Pandacat

How different do they look between European D and Late war Pacific D? Anyone got a pic to share?

Gotta test human vs human. AI just cheat all the way to the top.

I have read many different stories about 75", between 72" and 75", and 72". So what is the deal here? What is high octane fueled Mustang truly capable of? 72" or 75"?

My 109 wasn't hiding in the bushes. It was against clear blue sky. I saw many online videos, the contrast was so good. I have this gut feeling that my graphics was set up right somehow.

Orso. I tried this mod. It helps a bit, but the objects are still hard to see from the background. Sometimes, even when a 109 is so close, I still could see it. Anyway to adjust this mod's settings to suit my graphics and screen?

If 72" doesn't make P51D outperform your 109k then what are you afraid of? Why don't u let people have it and let the game be a bit more balanced, so we can all have more fun.

This is exactly my sentiment as well.

Read the whole message before you launch into any meaningful commenting.

Wow this topic is really contentious. But I think this debate is healthy:D I have a different thought here. I am a firm believer of game balance here. I know you may argue anything about historical accuracy etc and DCS is a sim blah blah. Regardless how authentic it is, it is still a game. I am not suggesting creating something totally out of blue with no historical basis (such as a bf109 that can fly to the moon). I think under the big framework of historical accuracy in technical details (such as engine power, aerodynamics), it is legitimate for a game maker to have some wiggling room as to what to put on the table. At the end of the day, you don't want to see online server dominated by players from one side because the other side has shittier planes. After all, what would be fun to have a server with no worthy opponents? If we come back to look at our current situation, you will see a big imbalance here. Say we are lucky and get spitfire9, 262 and p47 and everything that has been promised. Which side would be stronger? We all know k4 is currently outperforming p51. Would spitfire 9 fare any better? I doubt it. 47? You think so? Ok, say your 47 and spitfire 9 can hold their own. Then I have the jet at my disposal. Then the story would be Allied pilots got slaughtered on MP servers. And then most people complained allied birds are shit and flock to German side. With so few people to play against, the server battles become bored. People start to leave and then we have empty servers again.

I just learned something new over the weekend. When doing high G maneuvers, need set elevator trim to neutral. Coming from Il2 background, this has never been the issue. In Il2 you trim your plane to straight flying before combat and that becomes your starting point. In combat, just readjust trim slightly to help with aiming, climbing and diving. But DCS is totally different. Before, I was stalling all over the sky with only slight stick input(even at pretty high speed over 300mph) and couldn't figure out why. I try to adjust response curve but not working. Neutral trim helps a lot, but my stick is still too much for the plane to handle. Now my next question is: Possible to change stick response curve window from a square to horizontal rectangle?(basically make Y axis 10 units long but X axis 20 or even 30 units long) That way you can lower the slope of your response line, in essence making your stick to travel farther to get the same ingame effect on the control surfaces. Say for example, a curvature=0 X saturation=100, Y saturation=100, your response curve is basically a straight 45 degrees sloping line. The slope of the line is in essence the response rate for your stick. Under current system there is no way to lower this slope while still maintaining a straight line and at the same time allowing your stick to reach 100% ingame deflection. You can either build in a curve which sacrifice the high end of the curve for low end or decrease Y saturation, which would make 100% elevator deflection unreachable. But if you can have Y axis 10 units long, but X axis 30 units long, you can decrease your response rate to 1/3 of original, but you can still reach 100% if you really need it. The only difference is you just need pull stick a bit further back to reach the same deflection. This is essencially the same as put your stick on the floor and lengthen it with a foot long stick attached to it.

I think the biggest cheat by AI 109 is it can recover lost energy whole lot faster than a real human can actually do. Like David said, it will turn close to buffeting. Well if a human player does that, he will lose tons of speed an energy and will take minutes to get it back without diving. AI however can get it back in seconds even sometimes in climbing attitude.

I agree with Tomsk's points. Zoom climb is about who bleeds energy slower. Sustained power climb is about gaining energy faster. Orso, your example of accelerating rocket from 0 speed is more synonymous to sustain power climb, not zoom climb. Not sure how authentic the physics are modeled in DCS

I thought zoom climb was a quick high angle climb where you quickly convert speed into altitude. Because of your heavier mass, you can potentially gain more altitude by inertia. But after the initial climb, once you enter a sustain climb, lighter high rate of climb plane will win. That how I understand what Johnson was doing.

