Bombers are on the right side of the tree usually. With hits, it depends what you hit. You can hit the fuselage forever, but the critical parts are the wings and control surfaces. The low level planes don't make enough money now, but they're still pretty effective up until 5+ levels more. You can easily out fly higher level planes (even if its dangerous)
New patch out. It's not bad. the 7.62mm MG buff was one of the best things that ever happened. Although I still think the Lagg-3 at level 3 was kind of ridiculous. Also the repair price disparity for the planes at equivalent levels is baffling. And the H6K's absurdly low reward rate is disheartening too.
But hey, two more Lagg's, a new russian jet and another Yak-9 with an even bigger cannon and no disadvantages. Aaaand... the japanese and the germans got nothing. Better news is that it's now on steam and if you were ever going to spend money on the game the Ace pack looks like a really good deal. Two premium planes, two months of premium and 10,000 golden eagles for under £20. I was thinking about getting the typhoon anyway so I went for it.
I might get the Ace pack, but the Germans don't really need planes as much as the Japanese do. On the bright side, the FOTM is the Spit Mk. IX which isn't that ridiculous. I still don't want to spend money on the principle that this game has been continually balanced by monkeys who have no idea who to retain an audience. I'm doing well, but I feel awful for all the players who lose 3-4 planes a game in Arcade or get no kills or ground targets every game. The progression must be like pulling teeth. Still fun though, and I discovered the british tree's absurd OP mgs.
Bought premium. Money rolls in like tidal waves. You can do awful and still make money. Averaging 20K in rank 4-5 games in arcade. It's ridiculous and hilarious.
I picked up the ace advanced pack from Steam, exceptional value at £18.75 for what you get compared to the normal fairly pricey options. Especially if you consider that 10,000 Gold lions alone normally costs a whopping 50 euros... I have used the cash and exp conversion to reach flesh out tier 8-9-10 for a few of the nations I fly, mainly the Brits and Russians. Sadly, especially in arcade, the game is now full to the brim of 109-F4s, 109-G2s and FW190, which are so dominant as to really ruin some of the matches. More and more now I find those 109 and 190 camping the bomber spawns with impunity. And the only way often to dislodge them is if you are lucky enough to have other 109 and 190 players climb up to their altitude and hope to take em down. Broadly the addition of flight models and other changes in patch 1.33 were good but making the German planes (especially the 109 have even more boom to their zoom, as well as exceptional climb was not a good move. Evening moving the 109-F4s up a tier has not stopped them being so dominant. I really hope Gaijin address this issue.
For anyone who wants to join a friendly squad that works together search for OSK (0ld sk00l) were on most nights and play in our ts server
The F-4s are only good in arcade because all planes in arcade are horribly broken. At tier 8, they're at a good place, as they get lumped with rank 9 planes. And at rank 9 you start seeing some good planes. The reason why they're so dominant is because the tactics for them are much different. A moderately competent pilot will yield fantastic results because of its speed and fantastic climb rate for its rank. Of course, the other thing is: people are stupid. That's why the Germans were so exceptional with their fighters, historically they were arguably the best boom and zoom planes (next to the Americans who quickly perfected this). Of course the real problem is that in HB, the real dominance is the Spit Mk. 9 until you properly learn how to energy fight. Then it equalizes. To be honest, the most overpowered plane is the rank 5 IL-2 because of its absurd FM more than anything. That and maybe the Ki-45s if played properly. But then again, played properly, everything in Arcade is broken.
The energy fighting works poorly in arcade, which is why, IMO the German fighters are so much more dominant. yet when I took my 109-G2 into a historic, I was schooled pretty quickly by a Spitfire IX! Yet if I take my Spitfire IX into an arcade battle, the 109 F4s and G2s are all over me. 1.33 did a lot of good things, medium bombers for instance are very enjoyable again, and because flight performance on fighters is drastically affected by carrying bombs, there is a reason to be in a bomber now and the risk is now worth it for the reward. It's just that arcade is overran with German tier 8&9 planes now, (even if you yourself have only taken tier 6-7 because of the MM) and as a result most arcade games play out the same. It's not enough to stop me playing it but it is annoying.
Isn't energy fighting boom n zoom which germans are good at and turn fighting the spitfire and zero's domain?
Well, boom and zoom favor heavy planes. That of which the Germans have. Turn fighting is not simply getting behind them but getting behind them without getting hurt. It's a matter of knowing how to use your energy wisely. A fast plane is a deadly one.
To elaborate, I saw a good example of what I believe to be energy fighting in a Historic Match last night, where this 109-G2 Pilot was doing a top down boom and zoom on me, then using his energy to sharply rise, only to then kill his speed off and them come down for another pass. It's hard to counter, because in order to bring your guns to bear, your having to point up at him, which kill off your speed completely. In the end, I dropped my speed to nearly a stall, and once he passed me on another attack run, managed to get in behind and burst him. Thank god for the damage of the Hispano cannons! I don't think I'd have been able to replicate his moves and any other plane with a slow climb and power to weight ratio. Or maybe i'm just an average pilot
To counter boom and zoom you usually loop and force him to turn. Heavy planes don't turn well and BnZ planes usually don't turn well. Of course they will usually out energy you and kill you, but most BnZ pilots try to climb instead of use their inherent energy advantage.
I discovered this game over the weekend and I I've been having a blast ever since. Arcade battles are a whole heap of fun but, after digging out my flight stick, I think historical battles are where I'll be spending most of my time. In game name is GravitySmacked if anyone wants to add me.
I'll add you up. In terms of joystick usage though it's not as much of an advantage as you'd think in historical. You get much better manoeuvrability as you won't be constantly bothered by the instructor but it's very hard to aim without a lot of practice, you see a lot of joystick users complaining about the disadvantages they have vs mouse aim users. If you know your manoeuvres and you're experienced with the joystick then you can make it work. I need to try out my joystick again sometime because it's just way more immersive and fun. If you want some tips Grmlz is a great youtuber who uses the joystick in historic: Ofcourse FRB is the real home of the joystick but anyone with head-tracking has a huge advantage which puts a lot of people off including me.
Yeah I must admit when I started with keyboard and mouse it did play really well. I'm going to try and stick with my stick (no pun intended) as it still handles nicely and it add's a lot to the immersion, for me anyway
I've been considering picking up a simple stick just for this game. Also heard that it has controller support, may try it out with a PS3 controller as a "slightly more flight-like than a mouse" option. In the singleplayer missions you don't really have to worry about having the most competitive control scheme.
