fuel or eventually you can't fly (ask me how I know). I use auto-request all the time. Fly missions you want, dispatch the ones you do not care about especially if short on supplies. For instance I will fly all airfield and train station attacks, but if it's shooting 2 trucks I send my guys and get my requests up so I can get new planes and fuel.  

- Why cant I fly ? I need to go make pasta for my kids and it says "dispatch"? WTH ?
Ok, do you have a plane or did you just break it? if not, assign a new plane to yourself in the roster, if none are available in reserve, de-activate a teammate and take theirs (muhaha). Obvious when you know, not so much if yesterday you were playing "IL2 great battles"....If you can only dispatch your squadron, click on the mission map where you see the plane assignment for the mission, where it shows for instance "8/8 Sabres", which takes you back to your roster. Right click to "assign" yourself to the mission, now there's too many planes, 10/8 or something, Right click to de-assign some poor schmuck that was on that mission causing too many planes...  Similarly, if on the roster you are surrounded by a dotted blue rectangle you are on "base defense duty", enjoy not doing much... Go to "on-duty" at the bottom of the roster screen and assign that guard duty to another group of planes, not yours.. then you can fly instead of dispatching your squadron. Now you have time for pasta ! 
 
- Dogfight: decades of WW2 here, these early jets are dogs vs modern ones (cool, mind, but not as powerful). So maybe start with the mustang for familiarity with the game (haha, as if anyone will not start with sabre and mig)... With the jets you will rarely find yourself in a ww2 style dogfight behind a plane at close distance, it will more likely be a lot of high speed head to head, high angle of deflections, Migs pulling away from Sabres and you having to be creative with angles and boom and zoom techniques, or high speed passes of jets vs prop bombers, G force management etc... Easy to crash into slow bombers... I recommend initially using the auto gunsight option that puts the little circle where you are supposed to lead your bullets (name of setting?) - sue me - it shows where the piper should be to hit deflection shots... It was easy to learn how to eyeball this deflection w/o cheating in IL2 great battles but with jets and these speeds and the gunsdight requiring a mode, a plane size, etc... it's harder, the gunsight itself could use a full tutorial and I did not have time. So for "fun" use the setting that shows the piper (learn the correct way later)..      

These are things that woulda helped me love the game on day#1, which is the goal here... more people = more developments. Add more if you got ideas.. Again, I know, not hardcore... 

Edited September 2 by GregD
can't spell

[Viking1]

Had to laugh at this one..

"Save a spare plane for yourself"

Good advice!

 

[IckyAtlas]

I perfectly understand your problem. Probably this is not the sim for you.

After analyzing your life constraints, it is clear that you need an arcade game type sim on console with a simple controller. You should look for that type of sim.

You need just to fly in FPS style in the cockpit, the plane flies at a predefined speed, all is automatic, just move the small joystick on the pad, for left right up and down and keep the A button squeezed, to fire a continuous stream of bullets, shoot down whatever you see coming at you, in the air or the ground. You have a counter that gives a score.

That's ideal, you come home from work, switch on you console start the game, shoot as much as you can (better set unlimited ammo parameter) for 15 minutes, then run to make pizza for the kids.

I have a proposal here which is even easier faster to play in 2D. No brainer, no complicated cockpit, just keep the trigger squeezed and move right or left. But there are many others to look for. Have fun

 

 

 

[Viking1]

>>I perfectly understand your problem. Probably this is not the sim for you.

Then again, some short cuts and settings make it possible to enter at an easy level, and then start learning and growing with the game. That's a good thing for people new to the sport. Maybe you were an expert from day 1 but most of us had to put the time in.

>>The F80 is gorgeous but is not a fun plane to fly *initially* and .. too slow to catch other jets (but sooo pretty). 

 

 

Edited September 5 by Viking1

[Patricks]

If you keep speed up in an F-80 and a MiG-15 gets slow or roped into a low speed turning battle the F-80 can definitely tear it up..

[Dash,Polder]

I like saving my JATO's and kicking on it and the methanol when Mig's think they can out zoom an F-80 on crack.  You just have to be quick on the trigger and trap them, there is no shortage of ammo in a "Shooting" Star.

[BoeingVertol]

Firmly disagree w/ OP's opinion of the 80.  F-80 is rock solid, and a great starting point to learn the US jets. An absolute ground busting machine with the best variety of destructive options at your disposal, and a joy to fly once you learn it. +1 on saving the methanol at least, you don't need it to takeoff most of the time.  Your job is not to go toe-to-toe w/ Migs unless you have to, and you have to stay ahead of it during takeoff and landing or you will pay.

Understandable though if you are only able to devote a limited time to learn/play.  This game definitely leans more into the sim aspect.  To a lot here, half the fun of learning a new aircraft is mastering how to takeoff and land them properly, manage the systems, etc.  

Edited September 6 by BoeingVertol

[Valis]

19 hours ago, IckyAtlas said:

 

It was 1942 back in my day!

(shakes walking cane)

[IckyAtlas]

19 hours ago, Valis said:

It was 1942 back in my day!

(shakes walking cane)

Absolutely! 1942, right after Pearl Harbor, the target is to shoot down as many zero's you can. 

[GregD]

IckyAtlas wrote:
> I perfectly understand your problem. Probably this is not the sim for you.

>After analyzing your life constraints, it is clear that you need an arcade game type sim on console with a simple controller. You should look for that type of sim.

This is exactly why I hesitated to post this, there' always a "high and mighty" internet warrior type to reply completely besides the point and show how cool he is, when no reply was required..  This was meant to help newcomers struggle less, love the game right off the bat and get to the action as fast as possible...  And prefaced with "may not be for you", O great Icky-lord of the sim...  Nowhere in there did I say I want a simple flying model, mostly just that with limited time I wanted to share all the tricks that I learned over 2-3 weeks to get to the action faster and how to get assigned each mission (which was not obvious to me initially), and the only cheat I advocated was the gunsight reticle if you just got in the game....  Sigh... The internet, there is always one.  

Edited September 9 by GregD

[GregD]

Duly noted on the F80... To be clear I was just recommending maybe a newcomer short on time start with an easier plane, I started with the F80 based on how much I love its looks but could have had more dogfight fun with something else initially... jsut trying ot help newbies get "into" this...  I found that when loaded it can start oscillating a lot and feels very unstable at times lining up for a rocket run, but it could be my setup/stick also... Good call on keeping the boosters for a fight, did not think of that 😉 Again I love the plane, it's gorgeous, I was merely suggesting newcomers maybe play the mustang and the Sabre first and go from there.. I've since expanded into the russian prop jobs, and it's quite fun also !  Thanks for the suggestions  and NOT referring me to an arcade game !