Btw, I heard a lot about use zoom technique. I even remember Johnson's book about how he beats spitfire with zoom in 47. So in game, how do I do that? Do I quickly yank stick back or smoothly pull it back? I am always pretty bad at timing when to start my zoom and how quickly to do it.

Has anyone test using D9 against AI Ace lvl k4? I mean if you argue k4 outperforms p51d because its higher power/weight ratio, wings more efficient for lower speed, higher rate of climbe, I got all that. But D9's power/weight ratio is pretty high too. It also has faster roll rate, powerful engine. At least in vertical, D9 shouldn't lose that badly.

Ya, but what is amazing is AI Ace Fw190 is good but not unbeatable. 109, though, is a totally different story. I mean both of them have SFM. How come the performance of the 2 are so different. This gives me a feeling that 109k4 significantly outperforms D9, but in real life that's not true.

I could hardly get the AI into my front quadrants. The only time I was successful was after I did a few rolling scissors and got it to overshoot me. Then we did a headon pass when he turned back around. I got a few shots on him but after that, I got blasted out of sky.

I can take on Fw190 Ace AI no issue. But 109, wow It's completely Godlike. Never stalls, never run out of speed. No stiff stick either. Even in 450mph diving, it can still pull thru and follow you.

Btw, where to change the size of model? In graphics settings, I don't c such an option.

Just a couple of questions on how to fly Pony correctly: 1. Coordinated flight without looking at the bubble. Because we are sitting in a virtual cockpit instead of the real aircraft, we don't feel the real forces and inertia that the flight motion is exerting on us. At the same time, you need maintain your eye contact on the bandit to guide your maneuver. There are also so many different variables that can affect yaw moment, your speed, power settings, aileron movements, etc. So how do we fly a coordinated flight in the heat of a battle without looking at the bubble? 2. Engine management in combat. What is the optimal way? Should I leave RPM at 3000 and just adjust MP? Should I leave both at the max? Sometimes, in diving you don't need full power, would it be the best time to let engine rest and gain some green territory so that you have reserve for emergency situations? 3. How to spot enemy in distance? I know this is due to the fact we are in a sim environment. We are staring at pixels instead of real metal of aircraft. Sometimes, even if I use zoom in, I still couldn't see the other guy. I saw many youtube videos, people can spot enemy miles and miles away; even against the ground cluster. Any tips would be welcomed.

Someone once said different brands of stick requires different setup. I just realized even the same brand requires different setups. Depended on each person's preferences and habits. For my 52pro, I can help but to set y saturation to 60. I know a lot of 52pro owners have saturation at 100. But for me, 100 saturation means tons of stalls. My stick just too sensitive. In game outside view, I can see sometimes nose pitch up big time at 100 saturation.

Fantastic. I'll definitely go check it out. I am really new to this, so where do I get started? Go onto Dow forum to chat with people first?

Feels like many DCS WWII servers don't have many players on. Just wonder why it is not evolving into something as popular as Il-2 used to be. I was trying to post a poll, but don't know how to do so. But anyway here are the questions I have been thinking: 1. WWII flight sim genre is dying. Who cares about propeller and machine guns when we have missiles and jets 2. High fidelity study sims are too complicated for people to grasp. People like to hit one key then engine starts. People are inherently loving arcadish stuff. If I need read a book to play my game, count me out. 3. Lack of supporting infrastructure: after all, we don't have a proper WWII map, no tiger tanks to bounce around, no bombers to escort. We just teleported some WWII fighters over modern day Caucasus region where they can do nothing else but dogfight all day long until eventually people get bored and quit. 4. ED should tap into the community resources to create some of the infrastructures. Let fans build up non-essential items such as maps, vehicles, ships, ground installations etc. ED should concentrate on what they do best: creating kick-ass modules and integrating different 3rd party modules and fan-base creations. 5. DCS WWII is still too young. After it matures, its popularity will be totally different. It's still too early to pass on some judgement. It's meant to be a friendly discussion so people can explore the issue together. After all, it is in everybody's interest that DCS WWII flourishes and becomes more successful.

Dow is in US right? I am in US.

Thanks, Orso. Your response to my questions is always right on the point. =)